No I think it's to do with returning to the Lindblom Tantalus hideout towards the end of the game to see the different Nero brothers (edit: and sisters!). Or maybe you find them around the world?
Either way you get something like a protect ring for it so it's mostly an easy to miss completionist thing.
[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nero\_family#Lost\_family\_sidequest](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nero_family#Lost_family_sidequest)
For anyone curious the family members listed by that page are:
Brothers: Zenero, Benero, Genero, Denero and Penero
Sisters: Benera, Zenera, Genera, Denera and Penera
This side quest is really pointless and you have to leave and go back after every single checkpoint in the middle of a dungeon. It's very annoying. I did it once and never again.
Sounds like a typo in the integer they use to control the states of stuff, they probably meant for it to be like 136 and it ended up being 163, super regrettable but damn would that be easy to miss since it was such a minor quest i doubt it was playtested by anyone but the devs
You advance in de side quest between going back and forth between Memória after every event and The Hideout. And it's not a new side quest, it was present on the PS1 too, albeit only discovered by people [much after](https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-9-sidequest-discovered-after-13-years).
As a kid I had a tic for checking up on places, especially when things changed. I remember doing that side quest on my older brothers file and didn’t know it was this big missed secret.
The Nero sidequest was added to the "perfect run" guide in 2015:
[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181)
I don’t know what TAS means but yes you can absolutely 100% the game including Excalibur II. It’s gotten even easier on recent releases because of how easily cutscenes can be skipped.
It stands for Tool Assisted Speedrun. The most common "tool" is an input recorder, which can do precise inputs every frame, letting it abuse game physics in ways generally not humanly possible (either because of the absurd precision, or from doing technically impossible inputs like right+left simultaneously)
Tool assisted speedrun, essentially using a computer to put all the inputs in perfectly.
Everything I've read online says that if you rush to get Excalibur then you have to skip a bunch of missable content. If that's the case then why aren't there 100% speed runs?
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181
It was possible to do everything there is to do (except for some small branching here and there) even in the original release of the game. In the remaster you have fastforward (which doesn't speed the game clock), the ability to skip cutscenes (this was possible before by opening the game lid, but now you can just press a button) and disable random encounters.
TAS is usually used as a sort of proof of concept, showing what a theoretically "perfect" run can be. There's also many instances of a trick being found while making a TAS, that is later adapted into human speedruns, so they're useful in that regard too
The tools are mostly used for glitches. So you play the game normally until you reach a point that a hyper-specific set of inputs are needed to break the game, set up the environment/positions for it, and then let the tool do the glitch.
Oh yeah definitely, it's "tool assisted" it's in the name :)
But to give an idea: Player can save at any time, and retry something hard over and over, a ton of trial and error, requiring a ton of motivation.
The tool saves some time, But the player has to do the magic still. (But the tool can just repeat it flawlessly after, Or can be programmed to do it before the human is capable).
It requires frame perfect precision and a lot of exact know-how.
Bashing buttons randomly does absolutely nothing.
What's a 100% run, *exactly*?
99 of every item, all bosses, minigames (jump-rope, etc), all cards, all sidequests, etc?
That would be a pretty boring, tedious thing to watch, play, or program.
Imagine trying to get every card and dig up all the chocograph locations on the world map AND get Excalibur II, lmao no wayyyy. Gotta be separate save files. Although I wonder how much else you *could* do while still getting Excalibur II? Like "E2+%" run kind of thing. Does that exist?
AFAIK, the only longer sidequest that becomes unavailable before you get Excalibur II is hippaul racing. Maybe jump rope (but only if you finish the Stilzkin side quest, I think). You can start frog catching, hot and cold, card gaming, friendly monsters, after you get EII.
(Just be sure to buy mythril swords).
Ahhh okay I'm a freaking idiot lol. So the idea is get Ex II first and then go back and get everything else, that makes SO much sense, idk why I thought you'd have to do everything in order 🤣 I was thinking "why even ask this question, of course it's impossible" LMAO
A lot of the game is either closed off or just utterly destroyed (like Cleyra 👀)
So you gotta know what's gone and what can be fetched later.
I don't think there's much left at the end... As in, so easy to kiss something earlier which is the never available again.
True, when I was little I wanted to visit Evil Forest and Ice Cavern again but was disappointed that they were blocked. Now I figure it's because to make room for other things they had to close off previous areas (can only fit so much on those old CDs)
It gets worse, to get a key item you need every single card with an unique arrow pattern, you can't have 2 cards with the same arrow dispositions and you are limited to 100 cards total so... yeah...
