Yep, would have been nice to show any type of visual that was related the content that was being explained. Hell, MS paint wouldve been good enough lol
Fun fact: A lot of sound effects in the first Kingdom Hearts games have higher quality version of sound effects that were used in Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. In addition, some characters from those Final Fantasy games as well as Final Fantasy X. The huge crime as of now is that Noctis Lusic Caelum from Final Fantasy XV did not appear in Kingdom Hearts III...kinda. That goes into the Re:Mind DLC with Yozora and that is a rabbit hole itself.
I've literally returned to re-conquer this game on PC and I agree with this, I was staring at the screen for examples of play only to realise nothing was making sense haha. I had to close my eye and just envision it lol. I'm glad I know what the numbers now mean at least.
Good lord.. I had to rewatch the first 2 minutes multiple times and finally felt proud that I think I understood it.. Then you started talking X and F and my brain just melted down. Who the hell understands this?
Me: Today I'm finally gonna learn Tetra Master and have the best FFIX playthrough I've ever had... *Watched video* Me: *Flips Desk* Edit: This video was really good btw, Tetra Master is just broken as hell! >_
Haha yeah, it's one of my favourite mini-games but a lot of the time it's just cross your fingers and hope for the best, even knowing it through and through. The chart in the video is the best way to play though, it will at least give you your chances as a percentage for every battle, you can weigh up your risks better that way :)
Games used to come with really cool manuals with instructions, controls, artwork, story, character backgrounds, and a lot more. I'm sure that would have explained the card game, but I am not 100% sure because I didn't play FF9 back then.
I had internet when it came out and nobody online knew exactly how the hell to play this game. I honestly just gave up on it after a while and just finished the main game.
@@clintonleonard5187 It most assuredly did NOT come with any instructions on Tetra Master beyond "you can challenge most NPCs to a game of Tetra Master by pressing Square." Talking to certain characters provided additional "useful" information like "The symbols on the cards mean something, but I hear you have to be a master to understand it."
Thanks for the explanation! Knowing a little more about the behind the scenes mechanics makes losing feel a lot less random XD. On the plus side I got a perfect game immediately after watching this video and was SUPER excited when all of the opponents cards became mine.
Wow, I've been watching youtube videos for so long I can't remember (just like the rest of us) and this is literally the best tutorial I've ever seen. I browsed through tons of them that were explaining just the basics and then going "ok here, now I'll show you" without explaining any of the in-game math. Yours explained it all perfectly. (Of course I'm still confused because this game will always be confusing, but so fun and so addicting to me at least.) Thank you so much! I don't comment often.. I didn't even make my first account until very recently. but I just had to let you know how great this tutorial was. VERY much appreciated, especially given the tough time I had finding a proper one for Tetra Master.
you know what? back then when i was playing this game i had so much fun and i spent about 200 hours playing it,and i thought that it is amazing....but now... now i think that it is even more amazing :) very unique and complex,thats what i like
Liked and Favorited. I own the real version and I was so confused how the RNG worked for the dices. Makes sense now that it is percentage based due to the 10-sided dice. I guess the range would be 0-99
Thank you so much for the guide. This cleared up a huge amount of confusion for me. I love Tetra Master, but I never looked into how it actually works until my most recent playthrough of the game.
I've played FF9 probably 8 times to completion, a dozen more times only to quit at various points. I just bought it again on my Nintendo Switch yesterday. After all these years playing it in FF9, and the online version that came with Final Fantasy 11(PlayOnline) on my PC, and my girlfriends PS2.... *I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO ACTUALLY PLAY THIS GAME* I do wish FF11 had it built into the MMORPG portion its self where you could challenge people you meet in-game, against NPCs in towns/outposts some with unique cards, and also mobs having a small chance to drop their own cards. Higher level versions of mobs drop better versions & notorious monsters dropping their own unique named cards with a special version. I was very addicted to FF11, and if Tetra Master(or FF8s card game) was in the game and not a separate thing all together I may of never logged off..
Great explanation, now I understand. It's a shame it's so random. I'm replaying the game now with the Moguri mod but I originally played it when it was new and have no memory of it being this complicated or random.
Best guide ever on this game sir. Thank you so so much. Only recommendation would be to slow down a little bit had to rewind a few times to comprehend all the info since it was spoke. So fast. And only other recommendation is to have actual examples set up when you are talking about certain situations. But thanks to you I finally understand this game.
Thanks man. It was one of my earliest videos and it has been on my to-do list to redo this entire video with better visuals and a new voice recording but it always gets pushed back with all the videos I have to keep up with nowadays >.
This will help alot! Ive always started ff9 but never finished it. Just popped in in today and was watching stuff that said there is a mandatory card battle later in the game hah.
Rlly complicated.... What causes the cards actually to change numbers, letters and arrows? I noticed that cards are changing everything but am not sure how and why. Are they changing and getting stronger when they beat a card or when you get more winning points?
A card can "evolve" at the end of a match. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with their performance in the match, or if they flipped things, it's just a random small % chance they will get upgraded after each match.
