I found childhood again while playing Final Fantasy IX, as it featured children instead of adults as main characters. The story was pretty good, although many die-hard Final Fantasy fans claimed that the plot is hardly something that can be compared to the brilliant stories told in Final Fantasy VII or VIII. Follow Zidane, a monkey-like creature as he goes on a quest to save Princess Garnet, while battling Kuja...his...broth...well, enough with the spoilers. Square's RPGs have always had the good habit of offering hundreds of hours of gameplay, thousands of items to collect and many locations to explore. Playing with Square's trademark bird, the Chocobo is one of the main hobbies of the characters that were featured in the Final Fantasy games.

Translation for the Chocobo's exclamations plus the Hot and Cold game treasure locations:

"Kweh!"- There's a treasure near you.

"Kweeeeh!"- You're very close to the treasure.

"K-KWEH!"- You got it

Abandoned beach - South of the Qu's march in the outer continent

Abandoned lagoon - South of Conde Petie

Between mountains - East of Lindblum

Birds' eye lagoon - West of Qu's marsh in the Mist continent

Cold field - South of the fire shrine

Cold lagoon - West of the fire shrine

Dawn lagoon - South and a bit east of Treno

Dusk plains - Southwest of Oeilvert

Fairy island - Southwest of the Lifa tree

Faraway lagoon - Just south of the water shrine

Forbidden forest - Between Gizamaluke's grotto and Dali

Forgotten island - Island west of the fairy island

Forgotten lagoon - South part of the forgotten island

Forgotten plains - Northwest of the water shrine

Green plains - Northeast of Dali

Healing shore - North of Cleyra

Secrets

A

Secret With Ruby

At the beginning of the game, after fighting Baku for the first time, Baku will start explaining the first mission. Your first task is to go to Alexandria and kidnap Princess Garnet. Baku will ask you whether you are kidnapping Queen Brahne or Princess Garnet to ensure that you know your mission well. If you keep answering Baku's question incorrectly for 64 times by choosing Queen Brahne, Ruby will then storm into the room.

Double Your Fantasy Fun

Did you know that you can have up to two players controlling your players during your combat? All you need is to go to the main menu, go to config and then click battle control. Choose the CUSTOM option and an extra menu pops up, listing the names of all the characters and beside each name, you can select whether you want controller 1 or 2 to control each individual character. During combat, you will then notice a controller icon with either the word '1' or '2' on the top right hand corner of the screen. That indicates which player 1 or 2 is controlling now. Note that this ONLY applies to BATTLES and NOTHING else.

Final Fantasy IX's Second Ending

Complete the Stellazzio quest and keep Cinna's Hammer in your item inventory. DO NOT use the Hammer in the Legendary Synthesis Shop. You will see an additional hidden sequence in the ending. Your eyes have got to be sharp to see the difference(s). The second ending is just a few minutes longer than the original one. Have one save file with the Hammer in your inventory and another save file without the Hammer in your inventory to spot the differences.

Infinite Dead Peppers

After finding Chocobos Paradise, talk to the Chocobo on the left of Fat Chocobo.If you ask for some, the Chocobo will bring your Dead Pepper count to the max amount, 99. Use or sell the Dead Peppers, come back and repeat as many times as you like.

Legendary Synthesis Shop

In Memoria, you will reach an area where Quina thinks he is in the water and he attempts to swim. After the conversation, search the right side of the screen to find a hidden area amongst the coral. A mysterious voice asks you to leave at once because you have disturbed his sleep. Choose to refuse to leave and you will fight Hades. He's quite deadly. Once you have defeated him, you will be able to gain access to the Legendary Synthesis Shop.

Optional Boss Fight Tantarian

You can fight this optional boss either in disc 2 when trying to save Dagger/Garnet, and in disc 3 when trying to save Dagger/Garnet and Eiko.To fight this Boss, go into the library on the first floor to the left, and stand next to the bookcase on the bottom left. You should see a book lying on the top of the bookcase, which you have to challenge to battle.

Quan's Dwelling Reunion

After the destruction in Alexandria (disc three), return to Quan's Dwelling with Quina and Vivi in your party. Quina starts to dream about food and a conversation soon takes place on the patio. I won't reveal anything about this conversation but you will meet a very important person here and learn some important things. After the conversation, search the stopped clock on the patio to find a Running Shoes item.

Skip FMVs

To skip FMVs open up your PSX cover, and wait for the disk to stop spinning, and close the cover, or on your PS2, eject the disk and put it straight back in. This is especially useful when you are trying to get the Excalibre II as even when FMVs are playing the clock is ticking!

Easter Eggs

Final Fantasy III Music

You MUST have the Doga's Artifact and Une's Mirror. You can bid for these two key items at the Treno's Auction house. After the world of Terra has been destroyed, at the beginning of disc four and onwards, return to Black Mage Village. Examine the gramophone at the Black Mage Village inn. You notice that the background music will change to a beautiful melody taken from the Final Fantasy III [Japanese] soundtrack and this melody continues until you leave the Black Mage Village.