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The Grotto was to the north of the marsh, so I didn’t have trouble getting to it. The place was already under attack by the mages, led by Zorn and Thorn. This meant I was involved in a couple of unavoidable fights, but thanks to my previous training, I didn’t have any trouble here, whatsoever.

Final Fantasy IX, Gizamaluke's Grotto

The Grotto was dark and moody.

Once again, I’ve spent some time learning new spells with Quina, before I started to actually move forward through the area. I think blue magic is way more fun to collect in this game than in Final Fantasy VII, for the simple reason that I get to chose when and if I want to learn it. Additionally, most of the enemies I’ve encountered since I got Quina had a spell to teach me, so there’s no guessing or randomness involved. You find a new enemy and you try to eat it. You either learn something, or it tastes bad. In both cases, you aren’t interested in that enemy any more.

The area was mostly a large key puzzle. I had to gather bells, each of which I could use to open a single door. Sadly, there are some areas I skipped because of this, partly because I wasn’t able to figure out which route is correct and which is optional, but partly also because I was to lazy to go back at one point.

Before I could leave the area, I had to fight against Gizamaluke, of course. I used Quina’s Mighty Guard to make the first half of the fight extremely easy and, as usual, kept stealing with Zidane, while Freya and Vivi did the damage. Stealing is getting a lot more difficult now, with most of my attempts failing. I’m not even sure if I got all the items I could before the fight was over, but Zidane definitely didn’t get a chance to attack at all. I think I’m gonna have to start using the Detect skill, which tells me which items the boss has.

Final Fantasy IX, Gizamaluke Fight

This one gave me a lot of trouble when I was a kid.

In any case, I was out and I could get to Burmecia, finally. My memory served me well, though, so before I went there, I remembered there’s another treasure I could get with my chocobo now. I’ve found the bird tracks nearby, so I used Chocobo to get to the only beach in the area and dig out the treasure.

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I had a lengthy session today, so I managed to explore most of the swamp and clear a bunch of quests along the way.

I started at the shrine, which was devoted to the same goddess as the one in Vizima, but I didn’t have anything of “nature’s harvest” this time. I decided to go back to the dock and start exploring the area from there. On the way back, I stopped by an abandoned brick making site infested with drowners. I cleared the area and found the bodies of a couple of Salamandra, as well as the witcher I’ve been tracking since I entered the Outskirts. I guess that quest is over.

I got to the docks and spoke to the guard there, who offered me money if I bring him ten wolf pelts. Nearby was a brick maker’s village. An old woman who was their leader wanted someone to get rid of the drowners I already killed, so I got my reward right away. She also asked me to find a missing boy and pointed me in the direction of the druid camp to the north.

The Witcher, Gramps the Cannibal

Apparently, Gramps is a cannibal.

Then I went to Gramp’s house, where I got a surprise. It turns out Gramps practices cannibalism. I had the option to either kill him here, or let him live. Since he promised me some scrolls if I spare him, I agreed, hoping I’ll be able to deal with him later. However, once I agreed to spare him, the game wouldn’t let me chose the option of killing him anymore. I’m probably gonna pay for that later, but at least I got a new potion recipe.

I kept getting attacked by drowners further north, so I went back south, all the way to the shrine. I bought some dried fruits from the village elder, so I offered them at the statue and got some minor item I can’t remember anymore. Further from the shrine, there was a wolf cave, so I got my pelts there. In one of the rooms, there was also a crypt, as well as a wraith defending it. Once the wraith was dead, which was tough because I had to fight a bunch of wolves alongside it, I checked the crypt and found another Sephiroth, meaning I was only missing three now, possibly even two, I can’t remember. In the same room, I found another circle of elements, which taught me Quen. This is a rune I actually intend to train in, since it casts a damage absorbing shield.

The Witcher, Gnome

I guess this is a gnome, but I’m not sure.

I got out and continued in the same direction, finding a lumberjack camp soon. Their leader, who I think is a gnome, but I’m not sure, offered me gold if I gather some swamp plants and deliver them to the ferryman at the docks. I agreed, of course, and continued in the northern direction, since I went as far southwest as I could.

Further to the north, I finally got to the druid camp. The only dried there told me there’s no way they would abduct the missing kid, as the village elder was claiming, since they would have no use for him. Apparently, only girls can become dryads. From one of the druids, I bought some books, describing some local plants. It cost me a fortune, but I would have probably had to buy them eventually.

