Let's Play the French version of Final Fantasy VIII ! FINALE

[aka Cthulhu]

Ah, the magic lamp. First game over I got from the game, as I recall (that, or the T-Rexaur). After using it once, I said nope and sold it. So Diablos and Siren I missed out on. Aside from the Laguna flashback, I have no recollection whatsoever on anything that went on in Timber. My memory is basically "went away from Balamb Garden" then "hey, we're at Galbadia Garden!". I remember getting one guardian force in between... or is it after that? Either way, only way to find out is for me to continue reading on.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 10: Laguna's wacky adventures

After entering the forest, a cutscene begins and the characters ponder the possibility of an attack on the BGU, with Zell blaming himself:


"Zell: Do you think Deing will want revenge on the Uni?

Squall: It's possible.

Zell: (Some reply!) *grabbing Squall* But there is plenty of competent SeeDs at the university, isn't there? They'd give the Galbadians a good beating, right?

Squall: It depends...

Zell: Oh? So you think...

Linoa: You really are an awful leader! Do you enjoy psychologically torturing your weaker partners?¹

Squall: (What did I say?)

Linoa: Zll wants to be comforted.

Squall: (Watch out, here comes Linoa Freud!)

Linoa: So there's no point in worrying him further

Squall: (Why don't you go give your little psychology lesson to Seifer?)

Linoa: You don't care about your partners' feelings, do you?

Squall: (I mostly rely on myself)

Linoa: Are you listening?

Squall: (It would be impossible to do otherwise)

Linoa: Why is it that I can't get through to you?"

Well it looks like she actually did get through to him and he collapses on the ground, as do Quistis and Selphie. Yeah okay, it's another dream sequence and we fade to the next scene as Zell starts explaining to Linoa what's going. Before we join Laguna's team though, I'd like to talk a bit about that dialogue. I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I feel that like the scene with Quistis, Squall is acting rather out of character with the childish dismissal without providing any actual argument, which is especially jarring right after a scene where he tried to cheer the team up and one where he argued with Linoa, but in a more respectful manner. On the other hand, I do like the idea of Squall being overly cold to Zell and Linoa calling him out. It is important for any leader, especially in a military setting, to be able to keep morale up and so it's interesting to see Squall wrongly believe he can work alone so he can realize through the course of the story that being more supportive of his teammates would make him improve both as a person AND as a soldier, showing once again that the idea that empathy makes you weak is nonsense.

On top of that, keep in mind that Linoa is a leader too (well, technically Zone is the Timber Owls' leader but let's not kid ourselves) so she's been in situations like this as well, she knows what she's talking about. So yeah, overall I like the scene but I wish Squall didn't come off as so puerile and they actually had him talk to Linoa rather than think snide remarks to himself, remarks which, again, go against the development we've seen recently. This is a good example of what I mean when I say that there aren't many things really wrong with FF8 but quite a few you can nitpick. And now, back to Laguna & Friends:




They wind up in a strange location where it turns out Laguna got the team lost. They decide to go patrol the area. Before you go, check your junctions (as in my case, Selphie wasn't part of the team before the dream sequence and so her equivalent character doesn't have any junctions). You'll notice that although Laguna always has the same stats and junctions as Squall, Ward and Kiros' can vary. For example, remember how Ward used to have the same stuff as Selphie? Well now it's Kiros who does.

In the next screen is a draw point with some Morphée (by the way, Squall/Laguna now has over 50 Morphée spells and since it is junctioned to their physical attacks, I get enemies sleeping almost every time I hit. Seriously, junctions really pay off). The groups discovers that they are in a mine where hallucinogenic stones are being extracted. Suddenly, they are attacked by enemy soldiers in rather strange uniforms (even Laguna says "your uniforms are as flashy as always!")



These sentai-looking guys are Esthar Soldiers and simply referred to as such in the English version. The French translation however is very weird is it refers to them as "S-Borg". The S doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything (best I can figure is that they could stand for "soldat") and the borg part implies that they are robots or at least cyborgs. Now, they CAN be accompanied by cyborg soldiers but these guys aren't so there is no reason for this. anyway, they pack some powerful elemental spells as well as Soin + (Curaga) that are very good to draw, be it to cast them or for junctioning.

