Day 66

Game - Final Fantasy 9, Day 66
Hours Played/Hours Total - 13 hrs / 50-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Oeilvert.
Current Goal - Collect the Gulug Stone for Kuja. Save the rest of the group. Stop Kuja after that and save the world!

What Happened - So...I'm figuring at least 2 more posts and then finished! Unfortunately, that means two more weeks, so I won't be starting FFX until November...Let's look past that and enjoy the post though!
     I went up to the building at Oeilvert. It seemed locked at first, but it mysteriously opened. With it open, I went inside to explore and found out something awful. As Kuja said to me, magic is sealed here. Therefore, two of my party members (Quina and Eiko) were nearly useless here! Luckily, they had decent weapons for this time and were able to do decent damage to the enemies here. I fought through a handful of enemies as I looked about, and I had to resort to items for healing. Luckily, I've been keeping my items almost 100% stocked at 99 each where I was able. The only real downside to the area is this one "mirror" enemy that copies one of your friends to attack you. If it copies someone on hand, that person is killed off instantly, even if you try to revive them! There was quite a bit of nice treasure to find here, and a whole lot of story. You best get ready...that's about the majority that happens throughout this post.
     One room shows off a strange holographic display of a planet along with strange writing. Despite it's weirdness, Zidane seems able to read the writing. It mentions something about "Mother" and "Terra". They ask how he can read it, and he claims it speaks to him more than him reading it. We move on to the next couple of areas, and each one has more holograms telling of things. One group of holograms start talking about ancient ships and their technology. It says something about a prototype battleship called Invincible. The prototype was a failure but an improved version of it is still in use. Another hologram mentions the word "Terra" again and talks about it rising and falling. Eventually, I make it around to a large room with creepy looking faces decorating the walls. I head over to a platform and earn a history lesson.
     They start off saying that the "seeds" decline wasn't their fault. The decay of vegetation and vessels and how the decay of Terra triggered all of it. Multiple methods were considered to stop it, and eventually, the greatest minds got together and attempted a final resuscitation on the mother continent. Unfortunately, that failed and was discovered later to be the catalyst. Subjects were selected and after four massive sacrifices, eternal prosperity seemed within reach. The flora and fauna were revived but remain in stasis. The final results of all this are still pending. The faces say they were constructed so that the history wouldn't die, and thus ends that large history speech. (I didn't write it down as well as I should have, but that's basically what they said.)
     From the history room, I make my way back around to a previous room where I spotted a few moogles. This room had a strange pit in the middle, but after all that other stuff, it changed into a large star chart. It shows two similar looking planets as they combine together. Zidane isn't sure what it means though, so he ignores it for now. From that room, I found a lift that took me downward and deeper inside. At the bottom, there was a strange statue with a weird object in the middle. Obviously, this was the Gulug Stone that Kuja wanted. I grabbed it, but I wasn't to keep it without a fight! BOSS BATTLE TIME! For this boss battle, I have to fight an...airship. I get to fight off a large and somehow living airship. Luckily, I found out that Freya's Dragon abilities don't  count as magic, so I'm allowed to do a little with that. Apart from that, I am forced to strike at the airship with physical attacks and heal whenever I can. I looted a couple of nice items off him as well. All in all...an easy and profitable fight! With the airship taken care of, the group is ready to head back in. Aaaand we switch back over to group two!
     Before getting to them, I get a look in on Kuja. He's already planning to betray his promise to Zidane. The trap to drop the group into the lava will go off in ten minutes. Overhearing this, Cid decides he needs to go do something, so I have fun controlling a little dressed up frog! As I move about, a pair of Black Mages walk by and start talking about the current situation. One of them asks the other if what they are doing is right or not, but the other one says they can't really do anything about it. However, the second one also reveals how the traps are disabled. He mentioned something about "turning them all on". They walk off, and I head the opposite direction of them to turn the trap off. This involves a somewhat humorous mini game with Cid. This would be a lot more fun if I wasn't timed...like 5 minutes!The first step was retrieving a key from a monster's cage. Being as Cid is the size of a frog, the monster was pretty big in comparison to him. I had to slowly but surely sneak up. This took me way longer than it should have, but I eventually got the key. With the key in hand, I needed it to deactivate the trap switch above. Unfortunately, that switch is high up on a shelf. Lucky for Cid, there's a nice little scale set with weights. Using the weights (four made of different material), I had to get the scale to be fully weighed on one side to climb up. It should have been obvious, but I choose the wrong answer the first time. The second guess come up right though. From there, I climbed up, inserted the key, and flipped over a large hourglass. This stopped the traps and opened the other members' doors. Woo!
     The imprisoned members are all released and ready to escape. I form up the team of Steiner, Vivi, Dagger, and Amarant and roll out! It's a fairly balanced team really. Steiner and Amarant offer all physical, Vivi chimes in with powerful magic attacks, and Dagger just heals it up with some summon sauce on the side. It's your basic team really, but there is one flaw. Dagger is still "recovering" from all the trauma that is happening and can't currently speak. In battle, this is reflected by her having a random chance to "not be able to concentrate". Luckily, it didn't happen very often, but it was not a fun factor to have to account for. The place we are in question is known as the Desert Palace (knew so earlier but it finally did the "intro" words.
     While I wander about, I notice there are candles all over. Basically, the majority of this dungeon is candle lighting to get results. Lighting all the candles or candles in a certain order reveals pathways and treasure. It's nothing too hard for this portion, and I'm finally able to get some decent leveling and ability learning in! This is especially nice for Amarant since I haven't used him much up to this point. The monsters in this area aren't too tough, so I was able to pass through without a lot of trouble. Some of the candle lighting was a bit annoying, but it never proved too tough. I did get a nice selection of items from the Bloodstones that appear as I lit the candles. I didn't know what they were at the time, but they proved to be something special soon enough.
     As I reached the final area, the exit was just before me, but the Desert Palace wasn't completely undefended it seems! I hear a security system go off, and it says something about the "defense system" being activated. Steiner, the current leader, spots out the massive thing and charges at it for BOSS BATTLE TIME! The monster in front of me is not so much a monster but a giant stone slab. As soon as the battle starts, it mentions something about the Bloodstones not being active! It starts calling out a bunch of power-up failures for the system. This was by far one of the shortest battles I've had, and I'm assuming that is in part due to my diligent Bloodstone acquiring. I literally ended this battle in four attacks! Of course, they were some of the more powerful attacks, but I had no reason to hold back. With the final hit, the giant stone slab and security system go down, and the group is able to jump the nearby teleport out.
     From here, I get switched back to Team Zidane. They have just gotten back via the Hilda Garde 1, and they are heading for Kuja to turn in the Gulug Stone. We hit the teleport from outside, but it takes us to a different area. As we arrive inside, Kuja speaks to Zidane and tells him to come alone. Of course, the entire group finds this suspicious (well DUUUUH), but Zidane has to do it for the sake of his friends. I head off and find Kuja in his chamber. Zidane tells Kuja that his friends had best be all right, and Kuja shows off an unconscious  version of the other party in a chamber below. Switching to the others outside, they are waiting when suddenly the other party teleports in. As I put it, KUJA IS LYING! The group realizes this and goes in to stop Zidane. As they all run inside, Eiko gets locked out before she can make it through. She turns back, and we see Zorn and Thorn appear to grab Eiko.
     The rest of the group rushes in to to warn Zidane, but it's most obviously too late. We hear Eiko yelling behind us, but she's being abducted by Zorn and Thorn. Cid tries to help, but he is just a frog. Kuja "magicks" the Gulug Stone from Zidane and tells the group he is taking Eiko as well. Zidane tries to get him, but he teleports out of the room. I try to catch him in the airship hanger, but he's already taken off. Cid suggests we use the Blue Narciss (name of the boat) to chase after him. I head out of the Desert Palace and climb aboard the boat to chase him. This leads us halfway across Gaia and eventually to the icy Lost Continent. We're forced to land nearby but watch as he flies off to a nearby place. Of course, there's only one thing located on the continent...Esto Gaza.
     I head inside the small settlement and run into a bishop there. After a bit of talking, he informs the group that a group of people that look like Vivi came through holding a girl and with a mysterious man following them. They made their way through the temple and towards Mount Gulug. (If you don't recognize it, Mount Gulug is the name of the volcano dungeon in FF1!) I buy any necessary supplies and then make my way into Mount Gulug...which is right behind Esto Gaza. As I enter inside, I'm hit with a bit of a nostalgia bomb when the music starts up. The music used inside of Mount Gulug is a remixed version of the original Mount Gulug background music. However, Mount Gulug brings more than nostalgia to the table! Inside, there is a decent array of monsters, and they aren't quite as big of pushovers as previous enemies. I actually had a Game Over in here when a couple enemies kept hitting me with the Freeze and Heat status effects. (Freeze literally freezes the character and will kill them if they are physically hit after being frozen. Heat will automatically kill a character if he takes another action after being "Heated".) Beyond that, I think the rest of the trip went okay. (I equipped the 'Body Temp' ability and that stops both.)
     I also gained some nifty new Blue Magic! I have a feeling I've forgotten to mention a few in the past, but since I'm not 100% sure what those were...I won't worry about them! The Blue Magic gained here was Twister and Mustard Bomb. Twister is one of the few wind element spells in the game. Mustard Bomb causes the ever so fun Heat status. I didn't have much use for either one at the moment, but it doesn't hurt to get all that I can either. The area inside of Mount Gulug is an abandoned town which used to be lived-in by dwarves or something (I forgot what the bishop said.), so there are remains of several broken down houses all about. There are plenty of goodies to find as well though. It seems that we aren't alone though...While looking about one house, a strange shadow flashes in and out. Zidane ignores it for now, but that's not the last of it. It pops up in a couple other places before finally showing itself for...NOT boss battle time!
     The dormant volcano seems to be occupied by a couple of dragons who are looking for a fight! I had to fight a few of these dragon creatures (looked more like a griffin really...) before I got to the bottom of this mountain stronghold. Despite their dragon-y appearance, none of the creatures were too hard to deal with. After a bit of looking about, I managed to use a centrally placed old well system to climb down to the bottom. I made it to a spot where the group could see the jesters doing something. Zidane figured it was the extraction spell they performed on Dagger, but now they are trying it on Eiko! Dagger comes in about this time, and she desperately wants to save Eiko. Zidane tells her to leave it to them though (Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina) and runs on ahead. Dagger stops momentarily but quickly follows them.
     The game switches to the two jesters performing the ritual at the bottom. Despite doing it like they did before, it proves unsuccessful. This is due in part to her being too young for them to extract the eidolons from her. The two jesters start arguing over whose fault it is, but Kuja quickly tells them to shut up and try again. They tell him that another attempt will endanger her life. Of course, Kuja says he doesn't care because he needs a power that is stronger than Garland's. He adds something about how Garland's power is ridiculous in comparison to his own. The final note he makes is how he needs to destroy Garland before Terra's plan is activated and his soul will no longer be his. As the jesters approach Eiko to try again, Mog pops out and protects Eiko. Eiko tells Mog to hide, but Mog stands firm. Kuja tells them to kill it, but they dont' get a chance! Mog thanks Eiko for being with her and that they'll always be together. Mog turns into shimmering light and STORY BATTLE TIME! Zorn and Thorn come at Eiko, and Mog tells her to use Terra Homing. This starts up a summon that involves a crazy-looking lion-angel combo that attacks with a blast of holy energy! This blasts the jesters in one shot and ends the battle.
