When does it get good? For refrence I just marathoned the 2 hour long opening.

Dali

It is good since the very beginning.

its always great but i really like the first return to alexandria

Remember to steal

It doesnt sadly.

Play until you leave Dali and if you don't care to continue by then just forget about it.

>>713790118
How many hours in is Dali?

>>713788072 (OP)
when the title screen music begins playing

>>713791082
like 5 to get there maybe

rattos

>>713788072 (OP)
It's good all the way through. Probably one of the best paced games ever made. There is always something interesting happening. Only in Lindblum it slows a little.

>>713791082
One thing that probably should be said: A lot of this game's side-content falls into the category of guide-dang-it, due to it being locked out permanently after making some storyline progression. If you care about such things, be EXHAUSTIVELY thorough the first time you reach a place, and each time the story takes you back there. If not, feel free to just cruise through, it's hardly the end of the world.

>>713793890
A first playthrough would just become unbearable if you try to 100%
The game is beatable regardless, just play normally and leave checklist hunting for the next time.

>>713793890
What do you do in the side content? Is it just to get gear?

>>713788072 (OP)
As soon as it starts. If you don't like it keep to nu FF or whatever slop square is pumping out these days

>>713794168
Not even unbearable it’s outright impossible, there’s no way a first time player can get to the end of the game under 12 hours for Excalibur 2, especially if you do the other side content.
But yeah excluding that it’s still pretty unlikely

>>713793890
The games main side content is the chocobo stuff, final fantasy only started having tons of side content with 12 which is very open world (and nothing else is worth playing after that).

>>713788072 (OP)
Somewhere between when you play as Vivi and where you play as Steiner imo

Then it takes a massive drop when you meet Freya
Then it just gets much, much better

and falls apart when you meet Amarant who literally was inserted last minute and the plot goes off the rails

>>713788072 (OP)
The opening is the best part.
If you don't like it you have shit taste.

>>713796014
ff8 had loads of side content but lacked main content

>>713796142
I mean kinda? It's mainly card games and stuff outside that is mostly unrewarding, like FF9 but less so

>>713796280
side shit is where they kept all the plot, though triple triad league was better than any final fantasy

>>713788072 (OP)
The combat never gets good. It is slow and clunky throughout. The story / areas you explore do eventually get interesting but it is designed to be a more subtle / subdued / nostalgic experience throughout and thus won't resonate with a lot of people. It also doesn't help that it doesn't really evoke the nostalgia feeling they wanted to achieve, either. The director basically misunderstood how players felt about the NES / SNES era FF games.

>>713796358
but the designers got the neo-renaissance-steampunk-magitek blend just fucking perfect.

>>713796014
ffix has a bunch of hidden quests you can miss, including involving your party members. I for example only found about Quina backstory years later when i played it again and discovered the hidden location on the map.

>>713796014
For reference the Chocobo sidequest stuff isn’t missable, that’s how you unlock the superboss,

>>713796280
>tomb of the unknown king
>timber maniacs
>winhill quests
>lake obel
>shumi village
>ufo battles
>deep sea lab
>centra ruins
>queen of cards
>omega weapon

Yeah, all card stuff, you secondary.

>>713796439
I mean you just missed out on the entire frog mini game because you missed the swamps, I don't even remember her backstory, isn't the minigame story more about Quinas "master" and vivis "dad"?
>>713796529
Yeah you're right it has more stuff than I remembered, nothing nearly as rewarding as card junctioning
>>713796358
FF 9s combat isn't the apex of the jrpg series (smt 3-5 are the best and nothing comes close) but it isn't any worse than any FF game prior to it, 7s combat could've been better but it wasn't balanced and it begins easy and just gets easier with time

>>713788072 (OP)
It doesn't. FF9 was always shit. It's just the game contrarians hold up when in reality many people refused to even buy it because of the kiddy art style and anthropomorphic characters.

>>713793890
FFIX is fine on that matter to be honest, there is not so much you can miss.

We are far from the average Tales of game.

