A Final Fantasy IX Reminiscence - My love letter and homage to one of the best stories ever told

[Princess Garnet]

I started making a retrospective (and the story portion, to be covered later, is accompanied by a play-through) elsewhere, so I figured I'd start the process of posting it here too. It's going to take a while to have it finished (many, many posts) but I'm almost at that point. With luck, a remake is indeed coming (and hopefully ends up good) so here's my retrospective of the original game.

Oh! Final Fantasy IX, where would I be without you?

Welcome to my love letter and homage to this wonderful masterpiece and classic! I've remarked about Final Fantasy IX a lot through the years since its release, but never have I completely reflected upon it. Therefore, that's what I'm going to do now; I'm going to make a thread to fawn over it!

This will be a multi-part affair because there's far, far too much to cover in a single post. This is going to be a mix of a love letter and am in-depth look at the game itself. Originally it was "only" going to be a pretty in-depth thing, but at the current rate, I think it might become an even more in-depth thing complimented by a series of videos as I play through it. We'll see if I decide to maintain that for the whole thing. I guess it can be a broad discussion thread about the game too.

I will be reflecting upon this largely from a perspective of the original PlayStation release and in North America, so any references to "discs" or "release dates" will be a result of this.

Prelude

"What is Final Fantasy IX?"

I'm not sure if I can truly summarize Final Fantasy IX to a mere phrase (hence this retrospective!) because there's way too much you'll leave out no matter how you summarize it. If I had to try and do so, I think one of my favorite ways would be to call it a whimsical fairy tale set in a historic fantasy universe. But even that's just scratching the surface. Underneath this seemingly cheery style, it has a pretty serious and deep story.

It may also appear charming and adorable, and it's definitely those things! However, you'd be sorely mistaken if you presume this as merely a happy story for the sake of it, or a story meant for much younger audiences with nothing troubling or deeper going on. To the absolute contrary, this game and story deal with some pretty deep and serious stuff that people often discredit it for (or sometimes I think they simply miss), and despite being set in a fantasy inspired universe, it can be all too relatable even in modern times! Calling it an existential crisis wouldn't be wrong! It gives multiple examples of this as each character has their own circumstances, their own story, and their own struggles as to how they come to terms and how they manage with, well... existence. That's what this game's theme is; finding your purpose and place in life. It deals heavily with life, death, and loss. It doesn't shy away from war and genocide. It teaches that time and life is passing and fleeting, as well as fragile. Enjoy it while it lasts. It has a lot of powerful moments, especially that one. Truly, there are a lot of that moments in the game, but still... those familiar with it will probably know which one in particular I mean...

All of this is merely wrapped up in a fairy-tale, and almost play-like, presentation. But if you take it as face value alone, you're missing what it really is. This game will destroy you... in a good way. It's just also a fairy tale.

"We met, we laughed, we held on fast, and then we said goodbye."

Yeah... it's something like that!

It oozes with deeper, intimate, and even existential subjects. I mean...

"You taught me that life doesn't last forever. That's why we have to help each other and live life to the fullest."

"What to do when I felt lonely... That was the only thing you couldn't teach me."

"I wish we could've gone on more adventures. But I guess we all have to say goodbye someday."

Sorry! I can't hear any claims of "a fairy tale only for kids" over the sounds of this! And I'm not crying... you're crying! *can't listen to Melodies of Life, Song of Memories, You're Not Alone, or a dozen others without crying* Sometimes just thinking about it gets me crying. Reflecting upon it to type this has already done that more than once.

I've played Final Fantasy IX a lot since its release. While it's not my most played game (that would undoubtedly be Minecraft), it's definitely my favorite, and it's not even close. The distance between it and whatever is number two is vast.

It wasn't my first encounter with the series (that would be VIII), but it was the first one I owned and played to completion. I first played it shortly after its release near the end of 2000, either near the end of 2000 itself or I think more likely the beginning of 2001. I borrowed it from a friend and quickly fell in hopeless love with it. I purchased my own copy sometimes between the beginning and middle of 2001 if memory isn't failing me. For the next many years, I would put so much time into this game (so many summer nights I remember...), and it definitely shaped me in my latter formative years while growing up. More than that, it taught me a lot of things for dealing with life, so to say it shaped who I would become and who I am today would be a huge understatement! I know I'm not alone (!) in feeling that about this game either. This title is typically held fondly by its fans, and I'm no different. It never fails to make me feel a wide range of emotions from happy to sad and all sorts of bittersweet in between; joy, sorrow, a willingness to want to embark on an adventure, a defiance to want to stop what's threatening to take what I love, curiosity, despair, heartbreak, courage, loneliness... I could go on.

To answer the question of what Final Fantasy IX is more literally and formally, Final Fantasy IX is a video game developed and published by then Squaresoft, now Square Enix, back in the middle of 2000 (original Japanese release) for the PlayStation console very late in its life cycle. It was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, directed by Hiroyuki Ito, featured characters designed by Yoshitaka Amano, and topped by a soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu. Many others at the then Squaresoft were a part of making this wonderful classic, whether they realized it at the time or not. For many of these people, I believe their involvement in the series would become more limited in future titles, and Final Fantasy IX thus served as both a throwback to the series roots, as well as a swan song for some of the people involved and for the series on the PlayStation console. In many ways, it would be the last of its kind as a result. It's seen a number of later ports and re-releases on other platforms (mobile, newer consoles, PC, etc.), most of them digital, notably the PC release on Steam. It's an RPG (more specifically, a jRPG, or "Japanese Role Playing Game") that tells the story of a group of characters who come together and go on an adventure, and that even involves saving the world! Hey... that's pretty cliche and typical stuff, right!? Yet, the game is anything but. And I think calling it just a game is doing it a severe disservice; this is art, and a stellar masterpiece of an example of it.

I think this is not only the best Final Fantasy title, but perhaps one the best games at all (and to me personally, the best). More than that, I'd declare it one of the best pieces of media or art period, and not just limited to games. I can not overstate that, and yes, I think this is a very underrated piece of work. It's definitely gotten a lot more love in recent years, so you might wonder what I'm on about if you only see the recent love for it. It wasn't always like this though. To the contrary, this was a severely underrated and overlooked title in its own time and for countless years after the fact (selling the least of the releases on the PlayStation despite often being rated the highest), and I was already singing its praises back then too. It's a delight to see it get some of the appreciation and attention it deserves, if late, and I'd still call it under-appreciated even with the recent extra love its gotten.

Before getting into Final Fantasy IX itself though, I feel like it'd be important to cover the series a bit up unto that point. While this is meant to be about Final Fantasy IX itself and not something documenting the history of the series, Final Fantasy IX really is a product of circumstance (like anything, really), so I feel like covering that will go a long way in helping shape what Final Fantasy IX is. I won't give an analysis of every title before Final Fantasy IX, but I will give an overview of the series and the times the game was born into. For those not familiar, a few exceptions aside, most Final Fantasy installments are self contained, stand alone stories. The ones that aren't are obviously named (for example, Final Fantasy X-2, which is "Final Fantasy Ten Two"). The majority might have recurring themes, or Easter eggs or references to other titles, but they are all very much their own stand alone thing so you don't need to understand a number of other stories to understand a later installment. Final Fantasy IX wouldn't be a bad place to start either.

This thread will be an ongoing effort and it may be prone to changes until I have it completed! For now, I'm attempting to address it with the following structure...

Prelude - This is pretty much this post. Think of it as the introduction of sorts... to set the stage, you know!?

(Un)Final Fantasy - This is where I'll cover the series up until the point of Final Fantasy IX, since again I feel Final Fantasy IX in particular was a product of circumstance so knowing those circumstances will help explain it.

A Whimsical Fairy Tale! - This is where I'll start to cover Final Fantasy IX itself. Here, I'll mostly go over the characters, the setting (world, locations, some history and lore), and touch more upon some of the features of Final Fantasy IX. Further pouring of love for it, and crying, may ensue.

Act I/II/III/etc. - Placeholder Title - This is where I'll start covering the story, and I decided that since I'm currently playing through the game again anyway, I'll be using a series of videos from that playthrough to serve as the basis for it (you can certainly ignore these videos and just read). There's no end of story summaries you can look up YouTube if you only want that.

"Prelude" - The conclusion, which is ironically but aptly named as a reference to the fact that the famous prelude theme music is used at the end of this game (and also in part for the game over music). This is where I'll wrap up my reflection of the game, or put the finished love letter in the envelope, so to speak.

Needless to say, spoilers will be involved. You just can't talk about it in depth without invoking spoilers. Like many things, Final Fantasy IX is best experienced as blind as possible, and yes, I would definitely encourage playing it! Yes, even today! Yes, right now! Oh my goodness, go! It's not going to be for everyone, and that's okay. But there's a real gem here, and if you do have any passing interest in it, I'd recommend you stop reading now and go play it. It's widely available on a variety of platforms for a fairly low cost (at least in North America but this will vary on locale) and it holds up very well despite its age. It's far from perfect these days, but that's mostly due to advancing technology around/after its time (the shift to higher resolutions and widescreen, and from CRT to LCD) and a few hardware limitations the game would have had to deal with at the time (battles can be frequent, and battle pacing and battle load times can be repetitive and somewhat long for some; I personally never minded this), and none of it is because the game itself aged poorly. To the contrary, I'd say it's holds up just as well today, if not more so, than it did in its own time! The story is absolutely a timeless classic. A modern remake that kept the story and gameplay mostly 1:1 but added some of the missed content and updated the visuals and presentation would truly open this game up. (Please Square Enix!?) I might be very biased, but the somewhat recent Resident Evil 2 remake and its success, and the more recent fan made Memoria Project about a year ago and reaction to it from fans (not counting the other signs that have stirred up hope, from the 2021 nVidia leak to more recent examples), are some perfect real life example of this. And the following Resident Evil 3 remake and its mixed success shows that some games are better left less changed. I think the Final Fantasy VII remake does well despite its changes, mind you, but that's not for everything. For Final Fantasy IX, I think a more faithful remake would make it greater. You'd be taking what is already one of the best games as the foundation and giving it one of the best examples of a remake treatment. And since Final Fantasy IX itself was a love letter to the series' roots, how fitting would this be!? It wouldn't get much better than that. Until then, Dragon Quest XI is probably the closest modern alternative to a jRPG in this style and is also from Square Enix, but... nothing else is quite like Final Fantasy IX. Nothing.

With that being said, I'll conclude the prelude before this starts getting any more unstructured and full of endless praise. More of that will come! The next update will cover a not-too-in-depth look into series before Final Fantasy IX itself in order to better paint a picture of its circumstances. If you'll excuse me for now, I'm going back to playing it...

 

[Princess Garnet]

(Un)Final Fantasy

I want to briefly go over the history of the series to paint a picture of the landscape Final Fantasy IX would be coming into, as it was definitely a product of circumstance.

For that, we need to go back to the beginning. Legend has it that back in the late 1980s, a company called Squaresoft was verging on bankruptcy. They put out what they thought might be their final game, aptly named Final Fantasy, for the original Nintendo console. It was an RPG game created by Hironobu Sakaguchi. It was similar to another game released a year earlier named Dragon Quest (localized in North America as Dragon Warrior at the time). This is often referenced as the beginning of what we now refer to as jRPGs. At the time, jRPGs would soon become known more for their focus on the characters and story.

Final Fantasy was a success, and Squaresoft released Final Fantasy II the following year. The additional installments were typically never direct sequels to previous ones. Sometimes, certain elements would be reused (enemy types, names, and sometimes but rarely the world or universe), but they were always standalone games and stories. Another year and a half later, and Final Fantasy III released. The titles had saved Squaresoft, and both a series and a genre was taking shape. Final Fantasy was final no more.

Final Fantasy moved to the Super Nintendo the following year (1991), and this year and the next would see two more installments to the series, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V. Final Fantasy IV was a pretty substantial release. The original three titles had the RPG gameplay, but the focus on the characters and story wasn't yet there. With the move to the Super Nintendo and perhaps more of a budget, Squaresoft took a huge leap forward with the series with this one. After another one year break following Final Fantasy V, the final Super Nintendo installment of Final Fantasy VI released. This basically took Final Fantasy IV and doubled down on it by focusing heavily on the characters and story. Whereas the setting in all of the prior titles was decidedly more medieval, Final Fantasy VI blended a bit of a technological sci-fi into it.

So to recap, there was a trio of Final Fantasy games on the Nintendo, and then another trio on the Super Nintendo. Now we're getting into the era Final Fantasy IX belongs in, and there was another trio of new installments here.

The PlayStation launched the following year in 1995 in North America, and for another two years, no new Final Fantasy titles released. That would change in 1997, when perhaps one of the most important titles, and more so for the western market, would launch. I'm referring to none other than Final Fantasy VII. Squaresoft shifted from Nintendo consoles to a Sony console here, and the reason was because of the CD-Rom based format. While the Nintendo 64 had its hardware advantages, one of the drawbacks of the cartridges it used was its low capacity size. The PlayStation and the CD-Rom, by contrast, while slower in loading, was being pushed for its much higher capacity and FMV possibilities. Anyone who was around in the mid 1990s may remember how rapid the gaming, console, and technology markets were all moving. 3D was becoming a thing and wasn't well defined yet; each console had its own approach to it. Squaresoft chose to change console makers for the benefit the CD-Rom offered, and this title would be instrumental in not only leading to Sony's first console doing incredibly well, but it would also widen the appeal of the Final Fantasy series in the Western market especially. The game was the first to shift to 3D (although quite blocky and rudimentary). The format it used would be used for all the PlayStation era titles; 2D pre-rendered location backdrops with 3D characters, with battle and world maps being fully 3D, and FMVs to compliment it all. These 2D backdrops are of low resolution and aren't widescreen, which is why I said earlier that titles from this era that did this are among those that suffered the most in aging visually from the change to LCD and HD, widescreen displays. This title would also be the first to entirely leave behind the classic medieval setting that the series has largely used, and fully embraced a sci-fi setting with a darker story that Final Fantasy VI previously leaned into. Squaresoft put a lot of funding into marketing this one. It's probably well known that Final Fantasy VII was a big deal. I personally don't have much of a loving for this one, but it was undoubtedly revolutionary. Another two years later would see Final Fantasy VIII release. The characters were more realistically proportioned and not as blocky, and the FMVs were better detailed. It was again a sci-fi setting, and again it featured a more moody protagonist.

The following year was the turn of the century, and Squaresoft had big plans. They had three new Final Fantasy titles announced simultaneously. This was really big at the time. Those titles would be Final Fantasy IX, X, and XI.

The former would be the final PlayStation installment, and would release in 2000. It was even delayed from early 2000 to the middle of 2000 to avoid releasing too close to another competing title. The middle would be the initial PlayStation 2 installment and launch a year later, and it would be a big visual upgrade, it would drop the pre-rendered backgrounds for entirely 3D environments, and would be the first with voice acting, making the earlier titles feel decidedly dated. The latter would be the first MMO and again come a mere year later. Oh, and there was that whole Final Fantasy Spirits Within movie coming, which didn't go well. Squaresoft wasn't doing well financially either, and would merge with Enix to become the current Square Enix. Times, and the series, were changing, and Final Fantasy IX was about to land awkwardly, and not because of any fault of its own.

This should help explain the world that Final Fantasy IX was coming into. The key takeaways are that the original trio sort of saved Squaresoft, the next trio started defining jRPGs and the series, and the next trio is where they went mainstream. But Final Fantasy IX itself was announced with two sequels in line behind it, and it was even releasing after the PlayStation 2 had just launched with the next generation successor a mere year behind it. Additionally, it attempted to be a callback to the series roots, returning to a medieval setting, and while the visuals were again improved on a technical level, it had a decidedly cheery looking style with a more upbeat protagonist. Between the next generation looming, and being passed on by the fans who had come to know the series for the sci-fi settings, darker stories, and moodier protagonists of the recent installments, Final Fantasy IX was overlooked and it didn't sell as well as the prior two nor the following one after it. Yet, despite the lower sales, it was often held with higher regard, scoring higher in reviews than the titles it followed. Its circumstances absolutely defined it, and I find it to be critically underrated, especially during its own time but even today with the much warranted but late love it's gotten more of.

So for the next part, now that its circumstances have been described, I'll start to take a look at Final Fantasy IX itself.

 

[Princess Garnet]

A Whimsical Fairy Tale!

Final Fantasy IX has a diverse set of characters, and each has their own themes and struggles. Final Fantasy IX has a lot of themes, but perhaps the most prominent one is finding your place in life. It deals with life and death, and with coming to terms with loss. It teaches that life is fleeting and fragile. It may be wrapped up as a fairy tale, but that doesn't mean there isn't a deep cast navigating a complex world.

This is where I'll go over the world and its cast, as well as some of the game's features.

I'll start with the setting. I will defer to covering some events until later since I'll want to expose them instead with the story of the game. I'm also doing this from memory so if I get stuff wrong, you're welcome to correct me.

The World of Gaia

Final Fantasy IX was a throwback to a lot of the roots of the series, and crystals were used prominently in some of the older titles. Final Fantasy IX incorporates crystals in a few ways. Most prominently, crystals tend to serve as a source of life for a lot of things. Each planet has a crystal. Life on the planet itself comes from the crystal of that planet when it is born, and returns to it when it dies. The crystal retains these memories and grows. Likewise, the crystal of a planet itself is born and dies. When it ages, it too returns to the universe, which itself has its own crystal; the source of everything.

Final Fantasy IX takes place largely on a planet called Gaia.

The events of game itself largely takes place in the very beginning of the year of 1800 (in the middle of January), and then span about a month and a half or two, before which there's a another jump to the beginning of the following year, where it ends. There's a lot of history before that, though.

Thousands and thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of years prior, civilization is developing on Gaia.

Even earlier than that, there was another planet called Terra. As the planet of Terra and its crystal aged, its civilization desired to preserve itself and to keep itself alive. They created a place to record their history and culture, as well as to research ways to achieve continuation of life. Eventually, a process was found. To keep Terra alive, its civilization would seek out other, younger planets to serve as a donor to assimilate. New planets that hadn't yet bore civilization would be desired, but then when a suitable planet was unable to be found, the process was attempted with Gaia as a last resort. Gaia was a planet that was younger but did have civilization. It went disastrously wrong as the crystal of the planet of Gaia rejected the attempt. Gaia itself still suffered extensively, however, and a lot of its civilization is wiped out. The result of the process was an incomplete state where Terra ends up inside Gaia. Some places of Terra end up on the outer surface of Gaia. A gateway between the two worlds now exists. The planet of Gaia now has two moons, often simply referred to as the "twin moons". One is the original moon of Gaia and is brighter and a Blue color, matching the crystal color of Gaia, and the other is the original moon of Terra and is duller and a Crimson color, matching the crystal color of Terra. What's left of civilization on Gaia is set back, and unaware of what happened, but carries on.

What's left of Terra goes largely dormant. An overseer (who I won't name for now) is tasked with ensuring the process eventually completes so that the souls of Terra can once again flow. I'll also skip a number of actions taken by this individual as they will be described during the story. One action I will list but still be vague on is that a tree called the Iifa tree is constructed. It exists on the surface of Gaia, and the roots extend deep into the planet, down into Terra which is within the planet of Gaia, and where the two crystals reside at the center. I'll again be a bit vague on the purpose of this since I'll cover it in the story, but it begins dispensing "mist" on the surface of Gaia, but only on one continent, which is later known as the Mist continent as a result. Monsters begin appearing, and the behaviors of civilization is impacted by prolonged exposure of the mist.

To avoid the mist, civilization on the Mist continent move and build at altitudes above where the mist is, and the kingdom of Alexandria is one such place. Lindblum and Burmecia are two other kingdoms. These serve as the three primary kingdoms on the Mist continent, which is where the majority of civilization is.

There was a group who could call forth powerful entities known as eidolons from crystals, and they were referred to as summoners. Eidolons are called forth from crystals and are believed to be a physical manifestation of the memories of myths and legends stored in the crystal of a planet. Memories that the crystal would have from myths and memories of the life it created. In other words, they are legends made reality, and the summoners can call them forth by tapping into the force of the crystal itself. A summoning attempt was made in Alexandria, but it was disastrous as it couldn't be controlled. The summoners decided to split the summoning crystal and spread it. Three go to each of the kingdoms of Alexandria, Lindblum, and Burmecia. The fourth is taken with the summoners as they leave Alexandria and the Mist continent entirely to form their own place on a continent separate from the other three kingdoms. After hundreds of years, awareness of the eidolons, the crystals that summon them, and the summoners themselves wanes and these become almost forgotten things.

Hundreds of years of on again, off again, wars and civil wars ensue. Often, Alexandria and Lindblum are prominent actors, but all three have wars, and Burmecia even has a civil war with itself at one point, fracturing into a separate civilization of Cleyra where the crystal that Burmecia had is moved to. Eventually, Lindblum gains an advantage over all others by developing airships which are powered by the mist. As Alexandria and Burmecia are at war, Lindlum intervenes with airships, and the threat of them largely causes a period of peace, with Lindblum holding the bargaining chips due to its airship advantage.

Unknown to the rest of the world, the location that the summoners who originally left Alexandria settled at is destroyed around ten years before the start of the game.

The time reaches the events of the game. With the world and setting established, the rest will be told with the sections devoted to the story.

The Cast of Gaia and Terra

What good is a world without inhabitants!? Before getting into the story, here's the lovely cast!

Final Fantasy IX has a wide cast of characters. Eight of them are consistently playable, with a few others being very periodically playable (often just in battle and not remaining with the party long). There's then a world full of non-playable characters.

I'll cover the playable eight characters a little more in-depth, while listing many more of the important non-playable characters. As I did with the events above, I'll avoid listing some characters as the story will be where I expose them.

A somewhat common complaint is that while the characters in the game tend to be a strong point, some playable characters are lacking in justification due to a lack of development or focus. While I can agree that some characters see less development and focus, I don't agree they aren't justified. I think it's okay that some characters serve a more specific and consistent purpose. Not all characters need rapid development (especially since the events of the game cover about a month and a half or two period of time, which isn't all that long), nor do all characters need constant focus. Aside from a couple, most of them get a lot of focus and a lot of development anyway. And in place of some of them having less development, more focus is put on other non-playable characters. I feel like this allows the world and story to feel more genuinely alive and real. It's okay if a small number of characters don't become radically different people over a short period of time.

With that being said, here's the cast of characters!

Main Party Characters

First I'll list the eight main characters.

All of the playable characters can be given a customized name at some point, but I will refer to them by their default/canonical name with one exception. One of the characters is introduced with their canonical name and you can't change that. You're instead given the option to customize the alias the character adopts as a disguise to hide their original identity. I will be referring to this character by their original name (as opposed to the alias).

Some characters are referred to only by first or last name (most by first), so I will underline the informal name they go by.

Zidane Tribal

Zidane is the primary protagonist of the game. He has blonde hair, and a tail! He has a pretty carefree attitude at times, yet is deeply caring and selfless towards those he cares about. He will often help and support his friends, those he cares about, or even just those in need; he's always helping others and will even put himself in danger to do so if he feels the cause is right! Underneath this positive shell is some troubled and repressed feelings, as Zidane often seems hesitant to help himself. This can be seen when he shares, though very rarely, stories of his past told in a detached and third person fashion. Despite his more noble attitude, Zidane is part of the Tantalus Theater Troupe which is also actually a group of thieves in Lindblum, led by Baku. They often perform to serve as distraction and cover for jobs.

Zidane serves the gameplay and combat role of a thief, having a battle profile leaning towards speed and accuracy over raw power, although he may often end up being close to one of the strongest party members anyway due to likely being in the party often and thus being one of the higher leveled members. He uses daggers and "thief swords" as his weapons.

Virtue - "You don't need a reason to help people."

Princess Garnet (Garnet Til Alexandros XVII)

Garnet is the deuteragonist of the game, and is the Princess of the kingdom of Alexandria. Knowing that she'll one day be Queen burdens her as she desires to remain herself. She is having her 16th birthday at the start of the game. Her birthday is in January, and the birthstone of January is the Garnet (I digress but I have the same birthday as her, met the game being about the same age as her, and I won't spoil it yet, but her true name is even the same as mine, all of which I found almost eerie). She is formally mannered and sheltered and is thus a bit naive to the outside world, and this is something she attempts to work on during the course of the game.

Formally, I suppose she has long dark Black hair, although it's inconsistent as she's also shown with dark Brown hair. Her in game model has her with Black hair whereas the FMVs have her with dark Brown hair. The FMVs themselves were not done by Squaresoft but were outsourced. Therefore, it could be presumed she canonically has Black hair, although many fans seem to find it acceptable either way, and most fan art even seems to lean into her dark Brown hair look.