     After the battle finishes, Mog tells Eiko that she wanted to be by her side so she turned herself into a moogle. She fades away as the rest of the group finally shows up. Zidane asks what happened, and Eiko replies that Mog protected her and never knew that Mog was actuall an eidolon. As she finishes this, Mog's ribbon pops out of nowhere and floats to Eiko. As this finishes, Kuja walks in and comments on how Mog went into Trance. He realizes that Trance is caused by an eruption of anger against one's surroundings rather than the will to live or the desire to protect another. He mentions something about needing a powerful soul, even if it isn't his. He says he doesn't need us anymore and starts to walk out. As he is leaving, he tells us that the "twins" put on a pretty good show but aren't really twins...Vivi goes after Kuja. The jesters start convulsing strangely and transform into a huge monster! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The jesters have mutated and merged together to make a giant fleshy monstrosity with two heads that look like each of the jesters. The monster didn't offer much of a challenge and seemed to be limited on the kinds of attacks it had. The only bad thing it could truly do was cause the Virus status effect on a character. (Virus stops a character from gaining experience and AP. Basically, you can't level at all.) Anyways, I took the time to steal what I could off the monster and then put it out of its misery. With the battle wrapped up, the group gets a moment to relax. Vivi comes back in with a couple of Black Mages. They missed Kuja, but they were here to say something else. Kuja give them the truth of it all. He told the Black Mages that their life spans couldn't be extended, and that they were all fools for even believing him. They didn't take the news very well, and most of them were sitting about in another area. Vivi goes to sit with his people and to be with them during this time.
     As he leaves the room, the group hears a woman's voice and goes to investigate. The woman seems to recognize Dagger as Princess Garnet almost immediately. This leads to only a few people...and Cid enters in to confirm that this is Hilda! Finally, we meet Cid's wife. She doesn't recognize the frog at first, but she says his mustache gives him away. (How a frog still has a mustache...I guess magic?) She apologizes to Cid for giving Kuja his airship, but he says he doesn't care as long as she is okay. Then...we time jump to Lindblum! Back in Lindblum, Hilda starts talking with Cid. She tells him that Kuja basically gave her all the information for his master plan for no apparent reason. She said it was a horrible plan, and that Kuja isn't from THIS world (Gaia). He's aiming to use Gaia to gain destructive power, and the obtaining of the Hilda Garde I was just part of this plan. However, kidnapping Hilda wasn't part of that, but he never did anything bad to her.
     Hilda wants to call a meeting to inform everybody about this, but before that, Cid asks her to change him back. Hilda isn't sure she can trust him or his skirt chasing ways. Cid says he is sorry and promises to never do it again. After a bit of back and forth, she gives in and agrees to change him back. She does warn him that something worse will happen if he does it again. She changes Cid back, and we finally get to see the REAL Cid! (I honestly like Frog Cid better...JUST SAYING!) From here, the game switches over to Zidane. A soldier wakes him up and tells him that a meeting has been called. I head on up and meet with the rest of the group. As I get there, Zidane asks who the strange dude at the top is, and the group informs him that it is Cid. After the meetings starts, Cid heads out to get the Hilda Garde 3 running and says something about using part of the Blue Narciss to do it.
     As he leaves, Hilda starts filling us in on all the details that Kuja told her. It doesn't get far before Zidane asks where Dagger is. It seems that she has wandered off, and Steiner heads out to find her. Continuing the meetings, she tells the group what she told Cid. Kuja is out for a greater power and isn't from this world. He's from a place called Terra. INSERT ATE! Steiner is looking around the city and runs into Tantalus. He thinks they are still hoodlums at first, but Baku offers to help find the Princess since they know the city better. This changes Steiner's mind about them. BACK TO MEETING! Terra is somehow connected to Gaia through a place called the Shimmering Island. We can't get directly to Terra through the Shimmering Island of course. Amarant adds in that THAT would be too easy. The ability to go to Terra is sealed, and the seal can only be broken in an old castle located on the Forgotten Continent. (Okay, they were a bit lazy on the continent names, but I guess simple and easy works all right.) Seeing as the castle is unnamed, Hilda refers to it simply as Ipsen's Castle. Unfortunately, the only known records of the Forgotten Continent are from an explorer who said the cliffs around the continent were too steep to climb and made the continent inaccessible. This means the only way to get there is with an airship, which Cid is working on. And that is all she knows.
     When asked why Kuja gave her the information, she said that he gave it all voluntarily and wasn't sure why. Amarant figures that he did so because he's so much more powerful than us, and we're already at a huge disadvantage. Thus...he doesn't fear us or anything we could do. As they are wrapping up, Steiner walks in and says he can't find Dagger anywhere in Lindblum. Zidane thinks he knows where she went, so we time jump to Alexandria! Tantalus is looking all around the city for Dagger, but they can't seem to find her. Zidane is sitting by the castle and unsure what to do. He figures she would have been here as well. Baku walks in and says he can't find Dagger, but he did spot THAT chick. Zidane asks Baku who, but Baku walks off. Zidane follows after him and turns out...he's talking about Beatrix. Zidane keeps trying to get to Beatrix, but a nice little back and forth occurs as Zidane tries to catch her and fails. Eventually, she finally comes up and approaches Baku. She asks who he is, and he replies that he is one of the people who kidnapped the Princess. Beatrix says to forget about that for now. Baku comments that she has a big heart unlike the knucklehead Steiner. The group talks briefly, and Zidane asks Beatrix where Dagger could be. She points out the resting place of the late Queen and gives Zidane a Garnet to give to Dagger.
     Zidane heads over and does find Dagger over by her mother's grave. However, it seems that something happened to her because she can talk again! She still plans to be Queen of Alexandria one day, but she wishes to travel with the group a bit longer. She explains that her primary concern when her mother was alive was just being a princess, and that when she was to become Queen, her thought process didn't change. She believes her people won't accept her as Queen nor does she have the right to rule the country. Zidane hands her the Garnet and tells her that it was given a wish and shined constantly. (He's using a metaphor here...) Basically, he says that she can rule someday, but the most important thing here is the desire to do so and shouldn't be rushed. She tries to apologize for using the group to run away, but Zidane tells her that what is important is that she wishes to stay with them. Dagger borrows Zidane's dagger once again and CUTSCENE! Dagger walks out to the water and looks upon the castle. She uses the Dagger to cut her hair, and now things have changed apparently! Before the scene ends, I see a massive airship taking off from Lindblum (assuming the Hilda Garde 3).
     Finally, I have an airship! With the airship in hand, I'm to make my way to Ipsen's Castle and figure a way to Terra. Before I do that of course, I do a bit more side questing! Thankfully, most of the open and available side quests are more or less done at this point. I finish up the remainder of Chocobo Hot & Cold by collected the last couple Chocograph Pieces (6 of them in all). With all the pieces, I can finally upgrade Choco to the ultimate Chocobo...THE GOLD CHOCOBO! With this ultimate Chcoobo, I can fly all over the map and finally make it to Choco's homeland known as the Chocobo Paradise. With a little guide direction-ing, I find my way to it quite easily. I enter inside and get to directly meet the Fat Chocobo. He welcomes Chocobo to his homeland and offers him a place here. He didn't really approve of using the "humans" to help him, but he gives us some gratitude for helping Choco out. When asked to stay, Choco seems to refuse it for now because he isn't quite ready.
     I leave Chocobo's Paradise and head for my next location...Chocobo's Sky Garden! Basically, it's the final frontier for chocograph hunting. However, it's a magical floating island, and you have to look all over the map for a "shadow" and then fly upward using Dead Peppers. Up in the sky, I find the last few Chocographs and obtain some of the best equipment in the game from them! Woo! With the chocographs done, I don't lack a whole lot to do, but there are a couple items left on the list. For now, I head for a city I haven't been to but know of. The location is on a secluded mountain top with a water source about it. I enter inside and find the library known as...Daguerreo! As I said, the place is more of a giant and ancient library than a city. It also houses a large water shrine to the water dragon, Leviathan, and that explains the constant supply of water that seems to be present. (But that doesn't explain the reason of making a water place a library say goodbye to those books if water goes wrong!) Despite this, Daguerreo is home to one of the best shops and synthesis shops in all of Gaia. I use my large pile of money to buy and synth all that I can. That didn't take too long though, and once I finished, I decied it was time to move on...TO IPSEN'S CASTLE!
     The game marked Ipsen's Castle for me, so I'm able to auto-pilot my way there. (You can pick spots on the map while in the airship, and it auto-flies its way there.) Ipsen's Castle is quite a strange castle. It appears to be two castle's stacked on top of each other but with the floors being the connected portion. Before we can enter, Amarant presents a challenge to Zidane. He claims he works better alone, and that he can find what we need before the group can find it together. I'm given the choice here, and I let him go ahead. Zidane claims that "they can't change him", so I followed shortly after Amarant. As for my team, I take in Dagger, Steiner, and Eiko. It's not the most balanced team, but it does offer some extra healing. Upon entering, I prepare for the weirdness. An earlier guide mentioned something about weapon power values doing a flip-flop in here. Basically, the weakest weapons strike the strongest and the strongest weapons strike the weakest. This is proven easily in battle and supported by the items I get from the nearby chests. The chests contain a variety of incredibly old and weak weapons from the beginning. I equip Steiner and Zidane with weaker weapons while I keep the other two fully armed. (I'm trying to learn abilities here!) No idea why they thought this was a good mechanic, but I'm not a professional game designer.
     I quickly make my way through the castle and find myself at the very top. Once there, it seems Amarant was right about something. He did make it to the top first. (I'd like to add that he got a headstart!) Zidane asks if he figured out how to break the seal, but he says he's clueless on it. Zidane walks up to the display and things fall into place (for me at least). There are four mirror objects placed on various points of what appears to be a world map of Gaia. They are each situated in a specific spot where I probably need to do something, and each mirror has a clue on the back as to where we should look. Amarant tells the group he is leaving now since he managed to beat Zidane. Zidane yet again lets him go because we can't really change him. As I try to leave myself, a monster appears out of nowhere and demands we return the mirrors. It says something about us messing with Terra's master plan and attacks us for BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     I'm not going to draw this out much. Despite the Ipsen's Castle effect, the boss proved to be little trouble. It helped that I had powerful summons and the Holy spell with Eiko! With his defeat, he fades away on a dying note about how "One is all, all is one". With this bit wrapped up, I decided to head back out and try to get this mirror bit figured out. We make it back outside and find out that Amarant never came out. Zidane heads back in...alone. This presented a very unfun scenario for me. I had to run about Ipsen's Castle and locate a missing Amarant without the team. This wasn't fun at all since I was having a bit of trouble with enemies as is. However, I did happen upon a few extra items I missed, so it sort of balanced out. I find Amarant in an area below the main floor. When we hit the top, it activated some traps, and Amarant went and fell into one of them. Before he lets anything happen though, he asks Zidane why he came back for him. To sum it up, Zidane says it was against his nature to NOT come back and that they are all a team. With that thought in mind, Amarant decides it is okay to rejoin the group. We head back outside and...
     Time to discuss the next plan! Zidane briefly goes over what they do know. The mirrors were situated on a world map in specific spots. This was further enhanced by clues in the Zidane-only language written on the backs of the mirrors. Zidane figures these locations are definitely part of the seal breaking process. On top of this though, he thinks the big monster they fought gave him another insight. He believes the "One is All, All is One" line means that all four spots have to be conquered at the same time. With eight characters total, this means two people are dropped off at four locations. Before this though, I did a bit of side tracking for items and side quest. I returned to Daguerro briefly to buy more items and synth more things. (Still haven't gotten it all!) Apart from that, I stopped off at Treno to deliver a few more Stellazio and hit the auction house up. All I got out of it was Dark Matter, but that is okay since it teaches Dagger the Odin summon. (Woo! Odin is BACK!)
     After that, I revisited Vivi's home for a short and interesting cutscene involving Vivi, Quina, Quale (Quina's master), and Quan (apparently Quale's master). Quina starts this by eating n imaginary feast that isn't there. From here, he runs outside to see the Qu out there. The Qu present is Vivi's grandfather Quan. He tells Quina that what he saw was his imagination, but it was just as real as real could be! Quale rushes in about this time and says that Quan was HIS master but ran off to do something else. Even Vivi came in and was greatly surprised to see his grandpa. What Quan basically said to them was that a powerful imagination can make one live well past their actual self, and a true gourmand is able to taste things even when just being told about it. With that, he says goodbye to the three of them and fades away. However, it seems that Zidane didn't see any of this happening. Vivi tells him that he'll explain to him later, and Quina adds in that Zidane has a looong way to go. After a couple more small stops, I figured to move on and look for those places...called shrines!