Weird thing happened. I had a 0x10 card and I had ofcourse saved my game. .Then started a game and lost. Closed the game, loaded my savefile and BAM the card turned back to 0M10 hmm
It's quite simple actually, I don't get why people have such a hard time understanding it. With an example. 1P23 The first symbol represents how strong this cards attack is, in this case 1 the second symbol is what type of attack it is, in this case, P for P hysical. The third symbol represents the cards P hysical defense, in this case 2 The fourth symbol represents the cards M agical defense, in this case 3 What you have to remember about this is that the symbols for attack, defense, and magical defense, are NOT their actual value, but only indicate in what "TIER" their actual value lies. if your card has between 1 and 16 attack power for instance, the tier is 0. 17 to 31, the tier is 1. This is hexadecimal, so the tiers go up to 16, being denoted by 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F Our example card has P as the second symbol, so when you put it next to another card, he will attack that cards P hysical defense, the third symbol. Now what makes it confusing to people, is that once you put down a card, you see some numbers flashing, and the higher number doesn't always win, and the numbers change, and because of this, people have a hard time figuring out what it all means, it makes it seem more difficult than it already is. Lets say our example card attacks a 1M02 card When a card battle starts, the first number that you see is the actual value of the card. For instance, in our example, if we are attacking, we might see 23 ,this is the cards actual attack strength, (which makes it a 1 tier card). Our card is a physical attacker, so the card we attack uses it's physical defense stat, which is denoted by a 0. That card might show "13" or something, since 13 is still tier 0, After we see those numbers, the numbers start counting down. This is because the game chooses a random number between 0 and your maximum stat, to determine how strong your actual attack is. How exactly the game does that isn't important, what is important is that when the numbers start counting down, that's just the game counting down to the number it will use FOR THAT ATTACK. Highest number wins, it's that simple. So yeah, if you have a 23 attack vs a 13 defense, it might randomly make your attack only 5, and his defense 10, in which case you lose, but it is unlikely. Just like in real life, sometimes you get in a lucky shot, you should never let the match be dependent on 1 roll. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ That's the basic game, what comes next are just some special features. Special attack cards. Besides M agical or P hysical, the second symbol can also be an X or an A These are just special attack types. X means that when you play the card, it will use its attack to attack either the Magical defense, or the Physical defense, of a defending card, depending on which is lower. A means that when you play this card, it will use it's highest stat to attack the lowest stat of the defending card. So if you play a 0A09 card against a 0P87 card, your card will use a power of 9 and the defending card will defend with a power of 0 Leveling cards: The first number your card show during a battle is not always the same, this might seem confusing, but it's just because your card can level and grow stronger. when a value changes between tiers (going say from 15 to 16), the Tier symbol also changes (from 0 to 1). This only happens after battles. Cards have theoretical maximum stats, so not every card can have 9P99 or something like that. Besides leveling stats, P and M cards can also level into X cards, and X cards can level into A cards. Those are all the mechanics, I think you understand the arrows and combos, those speak for themselves right? The rest is just strategy, which you can figure out on your own, there are quite a few sneaky techniques, like planting a weak 8 arrow card in the middle of the ring in order to easily combo everything around it with your last card.
@@Drojanx Yeah, if your idea of a challenging game is tic-tac-toe, then you might think this is convoluted. But if your IQ reaches into the triple digits, then this is quite honestly easier than 99% of actual card games, from poker to pokemon. It's literally 3 values. And 4 symbols showing which value attacks which value, it's exactly one step more convoluted than rock-paper-scissors. It's like chess, the emerging gameplay strategies might be complicated, but the basic pieces are simple as fuck. But you probably think chess is needlessly convoluted as well so. " WHY DO ALL THESE PIECES MOVE DIFFERENTLY, AARGHHH!!!! SO NOW THE PAWN IS SUDDENLY A QUEEN?! THIS IS SO CONVOLUTED!"
@@DutchDread Lol, tictactoe? You really think TT is that simple? Bullshit, you bitched about the the other rules, plus, same, element, random, same wall, etc, all of which greatly affect how you approach you opponent, and yet you complain about how they spread like a disease and yet you call it just a tictactoe game? You really aren't credible at all. Also, I love how you use a false equivalent, chess is straight forward and easy to pick up, nothing hard about it. Once again, you demonstrate how you are not credible at all.
I was already able to figure out most of what you said here by myself by playing the game and I just came here to hear if cards can level up, but I find this guide very useful and wish I had it when I had just started playing. Good job!
Honestly this is the most convoluted side game in the FF series. They went from triple triad which was supremely fun and addictive, to this absolute mess. Great guide btw, I'm just not bothered to learn it because it's fundamentally confusing.
Just got the game on ps4. Man its just as hard and confusing as i remember. Any advice on who would be easier to fight to grind in alexandria? Im losing twice as much as i am winning and dont know how to quick reset lol, its so discouraging especially since on my old save i was trying to beat the treno championship or whatever it was called. If i recall i made it to the 3rd or 4th person.
Also: if you have an X type card, will that effect from the X only work when you initiate a battle? He doesn't really explain this, but I'm guessing that's a "yes."
