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  • Locked thread
David Corbett
Feb 6, 2008

Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world.
I'm glad you folks are all talking about the Esto Gaza weaponry, because I saw it come up in this LP as a whole bunch of mithril and got really, really confused.

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DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
Not all of the weapons you can miss at that place (and another) appear later on again
there's like four or five abilities a character could permanently miss

Iretep
Nov 10, 2009

Squarely Circle posted:

I always just went straight to the boat, I had no idea either of those scenes existed :psyduck:
RE: Quina chef chat, I find it pretty unlikely that a game that does characterization and worldbuilding so well would lazily reuse a main character's model for a nameless NPC, but I also find it pretty unlikely that Quina would be appointed head chef for Alexandria Goddamn Castle, s/he's pretty clueless at the start. When Quina takes charge in Eiko's kitchen I always figured it was thanks to the experience they'd gotten from travelling with the party; remember that Quina can't even catch a single frog at first and is totally amazed that there might be other kinds of food(!!) in the world.

The way i figured it is that Quina is a master of Alexandrian dishes. He basically hasnt tried all kinds of foods, he pretty much just found Alendrian dishes and stayed there. For Quale and the qu this is probably pretty shameful since they are expected to become masters of all kinds of dishes. Quina is so pathetic that he hasnt even mastered traditional Qu dishes like frogs.
I imagine after being a master chef of Alexandria Quina went back to his master to show all he learned. While his cooking was good it lacked any kind of variety or imagination since he pretty much just stayed in Alexandria and ate food there never traveling more. Itd also explain why Quale forces Quina on the party. If he is following the party he is forced to travel more instead of getting stuck in one town again.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

DeafNote posted:

Not all of the weapons you can miss at that place (and another) appear later on again
there's like four or five abilities a character could permanently miss

I'm pretty sure restarted one of my early runs because I didn't learn Armor Break with Steiner before the Mythril Sword permanently disappeared from shops.

Tashilicious
Jul 17, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

I'm pretty sure restarted one of my early runs because I didn't learn Armor Break with Steiner before the Mythril Sword permanently disappeared from shops.

Is that a mythril sword only skill? Never noticed. I am a bit OCD about working through avaible weapons to master skills though

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Yeah, I think all of the Break skills are tied to one specific weapon.

They all suck anyway, though, so they're not even worth learning aside from for completion. :argh:

I played Final Fantasy X before IX, so I was extremely disheartened to see that Auron's version was far and away better than Steiner's.

AnotherGamer
Jan 12, 2007
Please change my name to "The Guff Machine"
The worst thing about Esto Gaza is that it's the only place in the game where you can get the weapon that teaches Vivi his -ga spells, so if you miss that when it's available, his only endgame options for damage take tons of MP to cast and all have some sort of a drawback.

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Yeah, I think all of the Break skills are tied to one specific weapon.

They all suck anyway, though, so they're not even worth learning aside from for completion. :argh:

I played Final Fantasy X before IX, so I was extremely disheartened to see that Auron's version was far and away better than Steiner's.

The only time I ever bother with the Break attacks in 9 is when I don't want to kill a boss while Stealing everything it has, so if Steiner is in the team and has Break skills, might as well spend his turns lowering some stats.

This becomes less of an issue when Zidane picks up a certain skill in a bit though.

bewilderment
Nov 22, 2007
man what



AnotherGamer posted:

The worst thing about Esto Gaza is that it's the only place in the game where you can get the weapon that teaches Vivi his -ga spells, so if you miss that when it's available, his only endgame options for damage take tons of MP to cast and all have some sort of a drawback.

This is was I was alluding to, but according to the wiki there's one other place to get them. It's possible that it stops selling that item on Disc 4, though.

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.

bewilderment posted:

This is was I was alluding to, but according to the wiki there's one other place to get them. It's possible that it stops selling that item on Disc 4, though.