     Of course, this was a very easy task since the game just gives you the shrine locations! The first one is the Water Shrine, and it is assigned to Dagger and Eiko. From there, I drop off Freya and  Amarant at the Fire Shrine. The Wind Shrine is left to Vivi and Steiner. That leaves Zidane and Quina for the Earth Shrine. All the groups proceed inside with little trouble other than a few traps. They all find the spot where the mirrors go, but they all realize at once...It was too easy. Just as they go to set the mirrors in place, a guardian appears at every shrine. The funny thing about these guardians is that they all resemble the appropriate boss per shrine to the Final Fantasy 1 major fiends! (The elemental crystal ones...FF1 versions not the FF4 ones.) They call themselves the Guardians of Terra, and each group gets to deal with a separate guardian. As for the Earth Shrine, we get to deal with the Lich. (It's also the only battle I have to actually do.)
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! Despite the handicap of only two people, it happens to be that these two people are probably the better characters in the party. Zidane deals out the damage while Quina assists with fairly powerful physical strikes and some great blue magic, namely White Wind and Mighty Guard. With the guardian's defeat, each group places their mirror in place and regroup. They all regroup on the Hilda Garde 3, and I do a quick preparation for my trip to Terra. I really only stopped a Daguerro for supplies and more equipment. After that, I head for the Shimmering Island. To warp to Terra, the group jumps off the Hilda Garde 3 and into the torrent of energies surging from the island...CUE CUTSCENE! The group jumps off the Hilda Garde 3 and fly upwards and onwards in the spiraling vortex of energy. When they awaken, they find themselves in a strange and very blue place.
     I have finally arrived...at Terra! It's a very odd looking place with a lot of blue and funkyness about. Before anything happens, Zidane is approached by an evil-looking man. (We know him as Garland.) He asks Zidane what his name is, and before Zidane replies, he says something about Gaia instilling a different sense in him. He simply tells Zidane to explore Terra and to remember his true self. He vanishes after this, and the rest of the group shows up. I take some time to explore the new place, but I don't get too far when a mysterious girl lies ahead of us. Zidane calls out to her, but she just turns around and runs. This reveals that she has a tail like Zidane's! Of course, I have to give chase here. I follow her all about, and when I finally catch up, she tells Zidane to follow her so that he can remember his heritage. And thus...I find myself in a Bran Bal.
     As we enter inside, she welcomes Zidane home and tells him that this is where he will offer himself. As she finishes, a cutscene pops up and reveals something else. From below our position, a massive airship flies up and above us. As it turns out, this airship is the Invincible. Upon seeing the evil eye at the bottom, Dagger finally realizes that this ship was the cause of Madain Sari's destruction! The trauma of this causes her to pass out, and thus ends the cutscene. Zidane looks for a place for her to rest, and I start to explore this Bran Bal. The people here all look almost exactly like, and even more so, they all look just like Zidane! However, unlike Zidane, they all speak with a very direct and almost scientific tone. One of them gives him an answer about an "inn", and he takes Dagger over to rest.
     Next up, we see Eiko running about the town and trying to find some medicine. She runs into the girl from before who tells her to pass a message to Zidane. She wants Zidane to meet her at the underground laboratory. Eiko passes on the message, and Zidane heads out to find her. Along the way, I talk with a few more of the people around here. The key words brought up throughout are souls, vessels, and life. When I find the girl in the laboratory, it's shown that these people are created! She finally gives us a name for them...the Genomes! Zidane wonders why they all act like they do and is somewhat saddened to find out that this place is his home. The girl (yeah, it never gives her a name at this point...) tells Zidane that he was specially made for a greater purpose. She tells him that the "will of Garland" is absolute, but he just asks who Garland is. (Be prepared! The rest of this post is basically just a pile of story that I'm going to try and summarize where I can.)
     She says that Garland is the one who watches over Terra and his mission is to restore the people of Terra. The Genomes are simply vessels for when the real Terra people awaken from their sleep that has lasted ages. When the time comes, the light of Terra will change from blue to red, and Gaia will become Terra. She acts as if Terra has been absorbing new planets to survive for some time. The Genomes only purpose in all of this is to house the souls of the Terra people. Of course, Zidane asks why they don't simply eliminate them with all the power they have. She responds that Garland tried a forceful method once, but it failed and forced him to wait a long time. He waited until Gaia's civilizations gained the tremendous power of summoning eidolons. And thus came about the destruction of Madain Sari. She explains that planets have a cycle of souls where the souls are born from the planet and return back to it. (Yeah, I'll admit this is a straight rip of the Lifestream theory from FF7.) Garland was trying to gain control of that cycle, and Zidane was created to help him achieve this. However, that's all she says for now and leads Zidane off to talk with Garland.
     Switching back to the rest of the party, Dagger asks Eiko to go look for Zidane. I head on out as Eiko and start searching for him. As I go, a pile of ATEs show other party members talking with Zidane. Quina talks with Zidane and asks why he's so down. They talk about how people look like their people, and Zidane brings up that these are his. Next, Zidane bumps into Vivi trying to speak with the Genomes. Zidane tells him it is useless, but Vivi feels that they are a lot alike. He says that they seem like the Black Mages. They can think and answer, but they are missing something that keeps from from being more. Zidane bumps into Amarant last, and the two of them talk briefly. He asks Amarant about his family, and Amarant says he can't remember any. Zidane simply states that he has no parents and walks on. As I look for Zidane (as Eiko), I run into each of the ATE people, and they join up. I come to a spot where the girl directs Zidane onward into a warp. She says that Garland is at the floating castle where the souls bide their time until restoration...It's name is Pandemonium! (Yes, the name of the purgatory place in FF2. This game is making fun use of lots of past stuff. I STILL LOVE IT!) Zidane heads on to meet Garland and figures it is up to him to deal with this little "family problem". As Zidane leaves, Eiko learns from the girl that Zidane went off to see Garland and mentioned something about being an enemy of Gaia now. Eiko runs off to tell everybody else, and we jump back to Zidane!
     I'm going to warn you right now...This next part is basically the entirety of the "What's going on?" for this game. It is all the secrets piled into one massive speech. I'm going to summarize it as I can, but the biggest thing I wanted to state here was...OMG! SPOILERS ALERT BELOW! OMG!
     Zidane comes face-to-face with Garland, and this is where the story gets nearly fully explained. Garland says that he sent his most prized Genome to Gaia twelve years ago to help him disrupt the cycle of souls. The Genome he sent was Zidane, and Zidane demands to know why he sent him to grow up there and why he even wants it destroyed. Garland claims he has no intent of destroy Gaia and only wishes to make Gaia into Terra. However, problems arose for him during this whole plan, and one of those problems was how Zidane was raised on Gaia. He then changes the subject to say another Genome was created much like Zidane, and that it is the most responsible for his current plans being messed up. Zidane questions who it is, and Garland simply states that Zidane already knows him and that they are quite alike. Garland starts heading towards something and tells Zidane to follow.
     Garland created the Genomes to house the souls of the Terra people when they awaken. (We know this of course) However, 24 years ago, he gave life to a different Genome much like Zidane. The will of this Genome was too strong to be a proper vessel and was going to be discarded. However, he figured out a use for this Genome and tried to use it to disrupt the cycle of souls on Gaia. Zidane asks again who he is talking about. Garland is surprised he doesn't know, and this Genome might even be considered Zidane's BROTHER! So he finally reveals that the Genome in question...is named Kuja! (DUN DUN DUUUUUN!) Zidane says he doesn't have a tail, but Garland explains that he hides it. He hides the tail as a means to reject his existence and tries to assert his own individuality. Zidane claims the two are nothing alike, but Garland replies that Kuja said the same thing about Zidane. Kuja seemed to be perfect for the mission he was sent for. He was sent to bring war and create chaos on Gaia. The disruption of the flow of souls is best brought about by war, and Kuja did this and exceeded expectations.
     Then Zidane was created, and Kuja didn't like this at all. He didn't like that Zidane had more power than his and felt threatened by it all. Kuja threw Zidane onto Gaia since it was going to be destroyed. Zidane's purpose was to be the same as Kuja's, but Garland didn't expect Kuja to abandon Zidane despite it being Kuja's nature. For Kuja, his bringing war onto Gaia was proof of his victory over Zidane. Garland figures that Kuja's desire to justify his existence is the only reason he let Zidane live. Zidane asks if that is why the blood of thousands were so readily spilled. Garland inquires to if he means Kuja's ambitions or the overall plan to disrupt the cycle of souls. Zidane figures both and asked what was to be gained from the disruption.
Garland wants to disrupt the cycle of souls on Gaia, drain them, and replace the void with the souls of Terra. The speeding up of the cycle would speed up the work as a whole, and thus war was necessary. In time, Gaia will be gone and transform into Terra.
     The Iifa Tree's part in all of this was to be the role of Soul Divider. The Mist given out by the tree is comprised of the stagnant souls of Gaia. Zidane told Garland that they stopped the Mist, but Garland claims that what they saw was just the back of it all. The Iifa Tree blocks the flow of Gaia's souls so that Terra's souls can flow freely. The tree actually blocks the souls at the core of the planet where it contains the beginning and end of the cycle of souls. The light that remains is still Gaia's, but he says that it will soon change from Blue to Red, and thus the restoration will be complete. He wrapped that light up in the Iifa Tree to prevent the judgement of souls on Gaia from inside the very planet. And that is the Iifa Tree's true purpose  and form. Everything they saw was simply the material form, and the flow isn't going to change by stopping the Mist disposal.
     Kuja adds to this process by being an "Angel of Death". He sends souls to the tree, and this keeps them trapped. Of course, Zidane's role here was to take on Kuja's role after he passed on. Garland knew that Kuja couldn't last forever and planned to replace him with Zidane when the time was right. With this explanation, he has given Zidane his true existence back. Zidane says he's aware of all his life back on Gaia and just wants a place to call home. Garland tells him he is destined to live among the stars for all eternity. He has the power, position, and motive to accomplish it all. Zidane doesn't want that and just wants to protect his home and freinds on Gaia. He plans to defeat Garland and destroy Terra to prevent more pain from reaching those on Gaia. Garland finds it regretable that Zidane chose this action as he would have been a perfect Angel of Death. Zidane wants to take on Garland here and now, but Garland asks if he knows the phrase "meeting his maker". Garland does something, and Zidane passes clear out. Before everything changes, Garland says something about Zidane being too good to be a regular Genome vessel, but he has no choice. /end scene
     Game makes a quick pit stop at Kuja who is now back on Terra. He can't believe he came back, but he claims that the power will soon be his. He plans to show everybody why he is the ruler of them all. NOW BACK TO ZIDANE!
     Zidane wakes up in a strange place, and he can't seem to think straight. He gets up and tries to stumble away. Eiko and Vivi show up to rescue him, but he just tells them to go away. As he's walking, he gets into a fight with a monster! Things are looking grim, but then Freya and Amarant step in to help him. They beat the monster, but Zidane walks away without them. Next up, Zidane comes into a room where Quina and Steiner are dealing with an enemy of their own. They're fighting some large insect monster, and things are going just okay. Zidane jumps in and helps them defeat it, but yet again...he walks off without them. He comes to a chamber where he is finally alone, but another monster appears to stop him! Things are looking bad, and when the beast puts its foot down...Zidane isn't alone! Dagger comes in and heals Zidane. We fight through this monster, and we finally come back.
     Zidane tells Dagger that he felt he had to do all of this himself and didn't want anybody to get hurt. The group starts coming back together and tell him that he doesn't have to do it all by himself. They have always been with him and will back him up to the death. Basically, they are going to help him do it. He apologizes to them all about his actions, and now it's finally time...Time to take down Garland...
     On the next post! Yeah, I figured I have one big post left for this game, and I'll finally be done! I'm going to pour all of my power and ability into that last post! Also, I'm going to attempt the ultimate extra boss fight...OZMA! Want to learn more? I'll tell you about my horrible defeat in the next and final post of FINAL FANTASY 9! Stay tuned for more Recurring Fantasy, and as always, I thank you for reading my insanely large amount of rambling on. Thank you...thank you very much.

