by ·0 Comments

Zidane and his group are teleported to the Red Rose, the queen’s ship. After a few cutscenes, they discover the queen intends to kill Dagger, so they use a teleporter pad to get to Alexandria before that happens.

I was put in control of the other group after that. I had to swing the cage Steiner and Markus were trapped in, in order to crash into the side walkway and get out. I was getting attacked by Alexandrian soldiers for a while here, so I decided to train for a bit, since they were easy to deal with.

Final Fantasy IX, Stairs

Every little detail in this game is amazing.

I got a 30 minute time limit to get to the princess now, so I had to get through the same a castle area I familiarized myself with at the start of the game. I remembered from my first playthrough that there was an optional boss here, so I gave it a shot this time to, but it basically killed most of my group in a single attack, so I gave up on that one.Eventually, I climbed to the top of the area, where Marcus ditched me to go and help Blank. A moment after that, Zidane and his group teleported into the room, but without Quina, who decided not to use the teleport at Cleyra. I had a full group again now, and Steiner was actually relatively close to their level, thanks to the training in the area below.

Final Fantasy IX, Zorn and Thorn

I finally got to fight these idiots.

One she saw Dagger was unconscious, she changed her position and decided to try and help her. She cast a healing spell on her to wake her up and then the group split again. Freya and Beatrix reminded behind to hold the enemy back, while the rest ran downstairs to escape via the gargant tunnels. Halfway down, Steiner decided to go back and help Beatrix and Freya.I eventually got to the queen’s room and found a secret passage to the area below, where I found Dagger and had to fight Zorn and Thorn. Once one of them was beaten, the battle ended and I could finally help Dagger. We got her back to the queen’s room, where Beatrix was waiting.

I got to the area where Dagger’s group got trapped before and it happened again. Luckily, Marcus and Blank managed to get back in time to deal with Zorn and Thorn and free us.

by ·0 Comments

I got the liquor Shani requested, so I brought it to her. She invited me to the party and told me to bring a friend, so I asked Zoltan if he would like to come. He really is my only friend in Vizima, as far as I can tell. At the party, I met a guy named Dandelion, who apparently hung out with me and Zoltan before I lost my memory.

Dandelion was extremely surprised to see me alive, claiming he saw me dead years ago. Since Zoltan was there at that point to, it’s a bit weird he didn’t say anything until now, but he did confirm Dandelion’s story, so I guess it must be true. I was also told I had a vampire and a dragon for a friend at one point, but the vampire got killed in some battle a while ago.

The Witcher, Dandelion

Dandelion seemed suspicious at first, but he might just be a lovable idiot.

Once all the partying was over, I started exploring the town again. I ran into Siegfried, who also came back from the swamp. He offered me membership in his order, but Geralt outright refused it with me having no choice in the matter.While we’re at the topic of people coming back to life, I forgot to mention that Siegfried heard something about Berenghar in the swamp. It seems he didn’t die, but the Salamandra have taken him prisoner. That’s another thing I’ll have to deal with when the time comes.

I realized the party related quest wasn’t over yet, so I bought some red roses for Shani and gave them to her. She was extremely grateful, if you know what I mean. Apart from the “gratitude” she also told me how she found out Thaler is actually a member of a secret police investigating the Salamandra. This was all the proof I needed that he wasn’t the one working with them, so I could now exclude him from the list of suspects.

Once I told him that, he agreed to get me into the town graveyard. I immediately went to see the grave keeper, who gave me the key to the gate. At the entrance, I also met a woman who was being haunted by her late husband’s ghost, so I agreed to help with that to.

The Witcher, Widow

The Widow is definitely hiding something.

The most important part of the graveyard, though, was a crypt. It was full of undead, including one of the alghouls I needed for a quest, as well as plenty of loot. It also contained something extremely important. In one of the rooms, I’ve found the body of Raymond, the private detective. For a moment, I thought I missed something, since I just spoke to Raymond recently, but once I spoke to the grave keeper about it, it was obvious what was going on. Some sort of creature, or maybe a mage, is using magic to pose as Raymond. He was probably deceiving me all along, sending me on wild goose chases.The graveyard was pretty much empty during the day, apart from some drowned dead. One peculiar thing I found was another relief, similar to the one at the sewer entrance in the temple district. When I click on it, I am able to put an item into the available slot, but I don’t have any items I can put in. It’s probably related to some quest I’m not on yet.

