Final Fantasy IX

Part 16

Yes, but...

I'm not surprised <gwok-gwok>. They loved each other so much...

We haven't spoken much lately. Also, a suspicious man has been prowling around the castle. I don't know what's going on anymore... I fear that she might be planning something terrible. I've brought this matter to everybody's attention, but no one has taken me seriously. They all think I'm distraught over losing Father...

At this point, I think you're the only person Mother will listen to... When I heard that Lindblum's theater ship was coming to Alexandria, I decided to sneak on board and come here no matter what. I just never expected the crew to kidnap me...

-----

We've known about the disturbances in Alexandria for some time. But had we acted directly, it would've started a war. So, I asked Baku for help. He and I go way back.

We were <gwok> forced to take action, because we knew Alexandria would never seek our help. I'm relieved we were able to get you here.

-----

On top of that, they were being created under Alexandria's supervision. I don't know how they're related to Vivi, but if Mother is planning to use them for war...

We won't let that happen. Even if she were to command an army of black mages, she won't make a move as long as we have our airship fleet. Don't worry <gwok-gwok>. Everything will be fine.

I'm so sorry, Uncle.

Now, now, come on. Don't be so formal.

Thank you so much.

Dagger knows a lot more about what's going on than most people in her position probably would. As does Cid apparently. I also love how the ruler of probably the strongest nation in the world is buds with the head of a thieves' guild. Which, of course, comes in handy for delicate situations such as these.

The heart and soul of Lindblum: our airship dock. This is Dock No. 1, where we conduct our research <gwok>.

But...where are the airships?

We had a new airship model in here about 6 months ago. It was our latest creation: it didn't require Mist to fly.

It's been established in various NPC dialogue, but all airships run on Mist, which is some mysterious fog that corrupts monsters and is generally unsafe to live in for video game reasons. Having an airship that doesn't run on Mist is a big deal, especially since only the continent we're currently on has Mist, meaning airships cannot access the world outside this continent. A Mist-free airship would allow access to the rest of an essentially unknown world, ushering in a new era of discovery for these nations.

Too bad it's been stolen.

The man who attacked you-was he the one who ran off with it?

When Hilda found out about my little affair, she used her magic and turned me into an oglop. Then she stormed off in the new airship, which I named Hilda Garde. Pretty ironic, eh?

Yeah, one of the biggest technological achievements in this world's history was lost because Cid couldn't keep it in his pants.

And no, despite the structure of the previous sentence I'm not referring to Cid's penis as a big technological achievement.

She hasn't been back since <gwok>.

I'm hopeless... But that doesn't mean I can't help you. I'll do my best for Alexandria.

Thank you... But with South Gate badly damaged, I don't know how we can get to Alexandria...

Don't worry. South Gate is being repaired as we speak. Once the repairs are finished, we'll go to Alexandria.

Yes. I'm sure Mother will finally open her eyes to the truth.

Uncle, is something wrong?

Huh? No, I was just thinking...about how the theater ship crashed. Baku sure has good men working under him...

-----

Speaking of good men working under Baku, here's that jerk that quit the other day.

You're up early.

Lindblum is really a busy place. I've never seen this many people before. I wonder where people go if they wanna be alone...

Lindblum has always been like this. People come here from all over the world.

Wow...

I don't even remember why I came here my first time. Before I knew it, I was living here with my Tantalus brothers.

Do they still live here?

I'm gonna go there right now. Do you wanna come along?

Um, that's okay. I'm gonna go look around town.

Okay. Then I'll give you a little tour.

...No, that's okay. I can go by myself.

Vivi understandably has no interest in Zidane giving him a tour of Lindblum's red light district.

So this is a great segue to talk about synthesis.

That's synthesis.

That's not until the very end of the game though so by the time that's relevant you'll have completely forgotten about it.

Your friend is starting a mini-theater? Sounds like fun, kupo!

At least Ruby is taking the whole "abandoned by her friends" thing in stride.

So, as you probably expect by now, there's a ton of little details in Lindblum.

The thing is, this place is huge. There's three districts, with this one being five or so hub screens connecting to various locations. In fact, there's so much in this district that I'll only be showing this one off this update.

But first, let's get our fill of Steiner antics.

Geez... You're dressed awful funny.

...I am Captain Adelbert Steiner of Alexandria, and I humbly request your assistance to get back to the castle.

Ha-ha-ha! That's a new one!

You should really scrape that rust off. It's disgusting.

Maybe Steiner could pick up some tips from Zidane in how to strike out in style.

I think you need a new line. A little shine wouldn't hurt, either.

They're called gysahl pickles. They're one of Lindblum's delicacies. Do you wanna try one?

...It smells terrible!

The worse they smell, the better they taste.

I guess I'll try one.

Oh, my. Even the locals don't eat them in one bite.

Oh, Steiner.

I'm going to talk to every NPC in this part of the city. If you're not interested in NPC chatter, you'll probably want to skip to the end of the update since that's what most of this update will be.

When I grow up, I'm gonna fly with Papa.

I can't wait.

Her papa will actually come back in the middle of me faffing around this area, so we'll see the family reunited in just a bit.