Early on in the story, she adopts the alias of "Dagger" to attempt to hide her real identity (I kept her name Garnet at times and this results in a single statement she says sounding funny).

Garnet is one of two characters who serves the gameplay and combat role of both a White mage, which is a healing and defensive status type magic, and summoner, being able to call forth powerful entities. She is more proficient in the latter of the two, although the capability is soft-inaccessible in the earlier portions of the game, so she leans entirely towards the former role at that point until around the time the other character with White mage capabilities joins the party. She uses rods and rackets as weapons.

Devotion - "Someday I will be Queen, but I will always be myself."

Vivi Ornitier

Vivi is a small Black mage. He is shy and often clumsy, tripping and falling over a lot. He has the demeanor and personality of a small, timid boy and he is incredibly adorable! He wears a robe and a steeple hat, and he has large Yellow glowing eyes within an aura of Black darkness. That void is as deep as his heart and innocence!

Vivi serves the gameplay and combat role of a Black mage, as that is what he is. He casts offensive, often elemental, magic spells as well as offensive, harmful status effects. He uses staves as his weapon.

Sorrow - "How do you prove that you exist...? Maybe we don't exist..."

Adelbert Steiner

Steiner is referred to by his last name instead of his first name, and he is the captain of the Knights of Pluto, an all male squad. Alexandria is typically known for its mostly female military. The Knights of Pluto act more as a dedicated personal squad for fulfilling the services and protection of the Queen and Princess. Steiner has a pretty strict sense of right and wrong and has complete loyalty to the queen and royalty of Alexandria.

Early on, he plays a bit of a role of a buffoon and as comic relief. This shifts later as his character develops, and as a new character enters the picture to take on the role of comic relief. He takes a quick liking, or even respect, to Vivi in particular.

Steiner serves the gameplay and combat role of a knight. He is defensively durable, being one of the few characters who can equip heavy armor, and deals high damage, although he also has the ability to blend magic in with his combat if Vivi is present in the party with him. He uses swords as his weapon.

Dilemma - "Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?"

Freya Crescent

Freya is a Burmecian dragon knight, and like all Burmecians, is a rat-like creature. She is loyal to defending her home, but in the present times of peace, has left to seek out a lost love. She's mature and often serious, but typically friendly.

Freya serves the gameplay and combat role of a dragoon, which is an alternate type of warrior-like class similar to Steiner. She uses spears as her weapon, and like Steiner, can equip heavier armor. She can leap into the air and stay there between turns (being untargetable), before striking down with an attack.

Despair - "To be forgotten is worse than death."

Eiko Carol

Eiko is a young 6 year old girl. She is short, and has a small horn on her head! She has a rather energetic personality and tries to be mature beyond her age, even to the point of developing a love for Zidane (and a slight bit of jealousy towards Garnet), although this is unknowingly a false love and is instead a result of her misplaced desire for companionship, as she feels lonely.

Eiko is the other character (the first being Garnet) who serves the gameplay and combat role of a mix of White mage and summoner. Whereas Garnet is more proficient in summoning, but lacks the ability to do so early in the game and serves as a healer until later, Eiko tends to be better at White magic. Her summons tend to lean more towards being defensive and supportive as opposed to Garnet's being more offensive and powerful. She uses flutes and rackets as her weapons.

Solitude - "I don't wanna be alone anymore..."

Quina Quen

Quina is a "Qu", a genderless species in Gaia. They are referred to as s/he in the game.

Quina is mysterious and not much is learned about them in detail during the course of the game. They are used often for the comic relief role. They have a carefree and seemingly detached approach to life to the point that almost nothing gets them down, but with a child-like desire to explore life's offerings, especially those of the culinary type. They speak in a very simple way, and often make analogies to food in some situations.

You have a choice in when they join the party to an extent. There's an earlier opportunity you can take, or else a later one that is mandatory. Quina sometimes gets separated from the party during events, especially if you have them join your party early. You will simply meet with Quina at the later mandated time in either case.

Quina serves the gameplay and combat role of a Blue mage, a class that often gains magic by absorbing it from enemies. Some enemies will grant new spells to Quina, and some are quite powerful, but they need to be learned first. Quina uses very large forks as their weapon and gains their abilities by... eating their enemies.

Indulgence - "I do what I want! You have problem!?"

Amarant Coral

Amarant is a bounty hunter, and is arrogant and a loner. He is named for his vibrant Red hair, and he has pale Blue skin. He, like Quinna, is one of the two main characters that is often considered lesser developed, merely serving the "lone wolf" or "attitude" type character. Zidane in particular confuses him, as he doesn't understand his seemingly altruistic nature and desire to help people. He instead prefers to look out for himself.

Amarant serves the gameplay and combat role of a monk or ninja, who can throw items, and uses claws as his weapon.

Arrogance — "The only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty."


Story Characters

Now I'll list some of the rest of the cast, some of which are pretty important and involved despite not being playable and seeing less screen time.

Kuja - Kuja is the main antagonist during the course of events during the game. Yet, he's often acting and orchestrating from behind the scenes, influencing others to do what he desires. He has long, beautifully feathered (I'm jealous, haha!) Silver hair. You'd be forgiven for mistaking his gender, as he wears an armored thong of sorts! He's often seen with a Silver dragon he uses for transport. He is capable of very powerful magic.

Queen Brahne - The queen of Alexandria and Garnet's mother. She is a very large woman, and has an almost circus-like appearance. She, like Amarant, is one of the few humans with Blue skin. The king of Alexandria died years ago, and she has turned colder and bitter since.

Zorn and Thorn - A pair of twin jesters, one Blue and the other Red, serving the Queen of Alexandria.

Beatrix - The general of the Alexandrian military. She's confident and merciless to her adversaries, and backs this up with skill, earning her a reputation for being feared by those who oppose her (or those she opposes). Beneath this exterior is a soft heart, however. Like Steiner, she is a knight and is incredibly loyal to the royalty of Alexandria. Her sword is called Save the Queen.

Doctor Tot - Tot is a scholar who tutors Garnet in Alexandria when she is younger. He is later dismissed by Queen Brahne and moves to Treno.

Cid Fabool VIII - Cid is the previous regent of Lidblum. He created the first airships powered by Mist, leading to the current period of peace. Cid came to know Baku later in life.

Cid Fabool IX - Cid is the current regent of Lidblum. Cid had become close friends with the King of Alexandria (before his death) and the Queen of Alexandria in the years of peace, and Garnet will often refer to him as her uncle. As his father knew Baku, Cid also has a close relationship with Baku.

Hildagarde Fabool - Lady Hilda is married to Cid Fabool IX. Some of the airships designed by Cid were named after her.

Baku - Baku is the leader of the Tantalus Theater Troupe in Lindblum. He was an orphan in his childhood as the result of the wars in past, so he treats his group as his "family" but resorts to "tough love" to keep his family strong and obedient. Despite this, he is often caring. He took in Zidane when he was younger. He developed a friendship with the previous regent of Lindblum, and by extension the current one.

Ruby - An actress in the Tantalus Theater Troupe, though she somewhat disproves of the group being thieves and would rather see them be performers instead.

Blank - Blank is a member of the Tantalus Theater Troupe. He's the mastermind of most of their planning, and like Zidane, will often help those in need (quite funny for a group of thieves, huh!?).

Markus - Markus is also a member of the Tantalus Theater Troupe. He considers Blank his "brother".

Cinna - Cinna, too, is a member of the Tantalus Theater Troupe. I don't know what else to say about this one other than I remember that he really likes South Gate bundt cake!

Lani - Lani is a bounty hunter like Amarant.

Puck - Puck is first met in Alexandria by Vivi as they bump into one another. He then talks Vivi into joining him into sneaking into the castle to see the play "I Want to be Your Canary" after Vivi discovers his ticket was fake. There's more to who Puck is than he readily discloses when introducing himself to Vivi.

Music, Gameplay, and Features

I'll finish by listing some other features of the game.

As mentioned above, the character and NPC count was vast for this game, having something like more than the previous two Final Fantasy installments combined. Squaresoft wanted the game world to feel alive. I remember that being a commonly referenced ideal of theirs with the game at the time, and the NPCs were supposed to help provide this feel, and that they do!

Something else the game was considered having a vast offerings of was side content, although it might not quite seem like it today because even the following Final Fantasy X perhaps has more (at least in time). At the time, the game was often described as having almost enough side content to constitute a game (if a small one) of its own. A lot of side content and such wasn't always the norm back then.

Final Fantasy IX featured the ATE system, which stands for "Active Time Event". Simplified, it's basically a notification that will show up on screen at certain points (often when characters are split up), which offers options to see glimpses of what other characters are up to at the time. It's a wonderful system that helped further expand upon the story, characters, and world. It was simple, but effective. Oddly, it wasn't common before the game nor after.

A card game called Tetra Master (or Quad Mist) is offered. You can collect cards and have battles with some NPCs. While not as positively received as Triple Triad from the previous game, I enjoyed it. It needed changes and tweaks for sure if it wanted to be truly great, but the underlying concept was good.

The chocobo stuff was extensive. I personally loved chocobo hot and cold, which I later found out may have made me strange!? I guess most others didn't like this as much?

The "Mognet" system pertains to the Moogles, which are adorable little things that typically act as save points and field shops. Mognet allows you to act as couriers for letters for the Moogles. It's basically a very long side quest. Doing this grants rewards along the way, and it also grants a bit of side story.

The fairy battles, optional side bosses (Hades, Ozma, etc.), and the Stellazzio coin quest were all welcome side content.

There's a frog catching game in the Qu marshes as well as a racing thing with one of the hippauls. I wouldn't rave about these two as much as the above, but they weren't bad side content.

The jump rope mini game though... let's not talk about it. It's up there with lightning strike dodging in Final Fantasy X! Rikku was right after all!

For combat, the game stuck to the ATB, "active time battle", system that many of the previous installments also used. It's effectively turn based where gauges fill up before commands can be input. And you have the choice of allowing "time" to keep ticking while a turn is active and you're still choosing your commands, or to pause it while you're navigating menus. The bars would often fill slowly.

This was all made worse by the slow loading of the battle scenes themselves due to the slow CD-Rom. Final Fantasy IX really pushed the PlayStation to its limits... and the slow battle loading and pacing is probably the complaint you'll hear about the game.

Trance is an empowered mode your character would enter either during scripted moments, or once their trance bar was full. The trance bar would raise when characters were attacked (whether they were damaged or not). Trance was... mixed. The concept of it was great for the purpose of the story. A surge of emotions would cause an empowered state, so it was used to add excitement to certain moments. The problem with it was in routine battle. It was just a bar that filled as you took damage and would grant trance as it got full. Worse, the trance transformation was forced once the bar was full, and while this was fitting to the theme, it meant you had no choice but to use it at what would sometimes be unnecessary times. Once trance was active, it wouldn't remain after battle either. On the other hand, while you could hold your empowered mode in other titles (since it wasn't a transformation), it often resulted in "just save up a stronger power state and stack it on all characters for the next boss". So I'm not sure what the good answer is here.

Interestingly, bosses do not grant experience. They often carry highly valuable items to steal.

Final Fantasy IX did expand the battle roster to four characters at once, as opposed to three characters which the prior two titles, and even the following Final Fantasy X, used. I liked this, personally.

The character customization was pretty unique. To start with, Final Fantasy IX went back to dedicated classes or roles. Some may not like this as they feel it limits customization, but I didn't like VII, VIII, or the latter phase of X for this because it risks turning every character into a blank slate that can molded the same way... except for whatever their special is. They lose their unique aspects, and maybe it's just me, but a character feels far more tied into the story when they have a defined role and place too.

What Final Fantasy IX did to make up a bit for this, then, was the ability system. You could gain access to abilities (not to be confused for battle skills) from gear you had equipped. You then have a limited number of ability points to choose which ones to have active. Some would make you do more damage to certain types of enemies, and others would grant buffs or benefits. Nominally, the abilities you could choose from depended on the gear you had equipped, but you could also permanently learn abilities and retain access to them after the gear which granted it was no longer equipped by getting enough AP (ability points) from battle. The nice part about all of this is that it encouraged you to consider gear instead of simply swapping to the newest, highest stat gear as soon as you got it. And if you decided to stick with older gear to learn abilities (which you by no means had to), it usually wasn't make or break because the stats you were giving up in the short term often weren't massive enough, so you weren't harshly penalized either way.

Then, you also had synthesizing to combine and craft gear using older gear. The way this game approached handling gear and abilities and stats was pretty refreshing! Unfortunately, like nothing, synthesizing wasn't perfectly balanced. At times, you could buy gear (at a cost), synthesize something better (at a cost), but then sell it back for a profit! I think you may have needed an ability to do this, but the fact that you could at all was sort of broken.

And then there's the music... Oh, the music! Nobuo Uematsu should need no introduction! He served as the sole composer for the title, and I think this is his best work. He once declared that he thinks it is his best and favorite work. There's over 100 tracks (closer to 150 with the extras on the OST I think?), and few if any of them aren't great. Even the worst among them is good. Many of the Final Fantasy titles do have great music, but I think Final Fantasy IX is where both the greatest quantity and quality of it resides. The music itself does a great job of setting how a particular character, location, or situation should feel, and I'll go into an example of that while covering the story later. This was before voice acting, so this game leaned heavily on the music and FMVs to aid in showing expression, and did they ever.

The FMVs were exceptional, being a huge improvement on the ones in Final Fantasy VII and even an slight improvement over those in Final Fantasy VIII. The mood is portrayed soooo well in many cases because they carry a lot of emotion and expression. In some of the FMVs, an expression would often say a thousand words...

Like Nobuo Uematsu, Hironobu Sakaguchi who co-produced Final Fantasy IX and is considered the creator of the series outright also once declared Final Fantasy IX as his favorite and said that it is the closest to what his vision is of what a Final Fantasy game should be (although some people somewhat dismiss this as him hyping up a then-upcoming launch). If so, that's some pretty high status for a title that was meant to merely imitate the classics as a callback! It's now become a classic itself.

With the setting (world and characters) introduced, and some gameplay features being touched upon, next I'll be able to move onto the story proper.

These next updates will definitely come much slower. I had a head start on these first three, and I'm currently playing through the game. I think I want to finish it before I even start adding the story, but maybe I'll add some as I go. It won't be quick at any rate.

 

[Solaris17]

Nice job! I love FF. I've played every single one. The way you are putting this together is great; with the little tidbits at the end. Watching you go through this is a trip down memory lane. Glad your passionate enough to write about it.

 

[ir_cow]

9 is my favorite of all time. Beating these games back without internet guides had a high chance chance that you would have to start over after getting stuck in a fight underpowered. I got all the way to the Castle near the end of the game. Ran out of poisons for ghosts and midway and a second save that was still too far in to turn back. Ended up getting my friends gameshark to get me past that area. I wasn't going to restart and do another 60 hours. These newer FF games are like easy mode. quite hard to get stuck.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Ended up getting my friends gameshark to get me past that area.

You did something wrong. J in JRPG stands for grind. On my first play through on PS1 I already broke the game finding that climbing up the ladders in Gizasomething Grotto besides the Moogle family, where you dumped Kupo nuts and it seems they had only one thing to do else, you could find a high level dragon very early, if you managed to beat it you got shit ton of EXP, thus I did it and gained levels pretty fast and brake no sweat.

I did replay FF9 in a plane from Oslo to Miami and redid this exploit again, thus I still remembered all the places and managed to greet Hades with Save The Queen sword as I was under 12h... it was pretty underwhelming stat wise thou.

 

[Ruru]

As a kid I was always anxious when this started playing.

These days I don't get my ass kicked anymore but Beatrix is still usually a tough boss. FF IX has hella awesome OST as well (though practically every other FF has as well).

These newer FF games are like easy mode. quite hard to get stuck.

I remember that I was just going to test how XV runs on my old 980 Ti. Ended up testing for 80 hours. Still liked that though. I also love FF XIII even though many doesn't.

Sucks that XVI and VII Rebirth isn't on PC yet, I'm not buying a console just for two games.

You did something wrong. J in JRPG stands for grind. On my first play through on PS1 I already broke the game finding that climbing up the ladders in Gizasomething Grotto besides the Moogle family, where you dumped Kupo nuts and it seems they had only one thing to do else, you could find a high level dragon very early, if you managed to beat it you got shit ton of EXP, thus I did it and gained levels pretty fast and brake no sweat.

I did replay FF9 in a plane from Oslo to Miami and redid this exploit again, thus I still remembered all the places and managed to greet Hades with Save The Queen sword as I was under 12h... it was pretty underwhelming stat wise thou.

Quina's Limit Glove is the secret to beat the Grand Dragons on disc1

 

[Ferrum Master]

Quina's Limit Glove is the secret to beat the Grand Dragons on disc1

I just casted death and prayed on rng.

 

[Ruru]

I just casted death and prayed on rng.

Reminds me of the Neochu from FF XIII... I always use death as it's hella hard to just kill normally.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Reminds me of the Neochu from FF XIII... I always use death as it's hella hard to just kill normally.

I remember one boss in FFX where I casted summoned Yojimbo in similar fashion. That one had small rng to kill anyone.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I liked this game on release. Hoping the remaster/remake or whatever it actually ends up being is good.

Playstation 1 had so many good RPGs I feel like this one gets lost in the shuffle not sure why it always felt like a love letter to the SNES FF games.

 

[Ruru]

I remember one boss in FFX where I casted summoned Yojimbo in similar fashion. That one had small rng to kill anyone.

Got the platinum trophy on X HD without using a single Zanmato. Though I admit that I had to use guides for few superbosses.

Ozma from IX sucks since it's total rng, you can beat it with first try or get KOd tens of times.

 

[Carillon]

9 was a big disappointement to me, I was so offended that it made it the last FF I paid for.
I don't know why nobody talks about it on the internet, but at the time there were already some people, like me, who dreamed about a 7 remake and 9 is the first 7 remake.
Playing was insulting, beginning to end. There was always this kindergarden teacher holding your hand an censoring every word, even character names, trying to brainwash you into thinking this wasn't a rebranded 7 with rainbow puke all over it.
I find it hard to believe, having played both games, anybody can like this one more.

 

[kilo]

9 was a big disappointement to me, I was so offended that it made it the last FF I paid for.
I don't know why nobody talks about it on the internet, but at the time there were already some people, like me, who dreamed about a 7 remake and 9 is the first 7 remake.
Playing was insulting, beginning to end. There was always this kindergarden teacher holding your hand an censoring every word, even character names, trying to brainwash you into thinking this wasn't a rebranded 7 with rainbow puke all over it.
I find it hard to believe, having played both games, anybody can like this one more.

Make your own thread about how ff9 is bad. This thread is for people who like it.

Frankly, it kind of sounds like you're mixing up ff8, which was poorly received at the time, with ff9, which was not.

 

[Princess Garnet]

After some consideration, I decided to do a further breakdown than originally planned of at least the "beginnings" of the game. I planned to be pretty in-depth with covering the story anyway, but I decided a showing along with the telling would be warranted for at least the beginning. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is like, many pictures in sequence, yeah? I figured it'd be great to compliment this for those who aren't too familiar with the game.

I'm... not sure I plan to do this for the entire game (Maybe? Maybe not?) as that would be a pretty big task, but I will do it here for the beginning. For those familiar with the game, the portion I'm considering the "beginning" for the sake of this breakdown is up until the point you leave Evil Forest and reach the world map for the first time. Why there? I feel like that point constitutes a good prelude of sorts, as it introduces the four main characters, gives just enough of the story to get it kicked off, and shows a small sample of the typical gameplay routines. The world map is always where I felt the "adventure begins" all the way back to the first time playing it, and I feel the game by that point will show enough to let you know whether you'll like it or not. If you don't, you're free to just read (and/or watch) for the story.

I'm then also going to do the same for the follow-up post to this one with another three to five videos (depending on whether I want to stop when reaching Lindblum, or when leaving). The purpose for that is that while the beginning kicks things off, that starts to actually get into the main gameplay a bit more (world map exploration, uncovering some initial story points, etc.).

But for now, I'll be covering the beginning. I'll try and bold character (important ones only) and location names the first time they are mentioned. I'll try and introduce them by name only as the game does, but some less important ones (like the airship name) may be mentioned earlier for simplicity and clarity.

Let's get into it then, shall we!?

(A word of note is that I chose to use a visual filter for the method I'm playing the game with, and it gets emphasized as the vertical lines you see in the videos, so you may need to view the video in its highest quality and/or in fullscreen to clean it up a bit more.)

Act I - An Unforgettable Adventure Awaits!

The game starts to a harsh storm at sea. A small boat is being thrown around, and two hooded unknown characters are aboard. We catch a glimpse at them, and then a girl awakens, presumably having a nightmare.

She is dressed formally, and she stands and heads towards the window, fully throwing it open, revealing a castle. This game establishes from the very start that it is a vast departure from the sci-fi setting of the prior few games in the series. Instead, we're back in the medieval fantasy setting, with castles and princesses and whatnot.

An airship, the Prima Vista is shown flying through the sky, and then it cuts to inside, where a guy with a tail slides down a pole, and walks into a dark room. The game has begun.

We learn this is Zidane, and after an ambush by a "monster" that turns out to be his boss Baku, he enters a meeting. We learn he's part of a group called Tantulus, joined by Blank, Marcus, and Cinna, and they are onboard the airship on their way to Alexandria to perform a play. This play, however, is a cover to attempt to kidnap the Princess of Alexandria, Princess Garnet.

We then get introduced to a small Black mage in a busy city. He observes as the same airship passes overhead. The boy is full of awe and overwhelmed. As the ship passes by towards the castle, we get perhaps the best title introduction and timing I've ever seen, perfectly placed some ways into the game itself as it zooms out and shows the ship arriving at the castle, the same one we saw earlier, and the entire kingdom of Alexandria.

The game isn't shy to jump around at introducing these early characters, and I love that it does this. If the game just progressed as Zidane, we wouldn't have gotten the same feel for who the boy is. The Black mage progresses into the city, but trips and falls, dropping a ticket. He has a ticket to see the play "I Want to Be Your Canary", the same one being shown at the castle. He is then bumped into by a particularly small fellow who tells him to watch where he's going. He explores the city, and the game does a wonderful job of using plenty of NPCs and other tidbits (like posters and signs) to inform you of the world and its lore. A big part of the game is walking around and talking to these NPCs, not just to figure out where to go your first time playing, but to get engrossed in the world and its characters, and thus, the story and game as a whole. You'll revisit many places, and the characters may even change what circumstances they are in, and what they say, further developing the world. It might be more common place now, but back in 2000, the game received high praise for its world building and for the number and depth of its NPCs especially. We learn through hints like this that the boy is shy and clumsy (notably, he trips and falls a lot).

After wandering the village, the boy goes to the ticket booth and learns a bit about Alexandria and the royal family, before having his ticket checked for entry. Only... it turns out his ticket is a fake! Oh no! He is devastated.

As he wanders down an alley, that same character who bumped into him earlier inquires him about his ticket, and asks if he'd like to see the show anyway. He reluctantly agrees, and follows along with the boy who plans to sneak into the castle from the rooftops.

The boy is afraid of heights, however, and while trying to coax him into overcoming his fears, he asks the Black mage his name, and we learn he is Vivi. The other boy introduces himself as Puck.

Puck and Vivi sneak over the wall, and once night falls, the play is set to begin. We get introduced to the fact the world has two moons, one Blue and one Red. The lights dim, and we're introduced to a large and very decorated lady who seems eager for the show. This is the Queen of Alexandria, Queen Brahne. The same girl from the opening of the game sits beside her, looking disinterested and troubled, and we can conclude this same girl is Princess Garnet. A knight takes notice at her disinterest, and smiles confidently that the play can appease her. As the stage, set on the airship itself, rises up and a festivity of fireworks goes of, the queen becomes pleased, but the Princess remains troubled, and the knight seems to share in her troubles. Something else the game does well is to establish exactly how a character or location or certain moment should feel, sometimes just by an expression in an FMV, or sometimes by clues in the music. The writing is but one part of many where the game excels. We learn that this knight is not happy that she is not happy. He is concerned for her.

The play begins. It's fitting that the entire game sort of leans into a theathre/play-like presentation, and it also starts with one; one that has some similarities with what's about to occur even. During the play, Blank and Zidane commence with a duel, and after giving a totally good showing (I wanted to try and impress all 100 but gave up, I'm sorry!), run off while the rest of the play serves to distract.

They ambush two knights, knock them out, and acquire their armor as a disguise.

They plan to kidnap Princess Garnet, and head up the stairs inside to where the Queen and Princess are seated.