People often bitch about losing because of the RNG. I think this is a bitchy complaint. A game that's decided purely by who has the best cards is boring. Yes, you can lose any battle, perhaps you shouldn't let your strategy hang on a single battle. What I enjoy about TM is setting up scenarios where I have multiple chances for victory. Not even the best dart player in the world wins every single set, the point is to be better on average, meaning that when you do multiple sets, your chances of losing become exponentially smaller. Same goes for Tetra master. I love the fact that you can strategically place weak cards to take advantage of later, that sometimes it's best to have defensive cards, sometimes it's best to have offensive cards, sometimes, it's best not to have cards with 8 arrows. It has strategy, and if you work at it, your cards level, and you get better, there is a clear sense of progression. FFIX does a shit job at explaining how it works, and therefore the RNG feels cheaty, because no one understands what the flashing numbers mean. But it's no more unreasonable than saying "a card with an attack power of 1 gets to roll 1 die, a card with 3 attack power gets to roll 3 die, higher total wins". (ok, it can be a bit annoying that EVERY card has a chance to beat every other card, but it is also part of the charm). TM doesn't give you anything for playing it, except for the enjoyment, but do we need another reason? That's reason enough normally to play a card game right? Why isn't it enough reason to play it within another game? At least you're not forced to play it in order to collect strong items like in FFXIII (which inevitably break the game), if you don't like it, you literally only have to play it once.
What's that? People don't like their hard earned and high level card losing to some low level goblin card because the rng is bullshit? Hmmmm it's like it's not fair or something. You complained about the rules in TT which causes you to think about how to approach the game and when and where to place cards.
Excellent tutorial for a confusing card game 👍 I understand that an "X" in any of the four slots denotes that it's an X type card. If an X is in the first slot, what offensive value would it represent? And similarly, if an X is in the 3rd or 4th slot, what defensive vslue would it represent?
The trick to collecting through battle is to keep throwing waves of scrub cards at your opponent. Who cares if you lose 10 flan/goblin/fang/whatever cards over 15 games - it’s mostly luck and arrows so just keep throwing them until you get the one you want
Tetramaster really isn’t that hard to understand if you take a few hours to play the game. Eventually you want to acquire powerful cards with few arrows to control your chances of getting chained against. With powerful cards with arrows only needed to defend your placement on the board, you can narrow down the rng to a large degree. The RNG is in place to make chaining a high risk/reward situation. It’s why you get a lot of people saying “Idk what the fuck I was doing but I actually beat Cid!”
Tetra Master makes me happy :) If I could take one minigame inside a game on a lonely island, it would be TM!! (also because this might mean I get to bring the whole FF IX *_*)
Very good guide. I ended up winning all cards in the game as a child because I kept attacking the empty spaces of opposing cards and either praying during battles or by just going with logic (higher number is better) and using powerful cards. And save scumming. Because fuck rng.
In my very first FFIX playthrough, I 100% ignored Tetra Master and stopped when the game forced you to play and win I think 3 games in a row. Back then, I thought I softlocked the game by not getting new cards. Now, I’m just thinking Tetra Master is BS lol. I’m currently playing the game again and making sure to play a lot of cards and I think the randomness actually kind of enhances the experience. If anything, I’m very happy going through the comments and seeing everyone is completely lost lol
Would you sell your copy of Tetra Master physical card game? Is it still like new? If so name your price. I can offer replica real thick worn leather Vivi/black mage hat
😆 thanks for this, i understand the game a lot better, I feel triple triad was better as a card game. My fave mini game in all FFs though is easily Blitzball. The roller coaster shooter from FF7 was also very fun.
Please tell me you remade this video... The footage having no relation to what you're talking about really doesn't help anyone and you just launch way too much info at once without showing how it would be implemented in a game.
Well, thanks for explaining why I keep losing... The in game instructions are the worst explanation of game rules I have every seen. I was so confused why nothing I did worked. But seems like this game isn't going to be 'fun' due to the randomness.
It's a pretty well designed game but it really needs a long and hard to digest primer. I was going wild with cards with lots of arrows and that isn't really the right strategy.
What the fuck were these guys on when then decided to make this game? It's quite possibly the worst mini-game to ever be implemented into any game ever.
It's confusing because all of what you're saying is entirely different from what is actually on the screen making us think of a different picture. It would have been easier if you'd have done it more slowly with explanations and show them onscreen at the same time. Thanks regardless.
Completely redoing this video has been on my to-do list for quite awhile. This was one of the first videos I ever did, and I just wasn't very good at it back then lol.
I disagree, I think TM was much better, only problem is that it was poorly explained. It is quite easy to understand though, and the strategy aspect is much more fun in my opinion, plus, it doesn't have regional rules that spread like herpes the same way TT did.
@@DutchDread In no way is TM better than TT. You can manipulate the rules so you can get what you want in TT, winning in TM is just majorly luck based under the thin veil of skill if you somehow managed to figure out the less than poorly explained rules.
@@Drojanx I hope that no one who says TM is luck based has ever played D&D, or any other game with a dice, they must hate it. I honestly have no idea how you people can suck at it so badly, with my current playthough, I have a win to loss record of about 400-30-10. How is that luck? I agree that the rules are poorly explained, that's FFIX fault, not Tetra master. Like you said, Triple Triad actually forces you to manipulate the rules. You actively have to prevent the game for using half the rules of the game because playing under those rules would suck. Not only that, but it has rules like flipping cards if the sum of those cards is equal to the sum of the numbers on some other side, taking elemental weakness into account, as well as the wall having stats AND THEN THEY CALL TM convoluted?!!!! Is this opposite land? And that's not even mentioning the fact that I always feel forced to play that freaking game because playing it basically breaks the game, which doesn't make the game more fun btw. Luckily I can mostly ignore TT when I play FFIX with the exception of 1, ridiculously easy match.
“If A appears anywhere but the second digit, it actually signifies the number 10” THATS IT. NO. That sentence broke me... There’s too many stand in numbers and letters and too many hidden variables. I understand if they want to add a bit of luck or RNG or whatever but WOW there’s a difference between that and unnecessary complexity just to be a d-bag for complexities sake. Great video man, thanks for trying but this is just an unfun game. And it sounds more unfun the more I learn. Unnecessarily “depth” and rng that convolutes what should be a fun mini-game.
