Part One: Getting Hooked on Tetra Master

Final Fantasy IX is the ninth game in the series of JRPGs put out by SquareSoft / Square Enix.
It is a throwback to the style of older Final Fantasy games such as those on the SNES and NES in terms of gameplay and story.
You start off in a dark room on a ship with nobody around apparently. After lighting the candle, the game asks you to name the "Tailed Human".
For this playthrough, I will be sticking with the default name of Zidane.
You are greeted by three other crew mates: Blank, Cinna, and Marcus.
It's revealed that they are waiting for a boss to go over some sort of plan.
Out of nowhere, the boss comes out dressed up in a dragon costume. This serves to teach you how combat works, turn-based with an ATB to determine who makes the next move

After a couple rounds of attacking your boss, his costume bursts off of him and you leave him yelling out in pain.
You and your team are pretty exhausted after the short exchange. Maybe that's a good sign that we need to level up quite a bit?

The boss then starts the meeting and begins to explain his awesome plan.
The team will head to the city of Alexandria to put on a play to serve as a distraction in order to kidnap Princess Garnet,
who is to be the heir to the throne.
Cinna takes over explaining the mission's finer details.

The play is "I Want to Be Your Canary". It kind of reminds me of the whole Opera event in Final Fantasy VI.
Marcus will play the lead while Blank and Zidane will be doing the kidnapping.
Blank also has a plan to cause a distraction with some creatures that he found called oglops.
While this is going on, Zidane will be tasked with retrieving the princess.
After this scene, we're back to some fantastic looking CGI cutscenes which blew me away back in the PlayStation 1 days, along with some theme music to get you pumped for the game ahead.
We then take the perspective of a new character, Vivi the Black Mage.
You get trampled by some of the residents in a hurry to get to the play and end up dropping your ticket.
A little girl hands it back to you, and bids you adieu.
As you are walking down the street into the main area of town, a Rat Kid bumps into you. Doesn't seem very friendly.
You now have a bit more free control of your character and can explore some of the menus and options of the game.
You can also challenge people to play a card minigame unique to this Final Fantasy entry but similar to previous games.

After walking a bit further down the street, you're greeted to a cutscene involving Herald greeting some nobles and guiding them to the castle for the play.
You can use them as a guide to know where to go next. But first, I decide to stop by the tavern.
I find a potion in the corner on the right side of the tavern, and talk to Maggie who is really excited about getting back to work.
You can talk to a Male Red Mage who doesn't have too much useful to say except to mention that he is depressed even though he gets to go to the play.
The bartender Ashley appears to be excited to serve all of the patrons that will be leaving from the play later tonight. Or maybe before the play, so that they can watch it wasted.
He laments that it may not be that busy ever again.
In the left corner between the table and a barrel you can find a Flan card, which may be helpful later. On the opposite side of the table near an archway you can also find 27 Gil.
A very spiffy hippo person named Hippaul is hanging out in the corner musing about the Nobles.
A person named Mick suggests that we go to the ticket booth to have our ticket approved before trying to get into the castle.
You can also find a shop here, where you can purchase some healing items which may be useful later on.
He has:
Potion 50g
Phoenix Down 150g
Antidote 50g
Eye Drops 50g
Tent 800g
Tent prices sure are expensive in this world. Must be made of some high grade material.
In the central area of town, there's a jump roping mini game which you can use to earn some gil. I kinda sucked at it.
I could only get up to 34 times.
This game doesn't have the most exciting introduction in the world. But the story and gameplay does get better as time goes on, trust me.
After failing miserably at jumping rope, I decide to go check out the ticket booth.
You show the ticketmaster your ticket, but he notices something very... odd about it.
He points out that it's a fake ticket, and that he's been seeing a lot of them lately.
Vivi get depressed at the news. To try and cheer you up, the ticket master gives you some playing cards for the minigame I mentioned earlier.
Goblin, Fang, Skeleton, and Flan are in your possession. It looks like you only need to find one more card to be able to play.
In the corner are some people that you can challenge to play cards, or you can have a pointless conversation about flowers.
I walked into the Synthesist's house and his wife told me that they worked for 30 years to afford the ticket to the show.
The synthesist says that they are closing early to go to the play, which makes sense. Sometimes you just gotta take a break from the grind...
The shopkeeper laments about his lazy son never showing up for work, so they may have to close down the shop.
You can find a poster talking about how the Knights of Pluto are looking for new recruits.
Hippaul is next to the Synthesis shop, and apparently he hid three cards somewhere throughout town. It appears that we found one of them -- the flan card.
I went into the inn, and there's someone getting really animated about the inn having no vacancies. The humanoid creature rudely runs into Vivi.
There was a balcony area up stairs, but nothing of real interest to explore.
Dante the Signmaker throws a fit because you distracted him while he was hard at work putting up a sign.
The Rat Kid returns with an insulting nickname and knowledge about your fake ticket.
He agrees to help you with your fake ticket as long as you agree to be his slave.