Zidane runs up the stairs, and at that moment, a hooded character emerges from a room and asks for passing. Zidane hesitates and checks her over, casually flirting even, and when Blank catches up and asks him what's going on, the girl takes advantage of the momentary distraction and runs past both down the stairs. Zidane, realizing who it was, informs Blank and they give chase.

Two jesters, one Red and one Blue, are introduced. They are Zorn and Thorn, and they often compliment each others' statements by repeating it, but worded slightly different. They seem dramatic and panicked, a hint into their personality. They are heading to the Queen, but as the play is going on, the knight stops them. A woman nearby, Beatrix asks them what the matter is, and seems more eager to help. The knight is upset that Beatrix has "shown him up". Beatrix then alerts the Queen that the Princess has "run off with the royal pendant", which has the Queen order Beatrix and the knight, who we learn is Adelbert Steiner (to be referred to as "Steiner" from here on out), to find her.

Steiner sets out to find her, and we learn he leads a lesser group of knights, known as the Knights of Pluto, and has to personally seek them out to give them the order to search for the Princess. Through this, we learn he is a bit of a buffoon leading buffoons. The group seems disorganized, while Beatrix and the rest of the guards (all women) seem more composed. It hints that women perhaps have a higher authority role in Alexandria, as the majority of them besides Steiner's knights are all women. His search eventually leads him atop a tower, from where he spots the Princess being chased by Zidane on a nearby tower.

She stands up into the edge of the tower, smiles way too calmly for a girl who is about to do what she does (!), and just falls backwards blindly over the edge. Zidane and Steiner, especially the latter, both panic. During her fall, she has conveniently grabbed an overhead wire with decorative flags and uses it to swing towards the Prima Vista, safely landing on it. Zidane attempts the same, with similar results, as does Steiner, only with more disastrous results. His wire led him to crash into the ship instead.

Elsewhere on the airship, Zidane has landed on the ground. He wonders where the Princess is, only to soften her landing from above (how thoughtful!). She attempts to flee, but discovering it's a dead end, runs back by and into a room on the airship, comically interrupting the band playing. In the room, she brushes past Ruby, another member of Tantulus on the ship, who stops her simply for being so wild.

Zidane gives chase into the room, and briefly catches up with the Princess, only to be set back by Ruby once he tries to brush off the fact that Ruby was just run over by this girl. The Princess flees down the stairs. Zidane brushes past her and heads down the stairs, and we get the most adorable scene! The Princess who they were out to kidnap, begs Zidane to be kidnapped! Zidane is taken aback, but "promises" to do his best to kidnap her. Cinna then rushes in from the room behind them, startling the Princess. There's knocking on another door, and it is Steiner who is searching for her. Cinna instructs him into the same room he entered from, which is the same room the meeting to kidnap her took place from. A word about Cinna that you may notice is that he's sort of the "weak one" of the Tantulas group. Zidane uses daggers and Markus and Blank use swords, but Cinna? He has a hammer but isn't really a combatant. So you may observe how he'll get put down in one hit (or near it) a lot. This is entirely inconsequential (you don't need to spend time or items reviving him), but it's yet another wonderful example of how the game put effort and detail into the characters and uses presentation to inform you as the player of something. Anyway, getting back to the story, there's an escape hatch, and they take it. Steiner attempts to follow, but one of his knights offers to jump in first, and "gets stuck". Steiner runs off to find another way, and we learn this knight was actually Blank in disguise from earlier.

As Zidane, Cinna, and the Princess flee on a lower level of the airship, Steiner gets the drop on them, but Blank intervenes, and when Steiner breaks his disguise, the "oglops" he was carrying are set lose. Oglops are bugs, and Steiner seemingly does not like them. In the distraction, Zidane and the Princess run off once more, but Steiner gives chase.

They get on platforms that lead them to the stage of the very play going on before the Queen and everyone else watching. Still disguised, the Princess improvises and attempts to blend in as part of the play. This works well... until Vivi and Puck are discovered having snuck into the castle. Being chased, Vivi trips and Puck leaves him. Vivi then flees onto the stage, and attempting to protect himself from the guards, accidentally sets the Princess's robe on fire! She throws it off, losing her disguise (which will have me shift to calling her Garnet now). Steiner and a pair of knights attempt to stop them, but don't succeed. With their cover blown, Tantulas proceeds to flee on the Prima Vista, but Brahne fires on the airship by attempting to prevent it from leaving. Destruction ensues, both to the airship and the surrounding castle courtyard, and Brahne then fires a cannon that fires a "Bomb", a monster which is a fireball which swells in size and then self destructs, damaging the ship. It makes it out of Alexandria to Queen Brahne's displeasure, to say the least, but barely. It starts descending over the cliff and through the mist, crashing into a forest below. Zidane is thrown from the crash, and Garnet is missing. We learn this is Evil Forest, which despite the bland name, is actually anything but, as it is very atmospheric and one of my favorite settings in the game, having some of the best audio to go with it (though all of the audio in the game is fantastic). Garnet and Vivi and shown somewhere in the forest, seemingly running from something, before something seem to appear over Garnet. Zidane then sets out into the forest to find her.

Zidane sets out and finds Garnet, having been captured by a monster, with Vivi and Steiner nearby. Zidane attempts to save her, and is put into Trance, an empowered state caused by a rush of emotion. The monster flees with Garnet, and Zidane, Vivi, and Steiner worry for the Princess, but their time is cut short as it returns without her, and attempts to capture Vivi next. Vivi fights back, and with aide from Zidane and Steiner, defeat the monster. Before it dies, it emits a Green mist which Vivi and Steiner are caught in. This mist has transferred spores to them, which will kill them if not removed, but Tantulas has a potion to cure it. Steiner and Vivi need to rest. Zidane meets up with Baku, who instructs him that his crew is more important than the Princess, to which Zidane understandably isn't happy (what the heck Baku!?). Zidane goes to talk to Vivi, trying to cheer him up, but notices Vivi is less concerned about himself and more worried about Garnet. Zidane then decides to search for her and go against Baku's orders. Baku, anticipating Zidane would do this and was even waiting for him to do so, attempts to "punish" anyway him for breaking the rules, and allows him to leave once Zidane bests him. Zidane then gathers Steiner and Vivi and sets out into the forest to find Garnet. We learn that Blank is either insecure with Zidane, or just doesn't like him too well (or some combination) as he is sarcastically rude towards him, but he gives Zidane the same potion he gave Vivi and Steiner earlier.

They set out into the forest, and eventually find Garnet in the den of a giant plant. They begin to fight it, and with the eventual arrival of Blank (at the orders of Baku), they defeat it. They give Garnet the potion, and then the forest begins to stir, and a swarm of monsters give chase. Zidane senses something is amiss, feeling like the entire forest is alive and chasing them, and tells Blank to take care of everyone. As they flee, more monsters give chase, and one of them almost grabs Zidane, but Blank shoves him out of the way to get grabbed instead. The forest behind them starts petrifying, turning to stone! Before being petrified, Blank throws a scroll to Zidane, who grabs it, and then rushes out of the forest in an exciting scene.

The party looks back at the forest as it fully petrifies. Zidane is distraught. We can learn from this that while Blank was sarcastic to Zidane, the two of them seem to still care for one another on a deeper level. Blank gave himself up for the others, and Zidane is distraught at Blank's sacrifice.

They stop to give Garnet time to rest and recover while discussing their current predicament, and their next moves. We learn that Steiner especially blames and dislikes Zidane, while he respects "Master" Vivi greatly. The game is wonderful at establishing character relations, and you learn exactly how each of the four feel about the other three. The relations will develop and change over the course of the game...

They are at risk of the mist now, and need to get above the valley. Using the scroll Blank gave them, which was a map, they decide to head to the Ice Cavern nearby.

Leaving Evil Forest behind is where this grand adventure truly starts...

 

[Princess Garnet]

This will cover from where the adventure really starts, and end at the point where the group reaches the originally intended destination.

Act II - An Unforgettable Adventure Begins!

Having left Evil Forest, the destination is the Ice Cavern.

Before heading straight there, I'll make a small detour to head to the North Gate. This is optional, I never rush through the bare essentials only in this game. The experience is so much richer by poking around; seeing what NPCs say or seeing what locations may be around the corner, and this effort is usually rewarded with additional details or story beats. And that's why I head there here.

As for what North Gate is, there's two gates on the Mist continent; North and South. The Mist continent is split into three main regions by mountains. The Northeast region is Alexandria, the Northwest region is Burmecia (and Cleyra), and the Southern region is Lindblum. North Gate separates Alexandria and Burmecia. I didn't bold names here yet since I'm mentioning this for additional information, but they haven't been reached yet.

Stopping by North Gate, the group finds the gate closed, and there's smoke rising from the other side. Steiner remarks that some of the flags visible are Alexandria's war banner, but he gets upset at the sight, thinking someone must be framing Alexandria.

The group then heads to the Ice Caverns. Garnet is enamored by the beauty, commenting that she's only read of the place, but never seen it. This reflects how she has had a sheltered but educated life.

As they make their way through the Ice Cavern, they come across a blizzard of sorts. This eventually puts them all unconscious. Zidane, however, hears a bell and wakes up, and proceeds on. He discovers a Black Waltz is responsible for the blizzard, who is surprised he isn't dead. Zidane fights and defeats the Black Waltz effortlessly (let's ignore that in my play, I deserved to die at one point since its counterattack plus actual attack caught me off guard). After doing so, he hears a voice warning him that while he "may have defeated number one", that "number two and number three will get the Princess". As he heads off, Zorn and Thorn are shown up the path. Zidane heads back for the others, and as they all awaken, they make their way out of the Ice Cavern, having reached the plateaus above the mist.

Garnet, previously happy with the beauty of the Ice Cavern, is now happier for the warmth of the bright sun. The group notices a small village in the distance and decides to head there, but Zidane proposes that Garnet should change her name, as there may be people looking for her. Steiner is upset at anyone ordering a Princess around, let alone Zidane, and shoves him, causing his dagger to fall to the ground. Garnet agrees with Zidane, however, and picks up the dagger and asks what it is. Once being told, she adopts the name Dagger, but I will continue referring to her as Garnet for clarity since that's how a lot of people refer to her. (I also choose to keep her original name in my play here because, uh... I'm not a fan of the alias.)

After stopping at a lone house, where Morrid lives, they make their way to the village, which is Dali.

The party stops at the Inn. The man at the inn gets distracted, and Zidane tells him rude to stare, thinking he's staring at Garnet, but something else is distracting him. Garnet protests the shared room arrangement due to her upbringing, but Zidane informs her that they're going to have to make do going forward. It's a bit of a "this is the real life, little lady" realization I guess, haha. There will come another situation, and a more important one, where Garnet's lack of consideration for danger or harsh realities comes into play.

As they enter their room, Zidane asks Garnet the big question...

"Why did you want to leave the castle?"

She responds that had the Prima Vista not crashed, it would have arrived in Lindblum. Zidane and Steiner are surprised she was going to leave the kingdom, but she begs that there is a reason she must leave, but can't say why.

Zidane agrees to help her, at which point Steiner interrupts, both because he opposes the idea of her leaving to begin with, and of the idea of Zidane being trusted. The two argue, and Vivi goes to sleep while they argue. Realizing the rest they could all use, the rest of them also go to sleep, and Zidane hears singing in the night in a half asleep state.

He wakes up with the others having left, and sets out himself.

Vivi is exploring, but notices the children actively avoiding him.

Garnet tries to adopt more typical mannerisms and speech to better fit in.

Steiner tries to find information.

The man at the inn is also hinting at something deeper going on in the quiet, quaint village.

Zidane catches up with Vivi, who states he was hearing some noises, which Zidane states are the noises chocobos make. He tells Vivi to head back to the inn, and that he will find Garnet and then meet him there.

Zidane heads off, but Vivi is grabbed and carried off!

Zidane then catches up with Garnet at a shop, and they discuss her progress on hiding who she is. He tells her to head back to the Inn and that he'll meet her there. (If you're wondering why I buy as many "Wrists" as I can afford, it's for "the Cotton Robe" method!)

Zidane reunites with Garnet at the Inn, but Vivi hasn't yet arrived. They both remark at some of the odd things they noticed, such as the lack of adults around. Zidane tells Garnet to forget about Steiner, but starts telling her stories while they wait for Vivi.

Meanwhile, Steiner is at the pub helping the girl running it trying to gather information. He inquires as to lack of adults, and states that he needs to find a way to transport someone to the castle. Since he's from the castle and has been helping her, the girl decides it's "okay to tell him" that the Cargo Ship will be arriving, and that Morrid is in charge of it. Steiner then heads to meet with Morrid.

At the Inn, Vivi still hasn't arrived, so Zidane and Garnet go look for him. They head to where Zidane last saw Vivi, and hear crying through a nearby pipe in the ground. They discover it is Vivi and that he is underground. A nearby windmill has a hatch leading underground. In the tunnels, they find Vivi but he is not alone and has a pair of captors with him, so Garnet holds Zidane back, saying she doesn't want to cause a scene yet because she wants to find out more information. She noticed a Barrel that had logos seen on ones at the castle, and suspects there's something going on. They proceed further, and eventually hear Vivi in a box. They rescue him, ignorant to the fact that the man at the inn sighted Vivi and informed the others. Why is Vivi of importance? We're about to find out. They discover there's a machine producing what looks like eggs. A room behind this machine is feeding it mist. The group follow the tunnels along the conveyor the eggs are moving down, and discover something shocking on the other side... There's Black Mages being produced, and while they are larger, they appear similar to Vivi!

Vivi is in shock, and Garnet is lost in thought as to how Alexandria and her mother could be involved. Zidane notices someone coming, and has to grab the other two and hide. With little time to be picky, he runs into the machine the Black Mages are heading into, which results in them being put into boxes, and then a barrel.

Meanwhile, Steiner has met up with Morrid and is demanding to know about the cargo ship, but Morrid isn't budging. He threatens the old man, but it's not effective. Morrid challenges him on his values of right and wrong, but eventually confesses to Steiner that the Cargo Ship already arrived. Steiner thanks him, and runs back to the village, where the Cargo Ship is now seen. Nearby, workers are bringing barrels above ground, but they flee when they see Steiner, a "scary man in armor", running towards them.

Steiner sees the barrel, which moves, and is revealed to be where Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi were. Steiner blames Zidane for the situation, gets one of many "Steiner, please" scoldings from Garnet (I love these, haha) that he gets over the course of the game, and they wonder where the cargo ship may be headed. Steiner, who knows it is headed to Alexandria, schemes as to how he can get Garnet onboard. Zidane asks Steiner if he has any ideas, and Steiner awkwardly declares it is heading to Lindblum and that it must be true, because Morrid told him.

Just then, the second Black Waltz arrives, and demands the Princess come with him. The group fights and defeats it, and Garnet wonders if her mother was truly responsible for sending something to capture her (hello, she fired on the ship you were on as you tried to leave!?). Steiner, in typical stubborn fashion, refuses to believe it, and Garnet wonders if she hasn't been careful enough. Steiner tells her it's hard to hide her upbringing (good point), while Zidane interjects that she's trying real hard and made good effort into it, and that it's Steiner running around "yelling 'Princess' everywhere" that isn't helping matters (also a good point).

The group decides to rest before embarking on the cargo ship. Back at the Inn, the man is shocked to see Vivi still wandering around, but Zidane gives him the same comment about Garnet (which at first seems a bit odd as it's simply worded one for one the same way, but I think this was the game's way of reminding you that it happened and to show what was really distracting him all along).

After resting, they depart from Dali.

Before boarding the cargo ship, Zidane goes to ask if they can, but Steiner interjects and offers to so that Zidane won't find out where it's really headed. Steiner boards the cargo ship, and Garnet questions Zidane on where it might really be headed, noticing that it's full of barrels with logos matching the ones she saw at the castle, and that Steiner was against going to Lindblum, but is eager to get on the cargo ship supposedly heading there. Zidane already knows its not heading there and is likely headed for Alexandria, and Garnet questions why, then, they should board it, but Zidane wants to take the transport opportunity and has plans.

Vivi then asks if Zidane thinks the Black Mages being produced really look him.

The cargo ship then starts up, and Zidane instructs the others to hurry up and head on.Vivi gets on, but Garnet hesitates because she doesn't want to return to the castle. With no time, Zidane pushes her up. Okay, okay, I'm going, and... YIKES THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR! (those who played know what I'm referring to, haha.)

Having boarded the cargo ship just in time, Zidane apologizes that it "wasn't on purpose" and she formally tells him to drop it, which has him remark on how she's going against her progress of being less formal. She tells Zidane she trusts him before closing the door on his face (I mean, this was warranted; you have to let someone know they crossed a line at times, haha) before opening it back up to tell Zidane to come inside because of Vivi.

Inside, they discover more of the Black Mages, but these ones are active. Vivi is trying to communicate with them, but they stick to a routine and don't break from it, which depresses Vivi, and in turn, concerns Garnet. Zidane tells them he has to head up to reroute the ship, and does so.

On deck, Steiner is shown thinking the ship took off before Garnet was on board, and is thinking of what he'll do when he shows up back at the castle without the Princess. Zidane's presence relieves him once he finds out Garnet is onboard, and then threatens Zidane to enjoy his freedom as this cargo ship is actually heading back to Alexandria, and that he'll be punished for his crimes.

Zidane heads to controls and reroutes the cargo ship, and as he does, a third Black Waltz is seen noticing this.

With the interruption to the cargo ships route, the Black Mages break their routine and head towards the controls, where Zidane and Steiner are. Both of them notice this, but then the Black mages wander off. On the deck of the ship, Garnet and Vivi have come up, and the Black Waltz lands near them. The other Black Mages get between them, which has the Black Waltz wondering if they are protecting Vivi.

One of the saddest scenes (so far!) is given to us as the Black Waltz attacks and destroys all the Black Mages, and Vivi watches on in sorrow. This sorrow becomes anger, as he charges the Black Waltz, and Steiner follows him. Zidane then goes to follow, and tells Garnet to control the ship. He tells her it's her choice whether to go forward towards South Gate to Lindblum, or to head back to Alexandria after all, and that he'll be with her either way. He then joins Vivi and Steiner as they fight off the Black Waltz. After a battle, the Black Waltz is defeated but not out, and seems to be malfunctioning. It flies off and heads to a smaller airship where Zorn and Thorn are seen watching from afar. They dramatically panic (see how I said this is their personality?) when they see it approaching, and flee.

Garnet has chosen to head towards Lindblum, and Steiner notices the Black Waltz returning and alerts the others.

We then get another scene showing the Black Waltz giving chase of the cargo ship. It goes to attack with lightning, but Vivi retaliates with Fire. The South Gate is closing ahead as they lack clearance, but the cargo ship manages to sneak through (where did Garnet learn to pilot one of these so well!?). So, too, does the Black Waltz. As it begins to use another lightning attack on the cargo ship, a stray bolt hits its own ship, which sends it crashing into the second gate ahead as the cargo ship makes it through.

A time of bittersweet victory is enjoyed as Zidane wonders why the rest are so quiet and tells them to cheer up. Garnet is troubled by the destruction, and blames herself. Zidane writes it off as things can be fixed, but Steiner scolds him and is appalled he also had a part in it. Garnet calms him down by thanking him for helping, to which he responds that he is not worthy of such praise but has decided he'll follow and protect her until she reaches the castle. Zidane unknowingly makes her feel like she's being treated as a child, both by repeating the meaning of Steiner's declaration, and by how it pictures that she's gotten her way. She's not thrilled, and gives Zidane the "it's okay" hint (ouch!).

They spot Lindblum. Steiner is impressed at the size, and Garnet remarks the city is inside the castle itself (opposite to Alexandria). She seems familiar with Lindblum? Zidane then wonders if he and Garnet will part ways once reaching Lindblum.

Vivi is troubled by the Black Mages, and Zidane tries to take his mind off it by having him check out Lindblum as they arrive.

Contrasted to Alexandria, which is much more medieval, Linblum is a bit more renaissance and on the cusp of an "industrial revolution" type of age.

They dock in Lindblum at the castle, and are greeted. The Lindblum guards figure they aren't anyone important, but Garnet introduces herself. They are in disbelief given the type of ship she arrived on and "the type of company" she has. She then presents her pendant, which has one guard fetch Minister Artania, who recognizes what it is. It looks familiar to, but isn't identical to, the Falcon Claw, which is the pendant Lindblum has. Garnet calls Artania her uncle, although this isn't a formal relationship (she also calls Cid this, and it's because they were close with her mother and father when she was younger, so they simply became known as "uncle" to her from a young age).

Artania then requests they follow him because the regent is already waiting for them, which confuses Garnet.

In the royal chamber, they discover that Regent Cid has been turned into an oglop. Artania states that someone attacked them in their sleep, and made off with Lady Hilda, (or Hildegarde), his wife.

Garnet tells Cid that she wants to speak with him about her mother, but Cid tells them they can wait until tomorrow, as they should eat and rest first.

Zidane can't stand the high class food at the castle, and heads into town.

He heads to a bar and grille of sorts where it's apparent he used to be a regular. A worker catches his eye, and he starts flirting with her (come on, Zidane!?), asking her if she'd like to go on an airship cruise. Someone at the bar then calls him names over his tail and tells him to stop bothering the other customers. He replies that she, too, has a tail and calls her a name back, to which she replies she's going to "kick his butt". (And after what he did to someone else's, I agree!)

As she turns to him, he recognizes her as Freya from years ago, and some backstory explaining that she is from Burmecia is given. She left home years ago, and is in Lindblum for the Festival of the Hunt, a traditional festival held in Lindblum. We learn that she is searching for her boyfriend, and feels like she has nothing left for her back in Burmecia.

Meanwhile, Garnet speaks with Cid alone the next day, and we get a lot of backstory on things. Cid asks about Queen Brahne, and Garnet replies that she has been acting strangely since her (Garnet's) father died, that Brahne and Garnet's relationship has become distant since then, and that a strange man (not actually his name, but bold for introduction sake) has been "prowling around the castle". We then find out why Garnet was fleeing the castle. Garnet, knowing the Prima Vista came from Lindblum, wanted to use it to escape to Lindblum to meet with Cid, and was surprised the Tantalus group while simultaneously planning to kidnap her. We then find out the play performed on Garnet's birthday wasn't just performed because it's her favorite play, but that it was also to be a cover to kidnap her, and that it was orchestrated by Cid himself! As Baku has relations with Cid, this explains why Tantalus was doing it to begin with.

Garnet expresses concern over her mother's motives, and concern over the Black mages she discovered being created, and how they are seemingly linked to Alexandria and might be used for war. Cid reassures her that she won't make a move as long as Lindblum has their airship superiority, and that everything will be fine. She thanks him.

He then shows her airship bay, and Garnet remarks about how empty it is. He states that they were developing an airship that could run without mist, and tells her the full truth as to what happened to him; he was having an affair! When Lady Hilda found out, she turned him into an oglop, and then fled on the airship he named after her. I... I don't know if I blame her? He then wonders how the Prima Vista crashed as "Baku has good men working under him".

It then shifts to Zidane, who is awaking at an inn in town. Vivi greets him, and Zidane offers to show him around town, but Vivi wants to explore alone.

I'll end this one here. There were two more videos to conclude the happenings in Lindblum that I intended to show with this, and it's really sort of one and a half since half of one of them can be summarized as "Zidane explores town", so it's really not much more... but at the same time, I think this is long enough. I'm planning to continue beyond the end of what goes on in Lindblum after all, so I'll have more I can add to it.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Oh, thanks for all the love! Going to reply to some of the posts that I missed between updates before I add another later today, but sorry if it's scattered because there's too much to quote.

Ah, the grand dragons above Gizamaluke's grotto. My first "I do not belong here!" panic realization when playing, haha. The moogle warns you! I definitely tried to do some early grinding here on many playthroughs. Grinding in Final Fantasy IX isn't necessary as the game is fairly easy (as are almost all Final Fantasy titles). It can definitely help if you get stuck at a boss as the larger HP pool from levels can really help, but while the game doesn't actually punish you for grinding (looking at you, Final Fantasy VIII), it is more efficient to do it later in the game if you care about stat gains. The reason is because your stat gains depend partially on your equipment, and you get better equipment later. But on the plus side, you don't need those more efficient stat gains at all. So it resulted in a case where both methods (grinding early versus deferring it to later) were viable.

For the grand dragons, if Quina joins the party at the earliest oppurtunity, level 5 death (succeeds on anything with a level that is a multiple of 5) is a guaranteed victory against them (as they are level 60) and Quina will have access to learning that spell right away.

As for why Final Fantasy IX got overlooked at the time, I covered that a bit. It basically comes down to these few things in my mind...

