Final Fantasy IX

Part 30

Last time, we made it to Treno finally after Dagger and Steiner got lost in the woods for seven months. Dagger enjoyed all the sights Treno had to offer, such as muggings and drunks. Now she's back with Steiner and we're ready to get that Supersoft.

But first, let's get a few more things out of the way. First off, we can now visit the Auction House.

For each auction, there are four items up, one at a time. If you don't like them, you can simply leave and re-enter to refresh the list.

Some items are Rare Items that seemingly are just for show. However, some of these can be resold for profit.

Mini-Cid isn't one of those, it's just there to look cool in your inventory.

During the bidding, people will make bids. Surprised?

Unlike FF6, you can bid at any time. There's not really a point in doing so until the end of the auction, though.

Each item has a rough range that it will sell for. Mini-Cid's approximate price is 1600, so we overpaid a good bit for it. On the other hand, I'm fucking rich and exploiting the hell out of the game's economy, so I don't mind overpaying a few hundred gil.

That's...rather messed up.

Next up, I get Doga's Artifact for 6900 gil.

In FF3, Doga is one of the three great students of the ancient mage Noah. He has the gift of magic and helps you in that game transform one of your numerous airships into a submarine. He's also kind of a dick. The dreams thing is also a reference to another character in that game.

Une is another of the students of Noah. She rules the realm of Dreams and you end up waking her up so you can get the Invincible, yet another airship (seriously you get four different airships in FF3). Also you have to murder Doga and Une to open the path to the final dungeon because plot.

Coincidentally, the third student of Noah is Xande, whose gift was mortality. This understandably pissed him off so much that he flooded the world and pretty much fucked a lot of shit up that your party has to fix. He's the main villain of the story even though no one remembers he even exists since Cloud of Darkness is a more memorable final boss.

Anyway, you can resell these two, and they also have a neat easter egg we'll see much later. If you sell one of the rare items, you can always buy it back in a later auction.

For 13500 gil, we buy something that actually isn't a rare item.

Reflect bounces certain spells off the targeted character, which can be useful at times of course. Auto-Reflect takes it a step further and as a passive always gives you Reflect. Distract is a passive for Zidane, Steiner, and Freya that reduces the accuracy of enemy physical attacks targeting them by 50%. Not a bad buy, and more importantly buying this unlocks another item.

7200 gil for this. The Griffin is the thing in the weapon shop, and we'll get to that shortly.

9000 gil nets us Fairy Earrings. These boost wind damage and Spirit, but also give some neat abilities. None of our characters can learn Regen, but everyone can learn Level Up, which increases EXP gain by a nice 50%, and Body Temp, which grants immunity to Heat and Freeze.

5100 gil for this. Guardian Mog is again an ability none of our six characters can learn. The other two we've covered before. The ring itself absorbs Ice and boosts Spirit so it's not so bad.

16900 gil. Female-exclusive. Requires the Reflect Ring to be bought first before it's available. Halves Holy damage, boosts Water damage, gives nice gains to Magic (+2) and Spirit (+4). Loudmouth prevents Silence. Reflect-Null is very nice in that it lets the person with it equipped ignore Reflect. Thus Dagger could cast Reflect on someone and still heal them. Very nice item.

We've pretty much cleaned the auction house out for now, so let's take on that monster.

Are you sure? I can't guarantee your safety.

Steiner of course.

This is the Griffin.

This beast has some powerful attacks. You'll want a good plan to beat this guy this early.

This is not a good plan. Relying on your HP to be low to deal damage is a fool's plan. Steiner, you're a fool.

The Griffin also has some powerful wind attacks.

Steiner stood no chance.

At least we don't Game Over from this.

HELL NO

Thank you! I've been looking all over for it!

Made a decent profit from this one. Like I need more money, I was sitting at 85k even after all my auction house shopping.

There are four new items to get at the Synthesis Shop. The Germinas Boots (Desert Boots + Fork) we already got from a Chocograph, and the Coral Ring (Lightning Staff + Rod) from letting Freya win the Festival of the Hunt.

The Cachusha (Magus Hat + Rubber Helm) is a female-only hairpiece that boosts Fire Damage and boosts Magic, Spirit, and Speed. It teaches Bright Eyes (Blind immunity), the Life spell for Dagger, and Ability Up, which doubles AP for that character.