If you pick no, he'll excuse himself to do whatever Rat Kids do when they aren't harassing black mages.
I walk down the alley way and explore a nice looking house. Near the stove I find some Eye Drops.
You can find the kid that helped you off the ground up the stairs.
You can find a tower with a ladder, and there is a Potion hidden on the right side of this map.
On the left side, you can find a tent.
You can find a boatman who will warn you about trying to sneak into the castle by boat, and then another old man complaining about new fangled mist-powered boats
Up above the old retired man, there's a kid concerned about his missing cat Mittens.
Going back to where the Rat Boy and the Signmaker was, you can see that a minitheater is under construction.
Returning back into town, I noticed the Three Heroic Knights of Pluto. I also found a Phoenix Pinion on the other side of the street from Hippaul.
The Alexandrian Soldiers refuse you passage into the castle.
I explored some of the earlier starting areas and I found an interesting letter explaining that a business moved because the residents were not accepting of Oglop Goodies.
I found a potion against the wall of one of the pathways.
I walk into the home of an old woman on a sewing wheel and an old man. The old woman is working on a dress for someone by the name of Ilia. You can steal the grandmother's meager savings of 9 gils. Don't you feel great about yourself?! You can also steal her medicine in the form of a potion on the other side of the room.
On the other side of the room, is a pattern that will make Vivi dizzy and fall on his ass.
Checking the dresser up the ladder will reward you with a Fang card.
Going further down the road into an area with a statue, you recover Tom's kitten.
You can examine the statue of General Madeline, a heroine who fought int he 9th Lindblum War.
The fishman explains that commoners have to watch the play from the rooftops, away from the stage.
I found a Lizard Man card in the background.
I also found a Sahagin Card.
There was also a Zombie card hidden in the corner.
Since I found all of the playing cards, I decided to move the story forward by talking and agreeing to go along with the Rat Boy.
He wants me to keep a lookout to make sure no one spots whatever it is you are doing.
We return to the steeple with a ladder, and climb up the tower.
A moogle lands on our head, causing laughter from the Rat Boy.
I learn that we can save the game by talking to Moogles.
Before continuing up the ladder, I save with the Moogle. Before I do, another Moogle by the name of Stiltzkin appears. Stiltzkin is planning on an adventure and promises to write.
There's a big animation involved in saving the game, which may get annoying if you plan on saving a lot. Which you should do in a game like this.
You can also accept a mail deliver quest through Mognet. We need to deliver a letter to a moogle named Monty.
Since we saved our game, I think it's safe to play some card games. The card game in Final Fantasy IX is called Tetra Master.
Not really understanding the rules, I bravely jump into a match. It mostly makes sense, and I did a lot better than I thought that I would.
With that, we unlock the first achievement for beating a Tetra Master match!

I play against the old man, and he beats my ass. So I reload my save, since I saved after the last match.
I get a narrow victory against the old man in a rematch. End up getting a Zaghnol card.
I go and talk to Tom who we assisted with finding a missing cat. He rewards us with a Bomb card.
Saved the game, and then challenged Tom to some Tetra Master.
We ended up getting an Ironite from defeating Tom.
Ended up getting mugged while typing while waiting in the Alleyway where the ladder was.
Kicked a Noble's butt in Tetra Master, earning myself a Carrion Worm.
Defeated the girl in the house next to the moogle, and ended up winning a Skeleton card.
Almost lost to the noble dude, but then I decided to stop making horrible mistakes.
I think playing from an emulator would be a better experience because it gives you all of the options that this remaster has plus you get additional features such as saving wherever you want with save states. I think the fact that you can't save everywhere is kind of annoying.
You can do a quick save by exiting a area and returning into it. By clicking continue from the title screen, you'll load from the start of the last map you entered.
So I ended up getting lost in the Tetra Master minigame for a while. Once I'm done with that, I'll post part 2.
Will add all of my images to this topic soon.

