Final Fantasy IX - Soulcage (Final Boss of Disc 2)
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- A lot has happened since the last video in the game, and their journey has lead them to the bottom of the Iifa Tree.
Plot
So way back after the last video, stuff happens in Lindblum that causes the party to realize they have to travel to another continent if they want to stop Kuja from manipulating the Queen. Everything that has been happening in the game so far has been on only one Continent (Mist Continent). They now have to travel to the Outer Continent. So to do this they go through Qu's Marsh, where you're forced to get Quina as a party member if you haven't already. Quina is needed to "show you" where to go for that secret path.
You're taken through Fossil Roo, where you encounter one of the two bounty hunters the Queen sent after Dagger for her Necklace thing, whose name is Lani. I skipped that fight, but she loses of course. After you emerge on the other side of the giant cave path, you are in the new Continent. You visit a village, and then you travel through a huge forest to find the Black Mage Village. You find out that's where all the Black Mages escaped that became aware of their existence. You also find out that they are dying, and that they seem to have a limit to their life span.
Next, you travel through the Mountain Path where you meet Eiko, who appears to be a thief. Zidane saves her life, which causes her to like him the entire game. You follow her to her village, where you find out she's the sole survivor of the village and alone.
Eiko then leads you to the Iifa Tree, the source of all the Mist in the world. After a long trek down you meet the, I guess ruler, of the Iifa Tree. Take him out and Mist does indeed disappear around the world, mostly the Mist Continent. The dialog also reveals that Kuja was using the Mist to create the Black Mages for war.
Strategy
This boss is actually kind of a challenge. Depending on how well you prepare depends on whether or not you Game Over immediately. The boss always starts the fight off with a move called Level 5 Death. It means if your level is a multiple of 5, you are hit by Death. So walking into this fight with everyone at, say, LV30, is an immediate Game Over. You're given tons of fights on the way here, you'd do well to make sure no one is a multiple of 5. If one person is, it's fine, but any more is risky.
Next, you'll want the Body Temp ability on EVERYONE. Otherwise, his Mustard Bomb move will give you tons of trouble. Getting hit with Heat means you're pretty much going to die if you do anything. If everyone has this equipped, that move becomes useless and a free turn. Tons of equipment carry that ability, so it should be easy to have everyone learn or equipped for this fight.
The other real quirk of this fight is that the boss retaliates with a Fire Blades move if you hit it with a fire spell. So be careful about that. It IS weak to Fire, though, so you'll probably want Vivi to cast Fira, but just make sure everyone is fully healed. Fire Blades targets everyone for major damage.
None of his other moves are a threat really. Just be careful of hitting it with fire, Blizzard spells quell the flames if you start them up with a Fire spell. That's about it for this fight. He has 10k HP, which is quite a lot for this point in the game. Zidane physicals + Vivi Fira/Blizzara + Dagger summons = fairly easy fast win. Eiko should be the healer if Dagger is not, she's the best White Mage IMO.
www.bizkit.me
Boss: "I have seen the end of my thousand year life. And it is not today."
Me: "LIFE" YOU SAY?!
Beautiful.
For anyone that doesn’t get it, you just cast Life and you’re done.
I remember not knowing you can kill this dude with life. I died so many times on this dude, I cannot even tell you...it was so frustrating.
Even worst...
You can kill the dude with a phoenix down
That sound they made for this boss, though... First time I heard it, I got goosebumps. =/
I've never beaten a Final Fantasy game. Unless you count Dissidia. But I remember when I fought this boss. I was a little underleveled and it wiped the floor with me. The whole party was dead, but for some reason the game wasn't over. Then Phoenix summoned itself, one-shotted him and revived the party. I later realized it was because I had someone, I don't remember who, equipped with a Phoenix Pinion.
Eiko. Phoenix Pinion can be used as her eidolon for Phoenix, and has a chance to revive the whole team when annihilated (all KO). The chance increases with more Phoenix Pinions in your inventory.
Eiko is the reason that your party revived themselves
I'll give this particular Boss..."Soulcage"...kudos...He speaks a pretty bad-ass and memorable line...Well, at least it's stuck with ME!...right before the Battle starts.
"I have seen the End of My Thousand Year Life, and it is not now. You cannot stop Me. It is futile even to try!"
...Too bad He can't back His words up, as literally toss a "Phoenix Down" at Him and cast One more Spell of Your choice, or an Attack from Zidane with "Exploda" equipped, and say "Bye-Bye!"
CellarDoorx06 well, I believe he turns into Necron
@@ZVINTAO Necron is a cosmic entity, lured when Kuja destroys the original Crystal
@@ZVINTAO That is just a fan theory that was jossed by the Ultimania.