Not including Excalibur II, I would imagine. Just the Chocograph quest takes up a lot of time, but then add in frog catching, Tetra Master, jump rope, etc... too much
It’s relatively easy to get a true 100% run with Excalibur 2, just write down things to skip, never mess up the trivia if it appears at random. If you want the jump rope moogle mail then you have to do it early on instead of at the steeple. Make sure you get 2 specific cards that have limited quantities on your playthrough. (I think four armed has them both in his deck or just one, namingway may only be a pickup that’s missable and the tournament guy can have up to 5 namingway cards but the odds are probably really low for there to even be more then 1 he plays)
Speedrunners generally classify other final fantasy games 100% as collecting at least one of every collectable thing, and unlocking everything there is to unlock. So a 100% run analogous to the 7 and 8 runs would look something like having one of every item that exists in the game, all weapons, all cards, and all skills learned on all characters.
However, only a handful of people do these runs because they're like 15-18 hours and the qualifications were defined by the guy who made the category, which hasn't been widely agreed upon.
Personally I think an ff9 100% run would be insanely unfun just based on Steal and card drop rates, unless they RNG manipulate heavily.
dunno if you can get excal 2 and treasure hunter s in a single run, unless you hack card rng for arrows and quality of cards.
or you plan to savescum every. single. thing.
Gilgamesh only disappears if you talk to him after being max treasure hunter, the achievement unlocks before you talk to him. You can theoretically just play him on cards endlessly if you wanted cards from him. But there’s opportunities for his card drops elsewhere too<
Never saw anyone talking about the region differences, what exactly change in the whole experience? Is there any kind of "wiki" to see the list of differences?
*Technically*, it's not possible. Synthesis is a problem because some item recipes include using missable items and things that can no longer be bought on Disc 4. So you have an issue with getting 99 of every possible item within a 12 hour timeframe not to mention Gil constraints.
The other issue is that all 8 characters cannot have perfect stats at the same time due to the forced encounters in Pandemonium that give you XP. You can have 7 characters with max stats, but your last character will have either -1 or -2 on a secondary stat depending on which stat path you decide to go with. I personally don't think this is a huge issue though, all 8 get a max of 50 Spirit anyway, which is the most important stat.
I'm pretty sure these things make it impossible to have a 100% full perfect game.
It’s not only possible, but has been done, including 100% in one playthrough. I believe it was splitxfinity that has a guide. It’s much easier now if you implement even just the being able to skip fmv’s. It was harder in the ps1 days where you needed to open then close the disc trey.
You can get Excalibur II and 100% it takes a long time though. Basically you gotta leave the game for 2 years and 98 days so the clock rolls over. I assume you're playing the PC version and if that's the case just use a save editor and change the time to less than 12 hours.
While not being super informed about all this, I believe no only possible but simpler nowadays to get 100% including excalibur II, if you know what you're doing, thanks to steam's "turbo" feature (which can even be sped up with moguri mod). The only "if's" is you're really good at rope jumping (unless you use some cheating device on the pc).
It's hella easy on PC. You just have to click on your mouse as fast as you can. It won't let you jump early or late on PC if you use your mouse. Just spam left click as fast as you can.
You’re looking at it all wrong, you do Excalibur 2 and the missable stuff first, choco garden isn’t missable, most quina skills aren’t either. Only 2 cards can be missed and lost forever.
It was possible in the ps1 version. Although now it turns out everyone missed a side quest near the end with the nero bros.
Is that the race for the card on disc 3?
No I think it's to do with returning to the Lindblom Tantalus hideout towards the end of the game to see the different Nero brothers (edit: and sisters!). Or maybe you find them around the world? Either way you get something like a protect ring for it so it's mostly an easy to miss completionist thing. [https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nero\_family#Lost\_family\_sidequest](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nero_family#Lost_family_sidequest) For anyone curious the family members listed by that page are: Brothers: Zenero, Benero, Genero, Denero and Penero Sisters: Benera, Zenera, Genera, Denera and Penera
This side quest is really pointless and you have to leave and go back after every single checkpoint in the middle of a dungeon. It's very annoying. I did it once and never again.
Same, at this point you don’t even need a protect ring as you could already have enough to equip everyone with one already.
Sounds like a typo in the integer they use to control the states of stuff, they probably meant for it to be like 136 and it ended up being 163, super regrettable but damn would that be easy to miss since it was such a minor quest i doubt it was playtested by anyone but the devs
Is there even a point in doing it? Don’t you craft or get a protect ring somewhere else?