It signifies 10 because it’s hexadecimal, essentially instead of using base 10 like we use regularly (0-9) this game uses hex, which is (0-9, A-F), it’s so we can represent 2 digit numbers as 1 symbol. The game is still RNG balls though.
Some sort of visual presentation would have went a long way here, instead of just your voice. It's too confusing to follow and feels like i'm sitting in maths class. I'm glad you understand it, but I understand it no more or less than before watching lol.
I know :( I am sorry about that. This was one of the first videos I ever made and completely redoing it has been on my To-Do list for a while. I promise there'll be a better video some day.
Cheers for the upload, mate. But I'm 2:40 in, and I'm like... huh?? Come again??? I think I'll give this video another go when I've had a coffee 🤣 Just spray and pray for now 🤭
This mini game is unnecessarily confusing/unintuitive. Especially when the game itself doesn't even properly explain how to play. Tetra master is quite literally what makes this game a 9 instead of a 10 for me.
Jay RPG: "Tetra Master is my favorite mini-game of any Final Fantasy game." Also Jay RPG: "It's a luck-based system." Damn, that's what you LIKE? That's literally what makes it horrible.
4 Years later but my god, this has to be one of the worst systems I've ever heard for a "strategy" game. In a game where for whatever reason everyone had 8 arrows on all cards, but 1 player had significantly "stronger" cards than the other could still lose, but not only that they could theoretically get a "perfect" game because, hey let's make our "strategy" game at the end of the day be purely a dice roll. Fantastic. Not even sure why they allowed you to pick your cards at that rate. Just fully embrace the RNG.
I am stuck at the portion of the game that I HAVE TO WIN A CARD GAME... WTF dude.. Then I clicked this video and decided to give up... it's just the card game is too complicated to understand
I'm even more confused now...
Yep, would have been nice to show any type of visual that was related the content that was being explained. Hell, MS paint wouldve been good enough lol
Yeah, it is not the best video to put it lightly. Having visuals matched with audio wouldve improved a ton.
Came here for help, I’m scared now. 😅
Tetra Master is where Nomura took inspiration for the Kingdom Hearts plot
Fun fact: A lot of sound effects in the first Kingdom Hearts games have higher quality version of sound effects that were used in Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. In addition, some characters from those Final Fantasy games as well as Final Fantasy X.
The huge crime as of now is that Noctis Lusic Caelum from Final Fantasy XV did not appear in Kingdom Hearts III...kinda. That goes into the Re:Mind DLC with Yozora and that is a rabbit hole itself.
man ill be honest, the video footage that has zero relevance to what youre talking about made it so distracting
I've literally returned to re-conquer this game on PC and I agree with this, I was staring at the screen for examples of play only to realise nothing was making sense haha. I had to close my eye and just envision it lol. I'm glad I know what the numbers now mean at least.
Good lord.. I had to rewatch the first 2 minutes multiple times and finally felt proud that I think I understood it.. Then you started talking X and F and my brain just melted down. Who the hell understands this?
haha for real! i was like ok ok im getting this and then uhhhhhhhhhh
Same here now. I’m 3 minutes in and watched it three times now. Pains me I’m only about 1/4 the way through the video. 😂
I can’t put into words how angry this video makes me.
Ohhh I see.
I'm even more confused.
“I understand now...”
*jumps out of fifth story window*
Me: Today I'm finally gonna learn Tetra Master and have the best FFIX playthrough I've ever had...
*Watched video*
Me: *Flips Desk*
Edit:
This video was really good btw, Tetra Master is just broken as hell! >_
Haha yeah, it's one of my favourite mini-games but a lot of the time it's just cross your fingers and hope for the best, even knowing it through and through. The chart in the video is the best way to play though, it will at least give you your chances as a percentage for every battle, you can weigh up your risks better that way :)
+Samcubegamer it's not broken, it's perfect. that's why you're so frustrated 😁
Argument of the year here, folks.
Drew Carey: Welcome to Tetra Master: where the rules are made up and the points don't matter!
@@EdenRiot2 lmfao this comment is perfect
How the hell is a kid suppose to understand this back when the game was released, and there was no internet at your fingertips
Exactly that's why I call BS!
Games used to come with really cool manuals with instructions, controls, artwork, story, character backgrounds, and a lot more. I'm sure that would have explained the card game, but I am not 100% sure because I didn't play FF9 back then.
I had internet when it came out and nobody online knew exactly how the hell to play this game. I honestly just gave up on it after a while and just finished the main game.
@@clintonleonard5187 It most assuredly did NOT come with any instructions on Tetra Master beyond "you can challenge most NPCs to a game of Tetra Master by pressing Square." Talking to certain characters provided additional "useful" information like "The symbols on the cards mean something, but I hear you have to be a master to understand it."
@@ANunes06 Well, thank you for correcting me.
Thanks for the explanation! Knowing a little more about the behind the scenes mechanics makes losing feel a lot less random XD. On the plus side I got a perfect game immediately after watching this video and was SUPER excited when all of the opponents cards became mine.
The more that is known before playing, the much better the chances.
They should have just stuck to the card game from FF VIII...
TRIPLE TRIAD FOR LYFE!!!!
