Part 22

Everyone's excited, so let's get to the best minigame.







This is the Ragtime Mouse. He'll only encounter you in forests. In fact, there's a trick where you can repeatedly tap a direction to only encounter him.





These are his friends, True and False.



Unlike regular battles, the Ragtime Mouse instead challenges your memory.







So you have ~20 seconds to attack True or False, depending on what answer you think is correct. You could also attack the Ragtime Mouse but he wouldn't be too happy with that.



The correct answer is false. I tried to find an in-game source but no luck. Closest I could find:


The 9th war was in 1389. While it's certainly possible there was six more wars in 200 years, it's probably unlikely. It's probably mentioned somewhere explicitly though in-game.





Attack the correct answer and you get it right.



There's a gil reward for being right, and it increases the more answers you get right.



There are further rewards for getting a lot of answers right down the line.

There are four questions we get access to in Disc 1. I'll go ahead and cover those now.





I also couldn't find any source for this, though I'm fairly confident it's been mentioned in the LP so far.

Anyway, this is also false.



Next question.





Now this I'm not sure we've seen mentioned. However, Artania is the minister of Lindblum and doesn't seem to have any relation to airships or the manufacturing of such, so this is also wrong.

Last question.





That is correct, actually.



After you get three questions right, the reward increases to 2000 gil.



That's all we can ask for now, though.

Anyway, we're done for now with the best minigame. We've got just one more thing to check out before we start the next dungeon.



This is where Baku and the others were during that ATE in Lindblum.

RIVER SOUNDS



The main reason to come here is to take some coffee Cinna forgot about.



This is one of the three coffees we can give Morrid. This is important because otherwise we can't get a model airship that does nothing but look cool.





We can also heal up here.



And there's an Ether lying around.

Alright. That's it. There's nothing else. We're ready to...oh wait.



There's also some fucking bird forest but who cares.









I'm Mene, master of this forest! This chocobo is my friend, kupo. His name is Choco.
Kweeeh!
And this is...



Welcome to Chocobo's Forest. This place is pretty important if you want to break the game.



Not that Zidane gives a shit about all that, of course.

No. But ugly girl came by here.
Oh... I guess she didn't come this way. Maybe she's heading toward Burmecia after all... I'd better get movin'.
You in a hurry, kupo?
Yeah, sort of.



Choco, come here.
It's okay. Don't force him...
No. If Choco hates, Choco runs away.







Welp.

Fine. I'll just get to the point, kupo.



Find chocobo footprints near the forest, kupo. Use Gysahl Greens there, and Choco will come.



Come back to this forest after you call him in the world. I'll tell you a big secret, kupo.





So first you look for footprints in the overworld such as these.



Then you use Gysahl Greens, which conveniently also cure Berserk in battle.





And there you go, a chocobo! Unlike other games, Choco doesn't leave when you get off him, so you can ride him again if you desire. And you can always use Gysahl Greens to resummon him.

There is a theme for riding Choco, but patience.



Kweeeh!!!



Now we can learn the big secret and buy Gysahl Greens.



They're 80 gil each, and you should never bother buying them.

Why? Well, it has to do with the big secret, kupo!



Did you know, kupo? Once chocobo chooses its master, it follows him forever. Choco ran away from his last master. That guy was mean. Choco didn't like him, kupo... I helped Choco escape. Now, we're living together, kupo.



Choco has ability to seek out treasures and items hidden underground. But I can't ride chocobos. Will you help me, kupo? 60 Gil per game, and you keep all the items Choco digs up!



The items you get from this game are usually worth way more than the 60 Gil you pay, so there's no reason not to.



Okay! Let's give it try, kupo!







Chocobo Hot & Cold is exactly what it sounds like. You peck around until you get a "Kweh!?" or better, then eventually home in on the item until you find the spot, then peck repeatedly until it's dug up.



Kweh. means you're cold.



Kwehhh!? means you're close. That said, the worst part of this game is you can peck around for 30-something seconds trying to find the damn item because you aren't precise enough. It's pretty frustrating when you know the item is just god damn here I've followed the clues just give it to me god dammit.