If you're talking about Vivi's special item, I do believe you're right on both counts, having played FFIX up to that point recently and faintly remembering that item in that shop.

DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
The Ga-spells can be gained elsewhere in dics 4 yes
Some Break/Flare abilties along with a white magic spell and lance art are missable as far as I know though

George
Nov 27, 2004

No love for your made-up things.
I'd say that's a huge oversight, but if the rod that teaches Vivi his -aga spells isn't the first thing you buy when you get there I dunno what to say to you.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

DeafNote posted:

The Ga-spells can be gained elsewhere in dics 4 yes
Some Break/Flare abilties along with a white magic spell and lance art are missable as far as I know though

Nope, the item that has those abilities completely disappears after Disc 3. It's available in Esto Gaza later as well as Daguerro later on in this Disc, but it disappears from the shop in Disc 4.

It's also the only item that teaches those abilities.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

DeafNote posted:

The Ga-spells can be gained elsewhere in dics 4 yes
Some Break/Flare abilties along with a white magic spell and lance art are missable as far as I know though

I don't think you can get the -ga spells (the wiki seems to agree) from anything other than the one piece of equipment and that definitely goes away after disc 3

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
It's true because I managed to miss it my first time playing. I even had that oh-so-wonderful BradyGames guide!

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
You didn't visit PlayOnline for details?

Orfeo
Nov 27, 2007

Ectobiology sure does involve a lot of button pushing.
Enter keyword GDSE for the hot scoop!

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I bought the drat thing because I didn't have internet at the time, else I'd have used GameFAQs like a normal person.

Just did a bunch of Chocograph splurging, and holy crap I forgot what cool stuff you can get even at this stage. Vivi's going to be loving scary again. Anyway, hopefully next update will be tomorrow.

DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
My bad, I forgot that the other shop changes equipment on disc 4
that also makes other spells and abilities missable Comet, Break, Jewel

Its precisely of this game that I started seeing the need for the internet too

kalonZombie
May 24, 2010

D&D 3.5 Book of Erotic Fantasy

Mega64 posted:

Just did a bunch of Chocograph splurging, and holy crap I forgot what cool stuff you can get even at this stage.

If you keep up with Chocobo Hot and Cold, this is the point where the game just rolls on its back and shows its belly in submission.

EDIT: One time I was at a Gamestop, and I saw the art book for FF9. I asked my mom if I could get it. She said it was a waste of her money and I should get the book that tells you how to beat the game instead.

I still have yet to forgive her for this.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

DeafNote posted:

My bad, I forgot that the other shop changes equipment on disc 4
that also makes other spells and abilities missable Comet, Break, Jewel

Its precisely of this game that I started seeing the need for the internet too

yeah, but the weapon for them is in a bunch of shops in non-optional places, and not just in a place you've already been to and might go to again and not realise equipment had changed. you'd have to purposely avoid the shops

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

kalonZombie posted:

If you keep up with Chocobo Hot and Cold, this is the point where the game just rolls on its back and shows its belly in submission.

EDIT: One time I was at a Gamestop, and I saw the art book for FF9. I asked my mom if I could get it. She said it was a waste of her money and I should get the book that tells you how to beat the game instead.

I still have yet to forgive her for this.

You got told to git gud by your mom

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I also have the art book still, really good stuff and is a great source for my various portraits in the LP.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

Rigged Death Trap posted:

You got told to git gud by your mom

if you saw him play Ratchet and Clank, you'd understand

kalonZombie
May 24, 2010

D&D 3.5 Book of Erotic Fantasy

morallyobjected posted:

if you saw him play Ratchet and Clank, you'd understand

Hey, if you're going to make fun of my ability to play games, at least don't choose one of the two games I'm actually good at.

Now if you said Deus Ex Human Revolution I couldn't argue one bit.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

kalonZombie posted:

Hey, if you're going to make fun of my ability to play games, at least don't choose one of the two games I'm actually good at.

