FFIX – Part 16: On the Hunt

Summary: The Festival. Trouble in Burmecia. A sleepy feast. Fighting around the city.
TW: non-consensual drugging.


To the Festival!

-I’m nervous starting this. Timed events stress me out. So I’m going to pre-emptively manage my expectations: this will not go well. I will only do a little bit before time runs out. And that’s ok.

-There! All set now.

-Zidane hops over to the Theater District, his starting point.

-The princess and Steiner are enjoying the view from above.

-Hee! Steiner is a Vivi fan.

-omg steiner is narrating and just sees Vivi running away. XD

-Wait, is the game trolling me with this? I was expecting a 12 minute timed thing, but we’re just seeing Steiner above doing color commentary.

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Festival of the Hunt

-No, we actually get to do the hunt. I’m forgoing steal (unless I reach a boss) since I don’t want to waste an ATB.

-Zidane’s new Ogre weapon is BEASTLY.

-Cleared out as much of the Theater District as I can. I’ll just have to backtrack a bunch and kill monsters that respawn.

-Not seeing any more monsters. Let’s head to the Business District.

-Freya is kicking my ass. She’s got 129 points to my 116. I wasted too much time thinking I had to stay in the Theater District.

-OH NO!!! There’s Vivi, being chased by a wolf! Run, li’l guy!

-Last district: Industrial.

-Aaaaand Freya wins by a nose.

(I assume Vivi had like zero points lol.)

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Throne Room

-Freya gets a Coral Ring and is awarded the title of Master Hunter.

-The ceremony is interrupted by a Burmecian soldier stumbling in.

-They’re under attack and beg for reinforcements. The attacker is unknown. Let me guess: black mage dolls.

-Yup. Black mages in those hats. Vivi backs up, horrified.

-The Burmecian soldier dies. His injuries too grevious.

-The forces of Lindblum are scattered due to the festival. The king calls back one of the aerial units, but that leaves all eyes off Alexandria. He thinks it’s worth it to honor their friendship with Burmecia.

-You know, in most games, Cid is morally ambiguous – a guy with ultimately decent intentions who takes some morally sketchy paths early on. I like this version of him a lot. Doing the right thing, even if it puts his city in more danger.

-Yay! The whole team is going. Freya wants to help her home. Zidane wants to help Freya.

-A quick note on Zidane helping Freya: I LOVE IT. He seems to have a mostly platonic friendship with and platonic interest in Freya, unlike 99% of the women he’s come across. We’ve seen him help Dagger because he wants her for a girlfriend or at least a fling. There’s an element of selfishness in his aid for her, at least thus far.

This time? He wants to help Freya because he values her as a friend. He’s risking himself because he sees her and her home in trouble.

-Vivi joins. He wants to learn more about the black mages. Dagger joins in because she fears Alexandria may be behind this. Steiner joins because Dagger joins.

-Zidane tries to convince Dagger not to come, that it’s too dangerous and UUUUUGGGGH. I mean, I get it. He sees that Dagger has been a bit sheltered and may not know what she’s getting into.

Booooooo!!!

He’s not fully wrong, and I’m fine with what he’s doing in terms of his character and her character, but in terms of the trope, I really do NOT want him to do the “protect her because it’s too dangerous” thing. Seems designed to remove agency from a really cool character.

-Wait, are she and Steiner really not coming? I’m not sure. The party would be too big, so maybe their path lies elsewhere. Again I say BOOOO.

-Regent Cid will open the Dragon Gate. I can’t remember if that’s the one beneath the Mist.

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Feast!

-But before they leave, it’s time for a feast. A post-hunt tradition.

-It makes me happy to see Vivi enjoying food.

Yet ANOTHER in the “Vivi isn’t a doll” column.

-Did anyone else participate in the hunt? I think we’re meant to assume a lot of people participated, but Freya and Zidane were far and away the best. Just surprised we haven’t heard anything since the hunt started about those other hunters the townsfolk were talking about, the ones who were favored before our party blew into town.

