A section of the game can be skipped by obtaining a Gold Chocobo right after getting the Blue Narciss but before getting the airship. This let you bypass The Desert Palace and jump to right before Ispen's Castle on disk 3.

The Downsides:
• Dagger is permanently stuck in her "Mute" condition (no Trance, commands fail on a regular basis)
• The player will have to buy a Ribbon at the Treno Auction House in order to have Eiko learn the Madeen summon, as Mount Gulug will be skipped.
• Ozma will have to be beaten to get a second Pumice Piece to have Dagger learn the Ark summon (since the one in Oeilvert is unattainable).
• Items from the Desert Palace cannot be recovered.

The Upsides:
• Completely skip boss battles such as Ark and Valia Pira.
• Saved time for those who have already played the game, or those trying to obtain Excalibur II.
• Automatic access of Hilda Garde III.
• The Gold Chocobo

This is only possible in early Japanese and North American releases as the items required were made impossible to get at that point in the game in later versions.