They eventually did, in FF14 the MMORPG they use the FF8 card game tripple triad.
Finally! I found someone who enjoys this mini game. I like it, but it is frustrating. Great guide!
Why make it simple when you can make it complicated ?
Japanese, that's why.
And people complain about Blitzball
They both suck, to be fair.
God I LOVED Blitzball....I won nearly all the time because I was good about getting only the best players
Blitzball is super boring and requires more inputs. Tetramaster is boring but you don't really have to do much
Omg 😂 my brain going to exploded
This video really helped me understand something I long suspected at Tetra Master. That is that I totally don't understand Tetra Master.
How were people supposed to know this when playing in the game
I loved triple triad in FF8. This card game annoyed to no end in FF9
Wow, I've been watching youtube videos for so long I can't remember (just like the rest of us) and this is literally the best tutorial I've ever seen. I browsed through tons of them that were explaining just the basics and then going "ok here, now I'll show you" without explaining any of the in-game math. Yours explained it all perfectly. (Of course I'm still confused because this game will always be confusing, but so fun and so addicting to me at least.) Thank you so much! I don't comment often.. I didn't even make my first account until very recently. but I just had to let you know how great this tutorial was. VERY much appreciated, especially given the tough time I had finding a proper one for Tetra Master.
So basically. Save between each card battle and hope for the best. Got it😑.
That’s what I’ve always done lol.
F*** if I knew what those digits mean from the start, this game would've been a lot more interesting.
Agreed, also that skipping game to get a rare card right away can go fuck itself
you know what? back then when i was playing this game i had so much fun and i spent about 200 hours playing it,and i thought that it is amazing....but now...
now i think that it is even more amazing :) very unique and complex,thats what i like
Yeah, I figured this out as a kid just by trial and error. Just for that rare namingway 😅
Liked and Favorited. I own the real version and I was so confused how the RNG worked for the dices. Makes sense now that it is percentage based due to the 10-sided dice. I guess the range would be 0-99
Someone figured it out! amaaaaaaazing! Thanks!
You kind of got screwed on your Genji and Alexandria cards.
Thank you so much for the guide. This cleared up a huge amount of confusion for me. I love Tetra Master, but I never looked into how it actually works until my most recent playthrough of the game.
thanks, this was a lot easier to understand than the other video i just watched on the topic, tetra master here i come
Might as well have been speaking a different language.
I've played FF9 many times. 2 things I was never able to get, Excalibur II & tetra master
I've played FF9 probably 8 times to completion, a dozen more times only to quit at various points. I just bought it again on my Nintendo Switch yesterday.
After all these years playing it in FF9, and the online version that came with Final Fantasy 11(PlayOnline) on my PC, and my girlfriends PS2....
*I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO ACTUALLY PLAY THIS GAME*
I do wish FF11 had it built into the MMORPG portion its self where you could challenge people you meet in-game, against NPCs in towns/outposts some with unique cards, and also mobs having a small chance to drop their own cards. Higher level versions of mobs drop better versions & notorious monsters dropping their own unique named cards with a special version.
I was very addicted to FF11, and if Tetra Master(or FF8s card game) was in the game and not a separate thing all together I may of never logged off..
This is me exactly. I'm not playing through on Moguri Steam version and I am REALLY trying hard to learn it this time .. I don't know if I'll make it.
Great explanation, now I understand. It's a shame it's so random. I'm replaying the game now with the Moguri mod but I originally played it when it was new and have no memory of it being this complicated or random.
Excellent explanation. Never knew how any of these mini games worked as a kid.
Best guide ever on this game sir. Thank you so so much. Only recommendation would be to slow down a little bit had to rewind a few times to comprehend all the info since it was spoke. So fast. And only other recommendation is to have actual examples set up when you are talking about certain situations. But thanks to you I finally understand this game.
Thanks man. It was one of my earliest videos and it has been on my to-do list to redo this entire video with better visuals and a new voice recording but it always gets pushed back with all the videos I have to keep up with nowadays >.
@@JRPGGaming please make it, it would help out a lot, if not I'll make it 😈
Thank you so much played this game 20 years ago. Now I just revisited the game I can finally enjoy this card game a little bit more than before.
Finally, I get it! The ultimate answer that explains the whole game: Don't play Tetra Master!
I'm kind of stoked about playing it now. It seems tedious but fun and very strategy oriented. It is very high level for a game within a game though.
So after reading 57 comments .. in the only person who likes tetra master... 😂
Hello, I to enjoy this needless key complicated mini game 😂
Tetra master is shit Garbage luck game. Easily the worst part of ff ix
This will help alot! Ive always started ff9 but never finished it. Just popped in in today and was watching stuff that said there is a mandatory card battle later in the game hah.
Rlly complicated.... What causes the cards actually to change numbers, letters and arrows? I noticed that cards are changing everything but am not sure how and why. Are they changing and getting stronger when they beat a card or when you get more winning points?
A card can "evolve" at the end of a match. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with their performance in the match, or if they flipped things, it's just a random small % chance they will get upgraded after each match.
Weird thing happened. I had a 0x10 card and I had ofcourse saved my game. .Then started a game and lost. Closed the game, loaded my savefile and BAM the card turned back to 0M10 hmm
Did you get that?
Javier Ontiveros No.
It's quite simple actually, I don't get why people have such a hard time understanding it.
With an example.
1P23
The first symbol represents how strong this cards attack is, in this case 1
the second symbol is what type of attack it is, in this case, P for P hysical.
