A curious question

[UltimaCJ]

I've always been curious... let's imagine Gamefaqs or "Google" or guides weren't a thing when the game first game out. How does one guess about Excalibur 2? Does the game drop hints in any sort of way about it? I"ve asked friends in the past and they said no, it was just a hidden thing you had to 'figure out' . How did people figure this out if this was the case? What theories and such with speed runs a person "guess" it would be in a odd hidden spot and bet here EXACTLY in 12 hours or less?

I'm curious on your opinion about this. And if you have pure facts, please back it up with actual sources as I've looked myself and found naught.

Thanks!

[Tomberry Blue]

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, if you're asking how people actually figured it out, guides did exist. The internet too, it was 1999.

Personally I got it from the official strategy guide, and some gaming magazines talked about it sometimes in reviews and such.

If you mean if NONE of those things existed, which is a ludicrous idea, then someone would have found it either by accident trying to speed run the game or by looking directly into the code.

[Ryuji]

As for me, CheatCC was the website I used

[Auryana]

Some secrets on older games weren't there to be discovered by a normal player, instead they were created specifically to generate rumors thus increasing the interest in the game, many others only to be solved by guides and official magazines to boost their sales, after all the Internet wasn't as big as it is now...

Then it was 1999 when Final Fantasy IX came out and I too read about that on a guide on the internet...

[ayoPAT]

It was in the Strategy Guide by Brady Games.

[Moridin]

iirc if you do not pick up the exalibur 2 in time there is a note left by enkidu to gilgamesh about it in the location you can pick it up. So yes there was evidence of it in the game that can be found without a guide/internet. but there is no evidence of it or requirements beyond that.

[abstractAPPLE]

Originally posted by The dood:

If you mean if NONE of those things existed, which is a ludicrous idea, then someone would have found it either by accident trying to speed run the game or by looking directly into the code.

Ludicrous idea?
Not everyone in the 90's had internet or even something fancy like a official guide.
It's not farfetched at all to think of people figuring secrets out by themself. (I even remember a dark age were NO ONE had internet)
You are thinking too much in todays standards, that is all.

On topic: Some things are possible to figure out by yourself, like Eidolon Wall Secret or most of the Ultimate Weapons, other stuff like getting all Stellazzios (especially the one were you have to throw 13 times money into the fountain in Treno, wich sane person would do that?) or Excalibur II
seem pretty much impossible to find on your own, maybe through sheer coincedence some may have managed that.

Befriending all monsters or collecting all the frogs for Quina, for instance, would be secrets that become more likely to be completed if one would just play the game a lot/for a long time because eventually you would come across them.

So it really depends, but i agree, some if the secrets in FF9 seem rather impossible to find without a guide of some sorts.

[Tomberry Blue]

Originally posted by blackMOUSE:

Originally posted by The dood:

If you mean if NONE of those things existed, which is a ludicrous idea, then someone would have found it either by accident trying to speed run the game or by looking directly into the code.

Ludicrous idea?
Not everyone in the 90's had internet or even something fancy like a official guide.
It's not farfetched at all to think of people figuring secrets out by themself. (I even remember a dark age were NO ONE had internet)
You are thinking too much in todays standards, that is all.

Yes, those things not existing at all is ridiculous. Books have existed LONG before video games. And it's different from just not having access to them. Because I don't have a car doesn't mean cars don't exist in the world.

[abstractAPPLE]

Originally posted by The dood:

Originally posted by blackMOUSE:

Ludicrous idea?
Not everyone in the 90's had internet or even something fancy like a official guide.
It's not farfetched at all to think of people figuring secrets out by themself. (I even remember a dark age were NO ONE had internet)
You are thinking too much in todays standards, that is all.

Yes, those things not existing at all is ridiculous. Books have existed LONG before video games. And it's different from just not having access to them. Because I don't have a car doesn't mean cars don't exist in the world.

Well, whatever.
Bottom line, you probably could find a way to look into the secrets of FF9,
it surely wasn't as easy as it is now, therefore less people did it.

[UltimaCJ]

What is a bummer about excal 2 is for those who want to 100% the game, you can't since there are many point of no returns/getting items equipment since you had to bum rush it. Granted the Beatrix patch addresses this but still...

[Chaos Residue]

Originally posted by UltimaCJ:

What is a bummer about excal 2 is for those who want to 100% the game, you can't since there are many point of no returns/getting items equipment since you had to bum rush it. Granted the Beatrix patch addresses this but still...

One of the mods on the qhimm forums addresses this. They have altered the game so that you can get Excalibur II by either getting there in under 12 hours OR by finding every treasure chest up to that point (something like 402 treasure chests, including mimic chests). I haven't tried that yet, but I like that far more than I like having to speed through the game without enjoying it.

[UltimaCJ]

Yup Beatrix Mod does that alone too, which is what I said. Still orginally, if you were playng Vanilla you can't do this.

[D's Journal]

I highly doubt anyone found out that you needed to be there at exactly 12 hours when it first release. As a matter of fact, getting Excal 2 was much more harder to get (I think something about game speed/loading, can't remember exactly.) on consoles. there's no possible way someone got that sword without either internet, book guides or someone told them or what the Prinny dude said.

The ultimate killer was the time limit. Enkidus hint doesn't tell you about the time that you need to get there.
If it did, people would of figured it out.

[Auryana]

@UltimaCJ
Well, if you are interested I made a mod to remove the time requisite to get the Excalibur II for the Vanilla version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kr9ZZiQ455vao_sdiE2eXTQ05ptcmHda

You need to apply this patch with the Hades Workshop tool...

[Chaos Residue]

Originally posted by Auryana:

@UltimaCJ
Well, if you are interested I made a mod to remove the time requisite to get the Excalibur II for the Vanilla version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kr9ZZiQ455vao_sdiE2eXTQ05ptcmHda

You need to apply this patch with the Hades Workshop tool...

Hurry though. If someone disagrees with him on anything he'll remove the link to the mod to punish everyone, even if the person who disagrees with him isn't talking about the mod (or even knows it exists).