The camp also contained another circle of elements – Yrden. This one creates a trap that slows enemies passing through it, which probably isn’t to useful for me, but time will tell. Finally, I talked to an elf there, who asked me to deliver a message to Vivaldi in Vizima. I agreed, since I was soon going there anyway.

The Witcher, Druid

Regular fantasy druids here!

The druids told me the herb I was looking for grew to the northeast, so I decided to complete the circle and continue in that direction. I found the plants, but I’ve also found plenty of enemies, so I nearly died a couple of times. I ran out of Swallow potions during the initial escort quest, so I had trouble during the entire exploration, but it was really getting risky by now.

Because of this, I went back to the druid camp and spent some money buying alcohol so I could brew more potions. With a stack of five Swallows, several White Gulls and a bunch of others, I went back northeast and cleared most of the area. I passed the first ruined tower of the alchemist, but I didn’t go to the one that was still standing yet. Instead, I went as far east as I could and found a Squirel camp, but there was nothing I could do there, so I went back.

This time, I finally went to the middle of the whole area, where the tower was. There wasn’t much I could do there, but I did manage to nearly kill myself by messing around with some pillars surrounding a frozen golem, causing lightning to strike me.

I got back to the docks, delivered the pelts to the guard, as well as the herbs to the ferryman and then paid him to take me back to Vizima.

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The Qu’s Marsh was a place I probably should have visited as soon as I left Lindblum, but for some reason, I decided to skip it. It’s the home of a peculiar race called the Qu, but it’s also the home of the two moogles who have been providing tutorials since the start of the game.

I got in, went to the right and got all the way to the hut in the back, where one of the Qu’s was. He didn’t have much to say, so I returned, but using a different route this time. The route took me to a pound full of frogs and another Qu trying to catch them. Apparently, Qu’s consider frogs extremely delicious.

Final Fantasy IX, Quina

Yummier everything, actually!

Quina is a blue mage, meaning she learns magic from enemies. In this game, the magic is learned by eating the enemy, and for that, the enemy needs to be weakened enough. Now, on my first play through, back when I was a kid, I didn’t really like Quina. Her regular damage varied a lot, making her unpredictable, and I considered learning all the blue magic a huge drag, so I never really did it.I caught a frog and offered it to the Qu, called Quina. When he or she (not sure) took it, the Qu from the hut arrived, telling Quina about all the food from all over the world that she’s missing, urging her to go out and discover all of it. He asked me to take Quina with me, so I agreed. I needed a fourth character anyway.

Using Quistis in Final Fantasy VIII made me rethink this. I decided to spend some time eating the various enemies in the Marsh and on the overworld map and I think it was more than worth it. Among others, I’ve learned Mighty Guard, Aqua Breath, Angel’s Snack, Pumpkin head and some others, but Mighty Guard alone was worth the trouble.

With all of this, I was done in the area, so it was finally time to get to Gizamaluke’s Grotto.

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It was morning, so I made my way to the docks, but the guard wouldn’t let me through the gate. I apparently needed permission from Vincent, the guard captain. The thing is, he tried to use me during a quest I did but didn’t write about, so I told him what I thought of him. There’s no way he’s giving me permission.

My two choices were to either wait for the merchant to come to the temple district, which he does rarely, or pay off the guard. I gave him 100 oren and he let me through. The merchant, Declan Leuvaarden, was easy to find. It took some convincing, but he eventually admitted he’s part of a secret society which is trying to destroy the Salamandra. Since our goals match, he agreed to provide help from time to time.

The Witcher, Deckan

Declan looks far too much like Odo.

The swamps were a huge area with a large number of new quests and new areas, so I didn’t manage to explore it all today. What I did do is take care of the annoying escort quest which was the last thing I did on my last attempt to play through this game. There’s this old guy called Gramps, who needed an escort to the local shrine. The problem is, the escort route leads me through the area where a really tough enemy that’s part of another quest is located.He also asked me to get rid of some drowners attacking the docks at night, to which I agreed. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if he meant the docks on this side, in Vizima, or on the other side, in the swamp. In any case, I went to the swamp next, which cost me 5 oren for the ferry.

The Witcher, The Swamp

New area, new quests.

This time, I remembered what was going to happen, so I drank a few potions and sharpened my silver sword before I went there. This meant I only nearly died this time. I got to the shrine, Gramps thanked me and invited me to his hut later, saying he has books and knowledge he would be willing to share.

For now, that was it for me.

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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.