The third symbol represents the cards P hysical defense, in this case 2
The fourth symbol represents the cards M agical defense, in this case 3
What you have to remember about this is that the symbols for attack, defense, and magical defense, are NOT their actual value, but only indicate in what "TIER" their actual value lies.
if your card has between 1 and 16 attack power for instance, the tier is 0.
17 to 31, the tier is 1.
This is hexadecimal, so the tiers go up to 16, being denoted by 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F
Our example card has P as the second symbol, so when you put it next to another card, he will attack that cards P hysical defense, the third symbol.
Now what makes it confusing to people, is that once you put down a card, you see some numbers flashing, and the higher number doesn't always win, and the numbers change, and because of this, people have a hard time figuring out what it all means, it makes it seem more difficult than it already is.
Lets say our example card attacks a 1M02 card
When a card battle starts, the first number that you see is the actual value of the card.
For instance, in our example, if we are attacking, we might see 23 ,this is the cards actual attack strength, (which makes it a 1 tier card).
Our card is a physical attacker, so the card we attack uses it's physical defense stat, which is denoted by a 0.
That card might show "13" or something, since 13 is still tier 0,
After we see those numbers, the numbers start counting down.
This is because the game chooses a random number between 0 and your maximum stat, to determine how strong your actual attack is. How exactly the game does that isn't important, what is important is that when the numbers start counting down, that's just the game counting down to the number it will use FOR THAT ATTACK.
Highest number wins, it's that simple.
So yeah, if you have a 23 attack vs a 13 defense, it might randomly make your attack only 5, and his defense 10, in which case you lose, but it is unlikely.
Just like in real life, sometimes you get in a lucky shot, you should never let the match be dependent on 1 roll.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
That's the basic game, what comes next are just some special features.
Special attack cards.
Besides M agical or P hysical, the second symbol can also be an X or an A
These are just special attack types.
X means that when you play the card, it will use its attack to attack either the Magical defense, or the Physical defense, of a defending card, depending on which is lower.
A means that when you play this card, it will use it's highest stat to attack the lowest stat of the defending card.
So if you play a 0A09 card against a 0P87 card, your card will use a power of 9 and the defending card will defend with a power of 0
Leveling cards:
The first number your card show during a battle is not always the same, this might seem confusing, but it's just because your card can level and grow stronger. when a value changes between tiers (going say from 15 to 16), the Tier symbol also changes (from 0 to 1). This only happens after battles.
Cards have theoretical maximum stats, so not every card can have 9P99 or something like that.
Besides leveling stats, P and M cards can also level into X cards, and X cards can level into A cards.
Those are all the mechanics, I think you understand the arrows and combos, those speak for themselves right?
The rest is just strategy, which you can figure out on your own, there are quite a few sneaky techniques, like planting a weak 8 arrow card in the middle of the ring in order to easily combo everything around it with your last card.
@@DutchDread >says he doesn't understand why people have a hard time understanding TM
>shows how needlessly convoluted the game is
@@Drojanx Yeah, if your idea of a challenging game is tic-tac-toe, then you might think this is convoluted. But if your IQ reaches into the triple digits, then this is quite honestly easier than 99% of actual card games, from poker to pokemon.
It's literally 3 values. And 4 symbols showing which value attacks which value, it's exactly one step more convoluted than rock-paper-scissors.
It's like chess, the emerging gameplay strategies might be complicated, but the basic pieces are simple as fuck. But you probably think chess is needlessly convoluted as well so.
" WHY DO ALL THESE PIECES MOVE DIFFERENTLY, AARGHHH!!!! SO NOW THE PAWN IS SUDDENLY A QUEEN?! THIS IS SO CONVOLUTED!"
@@DutchDread Lol, tictactoe? You really think TT is that simple? Bullshit, you bitched about the the other rules, plus, same, element, random, same wall, etc, all of which greatly affect how you approach you opponent, and yet you complain about how they spread like a disease and yet you call it just a tictactoe game? You really aren't credible at all.
Also, I love how you use a false equivalent, chess is straight forward and easy to pick up, nothing hard about it. Once again, you demonstrate how you are not credible at all.
Where can I buy the paper game?
This is legitimately so helpful thank you 🙂
I was already able to figure out most of what you said here by myself by playing the game and I just came here to hear if cards can level up, but I find this guide very useful and wish I had it when I had just started playing. Good job!
Did you read the source code or something to work this out
Honestly this is the most convoluted side game in the FF series. They went from triple triad which was supremely fun and addictive, to this absolute mess.
Great guide btw, I'm just not bothered to learn it because it's fundamentally confusing.
Oh wow, I didn't even notice the arrows
Just got the game on ps4. Man its just as hard and confusing as i remember. Any advice on who would be easier to fight to grind in alexandria? Im losing twice as much as i am winning and dont know how to quick reset lol, its so discouraging especially since on my old save i was trying to beat the treno championship or whatever it was called. If i recall i made it to the 3rd or 4th person.
Also: if you have an X type card, will that effect from the X only work when you initiate a battle? He doesn't really explain this, but I'm guessing that's a "yes."
Alright! Thank you so much, man. I also got a perfect game right after watching this video :D Bless you!
People often bitch about losing because of the RNG. I think this is a bitchy complaint. A game that's decided purely by who has the best cards is boring.
Yes, you can lose any battle, perhaps you shouldn't let your strategy hang on a single battle.