Final Fantasy IX is the ninth game in the series of JRPGs put out by SquareSoft / Square Enix.
It is a throwback to the style of older Final Fantasy games such as those on the SNES and NES in terms of gameplay and story.
You start off in a dark room on a ship with nobody around apparently. After lighting the candle, the game asks you to name the "Tailed Human".
For this playthrough, I will be sticking with the default name of Zidane.
You are greeted by three other crew mates: Blank, Cinna, and Marcus.
It's revealed that they are waiting for a boss to go over some sort of plan.
Out of nowhere, the boss comes out dressed up in a dragon costume. This serves to teach you how combat works, turn-based with an ATB to determine who makes the next move

After a couple rounds of attacking your boss, his costume bursts off of him and you leave him yelling out in pain.
You and your team are pretty exhausted after the short exchange. Maybe that's a good sign that we need to level up quite a bit?

The boss then starts the meeting and begins to explain his awesome plan.
The team will head to the city of Alexandria to put on a play to serve as a distraction in order to kidnap Princess Garnet,
who is to be the heir to the throne.
Cinna takes over explaining the mission's finer details.

The play is "I Want to Be Your Canary". It kind of reminds me of the whole Opera event in Final Fantasy VI.
Marcus will play the lead while Blank and Zidane will be doing the kidnapping.
Blank also has a plan to cause a distraction with some creatures that he found called oglops.
While this is going on, Zidane will be tasked with retrieving the princess.
After this scene, we're back to some fantastic looking CGI cutscenes which blew me away back in the PlayStation 1 days, along with some theme music to get you pumped for the game ahead.
We then take the perspective of a new character, Vivi the Black Mage.
You get trampled by some of the residents in a hurry to get to the play and end up dropping your ticket.
A little girl hands it back to you, and bids you adieu.
As you are walking down the street into the main area of town, a Rat Kid bumps into you. Doesn't seem very friendly.
You now have a bit more free control of your character and can explore some of the menus and options of the game.
You can also challenge people to play a card minigame unique to this Final Fantasy entry but similar to previous games.

After walking a bit further down the street, you're greeted to a cutscene involving Herald greeting some nobles and guiding them to the castle for the play.
You can use them as a guide to know where to go next. But first, I decide to stop by the tavern.
I find a potion in the corner on the right side of the tavern, and talk to Maggie who is really excited about getting back to work.
You can talk to a Male Red Mage who doesn't have too much useful to say except to mention that he is depressed even though he gets to go to the play.
The bartender Ashley appears to be excited to serve all of the patrons that will be leaving from the play later tonight. Or maybe before the play, so that they can watch it wasted.
He laments that it may not be that busy ever again.
In the left corner between the table and a barrel you can find a Flan card, which may be helpful later. On the opposite side of the table near an archway you can also find 27 Gil.
A very spiffy hippo person named Hippaul is hanging out in the corner musing about the Nobles.
A person named Mick suggests that we go to the ticket booth to have our ticket approved before trying to get into the castle.
You can also find a shop here, where you can purchase some healing items which may be useful later on.
He has:
Potion 50g
Phoenix Down 150g
Antidote 50g
Eye Drops 50g
Tent 800g
Tent prices sure are expensive in this world. Must be made of some high grade material.
In the central area of town, there's a jump roping mini game which you can use to earn some gil. I kinda sucked at it.
I could only get up to 34 times.

This game doesn't have the most exciting introduction in the world. But the story and gameplay does get better as time goes on, trust me.
After failing miserably at jumping rope, I decide to go check out the ticket booth.
You show the ticketmaster your ticket, but he notices something very... odd about it.
He points out that it's a fake ticket, and that he's been seeing a lot of them lately.
Vivi get depressed at the news. To try and cheer you up, the ticket master gives you some playing cards for the minigame I mentioned earlier.
Goblin, Fang, Skeleton, and Flan are in your possession. It looks like you only need to find one more card to be able to play.
In the corner are some people that you can challenge to play cards, or you can have a pointless conversation about flowers.
I walked into the Synthesist's house and his wife told me that they worked for 30 years to afford the ticket to the show.
The synthesist says that they are closing early to go to the play, which makes sense. Sometimes you just gotta take a break from the grind...
The shopkeeper laments about his lazy son never showing up for work, so they may have to close down the shop.
You can find a poster talking about how the Knights of Pluto are looking for new recruits.
Hippaul is next to the Synthesis shop, and apparently he hid three cards somewhere throughout town. It appears that we found one of them -- the flan card.
I went into the inn, and there's someone getting really animated about the inn having no vacancies. The humanoid creature rudely runs into Vivi.
There was a balcony area up stairs, but nothing of real interest to explore.
Dante the Signmaker throws a fit because you distracted him while he was hard at work putting up a sign.
The Rat Kid returns with an insulting nickname and knowledge about your fake ticket.
He agrees to help you with your fake ticket as long as you agree to be his slave.

