Friday, December 16, 2016

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #014: A Familiar Map...

The dungeon that takes us to the settlement of Cleyra reminds me of something...

Specifically, the end dungeon of Legend of Mana, which, interestingly enough, was coming out at about the same time as the game I'm working on right now. Probably not as big a coincidence as it might seem.

Similarities aside, the tree trunk leading up to the actual village is full of sand, which plays a factor in navigating through. There are some parts of the sand that are moving and must be stopped or redirected in order to advance. There's one section that involves sand traps that require button mashing to get out of. I think there's monsters at the bottom of the three here, but I managed to avoid getting sucked in. At least, this time I did, so I can't recall for sure. Either I've gotten better at these things as I've gotten older or these ones are easier than the ones in Secret of Evermore.

There's no boss battle at the end of the dungeon itself. Not this time. But when the party gets to the settlement, a pair of oracles greet them. One takes Freya to see the King of Burmecia, as the pair has been instructed to do so. The other offers to take Zidane and the others on a tour. Quina declines and goes off to search for “yummie-yummies” alone and manages to freak out a pair of young ladies by demanding food of them before running off to find a big mushroom to chew on. Zidane and Vivi go on the tour and see various important locations around town, likely to be important later on. After the tour, Vivi nervously tells Zidane that maybe he should ask the guide to show him around again. I'm generally not much for rodents when it comes to anthro characters like this, but the art style in this game makes it work, so it's a sentiment I share.

After the tour, the oracle that showed us around suggests that she enjoyed being a tour guide and warns us of the upcoming boss fight against something called the Antlion. This will definitely be a familiar monster, as it was the third big boss fight of my all time favorite game in the series. The circumstances and tactics will be different here, of course, but at least it's a familiar monster.

Zidane also gets to explore the town alone for a bit after the tour. For this issue, we get to see Active Time Events of Quina freaking out the villagers and finding his 'shroom and Vivi unintentionally scaring survivors of Burmecia. I can understand why, of course. Black Mages pretty much toasted their home, and since I'm not sure if they saw Vivi with the others before they escaped, it makes sense that they'd be afraid of him. I think there's one more part to that story, but that'll have to wait until next time. Before I found the inn, I stocked up on items and got all new weapons and armor for everybody, since this is a good time to refresh it all.

There's also a message from Ruby for Zidane that the moogle has for him. I guess she's looking for actors to work in her theater. How anybody got that message there, I don't know. One of the game's great mysteries, I guess.


But this is where I'll wrap up for now. There's more exploring to do, but that'll have to wait until next time. Until then, stay safe, keep gaming, have fun, and DFTBA!

No comments:

Post a Comment