Ending Point - Pandemonium
Current Party -

• Zidane - Level 46
• Dagger - Level 38
• Amarant - Level 34
• Quina - Level 38

Goals Accomplished - Retrieved the Gulug Stone from Oeilvert with Zidane's group. Escaped Kuja's Desert Palace with the remaining party members. Chased Kuja to the Forbidden Continent. Rescued Eiko and Hilda in Mount Gulug. Learned more Blue Magic! Obtained the airship Hilda Garde 3! Located and explored Ipsen's Castle. Obtained the Mirror's necessary to break the seal so we can go to Terra. Side Quest stuff.~ Broke the seals at the four elemental shrines and made it to Terra. Learned a loooot about Terra and the "master plan".
Next Goals - Stop Garland and his plan. Deal with Kuja when that comes up. Save Gaia!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 65

Game - Final Fantasy 9, Day 65
Hours Played/Hours Total - 12 hrs / 37-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby Madain Sari.
Current Goal - Head for the Iifa Tree. Stop Kuja and save the world!

What Happened - This game is pretty long when it comes down to it. Of course, that might just be an excuse for me to make my slow posting style seem okay! Let's ignore THAT thought and go straight to the meat of this post.
     No point jibbering about, I head for the Iifa Tree. I didn't swap in Amarant yet, but this is mostly because my current team is working for me. As for his fighting style, he's a monk (more or less) with Monk abilities. He uses a claw to attack, and he's got some interesting skills. Honestly, I didn't make much use of him in my last playthrough, and I'll probably not use him a whole lot this time either.
     Anyways, as we approached the Iifa Tree, the group spots Kuja flying overhead. He's headed for the tree, and he flies up on the trunk. I close the distance, but we have no idea how to climb up. Zidane tells Amarant to find a way, and Amarant says he can just carry the little ones. He grabs Eiko and Vivi and starts climbing. Zidane grabs Dagger, and the group quickly makes it up the tree. Once they get up there, they finally confront Kuja and demand some answers! They ask if he started the war and created the Black Mages. He simply claims that he only showed those responsible how to create them, and he adds that the Queen was the one who started the war. He said he only gave her a little push. Kuja looks to the nearby sea and finds that the Queen has arrived in her boats (via a cutscene of course). We jump to her briefly and says that Kuja is the last thing standing between herself and total domination. She plans to show him the "ultimate power." At that point, the ships start firing upon the Iifa Tree, and the Black Mages start preparing a spell for something.
     Kuja simply laughs at all of this because it is all going as he has foreseen it to. He says that all of this is but an opening act, and that the real show is just about to start. At this point, he starts throwing all forms of monsters at us and the Alexandrians. We easily beat the couple of monsters, but Kuja is now focused on the Queen and her army. As we look upon it all, Amarant asks why we don't let the two groups just fight this out. He figures Kuja is going to win anyways. Kuja flies off on his silver dragon again, and he seems to be waiting for the Queen to do something. Zidane is all for running off at this point, but Dagger wants to save her mother. He asks her why she would possibly want to do that after all that has happened. She says Zidane wouldn't understand and turns to Eiko to ask about the imprisoned Eidolon. Eiko points out where the Eidolon is, and Dagger runs off.
     We have to chase after her though and fight off a few of Kuja's monsters as we go. As we hit the bottom, she has just reached a dragon-looking statue. Unfortunately, the Eidolon is...Leviathan, the all-mighty water dragon. As we look on, the Queen is losing the fight against Kuja, but she had the Black Mages preparing for a reason. She was having them focus so she could call in...Bahamut! A cutscene comes up and shows as Bahamut is flying in from the...Eidolon-verse. He's all giant dragon and epic. He flies in and blasts Kuja full-on, but Kuja just flies out of it and appears mostly fine outside of a cut on his face. The group is quite impressed by Bahamut's show of power. Dagger mentions something about Bahamut being the last eidolon and the ultimate dragon (something like that). Eiko chimes in that Mog is strangely and incredibly afraid for some reason.
     We jump over to Kuja at this point. Expecting this, he's already got a plan for the exact situation and sets up that this is just the start of many future goals. Suddenly, we see a strange eye in the sky, and it blasts Bahamut with some strangeness. It seems that Bahamut is out for the count, but it turns out that is not the case here. Bahamut starts flying about and destroying all of the Alexandrian ships. This...ends pretty badly for them of course. Bahamut disappears back into Eidolon-verse, and we are left with a scene of death and destruction. The Queen manages to make it to shore on her "escape pod". (It's actually a full ship really...) However, she didn't do much more than that and is dying now. As she is fading away, it seems that whatever had caused her sudden change of attitude is gone. She talks about how she lead Alexandria down a path of ruin, and that the people will be happier with Dagger on the throne. And then...she passes on. The group uses the boat to return to Alexandria and bring the Queen back with them.
     The game does a small time jump, and the entire group is back at Alexandria (minus Quina who swam back earlier before this). Dagger is visiting the grave of her mother. Steiner, Beatrix, and Doctor Tot are with her for the visit. A cutscene plays showing Dagger walking away from the grave and looking upon Alexandria Castle. /end Disc 2. Insert Disc 3! We come back to Dagger who is talking with the group of them. She is going to be coronated as Queen in three days, and she seems unsure for the time. We jump over to Zidane who is at the bar in town. He's in a sad mood, and the Tantalus group is trying to cheer him up. It seems to be ineffective, so they all run off to see a play being done by Ruby. (Random Tantalus person from the beginning...mostly unimportant.)
     As they run off, the group of them run into Vivi and speak with him briefly. It seems that the trio left behind in Alexandria (Beatrix, Steiner, and Freya) took quite a beating while holding off the enemies back there. They had to be helped out and carried away by Tantalus. I take control of Vivi and start exploring Alexandria. There's quite a bit to do right now, and the amount of character switching is ridiculous. Be ready for it! An ATE pops up, and I quickly find out that Eiko is walking about the castle. Not being used to its size, she finds it to be insanely big. Back to Vivi, I start exploring town, buying supplies, synthesizing items, and basically anything else I can do. After I've had my fill, I find Marcus and Blank in front of the theater. Blank asks if I want to see the show, so I head on in. Of course, I don't actually get to see the play, and it switches over to Dagger briefly.
     Dagger is having to deal with being the head honcho of the place, and she desperately wants to go see Zidane. Of course, Steiner says she is too busy with about to becoming Queen and dealing with Alexandria stuff. Doctor Tot comes in and hands Dagger a whole pile of stones. He says the stones contain the rest of the eidolons that were taken from her. She needs to get changed into her outfit, so Doctor Tot and Steiner head out while Beatrix comes in. Dagger tells Beatrix that she wants to go see Zidane, but Beatrix says the same thing as Steiner...She just doesn't have the time right now. We switch to Eiko now!
     Eiko is still walking around the castle, and she's trying to figure out how to win over Zidane. She decides to write him a love letter. As she goes off to write it, she runs into Doctor Tot and asks for his help since he looks like a "nerdy philosopher type". He laughs at this statement but agrees to write the letter for her. He notices her horn and starts to remember. *Insert text flashback* Basically, he remembers them finding Dagger and her real mom when their boat drifted into Alexandria. The young Dagger greatly resembled the late Princess Garnet, except for the horn. The King had her horn removed, and the King and Queen raised Dagger as the Princess. Eiko interrupts all of this backflash moment, and we jump back to Dagger. Dagger has finished getting dressed and looks all elegant and such. She tells Beatrix that she isn't the real daughter of the late Queen. Beatrix says that she already knows because Doctor Tot told them. Back to Eiko!
     As we come back to Eiko, Doctor Tot is finishing the letter. She thanks him, tells him her name and her home, and then runs off. Her mentioning of Madain Sari perplexes Doctor Tot though. He didn't know it was a real place and was wondering about it...but gets cut off! Eiko starts running through the castle and is heading for town, but she doesn't get too far. As she is moving about, she gets knocked off the second floor and gets caught on something. So...we have a scenario just like from the Mountain Path. Although in this case, she was knocked off by a passing Baku. Seeing as she can't get down, she asks Baku to deliver the letter to Zidane.
     Baku leaves the castle and is waiting to cross the river. (There's a river/moat between the castle and the town.) Steiner approaches him Baku and is fairly hateful towards him despite all of Tantalus's help. Baku isn't super happy about that but drops the letter as he leaves. Steiner walks away, and Beatrix comes on the screen and finds the letter. She mistakens it as being from Steiner. (Yuuuup, there is hilarity to come.) We jump to Zidane who is thinking about his loss of Dagger and isn't sure what to do. Everybody from Tantalus comes back to attempt to cheer him up. Eventually, Baku trots in, and Zidane asks if he can rejoin Tantalus. He mentions that they could go after some treasure or something. Baku tells him that he doesn't deserve to rejoin if he can't "capture a canary". Vivi steps in and asks if they can go see Dagger. Baku laughs and tells Zidane that he should be more honest like Vivi. Zidane agrees to go see her, but he says that he is leaving after that. They walk on out to head for the castle. (Later on, in an ATE, Baku remembers that he forgot to give Zidane the letter, but he finds that he's lost it and laughs.)
     Zidane and Vivi bump into Freya and Amarant. The two of them bumped into one another and are about to square off over it. This gets the guards attention, and they move in. Zidane wanders in at this point and fixes the situation using his charm. Freya tells Zidane that she is mad at him for wandering around and not speaking to Dagger when she's about to become Queen! After yelling at him a bit, she asks if he found out anything more about Kuja. Zidane answers no of course, but that's to be expected. Freya figures that if he is responsible for both the Eidolon extraction and Brahne's death that he will come back for Dagger. Zidane doesn't know what to do because he feels that Dagger won't want him now. Vivi steps in and tells Zidane that Dagger wants to see him and that he should go. Zidane agrees to this but again says that he will leave after that. Amarant and Freya join us for this venture. As we reach the castle, Steiner is throwing Eiko out. When they ask to come in, he tells them they aren't allowed inside. Vivi steps forward to ask and Steiner immediately consents to this. He goes to prepare this, and we enter the castle. She steps out briefly to speak with the group and is still formally dressed. Everybody comments on it, but when it comes to Zidane, he can't seem to find the words to say anything. She has to leave shortly after, and the group looks to Zidane. Zidane says that he had a whole speech of sorts prepared, but he felt it was all a lie. He isn't sure what he'll do without her either.
     Time Jump! We see that Eiko is waiting out in front of the castle. (The letter said to meet in front of the castle by the fountain.) She's moping about and realizes there isn't any room in Zidane's heart for her...only Dagger. She thinks he doesn't even know how he feels and is angry about it. She starts to hear someone approaching and hides off to the side. Marcus and Blank are coming onto the screen and are talking about something. Apparently, the love letter made its way to his hands, and he figures it is for him. However, the two of them hear someone approaching and hide as well. However, Blank dropped the letter on the way, and Steiner walks on to find the letter sitting there. Steiner picks it up, reads it, and is wonder who wrote it to whom. He starts to think that someone planted it there for him...and that someone might be Beatrix! She walks in about this time, and they start talking. They get closer and closer, and the three looking on are just curious of what's goign to happen. However, before it goes anywhere, we hear someone sneezing offscreen and ruins the moment. Baku comes out, and Eiko runs off saying that Baku "ruined the scene".
     Time Jump 2: Return of Time Jump! Freya, Vivi, and Amarant are waiting around at the bar and are curious to know where Zidane went. Vivi is about to go off to find him, but Eiko steps in. She's currently mad about the Zidane ordeal. Doctor Tot enters in (everybody coming to the bar!) and asks Eiko if he could question her about Madain Sari. She says yes and that they should go to his place. He answers that he lives in Treno and that would require some time...Zidane walks in and talks about going to Treno for a card tournament. As he says that, the rest of the group decides to follow him to Treno. Of course, they make use of Gargant Roo since it's really the only way. The game switches over to Zorn and Thorn who are just piddling about and trying to get back into the castle, but they don't make it too far before heading elsewhere.
The group arrives in Treno, and they each head their own way. Eiko asks Vivi to show her around the town, so they head off...right in time for an ATE!
     Eiko and Vivi have just left Doctor Tot's place, and Vivi asks why she didn't pick Zidane instead. She responds that "Those two are bricks. They don't realize how they feel about each other until they're apart." Vivi is confused by what she means, and Eiko explains it a bit more. She says that Zidane really likes Dagger but tries to act cool, and they misunderstand one another and end up fighting. Vivi is still confused by all this...I get to play the "What's everybody doing game!" next with a pile of ATEs (reminder...Active Time Events). Vivi walks about town some (Eiko walked away) and runs into a random person that he seemed to have met earlier on (guy who helped him reach Alexandria for the play at the beginning). After speaking with that guy, Vivi decides to head home for a quick visit. Next up, we find Amarant walking about and being recognized. (He's a big wanted person all over...and known in Treno.) However, Eiko comes in and starts talking to Amarant and ruins that vibe. I walk around some and play a couple card games. Another ATE comes about but basically just has Eiko almost in a bad situation...that Quina comes through and rectifies somehow! I finally head for the card tournament and easily deal with the first round. ATE! Vivi arrives home, but it is very much abandoned since both he left and his grandpa died. It also confirms that his grandpa was a Qu clan member.
     Next up for ATEs, Amarant and Freya find each other and start to chat a bit. Amarant mentions that he is actually from Treno. I get to play another round of cards, and then I resume that previous event. Amarant reveals that he's actually met Zidane before in the past. Amarant had become a guard for the local auction house. He ran into Zidane who was trying to escape with stolen goods. He was looking to get into a fight, but Zidane managed to trick the guards into thinking Amarant was the actual guilty party here. While they tried to deal with Amarant, Zidane ran off. Amarant figures that he doesn't remember that event and therefore doesn't remember him. That's all we get out of him though...
     We find Eiko returning to Doctor Tot to help answer his questions. They talk only briefly, and she eventually brings up that Dagger gave her the "mark of the princess." He asks what she's talking about, and she says she is referring to two of the four jewels that the Queen was going after. Tot realizes now that Madain Sari obviously had the fourth jewel/crystal, but he wonders how it's all related to the event of 500 years ago (from waaaay earlier in the game...it'll fall into place soon). Finally, I get to compete in the final round of the card tournament. The champion for all of this is a "hot girl in a sailor's suit", but I quickly find out that the actual champion is Cid! I start the final round and am surprised by an entire hand of Oglop cards (not completely really...), but I don't seem to have any trouble. I win the tournament and a pile of money! However, with that resolved, Cid and Erin (the hot sailor girl) come out and talk with Zidane. They come aboard the new Mist-free airship, Hilda Garde 2. Cid fears that trouble is on the horizon and wants to be prepared for it.