Speaking of the cyborg soldiers, watch out for them as they have an attack where they send their sword-gun combo weapon flying and hit your entire team, causing some pretty heavy damage. They do destroy their weapon in the process but then they start using melee attacks that are far more powerful than their regular attacks (making you wonder why they even bother with the weapons in the first place).

You can also find an enemy called Elastos (Gesper), some very bizarre enemies whose attacks are random not only in the sense that they use moves randomly, but also that they are as likely to attack their friends than their foes and will also occasionally heal your team. Upon death, they drop an item called Gen-X (Black Hole) which allows Quistis to learn Degenerator, a move that instantly kills the enemy. Some enemies aren't affected by it but it remains very useful as you can imagine.

The path branches and as a heads up, you'll want to explore as much as possible here as the actions you take now will give you access to extra stuff in the future. I'll start by going to the right, descending a ladder which takes me to a long catwalk. Keep going and you will eventually find an item you can pick up.




It's an old key! take it and... it will immediately drop through a hole in Laguna's pocket and be lost. However, it will give you access to a G-Force ability item later. Keep going left and you will find three hatches. Ignore them for now and move on to the next screen. There you'll see a ladder in the back and several barricades. Look around and you will find another key, which you will similarly lose. This one will give you access to an Ultima draw point later.

Now, go back to the trap doors. You'll hear a squeaky sound when you cross the middle one. Check the handle and Laguna will realise it's lose and you can break it. Do that and leave the screen and you'll see an Esthar soldier fall in the trap! Go back and do the same thing for the right trap door. Nothing will happen for now but it will be useful in a few minutes. Go all the way back to the branching patch with the ladder then go left. Keep going and go down the ladder. You'll be back in the place where you found and lost the second key. Keep going and you'll be able to f*** with the left trapdoor. Now backtrack again and go back to where you found the first key.

Go up until you find a detonator. You have the choice between detonating two boulders (one of which you should have walked past on you way here). Detonate the further one first and the closer one next. This will get rid of some Esthar soldiers and the shaking from the boulders rolling will open the other two trapdoors. Later, this will allow you to find an item used to summon Phoenix (one of the few non-junctionable G-Forces) and one that teaches Quistis a new Limit Break.

Go up the stairs and cross the bridge and you'll find a corridor with a boulder in it. Touch it and it will go rolling, getting rid of more Esthar soldiers and revealing a draw point. Keep going up and you'll eventually reach a cliff and Esthar soldiers will attack you. During the fight, Ward's Limit Break activates. The Limit Breaks in Laguna's team are all simple attacks with no input from the player so there isn't really anything to describe. Have this screenshot of a rotund man riding an anchor and crashing it on a group of enemies:




There can be up to five fights in a row here but if you followed my instructions, there should only be one. After that, the group realizes that the only way out is to jump off the cliff into the ocean. I would have thought they could try backtracking as they clearly got to this place somehow but whatever. There's a pretty funny moment where Laguna says that his grandma always used to say that talking about something bad makes it happen, making Ward make a vow to never speak until the end of the game. Aside from being a Squall-worthy breaking of the fourth wall, it's actually foreshadowing the fact that Ward will indeed become mute for the remainder of the game. After a while, they eventually decide to jump.




Back in Galbadia, Squall, Selphie and Quistis wake up from their little nap and confirm to Zell that it was indeed another dream with Laguna. Quistis is a little bit more surprised obviously as it's the first time it happens to her. Squall however urges the group to keep moving, even ging "Let's go, pals!" because I guess the Laguna dram made him turn "dick mode" off, making his previous bitch fit even more pointless. I really do love this game's story but the writing can sometimes be... GAAHH!! Finally, in a rather sweet moment, Linoa apologies for getting a bit carried out but Squall admits that, well, she did have a point. Check your junctions again and the next step is getting to Galbadia Garden, which we'll do in part 11.





¹ Er... Linoa? I don't think calling him weak is gonna cheer him up much. I'm guessing they meant more that he's in a weakened state, as in he's stressed out but yeah, rather awkward phrasing.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 11: The one I couldn't think of a title for

This is gonna be another plot -heavy one so let's get right to it. Welcome to Galbadia Garden (and yes, this one is actually just called "Galbadia Garden" in French as well even though it's also referred to as a university during dialogue)!