The Witcher, Raymond

The real Raymond, dead.

I’ll probably talk to “Raymond” soon, but I’ll try to solve some of the minor quests first, because I’m thinking the next chapter might be coming.

by ·0 Comments

Cleyra is different city of rat people, which separated from Burmecia for some reason. Now that Burmecia was mostly destroyed, the king and his subjects fled there. The town was hidden behind a huge sandstorm, so the only way to approach is was by foot.

When I got there, it was revealed that Cleyra is actually a huge tree, which I had to climb in order to get to the town on top. The climb was long, but mostly uneventful, so I’ll keep it short. I got a few items, missed another few and learned White Wind with Quina, which is a great healing spell.

Final Fantasy IX, Cleyra Settlement

How can a single game have so many amazing locations!?

I ran to the area where the ant lion was kept and entered the fight. The fight was relatively easy and again, I probably didn’t manage to steal all the items I could from the boss. The kid turned out to be Puck, Vivi’s friend from the start of the game. He also happens to be the vagabond crown prince of Burmecia.Once I got to the top, we split up again, so I was about to watch some ATE’s. As usual, Vivi got in trouble for his appearance, but got to safety in time. Eventually, I stumbled into a panicked Burmecian soldier who was running to the cathedral to let people know a kid was being mauled by the local ant lion.

Once that was over, a ceremony was held to keep the sandstorm going, but failed. Soon after, the first black mages attacked. I started going back down the tree trunk to fight them off and managed to collect most of the leftover items along the way. Once I got about halfway to the bottom, the group realized they were being distracted and decided to rush back to the top.

Final Fantasy IX, Freya's Sweetheart

Amnesia really is a trope!

We all entered the cathedral, where Beatrix barged in and took the magical crystal which kept the sandstorm going. She fled using one of the mages to teleport her, so Zidane and the rest of the group decided to follow using the same method. Of course, all that was after Beatrix beat them to a pulp for the second time.As expected, the actual attack was taking place in the city. Zidane decided to try and save as many as he could, so he eventually led the group to the cathedral, where they got surrounded. Luckily, a dragon knight arrived just in time to save everyone. It turned out it was Freya’s long lost love, but he had amnesia, so the reunion was bittersweet.

by ·0 Comments

After the fight in Burmecia, I actually had to change discs. Disc two started with Dagger and Steiner again. The tram ride to the top was over and we now had to wait for the next tram to arrive. We decided to wait that the local rest station, where we soon met Markus and Cinna of Tantalus.

They’re on a mission to help Blank, who was still petrified in the Evil Forest. They heard a rumor of an item called “Supersoft” being in possession of a noble in Treno. Since she felt she owed blank, Dagger decided to help them out with the item.

Final Fantasy IX, Black Waltz #3

Black Waltz #3 was the must stubborn one of the bunch. He just refused to die.

We all got on the same tram, but the ride was soon interrupted by an old friend, Black Waltz #3. He was badly damaged and near death, but he could still pack quite a punch, especially considering Dagger and Steiner were still level 6. Eventually, I got through the battle and we moved on to Treno.

I remembered I got the coffee from the South Gate, so I tried going to Dali first, but I couldn’t give it to the old man yet, which actually makes sense, since Zidane’s group was the one that found the item.

I entered Treno and the group split up again, leaving me with Steiner. A bunch of ATE’s later, we all regrouped and decided to break into the noble’s mansion to get the Supersoft. At the mansion, we met professor Tot, who knew Dagger and decided to help her.

I met up with the professor at his house later, where he gave me the Supersoft and opened up a secret passage to Alexandria for us – The Gargan Roo.

by ·0 Comments

Gargan Roo is an old system of tunnels which used a giant insect called a gargant as a method of transportation. Before I could activate the system, I had to figure out a simple switch puzzle which professor Tot explained to me. It was really simple, so I don’t really consider it an actual puzzle.

Final Fantasy IX, Garant ride

I forgot to take screenshots, so this is the only one I have, sadly.