1. Being released so late in the PlayStation's life cycle. The PlayStation 2 was coming right after it launched.

2. Final Fantasy X and XI were also announced at the same time as Final Fantasy IX.

Combine the above two things and it felt "dated" before it even released. For many people, it never got much of a chance. For the rest who gave it one...

3. Some people didn't care for its "whimsical fairy tale" style. It's certainly a matter of taste. It was the early 2000s and people wanted edgy stuff with moody protagonists more than ever. Cheery and helpful protagonists, knights, and castles!? That was rejected as "too childish" or "too old fashion" at the time by a lot of people.

4. I think momentum accounts for something here. IX sold the least of the PlayStation trilogy titles. I firmly believe VIII got a lot of sales due to how culturally important its predecessor was. With VIII being considered a bit of a Black sheep (though I was okay with it), I think this further hurt IX's chances.

Add that all up, and... yeah. It was a bit of a "death by a thousand cuts" situation. I repeat this a lot, but Final Fantasy IX's reputation is largely a product of circumstance.

It seems like the PC release on Steam and then the YouTube/Twitch community playing it brought more recognition to it in recent years and made more people realize "wait, it was actually pretty good, or even really great, after all?" because back in the 2000s, few people talked about it. But now they do, and among critical review outlets, it garnered the highest Metacritic rating of any title in the series, and I believe is (or was) second or third highest in the JRPG genre as a whole. That's no fluke. It's also Sakaguchi's (creator of the series) and Uematsu's (composer of the series) vision of what an ideal Final Fantasy is, and favorite work, respectively. It's a good example of not judging a book by its cover, or by its original reputation/sales success alone.

As to the one who disliked it, I don't mind posts explaining you didn't like it. Not everyone liked it. Although your post does come off as bashing it because it's basically saying "I didn't like it's style" in a derogatory way. But regardless of your reasons for why you didn't like it, I can respect that part.

What I don't understand is... the other reasons you listed.

I didn't notice any hand holding in the game? Many secrets (or just extra tidbit of world, lore, and setting building) were found largely through exploration. This was the era where people didn't consider it necessary to be able to 100% it regardless of where you were in the game; that is, there are missables! There's more hand holding today. Some of the secrets were things I didn't entirely discover myself until years after the fact when finding them out online. Then there was the strategy guide fiasco was a disappointment on top of that. Where was all the overbearing hand holding?

I didn't notice any censoring "every word" either? It should be easy to give a few dozen examples easily if it was that common. It seemed fine to me though? I mean, look at Garnet in trance, look at the Alexandrian military attire, look at Kuja's attire, look at... you get the idea. There's swearing (though not copious amounts of it). There's genocide. There's a mother so corrupted with power she's willing to behead her own daughter. There's a genderless character. There's a posterior grab! I'd argue today some of this stuff would be censored or not done. Then there's like... the entire main theme of the game. The entire theme of the game is finding your place in life, and dealing with what life throws at you, including death and loss. That's not only a serious topic, but it's precisely one of humanity's greatest day to day struggles. Its why I've always said the game's lessons transfer so well to modern times despite being told in a medieval fantasy universe. So this doesn't seem like something "meant for kindergartners that's full of censorship" unless I'm missing something?

It seems like you simply didn't like it because you didn't like the "whimsical fairy tale" appeal and you're judging the book by that cover, because you instead wanted more of what Final Fantasy VII was? And if so, that's fine. But I'm not sure how this was any of those things other you describe. A rebranded VII with a different style it is definitely not. I'm not seeing how that connection is being made at all unless you're simply looking at "blond haired protagonist against Silver haired antagonist" or something.

 

[Princess Garnet]

This update will cover what happens after arriving in Lindblum, as well as all of the events up until... the end of the first disc actually, haha. So it's a bit long going by video length, but if I split it in half, it'd be two very short updates on text, so I just made it one. The videos are just supplementary anyway, and I'll be making them regardless, but I don't want to shorten update length because of them. As it is, I'm already doing a more thorough and slower approach to covering the story as it is.

Act III - A Troubling Shift of Events

This first half of this video (if you're watching) can be skipped if you just want the main story progression. Summarizing it, while Garnet had discussion with Cid (during the end of the previous video), Zidane explores Linblum's various districts as Vivi and Steiner also do the same, and then Zidane returns to the hideout of Tantalus (around 21:20) despite having left the group. Nobody is there yet, and he contemplates what to do while thinking about Garnet. The bell rings, and meanwhile, Garnet hears it from the castle. She is in a luxurious looking room (one of my personal favorites in the game, oh my goodness soooo beautiful of a room!), but is being guarded. She wants to exercise some freedom, but as the Festival of the Hunt is about to begin, many people are in the city and security is tough, so they disallow her to. She feels helpless, much like she did when she was stuck in Alexandria...

After a while, two children run into the Tantalus hideout. Zidane is surprised that they are in Tantalus, and they inquire about how his previous mission went, and ask him about the Princess. They ask him what she's like, and what Zidane thinks of her, and he remarks that "she's a Princess and I'm a, you know...", which is one of the first but many subtle clues we'll see going forward about how Zidane truly feels about himself underneath his cheery and always willing to help attitude...

The children, being children, have only pure and innocent thoughts and push him to go see her, and he does. He arrives at the castle to see Steiner there, and learns that Garnet is missing. Steiner goes to look for her on his own, and Zidane does the same. Coming down a staircase, Zidane hears the same singing he heard the night in Dali, and concludes it is Garnet and that she is upstairs. The lift is guarded, however, so he tricks a sleeping guard and acquires his armor as a disguise to make it past.

At the top of the castle, he finds Garnet singing. Zidane compliments her on the song, but she's a bit turned off to the idea of him being there as it's a restricted area, and passively insults him for doing so just because it's easy for someone like him.

They look through a telescope, and as Garnet looks, she thinks about how helpless she is despite trying. She asks Zidane why he helped her; if it was because it was a task given to him, and he responds that he did it just to help her, and even went against his orders and left his group to help her. She asks him how he was planning to kidnap her if she had not willingly come along, and Zidane answers that they would have put her to sleep with sleeping weed. She asks him for some because she's had trouble sleeping, and Zidane asks her if she just needs company to help with that (wow Zidane, haha!), which she turns him down on.

He then asks her about the song, and she tells him she doesn't even know what it is or how shes knows it, only that it comforts her and makes her feel like she isn't alone. Zidane asks her to hear it again, and she agrees.

As she sings, we then get some somber moments of what some of the other characters are up to.

Steiner is in an armor shop, and overhears another customer inquiring the shop keeper about armor, because they never know when "that Brahne will start another war", which upsets Steiner... until he realizes he is in a totally different kingdom.

Vivi observes two kids playing with figures, and remarks about how the Black mages were just like toys being controlled by someone too.

Freya displays to the player that she is athletic and can leap insane heights. She has a bad feeling something bad is about to happen, and wonders where her boyfriend is, who we learn is Sir Fratley.

Cid struggles to progress on airships. His mind isn't the same as an oglop.

As Garnet finishes singing, Zidane asks Garnet about that airship cruise... wait, wrong girl! (I told you not to do that Zidane, come on!) Garnet picks up on this, and gets upset. (Though, trust me Zidane, this is actually partially good because if she didn't care about you at all, she wouldn't be upset about you asking that to someone else!) He requests a date with her if he wins the upcoming Festival of the Hunt, and she reluctantly agrees.

The Festival of the Hunt then prepares to begin. We learn that Vivi is also participating, as Zidane signed him up thinking he'd do well.

Like the last video, feel free to skip the first half if you want to skip some of the fluff (so start around 14:08). Before that, it just shows the Festival of the Hunt. To those unfamiliar, there are steps you can take to choose whether Zidane, Freya, or Vivi win depending on what reward you want. Normally, Freya winning would be nice, but I choose to try and win as Zidane. The gil (which is the currency for the game) would be nice here to since I'm really low (even though I'm about the use the Cotton Robe method).

After the fesitval, the group is back in the royal chambers with Cid, and grants you with the reward.

Unfortunately, the celebrations are immediately interrupted...

A wounded soldier from Burmecia crawls in, and requests immediate aide as Burmecia is under attack by an "unknown force" but that they look like "mages wearing steeple crown hats"! (Get ready for the "cheery adventure" to become "the adventure of war, death, loss, and existential crisis") The wounded soldier then dies. Cid agrees to help, but due to the Festival of the Hunt, they aren't ready to immediately mobilize. To compensate, Cid makes the choice to pull back an airship fleet near the border of Alexandria, which grants them intel on what Alexandria is up to.

Unwilling to wait, Freya decides to set out immediately. Zidane offers to assist her, as does Vivi. Garnet offers to as well, but Steiner interjects that it is not their business. She protests, feeling it is partly her responsibility if her mother is involved, and that she may able to bring an end to it. She looks to Zidane for backing, but he thinks she should stay behind as it could be too dangerous for her and thinks she isn't realizing that. She's shocked that Zidane is against her here, but with no time to argue, they decide to head out. As they have to wait for the gate to be opened, they decide to eat first (I... guess this gate takes that much time to open?).

As they eat, Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Cid all fall unconscious. Steiner then panics, thinking the food is poisoned, and apologizes to Garnet for not testing it first. She that remarks that "there shouldn't be any in your dish", which shocks Steiner. She clarifies that it wasn't poison, but rather sleeping weed that Zidane had ended up giving her after all. She did it because it was the only way she could freely leave Lindblum, but Steiner now also lectures her on the horrors of war. She responds that if Alexandria is responsible for the attacks on Burmecia, that could lead to war, and she doesn't want innocent people to die so she feels there must be something she can do for her kingdom.

Garnet and Steiner leave, and some time later, the others awaken. Zidane realizes what has happened and explains it to the others. Thinking that Garnet may be headed to Burmecia, they set out to try and catch up with her.

Freya informs the rest that they will have to pass through Gizamaluke's Grotto to reach Burmecia.

Zidane, Vivi, and Freya depart Lindblum to head to Burmecia. before reaching Gizamaluke's Grotto (and this is the first optional point you have to recruit another party member before it becomes mandatory later, but I take it here as there's little reason not to), the group stops by a marsh, called Qu's Marsh. Here they encounter a Qu chasing frogs, and Zidane catches one and gives it to them. They learn their name to be Quina, and they live in the marsh along with another Qu named Quale. Vivi thinks Quale looks like his grandpa, so he inquires if Quale knew anyone named Quan. Quale denies it, but doesn't do a convincing job of it. I make two additional optional stops, and that is to Chocobo's Forest and one of the South Gate archs. Nothing too important. The group now sets out for Gizamaluke's Grotto.

As they reach it, they witness a grim scene as there are dead Burmecians. Zidane hopes Garnet didn't come through. Inside, they encounter Zorn and Thorn, who dispatch Black Mages on them. (This is also pretty much the first time a location has some risk and difficulty associated with it, and I actually end up getting a game over here to make up for the time I skirted one but should have gotten it earlier). They end up making their way through the grotto, but Gizamaluke has been possessed, and so they will be forced to battle it...

Defeating Gizamaluke, they are tired.

Meanwhile, Steiner arrives at South Gate. He is stopped by a pair of guards while passing through, and they ask him his business. he says he is there to help repair the damage, and the bag that he has is his belonging so he may live and work there. The guards state they must check the bag, but as one of them does, is put off by the smell of Gysahl pickles inside. They allow him through.

Inside, Steiner finds a clear alley, and Garnet comes out of the bag, having hatched the plan herself. Steiner calls her Princess, which she tells him not do. They then board a cable car to take them to the summit of the mountains, and into Alexandria territory. They are headed to Treno. Steiner once again calls her Princess, which she again tells him not to do, and Steiner apologizes as he's not used to not calling her that. She then reassures him that "it's okay" and she too made mistakes when Zidane taught her how to speak.

Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina depart Gizamaluke's Grotto and arrive at Burmecia, which is an ornate kingdom of rat-like creatures and is set in perpetual rain. Freya is in despair, and can't believe she is back to her home kingdom after so many years. Within Burmecia, they again encounter Zorn and Thorn, who again dispatch Black Mages upon them. After defeating the Black Mages, Zorn and thorn warn the party that "the general" will deal with them, and that the general is "scary when mad".

Progressing further, they reach stairs and Freya remarks that the palace is just beyond them, and she doesn't know if she can bear to see it like this. Vivi encourages her because he, too, wants to know what's going on because of the Black Mages. In turn, she questions Vivi back and asks him if he really knows what he's doing, because the answers he seeks may change his life forever. He answers that while he is scared, he must face that fear (oh my goodness, love you Vivi!).

Once again, you can skip way ahead in this video to pass the fluff. (See why I didn't shorten the update despite the videos being longer?) Go to 25:41.

The party finds the palace is in ruins, and they fear the worst for the King of Burmecia. Freya senses someone inside, and leaps up to rush in. Zidane follows after, but Vivi and Quina find id difficult to follow, and find their own way up.

Inside, they spot Queen Brahne and Beatrix! Zidane and Freya remain hidden. Freya doesn't recognize Beatrix until Zidane mentions her by name, but she is already familiar with her reputation. She has a flashback of leaving Burmecia, where Sir Fratley is shown to leave because he wants to get stronger as there's others out there who are stronger, Beatrix being one. Freya is in despair that Fratley promises her to return, and never did, and only left rumors of his death.

A mysterious person then approaches Queen Brahne and Beatrix. He has long, Silver hair and is dressed largely in Purple and White. (Seriously, I need his hair care routine.) The party learns this is Kuja, and that Kuja was responsible for providing the Black Mages! This might suggest who it was that Garnet noticed "prowling around the castle" as of late? They also overhear that the surviving Burmecians may have fled to Cleyra, a location seemingly protected by a sandstorm surrounding it. Kuja reassures them that he can deal with that, and requests Alexandria to gather troops nearby. (This story of loss is only starting...)

Freya and Zidane ponder who Kuja is. Freya also tells Zidane that Cleyra is the result of a group of Burmecians who fractured off during a civil war.

Just then, a Burmecian soldier approaches to challenge the trio of Queen Brahne, Beatrix, and Kuja. Beatrix then introduces herself, which makes the soldier fearful and probably regret his actions.

Zidane and Freya interject to help, and Vivi and Quina arrive. They then battle Beatrix, and the sole purpose of the battle is to establish one thing; that Beatrix is better than you, and by a lot. It is a scripted battle based on either Beatrix's number of turns or, if you manage, her HP, and you can not "win" this one. (This is why I just slow her and defend and try and steal as much as I can.) She claims she will show the party no mercy, but stops shy of completely ending them.

Afterwards, Queen Brahne and Beatrix leave, and Kuja overlooks the defeated part. He remarks that "the boy might become a problem", and then departs on a Silver dragon.

The first disc has concluded!

 

[Princess Garnet]

Before starting with the next update, I wanted to add a few words about the story thus far, as well as what to expect coming up.

The original release of the game is divided into four discs, and I think the timing of the splits matches fairly well with how you could break the story down. The first disc really gives you an idea of what the game will be like, even if there's still a lot of story left to be exposed. I think the first disc in particular could be further broken down into three parts, and they sort of match up with how I split them.

The first portion I covered sort of serves as a prologue of sorts. It sets the stage and the game introduces (most of) exactly what it will be like. That is, it shows that it will be a whimsical and brightly styled world in a medieval fantasy setting, that it will present things in almost a "play like" fashion, and it introduces some of the core settings and characters and just enough of a story to kick things off. But the story itself has yet to truly get going. In other words, in this first third of the first disc, the game starts.

The second portion I covered is where you reach the world map and start an adventure with and this band of characters that has come together for different, yet in some cases related, reasons. As you progress on, this is where the story starts to get mixed in. You get twists thrown at you about Vivi, and hints are thrown as to what's going on behind the scenes at Alexandria. In other words, the story starts.

The final part, starting from where you reach Lindblum, is where Garnet was originally headed and we get more answers as to the happenings that kicked off the game to begin with. After a fun event in the location, a darker twist is thrown and the story starts down a darker path. The party splits, characters start going their own ways, and we start to see more about how characters are feelings. In other words, story and character development begins.

The rest of the game will largely be continued development of those two things. So with that, the second disc is where the stuff that was behind the curtain and responsible for what kicked off all of the events at the start of the game, on some girl's birthday, come into the foreground. Namely, that war and genocide stuff I mentioned that this "whimsical, bright, cheery" game truly is while just being wrapped in those aforementioned things. Yeah, that started at the end of the first disc, and this is where that darker part of the story really starts to come in. Pay attention to character development that results from story occurrences.

Act IV - Ambitions Revealed

After the defeat of Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina at the hands of Beatrix back in Burmecia, the second disc picks up with Garnet and Steiner, who we briefly saw were arriving at South Gate and heading towards Treno.

As it starts, they've boarded the cable car that will take them from the base of Lindblum's territory to the summit, where they will then take another down into Alexandria's territory.

Garnet is tired and sleeping, and we catch some of the first introspective thoughts of Steiner about his personal struggles. He worries about how Garnet has questions and concerns about her mother and her kingdom, and he believes that everything is a misunderstanding. He believes Garnet will come around after returning to the castle and speaking with her mother. His queen, after all, wouldn't start a war, let alone an unprovoked one. There must be a reason to everything, but he quells these worries because these are not things he should concern himself with; he is just a servant and his purpose is just to protect the Princess.

They arrive at the summit, and both Garnet and Steiner are excited to see, and be back in, Alexandrian territory, though they are still far from the castle.

The cable cars that transport people over the mountains are attached together, so when one car is at the summit, the other is at the base. So the two must wait for the other cable car to show up before continuing. While doing so, Garnet hears a familiar voice, and she discovers Marcus and Cinna are also at the South gate summit. Steiner causes a ruckus with the two of them and Garnet gives him the most adorable scolding (does... does this say something about me!?). Marcus is there because he is heading to Treno (where Garnet and Steiner are also headed) because he found a way to cure Blank, who was petrified in Evil Forest earlier. Cinna, meanwhile, is heading to Lindblum to tell the others. We learn here that Cinna really likes South Gate bundt cake!

As the other cable car arrives, they continue on, and Garnet discusses some things we Marcus. She inquires about what he is doing. He shares that there is an item called the Supersoft that can cure Blank's petrification. In turn, Marcus asks her a few things, such as why Zidane isn't with her, and we learn she has cold feelings for him due to him "always treating her like a child" and that she "doesn't care about him".

The descent down is then interrupted. The third Black Waltz still lives! They handily defeat it (again), and Garnet again wonders what it is they "want with her". She's still questioning if her mother really sent them after her. Marcus reminds the group that Burmecia was attacked by an army of Black Mages, emphasizing the atrocities of it, and Steiner can only ask who would do such a thing. Marcus is in disbelief at his refusal to accept the apparent truth, and now Garnet mimics what Steiner was thinking earlier... that she will be able to set things straight when she returns to the castle and talks to her mother.

Speaking with Marcus again on the rest of the way down, despite her cold feelings towards Zidane, she is eager to throw herself and Steiner into coming along with Marcus and helping him get what he needs in Treno to help a fellow Tantalus member because Blank helped her in escaping the castle. She plays up her usefulness at being adept at taking care of herself now (which is amusing because Garnet is actually doing more damage with a simple attack command using a racket for me here than Marcus is with a sword, so... I guess this isn't a total exaggeration on her part, haha).

They arrive at the base and head towards Treno, the city of night. As they arrive, Marcus declares that it's time to "take" what they need, and Steiner is furious that a thief would want to commit a crime before his eyes and have him go along with it. As they argue, Garnet wanders off (can't blame her, but... not smart in this city!), and as Marcus alerts Steiner of this, Marcus also wanders off. Garnet is in the auction house and notices someone familiar... who unbeknownst to her, is Kuja.

Steiner then meets back up with Garnet while Marcus meets up with his boss, Baku. Baku has found the Supersoft, although he's not too thrilled about Garnet and Steiner coming along as they are liabilities. Kuja is then seen discussing with one of the auction house members, and divulges some sinister foreshadowing about Garnet returning home, and implying he, too, will be there when she returns.

The group of Marcus, Baku, Garnet, and Steiner take by boat to the place which has the Supersoft, although Steiner tries to get Garnet to reconsider. Baku calls him out on his behavior, telling him he can never think for himself. As they take the boat to the house, we get some deeper thoughts of both Steiner and Garnet. Both question what they're doing, but in different ways. Steiner reflects on what Baku told him, whereas Garnet reflects on why she's helping Zidane's friend despite feeling blame towards Zidane... while ultimately concluding it's to help someone! *sigh* Girl, he's leaving an impression on you whether you see it yet or not.

As they arrive at the location and are searching for it, they hear someone coming. This someone turns out to be none other than Doctor Tot, who was Garnet's tutor when she was younger. This location is actually a shop, and Doctor Tot instructs them to go where he lives and to meet them there to get the Supersoft.

They do so, and he gives them the Supersoft. We get some backstory on years ago when Doctor Tot was tutoring a much younger Garnet, and they reminisce. Doctor Tot then also lets Garnet know what "whatever happens", he will be there for her, indicating that he's aware that there is trouble that could unfold, trouble which may even be a risk to her, and that he is willing to sidestep any expected formal or political behavior and put himself at risk to help her.

He offers to help them reach Alexandria, and exposes an old underground passage between Treno and Alexandria called Gargan Roo. Using a creature called a gargan, they can catch a ride through the passage.

On their way to Alexandria, their ride is interrupted when a snake-like creature scares the gargan. They defeat the creature, and continue on their way. As they reach Alexadnria, they question where they are, and if they are really in Alexandria. Garnet thinks she knows where they are, saying Doctor Tot taught her of a place in Alexandria meant to repel attackers, but Steiner tells her there is no time. As the continue on, they are caught in a trap. Zorn and Thorn have trapped them and tell them they are "under arrest". Garnet demands to be let out to see her mother, and they reply that she will indeed see her whether she wishes it or not. Uh oh.

Meanwhile, Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina decide to head to Cleyra after Beatrix and Queen Brahne mentioned that being their next destination. As they arrive, they find the sandstorm has weakened, and are able to pass it and make their way up the tree trunk to Cleyra, which resides in its branches.

As they arrive, Freya meets with the king of Burmecia. Vivi and Quina both head off on their own. Vivi struggles with being blamed for what happened in Burmecia due to being a Black mage, and it being an army of Black mages that attacked it.

Zidane is instructed to wait at the inn for Freya, but then a Burmecian seeking help informs of an attack on a kid by an antlion. Zidane and Quina go to help, finding Vivi already there, and the kid the antlion has turns out to be... Puck, the same kid Vivi met in Alexandria at the start of the game. Freya shows up, and it is revealed that Puck also turns out to be the Prince of Burmecia! (Okay, what's with all the royalty running away from home!?) The antlion tosses Puck, and attacks the party. After defeating it, Puck runs off, and Freya heads to meet with the king of Burmecia. She informs the king of Puck, and then partakes in a ritualistic dance to strengthen the sandstorm surrounding Cleyra. During the ceremony, the harp with a jewel that is the source of the power for the storm breaks, and the sandstorm completely dissipates. The residents of Cleyra and Burmecia fear the worst.

Meanwhile, Steiner and Marcus are shown to have been jailed. Marcus teases Steiner about having been "back-stabbed by his own queen" and Steiner believes there is still a mistake or misunderstanding. When Marcus wonders what might happen to Garnet, however, Steiner drops his defense of the Queen and states his priority is to protect the Princess.

Garnet is shown in her room contemplating her mother's actions. She reflects on the past, and reveals that everything started changing nearly a year ago on her prior birthday; her mother's behavior changed, Doctor Tot was dismissed from being her tutor, and it around the time a certain someone started showing up around the castle.

Zorn and Thorn then intrude into her room (rude!), and they demand that she go to see Queen Brahne. She is taken back by their demands, and after she fails to keep them off her with some choice words learned by Zidane, is taken by them to Queen Brahne.

Upon meeting her mother, she asks if she was responsible for the attack on Burmecia. Queen Brahne states that it is "far from the truth" because Burmecia was planning to attack Alexandria, so she acted defensively to protect her kingdom. Garnet doesn't believe her. Queen Brahne is upset that Garnet wouldn't believe her own mother, and then Kuja appears. Garnet recognizes him. Seeing the events unfolding as merely a play, he requests to play a part, and the real purpose of the meeting is discovered as he puts her to sleep with a spell. (And he is quite a creep about it, pretty hair or not!)

Once asleep, Brahne instructs Zorn and Thorn to extract Garnet's eidolons from her!? Upon which, they do so.

Back in Cleyra, Freya decides to head down the tree to find out why the sandstorm disappeared, and Zidane agrees. As they start descending the tree trunk, they start encountering Alexandrian soldiers! As they continue down, Freya stops and questions why they seem too few in numbers for a real attack, and at that moment, Puck catches up to them to warn them that Cleyra is under attack! They turn around and head back up as Beatrix is shown behind them, mocking them for having "fallen for it".

