The party arrives at the village of Dali. They make their way to the local inn, and after a short squabble with Steiner about Dagger sleeping in the same room as the others, they call it a night. Finally, some time to rest. I always liked the aesthetics of Dali. It just feels so comfy. Never mind, that the entire village consists of five buildings_{Six, if you count the watch tower outside of town}, four of which are commercial, and a tiny field, which could not sustain a community that particular size_{We don’t get to see the entire population of Dali, but from what I have counted, there are at least 21 people living here}. You could argue that some of the commercial buildings also see residential use by their owners, but even then, there is just not enough living space for everyone. The only building with an exclusively residential function is the mayor’s house. Maybe the townsfolk take turns sleeping there? Who is to say. It’s easy to just handwave this away, saying it’s an abstraction. And I agree to a point here, Dali still fulfills its purpose in showing us a peaceful_{At least as far as first impressions go} village. Most people probably don’t even notice or care about the shortage of living space, because the atmosphere in this place is just that good. Plus, I think it is better to have more NPCs than explorable space in a town to suspend your disbelief. Compare Dali with its around 21 citizens and not enough houses to the Imperial City in Oblivion, the centre of culture and power of Cyrodiil, a vast expanse, separated into multiple districts, located on an island in a beautiful bay, while rocking a total population of 194 people, guards notwithstanding, making the city feel much smaller than it actually is. Anyway, back to the game at hand.

Meanwhile…

The next morning, Zidane finds himself alone at the inn. The others must have left to explore Dali on their own. This happens almost every time the party arrives at a new town, they split up and the player is left with Zidane or another character. This is nothing new for the series, but Final Fantasy IX brings a new mechanic with it called Active Time Event, ATE for short. Basically,
whenever your party splits up, you get a notification about new ATEs. These ATEs are short scenes, showing what your other party members are up to. In Dali you can watch Dagger try to fit in the local population by trying to sound like a commoner, Steiner helping out at the local pub in order to get information on how to get back to Alexandria, and Vivi walking through the village road, while the town’s children act strangely excited about him.

dagger-tries — Kinda sounds like a NuMetal-Band

I love these little vignettes. They do a great job of fleshing out the characters and their respective quirks. Sometimes there are continuous stories told in multiple successive ATEs, following a character through multiple interactions. These ATEs are completely optional_{As far as I know, only four ATEs are mandatory, two of which are tutorials}, so they never are too intrusive to the pacing of the game. You can just skip them if you don’t care. But they are so charming and brimming with characterization that I try to watch all of them in every playthrough, even after 20+ years. ATEs are essential to the identity of Final Fantasy IX, and it’s interesting, that SquareEnix hasn’t used a system like this again ever since. After exploring the village, stocking up on gear and items, Zidane meets up with Dagger at the general store. They agree to rendezvous at the inn, and after some time passes, they decide to go look for Vivi, who hasn’t returned yet.

What are you made of?

Zidane remembers talking to Vivi near the windmill, so he and Dagger start their search there. Vivi isn’t there, but they hear his voice coming from a tube leading underground. He tells them that he was taken by some villagers. So Zidane and Dagger make their way to the underground of Dali. This sounds more dangerous that it is, they basically find Vivi right away. But something is off about this place. Why did the villagers take Vivi? And what’s the purpose of all this machinery? They decide to keep exploring the underground, where they find some kind of factory. A big machine, powered by Mist, is creating what looks like giant eggs, which are then placed on a conveyor belt. In the next room these eggs are hatched, producing Black Mages, artificial beings used for warfare by Alexandria, that look just like Vivi.

That’s why the villagers took him, they thought he was just another Black Mage who got misplaced. This is the first time, the game hits the player with a big reveal. And it works! There is some foreshadowing throughout the opening about Brahne and her cronies talking about Vivi as if they know something about him, with Brahne specifically ordering Zorn and Thorn_{We’ll get to these clowns, don’t worry} to eliminate him, but for the player, it’s not that obvious that Vivi isn’t human_{As in a sapient humanoid, given that there are human-animal hybrids walking around}, thanks to the diverse population. You wouldn’t think that Vivi is an artificial creature, rather than just another freaky humanoid. Vivi is obviously shocked by this discovery, as is Dagger, who remembers a lot of cargo with the emblem of the factory being shipped to Alexandria lately. Zidane snaps them out of their confusion, and they leave the underground. He doesn’t seem to be as shocked as the others, which also makes sense, since he was the only one to fight the Black Waltz in Ice Cavern while the others were unconscious, so he already has an idea of these artificial mages.

