Final Fantasy IX

Part 36

The world is fucking nuts, and here I am writing an update on a Friday night.

Anyway, we've got Dagger so no more countdown timer but we still need to get the hell out of here. But not before we do more Mognet.

What could Princess Garnet and Queen Brahne be thinking? Kupo! I don't understand how the royal family thinks...

Yeah let's chill a bit first.

Anyway the walk back up to Queen Brahne's bedroom is so uneventful I took no screenshots of it so let's skip to it.

Why have you done this...!? I have devoted my whole life to serving you and the princess...!

The truth has finally hit Steiner, and damn is it hitting him hard, so much so that even Zidane isn't giving him shit. Hell, this might be the first time he didn't call him "Rusty."

Do you think she'll ever wake up?

Of course. She's asleep because she's tired. That's all.

FADE TO SILENCE

Zidane doesn't even wait for a response. He's as emotionally spent as everyone else right now. Except Vivi, compared to the shit he's been through this is just a walk in the park.

What happened to you? You are not your usual self.

I can't...

I can't even shed a tear...

......

There is no escape!

Where have you been all this time?

This is battle #3 with Beatrix.

The deal is the exact same as the first two. If you don't deplete her HP, the battle will automatically end after a number of rounds. Same strategy as the others too, try to go for steals before the battle ends.

She still hits like a truck but is still manageable enough.

Geez, another one of these.

Her Semi-Rare steal is the Survival Vest, important since it teaches Mug to Zidane (deal damage while stealing) as well as Antibody and Locomotion (prevents Stop, which as a reminder is essentially instant death in this game). I don't grab it because screw save-scumming for it.

And oh hey, she ends yet another battle reducing everyone to single-digit HP! Though at least this time she uses one of Cloud's limit breaks.

And for the second time in a row it triggers a worthless Trance. Holy crap Trance blows.

...Hey, wait a minute... You're the general of this kingdom.

Isn't it to protect Dagger--your Princess Garnet?

Princess...

The queen really did mean to kill her...

WHAT!?

Steiner, it is time for you to accept the truth.

All this time, I have been mistaken...

I hate to say this, but the lady's right, Rusty. You'd better learn to accept it.

...But you can still save Dagger.

Freya...

I tell you this because I acknowledge your powers.

I don't know if I can...but I will give it a try.

Irrevocable is the spell we have cast!

It is useless!

Princess, are you alright?

...Ohh, my head... What happened...?

So Dagger is back to normal, relatively speaking, and Beatrix is temporarily not kicking our asses. About time we caught a break.

Have you extracted all the eidolons from her?

We have, Your Majesty!

Yes, Your Majesty!

Oh? Are you defying me as well?

Your Majesty, it is my duty to protect the princess. I beg you, reconsider. Please do not harm the princess anymore.

You two are joining forces? How amusing...

Mother!

Don't worry.

AWWWWW WHO'S A CUTE MUTANT CREEPDOG CERTAINLY NOT YOU YOU UGLY FUCK

For this battle, we get control of Freya and BEATRIX. Yes, now WE are the ass-kickers!

Seiken is all the badass moves she used before on us. They're all pretty expensive MP-wise so despite being so damn cool it may not be the wisest idea to actually use them.

Beatrix also has a good array of White Magic, including Holy.

Honestly, the wisest thing to do is stick Beatrix with physical attacks and Cura. But if you must use Shock or Climhazzard, well, I'll forgive it just this once.

These giant doomdogs are pretty fragile, one attack each from Beatrix and Freya will take it out. Girl Power!

Speaking of girl power, now we can gear-up Dagger. I give her the Multina Racket so she can learn those abilities before later going to the Stardust Rod. And whatever armor I give her, there's too many damn abilities now for me to really keep track of all this.

Act quickly to evade this guy.

Dammit!

Type C's...aren't really any different from Type B's. I don't even know if you fight any outside this one battle (if you do don't spoil it I want to be surprised).

Apparently I mastered the Mage Staff so a quick detour to get Sleep before I start the Lightning Staff and then finally get caught up with all the Black Magic spells I'll never use until more come.

Actually I use a good variety, Blizzara is great with Magus Hat boosting it, Bio's great in general, Drain is useful if Vivi is low on HP, and the status effects can be useful depending on the enemy.

Zidane and company then have to fight two gleedogs, no biggie with four people.

Especially since Blizzara is so sweet.

What's the matter?

Beatrix served the queen all these years, and now she is turning against her... Freya lost her comrades, yet she insists on protecting the princess...