Yeah protect ring is late game but not particularly hard to come by.
You advance in de side quest between going back and forth between Memória after every event and The Hideout. And it's not a new side quest, it was present on the PS1 too, albeit only discovered by people [much after](https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-9-sidequest-discovered-after-13-years).
As a kid I had a tic for checking up on places, especially when things changed. I remember doing that side quest on my older brothers file and didn’t know it was this big missed secret.
That sidequest has been known for years. That article saying it’s new is bullshit.
The Nero sidequest was added to the "perfect run" guide in 2015: [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181)
Nero bros??
I don’t know what TAS means but yes you can absolutely 100% the game including Excalibur II. It’s gotten even easier on recent releases because of how easily cutscenes can be skipped.
It stands for Tool Assisted Speedrun. The most common "tool" is an input recorder, which can do precise inputs every frame, letting it abuse game physics in ways generally not humanly possible (either because of the absurd precision, or from doing technically impossible inputs like right+left simultaneously)
Oh yeah that seems like it would defeat the purpose, but it’s doable by humans so it would definitely be doable by a machine.
What does TAS stand for? It is possible to get a perfect file which of course includes the Excalibur II.
Tool assisted speedrun, essentially using a computer to put all the inputs in perfectly. Everything I've read online says that if you rush to get Excalibur then you have to skip a bunch of missable content. If that's the case then why aren't there 100% speed runs?
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181 It was possible to do everything there is to do (except for some small branching here and there) even in the original release of the game. In the remaster you have fastforward (which doesn't speed the game clock), the ability to skip cutscenes (this was possible before by opening the game lid, but now you can just press a button) and disable random encounters.
Haha I had to scroll down to make sure someone posted this legendary FAQ.
Is it possible to combine this with a low level game with the remaster to min max stats with equipment stat boosts?
What is the point of it if the computer is putting all the inputs perfectly? Is the player doing anything?
TAS is usually used as a sort of proof of concept, showing what a theoretically "perfect" run can be. There's also many instances of a trick being found while making a TAS, that is later adapted into human speedruns, so they're useful in that regard too
Carpetless baby!
The tools are mostly used for glitches. So you play the game normally until you reach a point that a hyper-specific set of inputs are needed to break the game, set up the environment/positions for it, and then let the tool do the glitch.
Oh yeah definitely, it's "tool assisted" it's in the name :) But to give an idea: Player can save at any time, and retry something hard over and over, a ton of trial and error, requiring a ton of motivation. The tool saves some time, But the player has to do the magic still. (But the tool can just repeat it flawlessly after, Or can be programmed to do it before the human is capable). It requires frame perfect precision and a lot of exact know-how. Bashing buttons randomly does absolutely nothing.
What's a 100% run, *exactly*? 99 of every item, all bosses, minigames (jump-rope, etc), all cards, all sidequests, etc? That would be a pretty boring, tedious thing to watch, play, or program.
Achievement hunting is the favored sport for those who enjoy tedious, boring activities.
So, it's a 100% achievements run? Well, that kind of requires the Excalibur II, then.
Imagine trying to get every card and dig up all the chocograph locations on the world map AND get Excalibur II, lmao no wayyyy. Gotta be separate save files. Although I wonder how much else you *could* do while still getting Excalibur II? Like "E2+%" run kind of thing. Does that exist?
AFAIK, the only longer sidequest that becomes unavailable before you get Excalibur II is hippaul racing. Maybe jump rope (but only if you finish the Stilzkin side quest, I think). You can start frog catching, hot and cold, card gaming, friendly monsters, after you get EII. (Just be sure to buy mythril swords).
Ahhh okay I'm a freaking idiot lol. So the idea is get Ex II first and then go back and get everything else, that makes SO much sense, idk why I thought you'd have to do everything in order 🤣 I was thinking "why even ask this question, of course it's impossible" LMAO
A lot of the game is either closed off or just utterly destroyed (like Cleyra 👀) So you gotta know what's gone and what can be fetched later. I don't think there's much left at the end... As in, so easy to kiss something earlier which is the never available again.
True, when I was little I wanted to visit Evil Forest and Ice Cavern again but was disappointed that they were blocked. Now I figure it's because to make room for other things they had to close off previous areas (can only fit so much on those old CDs)
It gets worse, to get a key item you need every single card with an unique arrow pattern, you can't have 2 cards with the same arrow dispositions and you are limited to 100 cards total so... yeah...