@@Matt-flarestar_ And Necron is still bad writing, But… in all honesty, Necron isn't even the BIGGEST problem with IX, I'd say that some of the biggest problems are Dagger's stupidity and the poorly done, unfocused love story of her and Zidane. Necron was at least last minute and a short appearance, and the whole "completely out of nowhere final boss" bad writing isn't even something that is unique to Necron, Final Fantasy and several old JRPG's did this cliché before, "Pulling a Necron" isn't anything new, but this guy's unexpected and arbitrary appearance at the end of IX is by far the most ridiculous example of this unfortunate practice, and the reason it's named after him. (Especially with how this is post-FFVII writing, you'd think that the writers would have moved on from this kind of bullshit) But if anything what is really irritating is that it's Necron that gets all the attention and focus as opposed to other larger problems with IX. What's also irritating is how some fans will actually try to justify his appearance.
These fans will say things like "he is supposed to symbolic!" and "he is supposed to be a physical representation of the game's themes!". Okay, it's pretty dumb symbolism and IX's themes are all over the place and are incoherent, uninspired and uninteresting, and if the writers thought they were being "subtle and clever" they were freaking wrong, because this is about as subtle as a brick to the face. (There are even pretentious, long winded UA-cam "analysis" videos about Necron and trying to justify him) Some have also theorized that Necron is actually the true form of the Iifa Tree, based on what Garland said before about how Zidane "only saw the back of the Tree", which is a nice theory and all, but ultimately incorrect as the Ultimania completely josses this theory by stating:
"Eternal Darkness [Necron]
Monster created by fear of death
A being awoken by the fear, despair and hatred of Kuja, who discovered, with the fulfillment of his ambition near, that he had little time left to live. It rejects the cycle of life through the crystal and attempts to return every world, including Terra and Gaia, to nothing. The final enemy to confront Zidane's team." (From the "Lifestream Net")
Necron really is nothing more than just a random monster summoned by Kuja's feelings and the "symbolism" is nothing more than a cheap excuse and a cover up to the REAL reasons that he is here.
The first reason: Necron is actually, like many things in IX, just a cheap reference to a past Final Fantasy, in this case it's a reference FFIII and the "Cloud of Darkness", the CoD was also an out of nowhere final boss for III that was brought upon by a person that feared death (Xande, that Kuja is copying from), though to be fair in the CoD's case, it wasn't completely out of nowhere, III repeatedly talks about the balance of light and dark and how if that balance is upset with light or dark getting out of control, it brings forth a cataclysm, and the CoD is that cataclysm, so it at least had more of a connection to the story than Necron did. (and the DS Remake of III at least tried to expand on this a bit more) Then there is Necron's actual name, You didn't think the last boss's original Japanese name was Necron, do you? It was probably changed because of text space restrictions, but Necron's Japanese name literally translates to "Eternal Darkness", as stated from the Ultimania quote above, and Necron even says his actual name right here in his dialogue (though the translation mixes up the words a bit) Is there a link here? The Cloud of DARKNESS (or Dark Cloud for a literal translation) emerges at the very end of Final Fantasy III to return all existence to the Void. The Eternal DARKNESS emerges at the very end of Final Fantasy IX to return all existence to nothingness. Hmmm. There also might be some FFV thrown in, given that Necron's design looks really similar to the Necrophobe, the optional boss you fight just before the final boss, Exdeath in V (that and the similar names, but considering that Necron isn't supposed to be his actual name, that could just be a coincidence), even the Crystal World looks pretty similar in appearance to the World of Darkness and the Interdimensional Rift, the final dungeons of III and V.
The second and bigger reason: Necron is only here so Kuja can have his cheap last minute redemption, when you beat Necron, Kuja suddenly teleports you away back to outside of the Iifa Tree, and Kuja is suddenly all remorseful and the game try's to have this sad and tragic moment with him and Zidane. (will be addressing how weak that was when we get to that scene) Since having Kuja suddenly getting regretful and teleporting everyone out would have been too blatantly deus ex machina-ish, the writers threw in Necron to try and make the whole thing slightly more coherent.
TL;DR version: The real reasons Necron is a thing is to be just another cheap shout out to a previous Final Fantasy and to be a walking talking plot device for Kuja to have his forced last minute redemption.
@@Zelink108 Wow, somebody is really angry with Necron. Marry Xmas
BRO WHY DIDNT YOU JUST USE LIFE ON SOULCAGGGE
now what fun would that be?
That is not funny
Zidane "Are you the one who makes the Mist!?"
"It is not produced. Mist is a by-product of the refining process. It is discharged through the roots."
"By-product"? It's literally the souls of the inhabitants of Gaia that have been prevented from returning to Gaia's crystal, captured within the roots of the Iifa Tree and then expelled by the roots above ground as "Mist", the Ultimania clearly states this, as does the FF Wikia: "Mist is distributed through the Iifa Tree's roots and is, in fact, the Gaian souls being refused to return to the crystal and expelled to flow back into Gaia's atmosphere instead. These stagnant and tormented souls are reborn as monsters."