What I enjoy about TM is setting up scenarios where I have multiple chances for victory.
Not even the best dart player in the world wins every single set, the point is to be better on average, meaning that when you do multiple sets, your chances of losing become exponentially smaller.
Same goes for Tetra master.
I love the fact that you can strategically place weak cards to take advantage of later, that sometimes it's best to have defensive cards, sometimes it's best to have offensive cards, sometimes, it's best not to have cards with 8 arrows.
It has strategy, and if you work at it, your cards level, and you get better, there is a clear sense of progression.
FFIX does a shit job at explaining how it works, and therefore the RNG feels cheaty, because no one understands what the flashing numbers mean.
But it's no more unreasonable than saying "a card with an attack power of 1 gets to roll 1 die, a card with 3 attack power gets to roll 3 die, higher total wins". (ok, it can be a bit annoying that EVERY card has a chance to beat every other card, but it is also part of the charm).
TM doesn't give you anything for playing it, except for the enjoyment, but do we need another reason? That's reason enough normally to play a card game right? Why isn't it enough reason to play it within another game?
At least you're not forced to play it in order to collect strong items like in FFXIII (which inevitably break the game), if you don't like it, you literally only have to play it once.
DutchDread well said!
What's that? People don't like their hard earned and high level card losing to some low level goblin card because the rng is bullshit? Hmmmm it's like it's not fair or something. You complained about the rules in TT which causes you to think about how to approach the game and when and where to place cards.
Ff8 was the absolute worst game in the series before 13 anyway. A card game will never fix that.
Why not just write an explanation elsewhere? And are those probabilities exact? Are the random numbers selected during an attack all equally probable?
Thank you for this!
Honestly, explaining without a single matching visual is really bad and distracting
Excellent tutorial for a confusing card game 👍
I understand that an "X" in any of the four slots denotes that it's an X type card.
If an X is in the first slot, what offensive value would it represent? And similarly, if an X is in the 3rd or 4th slot, what defensive vslue would it represent?
The trick to collecting through battle is to keep throwing waves of scrub cards at your opponent. Who cares if you lose 10 flan/goblin/fang/whatever cards over 15 games - it’s mostly luck and arrows so just keep throwing them until you get the one you want
Tetramaster really isn’t that hard to understand if you take a few hours to play the game.
Eventually you want to acquire powerful cards with few arrows to control your chances of getting chained against. With powerful cards with arrows only needed to defend your placement on the board, you can narrow down the rng to a large degree.
The RNG is in place to make chaining a high risk/reward situation. It’s why you get a lot of people saying “Idk what the fuck I was doing but I actually beat Cid!”
Tetra Master makes me happy :) If I could take one minigame inside a game on a lonely island, it would be TM!! (also because this might mean I get to bring the whole FF IX *_*)
Very good guide. I ended up winning all cards in the game as a child because I kept attacking the empty spaces of opposing cards and either praying during battles or by just going with logic (higher number is better) and using powerful cards.
And save scumming. Because fuck rng.
/braaaavo! Standing salute to you sir. Much love for the math and process here and you've helped understand this ""mini"" game.
Idk why but this card game has never clicked in 20+ years. Doing a replay and decided I really wanna put in work with it and I’m still so lost
In my very first FFIX playthrough, I 100% ignored Tetra Master and stopped when the game forced you to play and win I think 3 games in a row. Back then, I thought I softlocked the game by not getting new cards. Now, I’m just thinking Tetra Master is BS lol. I’m currently playing the game again and making sure to play a lot of cards and I think the randomness actually kind of enhances the experience. If anything, I’m very happy going through the comments and seeing everyone is completely lost lol
Thank you for this video.
Hell no to figuring that out. I'll just keep on matching arrows with my fingers crossed 🤣
Would you sell your copy of Tetra Master physical card game?
Is it still like new? If so name your price.
I can offer replica real thick worn leather Vivi/black mage hat
😆 thanks for this, i understand the game a lot better, I feel triple triad was better as a card game. My fave mini game in all FFs though is easily Blitzball. The roller coaster shooter from FF7 was also very fun.
Please tell me you remade this video... The footage having no relation to what you're talking about really doesn't help anyone and you just launch way too much info at once without showing how it would be implemented in a game.
Well, thanks for explaining why I keep losing... The in game instructions are the worst explanation of game rules I have every seen. I was so confused why nothing I did worked.
But seems like this game isn't going to be 'fun' due to the randomness.
It's a pretty well designed game but it really needs a long and hard to digest primer. I was going wild with cards with lots of arrows and that isn't really the right strategy.
I realy like the fact that the cards can level up, but sadly its far too random
So helpful thank you very much
Wow that makes sense. Rip for people who don't know hexadecimal
What the fuck were these guys on when then decided to make this game? It's quite possibly the worst mini-game to ever be implemented into any game ever.
Fuck you - Sincerely, Dark Cloud 2: Spheda
Thanks, I hate it
It's confusing because all of what you're saying is entirely different from what is actually on the screen making us think of a different picture. It would have been easier if you'd have done it more slowly with explanations and show them onscreen at the same time. Thanks regardless.
Completely redoing this video has been on my to-do list for quite awhile. This was one of the first videos I ever did, and I just wasn't very good at it back then lol.
@@JRPGGaming Good to know, and thanks for the reply!
Nice video, more proof that triple triad was way better. Least I understand this game now though.
I disagree, I think TM was much better, only problem is that it was poorly explained.