If you pick no, he'll excuse himself to do whatever Rat Kids do when they aren't harassing black mages.
I walk down the alley way and explore a nice looking house. Near the stove I find some Eye Drops.
You can find the kid that helped you off the ground up the stairs.
You can find a tower with a ladder, and there is a Potion hidden on the right side of this map.
On the left side, you can find a tent.
You can find a boatman who will warn you about trying to sneak into the castle by boat, and then another old man complaining about new fangled mist-powered boats
Up above the old retired man, there's a kid concerned about his missing cat Mittens.
Going back to where the Rat Boy and the Signmaker was, you can see that a minitheater is under construction.
Returning back into town, I noticed the Three Heroic Knights of Pluto. I also found a Phoenix Pinion on the other side of the street from Hippaul.
The Alexandrian Soldiers refuse you passage into the castle.
I explored some of the earlier starting areas and I found an interesting letter explaining that a business moved because the residents were not accepting of Oglop Goodies.
I found a potion against the wall of one of the pathways.
I walk into the home of an old woman on a sewing wheel and an old man. The old woman is working on a dress for someone by the name of Ilia. You can steal the grandmother's meager savings of 9 gils. Don't you feel great about yourself?! You can also steal her medicine in the form of a potion on the other side of the room.
On the other side of the room, is a pattern that will make Vivi dizzy and fall on his ass.
Checking the dresser up the ladder will reward you with a Fang card.
Going further down the road into an area with a statue, you recover Tom's kitten.
You can examine the statue of General Madeline, a heroine who fought int he 9th Lindblum War.
The fishman explains that commoners have to watch the play from the rooftops, away from the stage.
I found a Lizard Man card in the background.
I also found a Sahagin Card.
There was also a Zombie card hidden in the corner.
Since I found all of the playing cards, I decided to move the story forward by talking and agreeing to go along with the Rat Boy.
He wants me to keep a lookout to make sure no one spots whatever it is you are doing.
We return to the steeple with a ladder, and climb up the tower.
A moogle lands on our head, causing laughter from the Rat Boy.
I learn that we can save the game by talking to Moogles.
Before continuing up the ladder, I save with the Moogle. Before I do, another Moogle by the name of Stiltzkin appears. Stiltzkin is planning on an adventure and promises to write.
There's a big animation involved in saving the game, which may get annoying if you plan on saving a lot. Which you should do in a game like this.
You can also accept a mail deliver quest through Mognet. We need to deliver a letter to a moogle named Monty.
Since we saved our game, I think it's safe to play some card games. The card game in Final Fantasy IX is called Tetra Master.
Not really understanding the rules, I bravely jump into a match. It mostly makes sense, and I did a lot better than I thought that I would.
With that, we unlock the first achievement for beating a Tetra Master match!

I play against the old man, and he beats my ass. So I reload my save, since I saved after the last match.
I get a narrow victory against the old man in a rematch. End up getting a Zaghnol card.
I go and talk to Tom who we assisted with finding a missing cat. He rewards us with a Bomb card.
Saved the game, and then challenged Tom to some Tetra Master.
We ended up getting an Ironite from defeating Tom.
Ended up getting mugged while typing while waiting in the Alleyway where the ladder was.
Kicked a Noble's butt in Tetra Master, earning myself a Carrion Worm.
Defeated the girl in the house next to the moogle, and ended up winning a Skeleton card.
Almost lost to the noble dude, but then I decided to stop making horrible mistakes.
I think playing from an emulator would be a better experience because it gives you all of the options that this remaster has plus you get additional features such as saving wherever you want with save states. I think the fact that you can't save everywhere is kind of annoying.
You can do a quick save by exiting a area and returning into it. By clicking continue from the title screen, you'll load from the start of the last map you entered.
So I ended up getting lost in the Tetra Master minigame for a while. Once I'm done with that, I'll post part 2.
Will add all of my images to this topic soon.