Now if you said Deus Ex Human Revolution I couldn't argue one bit.

I'm just joking--I know you take some poo poo from Heavenator for getting hit every now and then.

for on topic discussion, you can count me among the number who played through once, realised I could rush over to Esto Gaza once I got the ship, and was disappointed when the later-game equipment wasn't there yet. I've also never not done all the Chocobo Hot and Cold stuff as soon as it was available, and like Mega said it's amazing how much that can turn your crew into a squadron of death, especially since it's a fun as hell game to play anyway.

Tashilicious
Jul 17, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Mega64 posted:

I bought the drat thing because I didn't have internet at the time, else I'd have used GameFAQs like a normal person.

Just did a bunch of Chocograph splurging, and holy crap I forgot what cool stuff you can get even at this stage. Vivi's going to be loving scary again. Anyway, hopefully next update will be tomorrow.

Doing all the avaible CH&C as soon as it opens up (I think you can even finish everything except what's on the last continent before continuing plot) is one of the ways to just break the item and power pacing in this game. So much good stuff, so easy to get, and all of it with a rocking tune as you peck at dirt an go "Kweh!"



fake edit: oh god everyone else already said this it is me I am the worst poster


I had a pretty good walkthrough for the first two disks, it was from a game Magazine. It felt actually more complete than what I've heard of the Brady Guide, didn't have many links to PlayOnline (though I did try the few keywords that showed up and *none of them loving worked* what the poo poo square).
In fact, I only picked up that magazine because it had a first-half walkthrough for FFIX.
It's why Gizamalike didn't just wreck my poo poo the first time through, I knew he was weak to blind and silence and that broke him. :smug:

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
The only physical walkthrough/guide I ever owned for any game was for this one and it wasn't one of the usual suspects, I don't believe. It was like a weird little pocketbook thing that detailed the main story path, and mostly just ignored all sidequests and fun things you can do I'm pretty sure whoever wrote it just flatout didn't know things like some of what will be in the next update(s).

It also started giving wrong information period starting from when it claimed that Plant Brain had something like 600HP. I don't think I have it any more but it was just awful on basically every level.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
My favorite strategy guide of all time is probably the one Working Designs did for Lunar: SSSC

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

My favorite strategy guide of all time is probably the one Working Designs did for Lunar: SSSC

Their books were great. Have both SSSC and EB and while SSSC was more 'hardcore wow they did this for a strategy guide? hot dang' EB has more amusing stuff that fills up white space on the pages.

Tashilicious
Jul 17, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

My favorite strategy guide of all time is probably the one Working Designs did for Lunar: SSSC

SSSC is amazing in every way generally. I especially love the item descriptions for swords <3

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.




Today's going to be a short one, focusing exclusively on Chocobo Hot & Cold. Now that we have the Blue Narciss, there's actually a lot we can access now, including some amazing stuff.







Who is that chocobo, kupo!? Where is Choco!?
I'm not sure what happened, but he is definitely Choco.
...You're right, kupo. But why...? Oh!!!



Only chosen chocobos can evolve and lead their masters to that paradise, kupo! Let's evolve Choco so that we can go to paradise! Kupo!
So, where have you been?
Kupo! I finally found it, kupo! There's place called Salvage Archipelago across the ocean southwest from here.



There's holy light in lagoon. It's very much like this forest! I'm sure we can find Chocographs there, kupo!

Before we get to that, one order of business.



I was missing a Chocograph Piece from before. Up to two now, four to go.



There's no new Chocographs here at this time, so our only choice is the lagoon.



Chocobo's Lagoon is to the south of the large western continent. Since Choco can only cross shallow water, it's not accessible until now, since we have the Blue Narciss.



There's a nearby island with Chocobo tracks. We actually have to loop around the islands a bit to reach the lagoon. As you probably expected, we need Choco to have the Reef ability at minimum.

I do run into an enemy before getting there, though.





This is the Gimme Cat.