They arrive to find Black mages being teleported into Cleyra and attacking and killing. Meanwhile, Alexandrian troops make their way up the tree trunk.

The group makes their way through Cleyra, resisting the waves of attackers and rescuing what residents they can. They make their way to cathedral to group up and defend. Outside the cathedral, they are surrounded by Black mages.

Just then, a Burmecian from atop the cathedral leaps in and defeats all of the Black mages, and instructs them into the cathedral. Inside the cathedral, this is revealed to be Sir Fratley, Freya's lost love. However... he doesn't recognize her! He doesn't even recognize his own king. Freya is heartbroken and brought to tears, but manages (if barely) to compose herself and be strong. It is revealed Fratley was found by Puck, who left Burmecia not long after Freya did. When Puck found Fratley, he didn't recognize Puck either. He had suffered from amnesia and forgotten most of who he was.

Just then, Beatrix intrudes and snatches the jewel from atop the harp, and then flees. Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina chase her, and ask her if she thinks she can get away. Beatrix stops, letting them know she isn't running from them, reminding them of what happened last time, and... repeats to them what happened last time! Once again, the battle is there is serve as a message that Beatrix is much better than you.

Having gotten what they came for, Beatrix commands the Black mages to withdraw. They start to teleport out the same way they arrived, using orbs. Seeing this, Zidane follows one, and then does Freya after giving Vivi some encouraging words, which has him do the same. Quina does what Quina wants, and runs off because they are afraid of heights, I guess. (Yet you're in a very tall and large tree!?)

The orbs are revealed to take them to the Red Rose, Queen Brahne's royal airship, which is above Cleyra. Queen Brahne, having extracted the eidolons from Garnet, wants to put some claims of Kuja's to the test. She then summons an Eidolon, Odin, who destroys Cleyra.

Onboard the Red Rose, the party fears the worst for Puck and Quina. Zidane searches for where Beatrix may be, and Freya is completely overwhelmed with emotions at the loss of another home of hers; another she failed to protect. Zidane then instructs them to hide, and Beatrix is shown.

I'll make a specific mention here because I've only been telling the story in these updates rather than talking about game aspects, since I did that already, but this is a good time mention one of those things too. During most encounters with Beatrix, you get the same music theme. With this showing of Beatrix however, you get a different one. Well, sort of. Something Final Fantasy IX does wonderfully is that it uses the same underlying theme, but arranged way differently. I think there's a term for this in music but I'm not a composer so I'm not sure about that stuff. But the game's music does a lot of that. The game leans into music (and FMVs) heavily to support the writing. If you watched the battles with Beatrix and listened to the music, and then listen to it here, you'll notice it's different now. Less "merciless" and more "calm", despite being a similar theme. Almost like it's encouraging you to consider feeling... differently about Beatrix. It's showing another side to her beyond just her "merciless enemy you meet in battle" (who ironically has shown mercy to you twice now...).

Getting back to the story, Beatrix remarks that what just occurred was "ridiculous", and while it's perhaps not explained too well here, what she's referring to was the use of the eidolon to destroy the city. Instead, she feels like her troops alone, and not Kuja's Black mages or some otherworldly eidolons, are enough to take the city and get what they were after. So she doesn't outright say it here, but she was in disapproval of the extreme measures taken.

As Black mages are shown returning to the castle now using the same teleportation pods, Beatrix remarks that she is no different than them; they're all just following orders, and her heart and opinion means nothing. She then heads to meet up with Queen Brahne .

Zidane, Vivi, and Freya try and shadow her, and they overhear her meeting with Queen Brahne and giving her the jewel she just took from Cleyra. Queen Brahne thanklessly snatches it, and then realizes she needs one more jewel, and instructs Beatrix to find it for her. Beatrix is starting to question her Queen...

She inquires about the Princess, upon which Queen Brahne remarks that they "have no use for her" as they have extracted her eidolons for from her, so she will be "executed" (!) for committing a crime of stealing the jewel (which is the pendant she wears on a necklace). Beatrix is in disbelief, and Queen Brahne reiterates herself and instructs Beatrix to find the last jewel.

Overhearing this, Zidane yells (seemingly loudly, yet isn't heard?) in despair. Desperate to get to Alexandria before Queen Brahne, they decide to try and use the teleportation pods...

 

[Princess Garnet]

I didn't know what else to name this one, so I took an inverse twist on the main theme of the game since this is where the story continues down its dark path.

Act V - Melodies of... Death

With Garnet's life in the balance, Zidane, Vivi, and Freya attempt to use the teleportation pods aboard the Red Rose to try and reach Alexandria before Queen Brahne.

Meanwhile, having been jailed in Alexandria, Marcus and Steiner decide to try and escape. They work together to swing the cage they're in around until it crashes and frees them. After escaping the dungeon, Marcus sets off to save Blank at the displeasure of Steiner.

Just then, Zidane, Vivi, and Freya arrive. Zidane mentions the danger Garnet is in, but Steiner still has trouble believing it... until Vivi confirms it. The three of them rush off, and Steiner follows after them. They rush through the castle searching for Garnet, and eventually come upon Queen Brahne's room. Inside, they discover a secret passage leading underground, and follow it deep beneath the castle. In a chapel at the bottom, they find Garnet unconscious with Zorn and Thorn, and finally do battle with the two. After their defeat, they flee as always.

Upon reaching Garnet, Steiner is forced to face the truth. He, too, now questions how his queen could do this...

The group takes Garnet and heads back up Queen Brahne's room, where they rest. Steiner continues questioning why the Queen would do this to the Princess after he devoted his life to serving the both of them.

Zidane blames himself and expresses he could have done more if he were there, and apologizes, and Steiner remarks how Zidane "has changed". He tells Zidane he isn't his usual self and encourages Zidane to "blame his (Steiner's) incompetence", but Zidane refuses, saying he doesn't even know what to feel.

Zorn and Thorn return, and with them has come Beatrix! She mocks Steiner for helping the enemy, and once again attacks the group. Third time's the charm!? No, this one goes just as predictably and is a repeat of the prior one. Once again she shows (some) mercy and tells the group never to return to Alexandria.

Zidane then asks her that, as the general of Beatrix, what is her duty? He asks her if it's to protect the Princess, and asks her to take a look for herself at Garnet. Seeing the undeniable evidence, Beatrix comes to the same shocking realization that Steiner has, who is still in disbelief.

Beatrix attempts to help Garnet, which after three attempts, awakens her. Hey, finally a third time is a charm!

Garnet awakens to see "everyone there" (talk about a case of confusing!), and just then Queen Brahne returns. She orders Zorn and Thorn to throw Garnet in prison, upon which Beatrix interjects and refuses to allow it. Queen Brahne is amused that Beatrix is turning against her, and heads off after unleashing beasts on them. While Beatrix and Freya stay behind to fight them off, Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner make their way back down the secret passage.

Something I'll emphasize here (and this isn't the only example of it) is that after the battles, characters typically do a victory pose, but Steiner hasn't been doing his since escaping prison. He's fighting against his own kingdom, so these are not victories for him to celebrate. It's one of many small and subtle but important ways the game provides additional information into either the story or to character development. It didn't have to go to these lengths, but it did anyway.

Anyway, they run into more beasts on the way down as well as Black mages. Near the bottom, Steiner has a shift in realization and leaves the group to go help Beatrix and Freya. He realizes that Beatrix, like him, spent her life serving her kingdom and is now fighting for it by fighting against it, and that Freya fought for her kingdom twice and failed, and is now fighting for the one that destroyed hers... to save something. He also realizes both may be in danger and that Queen Brahne would kill them both. He acknowledges it's also his duty to serve his kingdom and not solely his Queen and heads back to join them. And more importantly, he entrusts Zidane with a request to protect the Princess in his absence. From the strict knight at the beginning of the game who wanted Zidane punished for his actions, and for a knight who himself is supposed to protect her, this is a big change for him to defer that role to Zidane, a lowly thief. Steiner also suggests to head to Treno, as he believes Doctor Tot may be able to advise them.

Before continuing on, Garnet is lost; she is worried about those left behind and in danger and feels guilty that this is all happening because of her. Zidane encourages her to move on, and he, Garnet, and Vivi continue on and attempt to leave the castle and head to Treno. They are captured in the same trap by Zorn and Thorn that Steiner, Garnet, and Marcus were. This time, Marcus and Blank show up to dispatch Zorn and Thorn and free them! Zidane thanks them, and they leave for Treno using Gargan Roo.

While riding the gargant, they encounter a similar beast that Garnet, Steiner, and Marcus had on their way through. They momentarily dispatch it, but after boarding the gargant again, it gives chase, causing the gargant to panic and flee. It passes by their intended stop at Treno and continues on. Further down the tunnel, their ride crashes, and they end up at Pinnacle Rocks.

Back at the castle, the Queen is shown at her throne. Zorn and Thorn attempt to speak with her, but are turned away by the guards. The Queen is unhappy that Garnet escaped again, and dismisses the two of them.

Two new characters are then shown meeting with the Queen. The first of them, a girl, attempts to talk with one of the guards and make her way through to see the Queen, but is stalled due to her behavior. The other, a man, doesn't say a word and simply walks past the other guard, who briefly moves to stop him but then lets him pass. The girl is introduced as rowdy, and the guy is introduced as a quiet and tough guy, it would seem.

Upon meeting with the Queen, she gives them a task. We learn these two are bounty hunters for higher. Queen Brahne has hired them for two reasons; to retrieve and return to her the pendant that Garnet escaped with, and to destroy the Black mage traveling with them (that would be Vivi). She calls Vivi a "defect". The girl, named Lani, asks what she should do it met with resistance, and Queen Brahne clarifies those are the only prerequisites. Lani is thrilled at hearing this, and seems to show a delight in getting to hunt them down, Garnet especially. The man then asks Queen Brahne if it's true that a "boy with a tail" is traveling with them. Queen Brahne answers that there will additional rewards if he is taken care of. The man then says "I'll take care of your request after I take care of him" and sets off on his own. An Alexandria Guard then informs the queen that the "Red Rose is ready for departure". Queen Brahne is then shown laughing. What is she up to this time...

Back at Pinnacle Rocks, Garnet awakens. It turns out Pinnacle Rocks are just outside Lindblum, and the party crashed much further from their intended destination. They consider that they can use an airship in Lindblum to get to Treno.

A vision of an old man shows, and he introduces himself as Ramuh. Garnet recognizes the name from literature she read about eidolons, and realizes he is the God of Thunder. Ramuh then asks her is she realizes her summoning magic was responsible for the destruction of Cleyra by Odin (who I failed to mention by name at the time). Zidane reassures her it wasn't her fault, and Ramuh acknowledges this, but asks Garnet what she plans to do now. Garnet answers by begging Ramuh to help her, saying she could do more if she had her powers and that she's no longer scared of it. Ramuh is hesitant, asking her if he should help her "cause more destruction", but he decides to test her by hiding visions of himself around the forest for her to find, each with a piece of a story. Upon finding them all, Garnet retells Ramuh the story, but the ending is left up to Garnet to decide. She chooses one, and Ramuh asks her why she chose it. Upon hearing her reasoning, he tells her that her soul is tense, but joins her, thinking it may help her, and that she has room to grow, so he finds her as a good master.

She thanks him, and then rushes off towards Lindblum. Zidane and Vivi contemplate the purpose of the test, and think that Ramuh would have joined her regardless of her answer. Just then, a voice is heard telling them that they are "exactly right" and he didn't care what Garnet's choice was, only that she was "true to herself". Ramuh asks the two of them to watch over her, and Garnet runs back and tells them to stop being dead weights (my words, but haha), and they continue on with her.

Upon leaving Pinnacle Rocks to head to Lindblum, Vivi spots the Red Rose in the sky outside Lindblum! From beneath the mist, ships (not airships) are seen firing upon Linblum from the ocean. Simultaneously, the Red Rose teleports Black mages into the castle of Linblum to hinder them; to attack their airships with magic while they are docked to hinder a defense or counterattack.

Recalling the airship fleet watching over Alexandria turned out to be a fatal mistake...

As Garnet looks on in horror, an eidolon Atomos is summoned from the Red Rose. Atomos is a large creature that is essentially a gravity hole and starts sucking parts of the city in. Garnet is distraught, and Zidane consoles her. Queen Brahne is ecstatic at the display as the summoning ends.

Later, the group makes their way into Lindblum. They notice the city is eerily quiet.

Zidane and Garnet instruct Vivi to to wait by the front gate because of the fact that Black mages were used in the attack on Lindblum, and they don't want anyone confusing him for an enemy. Vivi is saddened, but understands and only tells them to be quick.

They make their way through the city and observe the aftermath.

The city has suffered extensive destruction and Alexandrian troops have taken control of it.

Buildings are destroyed, areas are in ruins, and bodies (well, Black mages at least) are everywhere. A woman cries out that she doesn't know who is there, as she lost her sight in the attack and will never see her grandchild again. Cheery kid's game, am I right!?

They head towards the square and meet with Minister Artania, who informs them that the castle was spared in the attack and that Regent Cid is alive. He takes them to see Cid.

Cid is surprised to see Garnet, as he presumed her to be imprisoned by Queen Brahne. Garnet tells him that Zidane saved her (coming around on him, huh girl!?) and that the others were left behind. Cid reassures her, and then tells that he was aware of Queen Brahne's ambitions, but underestimated her capability and the power of the eidolons.

Guards are heard having "found a live one" and arrive with Vivi. The group informs the guards that it's alright with the excuse that Vivi uses a disguise.

Cid then continues that a man named Kuja has been supplying Queen Brahne with weapons and the push of behavior she's been showing; the Black mages, the desire for use of the eidolons, the ambition to conquer and gain more power, everything.

He states that Kuja was seen riding a Silver dragon from the North, and Cid thinks he may have come from the Outer continent, a continent to the North of the Mist continent. Zidane realizes this the same man he must have seen in Burmecia, and Garnet realizes this is the same man she saw at the castle leading up to these events. Both realize if that they go after Kuja, their lives may become easier, and Cid explains that will open up an opportunity for a counter against Alexandria. Garnet won't excuse her mother, but she ultimately blames Kuja for setting everything off.

Garnet wants to try and rescue those left behind, but Lindblum has no resources to spare. Zidane tries to reassure that both those left behind, and Garnet herself, will be fine. Garnet agrees, and Vivi also offers to help, saying there's no place for him in Lindblum.

However, they they can't use airships to reach the Outer continent. Mist doesn't extend to the other continents, and airships need it to fly. And the airship in development that didn't need mist to fly was one of the two surrender conditions that Alexandria gave Lindblum, the other being the Falcon Claw (the jewel that Lindblum has that looks similar to the one Garnet has). They also can't take a ship as the harbor was also seized.

Upset, Zidane wonders how they are supposed to reach the Outer continent, but Cid proposes an old excavation site in a nearby swamp that may provide passage underground. (Say, how many of these secret underground paths does this world have, anyway!?)

It's a long shot, but they decide to look into it. Zidane and Garnet then head off to prepare around town before departing Linblum.

As they look around town, they observe more of the destruction. The entire Industrial District is inaccessible, having suffered the most damage. A woman in the Theater District, also heavily damage, is crying and begging for access to the Industrial District, as that is where her husband was. A child is nearby, asking why "mommy is crying". The game tries to drive home the horrors normal people face as a result of war. For those not paying attention, Burmecia was invaded, Cleyra was completely obliterated, and now Lindblum was heavily destroyed and invaded. Alexandria rules the continent. Destruction and death have amassed, and Queen Brahne seems to be seeking more power and control, and with no regard to her own daughter's life. Again, cheery kid's game, am I right!?

After preparing, Zidane and Garnet sneak back to the lift to access to Dragon's Gate, the same exit out of Lindblum that Zidane used when heading to Burmecia last time. On the way down the lift, Garnet hesitates and asks if they really have to do this. This is scared and doesn't know what to do still. She worries about what could happen, and while she frames it first as concern for herself if something happens to Zidane or Vivi, it's clear she cares about them more now. She's still lost and unsure what to do though. Zidane tries to reassure her by saying he would be there for her, and she declares that they'll move forward with the idea as she doesn't want her mother committing any more atrocities (better late than never?).

They then meet up with Cid and Vivi, and Cid grants the group a map of the world. Time for the adventure to open up. It's hardly something this game alone does, but this game absolutely does nail good pacing on things. The first disc can be broken into a few parts, each with a purpose, and now it opens up into another phase here.

Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi make their way to the nearby marsh, Qu's Marsh, and... run into Quina again!? They survived!?

Quina explains it was tough making it back to the marsh from Cleyra and rejoins the party, and they ask if Quina knows about any excavation site. They also ask Quale, who declares the area is covered in brush and there might be one hidden somewhere.

(This video is short to summarize but a lot of gameplay, so not much is lost to skim/skip it.)

While venturing through the dense grass, Quina smells a frog and heads off. The others follow, and it turns out Quina inadvertently, but conveniently, led them to what appears to be a mining site. They head inside and down into the excavation site, which is Fossil Roo.

Shortly after enter, Zidane notices an area but it's caged off, and too dark inside to see. Just a few moments after they pass it, the room opens, the entrance closes off, and a mechanical abominations begins to give chase. It chases across a long bridge where they are forced to dodge obstacles before finally leaping across a hole in the bridge, resulting in their chaser to fall down. Garnet runs into Vivi (oh my, haha!), Vivi falls over (aww...), and then they stop for a breath after they realize they are safe... but there's no time for rest because they're not actually safe yet. Lani approaches from ahead, and demands the pendant from Princess Garnet. When the party refuses, Lani is short tempered and attacks, but they successfully fend her off. Lani retreats, and the party continues further into the site.

Using gargants along massive tree roots to get around, they make their way through the site. The party stops to Minecraft for a moment, but eventually reaches the end. They notice there's no mist here! They have successfully made it to the Outer continent. What awaits them here...

 

[Princess Garnet]

Act VI - Venturing Beyond the Known World

Having traveled through the Fossil Roo, the party steps out to find they have indeed been taken to new lands. This continent is very different from their own. There's no mist, for one thing. The land is also more barren with far less Green foliage. There's massive roots just like on the mist continent, however.

Upon setting forth, a pair of massive roots stretch over a valley, and some sort of structure sits atop them. The group decides to head there.

Arriving, they find themselves in Conde Petie. Quina wanders off in search of food, and Zidane remarks that all Quinda can think of is food. Garnet uses his own tactic against him, telling him all he can think of is girls, and wanders off. (Okay, now she's teasing back, haha!) Conde Petie is a village of dwarves (with accents), and they greet with the phrase "rally ho". Visitors must repeat this greeting back to them to pass.

The party splits up in the village, and Vivi notices the inhabitants don't seem scared of him like most people back on the mist continent are.

In a shop, Quina talks with a shop keeper and finds out there's been problems with thieves lately. Since Quina is unfamiliar with the aspect of using gil for food, the shopkeeper asks if they are the thief. Quina denies it and runs off, and later, two partially visible beings are shown hiding...

Both Zidane and Garnet separately come to find out that a ceremony is needed to pass the village.

Elsewhere, a... familiar sillouette is seen approaching a pair of drawves. One greets the visitor as "mister pyntie-het".

Zidane eventually comes upon the shop where a Black mage is seen! Vivi then walks in from another entrance, and the Black mage runs off. Vivi gives chase, and Zidane gives chase after him. Seeing this, Garnet follows, and Quina also meets up with the group at the entrance, where Vivi last saw the Black mage running from.

Speaking with one another, they wonder if Queen Brahne had found them, and a dwarf overhearing asks if they know the "pyntie-hets", remarking that they come from the Southeast Forest. Wanting to find out more, they head to this forest, and deep within it, the find a Black mage opening a portal to a lively forest within the dead forest, and follow after it.

They discover an entire village here, a Black Mage Village!

Discovering that they've been found, a group of Black mages panic, declaring "humans", and run into hiding. On trips and falls, similar to Vivi, while attempting to run. Vivi is surprised to see others like him, who can talk, and runs into the village. Garnet wonders why anyone would build a village hidden in the middle of a dying forest, and runs after Vivi. Quina wanders off to look for food. Zidane is again left alone.

Zidane explores around and notices most of the Black mages are hesitant to interact with him.

Garnet tries to talk to two Black mages, who accuse them of controlling Vivi to lead them there.

Deeper in the village, Vivi comes two Black mages overlooking a grass hill. He has a discussion with them, and I'm going to directly quote some upcoming bits since I feel it'll lose some of its importance if I only summarize (though I'm also going to do that). The video time stamp is 28:18 to 29:40 if you want to watch it.

Spoiler

Black Mage No. 288 "Is he the one who came here with that group of humans?"

Black Mage No. 288 "He's alright. Look into his eyes. He's aware, just like us."

Vivi "Th-thanks... Um... What are you all doing here?"

Black Mage No. 288 "We escaped together from Alexandria and the cargo ships."

Vivi "This far!?"

Black Mage No. 288 "That's right. We wanted to live in a world where there are no humans. To find that, we had to cross the ocean."

Vivi "I see..."

Vivi "So... Um, What's this?"

Black Mage No. 56 "This is a... uh... What's the word... ?"

Black Mage No. 288 "It's a cemetery."

Black Mage No. 56 "Right. A cemetery."

Vivi "A cemetery... ?"

Vivi "So... Underneath the ground-"

Black Mage No. 288 "Yes, our friends are buried under here..."

Vivi "But... why?"

Black Mage No. 288 "That's because..."

Black Mage No. 56 "I... I came here with Mr. 36. We escaped together."

Black Mage No. 56 "We had so many things to learn. It was really scary at first, but we helped each other."

Black Mage No. 56 "Then one day, Mr. 36 stopped moving. He just stopped... Wouldn't move or say anything."

Black Mage No. 56 "My friend who knows lots of things told me that this was what 'death' was, and we had to bury him."

Black Mage No. 56 "Mr. 36 is buried under the ground now. But I don't understand why."

Black Mage No. 56 "He's going to come out again one day, right? And when he does, I'm going to wash him off in the pond."

Vivi "Wh-What's he talking about... ?"

Black Mage No. 288 "..."

Vivi "Was it a disease, or was he hurt?"

Black Mage No. 288 "..."

Vivi "Tell me! Why?"

Black Mage No. 288 "That's because..."

To summarize the above, Vivi asks them a bit about themselves, and also where exactly they are, and finds out it's a cemetery. He asks why there are Black mages buried there, and then gets told (off screen).

Meanwhile, Zidane meets up with Garnet, and helps her try to make some of the Black mages understand they have no ill intentions.

As they leave a shop, Vivi runs by upset.

Zidane goes to talk to the two Black mages Vivi was speaking to at the cemetery. He asks why they can talk, and one of the Black mages explains that they just became aware one day. Zidane is confused, but then one asks him if he remembers his birth. He says he doesn't, and the Black mage says it was like that. He explains that he came aware finding dead bodies covered in blood next to him as his first memories (so called kids game, by the way, right!?). They were frightened and didn't know what it meant, so he ran. Others also became aware, and they fled together, having found out about the village, and went there.

He explains that more Black mages have "stopped moving" as of late, and that the ones produced earlier were the first ones to stop. he speculates they have a limited life span.

Zidane rushes to an inn and finds Vivi. He asks him what's wrong, but he says it's nothing. Quina and Garnet arrive, the former complaining of how the village has no good food. Garnet asks Vivi what is wrong, and Zidane answers for him that he's just tired. Garnet suggests they rest, and Quina wanders off to the forest for food again....

During the night... (And I'll quote this again because this is an important look into not one, but two characters, and that's to say nothing of what Garnet was going through earlier, and we're not even close to done with that one either! Yeah, a lot of development going on...) The video time stamp is 37:11 to 41:56 if you want to watch it.

Vivi is shown speaking to the receptionist before walking out, leaving Garnet and Zidane alone.

Spoiler

Garnet "Zidane... Vivi just walked out."

Zidane "Maybe he's letting us have a little romantic quiet time."

Garnet "I'm serious!"

Zidane "...I wouldn't worry too much."

Garnet "But..."

Zidane "He's trying to figure something out for himself."

Garnet "..."

Vivi is shown wandering around the village by himself in the moon light.

Zidane "Think about it..."

Zidane "Vivi's never met Black mages like himself before."

Garnet "But what if they're being mean to him, or saying nasty things?"

Zidane "Do you really think the people of this village gathered to do something like that?"

Garnet "..."

Zidane "Maybe... just maybe, he'll find what he's looking for."

Garnet "...Find what?"

Zidane "A place to call home."

Garnet "Home... ?"