     Eiko runs in before they get too far and says that trouble is now. Mog was informed by another moogle that bad things are happening in Alexandria right now. The game jumps over to Kuja in Alexandria. He calls in Bahamut to attack Alexandria. We get another awesome cutscene of Bahamut being summoned in and destroying things all dragon-like. Dagger sets out to try and help everyone. I get to order around the Knights of Pluto during this, but I do so poorly...because I have no idea who should be doing what. Anyways, everybody sets off to do what they can to protect the town. As everybody leaves, Dagger passes out all mysterious-like. We jump over to Steiner and Beatrix who are trying to fight off the monsters about town. We fight off several rounds of these strange Mist monsters (same ones I fought earlier at the Iifa Tree). Things aren't looking good as an endless tide of them seem to stream in. However, the two of them persevere through this, and they share a small moment as they fight off the monsters. Back to Dagger!
     She awakens and hears strange music coming from somewhere in the castle. This leads me off to a random portion of the castle where things go...magic-y. A set of stairs rises out of nothing and go around the castle's central spire (I learn later that it's known as Alexandria's Sword or something like that.), and I follow them on up. She has no idea what it is or why she was drawn there, but the strange music is still going. She isn't sure what to do now, but she believes she needs to be there for her people. It changes back to Zidane and group who are aboard the Hilda Garde 2. It's slowly making its way towards Alexandria. They are hoping they get there in time, and Eiko starts glowing for some reason. She makes mention of needing to get to Dagger and something about a Holy Judgement. Finally, she says that Alexander's judgement has come and leaps off of the ship. This throws the game into a cutscene of Eiko diving off of the airship and straight at Dagger. They float together and their jewels react to all of this. Eiko explains what is going on of course. She says it is the Light of Destiny brought on by the hidden powers of their four jewels. This power appears when the holy eidolon, Alexander, calls for its summoner. They start praying together, and we start up a grouping of awesome and epic cutscenes.
     Alexander is summoned onto the scene as his kick-ass living castle form of robotic ridiculous...featuring massive angel wings! Bahamut flies towards him and starts firing off shots. This does nothing to Alexander, and he retaliates with his Alexander Lasers! (my name for it). Bahamut does its best to keep away from them, but in the end, Bahamut is defeated by Alexander. As the battle comes to its conclusion, Kuja calls upon his magical carrage that is called...Invincible. Once again, the giant eye of sorts appears from the sky and takes aim at Alexander. However, before it does anything, we jump to a strange and evil-looking man. He says that Kuja has gone too far and doesn't know who he is dealing with. He also mentions Zidane's name during all this. We come back to Kuja who is surprised to see that the Invincible has stopped. He realizes now that the strange man, he calls him Garland, has taken control of the Invincible. He wonders why Garland would come to Gaia (That just brings up MORE questions), but Kuja seems to have some idea why but doesn't say.
     Going back to Zidane, they have finally arrived in Alexandria...with the Hilda Garde 2 crashing down there. We are at the castle, and a soldier passes by looking for Dagger. I set off to look for Dagger as well as Eiko, but of course, that isn't too hard for me since I know exactly where she is. As we reach the strange stairway, Zidane tells the group to turn around and let him take care of it. He greatly cares for Dagger, but he doesn't want them to get hurt if and when Kuja destroys the castle. After a little convincing, they all head off and Zidane continues alone. Another cutscene with the Invincible, but instead of taking Alexander, it destroys him completely. The area where Dagger and Eiko are starts falling apart, and Dagger falls off. Luckily, Zidane swoops in to save her before she gets too far. They start to make their escape when the Invincible lets out another blast! This time, it destroys the entirety of Alexander's remaining corpse, and the resulting explosion seems to reach all of Alexandria as well...
     We jump back to this mysterious Garland character who mentions something about souls returning to recirculate. He says that Gaia doesn't belong to "them" anymore. He doesn't understand why Kuja would die on Gaia, but Garland knows he'll face off against "his counterpart" in the future.
     Time Jump To Lindblum! Cid is overseeing all the repair over Lindblum when Baku strides in. He starts talking with Cid who mentions that Zidane has finally awakened. Baku sends Blank off to go see him. Next up, an ATE jumps in to show Quina washing ashore in Lindblum. The guards are collected there because they think "it" is dead, but it turns out Quina is made of tougher stuff! He pops up and starts looking for food. I take control of Zidane next, and he talks with Blank only briefly. After that, he sets off to find Dagger. She's sitting in the same spot as waaaay earlier. He tries talking with her, but he feels that something is wrong so he leaves her be for now. As I make my way out, Dagger has an ATE where she blames herself for everything that happened to Alexandria and isn't sure what to do now.
     After that, Cid throws a meeting where the whole group discuss the circumstances and what to do. They bring to mind that the four nations are completely vanquished (Lindblum, Alexandria, Cleyra, and Burmecia). Zidane is determined to get Kuja at this point, but Amarant thinks it won't be so easy since he's obviously crazy powerful. Cid informs us that he saw Kuja escaping aboard the Hilda Garde I along with a group of talking Black Mages. Vivi wonders why they would possible go with him, and I get a little insight into the situation. ATE Time! Kuja is obviously preparing something as he gets off the Hilda Garde I in an unrecognized location. He mentions that Zidane is somehow involved. Also Zorn and Thorn are here! (If anybody cared?) We return to the group who are in agreement that their biggest need is an airship. The Hilda Garde I is obviously in enemy hands, and the Hilda Garde II is still being repaired from the crash. Cid wants to help with that but he can't do a lot as an Oglop. He's called Doctor Tot to help with that situation. The group is still talking when Eiko comes in. She has bad news...Dagger has lost her voice! The meeting disbands for now
     Several of them go to see Dagger and unfortunately confirm this. Nobody is quite sure why but figure that she is like this because of all the recent traumatic events. They figure she will eventually snap out of it, so they just have to do what they can for now. Zidane is all ready to go take on Kuja, but the lack of an airship is still a problem. The current plan is to try and cure Cid of being an Oglop so that he can get a new airship going. Doctor Tot tells them that there MIGHT be a method to cure him, but he's really unsure of it. He sends Zidane into town to find three potion ingredients to make a cure. Zidane thinks Cinna has one of the ingredients though, so that leaves the other two. I head off into town and do a looot of exploring. This part was interesting because I could actually question everybody about this. Unfortunately, this didn't help at all. The majority of their answers were don't know, don't care, or ask that person. A loooot of searching and talking later lands me the first ingredient from the item shop lady. The second ingredient is found in the artist's house in the theater district. Lucky for me, the final ingredient was with Cinna. I happened upon the Tantalus group attempting to repair their home, but I only talked with them briefly. I then made my way back to the castle.
     Zidane mixes up the potion like Doctor Tot said, and Doctor Tot applies the potion. A few seconds later we find out...complete failure. All the potion managed to do was turn Cid into a frog instead of an oglop. That means the only cure for Cid is for his wife Hilda to reverse the effects. Since that seems to be out of the question, we change the focus back to Kuja and trying to find out where he is. Vivi suggests that they ask the Black Mages at the Black Mage Village. He also wants to find out what happened. Cid has a boat prepared so they can head for the Outer Continent, and I make my way down. An ATE reveals that Quina got himself in a little trouble around town, so I have to find him first. Luckily, I knew exactly where he was and was able to help him out. (He ate food without paying for it...I got to pay for it instead.) I make my way down to the Serpent's Gate where the ship is waiting. When we board the ship, Blank is there as well. He's brought along to pilot and watch the ship while the rest of us do our business. And thus starts a whole damn pile of extra side quest stuff. Seriously...I gave like 3 or 4 hours to this alone.
     With a boat at my disposal, I'm able to explore a large portion of the world unhindered! Of course, there are still a few places I can't get to, but with a little help from Choco, I easily overcome all of that. (I'll get into that soon.) I find a new marsh to visit and catch a couple more frogs for Quina. From there, I make my way to Alexandria to explore the remains. As it turns out, there is quite a bit left of Alexandria, but it is most definitely in ruins. The town is all messed up, but much like Lindblum, they are all doing their part to repair things. I buy a few things and leave soon after. I then start work on the great Chocobo side quest...Chocobo Hot & Cold!
     I've done a little bit of this in the past, but I quickly found out that on Disc 3...pretty much 90% of the entire Side Quest is done here. I find a new area known as Chocobo Lagoon and managed to snag more Chocographs. Many new treasures were obtained through this, and I even upgraded Choco! (Two times to be exact.) The first upgrade was to a Red Chocobo that could climb mountains, and the second upgrade gave me the awesome Black Chocobo (looked dark blue) that can basically walk anywhere. Both times, the Fat Chocobo (who is their god or something) mentions something about Choco heading home and getting closer to it. With these upgrades, I'm finally able to revisit a few locations and start various other side quests. I collect several Stellazio (coins with the astrological signs on them). These special coins can be traded to a duck lady in Treno for money and items. I collected seven more Stellazio (on top of two I already had) and managed to get quite a bit of money and a few nice items out of it. It was definitely worth the effort. After that, I spent time getting all the Chocographs and finding any acquainted treasure with it. It earns you quite a hefty amount of items and even some exclusive/rare items. Again...definitely worth it, but it burned through a pile of time.
     After spending who knows how long (probably more than I said earlier), I finally made my way to Black Mage Village. As it turns out, nobody seems to be here now. I walk around a bit and finally run into the graveyard Black Mage (Mr. 288). He said that he stayed behind when the rest had left with Kuja. It seems that Kuja had promised to extend their life spans, and they all seemed eager for that. He wouldn't tell us where they went though because that would betray them. He mentioned something about a couple other Black Mages staying behind to watch their Chocobo Egg. I head over there, and we find out that the egg just hatched! Those two Black Mages considered leaving the village, but they felt they NEEDED to stay behind to keep the egg safe. They started feeling funny (emotions they don't understand most likely), and the group left them be. As we go outside, we find Mr. 288 waiting there for us. Vivi knows that he stayed behind for the Chocobo as well. Vivi asked Mr. 288 if he thought he (Vivi) would stop soon. Mr. 288 said that Kuja had mentioned something about the prototype lasting longer than the others.
     Vivi came out and said that he didn't know how to feel about it before. His grandpa had told him that he shouldn't be sad about him (his grandpa) dying, so he didn't. However, when he saw Dagger crying over her mother's death, he finally understood it. He realized that he was sad at that time as well.With all these feelings, he knew they couldn't possibly just be puppets. He hated Kuja for using them, and he was going to go after him. After hearing all of this, Mr. 288 revealed that Kuja was hidden in a palace on the eastern side of the Outer Continent. The palace was hidden under quicksand in the desert there. He added as we were leaving that he hoped the others would be as strong as Vivi was someday...
     At this point, I did more Chocobo Hot & Cold again, but I didn't have a lot left to do and was quickly frustrated with it. I quit that pretty fast and made my way to the desert area on the Outer Continent. I started exploring the area and quickly found some very obvious sinkholes. However, examining the wrong one revealed a nicely placed Antlion for me to fight. It was fairly tough for a normal enemy, but I managed to dispatch it nonetheless. The real problem was that you would keep fighting Antlions if you picked the wrong one and/or clicked the same one (accidental!). Eventually, I searched the right sinkhole (upper left one when facing north) and fell inside. Unfortunately for us, Kuja had already predicted our actions and had a trap prepared for us.
     Zidane awoke in a strange circular room with Cid. The two had no idea where the others were, but their questions were quickly answered as Kuja spoke to them. Kuja tells them that all of them are in separate rooms and reveals that the room can open up to lava below. He lets Zidane out and tells him to come up to him. This leads Zidane around and to a pair of Black Mages. They teleport him to Kuja himself. Once there, Kuja tells Zidane all about a special task he has for him. Kuja needs Zidane to go and retrieve a special stone, the Gulug Stone, from a place called Oeilvert. Oeilvert is located on the Forgotten Continent, and Kuja has offered to send the group there on his airship (Hilda Garde I of course). Zidane wonders why Kuja doesn't get it, and Kuja informs him that a magical barrier around there keeps him from doing it. He figures that Zidane is too stupid to use magic and wants to send him instead. If Zidane doesn't do it though, Kuja plans to kill his friends. Of course, he doesn't force him to go alone. I get to pick three friends to take with me for the quest. I picked Eiko, Freya, and Quina. I figured this was a well balanced team. (And I also knew that the remaining members have to work together later.) Zidane tells Kuja that he best keep his promise. Kuja claims that he will...but as he teleports them away, he does the typical bad guy thing that assures us he won't.
     From here, we are sent to Kuja's hanger to get on the Hilda Garde I and start our journey. Zidane attempts to talk with the Black Mages, but none of them respond to him. Zorn and Thorn show up again and inform him that these Black Mages don't have any form of ego or will. They claim that they won't respond to any command other than theirs. They laugh and talk about how the Black Mages are nothing and will be disposed of when they are done with. Zidane points out that the duo aren't too different from that description. The two jesters are just pawns in Kuja's grand scheme. This pissed them off, so they don't say much for the rest of the journey.
     The ship finally lands on the Forgotten Continent, but the stupid jesters dropped us off on the opposite side of it all. Oh well! I head for the nearby Qu Marsh and catch a few frogs first. After that, I explored with Choco and located a bit more treasure. With the arrival of the Black Chocobo, I gain access to a new item called Dead Peppers. With the Dead Pepper, I can access a few new locations and uncover some secret treasure. On the Forgotten Continent, there is a few cracks in mountains that unload goodies! Unfortunately, they are hard as crap to find because they blend in with the graphics too much. With a little bit of guide and a whole lot of searching, I turned up all the cracks. With that said and done, I was ready to find Oeilvert and turn it in. With Choco, this was an easy task and quickly done. I got off Choco, healed up, saved my game, and stopped there.
     Hooo boy! I got in TWELVE HOURS on this post! It wouldn't seem like that from the length, but I skipped over the majority of my exploration. I didn't really skip the details because the details were mostly just "found X treasure at Y location". Really wanted to get a post on Tuesday, but a lot of unexpected things came up and screwed that over completely. I've skipped playing anything else today so I could get the hours in and get the post finished. So...I finished it! It's nearly 3AM, but I'm getting it done. I've only got a couple more weeks in October, and I'm DETERMINED to finish this game. If I have to just push my way through the rest, I will. I was just hoping to try out a lot of the side quests this time around, but those are almost as long as the rest of the content. WHO KNEW!? So...as always, thanks for reading and hope you come around for my next post that is hopefully sooner than this post was!