Once it was over, the gargant continued to move. Soon, the group got to Alexandria where they get captured by Zorn and Thorn. Steiner and Marcus are put in a cage, while Dagger is taken away from them.The ride started fast, but was stopped even faster, because the gargant got attacked by another monster. It wasn’t to hard too deal with, in spite of the low level of all my characters, so the fight was over relatively soon. The only strong attack the monster had was Blizzara and even that didn’t do too much damage.

by ·0 Comments

After some walking about, waiting for Shani to finally get to the hospital, I finally managed to get through the autopsy. The conclusion was that the victim died due to an alchemical poison, while the stab wounds were made post mortem, in an attempt to hide the true cause.

I was convinced it was Kalkstein, so I went and accused him. He got mad, so now I think I kind off killed all the quests I was doing for him. On the other hand, the Sephiroth quest is still available, so maybe there’s a chance to make amends, in case he actually isn’t to blame.

Since Shani helped a lot, I offered to return the favor, which got me on a bit of a weird quest. Apparently, she wants to throw a party in someone’s honor, so she needs liquor. I guess a mood change was in order, but the quest is still a bit out of the blue, in my opinion.

In any case, I got back to the swamp and went straight to the loggers. I gave the gnome his share of the money I got from the ferryman and continued to the north, to talk to the druids. I stumbled into Siegfried’s party on the way there, though. They were in the swamp to dispose of a group of Scoia’tael but he got injured, so he asked me to lead his men.

The Witcher, Siegfried in the Swamp

Siegfried is part of a choice between two sides, it seems.

I finally got to the druid camp and, as expected, they are able to create a storm for me. The problem was, they are also quite a greedy bunch. They wanted 500 oren for the favor! I tried to figure it out by myself by messing around with a group of pylons around the golem, but I just managed to hit myself with a bolt of lightning instead.I was a bit rash in accepting and this caused my fetch quest for the elf from the druid camp to fail. I guess he was part of the Scoia’tael. Instead, I solved this quest, which means I’ll now be able to buy stuff from the order’s armorers and merchants, since I’m a friend of Siegfried now.

I agreed to give away half of my current money and went back to the golem, with the storm now in full force.  I stuck a lightning rod into it and it came to life. The fight wasn’t really hard, but it was a golem, which meant it took me an extremely long time to kill it. It might be I could’ve used the pylons to hit him with lightning a few more times, but I couldn’t figure it out, so instead I just did it manually. I ran around, hitting him with my steel sword, which did slightly more damage than the silver one, for around ten minutes before it finally went down. I got his heart, which I can use to make an intellect potion, as well as one of the Sephirots. I only need one more.

The Witcher, Golem

The golem was hardy, but not hard.

For now, there was nothing else I could do at the swamp, so I decided to go back to town

.

by ·0 Comments

Burmecia was basically more of the same I got in the Grotto. A couple more enemies got introduced, but none of them had any new blue magic, so they weren’t that important. The extra levels I got from training before the Grotto were still helping here, so I didn’t have a hard time getting through the area.

Final Fantasy IX, Burmecia, Realm of Eternal Rain

It really is constantly raining. I wouldn’t want to live in Burmecia.

The first part of the town involved another bell I needed to find to open the door blocking the way forward. Sadly, it also involved a missable item. A section of the walkway on the right side of the top floor colapsed when I tried to run over it. I probably should have walked to get to the chest beyond, so now I’ll never know what was inside.

The second area was more straightforward. One of the buildings contained a new spear for Freya, while another housed Stilzkin as well as another moogle. I used a tent there and saved my game before I entered the castle.

At the castle, the real villain, or at least one of them, was finally introduced. Brahne was there with general Beatrix. They were discussing their plans when a man walked in. His name was Kuja and he’s revealed to be the one supplying Brahne with her black mage army. The funny thing is, back when I was a kid, I thought Kuja was a woman, which is ridiculous, since he’s referred to as “mystery man” at the start.

Final Fantasy IX, First Encounter With Kuja

He’s still the mistery man here, but I know his name. As a kid, though, I didn’t even know he was a man.

