Wednesday, July 12, 2017

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #031: The Iifa Tree, Take Two

Here's to actually getting this finished this time.

Because of how life's been lately, this may actually cover multiple session. The good news is that I can at least save a little time by saying that I've gone over the trip to the boss fight last time, so there's that.

One thing I think I forgot to mention last time is that we find that Vivi is afraid of heights as the party makes their way down the Iifa Tree. That's one more similarity between myself and my favorite character in the game. Or it used to be, anyway. It's been awhile since I was anyplace where I could find out properly, and I've really had no desire to find out if anything's changed in that regard since I was a kid.

As far as the actual boss fight goes, this time around, I'd changed a few things because various party members had gained a few abilities on the way down and it occurred to me to switch out the relevant equipment where I could. I also took advantage of Zidane's Undead Killer ability, since I had the magic gems available to equip that. And I made use of the various magics available to the party by way of having three magic users of various sorts.

Probably the biggest help, though, is that I decided to see just what kinds of magic the Soulcage was week against. Turns out both fire and ice work equally well. Only real difference is that the fire spells set the thing on fire and allow it to use some rather unfortunate special moves. Between using the equally effective ice spells, which stop the fire if fire had been used first, and the Protect spells that both Eiko and Dagger have, this fight was a lot easier than the first attempt.

The biggest downside is that I missed out on stealing the one piece of equipment I don't think I had before. It had an Oak Staff, which I think I've got on Vivi at the moment, and one other thing I can't recall the name of, both of which I got, and also a Brigandine, which I do believe is a piece of armor I don't think I have yet.

With the Soulcage taken out, the Mist clears from the Mist Continent and all the other places it had been. Vivi wonders if he did the right thing by helping to off the monster and is worried that the other Black Mages will be upset with him for essentially ending their species. Eiko tells him that they'll understand, since they probably wouldn't like any more of them to be used as WMDs.

Zidane suggests waiting there for Kuja to show up to find out what happened to his precious Mist. The others agree with him, at least until one of Eiko's Moogle friends show up with bad news. As luck would have it, something important was horked from Madain Sari while the party was away. Eiko wants to go back alone to see what the damage is, but Zidane says he and the others should go with her, since it's not too far from the tree.


The trip back to the village was no trouble, but we'll get to the details of what, exactly, got jacked from town next time, since it's late as always. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!

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