Ending Point - Oeilvert.
Current Party -

• Zidane - Level 30
• Quina - Level 26
• Eiko - Level 27
• Freya - Level 26

Goals Accomplished - Made it to the Iifa Tree and learned some things but mostly couldn't get involved. Lots and lots of story and character building goes on. Won the Treno Card Tournament plus lots of character stuffs. Made it back to Alexandria to help and rescued Dagger. Survived the explosion at Alexandria. Tried to cure Cid but just changed him. Obtained a boat! Explored a large portion of Gaia. Collected a pile of Chocobo Hot & Cold Chocographs and Treasure. Upgraded Choco twice! Found Kuja's secret fortress but got tricked into doing a task for him. Made it to Oeilvert.
Next Goals - Collect the Gulug Stone for Kuja. Save the rest of the group. Stop Kuja after that and save the world!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 64

Game - Final Fantasy 9, Day 64
Hours Played/Hours Total - 8 hrs / 25-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Pinnacle Rock.
Current Goal - Recruit Ramuh's help. Try to figure out our next course of action.

What Happened - The further I go into the game, the more I'm typing from story element. That's both a good and bad thing. It's good to have lots of story, but it is very annoying having to type it all up. Let's just get started now.
     Where I left off, I was needed to collect the pieces of a story from the aspects of Ramuh around the area known as Pinnacle Rock. As I get the pieces of story from his different aspects, I'm feeling like this story is quite similar to one from a past Final Fantasy. For this case, it sounds an awful lot like a portion of Final Fantasy 2! Basically, a man travels with a group of heroes to help them retrieve a bell (Goddess Bell). After defeating a monster with the man's help, they return to find themselves in a trap. The man sacrifices his life to save the others. At this point, the story has one of two endings for this bit, and Ramuh leaves it up to you to choose between the two endings. One ending calls this man a hero. The alternate ending involves the heroes feeling bad about the man's death and claiming that even heroes are just human. Regardless of what ending you choose, Dagger explains her reason for "choosing" that ending.
     I picked the "Human" ending claiming that the people in the story had flaws like everyone else. For that reason, they became heroes in the people's minds. He asked Dagger more closely though about how she felt. She said that she was away from her country but hadn't forgotten her people. After hearing that, he agrees to join her. She is grateful to hear this and hurries on. As Dagger left, Zidane asked Ramuh why he did it all when he was going to join her regardless. He simply stated that he wanted to hear Dagger's response to the story. They all leave Pinnacle Rock, and we find ourselves fairly close to Lindblum...but then tragedy strikes.
     A cutscene starts up with Alexandria attacking Lindblum. From below the Mist, Alexandrian ships bombard Lindblum with cannons. As the guards head for the gates, Black Mages are already waiting there. They start attacking and destroying the city from below. Just as things are in full destruction mode, the Queen summons another Eidolon...Atmos. (Atmos is actually a reference to a boss from FF5 I believe. I can't remember exactly where, but he killed party members and tried to suck them in.) Atmos is some massive vacuum cleaner monster that sucks in everything, Lindblum soldiers, Black Mages, and anything else. The group has run closer and is witnessing all of this destruction. Dagger can't seem to watch it all, and Zidane simply looks on in anger.
     As we enter the city, Zidane tells Vivi to hide, and the other two head into the city to learn more. From inside the city, it is all forms of messed up. There are Alexandrian soldiers everywhere, and the people are just trying to get it all back together. We quickly locate one of Cid's men and go to meet with him. He informs us that they surrendered to Alexandria to stop anymore destruction. However, there were a few conditions to the surrender. They had to hand over the Falcon's Claw (another crystal shard) and give up the new airship that is being built (Hilda Garde 2, the one that works without the Mist). Cid talks about how Brahne has been recieveing weapons from a man named Kuja. This is where everything really starts to click together. Kuja is the one who has supplied Brahne with all of these weapons, including the Black Mages. The group wants to go after and defeat Kuja for so many different reasons. There are rumors that he was seen flying towards the Outer Continent on a silver dragon. (This means that there is more to the game than a single continent with three kingdoms!)
     The problem with following him is that we can't fly there without mist, and going by sea with a ship is impossible because Alexandria has claimed all of them. Cid talks about foreign monsters appearing in the nearby marsh. He believes there is a mine cave somewhere there that leads to the Outer Continent. Before we head off, I go all about and restock all the items that I'll need. However, an ATE leads me to believe that Brahne and her armies are also preparing to go to the Outer Continent. Before we leave, Cid gifts us with an ancient World Map that shows off the entire world. With everything ready to go, I leave Lindblum. Before heading to Qu Marsh though, I make my way back to the Chocobo Forest for a little "Hot & Cold." I don't spend too long there though because I've already obtained most of what I can from there. However, I do acquire another Chocograph Piece. With that said and done, I head to Qu Marsh to try and find this mysterious mine.
     The first thing I find there is...Quina! He's back in the marsh hunting frogs, but it's good to see that he somehow survived the Cleyra incident. He joins up with the group again, and we search the marsh a bit more. While searching, Quina runs off to chase a group of frogs. Zidane follows after him, and they stumble upon a strange cave (most likely the mine). We enter inside and discover...Fossil Roo! (Awful lot of Roos going on...) We don't venture too far in when a trap is sprung! A large, strange monster chases after us, and I run for my life. Despite the swinging axe traps in my way, I manage to outrun the monster. It doesn't manage to catch us before falling into a rather large hole though. As we continue forward, we found out the trap was made by one of the Queen's bounty hunters. She reveals her name as Lani and tells Dagger to hand over the pendant only (says that is the only thing she was sent to get). We don't give it up though so...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     Lina doesn't prove too much of a challenge, but she did take some time to beat. She was using magic at first, but I quickly remedied that with Magic Hammer. With that out of the way, all she could manage was straight up physical attacks, and those generally did nothing. I nabbed a few items off of her, and then I beat her face in! After her defeat, she runs off, and I'm left to continue downward into Fossil Roo. I don't get too far when I discover an untamed Gargant running about. I bait him in with some strange plant, and he lets us ride him further into Fossil Roo. Once I got further inside, I ran into a lone miner. He talks about the entire place being a huge maze, but that we can only get about using Gargants and flipping some switches. Basically, the Gargants won't take any paths that have water, so we have to constantly switch about to get everywhere. He couldn't confirm if the cave went all the way to the Outer Continent though, but we went on anyways.
     While walking about, I collected quite a bit of nice treasure. There were quite a few battles taking place, but they never proved superbly challenging. I did get some new Blue Magic though, Night (puts everybody to sleep...EVERYBODY) and Lvl 4 Holy (casts Holy on individuals with levels that are multiples of 4). There were several switches to hit, and all forms of baiting and riding Gargants around. I managed to find the missing Moogle hiding behind a wall. I got him out with the aide of a miner's pick. He loaned it to me in exchange for a potion. After traversing it all, I hit the last switch and opened the path to outside. I rode the final Gargant out and was locked from going back. Oh well! It was a decent journey and lots of nice items found. I left the cave and found myself on the Outer Continent.
     I explored for a little bit and happened upon a new marsh. There wasn't much to do there right this moment, but I did find more frogs to catch. I took a bit of time and caught a handful of frogs. After that, I looked about with Choco and managed to obtain a few more Chocograph chests. I even ran into a Cactuar! This little guy gave me the Blue Magic spell 1,000 Needles! (Self-explanatory) Finally, I happened upon the only town available...Conde Petie. Conde Petie is a village located on a bridge between my current area and the mountains. The people there are dwarves (claim this but look like goblins really...). They wouldn't let us in without greeting with Rally-Ho! (Believe that is from the dwarves in the first Final Fantasy.) I look all about the village here, but there isn't a whole lot to see. There are mentions of a theif in town, but I didn't get too into that this moment. While looking about, Vivi and Zidane spot a Black Mage coming into town. As soon as he sees us though, he runs off.
     We go to chase after him, but he quickly gets away. One of the villagers mention that the "Pointy Hats" live deep in the nearby forest, where even the owls aren't present. So...I head on over there! We quickly spot the Black Mage moving further into the forest and give chase. He leads us to a dead looking portion of forest but shows that the dead forest is an illusion to keep others out. I follow after him and find the Black Mage Village! As we enter though, all of the Black Mages run off at the sight of humans. Everybody splits off from here with their own objective though, so I get to explore a bit. Pretty good amount happens while I'm here though. Quina just looks for food to eat as usual. Vivi tries to talk with the Black Mages and manages to get somewhere. Dagger also tries talking with them, but they figure she is there to trick them somehow or that she used Vivi to sneak into the village. Meanwhile, Vivi does start talking with a few of them and finds out some things.
     A couple of Black Mages are talking nearby a hill with strange markers. He asks them about it, and one of them states that it is what is called a "cemetery". The other Black Mage doesn't seem to understand the idea of it and refers to it as "stopping". He thinks that his friend will come back someday, and he will be waiting for him. The other Black Mage (No. 288) explains how things came to this point. Basically, he and the other Black Mages there suddenly "awoke" one day and were self-aware of everything around them. They worked together and managed to escape to the Outer Continent. From there, they started this village and have learned to live in such a way. The group stays in the village for the night, and a couple of things are explained.
     Zidane explains to Dagger that for Vivi this village is basically his home. He proceeds to tell her a story about a "man" who was unsure about his home and set out to find it. (Going to state right here...he is talking about himself.) He doesn't remember anything about his birth or parents, but desperately wants to find his home. He searches all about for the only memory he has of a "glowing blue light". His search yields nothing though, so he returns him to his adoptive father. The father scolds him and beats him for running off like that, but in the end...the father smiles. The man realizes that this is his home now, and that he will be happy with that. (The adoptive father is Baku of course.) While these two are talking here, Vivi goes to speak with No. 288 a bit more. Vivi asks how many have "stopped", but the Black Mage tells him that he has realized the truth in all of this...They have not stopped but have simply died. His estimate is that most of them stop around one year after production. He understands the idea of death, and it scares him. However, despite his fear, he plans to remain in the village because it gives him joy.
     After the night's sleep, the group prepares to travel on. Vivi comes with us because the other Black Mages want him to explore the world and tell them about it. Before we leave, a Black Mages informs us that Kuja himself mentioned something about the source of the Mist. It was understood that we need to head past Conde Petie and make our way to the place they call Sanctuary. I buy some items, synthesize a few things, and then make my way back around to Conde Petie. Once there, I talk with the folks there to find out I can't go to Sanctuary quite yet. There's one sacred condition required to go there. The "holy one" informs me that only the couples blessed through marriage are allowed to go past the village and head towards Sanctuary. Zidane jokingly asks Dagger to marry him for this, and she fully agrees to it. While they are being married, Zidane is all forms of unsure about this. He doesn't seem to understand why she seems eager about it, and he figures that maybe she is finally falling for him and his charm. However, she informs him afterwards that they are only married while in the town. As they are about to head out, Vivi and Quina ask how they are supposed to pass. Zidane suggests that they get married as well, and a hilarious ATE is quickly inserted. The two of them are at the altar and awkwardly awaiting the finish.
     With all of that done, it's time for me to move on. As we are leaving the village, a young girl and a moogle run by us. The dwarves try to chase after the "thieves", but they quickly stop at the edge of the village. They can't leave without being blessed, so they are forced to let the thieves get away. We walk just past the village onto the mountain path and find the girl stuck on a ledge (not precariously, stuck on a branch where she can't move). She is trying to get the moogle to help her down. However, the moogle spots our group and runs off. She yells after it and eventually notices us. She tries to convince the group that she doesn't taste good, so Quina steps down from eating her but quickly chases after her moogle, called Mog. They manage to get her down, and she introduces herself as Eiko!

It's a strange outfit, but I guess that is a fantasty thing...