Zidane "Yeah.... A place where he belongs..."

Garnet and Zidane are shown in the room.

Garnet "Hey, Zidane... When you said home..."

Zidane "What the matter? Can't fall asleep?"

Zidane "How about a bedtime story? Let's see... Once upon a time..."

Garnet "There you go again, teasing me..."

Zidane "Once upon a time... There was a man."

Zidane "There was a man who didn't know where he came from."

Garnet "...Zidane?"

The past is shown with Zidane at the Lindblum docks.

Zidane "This man had longed to find his birthplace ever since he was a small child."

Zidane "His birthplace. A place he only remembered in his dreams..."

Garnet "Why... ?"

Zidane "He wanted to know more about himself, maybe. About his parents, the house where he was born..."

Zidane "One day, the man left the home of his adoptive father and went on a quest to find the answer."

Zidane "His only clue was the Blue light he saw in his dreams..."

Garnet "A Blue light?"

Zidane "Yeah. He thought it might be a memory of his birthplace. An ocean, maybe... ?"

Garnet "Did he find it?"

Zidane "Hey, you're jumping ahead. A lot of things happened along the way."

Zidane "Alright, we can skip ahead... No, he never found it."

Zidane "How could he? his only clue was a colored light."

Zidane "So he went back to the home of his adoptive father."

Zidane "What do you think his father did when he came home"

Garnet "...Welcomed him home?"

Zidane "No way! The father raised his fist and beat the son he had worked so hard to raise..."

Garnet "Why?"

Zidane "I don't know... But you know what surprised him even more?"

Zidane "The father smiled, after beating up his son!"

Zidane "Can you believe that? He just gave his son a beating."

Zidane "But this is what the man thought when he saw that smile..."

Zidane "This is my home. This is the place I call home."

Zidane "The man is still looking for his birthplace. But he already has a home. Maybe..."

Zidane "...It's the same for Vivi. He's looking for a place to call home."

Garnet "I wonder if Vivi will stay in this village."

Zidane "Who knows... That's for him to decide."

Vivi is shown in the cemetery with another Black mage.

Black Mage No. 288 "Hello. Nice to see you again."

Vivi "Um... I wanted to ask you something."

Black Mage No. 288 "What is it?"

Vivi "I was wondering how many people have... stopped... moving."

Black Mage No. 288 "You're very kind to use our words."

Black Mage No. 288 "But you already know what it means to live... and to die."

Black Mage No. 288 "You're asking about our friends who have 'died', not 'stopped'."

Vivi "Um..."

Black Mage No. 288 "Seven of our friends have stopped functioning recently..."

Black Mage No. 288 "I think our life span is limited... I've suspected this ever since the first one came to a stop."

Black Mage No. 288 "It varies a little, but most of us stop moving one year after production."

Vivi "No..."

Black Mage No. 288 "I haven't told anyone else about this. If I did, they'd feel the same way I do."

Vivi "What do you feel?"

Black Mage No. 288 "I don't know... fear? I don't want to stop. And maybe I want to run away from it all."

Black Mage No. 288 "But living in the village with everyone fills me with joy. The joy of living with them far outweighs the fear of death."

Black Mage No. 288 "Isn't it the same for you? Traveling with your friends gives your life meaning."

Vivi "I..."

Summarizing the above, Vivi, having calmed down, walks out into the night to do some introspection; some soul searching. Garnet worries, but then Zidane explains to her that Vivi needs to figure out his place in life. While alone, he also tells her a "bed time story", which she interprets as teasing as first, but then she realizes Zidane is also sharing his own past and his own prior struggles with finding his place in life. And also that it is still ongoing.

Vivi then meets up with one of the Black mages from earlier, who informs him in detail of their limited life span (this is likely what sent Vivi running earlier). He tells Vivi that he speculates they have about a year to live. Vivi struggles with coming to terms with his finite existence. He asks what the other Black mage feels, and is given an answer that maybe it's fear, but that the the joy of life in the village outweighs that. He then asks Vivi if it's the same for him; if traveling with his friends gives his life meaning, purpose, and joy. Vivi contemplates...

A lot of character development happens here (and a lot already happened, and more is yet to come), and not just the one with Vivi, but with others. To summarize a few...

Steiner went from a stiff knight who wanted Zidane punished for kidnapping the Princess, to entrusting him to protect her in his absence.

Freya went from searching for her lost love, and even leaving her kingdom that she devoted her life to protecting to do so, to failing protect both it and Cleyra, finding out her lost live forgot who she was (!), and then trying to help the one kingdom that destroyed both of hers.

Zidane went from a "nothing gets him down" and altruistic helper to finally showing a crack about what weighs on him. For a good part of the game, Zidane, as the main character, actually shows less development than other characters. This isn't because he has less (he has some), but because by time the game starts, Zidane has largely found out who he is. He's just an altruistic helper, something that is very much fantasy and not realistic but hey this is a fantasy game. But at times, we see these deeper moments. Otherwise, he's the glue that keeps the rest of the group together.

Garnet is still very much going through staying true to herself; she's one of the few Princesses in games that will constantly question her royal role versus whether something is the right thing, and she put in the time and effort to train to run away from home when she sensed all wasn't well in paradise, all while watching her mother go down a war path using her own eidolons as a tool to that end. She's blaming herself, and like Freya, failing to stop disaster at numerous turns.

Anyway, the next morning, Garnet is shown in discussion with a Black mage who tells her "I think that is what you're looking for". Zidane approaches, and she tells him that someone saw a Silver dragon in the Northwest part of the continent. The problem is, access to this is blocked by Condie Petie, as they refer to this area as a Sanctuary, and their ceremony needs to be undergone to get access to it. Kuja, not being one to keep secrets it seems, said something about a secret on the continent that is the source of the Mist. They decide to investigate, and as they wonder if Vivi will stay behind, he runs and requests to come along, explaining that other Black mages have asked him to experience the outside world and share it with them. Conveniently, Quina returns and decides to come along.

So the party heads back to Condie Petie to get as far as they can.

While there, this try getting past but find out it's not allowed unless this ceremony is undergone. Zidane inquires about what the ceremony is, and is told only to speak with "his holiness". When he finds him, asks about the ceremony. Garnet approaches as the priest explains that it's a union of a man and a woman followed by a pilgrimage to the sanctuary. Zidane remarks that this sounds a whole lot like a wedding and a honeymoon, and turns to Garnet. He states the only way they can get past is by undergoing the ceremony, but that there's no way they woul...

Garnet "Let's do it."

Zidane "What!?"

Hahaha! I love this part so much.

Zidane and Garnet then undergo the "ceremony". Zidane is constantly wondering what Garnet is thinking, as he expected her to say "no way", and starts second guessing if perhaps she really likes him since she agreed to it.

Dear Zidane, it's "maybe both, but she's still deciding, and don't push it", and afterwards, he tries to kiss her and is rejected. Poor Zidane, haha, but I told him not to push it.

They then go to announce their union to the dwarves blocking the exit in order to get by, and upon reaching them, a commotion is stirred as another group of dwarves chases a small girl followed by a moogle, who are the same two that were shown hiding earlier. Vivi and Quina sneak by during the commotion (you can alternatively choose to have them get married to get by instead) and the group sets off beyond the village.

Along the Mountain Pass, they come across the same small girl hung up on a branch. She's very small, has Blue hair, and a horn. She complains about her moogle running off and leaving her, and Quina leaps across a gap to give chase, thinking it may be tasty. The girl falls into Zidane's arms, and she thanks him.

Garnet asks her if she's okay, and immediately we're introduced to a bit of her personality as she explains "she's fine because she's not a child" like Vivi (despite being six years old...). She introduces herself as Eiko and is quite confrontational towards Vivi. Garnet introduces herself and Vivi, and Zidane introduces himself.

Zidane asks why she was stealing food, and she says she was hungry. Eiko says she lives nearby, and Garnet suggests that they take her home. Zidane agrees with "anything for my wife" which gets Eiko to ask if they're married. They give conflicting answers, Zidane saying that they are and Garnet saying that they are friends, and Eiko notices this. She requests that she wants to be their friend too, and they go on their way.

Along the mountain pass, they notice a large tree surrounded by a lot of fog... by mist, in the distance. They are attacked by a large troll, but defeat it. Eiko explains she usually runs from it, but the group tells her she's pretty strong. Notably, they notice she, too, can summon eidolons like Garnet! Garnet asks her how, which surprises her as she remarks that Garnet can too. Eiko explains that "her grandpa and everyone else" used to all the time.

At a split, Eiko tells them that one way is not the correct way, as it leads to the Iifa Tree, and that the other is the way to her home. Zidane is confused as it was being referred to as the sanctuary before, but Eiko explains that's merely what the dwarves call it, and that it's real name is the Iifa Tree.

Beyond the mountain pass, they arrive at ruins that Eiko calls home, which Zidane thinks is a "pile of rubble" and is surprised to see a small girl living there. This is Madain Sari, the lost village of summoners. Garnet is in thought as to what happened there.

A lot of moogles live here with Eiko too, one in particular which is close with Eiko and is named Mog.

Eiko pulls Zidane aside and "wants to get to know him". Zidane explains that he wants to get to know her too, like about her eidolons. Eiko is instead more interested with Zidane personally, which ends up with him explain more of himself. Garnet goes into a Daze, and Zidane takes notice. Eiko wonders if they are really "just friends" and Zidane says they are something more; that they are a team. Sort of like Eiko and her moogles.

Eiko then heads off and requests that the group stop by her house for a meal later. As she heads home to cook, Vivi, Garnet, and Zidane wander around the village.

Vivi is shown contemplating life and death, asking "where do we come from" and "do we go back there". He wonders where he'll end up when he dies, and then asks "why am I shaking" and "what am I feeling"... (A kids game, right!?)

Garnet is shown wondering about eidolons, and recalls that she once read about a tribe that could call forth eidolons. She remarks how her eidolons did not bring her joy, and that they were taken from her and used for tools of war and destruction. She would want nothing to do with them if she could foresee this happening, but now feels like a part of her is missing with them gone. She wonders why she is thinking all of this in this place, and remarks that it feels familiar...

Eiko continues cooking, and while waiting, Mog offers to take Zidane to the eidolon wall. Thinking it may be of interest to Garnet, Zidane goes and gets her.

Mog leads to them to a circular wall filled with murals of eidolons. Garnet recognizes some of them, but not most of them. Mog explains that the summoner tribe honors nature, and that summoning research was intended to bridge them with nature, as eidolons are considered guardians of the world of Gaia. Mog states that they established Madain Sari 500 years ago, but that now... (It's in ruins.)

Eiko finishes cooking, and they meet at her place to eat. While eating, Zidane asks Eiko where the other summoners are. He asks if they are "hiding underground", to which she replies "yes, sleeping the eternal sleep". They're all dead, and Eiko is a lone survivor, and has been living alone in ruins at six years old for the last year since her grandfather died. They express their apologies, but Eiko states she is happy with her moogles. She states that ten years ago, a disaster struck the village (this would be four years before her birth), and that only few survived. Eiko remarks that "she's a heroine in turmoil, and that her destiny was to meet Zidane", to which he's slow to catch on.

After the meal, Eiko realizes that not only is Garnet slow to catch on to Zidnae, but that he's slow to catch on, and Eiko thinks she can come between them. It's... all a bit weird given her age, but makes sense later.

Zidane then asks Eiko about the Iifa Tree, but she explains that it's blocked, as it is sealed with an eidolon. She explains that a summoning attempt was made there in the past before she was born, but it failed, and that it was customary to seal a failed summoning attempt where it failed. Zidane wants to get there, but Eiko refuses to unseal it.

Overnight, Vivi is shown lost in thought, and Zidane approaches him. Vivi explains that he can't take his mind off things, even though he tried as Zidane suggested. Zidane tells him that everyone is different, and that not everyone will find the same solutions to things. Vivi is terrified of "stopping" and also of feeling the way he does as a result of that. Zidane tells him that in the end, "either you do or you don't" and that "the choice is yours". Zidane says he just wants to protect the people he's with, and whether he can or not doesn't matter to him, but it's what he believes in. Eiko is shown overhearing their conversation, and his words inspire her with a struggle she's been having. She decides she "wants to go with Zidane".

The next morning, Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi are shown ready to depart for the Iifa Tree, but Garnet requests to return to Madain Sari. She said the eidolon murals on the wall scared her at first, but that then they calmed her. Garnet asks if Zidane is coming back for Eiko too, which Zidane correctly identifies that "Eiko acts tough, but I think she's just lonely".

As they go to head off, Eiko approaches and tells them they can't break the seal without calling an eidolon, offering to come along and do so. Zidane is surprised she is willingly changing her mind, and Eiko asks him why isn't happy with that and with her coming along, to which he says he does want her to come along. Eiko is energized and runs off stating they should "have fun". She knocks Vivi over (poor Vivi falls a lot, haha!). Garnet asks Zidane why he's so "nice to everyone" and walks off, which has Zidane and Vivi thinking she was mad at him, but my personal interpretation is more that this is a compliment (although maybe also an expression of "what the heck is going on between you and a child", yeah...).

They then set out to travel beyond the Mountain pass to the Iifa Tree. What awaits them there?

 

[Vario]

FF9 was very good, I quite liked the PS1 era RPGS such as FF7,8,9. I also liked Suikoden2.

I liked FF8 the best of 7,8,9, though 9 felt the most like a proper, traditional Final Fantasy game.

I remember it was overshadowed by the launch of the PS2. It was probably the last PS1 game I bought.

 

[Princess Garnet]

FF9 was very good, I quite liked the PS1 era RPGS such as FF7,8,9. I also liked Suikoden2.

I liked FF8 the best of 7,8,9, though 9 felt the most like a proper, traditional Final Fantasy game.

I remember it was overshadowed by the launch of the PS2. It was probably the last PS1 game I bought.

You just reminded me... I never finished Suikoden 2! I should do that. I forgot about it all these years. How!? I don't even remember why I stopped playing it either. I remember liking it a lot, and I know I didn't get too far.

And yes, Final Fantasy IX was very overshadowed by the PlayStation 2 and Final Fantasy X.

Small mini-rant about that...

While I have nothing but love for that console and game, it's still a shame because Final Fantasy IX was fighting against all odds. Today, the world of gaming is so different. A game could release and not be pushing technical boundaries, and it's just yet another game and everyone will give it a chance, but back then... it was a big deal to be experiencing what the fast growing gaming and tech world kept offering, and the successor having full 3D worlds, better visuals, voice acting (this one was a big deal at the time!), summons you could control, and so on... it all made Final Fantasy IX feel very dated, despite it actually being very good itself. Going the other way (to the title before it), I think Final Fantasy VIII rode the success of Final Fantasy VII and... not many seemed to like it quite as much, and I think that also hurt Final Fantasy IX's chances.

You might think I feel a bit miffed toward towards Final Fantasy VIII or X then, right? Nope. I love both. In fact, if you take the trio of Final Fantasy IX and the two games flanking it, and then go back to Final Fantasy V (the real underrated one in the series) and Final Fantasy VI, those might just be my favorite five in the series. I'm probably an odd one for not having Final Fantasy VII in at least my top five, but... I don't. I think it's very good, mind you, but I just personally like the five I mentioned more. It's not often you see people listing Final Fantasy VIII as their favorite though, and while it's not my favorite, I think it was a "good flawed experiment" if that makes sense. Incidentally, I think it could use a remake too, and it probably stands to become one of the best in the series if Square Enix does it right. I sort of see it as one of the ones with the most potential if it were given another go (but I want to see Final Fantasy IX remade first, so I'm still pulling for the rumors of that).

Anyway...

Here's the conclusion of the second disc, which puts me halfway through the story part of the updates.

--------------------

This update is the longest, and will conclude the second disc. We're about halfway through! Or maybe a little more, I think? Unfortunately, the sadness that largely started with this disc doesn't end with it...

Act VII - Secrets Discovered, Origins Uncovered, and A Disastrous Showdown...

The party arrives at the Iifa Tree at last, to find it surrounded in mist. While mist isn't present elsewhere on the Outer continent, there's little doubt that this place is related to it. Perhaps it's even the source of it. It's a very large and foreboding tree, with massive roots spreading for long distances from it. The many roots seen both along the surface in places of the world, as well as underground and linking places together (such as the ones the gargant travel along), must originate from the one tree!

Being sealed, Eiko must unseal it, and she does, obtaining the eidolon (Carbuncle).

The group makes their way along the massive roots to the trunk of the tree itself. (And while not about the story, the battles that take place involve stone or undead enemies, the former of which has an item that can defeat it, and the latter of which can be harmed bu items or White magics spells that usually restore health.) At the base of the trunk, they find a platform that lights up when touched. Zidane asks Eiko if she's familiar with it, but Eiko has never been to the Iifa Tree in her life. In contrast to her initial attitude towards Vivi, she offers him safety if he sticks by her side (see, nobody dislikes Vivi!). They use the platform to descend further beneath the tree. (Again, not about the story, but the treasure chests themselves found here are distinctly not like the rest of the ones that have been found thus far, alluding to the fact that this place isn't solely of this world, so to speak.)

Deep beneath the tree, they approach a central root extending further down, and it's surrounded by a spiral track with a platform. Very bright, Green light emanates from the bottom, as well as the walls.

Like the last platform, it activates when they all stand on it, and rapidly starts descending along the track. They are surprised to find a protective powder surrounding the platform which prevents the wind from blowing them off. Eiko's moogle, Mog, alerts them that she senses a lot of life below them. Being a faerie, she can sense life well, but senses a high amount of it here especially.

Monsters continue to attack them on the way down while on the platform.

They speculate on why the mist only appears on the Mist continent while the tree is on a different one. Zidane figures there must be something channeling it there, and Garnet wonders why.

Vivi wonders about the mist and the factory they saw in Dali producing Black mages, which had a lot of it powering the machine producing the eggs. Eiko wonders what a Black mage is, to which Garnet responds that "they look like Vivi", and Zidane and Garnet worry this will upset Vivi, but he has comes to terms with being produced. Vivi figures there must be a connection between the mist and the Black Mages, as well as Kuja.

At the bottom, they reach a platform that appears to be along the top of a harp, which extends down into the bright Green glow. Garnet wonders why it looks partly like a machine when a tree is normally just a plant.

Zidane senses something further below, and then Eiko calls on Zidane to let him know Mog senses something coming from above. The platform shakes, and Zidane runs to Garnet. The two of them run to Eiko and Vivi, and something falls part them from above.

Just then, a tree-like being extends up from below. I don't believe it actually introduces itself, but this is the Iifa Tree Soul Cage (the name of which should be a clue as to the purpose but it's... sort of misleading). It doesn't directly speak, but instead speaks into their minds.

I'll also directly quote this exchange, but as last time, a summary follows if you wish to skip it. If I ever put statements in parenthesis instead of quotes with no preceding name, those are my own statements and thoughts. And as always, bold portions are my emphasis.

Spoiler

Voice "So, it wasn't Kuja."

Vivi "Huh? What's going on? I can hear a voice inside my head."

Zidane "You just said Kuja! Where is he!?"

Voice "I do not know."

Garnet "What are you doing here!?"

(Garnet... it's a tree... and you're in a tree... come on, that question embarrasses me!)

Zidane "Are you the one who makes the mist!?"

Voice "It is not produced. Mist is a by-product of the refining process. It is discharged through the roots."

Vivi "Discharged?"

Garnet "So it's sent to the other continents through the roots, right?"

Zidane "But why!? Why would you do that!?"

Voice "I contaminate the other continents with mist to stimulate the fighting instinct. This, in turn, leads to war among the leaders of nations, and then to the fall of civilization. Kuja merely puts the by-product to a different use."

Vivi "A different use!? What is Kuja trying to do!?"

Voice "I can not lie. Kuja used the waste product to make weapons. Weapons... like yourself."

Vivi "!?"

Eiko "He's really ticking me off! Can I kill him!"

Zidane "Wait, Eiko! What kind of weapons did Kuja make?"

Voice "Kuja called them Black mages, dark spawn of the mist."

Vivi "!?"

Garnet "So the factory in Dali was really..."

Voice "Defeat me, and no more mist will flow. And then no more weapons like this puppet here will be made."

Voice "Answer me, puppet. Do you deny your very birth?"

Zidane "Why, you-"

Vivi "...No More!"

Garnet "Vivi?"

Vivi "I won't let you make any more instruments of murder!"

Eiko "Way to go, Vivi! I know it must be hard for you. We can knock off this rat now, right?"

Zidane "Alright, let's bust him up! Who knows, it might even lure Kuja here!"

Voice "I have seen the end of my thousand year-life, and it is not now. You cannot stop me. It is futile even to try."

The Soul Cage explains that mist isn't produced, but it's a by-product of "the refining process", but doesn't elaborate further. It explains that is sent to other continents through the roots to encourage fighting, war, and death; the entire collapse of civilization.

It explains that Kuja's use of mist is merely different. They ask what it's for, and Soul cage explains its to make weapons... weapons like Vivi, which he calls a "puppet".

Vivi is upset, and doesn't want any more to be made, so he vows to stop it.

The Soul cage tempts them by declaring that defeating it will stop the spread of mist, but that it has seen its own death and that it isn't now, so that they stand no chance.

Despite this... the party swiftly and effortlessly defeats it by throwing a single feather at it followed by a single smack from Garnet's rod! No, seriously! I'm not kidding! The weakness to healing and life stuff of undead stuff is absolutely broken here. The bigger "issue" with this battle in this particular example was that a pair of my members were level 25, and it can casts level 5 death (automatic death if your level is a multiple of 5), and worse, both of them were my healers so i had revive with phoenix down which leaves them vulnerable until another heal is cast, unlike the healers which can use the Life spell reviving them with more. But two members vulnerable to that, even those two, is survivable (three may have been too tough). The real "issue" was, as always, I try and steal most or everything I can from bosses which can take a while. Otherwise, this battle is a two command victory...

Anyway, after its defeat, mist is shown disappearing from the world! For once in the game, it feels the party truly accomplishes something and has truly made a very positive difference in the world. And wow, is that needed after everything that's happened... (And will happen...)

They make their way back to the surface and remark about how clear and pretty everything looks. They decide to see if Kuja will show up with the disappearance of the mist, knowing he has an interest in it.

Vivi contemplates if he truly did the right thing. He didn't want anymore Black mages being made for their intended purpose, but he contemplates that no new Black mages will be made now, thinking the rest of the Black mages will be unhappy with him.

Eiko interjects and reassures him, telling him he did the right thing and that the rest of the Black mages will understand. She tells him to never lie to himself.

Just then, a moogle arrives from Madain Sari and warns Eiko of trouble back home, that someone stole something precious from the village, and that she needs to return home. The others decide to go along with her, saying "Kuja can wait", so they make haste back towards Madain Sari...

Back at Madain Sari, Eiko finds out that a stone that has been passed down for generations is missing.

Eiko asks if its her fault because she left home and broke the seal, a promise she made not to do, and Zidane tells her that its only the fault of the one who stole it, and that he coaxed her into doing that anyway.

Eiko goes to pray at the eidolon wall, and shortly after, they hear a scream. Vivi arrives to alert Zidane that Eiko is in trouble, and that it's the "girl from Fossil Roo", which is Lani!

They head to the eidolon wall and peek inside, finding that Lani has captured Eiko and is telling her to "wait for him to arrive".

Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi then enter the eidolon wall to find Eiko unconscious. Demanding to know what she had done, Lani answers that she used sleeping weed on her. Zidane, remembering when Garnet used it on him, gives a look to Garnet while remarking that Eiko is "probably sleeping well". (Okay... Garnet deserved that one.)

She demands the pendant, and Zidane asks if she was the one who stole the jewel from the village. Lani explains that her job was to retrieve the pendant, but that she found on just like it in the village, and so she took it too.

She demands the pendant, but is surprised to see Garnet doesn't have it She asks where it is, and Zidane has it. She demands it, and as he starts to approach, she tells him to give it to Vivi and have him deliver it instead.

Zidane gives the pendant to Vivi, and as he is about to give it to Lani, the other bounty hunter that was seen being hired with her by Queen Brahne in Alexandria leaps over the wall and knocks her over, sending Eiko into Zidane's arms, where she awakens.

Zidane remarks that he doesn't know who he is, but Garnet recognizes him from the wanted posters in the city of Treno.

Lani questions "Red" on what he's doing, and the man says he "isn't there to help, but wants it to be fair". He tells her to leave the jewel and go, and that he doesn't work with "hostage taking scumbags". He makes the offer that she can always fight him, and she threatens to collect the bounty on him, before leaving.

The man then leaps to oppose the party and demands that they fight him! Zidane is confused, but the man repeats that he isn't there to help (them), and that he only wants a level playing field.