This one is like the friendly animals in that it asks for a gem. Unlike those animals, this guy is actually a regular enemy trying to con you out of a rare diamond. The regular battle music even plays.

Instead, I'll use this opportunity to show off Carbuncle because I keep forgetting to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnMUCYfbpls







Carbuncle is another staple summon, originating from FF5 and appearing in numerous other FF games. It's the base pet as well in FF14 (and FF11 as well it looks like, though I'm not familiar with the game so I could be wrong) for Summoner-types.





Unlike the other summons we've used so far, Carbuncle is about buffs. Its signature move in the series is Ruby Light, which gives the entire party the Reflect buff. This is actually kinda nice here since FF9 has specific abilities that mess around with the Reflect formula, though since it wears off quickly it's not as useful as Auto-Reflect (though Carbuncle also doesn't take ability slots put to better use for stuff like Auto-Haste).

Carbuncle's use extends beyond that, though. Equipping specific gems on Eiko changes Carbuncle's buff. Diamond changes the Reflect buff to Vanish, the Emerald to Haste, and the Moonstone to Shell. In addition, if the full animation for Carbuncle's summon is played out, Protect is added no matter what the other buff is. Thus Eiko has a good variety of buffs she can grant to the entire party, though really only one per battle since she can't change equipment mid-battle, plus she's sacrificing a valuable accessory slot for most of those buffs.



Anyway Thievery is starting to get nutso damage-wise.



Apparently it drops the highest amount of money of any random encounter at 5000 gil. It's not too hard to beat-up, but at this point you can run the Cotton Robe trick as much as you want so there's no point in doing this.



Anyway, let's get back to the important stuff at hand.





Welcome to Chocobo's Lagoon!



I'm Choco's buddy, kupo! He knows what we need to do! Let's dig around some more, kupo!



He isn't kidding. The depth for many of these items is around 60-80, or even 100 for stuff like Chocographs, and Choco can only do 10-12 damage per beak hit.





Also, Choco can't access the deep half of the lagoon yet, so we're basically restricted for now.



We can now ask Choco as an option, but all it does is let us access the menu and Chocographs.



So yeah, other than things taking longer and having half as much time, it's the same as when we did this back in Disc 1.



And of course, there's new Chocographs. I forget how many there are until you run out, but there's several.



I go until I clean the place out. Now it's time for the real fun!





First off, this is one we got back in Disc 1. We couldn't access it before because it takes place in the Lost Continent. Otherwise, we don't even need the Reef ability for it.



It's pretty close to the southern beaches. Nothing too complicated.



Which is fine because the rewards for this one suck anyway. 5 Echo Screens, 7 Hi-Potions, 3 Tents, and a Theater Ship Card. Big whoop.



There's four with the reef ability we have access to now, one for each continent. We'll start with the Outer Continent.



To get this, we need to take the Blue Narciss to a southern beach just to the west of the one that gives you access to Conde Petie and the Qu Marsh there. We can't reach this Chocograph from the track on that area since the shallow water runs out. We have to go here instead.



After that, it's a brief trek west until we find our loot.

6 Softs, 4 Ethers, Feather Boots, and the N-Kai Armlet. This boosts spirit a small bit and teaches Bandit and Undead Killer, both old news. However, it also teaches the Water spell to Vivi, which is his strongest spell right now (a huge step up from Bio, twice as strong as Drain, only slightly weaker than the -aga spells he'll get soon), plus it's water-elemental, which is a pretty rare element to attack with. Nice grab.



The rare typo. As you may have guessed, this one is near the Lost Continent, though it's actually quite a march south from it. You'll get an idea once you see the map.



8 Gysahl Greens, 5 Ethers, 7 Hi-Potions, and Dragon's Claws for Amarant. They're water-elemental and teach Counter and No Mercy, a move that apparently simply does roughly 170% attack damage (before defense) for 12MP (while keeping the element of Amarant's weapon). It's kinda eh, though again it becomes multi-target when Amarant is in Trance. This is also one of a few items that is only found from a Chocograph.



