I took a few seconds to heal up at the spring before heading off. It seemed like I had a rather large percentage of attempts fail from getting a random encounter, but I finally made it to Plant Brain.
I started off the fight by having Vivi attack Zidane. This brought him to critical HP, causing Blank to appear. One attack from Blank and a Fire Sword from Steiner were all it took to kill the boss. It did manage to get an attack in, but it was a quick physical attack and didn't knock anyone out, so I let it slide.
In the forced encounter with the 2 Plant Spiders Vivi's turn came up immediately, so a multi-target Fire ended the battle as soon as it began. I unequpped Blank after the battle, giving him a Broadsword instead of his Iron Sword.
I got a bit turned around on the world map, so I wasn't quite at the entrance to the Ice Cavern when the nameplate disappeared. I just saved outside since I'm not too bothered by having to watch the scene each time I try to go in. I can just remember how I save some extra time by doing it this way. :) My time is now 00:48:50.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Quitting Tantalus
This part opens with marching into the forest and battling the Prison Cage. The starting ATB positions are scripted, so there's nothing you can do about them. Prison Cage will always go before you and will always use the same attacks. In the second battle, I stole the Broadsword before finishing it off with Steiner. (I forgot to mention it until now, but I messed up when naming Steiner. I didn't want to waste my excellent King Leo battle and first try sword fight, so I kept it. On my file, Steiner's name is Steine.)
I ransacked the Prima Vista and went to fight Baku. In this fight, I deliberately dragged the fight out an extra turn so I could get Zidane's trance gauge to fill a little more. As a bonus, I managed to steal the Iron Sword in that extra turn. I'll definitely be putting that to good use.
I read Ruby's letter and saved with Mosco, then headed out to search for Garnet. Luck must be on my side right now because I made it to Monty on my first try! I optimized Steiner and Zidane, read the two letters, and saved. My time is now 00:42:51. Zidane's equipment is the same as before except that he now is wearing a Silk Shirt. Steiner is equipped as follows:
Iron Sword
Bronze Helm
Bronze Gloves
Bronze Armor
I ransacked the Prima Vista and went to fight Baku. In this fight, I deliberately dragged the fight out an extra turn so I could get Zidane's trance gauge to fill a little more. As a bonus, I managed to steal the Iron Sword in that extra turn. I'll definitely be putting that to good use.
I read Ruby's letter and saved with Mosco, then headed out to search for Garnet. Luck must be on my side right now because I made it to Monty on my first try! I optimized Steiner and Zidane, read the two letters, and saved. My time is now 00:42:51. Zidane's equipment is the same as before except that he now is wearing a Silk Shirt. Steiner is equipped as follows:
Iron Sword
Bronze Helm
Bronze Gloves
Bronze Armor
Monday, August 19, 2013
Absconding with the Princess
This part was pretty easy. I got through on it on my first try once I managed to fix the disc reading problem. Rounding up all the knights was a piece of cake. When I got control of Zidane I optimized him. He now has the Mage Masher, Leather Hat, Wrist, Leather Shirt, and Moonstone equipped.
In the first fight with Steiner Zidane got the first turn and attacked. Blank and Cinna stole the Leather Hat and Silk Shirt, and Zidane then finished Steiner with one more attack.
The other fights with Steiner are as simple as they get. Just knock out everyone except Garnet to get through them quickly. Steiner and the Pluto Knights never even got a turn. After a few FMVs, I'm now saved in the Evil Forest with a time of 00:31:21.
In the first fight with Steiner Zidane got the first turn and attacked. Blank and Cinna stole the Leather Hat and Silk Shirt, and Zidane then finished Steiner with one more attack.
The other fights with Steiner are as simple as they get. Just knock out everyone except Garnet to get through them quickly. Steiner and the Pluto Knights never even got a turn. After a few FMVs, I'm now saved in the Evil Forest with a time of 00:31:21.
Friday, August 16, 2013
I Want To Be Your Canary
This one wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't keep having to deal with the PS2 not reading the disc right after swapping in order to skip the FMV. I'll have to look into ways to fix that.
The King Leo battle I had was very close to perfect. I took out the small fries immediately and then focused my attention on the king. Surprisingly, it took 7 attacks to take him down, so he got 2 attacks in, but thankfully I didn't have to see any of the SFX "attacks".
The sword fight was no problem. I impressed all 100 nobles on my first try. That, along with my excellent battle gave me a finishing time of 00:17:42 for this part. I have 10,814 gil.
The King Leo battle I had was very close to perfect. I took out the small fries immediately and then focused my attention on the king. Surprisingly, it took 7 attacks to take him down, so he got 2 attacks in, but thankfully I didn't have to see any of the SFX "attacks".
The sword fight was no problem. I impressed all 100 nobles on my first try. That, along with my excellent battle gave me a finishing time of 00:17:42 for this part. I have 10,814 gil.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Finally getting started!
Hard to believe it took me so long to get everything straightened out, but now that's all taken care of and I'm ready to start for real! Here's how my first circuit went:
As soon as I gained control of Zidane, I changed the cursor position to 'Memory', the movement speed to 'Run', the battle speed and message speed to maximum, and the target window to 'Always'. The other settings are already how I want them, so I left them alone.
The Masked Man battle was excellent! I started out with Zidane stealing the Wrist. Cinna then stole the Mage Masher. After that, the boss attacked Cinna, KOing him, and the others knocked themselves out. I couldn't have asked for a better battle.
I looted Alexandria with Vivi. I made a slight mistake with the little girl running back to her house. She was running back to the house as I approached, but I thought I could loot the house if I got in before her. Turned out not to be true. As I was leaving the house, she went out again, so I turned around and went back in to loot the place. My time at the end of this circuit is 00:08:33, which I think is pretty good, especially with that screw up, so I'm keeping it.
I had a previous attempt where I clocked in at 00:08:41, but I decided that wasn't good enough, so I did it over.
As soon as I gained control of Zidane, I changed the cursor position to 'Memory', the movement speed to 'Run', the battle speed and message speed to maximum, and the target window to 'Always'. The other settings are already how I want them, so I left them alone.
The Masked Man battle was excellent! I started out with Zidane stealing the Wrist. Cinna then stole the Mage Masher. After that, the boss attacked Cinna, KOing him, and the others knocked themselves out. I couldn't have asked for a better battle.
I looted Alexandria with Vivi. I made a slight mistake with the little girl running back to her house. She was running back to the house as I approached, but I thought I could loot the house if I got in before her. Turned out not to be true. As I was leaving the house, she went out again, so I turned around and went back in to loot the place. My time at the end of this circuit is 00:08:33, which I think is pretty good, especially with that screw up, so I'm keeping it.
I had a previous attempt where I clocked in at 00:08:41, but I decided that wasn't good enough, so I did it over.
Monday, May 13, 2013
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!
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!
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