>>713788072 (OP)
After the Zidane sex scene with Dagger

>>713788072 (OP)
I was honestly hoping the furfag protag got killed at some point. It felt real comfy after 8 though. I myt stream it at some point.

For me it's
>Zidane
>Vivi
>Garnet
>Steiner

>>713788072 (OP)
anybody here who got Excalibur II?

>>713797071
This is definitely the most popular late game party, even though realistically Eiko is just better than Garnet

>>713796753
>isn't the minigame story more about Quinas "master" and vivis "dad"?
Yeah but it at least made me sympathize with her a little more and i used her as a main party member. And oh boy, she was stronger than i anticipated.

>>713797164
Blue Magic is good in odd numbered titles, until the shit ones at least

>>713793890
I hate it when RPGs have so many missables. These games take so long to finish so I usually only do 1 playthrough. Since I want that single playthrough to be as complete as possible I NEED to use a guide but using them extensively feels like such an inorganic way to play. Tales of Vesperia in particular was a nightmare

>>713797117
Yea

>>713788072 (OP)
After playing through the techno dystopias of FF7 and 8, FF9 felt so fucking comfy. I wish they went back to this style but they can't even make a good game anymore

ENTER

>>713796753
The combat is just slooooooooow. Thats the main problem. You are forced to sit and watch way too many animations for basic attacks and actions and battles have a very slow intro / outro. This takes its toll as battles are what you do the most of in the game

>>713797117
I cheated and used speed up and other cheats from the PS4 version for the trophy.
I also used auto hotkey to get the jump rope trophy

>>713797375
is it the same speed on emu as console? i can see them having shitty disk loading performance back then.

>>713797313
9 is so different from 7 and 8, it almost feels intentional. Zidane is the opposite of squall and cloud who are broody depressed emo types, he is charismatic, immediately likeable and a natural leader, the pillar of the group. Realistically cloud and squall would never be leaders, they just don't have the personality

>>713797339
Shadow the hedgehog.
He's actually pretty good and seems to be a cheat code put on the late game. "Oh, you can't beat these bosses? Don't worry, just throw your items at them until you win."

>>713797339
I unironically like and use Amarant when I play IX. Has attacks that ignore defense, hits harder than Zidane (until he gets ultima weapon), access to counter attacks, status heals, etc. Hating him is a meme.
Although Lani should have been the one that joins you. Fuck you, Square.

>>713797375
The "remastered" version has almost no battles, feels like they cut the encounter rate in half, if not more so I wouldn't say it's what you're doing most of the time, even in the OG
>>713797438
Remastered might be a bit faster

>>713797510
>it almost feels intentional.
It is, Sakaguchi didn't really like the direction Kitase was taking with 8 so he started his own side project with 9.

>>713797572
i think he's hated because nobody remembers what he does in the story, not because of his gameplay

>>713797375
I’m going to run a performance test on Switch 2 soon. If the battles take still 20 seconds to load, I can’t bring myself to do another run. Persona spoiled me with battles loading instantly.

>>713797687
The problem is that when I played FFIV as a kid, I wasn't picturing Dragon Quest chibi characters doing things in my head, I was picturing a fullblown sword and sorcery setting with knights, wizards, etc and I don't think I was the only one. FFIX just feels contrived and is basically the Gooch's personal memberberries.

>>713788072 (OP)
At the beginning of the final dungeon.

>>713797907
i think it's like FFIV remake, you imagine it like the opening cutscene but then the game itself is still chibi

My favorite moment in any FF game is at the end of XV when Noctis gets added to the FFXV logo with Lunafreya I almost cried

>>713797907
But that's exactly what ffiv wanted you to picture. IX is just another way to frame the classic elements, one that i appreciate. Decades later and i certainly think more fondly of the characters i met in IX than the others. It's just more heartwarming to think about IX in general.

>>713797838
Don't play this on the switch that's literally the worst way to play the game. If you can't play it on og PS1 with a crt, play it on steam with the memoria mod (I believe that's what it's called)
>>713797907
>FFIX just feels contrived and is basically the Gooch's personal memberberries
This just reads like you didnt play the game. You looked at the art style and dismissed it immediately, don't be disingenuous

>>713788072 (OP)

When you open it on an emulator and play with the fast forward button.

