Credit to MohammadBadir for the logo!

Welcome to Coney & Blue's joint adventure through Final Fantasy IX! We've both been playing through the game despite a 3 month delay, and so it's only fair that we actually document our performance! 

However we're going to do it a little differently. I'm going to post my opinions in a comment about progress in that day (not every day, ofcours) in bold for Cone whilst Leadified will then edit my posts with his opinion in italics (or underlined or something I don't know). Hopefully, this will produce a bit of additional banter as we begin to build up a conversation between ourselves about the events of the game and it'll be just as enjoyable to read.

Similarly if you have any questions about our playthrough or tips for maximising our enjoyment (things to look out for) then don't worry about asking! The more that people contribute in this thread the better, after all so we want it to be a community event. So enough of the talking. Let's have a little look at how things went today.

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So I'm 10 hours in, just in this grotto place but the enemies are handing my ass back to me. Probably not a good idea to go that way...managed to find the boss but even that was a bit much. Seems like it might be a good idea to level up (Vivi is Level 9) and to see how we get on after that. Not sure what level Blue is at but he should probably be careful...

Ugh these snake like enemy things are impossible and running away in this game takes an eternity. Good job that I discovered Zidane's "Flee" ability after four failed attempts! It would be nice if the game was a bit...faster...in combat, but that's arguably nitpicking. 

I managed to get through the Grotto without too much trouble mostly thanks to two things. The first being the dagger I gave to Zidane (The Ogre) it hits like a truck and practically wipes out most enemies and the second being Quina. I'm glad I got lost and met up with him, Vivi is about as durable as a paper bag and Freya's damage output is not too great so far.

I almost got a Game Over from one of those fish snake things when it enticed Quina and then started buffing and OKOing my party members, luckily I managed to kill it in time before it wiped my party.

Ugh those snakes were so annoying. I just gave up and ran past them. Vivi needs to get some armour or something for sure. Poor guy.

Yeah, Vivi is in a pretty tight spot. On top of his weak defence, he doesn't have a lot of MP either so he's a bit useless in random battles. I'm sure he'll get better though!

Left the cave, stocked up on potions (got a bit lost) and on the way back in was greeted by this clown with a question. Honestly I freaked out a little but it was a pretty nice touch. Dunno what it was about but I've got the feeling I'll be seeing him again.

I envy you, why you may ask? When I left the cave (naturally ignoring the warnings from the moogles, because how bad can it be?) I was greeted by a not so friendly dragon who wanted to show me that he can count to 6000. I'll take the clown any day.

Ha I did the exact same thing so don't worry! Though I did it twice...that makes me the fool, I guess.

Heh. I did it twice too! I just wanted to make sure that the dragon wasn't a boss or something.

Anyway got back and killed the boss, stole the items from him (it's easy when he's blind!) and now I know not to waste "Cook" in Trance mode (which occurs far far too infrequently BTW). But it was a good fight and saved shortly afterwards in the South Gate. 

It sounds like the boss was no problem on your end. I honestly forgot to use my tents against him but I managed to hold on with the player of the match being Quina. I'm unsure if it was just bad luck or it's intentionally programmed this was but right when I was close to killing the boss, he would begin to spam me with AOE Magic that would hit like a truck, it was rather infuriating but I managed to hang on.

Overall I'm really enjoying my time with FFIX. It's got flaws and without a healer right now, it's really rather tough. But on the whole it has character, the soundtrack is pretty amazing and I'm really looking forward to some more time with it. It should be a lot of fun!

I agree! I'm having a lot of fun with the game right now and for a PS1 game it aged pretty well I think. It's got a lot of effort and care, especially in the world building and the characters. As you say it has some flaws (especially the game speed) but nothing detrimental to the overall experience I think.

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Updates!

#1 (Burmecia)

#2 (Chocobos, Squirrels & Disc 2!)

#3 (Treno)

#3a (Backtracking and chocobos)

#4 (Kweh.)

#5 (Cleyra)

#6 (Escape From Alexandria)

#7 (The Path To The New World)

#8 (Revival)

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So, yeah. If you have any advice or whatever then let us know and we'll make the required changes. Aside from that I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

ooo,sounds interesting. I've never played a FF game before but it'll be interesting to read your experiences, which may convince me to play one! :D

How can you have never played a FF game before? That's sacrilidge! 

You should definitely play them. I've been going through the PS1 titles and have arrived at IX now. It's been a lot of fun!

Well you better convince me to play one then! ;)

You should first of all level up, I think that'll make you win the game.
That works right? Good luck. :)

Just posted my thoughts so far in the OP! Good job with the thread, Coney .

Don't even think about grinding, that's for pussies. Macho men don't grind levels in an area to get powerful.

PS: Seriously, you don't need even need to grind, the game is (for the most part) easy.

Leadified said: Just posted my thoughts so far in the OP! Good job with the thread, Coney .

Thanks! Those snake things are just horrible. So strong! And I made the same mistake with the leaving through the ladder don't worry. The Moogle did warn us

For sure. The difficulty is it's slow and without a healer it feels rather punishing. Were Garnet to come back (she might) it would be fine, but you know...

Level 12 right now. Dunno what Blue is at.

Level 9!

You newbs.

I got a summer job and got this game when it originally came out, was so mad it was PlayStation only, I wanted for the Dreamcast!

Advice?
Experiment with the jewel system (pretty sure that's not what its called) and gear, that levels up with you and you can get some cool quirks such as immunity to poison or increased attack power, you can only use so many at any given time but it can make the game easier, by doing this I was able to do 9999 points of damage with all my party on any attack by the end of the game.

You should've also took some time to grind by the start of the game, like after the ship crashes don't go after Garnet until you're level 5 or higher, there are many places to farm levels easily in the game so its important to explore too.