Gamer Discovers New Sidequest In Final Fantasy IX, 13 Years After Release
I love it when players discover new things in old videogames. For something to remain hidden in the Internet Age is quite amazing, and it doesn’t happen often. In this case, YouTube user GarlandTheGreat has found a new sidequest in Final Fantasy IX. It involves going to the Tantalus hideout at the start of the fourth disc, where Zenero and Benero are looking for Marcus and Cinna. This is just the start of the sidequest, which involves triggering certain major events like boss fights or cutscenes to advance the quest. When going back after one of these events, you’ll see a new family member wondering where the previous family members are. Going all the way through the quest earns the player a Protect Ring.
It’s not the most complicated or in-depth sidequest — certainly not on the level of something like Persona’s Ice Queen quest, which diverges the plot into a completely different ending — but it’s still something interesting to do. Some people may have found this in the past, as it’s not impossible to find, but the majority of the Internet seems to be in the dark concerning this sidequest. There may be a reason for that. FFIX originally released in 2000, and while Internet use was spreading, it still wasn’t as ubiquitous as it was even five years later; dial-up was still found in most homes since broadband access was limited, so people weren’t even online all the time.
So in an era where information didn’t spread as easily online, Squaresoft (which hadn’t yet merged with Enix) released Final Fantasy IX, along with a player’s guide that was strangely handicapped. Square was trying to take advantage of the Internet with some sort of synergy, and they decided to do it with a strange website called PlayOnline. To make a long story short, the player’s guide only gave some of the information — readers were frequently reminded to go to PlayOnline for more tips and information. It was ridiculous, and with the way old websites die off, all those guides are good for today is a bit of common knowledge, nothing in-depth like other JRPG guides.
Since many never bothered going to PlayOnline (which was later repurposed to tie-in with Final Fantasy XI Online), it’s hard to say if this sidequest was even mentioned there. If it was, knowledge about it didn’t get passed on to many people. And since the sidequest is easily missed and takes a while to pay off, it’s unlikely that many players would succeed in it by chance. Even if they did, they may not have recognized what they did to bring the sidequest to a close.
You can watch the sidequest below, but be sure to visit the video’s page in order to get a full rundown of what events will advance the sidequest.
Source: NeoGAF