Final Fantasy IX

Part 13

WIND NOISES

It is indeed the cargo ship! Now I can take the princess back to the castle!

Wha!?

We've been making lots of 'em since they set up the factory six months ago.

Who cares? This is a piece of cake compared to farming. Better money, too.

H-Hey! Is that scary guy in armor running toward US!?

Let's get outta here!

WIND NOISES

What could they possibly be shipping out from this village?

Did I just see that barrel move?

Oh hey this is like my only chance to talk before we continue so, uh, hello. Anyway let's stab the barrel.

The princess!?

-----

You scoundrel! Is this your doing!?

Zidane, I don't know what to say to Vivi. I never knew anything suspicious was going on at the castle...

We still don't know for sure. Let's stay by Vivi's side.

(I must get the princess onboard the cargo ship somehow. Then we can head back to Alexandria Castle.)

......

That's convenient! Did you ask someone?

Th-The old man in the shack told me! So it must be true!

You're acting strange...

...Welp.

What? What are you talking about!?

You were all unconscious from the blizzard. He said he was a Black Waltz!

My power, magic, and speed make me far superior to No. 1! Resistance is futile!

No! I will not return to the castle.

Come with me, or you'll regret it!

Kee hee hee! You think I care?

Today we'll be fighting the second Black Waltz.

This time, there's no summon and we have a full party.

He has a physical attack where he acts like a total show-off. Yeah, you know the Warp spell, I'm so fucking happy for you.

Like every other boss so far, he has steals we want. The Steepled Hat gives a tiny strength boost and can teach Dagger Protect. You know, if she didn't already know it. It's a couple points more magic defense for her at least since Vivi and Zidane want to learn Add Status first.

Speaking of Protect, I use it on Steiner since he's the only one in the front row. Of course, Waltz 2's physicals aren't what's threatening about it.

Since I'm trying to steal stuff, I have Vivi Focus so once Zidane is done he can end this battle a bit more quickly.

Shell makes more sense against a freaking Black Mage.

Except using it on Dagger is useless because Waltz 2 won't actually attack her, only the guys. However, if all the guys are dead, Waltz 2 will automatically put her to Sleep status and it'll be Game Over.

Anyway, Black Waltz 2 will counter Fire with his own powerful Fire spell. You may notice that Steiner was just sent to Trance from that attack.

Unlike every other character in the game, Steiner gains no special abilities from Trance. Instead, Steiner "merely" does triple the damage from his physical attacks, rather than the 50% increase other characters get from physical attacks under Trance.

He was hitting for ~80 before because I switched him back to his weakest sword. Now he can deal a fourth of this guy's max HP in one hit.

Eventually Waltz 2 will release a nasty Fira spell for major damage.

Enough to send Vivi into a Trance of his own!

Vivi's special Trance ability is Double Black, or probably better known as Dualcast. He casts two spells in a row. You can't choose to cast only one, and both have normal MP costs. This still has its uses, of course.

Waltz 2's other steal is the Leather Plate, armor that only Zidane can equip for now. It teaches Chakra, an ability Zidane can't learn. It does reduce ice damage by half though, so that's nice.

Anyway, at this point I didn't know that Waltz 2 countered Fire.

I certainly learned after I dualcast it, though.

Trance Steiner beats the guy into submission before I could revive Vivi.

The longer you stare at Trance Steiner, the less sense he makes.

WIND NOISES

Did my mother really send him to capture me...?

It can't be! There is no reason to trust the words of some bandit. He was just another criminal, scheming to use the princess for some evil deed.

Have I not been careful enough?

Your noble upbringing cannot be disguised so easily.

You're the one with the problem! Walking around, yelling "Princess!" everywhere...

Yes?

Sure, Lindblum should not be terribly far by airship!

No reason not to unless you're going for the super secret speedrun item.

Oh fuck it, I'll go ahead and spoil it now because it has no bearing on this Let's Play since I'm not going for it and it's dumb to have it in black bars since it'll keep coming up in the thread. If you make it to the end of the final dungeon in twelve hours, your reward is the Excalibur II, Steiner's super-secret ultimate weapon. It's absolutely not essential in any way, just a nice perk if you're willing to go for it. Of course, it's a pain in the ass to go for it, especially for those in PAL regions where the timing differences makes it even difficult, especially if you don't use the trick of opening your PS1 lid during FMVs to skip them or whatever. And god forbid you're a perfectionist and try a low-level game for Excalibur II while collecting all missibles and limited-quantity items...

Anyway, I'm not doing any of that, so let's rest.

Vivi, you'll be safe with me.

Not much new dialogue.

...Hmm?

This is Innkeeper Hal. In case you haven't noticed, pretty much every NPC in the game has a name and some other descriptor about them because you really should care about each and every character in this game.

Hey, I know she's cute, but it's rude of you to stare.

Oh, no, I wasn't staring at the young lady... Th-The room is through that door...

This is the second time now the stupid innkeeper forgot to charge us for our room, by the way.

But after that he actually charges us now. I'd pay again but I spent most of my money on Wrists for some reason.

The only other different thing is Zidane doesn't want to enter the mayor's house anymore.

Anyway, we've mined all we could from this place, besides the stuff we can't get to until a very brief window in Disc 3 when most people wouldn't even bother thinking of returning. Let's leave.

WIND NOISES