Quina Quen

Quina Quen is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. S/he is an apparently genderless Qu. Quina serves as comic relief throughout the game, often failing in his/her eternal quest to consume new cuisine. S/he speaks in broken English, as all Qu do. S/he also eats anything s/he sees sometimes.

Exposition
Quina first appears at the beginning of the game in Alexandria Castle, overseeing the chefs' every move and tasting most of their dishes. Quina also participates in the Festival of the Hunt in Lindblum under the name "Strange Gourmand." S/he is next seen in Qu's Marsh, and may be optionally recruited immediately after leaving Lindblum. S/he has a fondness for frogs, and is distressed that s/he cannot catch one. Zidane catches one for Quina, leading the head Qu, Quale, to scold Quina for being too lazy to feed itself. Quale asks the party to take Quina around the world so that s/he may taste different types of cuisine and attain a higher rank of gourmand.

Burmecia
Quina is able to make the journey through Gizamaluke's Grotto, Burmecia, and Cleyra with Zidane, Vivi, and Freya. In this early stage of the game, Quina is completely obsessed with hunting for new kinds of food, which s/he refers to as "yummy-yummies". At the party's stay in Cleyra, Quina is upset that the locale has no exotic food to be had, finally settling on a pair of pink mushrooms whose edibility is questionable. S/he later goes back on its dissatisfaction in order to brighten Freya's mood. When the other three members of the group teleport to the Red Rose via Black Mage teleportation devices, Quina declines to go with them and flees Cleyra on foot, saying that s/he "no like heights."

Regardless if the player recruited Quina or not at an earlier time, the Qu next appears back in Qu's Marsh, where s/he leads the party to the entrance to Fossil Roo in search for more frogs to consume.

Outer Continent
After navigating the tunnels of Fossil Roo, the party arrives on the Outer Continent, and soon reach the Dwarven village of Conde Petie. Quina immediately rushes in, certain that good food is to be had. S/he makes a beeline for the consumable shop, where the shopkeeper offers to sell Quina a Pumpkin Bomb for 1000 Gil. Quina cannot understand the need to use currency to obtain food, so the dwarf labels him/her is a thief and Quina runs frantically out of the shop.

Upon reaching the Black Mage Village, Quina quickly finds another source of food: a Chocobo egg being hatched by two Black Mages. Though Quina longs to taste the egg, the Mages shoo him/her out, but he/she stays and keeps referring to the egg as "delicious" and the mage keeps refusing to give the egg. Returning to Conde Petie, Quina undergoes the "marriage" ritual with Vivi in order to access the Sanctuary beyond the village. Quina seems quite pleased with this arrangement saying: "I...so happy".

After being allowed to travel through the Mountain Path, the party encounters Eiko Carol, stuck on a tree limb. Quina is deterred from eating her when Eiko says that she tastes horrible. This backfires on her, as Quina runs off to attempt to consume Mog, Eiko's pet Moogle. Quina is later mistaken for Kuja by Eiko, having being reeled in from the river by a fishing pole. However, S/he then stays and helps Eiko cook dinner for the rest of Zidane's party in Madain Sari.

Alexandria and Beyond
After the party leaves the Outer Continent without Quina, s/he washes up on the shores of Lindblum, frightening several town guards. When Gilgamesh attempts to corner Eiko in Treno, using the guise of attending a banquet to rob her, Quina pops up, demands food, and scares Gilgamesh away. Despite this noble act, Quina is once again left behind in Treno, and is next recruited by Zidane at Lindblum, where the Qu is attempting to haggle for a Gyshal pickle.

When the heroes reach Terra, Quina is the only person to candidly interact with the unresponsive Genomes at Bran Bal. S/he attempts to taste a large luminous stone seemingly worshiped by the Genomes, to no avail. When the airship Invincible is used to escape Terra, Quina warps in at the last minute from underneath the ship, a confusing feat which is of course not explained. At the end of the story, Quina is back in the Alexandrian kitchen, cooking up more munchies to satisfy its never-ending palate.

Appearance
Quina is a seemingly genderless Qu, a tribe known for their weird eating habits, long tongues and poor language skills. However, its eating habits is actually one of its greatest skills, as it is able to learn Blue Magic by consuming an enemy, when the enemy's HP reaches a low enough level. During gameplay, the player can take Quina to several swamp locations, so that s/he can chase (and eat) the frogs in the swamp. This may seem as a waste of time, but it is in fact quite useful: Quina will get new equipment and add strength to the powerful Frog Drop ability.

Equipment and Stats
Quina is a Blue Mage variant, since s/he has the ability to cast Blue Magic, which is obtained from enemies. S/he only differs from regular Blue Mages in that instead of having to be attacked by the attack in order to learn it, s/he has to consume an enemy who possesses the attack.

Quina uses Forks as a weapon in the game. Despite their odd appearance, they can actually be quite powerful in battle. Forks deal random damage to an enemy, and the odds of dealing higher damage are not affected by Quina's row placement. As such, it is a good idea to leave Quina in the back row. Quina's Needle Fork is a useful weapon acquired early in the game that can inflict Petrification with the Add Status ability equipped. The ultimate fork is the Gastro Fork that is acquired after catching 99 frogs in the various swamps around the world and defeating Quale.



Abilities
A command called "Eat" is required for obtaining new skills in the form of Blue Magic. When an enemy drops below 25% of its maximum HP, Quina is able to eat it. If successful, the enemy disappears from battle and Quina will learn a new skill. It should be noted that each skill can only be learned once and that eating more of the same type of enemy does not increase the attack power or accuracy of the attack.

When in Trance, the "Eat" command is replaced by "Cook". As opposed to the "Eat" command, "Cook" will work on an enemy whose HP has fallen below 50% of its maximum.

Trivia

 * In the Spanish version of the game, Quina is referred to as "she", and the same for Quale, while Quan is "he". In the German version however, Quina is always referred to as "he". In the French version Quina is "she" whereas both Quale and Quan are "he".
 * Quina can equip female-only equipment like Lamia's Tiara, while s/he cannot equip the Pearl Rouge add-on.
 * Quina is affected by the Lamia's "Entice" ability, like all male characters.

Etymology
The name "Quina Quen" is actually a Japanese play on words. The word 'Quina' {kuina} translates as 'Eat!', while the word Quen {kuen} is 'Cannot Eat...' This point may be true for the character, as throughout the game, Quina is on a personal quest to find new, exotic foodstuff, but most of the time manages to fail at this task.

Quina Quen