Back in the old days, we had to walk all the way to the Theater District. I don't think I could ever walk that far anymore. I'd probably croak if I did.

Also, we just met two NPCs named Elena and Locke, which are also the names of two characters from previous FF games, though neither NPC really matches the named character. I think they named these characters just to fuck with my head.

Who do you think's gonna win? I'm puttin' my money on Ivan.

Yeah, he's good, but I heard a female dragon knight's participating this year.

I'll bet you two cheeseburgers Ivan's gonna win!

Okay, you're on!

Cheeseburgers are a thing that exist in Final Fantasy IX. Also, I can't see this conversation without thinking of an image from this Let's Play.

We can talk to the soldiers separately now, so I am going to do so because it's important for emotional context.

You're entering the festival? Man, you're so lucky. Soldiers aren't allowed to participate.

Are you ready for the festival? If you need to buy anything, you'd better take care of it now. All the shops are closed during the event.

As you probably expected, despite Zidane saying he wasn't going to participate in the festival, Zidane is going to participate in the festival.

I'm trying to remember what I have to do!

Talk to him again...

Oh yeah!

~~I could not find any artwork even close to this guy. Giant purple fish-ish face I think? I don't even know what this guy is, but I spent around thirty minutes poking around with no luck. Meh.~~ This is a fish-man, but no fish-man art exists. There does exist art for regular fish, so close enough.

The screen to the north is where Steiner was and is just another hub.

I demand the finest ingredients for all of my dishes.

Gysahl pickles are good, but they smell really bad.

What a bummer. I hate buying gifts... I was thinking of buying some oglop oil, but it's so disgusting.

Let's check out the house right next to us.

Nope.

Seems Cid also owns a publishing house whose work includes card magazines. Makes sense.

There's a bird house inside this clock. Yet another meaningless stupid detail that adds charm to this game.

There's more flavor stuff to the north.

My father gets injured every year.

It's been here since before the city was even built, when this entire area was a forest. I don't know why, but this church began the Festival of the Hunt tradition.

Next to us is a church. Since this is a Final Fantasy game, it must be run by someone evil.

Nah, this is actually one of those rare jRPGs where religion is just there as more flavor.

Let's go bother the people praying.

I swear! She sleeps everywhere.

Cid I built this church to pass on the tradition of the festival.

It is a way of life. It draws on your deepest strength and redefines courage. Be aware.

So releasing a bunch of monsters in the city that could potentially kill innocent citizens just so people can kill the monsters is closely tied to this region's religion. Sounds about right.

The tradition of the festival began around that time.

I half-wish all the NPCs simply barked.

Next up is this section where all the shops are.

I'm gonna win for sure.

I'm carrying a lot of nice pots right now.

This is the weapon store, of course.

Let's go to another store.

In a minute.

Geez...

This is a reference to that most famous of Final Fantasy characters, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Pretty much everything we could've stolen by now is available for purchase. There's also a couple new items. Freya can use the Javelin, of course, while the Fork...uh, sure, okay, whatever.

The only new item armor-wise is the Headgear, which teaches Undead Killer. Undead Killer's not as useful as the others because generally stuff like Cure and Fire make short work of them anyway, but it's the only ability so far that takes up only two ability stones, so if you've got some left over it certainly doesn't hurt having.

Next up, this store.

I think Softs are new. They cure petrification, including the gradual kind.

Not too much to this place.

A theater ship blew up and crashed in Alexandria. There's been a lot of commotion in Alexandria lately.

One more place to stop by.

How many times do I have to tell you? A few degrees can make the difference between a good weapon and a bad one.

When is he gonna get it through his head...?

First off, apparently these two characters are named after characters in Parasite Eve. I've never played that game, so use your imagination to establish a connection between the two universes. It'll surely be better than The After Years.

So, the Synthesis shop. This place is a bit different from your usual shop in that you need two items and some cash to create a new item. The stuff here is really nice, with both thief weapons being a step up from the Mythril Knives we have. This is also the first place we can actually buy accessories.

These Cotton Robes sell for a pretty penny. You may understand now why I bought 99 Wrists earlier.

I'm not going to do much synthesis yet because I just have Zidane. I'll hold off on the two weapons because I still have to learn Bandit first.

While a Yellow Scarf would teach some handy new abilities, I'd have to give up a Feather Hat, which you can't buy in Lindblum it seems, and right now the only one I have is on Zidane's head since there's no one else in the party. I'll pick it up later, but the Glass Buckle will do for now. Gives some nice stat boosts too.

Free stuff!

I had them make it out of a frying pan.

Alright, that's it for this area. Let's head back where we began.

Really? How was South Gate?

It was bad. I think it'll take a while to repair it.

I made a traditional Festival of the Hunt dish. I don't know if it's good, but I made plenty of it!

Hey, don't you think my papa's cool? He rides in an airship called the Viltgance.

Finally, let's go south.

Thirty minutes! Man, I can't stand these walls! If only I had an airship...

Man, Red Mages are such entitled babies in this game.

You can enter Lindblum by foot here or through the Dragon's Gate. Normally, we keep the Dragon's Gate closed because it's under the Mist, where a bunch of monsters lurk.