black-waltz-no2 — Black Waltz No.2. He is also an asshole

When they return to the surface, Zidane, Vivi and Dagger reunite with Steiner, who spent the entire time looking for a transport back to the castle. He found out, that the transport ship, a very old airship that just docked on the plains outside town is bringing the Black Mages to Alexandria. Of course that is not what he tells the others, instead claiming that the ship goes to Lindblum. After fighting Black Waltz No. 2, they board the airship.

airship — This image was all over the marketing for the game, it's just burned into my memory

Come fly with me

On the airship, the party encounters even more Black Mages, only this time, they move and even operate the airship. Although the party tries to talk to them, they remain unresponsive. Zidane hijacks the controls and sets course for Lindblum, as the final Black Waltz, No. 3 makes his entrance, closing in on Vivi. The Black Mages try to impede him, but he just slaughters them,
calling them soulless tools. This scene is still very powerful, mind you, we don’t know anything about the Black Mages at this point other than that they are artificial beings bred for war. The only ones we met so far are mechanically fulfilling their tasks, seemingly incapable of independent thought. But here they show some agency by protecting Vivi and by extension the others.

The scene humanizes the Black Mages, showing that they might be more complex beneath their emotionless exterior, even showing them to have some sense of “ethics”_{They shielded Vivi from No. 3, but at the same time didn’t show any need of self-preservation.} which is great. What isn’t great is that this scene becomes an outlier for the first act of the game, as we kill them by the dozens later on without sparing a second thought about the implications of the airship-sequence_{To be fair, we also mow down Alexandrian soldiers, showing no remorse for killing Dagger’s future subjects and Steiner’s work colleagues}. It is never really brought up by the characters either, not even Vivi questioning this glaring discrepancy between the Black Mages sacrificing themselves to protect the party at one point and their automaton-like disregard for life, both human and their own, throughout the first act. We will get to know them eventually, the game even explains to a degree why they behave like that, by having a Black Mage in their village_{This is still ways ahead} tell the party about him and the other Black Mages “waking up”, realizing their situation and fleeing whatever battle they were in at the time. It’s safe to assume that Black Mages only gain real sentience and agency once they had their “awakening”.

bm-wegballern — This was so brutal, when I was 13

But the party_{And the player, for that matter} doesn’t know that until act two. From their point of view, the very first interaction with the Black Mages ends up with the Black Mages giving their lives to help them steal an Alexandrian airship, so why isn’t the writer_{I know there are multiple writers involved with the story of a video game, I use the singular form to address all of them without singling out one specific writer} letting the party discuss this? Heck, Vivi has a strong emotional response to this, automatically triggering his Trance at the beginning of the ensuing fight with Black Waltz No. 3. But it isn’t brought up again, there is no scene where Vivi tries to argue that they might find another way of dealing with the Black Mages apart from killing them. I know it’s war and everything, but still this kind of rubs me the wrong way, especially since the inherent value of life itself is such a consistent theme throughout the game. Maybe it would have made more sense if the scene was placed after the party had some hostile interactions with the Black Mages, so the player and the characters can reevaluate their perception of the Black Mages? Who’s to say?

vivi-cutescene-01 — Vivi showing this edgy asshat who's boss

Our Regent is a what now?

After the party defeats Black Waltz No. 3, they escape through the South Gate, with No. 3 in pursuit, as he loses control over his vessel and crashes, badly damaging the gate. Finally, we get to see Lindblum. And it is a sight to behold. Unlike Alexandria and Dali, Lindblum isn’t the typical town stuck in Medieval Stasis. In fact, it is a highly technologized metropolis with several districts, public transport, and a castle that dwarfs Alexandria’s by quite a margin. They also have a huge fleet of airships, further demonstrating their technological dominance. We get to explore this marvel a little later.

lindblum — This is Lindblum castle. The entire city is built inside the castle.

