TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #071: Caves of Pandemonium

And it only took me TWO months to get back to this this time, too!

The thing to keep in mind about the delays between issues of this thing is that it's rarely as much for lack of desire or effort as it might seem that keeps me from getting them out in a more timely manner. There's quite a lot of IRL stuff that keeps me busy to almost the point of exaustion, and therefore from enjoying this sort of gaming enough to feel up to doing this. Also, part of why I haven't been doing much YouTube stuff or keeping up with Skype buddies as much as I maybe should. But those are topics and for other times and places.

There was a little technical trouble that contributed to this as well. There was one spot where the game would hang up on me in the middle of a battle with a moster called Abadon and I'd have to reset.

Eventually, I did get past that somehow. While Abadon is aparently a normal random battle, there were also a couple actual boss fights there, too, that I think I forgot to mention last time, called Amduisas and Shell Dragon respectively.

After that second boss fight, the followig bit is something of a maze that has sections that remind me of similar areas in previous games. There's one bit where the party has to activate a power-grid-slash-security-system sort of thing that also generated a light bridge needed to move forward. I remember the security grid sort of thing from Final Fantasy 6, because there's at least one dungeon with a similar mechanic. It's been long enough since I've played 6 that I can't recall which one. There's also a teleporter section reminicent of the Citadel of Trials from the original Final Fantasy. In between, there's an elevator thing that has a few different settings that go to different paths and treasures. Even though this was never going to be a 100% run, I think I might try to go back for some of it, since I'm not completely through the area and the walkthrough entry on Caves of Narshe makes it sound worthwhile.

Since there's a moogle to save with in the teleporter area, I'm going to take advantage and wrap up for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to this again, with less of a gap than between this part and the previous one. Until then, thought, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.