-Also, what happened with that Zhagnol (or however you spell it)? The big boar that was let loose. I’ll bet I had to find it in a secret area or something.

-aw, Vivi ate too much. Food coma!

-WAIT SHIT NO THAT’S NO FOOD COMA

-except

-holy shit dagger you SCOUNDREL. WTF did you do?

THE SLEEPING POTION THAT’S WHAT SHE WANTED THE SLEEPING POTION FOR!!! She used it on everyone except herself and Steiner.

-She did it because she didn’t think Cid would let her leave the castle, so she took initiative to escape. Quite an escape artist she’s become. Bless you, Garnet. The “protect her because it’s too dangerous” trope gets recognized and dodged by Garnet herself.

-Steiner speaks against this. That war is horrible, and he doesn’t want her to see and experience it as he has and oh crap there’s some terrible and crushing Steiner back story just LURKING, isn’t there?

-She wants to avert war between “the three great nations.” Perhaps this continent really is the known world.

-Steiner relents. He hears her call to duty, her reasons, and vows to follow her. They leave.

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After the Feast

-Freya is impressed by what Dagger did.

-The next stop is Gizamaluke’s Grotto, the gateway to Burmecia.

-Inspecting the castle a bit. There are some heirlooms on the walls from prior Cids – a bow, a shield, a suit of armor.

-Explored the castle as fully again as I could. The only new thing I found was the basement level which has a trolley that can take me to either the Serpent Gate or Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate is progress, and I don’t want that just yet. Will explore the city a bit more, and stop again at the Synthesist.

-Zidane is a real hit now. Even the anteater bar patron thinks so!

-hahahaha

Just spoke to someone in the Business District named Grandma Potpourri. She asked if I’m having fun and I had two options: Yes, or “No, this game sucks.” I went with option two, and she replied: “Well, then you should buy another game.” XD XD

-At the Church, they mention those two hunters, Ivan and Belna. Even THEY couldn’t beat Zaghnol. So Zaghnol was around, and I just didn’t find him.

-Is it blasphemous to say I like Tetra Master more than Triple Triad?

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Lindblum Plateau

-I don’t want to progress just yet. I want to explore the area around Lindblum, and farm up some AP to master these item abilities and try new ones, and get gil to buy some of the synthesis items from Lindblum.

-I had thought that Freya was a rat humanoid. I think I was wrong. Her ears are not rat-like, she has a spear like a dragoon, jumps like a dragoon, and has abilities categorized as “dragon.” I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she’s a dragon.

-never mind. The more I see her art, the more I think she’s a rat (especially given that the Burmecian soldier was clearly a rat) who trained as a dragoon. Her ears may be dragon ears attached to the hat, not her own ears. [Later edit: !!!!!IT JUST HIT ME!! FREYA IS THE “DRAGON KNIGHT” THE TOWNSPERSON WAS TALKING ABOUT AS A MAJOR HUNT COMPETITOR! I had gotten so locked into the idea of Freya as a red mage that I forgot about this.]

-Ooh! Found a thing! There’s a sign at this valley about an Old Man’s Ghost being sighted around “the Pinnacle,” and the sign recommends we keep away. Lol screw that.

-booo. We can’t actually enter Pinnacle Rocks yet. Oh well. Probably for the best.

-Not much else to explore here. Grinded out some more abilities and ready to go.

-I should add something: when I say “grinded,” I don’t mean it in a negative way the way I would with, say, Final Fantasy I. It’s pretty quick, combat is fun, and I’m doing it because there are exciting new abilities I want to play with and strive for, NOT because I’m stuck and the only way to progress is to kill a thousand ogres. I’m enjoying this.

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Lindblum

-In the Business District, and noticed a weapon in the shop that nobody in my party can use. A Fork, used by the “Qu clan.” New party member foreshadowing?

-Ok. Got what I wanted.

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Next time: through the Dragon Gate towards Burmecia. Or maybe I’ll first check out the Serpent Gate, since the Dragon Gate is progress.