This is what I mean by the Black Mages and Vivi's conundrum being pretentious, The Black Mages are made from the Mist, which is actually the souls of deceased Gaia inhabitants, this means that the Black Mages are actually dead people resurrected (if only for a short while) into artificial doll bodies, which would actually all be very interesting stuff, but unfortunately the game doesn't really take advantage of this and instead cheaply opts to rip-off "Blade Runner", which doesn't even fit. With Blade Runner it had androids that gained sentience, but here with IX, the Black Mages are literal "Ghosts inside the shells", which makes all their ramblings about death pretentious and melodramatic when they are technically already dead, they just couldn't return to the crystal and be properly reincarnated.
Sure, Vivi and the other mages don't really know all this at this point, but they should have at least had some recollections or vague memories of when they were human (or any other anthropomorphic creatures like the rat people) which would continue grow and they would remember more who they were originally which would have been especially interesting with Vivi. Yet we get nonsense like how they "don't know what jokes or humans are". This was all really wasted potential.
Also how are the souls reborn as "monsters" exactly? Is this like the fiends from FFX, or do they possess flora and fauna and they mutate, like with the Evil Forest? The Evil Forest could have actually provided great foreshadowing for what the Mist really is by having the souls try to speak through the plant monsters.
@Rykorr1 I never do that on undead bosses, it's no fun lmao.
First boss you fight Soulcage comes back as Necron at the end
That is just a fan theory that was jossed by the Ultimania.
@TheVenkazama I'm fully aware, it is an "i" in the description, the font type just makes it look like an L.
i was so scared of this boss for some reason but never did the shortcut because i never knew. took me forever to level up just to defeat the dude. soon i discover you can just one shot this guy..... wtf
Nice vid. BTW i tend to try to steal valuable weapons/accesories on bosses for some time before getting them killed...
when he hovers life and uses it on Zidane instead of boss ..... triggered...
when he casts fire spell on the tree ..BRO THIS IS LIKE 90'S HORROR MOVIE BAD DECISION MAKING
I remember this guy! :D He was a good match :D
@Bizkit047 something that you might know or not is that the tree isnt called the lifa tree its the Iifa tree with an i well the l is the i
Why the hell would someone pull cheap shit on this boss? It is one of the best in the game.
Just beat this on my first ever playthrough of FF9, I almost died so many times this was an epic fight lol
Cast life
Instantly kills him
@@philliphandshoe4801 that’s crazy you can just whoop his ass with Life, I definitely didn’t think about that😂 I’m glad I didn’t though, makes for better fights my first playthroufg
Technically, Soulcage is an undead creature and things that revive people destroy them.
While the undead make interesting fights, people just use phoenix downs to kill them. I only do it if its really hard/speed running/first time. Other times, I take the hard route. You will be doing the optional boss in Alexandria, right?
Where did you get those spells from? My black mage knows fire and fira that's it
When u equip armor and weapons to your players they have those abilities temporary till you earn enough AP to make those skills permanent
A combo of side quest and boss steals
Good old Times.
You should try ff9 unleashed if you are looking for the hard route. I am dreading getting to this boss
Jenova
I remember! It could be beaten with just an elixir... What! Just yet?!!!
Any heal item or spell will do.
Lol scarab.... should have used Life on him, it's an instant 1 hit KO.
or you could use an elixir kills him in one
Elixir one shoots it
+Alderon To Heck with that! Never waste an Elixir like that! One Phoenix Down followed by a "Fira" spell from Vivi laid Him out before He even had an attempt to cast the first attack He 99% of the time goes with, His "LV. 5 Death". Good thing too, because I consider ANY Character in each and every Final Fantasy I've absolutely Mastered; I truly don't say that like it's making Me out to be a braggart...I just have REALLY BAD "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder". But Yes, in ANY Battle, be it in the 'Field', or versus a Boss...Letting a Character Die even ONCE is just unacceptable to Me. Heh, also the "OCD" makes Me COMPULSIVELY "Level-up" SUPER Early. Heh, here at Soulcage, My Zidane this 2nd time around that I'm currently actually Playing RIGHT NOW, literally the Other Day...Zidane is Level 57. And it took a long time before I added the "Black Belt" accessory to Him which gives HP +20.
Hah, sorry I'm talking Your ear off...Especially when this Comment You left was a Year ago...Just feeling kindly chatty about it since this is the first I've played it again since My Childhood.
^_^
Dude, just Elixir it... xD
Aww Eiko died too lol.
Good riddance to a garbage character.
@@jedschrock7636 eikos def not garbage
ninjahman A year ago is a long time 😂 I recognize her non-garbaginess by now
the easiest boss of all gaming history
Alexander(ia)'s Hell(s).⚜⭐🔥🇲🇾🔥⭐⚜💎♟💎🏰