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Since the PS1 days, people have done solo runs of FFIX with their favourite characters. However, due to the way the game frequently shuffles your party around as part of the story, players would either have to set arbitrary restrictions for the sections where their solo character was not available, or rely on frequent save hacking whenever their chosen character was removed from the party.
I had the idea to do a solo run with Freya myself, but was surprised when I found there wasn't a convenient way to do this even in the Steam version with all of it's modding support. So I decided to make a mod that would allow me to do just that.
Freya Game+ is a Final Fantasy IX mod that allows you to have Freya in your party at almost all times throughout the game.
This mod removes the need to do any save editing or setting personal restrictions if you want to do a Freya Solo Run.
However, you can also opt to play the game normally with other characters if you wish, but Freya will be present in your party
after any forced party shuffles throughout the story.
The mod is currently a little inconsistent in how it handles putting Freya in the party, such as sometimes replacing Zidane
or another character, and sometimes adding Freya alongside whichever characters are actually present in the story.
I have personally done a Solo Run using the mod to make sure Freya can beat the entire game by herself, and it is indeed very possible, even without farming Dragon Crest.
There should also be no crashes or other issues along the way.
In order to do a "Solo Run" in most battles, the player should simply let the rest of the party get KO'd (Freya can attack them to speed up the process)
and only engage the enemy after the rest of the party is KO'd. I'm hoping to have a future release include a version of the mod that only has Freya in the party to make this
more authentic.
Why not just make a mod that allows you to do this with any character?Currently, I do not know of a way to have any sort of party switching menu constantly available throughout the whole game. Even if I technically call for all eight party members whenever there is a party call, the game will just use the first four unless it's already a section that lets you choose your party (such as when Amarant is first recruited). I also was uncertain of how messing with Zidane's placement would be at first (for the most part it seems to pose little issue in the end though). I may include a basic solo run mod for the rest of the cast as a bonus in the future of this mod as for most of the cast, it should just be a case of me switching out Freya's ID for whoever else in my current modded files, but I also want to do more with the Freya version as I am looking to make it a little more ambitious as you will see below. This mod has been an iterative process to help me learn how to mod FFIX, and will continue to be going forward.
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Installation:If you're playing off an otherwise unmodded game, copy the StreamingAssets folder over the one in your FINAL FANTASY IX folder. Make a backup of the original p0data7.bin file from
your game's StreamingAssets folder in case you want to revert back later.
If you have the Moguri Mod installed via the installer .exe, navigate to C:/Program Files/Moguri Mod, and replace the StreamingAssets folder there instead.
Make a backup of the original p0data7.bin file from the Moguri Mod directory just in case.
Known bugs/quirks to be mindful of:-While there should be no issue if you load a save from an in progress playthrough after installing Freya Game+, it's better to start the game
from the beginning for the best experience, especially if you want to do a Solo Run. If you're playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time,
I recommend playing through the vanilla game first even if Freya is your favourite character, but the choice is up to you. The mod currently
does not change anything about the cutscenes.
-Freya is not implemented as the exploration avatar in areas where she normally isn't already, as this aspect of the game is actually handled
completely independently of your battle party setup (with the sole exception of Desert Palace). This is a feature I plan to work on in the future.
-If Freya's standard Jump command is used and she is still in the air during a situation where a new party member joins mid-battle
(such as with Blank on the boss at the end of Evil Forest), Freya will stay in the air and continue using her "Spear" command from
her Trance form for the rest of the fight, though the fight will still end as normal once the enemy's HP is depleted.
-For the Festival of the Hunt, you will have only Freya in your party, however your points are still counted as Zidane's points.
This means you still need to lose on purpose to let Freya win if you want to get the Coral Ring. Zidane will be present for the Zahgnol fight, but will leave the party after.
-When the player still has less than the full eight characters from the main party, Blank, Marcus, and Cinna portraits fill in the empty preview slots in Equipment shops.
-There are some rare instances where Freya is technically not in the party (i.e not in your party menu). These are mostly limited to situations where the player
cannot engage in any battles until the next party call (at which point Freya is then added back in), or situations where the player CAN go to the world map to fight
but has little reason to especially if they are doing a Solo Run. Most of these will likely be fixed in the next release.