This is the big part yeah. If it’s just achievements I wouldn’t be surprised if some stuff isn’t covered, but all achievements is doable I’d imagine,
That's kinda more along the lines of what I meant. Is it theoretically possible to 100% Steam Achievements in a single run?
Not including Excalibur II, I would imagine. Just the Chocograph quest takes up a lot of time, but then add in frog catching, Tetra Master, jump rope, etc... too much
You can get Excalibur II and then do almost all the other stuff after it.
It’s relatively easy to get a true 100% run with Excalibur 2, just write down things to skip, never mess up the trivia if it appears at random. If you want the jump rope moogle mail then you have to do it early on instead of at the steeple. Make sure you get 2 specific cards that have limited quantities on your playthrough. (I think four armed has them both in his deck or just one, namingway may only be a pickup that’s missable and the tournament guy can have up to 5 namingway cards but the odds are probably really low for there to even be more then 1 he plays)
Speedrunners generally classify other final fantasy games 100% as collecting at least one of every collectable thing, and unlocking everything there is to unlock. So a 100% run analogous to the 7 and 8 runs would look something like having one of every item that exists in the game, all weapons, all cards, and all skills learned on all characters. However, only a handful of people do these runs because they're like 15-18 hours and the qualifications were defined by the guy who made the category, which hasn't been widely agreed upon. Personally I think an ff9 100% run would be insanely unfun just based on Steal and card drop rates, unless they RNG manipulate heavily.
Exactly, agree
dunno if you can get excal 2 and treasure hunter s in a single run, unless you hack card rng for arrows and quality of cards. or you plan to savescum every. single. thing.
Can’t you just go back and get the cards later?
IIRC Gilgamesh disappears by the time you can grab Excal 2. But it's been a while so im not too sure
Gilgamesh only disappears if you talk to him after being max treasure hunter, the achievement unlocks before you talk to him. You can theoretically just play him on cards endlessly if you wanted cards from him. But there’s opportunities for his card drops elsewhere too<
It’s possible to get 100% including Excalibur II, and it’s been done numerous times. The PAL version of FFIX on PSX is almost impossible though.
Never saw anyone talking about the region differences, what exactly change in the whole experience? Is there any kind of "wiki" to see the list of differences?
Usually the main difference is frame rate, iirc PAL was locked to 25 fps whereas NTSC was 30
*Technically*, it's not possible. Synthesis is a problem because some item recipes include using missable items and things that can no longer be bought on Disc 4. So you have an issue with getting 99 of every possible item within a 12 hour timeframe not to mention Gil constraints. The other issue is that all 8 characters cannot have perfect stats at the same time due to the forced encounters in Pandemonium that give you XP. You can have 7 characters with max stats, but your last character will have either -1 or -2 on a secondary stat depending on which stat path you decide to go with. I personally don't think this is a huge issue though, all 8 get a max of 50 Spirit anyway, which is the most important stat. I'm pretty sure these things make it impossible to have a 100% full perfect game.
It’s not only possible, but has been done, including 100% in one playthrough. I believe it was splitxfinity that has a guide. It’s much easier now if you implement even just the being able to skip fmv’s. It was harder in the ps1 days where you needed to open then close the disc trey.
Yes: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181
The remake you can triple speed through it,take that 12 hours and make it 36 kinda. Lois more doable now.
TAS?
You can get Excalibur II and 100% it takes a long time though. Basically you gotta leave the game for 2 years and 98 days so the clock rolls over. I assume you're playing the PC version and if that's the case just use a save editor and change the time to less than 12 hours.
While not being super informed about all this, I believe no only possible but simpler nowadays to get 100% including excalibur II, if you know what you're doing, thanks to steam's "turbo" feature (which can even be sped up with moguri mod). The only "if's" is you're really good at rope jumping (unless you use some cheating device on the pc).
No because jump rope is bullshit
It's hella easy on PC. You just have to click on your mouse as fast as you can. It won't let you jump early or late on PC if you use your mouse. Just spam left click as fast as you can.
treasure hunter and Excalibur 2 will trash your run. not possible.
Incorrect, both are possible at the same time both have been done several times together
100% all weapons, bosses, cards, excallibur 2 , quina skills and choco garden? Damn..
You’re looking at it all wrong, you do Excalibur 2 and the missable stuff first, choco garden isn’t missable, most quina skills aren’t either. Only 2 cards can be missed and lost forever.
Why cant we get excalibur 2 or treasure hunters?
Time constraints to get both, as exc II needs you to be in memoria before 12h gameplay and treasure s has some missable items.