FFIX – Part 55: Paradise Found

Summary: The hunt for Chocobo’s Paradise bears fruit.


Chocograph Hunting

-Gave Eiko the Madain Ring, and she now has the Guardian Mog ability. Its description is vague: “Mog protects with unseen forces.” Must be one of those that I have to just try out.

-One of my chocograph clues is a blank stretch of ocean with a note that there’s a small reef. Maybe that’s the jutting rock I saw earlier.

-No. That wasn’t it.

-Found another of those oily patches in the middle of the ocean. The Dead Pepper didn’t do anything. It’s tough to tell exactly because the patches move, but I tried it a few times and nothing happened.

-This “Ocean” one is tough to find. There’s a more obvious chocograph near the Mist Continent – I’ll try that first.

-YES! It’s another “Getting sleeeeepy.” Smells like flight.

-Evolution complete. Choco now has the tools to get “home.” Hm. Can take off and land in any forest. NICE.

-Another chest down. White Robe, Diamond, Masamune Card. The robe teaches Holy and gives huge defense. The diamond doesn’t teach anything too special, but I seem to remember a Gimme Cat asking for it.

-Found my first chest that required flying. On an island just north of the Outer Continent. Circlet, Pumice Piece, Hilda Garde 3 card. This is Likanmack Island.

-The only unfound chest for me now is the “Ocean” one, and after 20 minutes of searching for it I’m ready to postpone the search. It’s wearing on me. Gonna check in at the Chocobo Forest to see if Mene has any clues, or even just a reaction to seeing that Choco is white.

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Chocobo Forest

-Yup, he notices. And has news about the Dead Pepper.

-He says that it “boosts Choco’s ability for a short time.” Maybe this implies something more than the flail. Legend says that the Dead Pepper can help Choco get to paradise.

-What’s more: the Chocobo Paradise is unmapped. Hm.

-I have a new working theory: there are six Chocograph Pieces, each with clues, in my inventory. Each is a key item. Maybe if I follow the clues and “solve” each one, it’ll lead me to the Chocobo Paradise.

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Searching for Paradise

-I don’t know if this is bad or good, but those oily patches that had been in various parts of the map earlier are no longer there.

-Going to try something. Going to try using Dead Peppers are those spots, starting with the Salvage Archipelago. While flying.

DAMMIT. Nothing. Maybe the center of the ocean?

Grr. This is getting frustrating. I really don’t know what to do. It seems like the right action, since when flying and using a Dead Pepper, Choco soars up into the sky out of my view, but he just comes back down.

-During my search, I landed on a place called Vile Island. Fought an adorable little sheep/ram enemy called a Yan.

Well, it’s cute, but it also had a billion hit points and rained comets down on my head. Jesus. Gonna stay away from this island for now.

-Rethinking this. Maybe I’m close than I believed. There are six key Chocograph Pieces. Five of them have text that’s now in red, all relating to the oily spots I discovered. Maybe I did what I needed to with them.

Which leaves the last one: “There… danger in the sky… If you dar… to face it, use this rec… to find your way.”

”Use this rec…” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??? Us this receptacle? Use this recourse? Use this recollection? Use this record? I feel like the answer will make me kick myself upon hearing it, but it’s just not coming to me right now.

-Continuing to search the ocean for that elusive “Ocean” treasure chest, and found an island that’s not on any map. [Later edit: I was so locked into the idea that the paradise was somewhere I had to use a Dead Pepper at the right spot to fly up to that I didn’t even connect the clue that it was unmapped with this place until after the fact.]

That’s a good start. It has a forest to land in and a mountain with a crack in it. On my way.

-This place is called Uaho Island. At the very corner of the map. Trying to keep my expectations low.

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Chocobo’s Paradise

-OH MY GOD I FOUND IT

I FOUND IT I FUCKING FOUND IT

-This place lives up to its name. It’s beautiful. Truly beautiful. Idyllic.

-Mene is here! He followed us when he saw we were on the trail.

-HAHAHA BIG CHOCO IS HEREE

-This is sad on one hand, and happy on another. Fat Chocobo (for so it calls itself) wants Choco to stay and live a happy life here.

-…oh no. Mene is told he can’t live here.

-Phew. Choco is reluctant to stay permanently, especially without Mene. (And ESPECIALLY when there are more treasures for us to find lol.)

-Time to wander the city a bit more.

Wheeeee! Waterslide!

*SPLASH*

-Fat Chocobo has granted me the power to understand chocobo language while I’m here so I can talk to the residents. That’s awesome.

-One chocobo tells me to use the Dead Pepper where the ocean is forming for a treasure – OF COURSE! I want to kick myself for not thinking of that. Thanks, yellow chocobo!

-this is amazing I’m playing Tetra Master with a chocobo. (Though they are a beginner with beginner cards.)
I was not expecting lore from here. One chocobo tells me that this paradise existed long before the disaster 5,000 years ago. Is that the merging of Terra and Gaia?

-Aha!! The shadows that are in the spots listed on the six chocograph pieces are all shadows of the floating island above. That’s why most of the spots were empty. It moves.

-There’s a crack on a mountain on a long island north of the Outer Continent. Great tip. Gonna check there. And it seems like a moogle lives inside. Perhaps the fabled Mognet HQ.

-Fat Chocobo gives us a hint: there are many treasures out there still and we need a special ability to find them. We have to use the Dead Pepper to seek these treasures out in various ways – some by flying high, some by digging deep.

-Another hint, this one a bit more hidden: the east side of the mountain on Seaways Canyon has a crack in it. Thanks, random blue chocobo! She also tells me that water was foaming in the lagoon on the southernmost tip of the Forgotten Continent.

-The person who brought Tetra Master here was a traveler named Ipsen. Not just a fictional character.

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Ending the session here. This was so satisfying. I was afraid I might not be able to finish the quest – and even now, I’ll be shocked if I manage to find all the treasures, especially the ocean ones – but the paradise is a great finish point.

The zone design is so impressive to me. It’s exactly what I’d imagine for an animal’s paradise. Not necessarily a cat’s paradise – cat paradise probably involves more blood and hunting – but dog paradise? Chocobo paradise? So fun and frolicky and playful. Water slides! Jumping! Animal friends! Sun, warmth, joy.

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Next time: following up on many of the clues for chocobo treasures.