FFIX – Part 2: Animal Kingdom

Summary: CUTE OVERLOAD. Vivi, a little mage boy overwhelmed by the big city, meets animal people and moogles in his quest to see a play.


Alexandria

-I’m now the as yet nameless black mage. Dropped a ticket and a little girl picked it up.

-Interesting to see the quick change in perspective. This is new. In all prior games iirc, we started as a main character and stuck with them. Perhaps this signals more of a pure ensemble game like FFVI.

-The music is playful.

-There’s a card option. Looks like Triple Triad might be carrying over. I need 5 cards to play.

-There are some noble animal people walking around.

-The status in town is dedicated to Madelene, a child war hero.

-The mage has a ticket to see “I Want to Be Your Crow,” “A tragic tale of destiny, cursed memories, dreams, life, and death.” And kidnapping.

-Found a couple of cards lying around the fountain area. Sahagin and Lizard Man. Doesn’t look like Triple Triad. Something different.

-An old woman in a house is sewing a dress for someone named Ilia.

-This black mage is a dick. He stole the old woman’s savings of 9 gil. (I know, just standard RPG hero stuff, but still - lol.)

-Aw! The mage is kind of adorable. He fell on his butt after getting dizzy looking at a patterned rug and something about the animation as he picked himself up and fixed his hat was cute.

-Everyone’s psyched about this play.

-I’ve already found SO much stuff from exploring. Cards and potions and gil, just lying around.

-A note on a door is from someone saying goodbye to the town. She moved from Treno, didn’t sell “oglop goodies” in town, and moved to Lindblum to pursue her dreams.

-There’s a red mage in town! Dressed very classically like an FFI red mage too. The callbacks are awesome.

-LOLOL THERE’S A GOOFY LI’L HIPPO KID NAMED HIPPAUL

I WANNA BE BEST FRIENDS

-Just spent the last 10 minutes getting my ass handed to me by a jump rope mini-game. Highest I got was 24, but my hands are sweating too much to go further.

-The ticketmaster says the performance this year is “I Want to Be Your Canary.” I thought it was “crow,” not “canary.”

-The mage has a fake ticket! That’s why the discrepancy.

The ticketmaster is sympathetic, giving us some cards and directing us to Alleyway Jack to learn about cards.

-Another statue here honors the “Three Heroic Knights of Pluto” for bravery in.. wow, the 16th Lindblum War? That’s a hell of a lot of wars. Alexandria and Lindblum must be ancient enemies or something.

-Hippaul hid a bunch of cards in a special place.

-Walked into an inn and saw a customer yelling about his room reservation. Black mage thought: “Wow, city people are so scary!” He must be a rural mage boy.

-wtf. A kid wants me to become his slave so that I can see the show. Fuck that mess.

-Yay, found Hippaul’s treasure!

Had to go into a church, or maybe just a bell tower, and ring a bell and they fell out.

-Airships are pretty new.

-A kid lost his kitten, Mittens. I’ll keep an eye out. He probably just wandered over to Chrono Trigger.

-I seem to be stuck. Fine, I’ll do what Rat Kid wants.

-Seems harmless enough. I play lookout for him as he steals a ladder. We head into a churchyard and a moogle falls on my head.

-The moogle’s name is Kupo and now we’re friends and this is beyond adorable.

-Moogles are the save points of FFIX.

-Kupo’s moogle buddy Stiltzkin is leaving town and Kupo is sad.

-Another moogle is in the castle named Mosh.

-There’s a mail system called Mognet. Seems to be a series of mail delivery mini-quests. My first is to deliver a message to Monty the Moogle. I’m pretty sure I remember FFIII having a Mognet system that I didn’t touch at all.

-The plan is for the Rat Kid to lead us over the rooftops to a place where we can see the play.

-I’ve been trying to think what the Mage Kid’s role will be, how it will intersect with Zidane. He seems to be trying to watch the play in good faith, not for any nefarious scheme. Like, I believe that he’s just a new kid to the big city. But why would his guardian/protector let him come alone to this place?

-Oh no, Mage Kid is afraid of heights!

I swear, every two minutes something happens that makes me want to bust through this screen to give the Mage Kid a reassuring hug.

-We got a name.

Vivi.

-His RACE is “Black Mage?” That’s pretty shocking. So I guess people in this world are born as black mages rather than born as regular humans who learn black magic. A race, not a job. He’s 9 years old, and another righty.

-The Rat Kid is Puck. I thought he might be Alleyway Jack, but Alleyway Jack might come later.

-The game continues to reward exploration heavily. I could’ve followed Puck directly, but by exploring the rest of the rooftops I got a bunch more gil.

-The planks between roofs can break. I’ll probably regret this, but I wonder if I intentionally break one whether I’ll be able to see somewhere new… nope. The planks don’t break just by standing on them.

-Over the wall.

Time for a play! (play/kidnapping)

[Later edit: I feel like I messed up here a bit. I didn’t find the cat or Alleyway Jack. Even thought of reloading to an earlier save rather than be pushed into the play. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to come back later to find those. If not, oh well. I’ll deal.]

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Next time: the play.