Final Fantasy IX

Part 44

This update was fun to record. Had to restart three times and after I finally got a groove going a power outage corrupted my video and I had to spend several hours recovering it. Fun times.

Anyway, this is Yeti.

I love this guy.

He's also kind of a greedy ass and wants two Ores. I have too damn many of the things so why not.

The Friendly Creatures start out spread out, but then you have three pretty close to each other. We'll meet Nymph in a couple of updates.

20AP and an Elixir. Pretty sweet deal!

Blazer Beetles are damn boring and not worth talking about.

So I just throw Stop on it and instantly kill it.

There's a pretty large chunk of plot here, so much so I had to split this into two updates. But most of the Outer Continent is pretty chill plot stuff and we do have a bit of mystery about our new party member who just so happens to summon eidolons.

This is my home: Madain Sari!

So Eiko lives in a ruined village. The music pretty well matches the atmosphere here as well.

Mocha! Moco! Chimomo!

Momatose! Morrison!

She's not alone, however. She does have moogle friends, apparently.

No... Mog got eaten!?

Mog flies in from right behind that right monument.

No, I'm not mad. But don't ever leave me behind again, okay?

Kupo! Yes, ma'am.

Kupo!

Okay, come on!

Kupo!

Yup! Mog always stays with me.

Yep, this is a thing that happens a lot around this area. Mog can apparently shrink at will because, well, why not?

Tell me more about yourself! Tell me!

Sure. I wanna know more about you, too, Eiko.

Really!?

No, what I wanna know is...

-----

What's wrong? You look dazed.

Oh, it's nothing.

Do you have a fever?

You're fine. Hey, are you jealous?

Why would I be jealous?

Well...

So? What are you guys?

A team...?

Yeah.

Is it sort of like me and the moogles?

Something like that.

Thanks, Mocha! I'll be right there!

There's still stuff I want to ask her. Let's accept her invitation.

Okay...

Now we can explore and get a handle where our party's thoughts are at right now. First, let's check in with Vivi.

FADE TO WIND SOUNDS

But it's only because I thought stopping was different from dying... I don't think I really understand what it means to live and to die.

If that's what it means to live... I wonder where I came from...? Where will I end up when I die...?

What is it that I'm feeling...?

Vivi's still dealing with the things he learned in Black Mage Village. Any adult in his position would be struggling for answers, let alone someone with a kid's mentality. There's really no easy answers here, of course. But we'll get back to this in due time.

There's a Stellazzio here as well.

Probably not?

What's up? Is something wrong?

Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking...

...Well, try not to think too much. Get some rest.

Okay. Thanks, Zidane.

Not much we can do with Vivi right now. Let's check in with Dagger instead.

I read about them in a book once... A tribe that possesses the power to call forth eidolons...

Knowing that I had eidolons inside me didn't bring me any joy. Mother imprisoned me...used the eidolons she stole from me as tools of war. I thought I would kill my eidolons if Kuja was going to use them for war...

Why am I thinking all this now...?

Dagger's also dealing with some heavy stuff right now. She's trying to reclaim her eidolons, and we know why Brahne and Kuja wanted them, but we've never really wondered why she has them. Now that she's come here, her powers weigh on her mind more than ever. This was a village of summoners, after all, and we haven't seen anyone else use summons besides Dagger, Eiko, and Brahne (who uses the eidolons extracted from Dagger, of course). Could there be some answers for Dagger here, perhaps how to better harnass her power, or even why she has that power in the first place?

It must've been like this for at least ten years.

Zidane meanwhile whines about dinner.

Eiko's ATE at least is a lot more lighthearted, though with some light bullshit as well.

But here's where the real challenge begins!

Dagger has been slow to catch on to Zidane's moves.

I don't think it's that so much as she's not really won over by them.

As you've probably noticed by now, Eiko has a crush on Zidane. Of course only a six-year-old would be impressed by Zidane's over-the-top facade. It's kinda cute in a way.

But Eiko screws up a lot when she cooks. We don't have much food in stock right now...

Kupopo...

Kupo... I'm sleepy!

I'm gonna cook my specialty: rock-fisted potato stew!

But the last one you made tasted so bad, I thought my pompom would fall off...

Just stew?

Yeah, I think I need another dish. What do you guys think?

Kupo. How about some fish? Fresh fish tastes great barbecued.

......

That sounds good!

Let's see...

Eiko has several ATE's where you can make choices to affect how successful the dinner is. The reward for picking optimally is more plot, no items or anything like that. Still gonna be optimal, of course.

There's a specific moogle to send for each chore, but honestly I don't know how you'd know which one to send. But Momatose is the one that goes fishing.

Go, Momatose!

Kupo!

Mocha digs up potatoes...

...and Chimomo does kitchen duty.

I don't know, maybe they give dialogue hints if you choose wrong? Beats me.

I don't wanna be alone anymore.

Of course, there's more to this than infatuation. We haven't seen only moogles here for no reason.

Vivi and Dagger aren't very talkative, so let's explore the last area of this place.

Restricted? What's that, then?

Zidane, this place only rocks and sand. I eat star sand once, but sand here not food.

Hey, don't take it so hard. S/he's a special case.

Anyway, we're not getting in quite yet.

I'll take you to the Eidolon Wall in the meantime. Please follow me.

So that place we couldn't get into, we'll get into next update. For now, let's close things off with another Eiko ATE.

There's me and Zidane. There's that quiet boy, Vivi... I guess I should cook for Dagger, too. And all you guys: Mog, Moco, Mocha, Chimomo, Momatose, and Morrison!

Kupo!

Four party members plus six moogles equals ten. However, Eiko doesn't realize that Quina's now lurking around here, so the correct answer is actually 11.