Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Finding the missing fygg

Apparently going to Swinedimples Academy before Gleeba wasn't my first move out of order. There's a fygg hiding on the way to Bloomingdale. It's atop the Heights of Loneliness, among the Zere Rocks.

The thing is, I never would have figured this out without a guide.

When I first went through the area on my way to Bloomingdale, with dreams of a ship running through my head, I found the entrance to the Heights of Loneliness. But I turned back, thinking that I'd check it out again after I'd levelled up some and bought better equipment. In the end, I did just that - only over a much longer period than originally intended.

But what makes this fygg so hidden?

The fact that it's not related to or near any town or place with a save point. All of the other fyggs are. So what makes this one so special? It's almost as if the developers just needed a seventh fygg and so they came up with something and tossed it in between two major centers in the game.

Speaking of which, my memory of NPC banter suggests that hints about this fygg were almost non-existent. Were it not for the lone man waiting around near Mason's cabin you'd never even know that its owner had gone up the mountain and then deduced that you were to follow.

In an RPG that features a world map broken down into smaller maps that could still give other RPGs whole overworlds a run for their money, is hiding a fygg like this good design?

Or did someone drop the ball on this one, leaving Dragon Quest IX with a weirdly obtuse, plot-centric destination?

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