For this one, we land in one of the chain of islands south of the Forgotten Continent (the name of the southwestern continent, in case I haven't mentioned it yet) and make a decent walk to the north.





37 Potions, 6 Magic Tags, Shield Armor, and Gaia Gear. The Potions are kinda WTF. Anyway, Shield Armor is for Steiner and Freya, halving Fire/Ice/Lightning damage, boosting magic defense a decent bit, and teaching the Distract ability to help evade physical attacks. Everyone else gets the Gaia Gear, with both absorbs Earth attacks and boosts Earth attack damage. It teaches High Tide and Insomniac, again old news for both, but it also teaches Vivi Osmose, which lets him drain MP from enemies. Considering MP fuels his destruction, it's a very handy spell to have.



Last one we have access to now is in the outer edge of the Mist Continent, mainly right outside where Treno is.



Since we're starting to get stuff for Vivi, I swap him in so I can start gaining AP for him in the off chance I get into battles between walking to Chocobo tracks.





Since this is the last Chocograph treasure we can reach, it only makes sense it has smoke to knock us out.





So it's time for another acid trip!





Choco, you now have the ability to climb mountains!



Choco can now climb any mountain, which makes moving around continents much easier.





This one requires us to go all the way back to where the Evil Forest was. Technically we could get it without upgrades, but it'd be awhile longer before we'd be able to without the Mountain ability, so might as well put it to good use now!



So yeah, we've pretty much got free reign on land now.



10 Antidotes, a Jade Armlet, 3 Wing Edges, and a Cargo Ship Card. Wing Edges are one of Amarant's throwing weapons, while the Jade Armlet boosts Holy Damage and teaches Body Temp and High Tide. Mainly useful for having the highest magic evasion of any bracelet in the game.



We're out of Chocographs now, but with the Mountain ability we can start digging more up at Chocobo's Forest.









Now we can move up to the ledges on the left and right. Treasure's usually not there so only use them as a last resort if you can't find them on the ground, since it takes a couple seconds to go up and down. Chocographs are still buried in the ground most of the time.



The Mountain ability unlocks Dead Peppers as a possible item to dig up.



...This is super-spicy pepper, kupo. It was precious seasoning long, long ago. The Mist wiped out plant that grows these peppers, though... You should keep it, kupo. It might come in handy.

It will, and I'll talk about them in a bit.





There's several more available now, and so I dig them all up. Time to get our loot!





There's only two we can make use of right now, though. The first is in this valley near Dali.



7 Ethers, 2 Elixirs, 10 Wing Edges, and a High Mage Staff. This is a wind-elemental staff that has a 15% chance of inflicting Silence as an attack. It teaches Osmose and Meteor. Meteor is the upgraded version of the Comet spell Vivi is learning with his current weapon, albeit Meteor affects all enemies and has a higher base power. However, both can miss (roughly 1/3 chance for Comet, Meteor dependent on target's Spirit) and do random damage, with the higher value generally not being too much higher than some spells.

Due to the damage formula for these (rather than using the regular formula of Base Power * (Magic + Small Random Variance), these use Base Power * (Random Number between 1 and (Magic + Level - 1))), level's more important for getting more damage with these spells. Then once you factor in their lowish base power for their randomness (Comet (56) is not a huge step up from Bio (42) and weaker than Water (64), while Meteor (88) isn't a huge step up from the -aga spells (72)), they end up not being as impressive as you'd want.



This is on one of the shelves on the north side of the continent, nearish to Burmecia.



This other chest has more bird drugs.





Choco has immediately upgraded again and can now cross all water types. It's mainly useful because now we can access all of Chocobo's Lagoon, and also since it makes travelling in water for Chocographs much less of a pain in the rear end.



Here's one we can now get with Ocean. It's in the northern area of the Lost Continent.