She talks with the group for a brief period, and we agree to see her home. At one point, she gives Vivi a hard time about being a kid, but he points out that she is also a kid. (Learn later that she's only 6 years old!) The first battle reveals Eiko to be a slightly different variation of Dagger. She has fewer summons to learn, but she has a wider variety of white magic..to learn. I walk through the mountain path and enjoy that I have THREE mages and only one striker...Yaaay. I did uncover a few items and even a small side event of sorts. (Long story short, I collected colored stones, put them in a statue, and received a unique item.) As we make it through, I start to cross a large root bridge of sorts and spot a massive tree in the distance. We don't get too long to look on it when BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     It was a massive Ogre of sorts, and he strikes at us ferociously! Unfortunately, he's a big damn pushover. I didn't spend more than a few minutes on the guy, and he was down for the count. (I'd go into more details, but he really didn't do much.) Upon his defeat, Eiko mentions that the monster comes around quite a bit, but she always runs away from it. Zidane comments that she's a pretty good fighter, and she gladly accepts this comment. We look off in the direction of the tree, and she calls it the Iifa Tree. She says only the local dwarves refer to it as Sanctuary. We follow her to her home in the other direction from the tree. Her home is a small broken down village known as Madain Sari, the village of the lost summoners. As soon as we enter, she calls forth a whole pile of moogles. (Assumingly, they are her family of sorts I guess.) Her friend Mog also appears, and she tells Mog to stay with her. Mog shrinks somehow and jumps inside her outfit. The group questions this, but let's move on. As we enter another part of the city, Eiko starts hitting Zidane with a pile of questions. The questions are coming about in a way that is pointing to Eiko's liking of Zidane. She asks what Zidane and Dagger are to each other as well. Zidane says that they are all a team (this includes Vivi). She invites the group for dinner and goes off to cook. The group splits up for now, and I explore for a bit.
     Of course, this whole exploration is mostly to let me do a pile of ATEs for everybody. Vivi is sitting at one part of the village and is thinking about life and death. Of course, he isn't quite sure what to think, and it weighs heavily on his mind. Dagger is looking around and begins to think about her Eidolons. With all of them gone, she feels like something is missing in her and strangely enough she feels connected to Madain Sari somehow. We switch over to Eiko, and she is all up to impressing Zidane. She plans to cook a fantastic meal, and I get to help with it...plan-wise. One off-life of hers mentions her grandpa and not wanting to be alone anymore. While I'm walking about, one of the moogles offers to show us the Eidolon Wall. I retrieve Dagger to see it as well. We come back to Eiko who is currently cooking. I tell the Moogle to get so much water, and then I help another Moogle reel in a fish. However, it turns out that the fish is actually Quina! Quina comes over and gives Eiko some tips on her cooking. Since I already knew this was happening, I was able to do so correctly.
     We come back to the other two who are looking at the Eidolon wall. Dagger identifies some of them but isn't sure who all of them are. She takes some time to look at them, and the moogle informs us of a bit of Madain Sari history. (Going to keep this brief if possible.) The summoner tribe honored nature and named the world Gaia. They considered the Eidolons to be guardians of this planet and attempted to become one with nature through summon magic research. (Actually, it was pretty brief in-game as well!) The tribe migrated to Madain Sari around 500 years ago, but now...they're all gone. After we finish looking at the Eidolon Wall, I head back to Eiko's house and find out the food is done. The group is eating, and Zidane asks Eiko about the place. She explains quite a few things about the current village status. As I already stated (before the fact), the summoners are all long gone now, and her grandpa died about a year ago. She says that she promised to not leave the village until she turned sixteen. When she turned sixteen, she would be allowed to choose an Eidolon for herself and leave the village. She says that the summoner's can talk with the Eidolons with their horns and asks Dagger how she does so without a horn. In all of this, she's really trying to impress Zidane.
     After they finish up, she asks Zidane to help her clean up, and he asks her about the Iifa Tree. She says that the Iifa Tree is sealed by an eidolon. Apparently, it was the site of a failed eidolon summoning, and their custom was to seal any failed eidolons where they are summoned. It was powerful enough that they required sealing that eidolon with another eidolon. When Zidane asks her if she can break the seal, she says that she can but won't do it. The group goes to sleep for the night, and Zidane talks with Vivi. Vivi asks Zidane about it, and he eventually works around to telling Vivi that he has to either "do it or don't do it"  If nothing else, he should try to do what he believes and just be who he is. Zidane explains that he just wants to protect everyone no matter what. Eiko is listening in on this from a different spot and decides that Zidane is for her! However, as she listens in more, she is in for a rude surprise. Zidane takes Vivi to the side to participate in a trick to get his mind off things. Turns out...they pee together. Eiko runs back inside to not listen any further.
     As we set out for the Iifa Tree, Eiko joins us. I venture back to the Mountain Path and take the other path towards the Iifa Tree. It's a short walk to the tree and then I enter...Iifa, the Ancient Tree of Life (when I say them like that, it's being taken straight from the game). As we enter in, Zidane walks right into the seal and bounces off. After talking a bit, Eiko ends up taking it down for us. She puts on a whole act of words and movements, but she admits after it is all said and done that it was just for looks. She says all the communication is done through her horn, but Dagger thinks to herself that she didn't hear any of it. We head for the main portion of the tree at this point. I got in a few battles here and there but nothing super special. I did find out Eiko's trance quite early though. She gains the Double White ability which...is just like Vivi's Double Black. She can cast two White Magic spells in any order or selection. It's pretty useful for healing and buffing. Anyways, we quickly make it to the middle of the Iifa Tree. Once there, the group looks about at this strange and ancient strcuture there. While looking about, Zidane discovers that that middle pad glows when he touches it. Eiko convinces him to step on it, and the platform begins to lower. Basically...it's an elevator. We use it to head down below the tree.
     There's a strange path going down further into the tree and ground. (I like how these trees all seem to have appropriate structures for travelling inside of them...) I get in several more battles while exploring, and a majority of them seem to be undead creatures, including a zombie dragon. I find some fairly nice items while walking about as well. Eventually, we reach another elevator. As the group is looking downward into the glowing green pit, Eiko is eagerly trying to activate the lift. Despite her trying, nothing happens though. The rest of the group gets on the life, and Zidane's touch seems to activate it. (Suspiiicious!) We travel further and further down into the depths of Gaia. It's all green and glowing in this area though. As they head down, Eiko asks Mog if she can sense anything about the surroundings. (As it turns out, Mogs are "faeries" and can sense life.) Mog informs Eiko that she can sense a LOT of life below us. However, we get into a few battles while waiting for the lift. A battle here and there but nothing special. Vivi is thinking over by the side and tells the group that he thinks there is a connection between Kuja, the Mist, and the Black Mages. (Kind of a "duh" moment, but I don't think it's been fully put together in-game yet.)
     The lift finally stops at the bottom and leaves us on a very strange looking platform. (To me, it looks like a massive harp of sorts, strings and all.) They all start looking about and downward. Below us is a strange and shimmering pool of water, and the group figures it is somehow the source of the Mist. Eiko asks Zidane to look at it with her, but she simply stares at him. At this point, Zidane realizes that this is how he has been treating Dagger and plans to hold back a bit. Next thing we know, the group senses something coming from above! A strange creature descends down and starts talking with the group. (No real way to describe it other than a strange combination between tree with rock shoulders and kooky monster head.) It telepathically talks with the group and mentions that we aren't Kuja. The group starts asking it questions, and it just unloads with all the answers. Basically, the Mist is simply a by-product of what is actually being produced there. The Mist is discharged through the roots that are going all over and explains how they got to the Mist Continent. The Mist contaminates the continents in order to stimulate the fighting instinct. THis leads to war among the leaders of nations and ultimately the downfall of civilization. He explains that Kuja is the one using the "by-product" for different means. He admits that Kuja is using the Mist to create weapons like Vivi! Kuja is the one who created the Black Mages (as he puts it...dark spawns of the Mist)!
     At this point, the group is all riled up to kill it. That...and it mentions that if it were gone, the Mist would stop. Before the fight begins, the creature claims that it has seen the end of its thousand year life, and that it isn't now. We can't stop it, and it is futile to even try. BOSS BATTLE TIME! This monster of a boss was fairly straightforward, but it does have some nasty tricks up its sleeves. First off, before the battle goes anywhere, it casts Level 5 Death on the party. This could easily be a deal breaker under bad conditions, but in my case, I only lost one member to it. After that, I simply had to throw anything I could at it while stealing what it held. I did make one unfortunate mistake though...and it lead to a Game Over. Casting any form of Fire on the boss causes it to retaliate in a horrible, horribly way. If you set Fire to it, it attacks with a firey leafstorm of power. It's a groupwide attack, and a single round of it nearly put the whole group out of commission. I managed to recover the first time, but then I attacked it with fire...again. (GIMME A BREAK! It was dealing like over 3000 damage with Fira!) This time, it made it even worse by dosing me with two rounds of fire leaves. This killed everybody but Vivi, so I had to scramble to revive everybody. However, that never came to pass, so I failed horribly and died.
