What I Know About FFIX Going In
-Nothing.
-Ok. Not quite nothing. I’ve seen the logo. It looks like a crystal, so that’s my prediction for this game: I think it’ll focus on elemental crystals, the way that FFI, FFIV, and FFV did.
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Introduction
-The music at the title screen sounds very classically medieval.
-Storm at sea. Hey, Yoshitaka Amano is the image illustrator! I thought he’d been out of action as the illustrator for a few games, or maybe I misunderstood his role.
-This sailor is in deep shit. Small boat being tossed about by the waves.
-Quick flash to the sailor’s face. I think the sailor is a woman.
-Oops, now she’s at a window in a beautiful and possibly royal room.
Princess? Queen? Younger, so guessing princess. Not sure whether the boat scene was the woman flashing forward, flashing back, or daydreaming. Probably flashing forward.
-Cool looking castle and town.
-Highly cinematic opening. Like I’m watching the opening credits of a movie.
-Awesome looking airship.
It looks like it’s carrying a castle on its back.
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The Prima Vista
-A dude is on board the airship.
Oh btw the dude has a long tail nbd.
-“Sure is dark!” And with that, I have control.
-Control/keybind tutorial. Standard stuff, but the thing that jumps out at me is the “Cards/Moogle” button. Messing with my keybindings, but the only stuff I can’t seem to keybind is “Fix Camera” and “Perspective.” My controller doesn’t have buttons that correspond to those (LT and RT). Maybe I should get an xbox controller or something. [Non-rhetorical question for y’all: are those controls important, fix camera and perspective?]
-As is typical, my character doesn’t have a name yet. Just question marks. Commands are attack, steal, skill, and item, so maybe he’s a thief. Also he has a dagger.
-18/18 things. Gems?
-I’m walking around the room, but something seems buggy. My character is moving at super speed even though he’s set to walk… Yeah, this is weird. I’m moving at warp speed. What the hell? Anyway, restarted and it’s all good. Whew. Thought I was bugged for a second or had to reinstall.
-The game wants me to light a candle in the middle of the room, but I first walk around and click stuff. Some gil and potions. FFIX has a wonderful mechanic that I see in the iOS FF versions: when my character walks next to something clickable, an exclamation point appears. I don’t have to click everywhere frantically. I explore and watch for the exclamation point.
Also found a ship description. We’re aboard a luxury theater ship, the Prima Vista. Propelled by “veil energy” (?), made by Zebolt Shipyards. Home port is Lindblum.
Zidane.
Like, Zinedine Zidane? Cool. 16 year old “tailed human” (THAT’S A RACE IN FFIX??). Also a righty. Booooo. Lefty powa.
-This looks like a group of ruffians of some sort. My guess is that they’re either actors or thieves. Probably thieves, given their weaponry.
-Blank, Cinna, and some other dude.
-And all of a sudden someone with a dragon head busts in and COMBAT TIME.
-A moogle’s portrait is present with various tutorials. Yay for moogles!
-Nice variation on the standard FF combat music.
-I used “Steal” on all four of my characters, and three of them stole successfully. That’s already a change from prior games, where you usually just stole one item and that was all the enemy had. Got a Wrist, a Mage Masher, and a potion.
-It wasn’t an actual half-dragon, but rather a bearded dude with goggles who was just joshing. Could be Cid. Looks specifically like the FFIV version of Cid.
-Nope. He’s Baku. Does he have rabbit ears? Rabbit ears on Baku, tail on Zidane… very animalistic start.
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Meeting
-Baku’s the boss. They are in fact thieves, a band of thieves called Tantalus.
-Heading to the Kingdom of Alexandria. Baku has a model castle that looks like the place from the intro with the princess in the tower.
-Aha. They’re going to kidnap said princess, Garnet.
Hee! I like the princess doll he’s holding.
-Already digging the aesthetics of this game. Bright and colorful, something I adored in FFVIII.
Just look at Baku, he’s got green pants, pink fur/hair, multi-colored boots, a red and white vest.
-Marcus is the guy whose name I missed before.
-I was sorta right – they’re both thieves AND actors, but the acting is a pretense, a distraction. Most will act while Blank and Zidane do the actual kidnapping.
-The queen of Alexandria is Queen Bahne.
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Port of Alexandria
-HEY LOOK IT’S A BLACK MAGE!
Like, a super classic-looking FF black mage, with the blue robe and big hat and no face and two yellow eyes, like we saw in FFI as playable and in FFIV as a generic black mage citizen in Mysidia.
-The city is so damn majestic! Really cool image as the title flashes on the screen.
-That spire in the middle of Alexandria appears crystalline.
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Next time: We’re off and running. Alexandria next.
