Welcome to my Final Fantasy IX Excalibur II Perfect Game: Ordered with Final Equipment -- Balanced Quina blog!

Since I completed my first perfect game run, it has been my desire to record a run for all to see. Circumstances, however, prevent me from making a video walk-through, so I decided to create this blog instead. Here I will record my progress through this amazing challenge for all who are interested enough to read.

First of all, if you are not familiar with this challenge, I highly recommend you check out Atomos199's excellent guide on www.gamefaqs.com. It can be found at http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181.  Anytime I refer to "the guide" I mean this one.

In his guide, Atomos199 sticks to stat paths that do not account for final equipment. There are valid reasons for doing so, and I do not wish to disparage any who prefer to do it that way. The reasons why I choose instead to pursue a stat path that does account for final equipment can be summed up by one simple phrase: "more power." Simply put, accounting for final equipment in your stat path allows your characters to be more powerful than if you don't because you will not be wasting any Spirit bonus due to it being capped at 50. I believe that, in a perfect file, the only thing that should be left to do is to defeat the final boss(es), so more flexibility in choosing equipment is not necessary.

That being said, let's talk about what it means to pursue an ordered-with-final-equipment path. From Atomos199's guide, you should already be familiar with the ordering of the stats. Steiner and Freya will gain 1 Spirit from their final equipment, and everyone else will gain 2 Spirit, so their ending stats are adjusted accordingly. Here's how the forced experience breaks down:

Freya can defeat Amdusias and Dagger can defeat Shell Dragon with no stat loss, so those are taken care of. In addition, Freya is the only one who can defeat Tantarian without losing any primary stat points, so she is the obvious choice for that battle. She loses 2 Magic points. That just leaves Abadon. There are two possibilities, depending on your preference for Quina. Steiner can defeat Abadon and lose just 1 Magic point, which is better than any other character except perhaps Balanced Quina. Balanced Quina can defeat Abadon with a net gain of one point (in Speed). S/he also loses one Strength and gains one Magic. Personally, I think this is still balanced, especially considering that Quina's initial stats have 2 more Magic points than Strength points. This keeps that the same.

In my previous run, I had Steiner defeat Abadon. This time, I want to do it with Balanced Quina, which is more difficult. I have spent quite a bit of time going over improvements that will help to achieve this, and I believe I can do it. All that remains at this point is to actually sit down and get it done (obviously much easier said than done). Each time I make a post, I will highlight strategies I used, particularly when such strategies deviate from the guide.

One important point that needs to be made is that it is very likely that updates to this blog will be few and far between. I don't have a whole lot of time to spend on this, so I will only be playing for a little bit each day. What this means is you shouldn't be surprised if it happens sometimes that I go for weeks without an update. Be assured that I haven't given up; it's just taking a while. If for any reason I do end up setting this aside I will say so.

Well, that seems like a good introduction to me. Feel free to make comments, ask questions, etc.  Here's to a great adventure!