Once out of the Fossil Roo, I didn’t really have a direction to go to. However, the only place I could really go to was Conde Petie. Conde Petie is a town of dwarves, which is basically just rest stop between several important game locations.

It’s been a long time since dwarves appeared in a Final Fantasy game. There’s a whole village of them in Conde Petie.

Anyway, before I got to the village, I decided to spend some time learning new blue magic with Quina. I got a few new spells, but nothing really important. I also summoned Choco at the local tracks and used him to open up a Chocograph treasure chest. I’ve spent quite a sum of money to buy fresh gear at Conde Petie, so I also used the opportunity to get my cash supply back up, since I knew the mage village has an amazing synthesis shop. With all of that, my four characters got to around level 25.The first one was the village of the black mages. You get there by stumbling into a black mage who has been trading with the dwarves. He runs away, showing he’s extremely afraid of humans, but the dwarves point you in the right direction – “deep in the forest, where the owls don’t fly”, or something like that. I’m not sure if this is a reference to the Final Fantasy VIII rebel password or if I’m just reading to much into it.

Ramuh was very useful during training, since Zidane was the only physical damage dealer.

Anyway, after that, the game took me back to Conde Petie, where I found out someone’s been stealing the dwarves’ food, and a hint of a new character is shown. This subplot got a bit postponed, though, due to a new problem arising.I finally got to the village, where some storytelling happens. It’s revealed that some of the black mages sometimes gain sentience, which is how that group wound up on this continent. It’s also revealed that they have an extremely limited lifespan, with most of them simply “stopping” after about a year of activity. No one ever explicitly states that the same applies to Vivi, but there’s no reason not to think that, since he’s a black mage to.

The only way to get to “The Sanctuary” on the other side of the mountains is through Conde Petie. However, the dwarves only let through people who are on a kind of honeymoon. This makes for a nice, comical moment, but also leaves room for Zidane and Dagger’s relationship to grow a bit. Overall, Final Fantasy IX handles these things in a much more lighthearted manner, compared to the other two games on the PlayStation.

Dagger was really eager to “get hitched”.

While running, she ends up stuck on a cliff, her faithful friend Mog ditches her and Zidane ends up saving her. This starts another funny subplot, where this six years old ends up having a crush on Zidane. Quina chases Mog, so Eiko replaces him/her as a group member. At this point, though it’s still unclear what Quina’s gender is, most of the characters in the game refer to it as “him”, so I will to, from now on.The ceremony is quick, and it’s time to get through the city, but not before I encountered the infamous food thief. The thief turns out to be Eiko Caroll, the new playable character. She’s a summoner, which means she uses White Magic and Summoning, just like Dagger. However, she learns her spells in a different order and her eidolons are different to.

Mog ditching Eiko is a recurring joke.

Eiko invites the group to her home in Madain Sari, but I still had a ways to get there. The area I was in was yet to be explored and a boss was waiting for me. Before that, though, thanks to the PSP’s pause function, I was able to end my session here

.

I got to the Marsh and met up with Quina again. It turns out she backtracked all the way to here from Cleyra, all on her own. She rejoined the party and helped me find the entrance to the tunnel I’ve been looking for.

I’m not sure if this boss is beatable, but I haven’t really tried anything other than running.

The tunnels involved some track switching puzzles. The location was full of untamed gargants, which I could lure with flowers and ride from one area to the other. In order to make them go in the right direction, I needed to pull various switches, which changed the track layout. Some switches led me to dead ends containing treasure, but I’m absolutely sure I didn’t get all of them before I got out.Soon after I entered, I started getting chased by some weird machine. I’m not sure if I could’ve killed it, but after a few chases, it fell down a hole and that was it. In the room after that, though, I met Lani. She and some red haired guy got hired by Brahne to get Dagger’s pendant back, so I had to fight her. Again, the fight wasn’t to difficult and I used the standard tactic. Zidane was stealing, Dagger was healing and the other two, Vivi and Quina in this case, did the damage. The fight was over soon and Lani ran away. I went into the tunnels.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

In the central room, I also met Stilzkin, the traveling moogle, who got his usual tree random items for sale, which I bought. One of the rooms also had a treasure hunter which let me dig for items in exchange for a potion, but I didn’t bother with it. Eventually, I found the exit and I was outside, at the Outer Continent.

The Gargant Roo was traversed even faster this time. In fact, it all went a bit too fast. As before, the gargant got attacked by a monster, but this time a stronger one. It was easy enough to kill it, but once we got back into the cart, it came back and the gargant started running like crazy.

We passed Treno and crashed at some mountains near Lindblum. Now, the queen extracted Dagger’s eidolons before we got to her, so she was a bit shaken up. Not all hope was lost, though. We met an old man in the hills, who turned out to be the eidolon Ramuh. He offered to give her his powers if we get all the pieces of a story his five copies scattered around the hills have and create a complete story out of those pieces.

Every Final Fantasy fan knows Ramuh.

As we were leaving the hills, a sequence started where the group noticed the Alexandrian army attacking Lindblum. Everyone ran towards the castle, hoping to get there in time, but one of Dagger’s former eidolons, Atomos, I think, got summoned and did a huge amount of damage to the whole city.The random battles slowed me down a bit and I had some difficulty getting the final piece of the story, but eventually, I got all five. I had to eliminate one piece and figure out the order of the remaining four to complete it. It was extremely easy if you understand the language, so I didn’t have any issues. Which of the two duplicate entries I picked didn’t matter either. It was more about how I feel about it than what the correct one is, which Zidane noted before we left the hills. In any case, we got a Peridot, which Dagger can wear as an accessory to learn summoning Ramuh.

I think this is the first time Atomos appeared on the PlayStation.

Luckily, there’s a possibility of a tunnel in the Qu’s Marsh, leading all the way to the Outer Continent. This will be my next destination.When I regained control and entered Lindblum, it was under Alexandrian occupation. I went to the business district and met the minister there, who took me to see Cid. Cid had a plan. Since Kuja was supplying Alexandria with weapons, we need to destroy him. Cid’s intel tells him Kuja’s base is somewhere on the Outer Continent, north of the Mist Continent. Since we had no ships, air or naval, I had to find another way to get there.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.