I left Lindblum via the Dragon Gate. I was supposed to get through Girzamaluke’s Grotto next, in order to get to Burmecia, but the next area was quite open and allowed me to explore for a bit and do some side quests.
The first thing I did was to train for a bit, since I was quite under-leveled by now. The dragons in this area could have easily killed my party in the first few battles, but somehow, I managed to survive and after I got some experience, it all became much easier. I was training until about level 13 before I moved on.
This stream can heal you, so it’s a great place to train on the dragons outside.
After that, I finally went to the Chocobo Forest. Like in most games in the series, you get to ride these birds in Final Fantasy IX to. However, not many games in the series make them as useful, apart from Final Fantasy VII, of course. In this one, you get to upgrade your chocobo to the point where it can actually fly.Next up, I went to the South Gate area. I’ve already seen this place through an ATE which involved the Tantalus gang, so I explored it for a bit and found Mocha coffee, which Cinna left here, I think. This is probably something that old man at the lighthouse would want.
In order to do this, I had to play a mini game in the forest which consists of digging for treasures. One of the treasures you can get is a Chocograph, which is a card that shows the location of more treasure on the world map. I’ve spent well over an hour digging here, until I was told there were no more cards to get.
You can start the huge Chocobo side quest as early as right now.
Next up, Qu’s Marsh.After that, I used my chocobo to explore the rest of the area and actually find two of the treasures. Although the other Chocograph treasures could also be reached with the regular chocobo, I couldn’t get to those locations from here, so I had to forget about those for now. Of course, there are other locations in the world where I can find more maps, so I’m nowhere near being done, but I’m getting there, and quite early in the game to.
