Saturday, April 1, 2017

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #024: Scotland, SD

And yes, I'm referencing another real place from my home state in the title.

There's a small town here called Scotland because that's where a lot of local immigrants came from, way back when. It's also a place where a lot of these games insist dwarves are from, as well. I suppose there's some truth to that, but I've never really felt terribly compelled to look it up to find out how much.

The first place we're going to go in-game, however, is the Qu's Marsh I was at when I left off last time. About the only things going on there right now are another chance to talk to Mogster and his little bro, just in case we need a refresher on how things work or directions (and the rate at which I'm getting these things out, I'm surprised I don't), and the frog catching mini game. There's a gold frog in this one, or there was this time. I know there's supposed to be something special about the gold frog other than it makes one of Quina's blue magic spells stronger, but I've never been quite sure what, as I've never managed to get it, as I can remember. I really should do that minigame when I've got the time to be patient enough to do it right.

Pretty much directly north of there is the main feature of this issue, a place called Conde Pettie. There's yet another home state reference I can make here, this time to a town with a French name in Spink County, rather than a national name in Bon Homme County. Funny thing about this game, really. These fine folks with the stereotypical accents are supposed to be dwarves, but instead of being the bearded short folks kind of like I was in college they usually are, they're all little green goblin-looking guys who still seem nice enough.

They like Vivi, especially, because they've seen people like him around and do business with them on a regular basis. They'll tell us where to find them in a bit. In the meantime, we've got some foreshadowing to deal with, and some more humor at Quina's expense.

It seems the people of Conde Pettie are a bit leery of Quina, as somebody's been horking their food, and Quina's unusual interest in that very thing. Naturally, the citizenry thinks Quina's the one behind it as a result. One of the Active Time Events to that plot line gives us a hint as to the real culprit: a little girl with a Moogle friend we'll be meeting later on. There's also a lot of talk of marriage going on here, which will factor into catching our little food fiend.

Before we get there, though, we've got to deal with why Vivi doesn't seem to scare the crap out of the dwarves the way he does the folks back on the Mist Continent. In the course of trying to figure that out, Vivi runs into another Black Mage in the items shop. As per usual, this one doesn't seem to have much to say to anybody. In this case, when the unnamed Mage sees Vivi and the rest of the party, he runs the hell away. For as much as I can relate to these guys, in part because I like the aesthetic, they look the part to pull the whole Sonic the Hedgehog thing on people way more than I do.


The villagers explain that there's a whole colony so deep in a hidden forest that not even the owls go there, and if the party wants to have a word with them, they've gotta go in and check things out for themselves. There's a forested canyon to the east of Conde Pette that leads right to the hidden, yet kind of obvious, location of the village we're looking for, but actually going in is something for next time, because it's kind of a chore, and I really shouldn't be staying up as late as I am to work on these things. Hopefully, it won't be another almost two weeks before I get to it. Until then, though, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!

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