Once you do find it, you attack the ground.



Each peck does a certain amount of damage to the ground. Once you get the ground to 0HP, you get the item.



There are a ton of consumables you can get here, including higher-end ones like Remedies and Phoenix Pinions. You will also get tons of Gysahl Greens, which is why you should never actively buy them (I ended up with over 30 after playing this game enough times).

Those are all nice, but the big get is this stone.



Also, each item gives you points. These stones give more, while consumables give only a couple points. You get bonus points for finding stones and for finding a new item within five seconds of your last item. There's also bonuses if you get four items in a row. As for what points actually do, I'll explain those in a bit.



Digging enough will level up your beak. Each level adds one attack to your beak, so now Choco does eight damage to the ground instead of six with his L1 beak.



You can only find one stone per game. Antidotes and its ilk are much more common and what you'll usually get playing this game.



The game ends after 60 seconds. 20 points + 5 bonus for the stone, 1 for the Antidote. The stone gained us two beak levels, though.

This is all important because





Can I see? Kupo?



This place must have tons of treasures... Why don't you go out of the forest and look for this place? Kupo? It's free of charge, of course.



Finding treasure in the overworld is similar to playing Hot & Cold in the forest, except obviously with a bigger search area.



...Chocograph?
I think Choco's been searching for something all his life. There must be tons of treasures, kupo! You might find some cards, so you should leave some room in your card inventory, kupo!

So Chocobo Hot & Cold itself is fun and a nice way to get some items, but that's only part of it. The real meat comes from these Chocographs.





The picture and the text will give you a clue as to where you should look. Fortunately, when you do a Chocograph it'll leave the picture on the overworld as a handy reference.

Anyway, let's get exploring with this game's chocobo theme!





This is by far the chillest chocobo theme in the series, so enjoy it.



If you want, you can also access chocographs in the world map, which is handy.



The world map's actually a bit more forgiving with positioning than the forest.



Once you find the spot, you get the treasure. Unlike in the forest, the treasure here is always set. And there's usually a lot to go around.





For instance, the very first chest has two Elixirs, three Hi-Potions, four Ethers, and two Germinas Boots. These boots teach Flee, Alert (prevent back attacks), and HP +10% (HP +10%), and they also raise damage of any earth attacks you may use. Not too shabby a haul.





Now, about points.

This is service I offer, kupo! I'll give you point for each item you find. Exchange points for items when you save up enough!



Pretty simple. The expensive stuff is really useful end-game gear, but good luck getting enough points before the end-game.

Anyway, a bit more about Hot & Cold.





I'll double the points from here! I'll give you 10 extra seconds! Good luck, kupo!

If we get four items in 60 seconds, we gain 10 more seconds and any points we gain at that point are doubled. Pretty nice if you luck into a good run. The game immediately ends if you hit eight items though (not that I've ever managed to get eight).



There are nine Chocographs available to dig up, though right now we can only access two, including the one we already dug up.

Chocographs will be greyed out if you don't have the right abilities. You can see this in the bottom right window. Yes, Choco can gain abilities. More on that in a later update.



You can also hit select on a clue for a further hint. Most are more helpful than this, of course.

The icon has an open chest if you've already found it.



This one isn't accessible right now, sadly.



This is the second we can reach, so let's do so.





The reward here is five Potions, five Hi-Potions, two Tents, and two Cotton Robes. Since we just synthed 99 Cotton Robes and the best get is Hi-Potions...meh.



Oh, there's also Chocograph Pieces.



Can I see, kupo? It's a fragment of Chocograph, kupo. There's something carved on back. It's faded, kupo... I'll put it in Key under your Item Menu. Take a look, kupo. I think you're supposed to collect the pieces until you complete one Chocograph! Kupo!



I want to say this is a reference, but it doesn't seem to reference anything I can remember.



Eventually I play long enough to dig up all the available chocographs. Thankfully Mene will tell you when there's nothing left to dig up. It's good to dig up certain ones before heading on.



Anyway, we're finally done with side quests. Next time, Gizamaluke Grotto!