Hot and Cold

One thing why I loooove FF9 is because of this side quest, the Chocobo Hot and Cold. It's a mini-game that enables Zidane and his chocobo, Choco, to dig for treasures within the Chocobo Forest, the Chocobo Lagoon or at the Chocobo Sky Garden. And with the help of chocographs, you can also dig treasures all over the world map.

You can get Choco once you head out of Lindblum's Dragon Gate and head east. You'll arrive at a round shaped forest which is the Chocobo Forest. Here, you'll meet Mene, a moogle who would give you gysahl greens and would tell you about chocobos. Go outside and look for the chocobo tracks and use a gysahl green to call Choco. Now to start playing, ride Choco to the Chocobo Forest and start digging! What items can you dig out? Well, there's potions, remedies, hi-potions, ores, ethers, and even chocographs and chocograph pieces.

I won't go into detail for now but I might make a more detailed section on this mini-game next time. Until then, you can just check out GameFAQs for really good walkthroughs about this mini-game. I suggest you check out Yee Seng Fu's Final Fantasy IX Chocobo Hot and Cold game guide.