Zidane them fights him solo, and defeats him.

Afterwards, the man tells Zidane to "finish him". Zidane tells him to give back what he stole, and he does so. He then repeats his ask, which has Zidane wondering why he wants to die. The man, seemingly operating more on natural rules, thinks that if Zidane won't kill him, surely he'll punish him by banishing him. Zidane says he's free to go but that he won't follow him. The man then realizes he lost to a "spineless thief", to which Zidane, seemingly understanding a bit how the man operates, snaps back that a "sly eagle doesn't kill at whim". he pauses, and flees.

Zidane gives the jewel back to Eiko, and then she turns to head towards her home. She requests that Vivi come with her as they shouldn't leave her alone after what just happened. Zidane and Garnet follow after them.

Back at Eiko's home, she asks Zidane something. She shares that she was instructed not to leave the village until her sixteenth birthday, but that she wants to come along with him anyway. She asks Zidane what he thinks of going against that, and Zidane tells her that it doesn't matter what he thinks because she has clearly made up her mind anyway.

Vivi then has a heart to heart with her, telling her that she should never lie to herself, just as she told him at the Iifa tree. She thanks Vivi for his support, and Garnet wanders off as the others continue talking.

Zidane then walks out and wonders where Garnet went to, but he doesn't have to wonder for long as he hears a familiar singing from below. He heads down to join her and finds her in a boat in a cove.

Again, I'll give this moment by quote, and it's a bit long, but as usual there's still the summary after if you want to skip it, but I recommend this one as it's... a very big reveal, and a lot of the mood carried by the game's moments are in its presentation (exact words used, music, expressions, FMVs, etc.). Again, bold portions are my emphasis. It starts at 15:17 and goes until 24:14. Yeah, it's not as short as the others!

Spoiler

Garnet "Zidane..."

Zidane "It's okay. Keep singing. 'Cause it's our song, right?"

Zidane "I'm surprised you found this place. You've got the talent to be a bandit! How 'bout you and me team up? We'll call ourselves 'The Betrothed'."

Garnet "My talent's up to snuff, but that name isn't."

(Did she... did she seriously just say that!?)

Zidane "Hehehe. You're really something these days."

Garnet "If I am, I must've gotten it from you."

(Soooo proud of her for finally admitting that to him!)

Zidane "Naw... It's all because you made the effort to learn."

(And them him acknowledging her effort afterwards made it better! I was fawning over this the first time! Okay, I'll stop interrupting for a bit...)

Garnet "No, it's because you stuck with me."

Garnet "Without you, I couldn't have made it to Lindblum, much less seen a whole new continent."

Garnet "Everything I tried to do on my own was a total failure. I couldn't stop my mother..."

Garnet "At times, I almost lost hope..."

Garnet "You helped me so much. And not just you, either."

Zidane "Yeah... Vivi and Eiko helped out at the Iifa Tree. Quina was real helpful when we left the continent."

Zidane "Freya, Steiner... and even Beatrix, who I thought was our enemy."

Garnet "I haven't forgotten... I want to believe everyone is alright, but sometimes I just can't."

Zidane then hops into the boat with her.

Garnet "I hope I can live up to the hopes of everyone who has helped me."

Zidane "You don't have to feel so responsible, Garnet."

Garnet "But I do!"

Zidane "Nobody wants you to feel that way. They didn't do it all for you, either. Each was following his own path."

Garnet "His own... path?"

Garnet "Well, what about you?"

Zidane "Huh?"

Garnet "Why did you come with me?"

Zidane "Hey, that's Ipsen's line."

Garnet "Ipsen? Who's that?"

Zidane "Ipsen is a character from a play, but he's a real life adventurer. I think the play is based on his adventures."

Zidane "It kind of goes like this..."

The scene fades to Black as Zidane recites a story...

Ipsen and his good friend Colin worked at a tavern in Treno.

One day, Ipsen got a letter. The letter was so wet from the rain that most of the writing was illegible.

The only part he could read said "come back home". Nowadays, we have airships and stuff, but back then, it was really hard to travel.

He didn't know why he had to go back, but he got some time off, gathered his things, and set out on his journey home.

He walked a thousand leagues through the mist. Sometimes he was attacked by vicious monsters, but he made it, because his friend Colin was by his side.

And then, after much time on the road...

He had to ask Colin something.

"Why did you come with me?"

The scene shifts back to Garnet and Zidane. Notice how Zidane often replicates his answers, or says something he wants to say, with a third person reference.

Garnet "And? What was Colin's answer?"

Zidane "'Only because I wanted to go with you.'"

The boat then starts floating out of the cove and into the ocean as we get our romantic moment! The scene then shifts to them on the boat outside the cove.

Garnet "Zidane..."

Garnet "I..."

Garnet "..."

Zidane "Garnet?"

Garnet "Can't you... can't you hear the song?"

Zidane "Huh!? Yeah... It's that song!"

Garnet "How come... Who's singing it?"

Garnet "!!!"

Garnet "The sunset makes the eidolon wall look like it's on fire!"

Garnet "I've seen this somewhere before..."

Zidane "What? Where?"

The scene then shifts to Garnet having a recollection while observing the eidolon wall in the sunset light. She begins having visions of it, and all of Madain Sari, on fire. There's small twisters and a storm occurring in the night.

A large eyeball is seen in the sky above the village, and she sees it from the vantage of a small boat out at sea.

The very first opening FMV of the game, the daydream Garnet had of a small boat being thrown around at sea during a storm, is shown. She then passes out, and the scene shifts back to Garnet and Zidane on the boat, where he catches her.

Zidane "Garnet! Garnet!? Wake up!"

The scene then shifts to Zidane, Garnet, and Eiko all in Eiko's house later in the night.

Zidane "Where's Vivi?"

Eiko "He's sleeping. I don't wanna wake him up."

The two of them turn to Garnet.

Zidane "Well?"

Garnet "I have no memory of my early childhood. I never really thought about it. Besides, nobody ever told me. I was raised in Alexandria... but only from the age of six or so."

Zidane "Six!? So where were you till then?"

Garnet "Until then... Until I turned six..."

Garnet "I must have been here, in Madain Sari."

The scene shifts to the three of them outside Eiko's house.

Garnet "I still can't remember everything. Some things are like they're shrouded in fog."

Garnet "But I do remember one thing..."

Garnet "About ten years ago, an unbelievably huge hurricane hit this village. That's as far as I remember."

Garnet "That day, I... I was with my true mother on a little boat, far from the village."

Garnet "There's a cove behind Eiko's house, right? The boat I was on was just like the one there."

Garnet "It all came back to me when I heard that song on the boat."

Zidane "That song is from Madain Sari... So that's why nobody else knows it."

The scene shifts to the three of them at the eidolon wall.

Eiko "How did you get to Alexandria? How come you got to be a Princess? How come you don't have a summoner's horn?"

Garnet "I don't know. But maybe Doctor Tot can tell me."

Garnet "About the lady who protected me from the storm as the boat lurched about in the waves..."

Garnet "My biological mother, who died on that boat."

Zidane is then shown thinking...

Zidane (The woman she thought was her mother became someone else, and her true mother was already dead...)

Zidane (Garnet has lost two mothers...)

(And... I'm crying!)

The scene then shifts again. They are still at the eidolon wall, but from a different angle.

Garnet "I used to pray every day here, at the eidolon wall."

Eiko "You, too?"

Garnet "You pray here, too, Eiko?"

Eiko nods.

Garnet "I'm so happy I remembered."

Eiko "Garnet! Welcome home!"

Garnet "So glad to be back."

Eiko "Ahaha."

Garnet "What?"

Eiko "I just realized I'm not alone anymore!"

(And... suddenly this isn't just about Garnet and I'm crying two layers deep!)

Eiko "Yep, I made up my mind! Zidane, Garnet, I'm going with you! I'll be breaking my promise to my grandpa, but I wanna go! Besides, grandpa always told me to be honest with myself!"

Garnet "I don't know what the future holds... But I want to finish what I came here for."

Zidane "So do I! Let's all go together!"

Garnet and Eiko nod.

Eiko "Come on, Garnet, let's go pray together!"

Garnet "Alright."

Ahhhhh, I'm a mess! I never make it through this scene (and some others) without crying. "Oh, I've played the game dozens of times and already know what happens, surely it won't get to me this time". Except nope! For some reason this game and the impact of its story get stronger to me over time.

Okay! So, to summarize that in case you skipped it, Zidane finds Garnet singing in a boat in a cove below Eiko's house. She finally acknowledges him for helping her (and I'm super proud for her!), but she still feels hopeless and responsible (keep this in mind). She thanks him and the others for helping her, but Zidane says they weren't only helping her, so that she needn't feel guilty, but that each also has their own path to follow. She asks him, then, why he came with her, and he uses a story to allow himself to quote his reasoning (and it also gives some backstory on the world and its lore, and an upcoming place), which is "only because I wanted to".

The boat then floats out from the cove into the ocean, where Garnet can see Madain Sari in the sunset light. She remarks how it makes it "look like the eidolon wall is on fire!", and remarks how she's seen it somewhere before, before having visions of Madain Sari actually on fire in a storm. She sees this from the vantage of a small boat out at sea, the same visions of which she has seen recently (and which she was daydreaming about to start the game), and there's an eye in the sky above the village during this event. She passes out.

Later that night in Eiko's house, her, Zidane, and Eiko talk, and Zidane asks her what she recalls, and she comments that she doesn't rememeber her early childhood, and that she only knows for sure that she was raised in Alexandria from the age of six or so. When Zidane asks her about the missing time before that, she can only conclude that she must have been in Madain Sari before that point! She remarks how she doesn't remember much, but that she knows that, given her own age, about ten years ago, a hurricane hit the village, and that she was with her true mother out at sea that night! Zidane remarks that this might explain why nobody else knew the song that Garnet often sings to soothe herself. He speculates it originates from Madain Sari.

Eiko is confused, however, as to how she ended up in Alexandria, how she ended up a Princess, and where her summoner horn is, but Garnet doesn't know, thinking that perhaps Doctor Tot may have answers; answers about "the lady who protected her that night". Zidane then realizes that the Queen which Garnet thought was her mother had "become someone else", meaning she lost her mother figuratively, and meanwhile, her biological mother had also literally died, thus she has lost two mothers. I then realize I'm a mess after this scene every... single... time.

The scene then gets a little happier as Eiko "welcomes Garnet home" and explains that this makes her feel like she's alone anymore, and that she's decided to leave home to travel with them, against her promise to her grandpa to not leave the village until her sixteenth birthday.

Okay, moving from that scene (because I seriously need to... not that what's come up gets any easier...), Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Eiko are shown near the entrance of Madain Sari the next day, preparing to head back to the Iifa Tree. Garnet is still lost in thought as to what to do. Vivi is surprised to hear Eiko is joining them.

Just then, the man Zidane fought the day before shows up, and the group readies for another confrontation.

Zidane asks him if he "wants some more", but the man simply remarks that "the victor lives and the defeated die". He explains that Zidane's actions were "incomprehensible" to him, and wants to know why Zidane didn't kill him. Zidane says that it's a tough question, but asks if he's really unhappy that he didn't. The man answers that he'd rather "die a warrior than live as a beggar".

To the shock of everyone, Zidane then suggests that he join them, and that maybe he might come to understand Zidane that way. Zidane says that he's a good fighter anyway and would be helpful to them, and that they are "hunting a man down".

The man contemplates this, noting that his unpredictability is his only constant. He agrees to join them, thinking it might be a learning experience for what makes Zidane so strong, and when they ask for his name, he says they are free to call him what they want, but that others refer to him as the "flaming Amarant" after his hair color.

With a fifth party member, but only four party slots, this is the first time the game makes you choose your party characters. This will become more frequent later. Normally, I imagine people drop Garnet here, as Eiko starts to become a better healer (and she may still be learning abilities). Amarant himself needs to start learning abilities as much as possible so you'd want to bring him, Zidane is mandatory, and Vivi is almost always useful, so Garnet is probably the ideal one to swap out by default, but I almost always bring Garnet with the main party and/or with Zidane! Probably because I relate to the game through her the most, so expect to see me keep her in the party even during certain times (like some upcoming ones...) where it's "less than ideal" formations! I don't care! Haha. The game is by no means difficult so it doesn't matter.

Also of note is that Amarant doesn't do a victory pose after battles. (Yet...) Just like how Steiner wouldn't in Alexandria, this shows us times where particular characters don't feel like they have much to celebrate.

Anyway, the group then heads back towards the Iifa tree. Time for the climax and conclusion of the second disc. Uh... I can't do this part. I really can't...

As they arrive, Amarant asks about the lack of mist. When they say they are responsible for it by defeating the source of it, he holds their capability in high esteem.

Garnet then notices Kuja flying towards the Iifa Tree on his Silver dragon. Zidane recognizes him and the dragon as the one he saw leaving Burmecia.

Kuja is shown expressing having longed for this day to come, so that he may cast away his mask and reveal his true self. The victory of the party over the Iifa Tree seems to mean nothing to him. He claims to be there to witness "drama unfold".

The party then runs along the Iifa Tree roots towards the trunk. As they near the base, however, they need to find a way up... and it is a ways up! Zidane wonders what to do, and Amarant tells Zidane he should go alone. Zidane tells him they go as a group, not only because he probably thinks it is necessary against Kuja, but because it's how they do things! Amarant is disappointed at this as he sees it as incompetence on Zidane's part by letting others hold him back, wondering how he even lost to Zidane. He then grabs "the kids", Vivi and Eiko, and starts heading up to demonstrate a compromise to Zidane. Zidane is then left with Garnet and has to take her up... piggyback style! Yay! (Though she seems less amused, haha.)

Kuja is shown eagerly anticipating something. His Silver dragon notices the party, which gets Kuja to notice. He seems thrilled, remarking that he will "warm up on them before the elephant lady arrives". He seems to anticipate Queen Brahne's arrival?

Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Eiko confront Kuja, while Amarant hangs out behind the tree trunk. Garnet asks of him if he is Kuja (come on girl, he put you to sleep, remember!?), and introduces herself formally (don't be nice to this creep!). She asks him if it was him who pushed her mother towards war. Kuja proudly asks if she is talking about "the war that threw the entire Mist continent into chaos".

Vivi jumps in at him (haha, get him Vivi!) by questioning him on his motive with the Black mages too, which he finds amusing, calling him "the Princess's bloodthirsty puppet".

He then remarks that he just provided these things, and that everyone else just acted upon things of their own innate desires and will. Garnet asks how he could do this, and if he doesn't feel anything after taking so many lives, and he remarks that "lives come and go all the time" and that it's "not a big deal". Hm... someone is a narcissist! He asks Garnet about "that warmonger mother" of hers. Kuja says her mother wanted the war and that it wasn't his fault, and that he just "gave her a little push". Garnet says her mother used to be sweet and kind, and blames him for changing her. Kuja then laughs and remarks that it's time to demonstrate her mother's greed to her, as... Queen Brahne herself has indeed arrived!? The Alexandrian navy is at the Iifa tree.

Queen Brahne is shown laughing, stating that Kuja is the only thing between her and "total domination". Queen Brahne then orders her Black mages to focus their energy into a single spell, while her troops fire upon Kuja.

Garnet can't believe her mother is there, but Kuja teases about being right about her. He declares that everything is going as planned. Kuja then lets the party know that they are not his real concern, and the Queen Brahne is. They refuse to let him "get away", but he unleashes mist monsters he can create with his magic to distract them as he flies off on his Silver dragon. In the air, he mocks Queen Brahne's conventional might and says they are no use against his mist creations, alluding to the fact that he has unleashed some against her navy too (though it's not shown). He then continues that even she must know there's only one "path she can take" if her conventional means are proving ineffective against him. He seems to be... anticipating, or even wanting, her to do something in particular. He gets frustrated at her hesitations and flies closer to "give her something easy to hit".

After disposing of the monsters set upon them by Kuja, the party then watches on. Amarant considers the situation convenient, saying they should just let two enemies fight and finish off the winner. Zidane wants to leave before they get dragged in, but Garnet doesn't want to let anything happen to her mother. Zidane doesn't know what she say, but she tells him that she has to save her. They get into a powerful and emotional argument. Zidane argues that Queen Brahne started a war, and that she didn't care if Garnet herself lived or died, and even tried imprisoning and killing her. He says that she shouldn't be calling Queen Brahne her "mother" anymore. Garnet claims that she's her only mother, and that she doesn't even expect Zidane to understand but that she won't just leave her without trying.

Garnet then turns to Eiko and asks her about an eidolon she said was sealed nearby. Eiko points her to a direction off in this distance. Garnet says she sees it, and... this brief moment is a bit of a question mark to me. Garnet looks towards the camera (as in, at the player), and then runs off on her own. This could be her looking on to ongoing chaos between Queen Brahne and Kuja, but it looked like that was more to the left, whereas the spot Garnet had been pointed to was to the right. So if I'm not wrong on about where the chaos between Queen Brahne and Kuja is occurring (and I might be), this comes off to me as a potential fourth wall break! It's probably (?) not meant as one, but I like to at least personally see it as one anyway due to the ambiguity of where the chaos is going on, because it makes that moment hit a lot harder. She looks right at the camera, striking you as the player with her feelings, and swiftly runs off alone. Again, with a moment, the characters can let you know exactly what they are feeling through more than just words.

They go to give chase after her, but are ambushed by more monsters. After defeating them, Amarant laughs, saying things are turning into "quite the show"! Eiko snaps back, saying that anyone can get emotional at such a time and to leave her alone.

I've come to like this moment more over time. When I was younger and playing through it the first few times, I always took it as the game just trying to give Amarant that "cool and emotionally distant" edge. There's also the fact that, you know... he's in your party now (meaning he "should be" now "on your side"). Yet despite him being in your party, he actually is being a real jerk here, and these moments are meant to serve the purpose to show that he's not suddenly someone different or "on your side" by default just because he joined your party. So while it makes me really hate Amarant here for how he makes amusement out of Garnet's despair, it makes me like the game for how they were willing to show that Amarant is still Amarant, and this is who he is. In other words, a good piece of work can make a character you hate while appreciating what it did it for (again, even if you hate the character, or at least that moment of the character).

The party then follows after Garnet. Further down the roots, Garnet has reached a statue of a serpent. She senses the power from an eidolon, and feels like she can save her mother. She begs for its help, and it starts to glow with wings of light showing up. She then remarks that she "can't save her mother with this eidolon".

The party reaches Garnet, and Eiko asks her what's wrong and if she could free the eidolon. Garnet answers that she freed it, and that it's strong, but...

Just then, Eiko remarks that the eidolon is Leviathan, a sea serpent. It won't be too useful against Kuja, flying in the air, when its power lays in using tidal forces.

Queen Brahne's forces are shown to be battered from attacks by the monsters, and that another wave will likely overwhelm them as they are out of munitions. The Black mages that were channeling their energy into a spell (well, those that remain) are shown to be ready, and Queen Brahne finally uses this energy to summon an eidolon, Bahamut.

A fiery portal opens upon the surface of the ocean and a dragon comes flying out and heads towards the Iifa Tree, where Kuja has landed near. Bahamut fires a number of blasts towards Kuja, and they are shown engulfing him and his Silver dragon, only for him to come flying out on it. He reaches up and touches his forehead, realizing he is bleeding.

Amarant is amazed at the display of summoning power, and realizes he "better watch out if Zidane is after their power".

Garnet expresses relief and joy that her mother should be saved, as Bahamut is "the last eidolon", so he should not lose. However, Eiko is unsure, as Mog seems terrified of something...

As Kuja flies away, he finds it amusing that Bahamut hurt him, if a little, and remarks that Bahamut truly is excellent. He then remarks that Queen Brahne's role has "come to an end". He makes another remark, which won't become clear until much later, that she will "enjoy the second act from her soul's prison" as the stage will be her "former home". He remarks that the final act will take him "away from Gaia" and that he will "kill his nemesis with his own hands". Is there... is there someone above and beyond Kuja!? He again remarks that everything is going to plan.

Just then, dark clouds in the sky show up and from within in, an large eyeball is shown... the same one Garnet saw in her visions over Madain Sari! It fires light waves down over the entire area, which seem to disturb everyone but Kuja, but they don't otherwise visibly harm them. However, Bahamut is clearly not well, and is shown turning his attacks on the Alexandrian Navy! In swift fashion, he destroys every ship, including the one Queen Brahne herself is on. Bahamut is then shown dematerializing as Kuja flies off with a smirk.

I'll once again do a quote by quote for this bit although it's shorter this time, so no summary will be after this one since it's short enough and I'd just be repeating it. For the video time stamp, it starts at 54:06.

After the attack by Bahamut and Kuja flying off, the scene is Black with words. These are merely thoughts and not spoken, and they are shortly shown to be those of Vivi (clearly by some choice of words used, and since the scene shifts to show him first).

Vivi I don't know why Bahamut attacked the one who summoned him.

Vivi But we found Queen Brahne on the beach, next to her escape pod.

Vivi She could hardly move. And I though she'd come to a stop any moment.

The scene shifts to a scene on the beach showing Vivi. Zidane and Eiko sit further in the distance. Amarant is even further away walking around on a smaller ship, the escape pod that Queen Brahne used.

Vivi I hate Kuja a lot. But I hate Brahne a lot, too... so much that I wanted this to happen to her.

Vivi I should be happy, but...

Vivi Once I saw Garnet start to cry, I didn't know how I should feel.

Vivi I kind of wanted to cry, too...

(That makes two of us!)

The scene pans to Garnet kneeling besides Queen Brahne laying on the beach.

Queen Brahne "I... can hear... my daughter's voice."

Garnet "Yes, mother! I'm here! Right here..."

Queen Brahne "I... I am empty now... free..."

Queen Brahne "Free... of that... terrible... greed."

Garnet "Mother..."

Brahne reaches he hand into the air.

Queen Brahne "I haven't... felt this way... since I saw that play... with you... and your father."

Queen Brahne "I led... Alexandria... down... the path... of ruin..."

Queen Brahne "The people... will be... happier... with you... on the throne..."

Brahne drops her raised arm and becomes completely motionless. Garnet lowers her head, and the scene shifts back to Black, where Vivi's thoughts resume.

Vivi We went back to Alexandria on Queen Brahne's escape pod.

Vivi We also brought...

Vivi Garnet's mother with us...

The scene shifts back to Alexandria at Queen Brahne's grave, some time later.

Doctor Tot approaches it, calling for the Princess.

Garnet is shown followed by Steiner and Beatrix. Garnet remarks to them that it was terrible that her life had to end this way, and both of them jump at the chance to assume blame and responsibility for what happened. Garnet thanks them, but says the burden of ruling Alexandria is now hers alone, and she simply requests their help in this dire time of need, which they offer.

The three of them approach Brahne's grave, and Doctor Tot gives Garnet a wreath of roses, Brahne's favorite flower, donated by the residents. She places the wreath against her mother's grave. Garnet tells her mother she will "become a great Queen" and walks off in the saddest scene that I never make it through without crying (like so many others). Garnet walks towards the castle and overlooks it, and this scene will also be... called back upon later.

And with that, the second disc, and my emotional tolerance, is so done.

 

[Klemc]

(Turn) based, but the only of the series until VII-R out i played in my life, When Moguri was final btw (recently) ! Beautifull art.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Act VIII - A Change of Queen, and a Change of Alexandria

Picking up the start of the third disc right after the events of the end of the previous one, Garnet, Steiner, Beatrix, and Doctor Tot are seen on their way to the castle after leaving Brahne's grave.

Beatrix and Doctor Tot speaks about how she won't be a Princess much longer, as her coronation to become Queen is a few days away.

Steiner remarks about the importance of such a big event for a kingdom.

There's a lot unsaid, but I feel like there's a lot that is said with what isn't unsaid. While such an event would certainly be an incredibly important event, with things to celebrate, you have to wonder what all of these four characters are thinking with what they've lost, or in some cases what loss they caused, along the way...

The scene shifts to show the Tantalus members in a pub, and we get a look into how some other characters are dealing finding their place in this uncertain and fluid times. Zidane is seemingly depressed and won't speak. After the rest of Tantalus fled Alexandria the first time during the abduction of Princess Garnet, Ruby was left behind and opened a theater. She invites the rest of them over to try and raise their spirits. They all leave besides Zidane. On their way out, Blank bumps into Vivi and they catch up a bit, before Markus returns and warns Blank that they must be on their way, as Ruby will be upset if they are late.

It's like Deja Vu as we begin the mid-game point similarly to how we started the very beginning of the game; as Vivi and in Alexandria. Vivi wanders around a town now preparing for a new Queen. Eiko is at the castle, as in awe at the size of it. It must be a far cry from the ruins of Madain Sari or the small nearby villages she's known her entire life.

