Final Fantasy IX Disc 1

Opening Alexandria

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

In the intro we see a big boat floating through the air toward a town. When the guy with the tail enters a room, that’s your cue to start playing the game. When you see the dialogue box that says “Sure is dark”, press “X” then go forwards until he says “Guess Nobody’s here yet.” He’ll light a match. Head to the back left of the screen to get 47 gil. You’ll get a at the top right. Now head to the center of the room and light the candle then name your character. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I’m assuming you named the characters whatever their game-given names are. Someone busts in the door and…

Boss Fight: Masked Man

Steal	, ,
Weak / Absorbs	n/a
Reward	n/a
Drops	n/a
Strategy	Steal everything, then attack. Use if your HP drops below 20.

This is FF9 introducing you to what a Boss Fight looks like. Refer to these Boss Fight panels to see what you can steal and what to expect. I’ve listed the stealable items in order you’re likely to get them, but I’ll let you know when something’s really important. In this case, you actually want the . The other two items are common enough you can get them anywhere.

Eventually, someone will stop the fight. Watch give some info. When presented with an option, you should know you are supposed to kidnap Princess Garnet. If you recommend kidnapping the queen, you’ll get mocked. After the conversation, the scene changes and…

Meet Vivi

When you next get control, you’ll be some guy with a straw cap. If you’ve played enough Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior style games, you’ll know this is a Black Mage. Unequip everything from him. Some rat kid will bump into you pretty soon, but you can ignore him for now and head down one screen. At the bottom left of the next screen down you’ll find a Zombie Card. To the left of the fountain you’ll find a . At the top of the screen there you’ll get a Lizard Man Card. Left of that you’ll find a Sahagin Card.

Let’s talk about these cards. The card mini-game in FF9 is called . Unlike FF8, you can’t convert these cards into anything useful, and there’s only one time on Disc 3 where you can win an item (a ) from the game. My advice is to collect the cool ones, and play if you enjoy minigames like this. Feel free to try to complete your collection, but don’t sweat it if this isn’t your thing.

Head back to the screen you started on. To the left, you’ll find a . To the right, you’ll find a house you can go into. That house has a in the far right corner. The far left has Grandma’s Savings of 9 gil. Be sure to head up the ladder and get the Fang Card. Head back out of that house and go left and a little up to find a . It’s across from the man who says “Well, that’s it for today. Time to get ready to see the play.”

After that, head up a screen to watch the Herald say, “Honorable nobles of Treno… Castle Alexandria is this way!” Directly down from where you enter this screen, there is 33 gil sitting on the ground. Head straight up to the tavern there and talk to people. The lower right corner of the shop has a . The left lower corner has a Flan Card. Just a bit farther left you can find 27 gil on the floor. Head back outside and go left and down. On the left side of the street you’ll find a Goblin Card. Just above that is Hippaul. See Racing Hippaul for more information about this character. Across the street from him is a sign that proclaims “Today’s Half price special: Our original a cocktail, her (heart) Majesty!” Head left and go to the next screen.

On the right side is a store. At the bottom right of the store is 38 gil. Doug (the guy that owns the store) will sell you a , , , , and . Don’t bother, though. Head back out and go up toward the town square. To the far right is a store on the far right of which is an . The store is manned by a synthesist. Head up and left to the next shop. On the left (below the guy who wants more money) is a sign about the Pluto Knights wanting new members.

Back out in the main street, you can run into Hippaul again if you go just left of the shops there. He’ll tell you he has 3 cards hidden in a safe place. Across the main street you can visit his parents in the inn. There’s nothing there, though. Go left down the alley there. Head down one screen from that to get to the residential area. The first house you can go into (on your left) you’ll get in at the top left corner. Upstairs, you’ll find 3 gil. Next door, you’ll find a circular room with a ladder in the center. Don’t go up it yet. On the right is a , on the left is a . Go up the ladder and pull the rope. You’ll get three cards. Head back down the ladder.

If you are really good, you can catch Lila leaving her house and can play cards against her. If you know how to play cards, feel free to, but if you wait a few moments you can save first, then come back and try. Use your best cards against her. Head back to the main square and go to the ticket booth. Peek in and ask about Alexandria. Then ask about what’s showing today. Finally, show your ticket. You’ll get a Goblin Card, Fang Card, and Skeleton Card. At the upper left of this screen (just below the people telling you to get your ticket stamped or be a noble) you can find a .

Head back down the alley and you’ll meet Dante the Signmaker. When he leaves, you’ll see some rascal come up to you. Tell him you’re the one with the phony ticket then agree to become his slave. When he asks if anyone is coming, tell him it’s all clear. Once he walks off with the sign, take a quick look around, but don’t go up to the next screen or you’ll lose gil being mugged.

If you see a guy with a red hat come down the road, that’s Alleyway Jack. You can talk to him to learn more about the card game, and you can play against him as well. In addition to the full first column, I was able to win a Yeti Card from him, a Cerberus Card from Maggie, and an Abomination Card from the Male Red Mage, but save before playing as you can end up losing your cards.