>>713797510
retard, they're leaders because they're incredibly competent and peak talent, in a setting where people need them
zidane isn't, he's a circus clown in a setting where nobody needs peak competency, and even if they did he's not top of the list when you have people like beatrix around anyway
zidane also has his own emo existential section btw

>>713797313
very weird statement to make when objectively ff8 is consistently ranked alongside 10 as the epitome of comfy ff settings, 9 has few if any areas that evoke such feelings the same way. sure it has "here's a happy town", but the happy town and a comfy town are not the same thing.

>>713798367
Bait or retarded. Call it.

>>713788072 (OP)
disc 4

tetra masters sucks

>>713798367
People misunderstand Squall so much.
He was a natural leader. The reason he avoided people was not because he was emo, he actually was afraid of making bad decisions and losing the people around him. But every situation, he made the right call. And he was a young dude, we follow him through his first mission. Imagine a seasoned veteran Squall.

>>713798730
>he actually was afraid of making bad decisions and losing the people around him
sounds like a fucking loser. If you're an adult and admire squall you're just sad

>>713788072 (OP)
when you press start.

>>713798591
worst part is it's technically a perfectly good and logical card game, but then they added some stupid rng element for no reason

>>713788072 (OP)
>2 hour game session
>Marathon
You zoomers get more pathetic by the day.

>>713798367
>zidane also has his own emo existential section btw
and it's the only good part of the entire game
also BRING MY BELOVED DAGGER TO ME

>>713798972
the fact that one of the main complaints about this game is a barely important card mini game is telling

>>713798972
The line of thinking there was that it would be possible to win without having the most powerful cards, but they forgot this is a jrpg and overwhelming the opponent with the most powerful shit is what people want to do all the time, so it was not cool to have powerful cards fail on you.

For me, it's Freya

>>713798367
Zidane is competent though, and he spends the entire game doling out life advice to Garnet and Vivi because he did his self-reflective journey before the game started. That's what separates him from Cloud and Squall.
His "emo moment" is him getting tripped up for a bit, with the entire party coming together to call him a dickhead for not heeding his own advice, and it was based.

I didn't care for it compared to most of the others, but I would say the forest

>>713798367
>very weird statement to make when objectively ff8 is consistently ranked alongside 10 as the epitome of comfy ff settings
Something being comfy is completely subjective you retarded zoomer

>>713797071
Eiko over that useless slut any day

>>713797071
>Zidane
>Vivi
>Eiko
>Freya
for me

>>713799490
>>713799548
>>713799618
Didn't that guy want to eat Vivi? Wasn't he trying to fatten him up

>>713788072 (OP)
>Marathoned 2 hour opening
Stop playing. Seriously stop. You don't deserve FF9.

>>713795813
I played FF5 before this and it was a lot more immidetly fun

>>713796280
Can someone explain this fucking card game? How the fuck do I know if my card is gonna win a "duel" or not? There is literally no indication of the strenght from what I can see.

Each card has 4 values from left to right.
1. Attack Power
2. Attack type
3. Physical Defense
4. Magic Defense
The numbered values can go from 0 to F depending on the card. The attack types determine which value of the card you battle against.
P attacks physical defense, M attacks magical defense, X attacks lowest the defense value, A attacks lowest card value.
When all is said and done you still lose when it seems in your favor because of rng, since the value of each number isn't literally that number but represents a range rolling 0 and 255.

>>713803886
i.e. garbage

>>713803886
>win a rare card
>forget to save
>play again
>lose another rare card
>reset

>>713799047
That whole section in Pandemonium was peak FFIX. Zidane spiraling into full "I don't even know who I am anymore" mode, party members showing up one after another to slap him back into shape-kino. Dude had his breakdown, but unlike other protags, he actually let people help him through it. And yeah, that line still gets me. They really made a monkey boy's crisis of identity hit harder than half the edgy crap in VIII.