Final Fantasy IX, Healing Fountain

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.

Final Fantasy IX, Chocobo's Forest

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.

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Since it was still night when I reloaded the game today, I decided to visit the prisoner at the hospital. Sadly, he didn’t get a chance to say much, what with us being attacked by a group of thugs. He did manage to say one name, though – Kalkstein. The alchemist is definitely hiding something.

The thugs worked for Ramsmeat, though, so he was higher on my priority. Sadly, he’s either a really good liar, or completely innocent, because he simply said the thugs were there to get his lackey free and he had no idea I was going to be there to. The story makes sense, so again, I have nothing on him.

The Witcher, Rich Guy

“Rich” guy promised me money he didn’t have for the wine he didn’t have. I kept the wine.

The problem was, when I got the wine back to him, he wouldn’t pay. I decided to keep the wine for myself in that case, so I’ll get some value out of it. The experience was worth it anyway. The other newcomer to the inn was a messenger I already heard rumors about. Apparently, he’s working for some unknown rich guy who has him paying 10 oren per Salamandra insignia I bring. I sold him all of mine first, before I got him drunk and made him tell me the name of the rich guy. Apparently, it’s a merchant who’s working at the docks. I waited for the night to pass and decided to get there in the morning.There were some new people at the inn, though, so I didn’t walk all the way there for nothing. A noble from the trade district was there, looking for someone to “recover” some good wine from an abandoned house nearby. The problem was, the house was infested with the undead, so this was actually the first time I almost died. Thank god for tactical combat and pausing.

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I’ve been following RaiderZ for a while now, because it kind of, sort of, seemed like something that might be fun, because it does things a little differently.

You see, the biggest thing that turns me away from World of Warcraft these days is that, no matter how much stuff they add in, at its core, the game remains “more of the same, every day”. You level, you get to the cap, you get gear, you go for dungeons, you get more gear, more dungeons get added, more gear, etc.

RaiderZ - Crafting

I got something like a cut scene when I crafted my first item.

Well, RaiderZ has been advertised by some as an action MMORPG with elements of the Monster Hunter series. The action part is what interests me the most. I’m tired of the old “select monster, then select skill” mechanic. I want combat to either have impact, where I swing the weapon, or I want it to be different in some other way. Maybe you make it turn based, or more tactical.Sure, the pet battles of Pandaria can distract you, they made the talents extremely interesting and all that, but the core still remains the same.

The Monster Hunter elements also seem attractive, but they aren’t that important to me. Of course, the idea of gathering parts of monsters to make equipment is great, but it also has to be done well in order to work.

In any case, the game left closed beta, so I was able to download it and log in, albeit on US servers only. For now, I’m a bit underwhelmed. The game begins in a typical MMORPG manner. You get your first quest, which takes you to another set of quests consisting of killing a certain number of danger-free monsters and talking to a certain person. The next several quests are also similar, though they involve item crafting from monster parts.

The action controls aren’t really there. Yes, you use your left button to attack and do damage without really targeting, but it all looks like the game is just tricking you. It feels like it auto-targets for you and then, instead of auto-swinging, waits for you to click your mouse. The controls simply do not feel like true action controls. Don’t get me wrong, the attacking and dodging is a huge improvement compared to the classic system World of Warcraft uses, but it still isn’t it.

RaiderZ - Login Screen

At one point, I got disconnected from the server, but at least I was able to see the new gear on my login screen.

I might return to the game occasionally, but I don’t see myself playing it too much.Things got a bit better towards the end of my session. I got a quest to kill a boss type enemy and I have to say, that part was quite fun. I actually had to observe the boss, dodge attacks, retreat and advance when it was appropriate and take proper care of my health and stamina (which is used for dodging). That part really is fun and much better than the old raid battles I’m used to. I just wish the other parts were as good.

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The Hunting Festival is a monster slaying contest. Monsters are released into the city and everyone competes for kills. It sounds a bit dire, but this is Final Fantasy, so you never feel like you’re doing something bad. Zidane and Freya both joined the contest, while Zidane also registered Vivi into it.

For most of the hunt, I’ve been lagging behind, since I started out at the Theater district, where there’s very few monsters to fight. Once I cleared that and the Industrial district, I finally got to the Business District where most of the monsters were.

Final Fantasy IX, Mu

The Mu creatures are cute, but they gave me points.