11 Peridots, 9 Opals, 15 Sapphires, 19 Topazes. Nothing special, but they do buff Dagger's summons a bit, which would be nice if we were actually going to use her "50% chance to do nothing" rear end.



Nothing else we have can be gotten now, so let's get more from the Lagoon.





Kwehhh...
Did I hurt your feelings? I'm sorry, kupo. Well, it doesn't matter what color you are, kupo. You're still my Choco!



Here's Choco in the deep end of the kiddie pool.

At this stage, you have a max of four out of six Chocograph pieces. Two in Disc 1, the third in Disc 3, and the fourth in the Lagoon. Let's look at what we have so far.









Alright, then. We won't get the other two until we advance the plot a bit, so they'll have to wait. We can still get other Chocographs, though!



And we do. That's all the Chocographs we'll be finding this update, so might as well grab what we can now!





This clue isn't helpful. The name is actually the most useful part here, as anytime you get near the Forgotten Continent it always appears to be dusk. Thus this is around the Forgotten Continent somewhere, and rather than waste time going around the entire thing looking for this, I'll tell you it's in the center area of the eastern coast.



15 Phoenix Pinions, a White Robe, a Diamond, and a Masamune card. The White Robe for Eiko and Dagger boosts Holy damage and teaches Auto-Potion, Loudmouth, and for Eiko a little ol' spell called loving Holy. Holy is usually the ultimate White Magic spell in this series, and it certainly is here as well. It does huge damage and will definitely be a huge asset for Eiko once we start using her again. Definitely one of the highlights so far.



Yeah, good luck finding this one normally. It's near one of the islands in the archipelago to the west of the Forgotten Continent.





27 Ores, a Light Robe, a Whale Whisker, and the Alexander card. The Whale Whisker is Dagger's strongest rod weapon, mainly special because it teaches Dagger Curaga and Life. Meanwhile, the Light Robe for our four mages boosts Holy and Shadow attack and teaches the very valuable Auto-Regen, Half MP (halves MP cost of all spells), and for Eiko Full-Life, which revives a character with full HP. It also happens to be the second-best robe in the game defense-wise. Again, we're really getting to the good stuff here.

And actually, that's it for Chocographs. There are three we can't get right now, one on a remote island with no beaches, and two are on the Forgotten Continent, which has no beaches either. We'll have to leave those for now.



However, that doesn't mean we're done collecting treasures yet! We don't get clues for these until later on in the Hot & Cold quest line, but there are spots we can go to where we can use Dead Peppers to get treasures.



There are several cracks like this one around, for instance, though this one is the only one we can reach right now.



Once you have Dead Peppers, you can use them to attack these cracks and get the treasures within.





And there we go.





41 Lapis Lazulis, a Rosetta Ring, a Protect Ring, and a Airship Card. The Rosetta Ring absorbs Fire magic and teaches some rather interesting abilities. Level Up is obvious, while Concentrate boosts the amount of HP Dagger and Eiko's Cure spells recover by 50%, while also boosting the HP restored from Life and Phoenix (and also Full-Life apparently though it's kinda moot there). Reflectx2 is an ability only Vivi can learn, and with it whenever Vivi bounces a spell off a target with Reflect, it ends up dealing double damage. In earlier FF games you could do more damage bouncing a spell targeting the entire party off their Reflect statuses to do more damage to enemies, and this ability just makes that strategy even more nuts. It's actually pretty drat nice if you put in the effort this requires to set up.

The Protect Ring is the most defensive ring, halving all elemental damage, and it also has some interesting abilities. First off, it has Half MP from the Light Robe. Long Reach lets characters attack for full damage from the back (and front) row, and also lets them attack targets out-of-reach (though this latter part hasn't really been an issue yet and probably will never be). Mag Elem Null renders all spells cast by Vivi to have no element. It's...not really worth it since elemental weaknesses are still pretty nice to hit, and we'll usually have other options anyway to get around this, including one we'll get in a minute.