The Gold Choker (Linen Cuirass + Soft) halves wind damage and boosts Shadow damage. It lets Dagger learn Shell and also teaches characters Auto-Potion and Zidane Flee-Gil.

There's also this fountain where you can buy happiness. We're rich enough to buy all the happiness in the entire world and then sell it to the people for a nice profit.

Also doing this 13 times nets us another Stellazzio. Gemini should have probably come up with a better plan than "Sing a song and hope she randomly shows up and hears it."

So, what's the deal with these Stellazzio anyway? Well, we can finally do something about them!

This is Queen Stella.

We turn in Stellazzio for rewards.

Oh, you are most kind! Now, give it to me!

Then she locks the poor Stellazzio into cages.

<Quack! Quack! Quack!> You may take the reward from my servant!

Every odd Stellazzio gets you an increasing amount of Gil. 1 Stellazzio nets us 1000, 3 gives 2000, and 5 gives 5000.

Our reward for 2 is a Phoenix Pinion. 4 is the big get right now, netting Steiner a Blood Sword.

Looks like we've got a few more to go!

The Blood Sword works just like it does in the other FF games, where it steals the HP of the target it hits and heals the user. And of course it heals the undead and hurts Steiner if used on them. It's a lot better in this game because unlike other FF games, the Blood Sword has no other downsides like terrible accuracy or large stat penalties.

Darkside deals Shadow-elemental damage and has a slight damage boost, plus ignores Protect and whether Steiner is Mini'd. On the downside, it costs 1/8 of Steiner's max HP to use. It's situational.

Please stop giving me money game (no don't).

With the Blood Sword in hand and Gold Choker on neck, Steiner is much more prepared to fight the Griffin now.

Now Steiner hits much harder and heals to full every round. This makes the fight insanely easier.

And the Gold Choker means Steiner won't get KOed from a simple wind attack.

Thus the Griffin goes from tough as nails to a complete joke.

You earned that smugness, sir.

Oh fuck you.

Alright, we're done with this city for now. Let's advance the plot.

Good! At last, we can save Blank! When do we leave?

We can leave right away. So you're coming along, huh?

Hell yeah we are!

Let's go.

Boss? You mean...

Yup, there's only one man we call 'Boss."

I need to make sure you don't steal anything else.

Let's go.

Dammit! I am coming along. It is my duty to protect the princess from bad influence!

Do whatever you want...

Don't you talk back to me! I am escorting the princess-

...you ain't changed. Do you even know why you're here?

Wh-What do you mean!?

As you may have noticed, Steiner's a bit too focused on his job and duty. It's pretty clear his intentions are noble, but he's perhaps too wrapped up in his sense of honor and duty to really see what's going on with Queen Brahne, unlike say everybody else.

BUT FIRST

This is the song that usually plays with stuff involving Kuja. It's definitely quite something.

They offend my senses.

It's not over yet. The rest of the vermin must be done away with.

Will you be heading to Cleyra, then?

I'm mainly showing this off because this is the rare instance of a video game using an actual semicolon.

By the way, did you see a pretty lady in the crowd today?

A pretty lady? Shall I arrange a meeting?

There's no need. The canary I've been after... She flew into my cage of her own free will.

Yeah seriously. But he's not stopping there.

Fly home to your mother, my little canary.

SILENCE

Kuja really gets into his metaphors.

BOAT SOUNDS

No... I must be patient.

Trust the queen. She would never commit an atrocity. There must be a good reason.

Nonsense. How can I, a lowly knight, understand the queen's thinking? I need not worry about the ramblings of a criminal. Just think about escorting the princess home.

Steiner's starting to have doubts, whether he'll admit it or not, but is too stubborn, resolute, and loyal to question what is going on. Queen Brahne has always led Alexandria well, so she must have very good reasons for doing the things she's doing. It's really nice that the game takes even the oafish comic relief's motivations and convinctions seriously. He's clearly about to undergo a crisis of faith in a nation he holds dear to him and the game treats it seriously, no matter how much of a punchline he serves to the story. Yes, even Adelbert Steiner has depth to him.

...I wouldn't be here hunting after Supersoft to save one of your friends.

Because Blank saved me? Yes, he saved me. He saved my life... The least I can do is return the favor...

Dagger, meanwhile, relents her captain duties to muse over just how she came to be in this situation. Why yes, it must be merely to repay the debt she owes Blank for saving her life. It certainly has nothing to do with Zidane, right?

SILENCE