     Yeah, I was not happy with that situation. I had to repeat the process from the last couple of paragraphs and get back into the same BOSS BATTLE TIME! This time...I didn't use any Fire. Thus, the battle went pretty well, and the stupid jerk was defeated with ease. Upon his defeat, the group had to escape from the place they were in. As they did so, a cutscene played showing the Mist Continent (among other places) being drained of all the Mist there. As the group came to the top, the Mist around the Iifa Tree was all gone. Vivi did wonder if stopping the Mist was the right thing to do. (This is considering that the Black Mages are made from Mist.) He didn't want his people to be used for War, but he is unsure if they will understand. Eiko assures Vivi that he shouldn't lie to himself, and that his brothers will understand what he did. Suddenly, one of Eiko's moogle friends shows up and tells her something. She's been informed that something precious has been stolen from the village, and that she needs to hurry back. As she starts to go, the rest of the group joins her because they wish to help. Also figure that Kuja can come later in all this.
     I quickly return to Madain Sari and follow after Eiko. The precious item stolen was a crystal that her family has been protecting as a precious item to the summoner tribe. She wants to cry and blame herself, but Zidane says it isn't her fault but the thief's instead. They try to look for clues, and Eiko heads out to pray to her grandparents. However, she doesn't get too far when we hear her screan for help. Vivi runs in to say that the culprit is Lain (bounty hunter with the axe from earlier), and that she grabbed Eiko. We chased after her to the Eidolon Wall. She meets with the group inside and demands to exchange Dagger's pendant for Eiko's life. On top of this, she found Eiko's crystal when she was trying to hunt down the group. Zidane tries to approach, but she figures he will try something. She tells Vivi to do the exchange instead. However, as he goes up to give her the pendant, the other bounty hunter (Mr. redhead) finally makes his appearance.
     The red-headed man smacks Lani away and frees Eiko. She asks him what he's doing, and she thought they were working together. He claims that he wants things to be fair, and that he doesn't work with kidnapping scum. He tells her to leave the jewel and go...unless she wishes to face him. She tosses the red-headed man the jewel and runs off. As soon as she leaves, he turns on the group and demands Zidane to fight him. Of course, they are somewhat confused by this sudden change. He explains that he simply wanted to level the playing field and wants to fight Zidane. Zidane figures this is fair and meets him in battle for SOLO BOSS BATTLE TIME! There's not a lot to this battle, but it isn't completely a normal battle. He mostly leaps all about the arena and can't be hit during this. Eventually, he comes out back up front and starts attacking. After so many attacks, he leaps about again. I'm unsure if he has a certain amount of health or just needs to be hit so many times. I threw quite a bit at him, and I even unleashed a few Dyne abilities which would devastate anybody's health. Finally, he went down for the count.
     With the red-headed man's defeat, he tells Zidane to finish him off. Zidane simply asks him to return what was stolen and that he can be on his way after that. The red-headed man is confused by this and figures that this is some sort of trick to get him to turn his back. Zidane simply states that the fight is over, they are both alive, and "Good enough, right?" At first, the red-headed man sees it as an insult to lose to a "spineless thief", but Zidane follows that up with "The sly eagle doesn't kill at whim." With that being said, the red-headed man throws the crystal back to them and heads off. Zidane tells Eiko to hide the crystal in a good spot this time, and she runs off with Vivi to do so. I go back to her house to find her in the room again. She asks Zidane if he thinks it would be okay for her to leave the village although she isn't sixteen (like she promised her grandfather). He figures that she has already made up her mind and doesn't matter what he says here. He tells Vivi to remind her of what she told him. He tells that she shouldn't lie to herself and should be more honest with her feelings. She thanks Vivi for reminding her of this.
     She wears the jewel as an earring to keep it safe, and then Mog steps in. At some point, Mog had escaped from her because it was afraid, so it came back to apologize to Eiko. Eiko was a little mad at Mog, but only because she worries about Mog. She explains that Mog and herself were born on the very same day, and the two of them have always been together. She mentioned the friendship ribbons that the two of them had. Although Mog wasn't big enough to wear hers, they would wear them together someday as "sophisticated ladies". She asked Zidane if he would dance with her at that point. All Zidane had to add was...he didn't know Mog was a girl.
     Before I forget to mention, you might be wondering where Quina is in all this. One of the Moogles informed me that Quina was fishing and realized they had left without him. He jumped into the ocean and planned to swim back to the Mist Continent...crazy guy. So that's where he went!
     Zidane starts looking about again and hears Dagger singing. He looks about for her and finds her in a hidden dock with a boat. The two start talking about all this crazyness going on around them. She feels that she could never have made it all this way without the group. He lists off everybody's name who has helped them to this point. She wishes to believe that they are all fine right now (namely Steiner, Beatrix, and Freya), but she worries about it sometimes. Zidane adds that nobody wants her to feel that way, and that they didn't just do it for her. They all had their own path they were following. Dagger asks him about his path. He responds by saying "That's Ipsen's line" and goes off to explain a story about a man named Ipsen and his friend Colin. (Not going to type the whole story here...going to summarize!) Basically, Ipsen went on a journey to go back home, but at this time, there were no airships or modern travel. Despite the tough and long journey, his friend Colin was always there to help him. When Ipsen finally asked Colin why he came with him, Colin replied "Only because I wanted to go with you."
     The boat suddenly drifts out of the little dock, and the two of them have a small moment there. However, this is broken up by hearing her song being sung by someone else. As she looks upon Madain Sari, she starts to have a flashback...cutscene! The cutscene resembles the one from the very beginning. We see Madain Sari being devastated by a strange storm as the boat escapes out to sea. Dagger passes out as the cutscene ends, and I find myself back in Eiko's house. Dagger tells the two of them that she doesn't remember her early childhood, and that she was raised in Alexandria from age six or so. At this point, she starts putting things together and realizes that she must have been in Madain Sari before that! She doesn't remember a lot from that time other than the day of the storm which hit Madain Sari. She was on a boat with her true mother, and that the song was one from Madain Sari. Eiko asks her how it could have possibly all happened, and Dagger hoped that Doctor Tot might be able to answer this. Zidane feels bad for Dagger in realizing that she has lost two mothers now, her real one and the adopted one that has rejected her.
     The group heads for the Eidolon Wall and talk briefly. Dagger remembers praying to it when she was younger. Eiko welcomes her back home and realizes that she isn't alone anymore (lone survivor of the summoner tribe). Eiko firmly decides to travel with the group, and she and Dagger go pray together at the Eidolon Wall. Time passes! The group is in front of Madain Sari, and they are planning to leave when redhead shows up! He tells Zidane that "The victor leaves and the defeated die. You know the rules." He still doesn't seem to understand why Zidane did what he did or why he didn't kill him. Zidane is unsure of how to answer this but asks if he is just that unhappy with liviing. The red-headed man would rather die as a warrior than live as a beggar. Zidane says that he should come with him and try to learn about it. The red-headed man finds Zidane completely unpredictable and says that he will find what makes Zidane strong. And finally...we gain another party member! He doesn't give a name but claims that some call him the Flaming Amarant. So...we go with Amarant!

Apparently, he's too cool for you to see his face. Seriously, you don't even see it in-game...

Our next goal is to head back to the Iifa Tree and find Kuja. Hopefully, that will end all this mess.
     And with that, I end this very long and illustrious post. I realize it has taken me another week to full type up and get this post going, but I'm proud of myself for sitting down and finishing the post at one time! The eight hours of play was spread out, but the typing was all done at once. So...yay for me! Now that it's all done, it is time for me to focus on another day. I've got a looot of game to cover, and I best hurry if I plan to finish up before November rolls around. My current goal is middle-to-end of October. If I miss that, then I hate me and will force the ending out! I'd prefer to not do that, but I need to get past this and move on. Although in my defense, Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite one, so I'd like to fully enjoy it. Oh well, enough rant! Thanks for reading my post, and let's hope the next one is sooner and not later! (My current rate says next Thursday, but we shall see...)

Ending Point - Nearby Madain Sari.
Current Party -

• Zidane - Level 26
• Vivi - Level 26
• Dagger - Level 24
• Eiko - Level 24

Goals Accomplished - Completed the Ramuh Quest and obtained the necessary item to obtain Ramuh! Enter Lindblum and speak with Cid. Chocobo Hot & Cold stuffs. Find the secret entrance to a cave in Qu Marsh. Defeated the bounty hunter Lina. Navigated through Fossil Roo. Made it to the Outer Continent. More Chocobo Hot & Cold stuffs! Reached the town of Conde Petie. Found and entered the hidden Black Mage Village. Lots of plot stuff! Returned to Conde Petie to head for Sanctuary. New Character, Eiko, enters play! Crossed the mountain/root area. Defeated a strange ogre thinger. Made it to Madain Sari. Learned more about summoners, eidolons, and Eiko. Made my way to the Iifa Tree. Gained entrance inside the Iifa Tree and learned quite a bit while in there. Defeated the creature responsible for the Mist's production and therefore stopped the Mist. Returned to Madain Sari and dealt with Lani again. Fought the mysterious red-headed man and beat him. Learned more about Dagger's past. New character, Amarant, enters play!
Next Goals - Head for the Iifa Tree. Stop Kuja and save the world!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~