-The one definite exception to this for now is when you control Steiner in Alexandria Castle at the beginning of the game. For some reason, putting Freya in the party
here was causing the game to crash after the FMV where Steiner swings on the flags to pursue Garnet. It's no big deal though since there are no battles in that part
of the game so I plan to just leave this untouched. Steiner will be in your party as normal at this point but Freya will return once you take control of Zidane again.
-When Steiner, Garnet, and Marcus are exploring Treno, and the player attempts to fight the monsters at the weapon shop, Freya will not be selectable for these
fights despite being in the party. She is selectable later in the game when she is actually present in the story.
-For situations where the player is prompted to choose their own party, the player will simply have to select Freya as normal if they want to use her, otherwise
she will not appear until the next forced party call or until the player selects her for the party later.
-When Amarant first joins the party and you are given the choice to select your party, all eight main party members will be selectable (so you could bring Steiner
to the Iifa Tree as well as Freya, for example).
-For the Oelivert/Desert Palace party split, the player should select Freya for Zidane's team if they wish to use her in Oelivert. After finishing Oelivert, the
player will once again be prompted to choose a party from the eight main characters (normally you would just have to use the remaining four in the vanilla game).
Freya should be included once again if you wish to use her. Do NOT select Zidane for your Desert Palace party though, as this will trigger a softlock in the
following cutscene as despite being programmed as the highest priority exploration avatar for this area, Zidane does not have dialogue to progress this cutscene
as he shouldn't be present in Desert Palace's team.
-If the player wishes to control Freya as their exploration avatar in Desert Palace, the player must select Freya/Garnet/Quina/Amarant as their party. Vivi, Steiner, and Eiko
take priority over Freya if any of them are present in the party.
-During the first "You're Not Alone" fight in Pandemonium where Freya and Amarant help Zidane in the vanilla game, the game will at first only load Amarant. Amarant will then disappear
leaving no party members on screen, and then Freya will enter with her "Looks like you could use some help" quote. The battle will continue as normal from there and Freya fights the full boss on her own from it's max HP.
For the following two battles, Freya simply replaces Zidane.
-FFIX's EXP system works in such a way that it splits gained EXP among all participants that aren't KO'd or afflicted by an EXP gain preventing debuff like Virus. If you're doing a Solo Run with Freya, she will gain
EXP far quicker than normal as she will receive all of the gained EXP. For reference, she was Lv. 64 when I reached the end of the game in my test run with minimal grinding/random encounters. Normally she'd likely only to be in the Lv. 40 range if the EXP had been shared as normal.
-If you're using Moguri Mod, you may encounter a softlock after defeating Deathguise (boss before Trance Kuja) as the cutscene with Kuja will not initiate. This is not an issue with Freya Game+ but is an issue with Moguri Mod as it happens with or without Freya Game+ (at least for me).
Uninstall all traces of Moguri Mod when you reach this point in the game and reinstall the vanilla game. You could just finish your run without reinstalling Freya Game+ at this point as Freya is available to use in your party in the end-game anyway.
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Plans for future releases (nothing final yet, I'm learning as I go!)-Clean up the current implementation a bit (more consistent handling of Freya's party placement).
-A version of the mod that ONLY allows you to use Freya throughout the entire game where other party members are not present in battle, allowing for a true Solo experience.
-Making Freya the exploration avatar for most of the game (not sure what extent I will go to with this - the whole game or just the parts where Freya is present in the story).
-A remixed/expanded story that gives Freya increased prominence and screen time (not usurping Zidane's role in the story, but more exploring her thoughts on everything, some remixed sequences, and more interactions between Freya and the rest of the cast).
-Making the third Beatrix fight a solo fight for Freya, that is properly "winnable" and has a forced Trance moment for Freya, with an altered cutscene before and after the fight.
-Sir Fratley's lance as a new weapon for Freya.
-A new secret boss.
-The more basic version of the mod will always be included in case people aren't interested in the above.
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The included logo is just for if you want to use it in thumbnails or the like if you want to upload your playthrough to YouTube or something.
Hope you enjoy the mod, and feel free to ask any questions or report any issues you encounter!
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