I hate it when the internet's wrong.

As mentioned before, I have played FF8 for the first time not long ago and am going through FF9 right now, also for the first time. And between both games, I've found some common misconceptions in most online documentation about these games.

When it comes to FF8, the biggest offender is Triple Triad trade rule degeneration. For most of the game's life, it was thought that natural degeneration went like this: All > Direct > Diff > One. For this reason, most people were terrified of setting the trade rule to All, since it would eventually degenerate into Direct. However, it was discovered in 2010 that this is NOT the case, and All, Direct and Diff degenerate straight into One, meaning it's completely safe to use the All rule, and any "degeneration" into Direct is actually caused by external factors that have nothing to do with natural degeneration. Problem is, just about every guide, walkthrough, name it for FF8 was written long before 2010, so you can see the advice of settling for Diff absolutely everywhere. Utterly confused people who don't know what to believe are legion on forums about the game, and for good reason.

As for FF9, two words: Ragtime Mouse (who looks as much like a mouse as Kuja looks like a guy). As most people who played the game know, you can encounter him four times right off the bat, then six more times after a certain trigger, then six more times after another trigger. Unfortunately, most guides get those triggers completely wrong. The popular belief seems to be that the switch to discs 2 and 3 are these triggers - naturally, that isn't the case, else I wouldn't be talking about it here. Others get the first trigger right (reaching the Outer Continent for the first time), but get the second wrong (they say it's getting the Blue Narciss). Well, after extensive testing, I can confirm something very few people on the internet can tell you: the second trigger is actually getting the Hilda Garde 3, not the Blue Narciss.

Here, I'll repeat it a few more times just to try and fail at drowing out the misinformation:

You can't complete the Ragtime Mouse quest before getting the Hilda Garde 3.
YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE RAGTIME MOUSE QUEST BEFORE GETTING THE HILDA GARDE 3.
YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE RAGTIME MOUSE QUEST BEFORE GETTING THE HILDA GARDE 3.
YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE RAGTIME MOUSE QUEST BEFORE GETTING THE HILDA GARDE 3.

Thank you.