But first, the party has to meet Cid Fabool IX, ruling Regent of Lindblum and mastermind behind the plan to kidnap Dagger. As a friend of the late King of Alexandria, Cid was aware of the ongoings in Alexandria and hatched the plan to get Dagger to safety, before trying to negotiate with Brahne. The entire lead up to him is great, he is built up as this hypercompetent genius, who knows exactly what’s going on at any moment, while at the same time developing new machines to help his duchy_{The Mist Continent consists of Alexandria, Burmecia and Lindblum, the former two are kingdoms, while Lindblum is a grand duchy, but all three of them are functionally monarchies}. He is a super spy and inventor extraordinaire, and at the same time he is also an Oglop_{Basically the FFIX equivalent of a cockroach}. Wait, what? Yeah, turns out, the old geezer cheated on his wife, who cursed him to transform into an Oglop.

This is a nice variation of the Big Good. Normally, this type of character is portrayed as wise and even a little aloof, think of Dumbledore in Harry Potter. Their character design mostly mirrors that, giving them an aura of class and prestige. Yet here we have a skirt-chasing leech, who has the body of a bug and ends every sentence with gwok gwok, mimicking the sounds produced by Oglops. Cid is a great character. Despite his appearance he is level-headed and just exudes charisma. He is also a great Foil for Brahne. While she is motivated by greed, serving only herself, Cid is shown as a compassionate leader, who always puts the wellbeing of his people first. He invites the party to stay for the upcoming Festival of the Hunt, since they can’t take an airship as long as the South Gate is being repaired.

datetime? — Zidane looking like he's about to off himself, if she says no. Player knows his game.

Who let the Zaghnol out?

After we regain control of Zidane, we are free to explore the city. Of course, since we are in a new place, we are treated with new ATEs. As Zidane makes his way to his regular pub, he meets with an old acquaintance. Freya the Dragoon will be our next party member, however she won’t join us right now. She is an interesting addition, for once she and Zidane have a completely platonic relationship, which is surprising, given Zidane’s tendency to flirt with everything with a pulse. But since Freya is already in a relationship, Zidane never makes a move on her. It would feel out of place, too, since their interactions show a level of intimacy often found between close friends of many years.

freya-meeting — Nevermind Freya, look at that mustache!

Freya has come to Lindblum to test her skills in the festival. She is also looking for her beloved Fratley, who left her years ago to get stronger in order to protect their homeland of Burmecia, and hasn’t been seen ever since. In a way, Freya’s introduction serves as cruel foreshadowing, as Zidane pretends to have forgotten her name_{Thus giving the player the chance to name her}. Later, when she is reunited with Fratley, it turns out, that he actually has amnesia, so he doesn’t remember her and their relationship at all. But we will get to Freya’s suffering soon enough.

ominous-sky — If only she knew... poor Freya.

It’s time for the Festival of the Hunt. Monsters are let lose in the city, each participant tries to hunt down as many monsters as possible. Zidane, Freya and Vivi enter, and, depending on the player’s ability, one of them might win. It doesn’t really change much however, you just can get a decent add-on_{We’ll talk more about gear in the next part} if you manage to have Freya win.

hunt-freya-zidane — This thing looks like Bebop from TMMT on steroids

During the award ceremony, a Burmecian soldier, blinded by magic, enters the throne room to inform Cid, that Alexandria has invaded Burmecia with an army of Black Mages. Freya, as a native Burmecian, volunteers to go help her people, as Cid prepares his fleet. Zidane joins her, as does Vivi, who wants to find out more about the Black Mages and his own origins. Dagger is eager to come too, but both Steiner and Zidane insist of her staying in Lindblum, as an active warzone would be too dangerous for her. Dagger is adamant that it is her responsibility as Alexandrian royalty to try to persuade her mother of stopping the war. So she sneaks some sleeping medicine into everyone’s food except hers and Steiners and leaves for Alexandria, hoping to be able to get through to her mother. Steiner follows her, as his main objectives are to keep her safe and get both of them home. And with that the party is split up in two.

steiner-afraid — Didn't really have a fitting caption to end this entry, so here's a picture of Steiner looking like he's about to cry.

Next time we will learn about the gear system in this game, while Zidane and Co are making their way to the Realm of Eternal Rain, Burmecia.

Final Fantasy IX – A Review (Part IV)

Final Fantasy IX – A Review (Part IV)

Table of Contents

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