At this point, I got seriously ahead, but eventually ended up fighting an extra strong monster with Freya. If you’re fast enough, you can kill this one to, but I wasn’t, so the time was up before the battle was  over. Still, I won and got my reward, which was money for Zidane. I should have probably let Freya win, in which case I would have gotten an accessory.

During the award ceremony, a Burmecian soldier entered the room wounded, saying Alexandria has attacked Burmecia with an army of black mages. Everyone agrees Zidane, Freya, Steiner and Vivi should get there as soon as possible, while Dagger needs to stay behind just to be safe.

Of course, Dagger didn’t agree to that, so she drugged everyone except Steiner and decided the two of them should go to Alexandria to talk to her mother. They left and eventually, the other woke up. Our next stop is still Burmecia, but we’re going there without Steiner.

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Luckily, the game autosaves, so the last crash didn’t take me back to far. I reloaded at the point where I just entered the local hospital. It’s a good thing I did, because I forgot to write about that.

As I previously said, Kalkstein wants me to find the entrance to the tower in the swamp. By reading a book I got from Vivaldi, I discovered I need ten magical stones to enter it, called sephirots. I already got a few by various means, but there was one here that made me really proud to figure it out.

The Witcher, Novice Nun

The novice nun was extremely helpful.

Other than that, I tried to visit a wounded criminal being guarded at the hospital, but the guards wouldn’t let me talk to him. I managed to pay one off, so he told me to come back at night. Then I, again, tried to visit Kalkstein and this time avoided crashing. Kalkstein explained himself, so he wasn’t a suspect again, for now.There was a statue of a goddess at the hospital. The nun praying there helped me with a hint for one of the stones. Apparently, the stone required a sacrifice to the goddess, in the form of “nature’s harvest”. I didn’t even consider to actually try and make a sacrifice at the statue, but after a few minutes, it came to me. I could actually click at the statue and use an item on it. The nun told me “nature’s harvest” would be some sort of fruit or vegetable, so I used some blueberries and the sephiroth appeared in my inventory.

Next up, I explored the local slums, where I got a few more quests and talked to Ramsmeat, whose lackey is the criminal at the hospital. As you might guess, Ramsmeat is no man of the law either. Raymond linked him to the Salamandra as well, so I questioned him, but he wasn’t cooperative and I didn’t really have anything concrete on him.

The Witcher, Lady of the Night

The Salamandra, constantly harassing hard working citizens.

As was the case with the inn in the Outskirts, there was another fight club here. I beat the few of the toughest fighters there and that was it. I decided to go help the girls at the local brothel next. It seems they have problems with Salamandra thugs harassing them during the nights.

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The Regency of Lindblum is a huge city if plenty of places to explore, items to collect and features to discover.

First of all, the story was advanced, quite a bit. Cid, the regent of Lindblum is apparently Garnet’s uncle. He already knew there was something going on in Alexandria, so he was actually the one that hired Tantalus to kidnap Garnet. He has a problem, though. Someone turned him into an oglop, which is some Final Fantasy insect or some other type of vermin. He can still talk, walk and do all of that, but his mind is a bit weaker because of it and they have been keeping it a secret from the public.

Final Fantasy IX, Lindblum, Grand Castle

The titles are really effective. It adds a lot to the atmosphere.

I’ve spent most of the time in Lindblum exploring with Zidane, meeting new characters, discovering areas such as the Tantalus hideout in the Theater district and stocking up on items and equipment. In the upper part of the business district, I visited the weapon shop and, more importantly, the synthesis shop.Anyway, Garnet stays in the castle, while the rest of the group is left to explore. At a bar in the business district, I’ve met a future party member, a dragon knight of Burmecia named Freya. From what I can remember, she’s another hard hitter like Steiner, but she doesn’t have as much health. She makes up for it with Dragon magic, though, which has a lot of useful spells.

Synthesis is a special feature of Final Fantasy IX. It allows you to combine multiple pieces of equipment or items to create a completely new item. Thanks to the nice sum of gil I’ve accumulated since leaving Alexandria, I managed to get some very nice weapons and armors for most of my group. By far the strongest thing I god was The Ogre, which is a double bladed dagger for Zidane.

Final Fantasy IX, Zidane and Garnet

Zidane and Dagger shared a nice moment here.

Speaking of daggers, I forgot to mention that before they entered Dali, Garnet decided to rename herself to Dagger as part of her cover. I should probably start calling her that from now on. Anyway, after a lot of exploring, I went to meet Dagger at the castle, before I entered a contest called the Hunting Festival


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