Vivi makes his way to Ruby's theater and Blank "tricks" him into seeing a play with them. Vivi is sent in first, and Ruby is inside and upset at their late arrival. They starts scolding who she thinks is Blank, but turns around and sees Vivi, who falls on his butt! (Poor, adorable Vivi, haha.) Ruby finds his adorable too, and invites him to see her play.

The following few sections start at 17:37 in the video and go until 23:20. While in Madain Sari, we learned a lot about Garnet's origins, but there were still some questions left unanswered; namely, the ones Eiko asked her. Those get answered here, so we get the most of the rest of Garnet's true story here (the only extra piece of information the game gives later is her original, true name).

In the castle, Garnet is making preparations, and she asks Steiner and Beatrix individually on separate occasions, to see Zidane. They both tell her that it's not the time, and while she's upset, she understands.

As Eiko makes her way around the castle, she runs into Doctor Tot. Thinking he is smart, she requests his help in writing a letter. This letter is meant to be a love letter to Zidane, as Eiko wishes to cheer Zidane up. Doctor Tot agrees to help her, but then gets lost in thought after noticing Eiko's horn, and we get the scene explaining more of Garnet's back story.

It turns out that after the disaster that struck Madain Sari ten years ago, which had Garnet and her mother leaving it on a boat, the boat ended up making its way to the harbor in Alexandria. Garnet's mother was dead, but Garnet survived. The real Princess Garnet, meanwhile, had just recently passed away. This news was presumedly never shared outside the castle. And this little girl just so happened to look similar to the real Garnet, so the King and Queen of Alexandria adopted her in place of the deceased Princess Garnet. Doctor Tot was then brought in as her tutor to both educate her and raise her into a formal life style, with her memory of her early life... being forgotten. Her horn was removed (no scar, I guess?). This all explains how Garnet ended up in Alexandria and as a Princess, and without her horn. I find the age of six being a bit old to forget everything before (three or four might have worked better), but whatever I guess.

Garnet gets changed (and oh my goodness that is the most beautiful dress!) and tries to confess to Beatrix that she's not the real Princess Garnet. Beatrix informs her that Doctor Tot has already made her and Steiner aware (whether this was very recently in light of recent events, or long ago, is not clear though) and Beatrix affirms that her loyalty and devotion remains the same, if not stronger.

Doctor Tot helps Eiko write her letter, and she thanks him while giving a late introduction as to her name and where she's from. Doctor Tot takes note of her being from Madain Sari. Eiko goes to head outside the castle but is run into by Baku, who sends her over a railing and helplessly hanging. The big oaf laughs as there's nothing he can do to help her, and after dropping her letter, she requests for Baku to deliver her letter to Zidane if he can't help her down. He accepts the request and takes the letter.

On the way out of the castle while making his way back into town, Steiner comes him while patrolling the castle. He tells Baku the castle is no place for someone like him, despite the help they offered for the kingdom in everything that has happened. In a heated exchange, Baku drops the letter before making his way back to town.

Steiner runs off, and Beatrix approaches... (and here we go with a lighthearted insert into the story for a change!) having overhead the commotion. She notices the letter dropped, and reads it...

When the night sky wears the moon as its pendant, I shall await you at the dock.

Beatrix is shocked, thinking Steiner may have left her a... love letter!?

Meanwhile, Zidane continues to drown in sorrow at the pub for the same reason Garnet was unhappy for; he wants to see the other. He finally starts speaking (to himself).

Zidane "Garnet..."

Zidane "Are you all cozy on your throne already!?"

Zidane "No! No, no, no!"

Zidane "I can't start my day without Garnet!"

Zidane "Her smile!"

Zidane "Her voice!"

Zidane "Her voice is like a beautiful song..."

Zidane "And her song makes me soar high into the sky!"

Awwww! Oh my goodness, he's so in love with her! Though I unfortunately don't think she's had much to smile about lately, but wow.

The rest of Tantalus makes their way back and tells Zidane he can "still fly high". Zidane tells them they don't understand how he feels, and he bumps into Baku walking out. (Why does Baku always show up to run into others!?) Zidane has a complete shift and requests to join Tantalus again, saying they can "steal treasure like old times". He's clearly struggling to take his mind off things, but Baku refuses him. He tells him a "Tantalus always gets what he sets his eye on" and since Zidane "can't even catch a canary" that he doesn't deserve to be in. This obviously seems like a harsh bar to set, and while Baku is demonstrably harsh (to put it lightly...), the real reason he's doing this is for the same reason the rest of Tantalus is; he merely wants to see Zidane cheer up.

Vivi walks in and promptly requests to see Garnet. Baku tells Zidane he should "be more honest like this little guy" (everyone loves Vivi!) and Zidane agrees to go.

On their way to castle, Freya, who was left behind in Alexandria with Steiner and Beatrix when they rescued Garnet from Queen Brahne, is shown wondering where Zidane is while Garnet is about to become a Queen. Amarant (here we go...) walks up and they go to pass one another by stare each other down. Both not willing to back down from showing how tough they are, almost start a fight. The nearby guards are about to reprimand them, but Zidane approaches and stops things, and both discover that Zidane knows the other. Zidane gets them out of punishment with a mere request, which is granted as Garnet has requested "special treatment" for Zidane, Vivi, and Freya. Freya asks Zidane is he's figured anything about, and express concern that if Kuja went after Garnet for her eidolons, and killed Brahne despite "working with her", that Garnet might not be safe as he may come after her again. Zidane acknowledges this, but is clearly struggling to "put himself out her", saying Garnet will have all the protection she needs as a Queen and that she won't need him. (My heart is breaking, come on!)

The next few scenes occur between 34:23 and 40:29 if you want to watch along.

They continue making their way to the castle, and run across Steiner "escorting" Eiko out of the castle. The rest of them approach and Steiner says the castle is no place for them... that is, until Vivi himself requests to see Garnet. Steiner immediately shifts his tone and behavior, even saluting "Master Vivi" once he notices him, and grants this request.

In the castle, they all see Garnet, but Zidane has nothing at all to say her, even after Freya inquires if he does. Eiko runs up the staircase, asking Garnet if it's the last time they'll see each other. Garnet tells her that "of course" it won't be, but that she can't simply run around the world anymore but that she'll always remember their adventures, and the two of them exchange a pair of jewels, which both of them now having two.

Beatrix, Garnet, and Steiner head off, and the rest of the group asks Zidane why he didn't even say anything to Garnet.

Vivi "Why didn't you say anything to her, Zidane?"

Zidane "I don't know... I tried..."

Freya "And?"

Zidane "I couldn't say anything!"

Zidane "I had a whole speech ready for her. But it would've been a lie! How could I lie to her!?"

Zidane "'Good luck Garnet. I'll be watching you from afar.'"

Zidane "'Come find me if you need someone to talk to.'"

Zidane "It's a big fat lie! That's not how I feel at all!"

Zidane "That's now how I feel... at all."

Oh my goodness! Zidane, I'm crying!

Which is why this upcoming lighthearted moment (called the "slew of love letters" scene) that was being set up earlier is much needed! Eiko is shown at the docks at night, contemplating her feelings for Zidane. She's sad that he was so depressed, but mad at him for not reciprocating her feelings (which, by the way, are misplaced feelings due to her own loneliness). She decides not to wait to by the docks that the letter instructed the recipient to meet her at, and goes to leave before Zidane shows up... not realizing Zidane never got the letter to begin with!

As she goes to run off, someone approaches, so she hides. That someone is shown to be Blank and Marcus! Apparently, Blank also got a hold of this letter, and is showing up thinking some girl left it for him. I'm not sure how it made its way from Beatrix to Blank, but oh my! Here we go, haha. As him and Marcus discuss, Marcus notices someone else coming! So the two of them run to hide opposite of Eiko who is also looking on, and Blank drops the letter (because of course that keeps happening!) as Steiner is shown showing up. Steiner is merely patrolling the castle, but notices the letter and picks it up and reads it. He is shocked to be reading a love letter, and wonders her left it, and for whom. He wonders if someone dropped it there, knowing he would pass, and wonders who it could be...

Beatrix, (oh my!) having read the letter earlier, approaches. She approaches Steiner, thinking he left the letter for her. He then approaches her, thinking the same! Oh my, haha!

Eiko, Blank, and Marcus, are on on the edge of their seat, so to speak, thinking the two are about to confess and have a moment... until Baku approaches sneezing and ruins the whole scene. Eiko comes out of hiding (as do Blank and Marcus) and states as much.

I love how this game narrates many moments like a play at times.

Back in town at the pub, Eiko runs in and knocks Vivi over, telling him she's in a poor mood (because of Zidane). Doctor Tot also walks in, looking for Eiko. She's happy to see him, and so when he requests to discuss Madain Sari, she obliges, but requests to do it at his place. He tells her that he lives in Treno, and she requests to go with him there. Just then, Zidane walks in and states he'd like to go as well for a card tournament going on. He's clearly trying hard to take his mind off of his feelings, and the rest of the group decides to tag along, so Zidane, Vivi, Eiko, Freya, Amarant, and Doctor Tot all head to Treno.

That night, Zorn and Thorn are shown in the square near the entrance of Alexandria, contemplating what to do. One of them suggests they try and gain garnet's approval to return to the castle, but hide as Blank and Marcus run into the square. The two are shown to be patrolling the town for no reason other than to keep the peace, and that they are doing it for Zidane, as they know he has strong feelings for Garnet and the peace of her kingdom. It's small scenes and small stuff like this that go a long way in establishing character relations in the game. Earlier the game, Blank in particular was shown being sarcastic to Zidane, only to sacrifice himself in Evil Forest, and now him and Marcus are patrolling Alexandria in the small chance it might help keep things more peaceful, all for Zidane, and all despite him not knowing of it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives in Treno. Zidane asks Amarant if he's been there before, and Amarant simply returns the question. Zidane says that he has; saying he's "been everywhere they're are beautiful women" (still trying to take his mind off things and return to his old ways, it seems). Eiko requests to go sightseeing before discussing things with Doctor Toto, as she's never been there before. Freya also heads off to look around, saying she hasn't either, and Amarant simply walks off without a word.

Zidane then makes his way to register for the card tournament. He's told the champion is actually a girl, and remarks how he'd "like to meet her". The game is trying to make it super obvious that Zidane is trying to naturally fall into his old flirty ways to take his mind off his feelings for Garnet.

I sometimes cut out a bit of the back and forth side stuff since it'd pad the videos with a lot more fluff, and the first two matches in the tournament were part of what's skipped here, but at least one other notable thing worth covering is also skipped in the video.

We learn that Amarant was once hired as a security guard for one of the mansions in town, the one that serves as an auction house. Zidane once made a heist there, and on the way out, he bumps into Amarant. Amarant then simply wants to use the opportunity to fight him for the sake of it, but as a pair of guards approach, Zidane frames Amarant for the deed. And he accomplishes this the same way he did when he beat Amarant in the fight earlier; not with strength but with wit. Zidane runs off, and Amarant has been a wanted man in Treno ever since. Zidane, however, doesn't seem to remember this. To Zidane, he's probably been involved in a lot of jobs and Amarant was just one unmemorable one of many. But to Amarant, this changed his life. This explains his grudge against Zidane (which he claims isn't a grudge, ironically).

Amarant is one of the of the characters often complained about for lack of development, but his main role is to serve as a representation of "survival of the fittest". The entire game is about finding your place in life, and Amarant's purpose (and namely his arc with Zidane) is all about finding out how there's more to life than just that. He's definitely lighter on personal development, but it's there, even if it's subtle. I disagree with the notions that he could be removed from the game and it wouldn't be missing anything. Anyone who says that misses what Amarant's is supposed to represent insofar as the main theme of the game goes, and simply fails to see deeper than "he's the long wolf tough guy".

Anyway...

Zidane continues with the card tournament, and if you're interested, a card match is shown here at the very start. This is typically an optional side game within the game, and this is the one time in the game it's mandatory. You don't have to win though (but you get better rewards if you do).

It turns out the champion is actually Erin, an airship pilot from Lindblum, and she's escorting... Regent Cid!? It's hinted that he is actually the champion and she is simply assuming the role as a front of sorts, since he is an oglop at the moment.

After the match, Zidane speaks with the two of them, and he wonders why they are there. Cid explains that he's testing progress of his new Hilda Garde II airship that he was trying to develop earlier; the airship that can run without mist.

Eiko shows up in a panic, and tells them that something is wrong. Mog senses something bad in Alexandria... (Here we go...)

I'll reference the video here, and this starts at 3:34 and goes until 6:43.

In the square of Alexandria at night, Kuja is shown to be there! What's he doing here now!? No, this my home, go away! None of your aristocratic poetry solicitations, please! Uh... we're getting them, aren't we?

Kuja "Peace is but a shadow of death, desperate to forget its painful past..."

Kuja "Though we hope for promising years after shedding a thousand tears, yesterday's sorrow constantly nears."

Kuja "And while the moon still shines Blue, by dawn, it will turn to Scarlet hue."

Kuja then walks out from behind the statue in the square, revealing himself.

Kuja "What an auspicious day for Alexandria. Garnet's ascension to the throne has brought hope and peace to this kingdom."

Kuja "The people are overjoyed; they believe a wonderful future is ahead of them"

Kuja "...But the celebration isn't over yet. It's time to really light things up!"

Kuja "Your former master is here, Bahamut. Play a requiem for her and all of Alexandria!"

Bahamut is then shown attacking Alexandria and Garnet watches on. Beatrix rushes to her and lets her know the troops are ready. She gives the orders, and the defense of Alexandria has begun! Contact for aide is sent out to Linblum, while the others set out to attack Bahamut or protect the town. Beatrix and Steiner do the latter and Garnet is left alone, who remarks that she is alone and seemingly feeling lost and helpless. Just then, her pendant begins glowing and ringing, and she falls over.

Steiner then teams up with Beatrix to defend the town. These battles grant a lot of experience (they're probably a way to get Steiner caught up with the rest of the members as he's been out of the party for a long time). I've remarked in the opening post how the music in this game is one of its (many) strong points, and here's where I'll give an example of it. The main audio "theme" is Melodies of Life, although you never hear the "formal" version of this song until the very end of the game. But a vast majority of the other tracks in the game include it in some way; the overworld music "Crossing Those Hills" to the song Garnet sings "Song of Memories", and even to both Garnet and Eiko's respective theme songs, to perhaps a dozen others. A lot of the music in this game plays on one of a few main underlying themes and it helps everything feel cohesive and related while still being different. I'm sure there's audio terms for what I'm referring to, but I 'm not familiar with them, but Nobuo Uematsu is a genius with this.

Anyway, the same thing happens here. When you first come across Beatrix while battling her, you get a tune, "Sword of Doubt", that sounds... hopeless and desperate. It explains how you are meant to feel when confronting her. Later, when you start to see Beatrix change, you get a more somber version called "Loss of Me". And now... now you get a more upbeat version called "Protection My Devotion". If you want a more firsthand of what I'm talking about, look those three songs up and listen to them and you'll see what I mean (the second is heard in my first video of this post at 25:47, and the third is heard in my second video of this post at 6:43). It's got the same underlying theme, but it's arranged differently each of the three times to become something else depending on the mood. The audio work (along with the FMVs) in this game is nothing short of perfection, and it really helps sell some of the moments. Moving on...

Steiner and Beatrix begin making their way through Alexandria as it's attacked by monsters of the mist. They continue battling on, and it gets increasingly dire. At one point, Beatrix remarks on a wound Steiner has gotten, but he refuses to let it slow him down. Beatrix gets concerned, and suggests that they should return to the castle. Steiner refuses! He says that he cannot face Garnet until their task is complete, and he vows to protect her, the kingdom and its people, and... he vows to protect Beatrix! This isn't just some knight's honor, is it!? Is he in love too!? Haha. As monsters continue to ambush them, Steiner finally considers that "this might be it" and he remarks that there's something he must tell Beatrix... but she tells him to save for it another day and they'll live to see another! Steiner goes intro Trance, as they continue battling the mist spawn.

Back in the castle, Garnet becomes conscious and starts hearing a tune. She starts running around, but is blocked from proceeding at times. Something... is trying to call out to her to go somewhere.

The following scenes start at 16:23 in the above video.

She ends up being led towards the top of the castle, and while running out onto a large platform near the top, the castle starts extending, as further portions of it are constructed? It seems this castle has some secrets. She runs up the new portions until she reaches another platform. She starts to wonder where she is, and why she is there. She wishes for Zidane or her mother... before realizing that she can't always rely on them, and that she needs to be a Queen for her kingdom.

Meanwhile, the party from Treno is making their way towards Alexandria on the airship Cid used to go to Treno. It's seemingly barely able to stay in flight, and can only get there so fast. Vivi is getting motion sickness, and (surprisingly!) Amarant suggests that he should go towards the center of the airship, as he'll feel less motion there and it might help. Zidane's helpful altitude seems to be rubbing off on Amarant too. It's definitely subtle, but I'd argue this is more realistic for someone like Amarant. People who say he served no purpose and didn't change weren't paying attention to stuff like this.

As they draw near Alexandria, the pendant Eiko has starts glowing like Garnet's was. Vivi notices it, and it starts rocking the airship itself with shock waves. Eiko starts "hearing Garnet's voice". The shock waves continue, and Eiko remarks that it might be the "holy judgment". She then runs towards the nose of the ship, remarking that "the summoner is being called" and that "Alexander's judgment has come"?

She then leaps off the airship (!) and is shown diving down towards Alexandria castle, being brought together with Garnet by the combined power of their jewels, which seemed to be calling out to one another. The story will not have explained this beforehand, but in my earlier post describing the timeline before the events of the game, I mentioned how a failed summoning that once occurred was attempted in Alexandria, but that they couldn't control it, split the summoning jewel into four parts, and gave them to separate kingdoms. You can probably guess where this is going. Those four parts of the jewel were the pendant that Garnet has, the "Falcon Claw" that Lindblum has (this explains why they look similar), the third was in Burmecia but moved to Cleyra, and final one Eiko had in Madain Sari from the summoner tribe. All four are brought together now... and in Alexandria. You may also remember that eidolons are often sealed where failed attempts are made.

Eiko instructs Garnet to pray in her heart with her, and they summon... Alexander. At first, massive wings are seen growing from the castle itself, to surround and protect it. Little old Bahamut, however, is none too pleased at this development! Bahamut tries to attack Alexander, but it proves ineffective as Alexander's protective wings simply absorb the attack. The wings then withdraw to show the full extent of Alexander, an entity that effectively is a castle, but many times larger than Alexandria's own (which is already pretty massive). Alexander's wings then charge and glow, and fire off dozens of energy particles that track and destroy Bahamut.

Kuja is shown watching, and rather than being upset, he seems impressed by Alexander's display. Uh oh. This seems familiar from somewhere...

Kuja remarks how he's "called a magic carriage" for Alexander, before remarking "Invincible, come forth".

A Blue ray of light is shown shining down upon Alexander from the sky above, and from within the clouds, that same eyeball is shown in the sky. Is this related to what Kuja called the "Invicible"? In response, Alexander is shown wrapping its wings around Alexandria castle again.

And with everything going on at a brisk pace lately, you'd be forgiven for simply thinking Kuja assumes control of this summon and turns it on its creator too, but no, we got another major twist development. There's one character in particular I neglected to cover before describing the events of the game, and it is here that they make their introduction.

If you've been watching the video thus far, you'll come across it eventually, but if not and you still want to see this part in particular, it starts at 23:14.

Presumably, from within... something, a pretty foreboding older man in a long dark cape and long White hair is shown talking to himself.

Unknown Man "You have gone too far, Kuja."

The man turns around, revealing a Crimson glow of a jewel of sorts in his chest.

Unknown Man "I granted you the freedom to do as you wish in Gaia for one purpose alone."

Unknown Man "Now that you have lost sight of your mission, I will no longer tolerate your actions."

Unknown Man "You have not the slightest idea whom you are defying. I will show you soon enough."

Unknown Man "You too, Zidane..."

(Okay, what!? Who is this, and what is the link to Zidane of all people?)

The man then channels Crimson energy into a raised hand, and the Crimson area in front of him starts glowing...

The scene then shifts back to Kuja in Alexandria's square.

Kuja "What happened to the Invincible!? Enslave Alexander, as you have enslaved Bahamut!"

Kuja "!!!"

Kuja "Could it be... Garland!?"

Kuja "Impossible! Why would he come to Gaia!?"

Kuja "If it is indeed Garland, he must know my plan! But why has he assumed control of the Invincible... ?"

Kuja "No! He can't be..."

So... we have a name. And Kuja himself seems surprised and concerned that this Garland is here...

The scene then shifts back to inside Alexandria castle, where the group from Treno who arrived. Zidane, Vivi, Freya, Amarant, and Regent Cid make their way through the castle to find Garnet and Eiko. I make a detour to fight an optional encounter here, but it's not important for the story so I won't cover it.

The group heads to the top of the castle in search for Garnet and Eiko, and when they reach the large platform, Cid remarks that "this must be the secret of Alexandria castle". Zidane goes to run ahead, telling the others to escape as Kuja might destroy the castle at any moment. Vivi is reluctant to leave him, but Zidane tells him there's no point in all of them staying with the risk to their safety, and that he's going to press on simply because maybe one day "you'll do the same thing for someone who's really important to you" and "Garnet is more important to him than anything else". Aw, Zidane! Amarant is insulted that his time was wasted to press on this far only to turn back now, but he wastes little time leaving. On one hand, I would understand his frustration. On the other, he is only there because he, in his own words, wanted to follow Zidane in the hopes of an eventual rematch, so like... this one's on you Amarant? Freya, Cid, and Vivi also turn to escape, and Zidane makes his way further up the castle, but starts getting interrupted by tremors halfway up...

The eye in the sky is now shown to be glowing Crimson. It seems this... instrument in the sky, this "Invincible", is where this Garland individual is? A beam of Blue rings starts emanating down onto Alexander from it, which first causes Alexander's wings to wither and deteriorate. The giant crystal of the castle itself (that resembles the blade of a sword, of sorts) starts charging, and a beam fires up into the sky from it, damaging Alexander who is situated above it. Garnet is thrown back, and the platform Garnet and Eiko are on fractures, leaving Garnet on the portion that starts crumbling and crashing down.

In heroic fashion, Zidane leaps off from the edge, explosions behind him and all, haha, onto the falling platform Garnet is on.

She grabs him with a hug, and he grabs a hold of a hanging flag line, similar to ones he and Garnet used in the beginning of the game. Eiko is shown having thrown it down to them, although she is shown with a jealous look (and I think this ruins the mood somewhat, even if its fitting for what she's probably feeling) when she witnesses Garnet embracing Zidane.

Zidane apologizes to Garnet for "not being honest with her", and as the trembles continue, they decide to make their escape too.

The eye of the Invincible is then shown glowing and firing a beam down upon Alexandria and the castle, completely obliterating it.

So first, Alexandria under Brahne's control, being influenced by Kuja, waged ware upon Burmecia, and then destroyed Cleyra. While Lidblum pulled back its forces to aide Burmecia, Alexandria attacked Lindlum. After Brahme's death, now Alexandria itself was attacked. Much of the four nations lay in ruins...

The scene shifts back to within the Invincible with Garland.

Garland "More souls have returned..."

Garland "In microscopic proportions, the process still continues after thousands of years."

Garland "Eventually, these circulating souls will no longer belong to Gaia."

Garland "They must never be circulated back..."

Garland "Kuja did well. If only he had lasted longer..."

Garland "I never imagined he would choose to end his remaining days on Gaia..."

Garland "Perhaps this was his fate, set in ages past."

Garland "I, too, cannot escape my fate; someday, I must face your counterpart..."

(Who is this guy... and who or what is he referring to!?)

After the destruction of Alexandria, the scene shifts to Lindblum, where it is shown the party has safely made it back to. For pacing and clarity purposes, there could/should have been another scene showing them making their way out, because the timing of the attack makes it at least look like Zidane, Garnet, and Eiko wouldn't have made it out. Due to space constraints at the time, I imagine they couldn't fit it in? (It's known that stuff was cut out in the latter half of the game due to either space constraints or time development constraints). That, or they figured it would be unnecessary since the immediately following scene would show them safe in Lindblum anyway. It just felt... odd the first time I watched it. "Did I just watch at least some of them die!?" was my reaction.

Zidane is then shown waking up in Lindblum castle, wondering how he got there, and wondering about Garnet and Eiko.

Uh... poor Garnet! After everything she went through, trying and failing to stop any of it, learning of her heritage, and then right after losing her mother, watching her kingdom get destroyed under her own watch right as she assumes responsibility for it...

But we'll get into that more very soon.