He was revealing some of his plans when a Burmecian soldier charged all three of them. To save his life, Freya and the rest jumped in and the fight against Beatrix started. Beatrix was tough and had an attack which could kill one of my party members with a single hit. This fight, as far as I know, is not winnable. Eventually, Beatrix uses an attack which gets everyone down to 1HP and the fight is over. I kept using Phoenix Downs with Quina, doing damage with Freya and Vivi while continuing to steal with Zidane until it finally happened.

The villains revealed they were going for Cleyra next and left the group for dead.

by ·0 Comments

I’ve played some more of this game and, while it does get a bit better, it’s only a marginal improvement. The game is pretty, the boss battles are fun and the attempt to go for action controls instead of tab switching is commendable.

Outside of that, it’s a typical MMORPG consisting of fetch/kill/grind quests, a relatively weak story and maybe a slightly higher budget than the average. Someone new to MMORPGs might like it, but for someone who played these games extensively, it will just be more of the same. In any case, I’ll keep it on my hard drive for a while yet, but I’m not sure how long. It most definitely is not the next MMO for me.

Now, for some concrete info. I’ve played for another hour or two, continuing on the same line of quests I’ve started previously. The archaeologist I’ve been doing work for turned out to be a fraud. He abducted the real archaeologist and used me to get into possession of some powerful artifact. I defeated the boss he summoned before he escaped, which was another fun battle, and then returned to the home base, where I was sent to gather some items needed to finally defeat the enemy.

RaiderZ Boss Battle

The boss fight was relatively easy, but also quite fun.

The crab dropped special items I used to craft stronger gear, which I did immediately, and then it was time to get to the next zone. I was around level 8 when all of this ended.One of the quests made me change into some powerful creature, which was also sort of fun, but nothing I haven’t seen before in other games. Eventually, I got back to the base and went on the final push against the enemy band of pirates. It all ended up with a boss battle against a giant crab, and that was it.

by ·0 Comments

While I was getting to Burmecia, the game took me to a different route to show me what Dagger and Steiner have been doing. Apparently, thanks to an idea Dagger had, Steiner managed to smuggle her through the South Gate in a bag of smelly cucumbers.

Final Fantasy IX, South Gate

The Active Time Events make even short areas like the South Gate interesting and viable.

I got inside the gate area and then had to tell on some lazy engineer to his supervisor in order to get him out of the way. I also managed to give relationship advice to a girl to send her away to. Once both were gone, Dagger could get out of her bag and change into clothes that didn’t smell as bad.

We got through the next gate and entered the tram that took us to the next checkpoint. That’s it, nothing else happened today.

Final Fantasy IX, Chocobo's Dream World

The first upgrade is mine!

I forgot one really important thing yesterday, though. Remember that chest on the beach? It contained the first upgrade for my chocobo! Now, Choco can walk over rivers and shallow seas. Of course, since the Mist Continent is surrounded by mountains, the upgrade didn’t really open up new places for me yet, but it does mean I’ll be able to get to the lagoon, which is the next area for finding Chocographs, as soon as possible.

by ·0 Comments

U returned to town and reported in on most of the tasks I was assigned by various people. The rewards alone got me back up to a nice sum of money, which I used to buy some upgrades and stock up on more potions.

Further investigation in town, combined with some information I gathered at the swamps brought me back to Raymond, the private detective, who was now also back in town. We concluded I should probably do an autopsy on the criminal who passed away at the hospital while I was away.

The Witcher, Crypt

It’s cool that computer-controlled characters have a routine, but it’s annoying when you can’t find them on a quest.

First, I went to the local shops to stock up on books about human anatomy as well as pathology. Then I went to talk to the guard captain, hoping he would have some useful knowledge to share, but he was his usual ignorant self, so there was no luck there. Finally, I went to the gravedigger, to get the body. I had to bribe him with some dwarven liquor, but he agreed eventually. The autopsy will be performed at the hospital, at first nightfall.Since Shani was trained in medicine, I decided to ask for her help. She was hesitant, but after some persuasion, she agreed to do it. In order to prepare everything, though, I still had some work to do.

Before I forget, I also talked to a few people about reviving one of the golems at the tower, in order to get one of the Sephiroths. I was told I needed electricity, so I had the blacksmith make me a lightning rod. All I need now is a storm, and I get the feeling that the druids might have a way of dealing with that part.