What? Why are you goin' formal all of a sudden?

I want you to escort the princess out of Alexandria and take her to Doctor Tot. I'm sure Doctor Tot can come up with a plan to help us and our kingdom.

Piece of cake. I'm an escape artist.

Don't worry, Steiner. We'll get her there.

Zidane, Master Vivi, I'm counting on you.

It's kinda hard to notice with everything else going on, but if you look closely you can actually see Zidane and Steiner forming respect for each other. Steiner's stopped treating Zidane like a low-life, Zidane's actually calling Steiner by his real name. They irritate each other initially, but when shit gets real they have the same priorities and values. They both want to do what's right.

Everybody is fighting for me...

That's right.

They're moving forward, giving everything they've got! So we have to move on, just like they are. We can't stop now!

Uh Dagger there's a reason why we need to keep going what with all these weird mutantdogs chasing us constantly.

Not that it matters since Vivi's a god damn busta who can one-shot these weenisdogs.

What do you think!?

It's not going to be easy...

Now, you may think, oh, two barfdogs, no big deal, we've got fucking Beatrix.

This can actually be tricky since they can gang up on one member, especially since they can lick people to Sleep. This is why you want to actually preserve MP for Cura rather than spam Seiken Densetsu moves with Beatrix's miserable MP pool.

This fight was a bit tough due to getting sleep-locked but the duo pull it off in impressive fashion.

Beatrix! Freya!

Grant me the honor of assisting you brave knights!

We fight two more dogdogs but we've got one more body to get licked to slumbertime so it's easier.

Also here's Beatrix flipping her hair for her victory pose because she'd rather look glamorous than keep her hair out of her one good eye. Not that I can blame her, if you're as damn powerful as Beatrix you might as well look good kicking ass.

Anyway, that's gonna be the last we see of Beatrix and company for awhile. For now, we'll focus on Zidane, Dagger, and Vivi.

And moogle mail, the most important of sidequests.

Really stupid, they are!

To be fair, only Dagger knew about the trap and she probably didn't expect to be caught again plus she's kinda distracted but whatever.

Bastards, we may be, but clever are we.

Hee-hee-heee.

Blank!

-----

We've gotta hurry! Zidane and Dagger are in trouble!

Who's Dagger? Zidane's new girl?

What? You don't know?

Know what? What are you talking about?

-----

Man, I love you guys!

Blank... Marcus...

Get out of here! We'll take care of this! There's more bad guys coming!

I owe you guys big-time!

FADE TO SILENCE

Dagger? Are you alright?

......

Forget I asked. I'm sure you have a lot on your mind...

...We're riding this thing?

Yeah. Let's get going. We have no time to waste.

I...I don't know what to do anymore...

Yeah, they're fighting for you, but also, they know, deep down inside, that they have to fight!

Sometimes, you can't think everything out. You have to listen to your heart.

Another classic ~~Jeff Winger~~ Zidane speech. But yeah, Dagger is important but this thing is so much bigger than her at the same time. Brahne destroyed Burmecia and eradicated Cleyra. Lindblum and the rest of the world could ultimately fall victim to Brahne and Kuja. It's more than simply saving Dagger, all of our heroes are coming together to fight to save the world from a mad woman. Of course, our current trio still have their roles to play. Of course, those roles remain to be seen but that can wait until after we ride this carriage ferried by a giant ceiling-clinging bug.

We're going to Treno. We'll stay there for the time being and try to figure out our next move.

......

That's-

I think this one's different from the one I ran into! Be careful!

This is Ralvuimago, not Ralvurahva like the previous iteration that simply ran away. I don't know whether it's an evolved form of the previous monster or something completely different or whatever the hell.

It has physical attacks, it can cast Thundara, it can even inflict Mini.

However, this thing can be trivialized simply by using physical attacks.

It'll counter physical attacks by coiling up. This boosts its defense, and further attacks will result in an earth-based counterattack. Float nullifies it, or you could simply not attack it during this phase. More importantly, it won't initiate attacks in this phase either. It also won't counter non-damage attacks, so you can debuff it and steal from it with impunity, making stealing from this boss pretty convenient compared to the last three Beatrix battles.

It's vulnerable to Blind and Slow in case you want to use those on it.

As for steals, the Semi-Rare is the Oak Staff, which would be a huge get if we didn't get one from a Chocograph back at Disc 1. The Uncommon Steal is new though, an Adaman Vest that halves Fire damage and teaches Bird Killer and Stone Killer. It's not a bad get.