There are five dive spots we can use Dead Peppers on, though only four are available right now. The last one can only be gotten on Disc 4.



As before, feed Choco a Dead Pepper to access the treasure.





This is south and a bit east of the Outer Continent's southern coast.









This particular spot is a neat gimmick more than anything useful. As most of you probably know, this game was developed in Square's Hawaii studio, and this gear is a nice nod to that. It's not useful in any capacity, but if you want your party to be decked out in vacation gear and to kick back and relax, this is the way to do it.

Of course, we're missing a shirt, but unfortunately that'll have to wait until Disc 4.



The next dive spot is actually best gotten at Quan's Dwelling.





Remember this spot?





It's actually a dive spot for treasure. You could get it from the actual spot here rather than from Quan's Dwelling, but apparently there's a low success rate doing it this way.



9 Ores, 15 Topazes, the Tiger Racket, and the Red Rose card. The Tiger Racket is the ultimate racket, though all it teaches is Dispel to Eiko. Better for its offensive capabilities, honestly.



Alright, then.



Next is this spot in the southeastern area outside the Forgotten Continent.





10 Remedies, a Black Robe, Genji Gloves, and the Blue Narciss Card. The Genji Gloves are gauntlets for Steiner and Freya that teach High Tide. Mainly useful for their nice evasion bonus. The real grab is the Black Robe for Vivi and Quina, though only Vivi can make use of its abilities. In addition to MP +20% and Reflectx2, it teaches Vivi his ultimate single-target spell, Flare. It's non-elemental and his most powerful spell as far as base power goes. If the enemy doesn't have an elemental weakness, it's pretty solid as a go-to spell and a fantastic get for this stage of the game.



The last spot we'll access basically meets the arc of the two peninsulas sticking out the northern shores of the Lost and Outer Continents.



And after all the great poo poo we've gotten today, it's also pretty anti-climatic. 50 Potions, 25 Hi-Potions, 9 Ethers, and 7 Elixirs. That's it.

Yeah, I'm saying "That's it" to 7 Elixirs but I'm loving spoiled now.



And that's everything we can do for now involving Chocobo Hot & Cold! Once we do some more plot stuff we can continue it further. Don't worry, it won't be nearly as large a gap as it was between Disc 1 and now.

Next time, we'll finish up side stuff by revisiting Alexandria and a few other areas. Then we'll finally get back to the plot.

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 10:10 on Sep 22, 2016

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Also this thread has now beat my TAY LP for my biggest thread, so that's kinda neat.

Serifina
Oct 30, 2011

So... dizzy...
I love Chocobo Hot and Cold but I've never put this much into it this early - I usually wait until later. With the stuff you just got, the next few sections are gonna be pretty damned easy, relatively.

Pureauthor
Jul 8, 2010

ASK ME ABOUT KISSING A GHOST
So much delicious loot here in this game.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
As a note, Meteor is Vivi's second-strongest spell if he needs to hit multiple targets, and his strongest also has a drawback you need to work around.

The Whale Whisker is also notable because if you don't dig it up, Dagger can't learn Curaga otherwise til Disc 4 - none of the storebought weapons in Disc 3 teach it to her.

Kheldarn
Feb 17, 2011



Mega64 posted:

Long Reach lets characters attack for full damage from the front row

Isn't it from the back row?

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

Mega64 posted:

Also this thread has now beat my TAY LP for my biggest thread, so that's kinda neat.

Huh!?

Ironically I just finished rereading that.

Also, never knew Mene left the forest and told you about the lagoon. Always beelined to the Lagoon rather than let the game tell me where to go.

Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

I've only Meteor once and never again. It's garbage. Why would you ever use it when you have more reliable options available?

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Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

Mega64 posted:

Also this thread has now beat my TAY LP for my biggest thread, so that's kinda neat.
Thankfully this is a way better game than TAY.

Thanks again for playing that one so we didn't have to.

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