It is quite easy to understand though, and the strategy aspect is much more fun in my opinion, plus, it doesn't have regional rules that spread like herpes the same way TT did.
@@DutchDread In no way is TM better than TT. You can manipulate the rules so you can get what you want in TT, winning in TM is just majorly luck based under the thin veil of skill if you somehow managed to figure out the less than poorly explained rules.
@@Drojanx I hope that no one who says TM is luck based has ever played D&D, or any other game with a dice, they must hate it.
I honestly have no idea how you people can suck at it so badly, with my current playthough, I have a win to loss record of about 400-30-10.
How is that luck?
I agree that the rules are poorly explained, that's FFIX fault, not Tetra master.
Like you said, Triple Triad actually forces you to manipulate the rules. You actively have to prevent the game for using half the rules of the game because playing under those rules would suck.
Not only that, but it has rules like flipping cards if the sum of those cards is equal to the sum of the numbers on some other side, taking elemental weakness into account, as well as the wall having stats AND THEN THEY CALL TM convoluted?!!!!
Is this opposite land?
And that's not even mentioning the fact that I always feel forced to play that freaking game because playing it basically breaks the game, which doesn't make the game more fun btw.
Luckily I can mostly ignore TT when I play FFIX with the exception of 1, ridiculously easy match.
Whoever approved this card game should be tried for crimes against humanity
Watch the video, play the game, lose to a 0p00 with a raising score of 41, look for another video...
That's so me right now
Ah luck, the go to strategy for people who don't like strategy.
Ah...I see now.
Fuck.
mrkrazyaznguyizkrazy Just pray to the RNG Gods
instead of having a random footage of teramaster in the background, you could simply explain all that by playing it...
This is not an MTG comparison ❤ MTG is still 🐐 this video is a mashup ❤
“If A appears anywhere but the second digit, it actually signifies the number 10”
THATS IT. NO. That sentence broke me...
There’s too many stand in numbers and letters and too many hidden variables.
I understand if they want to add a bit of luck or RNG or whatever but WOW there’s a difference between that and unnecessary complexity just to be a d-bag for complexities sake.
Great video man, thanks for trying but this is just an unfun game.
And it sounds more unfun the more I learn. Unnecessarily “depth” and rng that convolutes what should be a fun mini-game.
It signifies 10 because it’s hexadecimal, essentially instead of using base 10 like we use regularly (0-9) this game uses hex, which is (0-9, A-F), it’s so we can represent 2 digit numbers as 1 symbol.
The game is still RNG balls though.
aladrew07 I appreciate you trying to clear it up, I think the RNG is the nail in the coffin for me sadly...
It’s rough out there.
Decided to not play this part of FF9 the moment you said "The game rolls a random number". Disappointing thats it's that random
Some sort of visual presentation would have went a long way here, instead of just your voice. It's too confusing to follow and feels like i'm sitting in maths class. I'm glad you understand it, but I understand it no more or less than before watching lol.
I know :( I am sorry about that. This was one of the first videos I ever made and completely redoing it has been on my To-Do list for a while. I promise there'll be a better video some day.
I want to like TM because I love card games, but my winning should be so heavily based on RNG
...hmmm. Now I understand. RNJeesus wins again. This game seems more luck based then my LVL1ExcalliburII run 😣
the fact they had the audacity to add a mandatory tournament for this abomination of a card game is truly the purest form of sadism
Cheers for the upload, mate. But I'm 2:40 in, and I'm like... huh?? Come again???
I think I'll give this video another go when I've had a coffee 🤣
Just spray and pray for now 🤭
Ff8 has the best mini game ever for cards.
Much better than tetra
Now I remember why I stopped playing this game
had a decent deck built till last night, then an npc played a perfect game against me and cleaned me out
Master Tetra Master in 1 easy step:
Step 1. Dont play it. Its shit.
My head hurts
Holy shit this game is deep! This is mini chess.
This feels like an elaborate April fool's joke...
I don't know how this can be your favourite FF minigame when it's almost entirely luck based. Triple Triad is so much better.
This mini game is unnecessarily confusing/unintuitive. Especially when the game itself doesn't even properly explain how to play. Tetra master is quite literally what makes this game a 9 instead of a 10 for me.
I hate this mini game. It's randomness is so stupid. The fact you need to play it for one part of the game frustrates me so much
This just makes me not want to play this card game even more now lol 😅
Jay RPG: "Tetra Master is my favorite mini-game of any Final Fantasy game."
Also Jay RPG: "It's a luck-based system."
Damn, that's what you LIKE? That's literally what makes it horrible.
The coliseum in FF6 is worse. There is little strategy and lots of luck.
Yeah, that kind of sucked too. I never considered it a strong point. Just a distraction. I admittedly spent way too much time there as a teen, though.
4 Years later but my god, this has to be one of the worst systems I've ever heard for a "strategy" game. In a game where for whatever reason everyone had 8 arrows on all cards, but 1 player had significantly "stronger" cards than the other could still lose, but not only that they could theoretically get a "perfect" game because, hey let's make our "strategy" game at the end of the day be purely a dice roll. Fantastic. Not even sure why they allowed you to pick your cards at that rate. Just fully embrace the RNG.
I am stuck at the portion of the game that I HAVE TO WIN A CARD GAME... WTF dude..
Then I clicked this video and decided to give up... it's just the card game is too complicated to understand
I’m even more confused :(