Final Fantasy: 10 Incredible Statistics You Won't Believe
3. The Most Secret Side Quest Took Years To Find
An achievement list taking 10 years to work through is one thing but there’s an even more shocking number of years when it comes to Final Fantasy facts. In 2013 the FF fandom was rocked by the discovery of a side quest that evaded the community for a full 13 years after the release of Final Fantasy IX in 2000.
At the beginning of disc 4, the player can return to Lindblum and visit the Tanatalus hideout. There, they’ll encounter Zenero and Benero who wonder where Marcus and Cinna are and leave. That all seems fairly normal and not like the setup for a really weird obtuse series of events. Essentially, if the player enters the game’s final dungeon, Memoria, there are a series of moments in their journey to the end boss that trigger the next step of the Tantalus quest.
So, players can for example beat Tiamat, leave Memoria and return to the hideout to see that Zenero and Benero have gone missing. If the player does this over and over, eventually it will create a long line of missing Nero family members. And, more to the point, a chest will spawn in the hideout containing a Protect Ring.
Amusingly, the fact that a game that scored 92 on MetaCritic, sold over 5 million copies and is beloved by fans had a side quest that went undiscussed for over a decade is way more interesting than the quest itself. Still, it goes to show that your favourite RPGs are still capable of surprising you no matter how many times you’ve played them.