Back then I'm sure most of us didn't care about endgame stuff. We were all still young 16 years ago
Idk, beating Ozma and getting Ark was pretty satisfying to me honestly. It felt like you actually had a story to go with it slightly compared to FFVII and Knights of the Round where all you need is to abuse the highwind glitch or get a gold chocobo and it's just..sitting there.
Yeah Memoria definitely was a good spot for that lol.
Excalibur 2 is a trophy more than anything else. For beating both the superbosses you get a pumice piece and the ability to craft the pumice which lets you use the ultimate summon in the game, you could make other summons stronger by having more gems in your inventory but its a nice reward alone for the animation. To anyone who hasn't played the game in a long time it's the easiest nongrindy final fantasy game but one of the most enjoyable ones.
Shit i remember trying FOREVER to be able to beat that dragon/those crazy ass mother fucking god damn pink birds (staple of XI now ) right outside the cave where you could climb up the wall when clearly you werent supposed to, but damn did it level up you when you managed a win
The Grand Dragon's outside of Daguerreo?
Slap on some thunder resistant/absorbing armor, pop an auto-regen+auto-haste and go to town for the AP gains (obviously after you finish with all the cute little gem eaters). I was able to get Zidane to like 75'ish and everyone else from 50~70 before I even entered Memoria just being OCD and getting every ability learned (not including the ones that are exclusive to gear in Memoria of course)
Yeah Grand Dragons I think..I actually miss that because the same happened in FFIII (NES/DS) where you could end up traveling to spots you shouldn't be and the game won't stop you or hold your hand. It felt like you have JUST enough freedom to do w/e you want even when you're on rails.
Been awhile but iirc, it was around the time you helped the moogle that was trapped under the bell..in Gizmaluke Grotto?
They appear both there as well as outside of Daguerreo, though obviously, the ones outside of Gizarmaluke's Grotto are accessible at a much lower level.
Another great way to EXP on them was right at the beginning of Disc 3 after getting access to the boat. Have Quina eat a Zombie Whale at the snow continent's beach to learn Level 5 Death and just use it on the dragons.
FF9 had best Chocobo side quest (and music):
I have spent far too much time on Chocobo hot and cold.
I thought everyone bought FF9 for Hot and Cold.
Friend shared with me this, pretty neat stuff.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551612
Yeah, eating a Garuda during that first run through the Grotto is basically an optional boss. Your party's probably around like level 12. You have extremely limited access to gear that can help you against Garuda's attacks. You suck, and they are really strong.
They also have more HP than the upcoming boss fight against Gizamaluke, but since Quina eats or cooks to defeat it, you only have to get it down to 1/4 or 1/2 of its total HP to end the fight. The prize is White Wind, which changes Quina's role to healer, which is great since Dagger just fucking drugged everyone and ran off with Steiner to do her own thang. Spoilers.
FFIX is my least favorite PS1 FF. Just didn't like the art direction they went. Combat was also eh for me, not a fan of the way abilities unlocked or interacted (or lack thereof). I thought it was a step back from materia and junction, where there was more to the system than equipping a weapon long enough to permalearn a skill.
True. But the simplicity and ease of the game makes it more accessible and that's probably the true strength of the Final Fantasy series.
FFIX basically wasn't subtle about anything, very straightforward game in both narrative and gameplay. Doesn't surprise me that a lot of people like it. Those looking for depth have plenty of other options with other games... plus the game also does a lot of throwback stuff so people who buy into nostalgia for the old games would also really enjoy it.
Its also (by far) my least favorite of the PS1 FFs but its still better than quite a few JRPGs I've played.
I believe you get Ark for killing Ark if not then I remember getting the card from that fight. Also Ark is a really awesome animation, but slightly disappointing when the long animation is over and all you see is a single 9999 lol especially with how many times it hits the enemy.
Yep. Side quest involving beating Hades. Ozma is just the superboss of at least the original IX (who knows maybe they'll throw in a surprise since they clearly had to do some kind reverse engineering or they happened across an IDE with the source code in Sakaguchi's basement or something.)
I do like the Ark's Animation, just wish he was so muh more stronger for the work involved, but Hades was a fun fight and he's the Synthesis Master so..it was win/win regardless.
From my FFIX playthrough ages ago. Funnily enough, now that I think about it I actually didn't use the summons as much through IX compared to other FF games since I was already so much stronger naturally and Trance (specially Zidane and Steiners and Freya's) kinda negates the need for summons lol.