Part 1

First off, let's show off the FMV that rolls at the start of the game. Note that a few pictures come up after the title screen, but I'll show those off at a later point in time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqU4fUKwT0o





Simple but nice logo. The crystal is there to say, "This is like those old-school Final Fantasy games with crystals and stuff" even though only half the games in the series to this point had anything to do with crystals.

Also, as you expect from the series at this point this game has an excellent soundtrack that you should definitely listen to if possible.

Anyway, once we start a new game, we're treated to another FMV. A couple neat tidbits here and there, but mainly it's another "Look at all these wonderful graphics" reel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H67UqNZ5uzw







In particular, it's a brief introduction to a character that'll be pretty important soon enough.





And of course to show off exciting imagery.

After we finish all that, we meet our main character.

ENGINE NOISES



Guess nobody's here yet...



The hand icon means we have control now.



More on our menu in a bit, but let's mess with some config options.



I always go Memory. Run of course is always recommended.



And this is supposed to be a love letter to old-school FF titles, right? Gotta go with that classic blue since we don't have the "eye-searing neon chocobo abomination" FF6 option.



After a few seconds of wandering around, the game screams at you to light the candle in the middle of the room.



However, you shouldn't rush in this game. There are secrets galore.





And this is evident by there being two secrets just in the first room. I'm not going to show off all of them since a lot of these are just small items that aren't worth much, but I'll show off enough to demonstrate just how many weird little details there are in this game.



We've looted the room, so it's time to progress the plot.







Default is Zidane. I'm going with default names for this run.





From top to bottom, these guys are Blank, Cinna, and Marcus.

Hey, Zidane! You sure are late!
Sorry. So, where's the boss?
Ain't here yet.





Some GIFs will look a bit janky to get them under 2MB. Still think this GIF is awesome enough to be worth it.

A good opportunity to warn you guys that GIFs are gonna be pretty large for this one, so this may not be a LP to view on mobile.





Anyway, a giant dragon man is now attacking us because of course he is.





Welcome to our first battle!



I won't go into too much detail right now. Zidane has his own skills, but all four of these characters have the ability "Steal."



Since our main character knows Steal, it's actually a big part of battles, especially bosses. Each enemy has four slots for steals, from common to rare. Of course, rarer items will be a pain to grab and take multiple tries, but there will be ways to mitigate this later. And not all enemies will have four items to steal. This guy only has three for instance.



One big perk compared to past titles is that you can steal all these possible items rather than get stuck with one. This is especially nice since bosses usually have some nice things to steal, usually letting you get items earlier than normal.



For instance, this guy has a rarish weapon that Zidane would love to make use of. It's gonna take a few tries to grab it, though.



Meanwhile, this fella has three attacks.



This attack is a bit stronger than his first attack.



His third attack is just embarrassing. I feel bad for him.





Cinna can die pretty easily because he's a chump. He's also got the worst offense of the four by far.



Eventually I get what I was looking for, the Mage Masher. This weapon is one of many that makes an appearance in several FF games, though usually it comes a bit later than the first battle of the game.



After that, it's just wail on the guy until he's defeated. He doesn't have much HP so you have to have really bad luck with steals to lose this battle.



Oh, my head! Go easy, you guys!

ENGINE NOISES







You're lookin' a lot better! Gwahahaha!



This is Baku, the leader of this lot. He was wearing a dragon mask and beating us up because that's just the kind of guy he is.







Tantalus, the infamous band of daring thieves (that's us), is headin' to the Kingdom of Alexandria...



I'll take it from here, so listen up!



And when it does, we're gonna put on our costumes...and perform "I Want to Be Your Canary," the most popular play in Alexandria! Break a leg, Marcus! 'Cause you're playin' the lead!
Leave the actin' to me! Of course, the real kidnappers'll be Blank and Zidane!



I can't stand oglops... But I'll manage, so don't worry about me. And that'll be your cue, Zidane!



Yeah, yeah, kidnap Queen Brahne, got it.





You can repeat the Queen Brahne line 64 times and you'll get a small easter egg telling you to stop being a smartass. I'm not going to go through the effort though so let's go the canon route and kidnap the princess.



And let's close the first update off with one more FMV!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6SbQQW8xYg







A random black mage gets to experience first-hand the majestic presence of a giant freaking airship.



And so the giant playhouse airship flies to the giant sword castle because, of course, Final Fantasy.





And with that, welcome to this Let's Play of Final Fantasy IX. See you next update!