Emulator Note: Card Battle Save States

If you’re playing this game on an emulator, you can save state before each match/rematch and ensure you don’t lose your good cards. There are other halfway decent cards around the town. By the time I left, I had the following: Yeti, Sand Scorpion, Sand Golem, Zuu, Cerberus, Ant Lion, Blazer Beetle, Abomination, and Zemzelett.

Go down and follow the rat kid to the place where you saw the bell earlier. Try and go up the ladder, then meet your first moogle. After a second you’ll meet Stiltzkin. He’s cool. When you can talk to the moogle, ask about Mognet. He’ll ask you to deliver a letter to Monty. You should have just heard from Stiltzkin that Monty lives in the Castle. You can also save. Outside of the area there, you can play cards against Lila or the boat man or the retired boatman. When you are ready, head up the ladder and you’ll talk to the Rat Kid.

You’ll follow him, but be sure to go everywhere else too (not just where he walks) so you can get the other cool stuff scattered around here. Just after a board falls, head left and slightly down and look inside the chimney for 29 Gil. Head up, name your guy (of course, I use “Vivi.”) Over the next board, head as far up toward the top of the screen as you can for 92 gil. Next, go down the staircase in the middle of the screen and head across the roofs to the chimney (or are these birds nests…?) for 63 more gil. Go back up the stairs and head across to the upper right of the screen (where Puck disappeared to).

In the Castle, the Mighty Castle

You’ll get to watch the CG of the ugly queen and the beautiful girl. Eventually, you’ll become Zidane and get pulled into a battle. Be sure to actually attack the guards instead of using SFX. You’ll have to improvise a fight scene by following Blank’s lead here. If you score 100/100 you’ll receive 10,000 Gil from the nobles and when you talk to the queen later she’ll give you . If you score less than 100, you’ll still get a reward - just not as great.

Emulator Note: Achieving 100/100 in the Improvised Battle

If you are playing on an emulator and this mini-game really bothers you, you can always put the emulator in slow-motion mode and/or pause when the instruction pops up on the screen. Then unpause and enter the command as quickly as you can. Repeat for all 49 button presses.

When you’re back in control of Zidane, try to get a good look at the lady’s face, then eventually you’ll be Steiner. He starts out with a , a , and , but there’s not much point in unequipping his stuff, since you won’t find another knight-type character before you have to fight with him. Head up the stairs and down one screen to talk with the Queen. Depending on how well you improvised the fight scene, you will get an item of some sort. If you managed to score a perfect 100, she’ll give you the very rare I mentioned earlier.

After talking to the queen, go inside the castle, down the stairs, and into the room from which the two soldiers just emerged. In the near left corner is a . You can also use the save moogle at this point, but the Mognet letter you’re carrying isn’t for this moogle. You are supposed to find the princess at this point, and get your men to help you. If you can get ALL your men to help out, you’ll get an , so let’s go for that for now.

Talk to the two knights of Pluto here and tell them to go find the princess. Head out of the room and exit through the top of the screen where the staircase ends. You should be in a room with a large painting. Talk to the soldiers here then head left. Talk to the weirdos here, then head back to the room with the weird painting and go right. Talk to the guy there, then head back to the room with the painting. There’s a man running around here. Try to talk to him.

When you’ve talked to all of these people, head down the stairs and go left to the library. Talk to the guy there and let him go, if you want. Randomly, there’s a small bit of info about Dali against the far wall. Head back to the painting room and go across the hall to the right. Once you have talked to all these stuffy guys, head down from the painting room to exit the castle.

At the fountain, talk to the knight at the bottom of the screen, then head right and talk to a knight there. Next head left and go talk to the fraternizing personnel there, then go into the castle via the door there. Head down a long hall, then up the stairs at the end of the hall. Talk to people as you pass them. If you’ve talked to all the guards already, you can get an by talking to the out of breath guy a couple of times. You’ll have a cut scene at the top of the stairs.

After the cut scene, you’ll become Zidane again. Follow the princess through the right-most door and (after a quick chat with Ruby) continue down the stairs. After a brief scene of jumping through hatches, you’ll be able to control again. Before doing anything else, examine the big dial on the machine; if you turn the wheel to the left, something will fall from the ceiling. You’ll have to immediately turn it back to the right, but you can get a by going down the stairs. Check that Zidane is equipped with the best equipment you have, then head back up the stairs and into the room on the left to begin…

Boss Fight: Steiner

Steal	,
Weak / Absorbs	n/a
Reward	n/a
Drops	n/a
Strategy	Steal first, then fight. When a Bomb appears, don’t attack it.

Yes, you can steal a and a , even though he’s a knight and knights don’t wear that kind of armor. But anyway, keep attacking him, then watch a cut scene or two and a bomb will join the fight. Avoid attacking the bomb. Just keep attacking Steiner until the battle ends.