Once again we have some amazing music. Selphie points out how different this university is from theirs, with Zell adding that it's really quiet, which Squall saying that it's enjoyable, making Linoa chuckle. Seriously Squall, you're actually a rather cool guy to be around when you're not being a dick, so please having your dick fits... that came out wrong... or maybe it didn't. Quistis knows the headmaster as she's taken classes there so she's going ahead to explain their situation so for the time being, Selphie will be replacing her.

You're supposed to go the second floor to wait but screw that, let's visit! Right in the middle of the main hall, hidden in the light (even with Clairvoyance activated) is a draw point for some Booster (Haste). To the left is... not much of interest. To the right, you'll find some NPCs and some of them are kinda funny like that girl apparently reading Game of Thrones or something as it talks about a princess entering a room while completely naked, and the girl seems very excited about this.

But more importantly, behind one of the doors, you'll find an ice rink and if you go left, you'll find a locker room with a Vie (Life) draw point. I don't think I really need to tell you this but yeah, you'll probably want to get that. In the same room is also a Trabian student who uses different Triple Triad rules from everyone else and can be used to change the rules in the area. He's apparently a hockey player and mentions that next week, his team is supposed to play against a team made up of monsters who wear goalie masks and train while watching the Friday the 13th films. HA HA! Funny joke, like we're really going to see a team of monster hockey players. Also, that's, what the third real-world brand that apparently exists in the FF8 universe now? Oh and there was also an NPC who mentioned reading shakespeare at some point so that's another real-world thing that's somehow a thing on not-Earth.

Forward from the main hall are the stairs taking you to the second floor but for now, I'll just keep going further down the corridor. Interestingly, in this area is the only child in a cadet uniform I've seen in the whole game, a little blonde boy.




Anyway, if you do the same thing as me, you'll end up in a place with multiple tennis courts. Yeah, this university seems to be big into sports, especially as in the area with the stairs, you can also find three guy doing push-ups. You'll also find a Blindage draw point. That's pretty much all there is to see here so off to the second floor.

Well actually, there isn't much to see here either. To the left is an elevator that you can't use for now and if you go all the way to the right, you'll find a draw point for some Double. Let's go to the waiting room. Interestingly, Squall is the first to ask how it went, which seems to show that despite his cold exterior, Squall is very worried about what might happen to the BGU and the people living there. Quistis brings good news as the BGU is safe, Seifer being considered a rogue terrorist unconnected to the BGU, which is pretty much exactly what he is. She brings even MORE good news as Seifer has been executed!

Oh, er... I mean, what a tragedy. In all seriousness, despite me loving to hate Seifer and exaggerating my hatred of him for comedic effect, it's actually quite touching to see the characters be affected so much by Seifer's death, especially considering even Zell and Squall, who hated him, seem genuinely saddned by this news. And really, if you were in this situation, it would be rather rough to see someone you know personally become a terrorist and then get executed for it. I still say Linoa being so broken up over her five minutes crush is just weird though.

To be fair, it seems to affect her more because he did it to help the Timber Owls and she blames herself for causing his death... which I guess is actually a good reason, but then she does say she was in love with him and explains that she first met him one year earlier. I know it's just a little detail but it really bothers me: HOW did she meet him? And regularly enough that she fell in love with him? Skipping ahead a little bit, Linoa will eventually get to the BGU and it's obviously the first time she's even been there so she didn't meet him there (and even if she did, why would an outsider routinely visit a military/mercenary school?).

I guess maybe Seifer could have been sent on a training mission abroad but since such things are never mentioned in game and that the Dollet Mission heavily implies that cadets don't really go outside the country, that seems like kind of a long shot. Maybe I'm just thinking way too hard about this but it really bugs me. And although it seems like a nitpick, the big problem I have with this is that this part of her backstory feels like it's been tacked on just to add another point of rivalry between Squall and Seifer.

And really, do YOU buy a girl like Linoa getting all hot and bothered over a weener-boy like Seifer? It's especially jarring when she says what attracted her to him is how confident he was. Well we sure as shit didn't get to see that aspect of him. If anything, he came across as massively insecure. Hell, I think Linoa is more of a man than he ever was. Again, good story but occasionally awkward writing.

Anyway, Quistis tries to comfort Linoa by telling her that Seifer's involvement was his own decision and he knew the risks of what he did. The Owls never asked him to do this and so they are not responsible for his death. Which, yeah, is entirely true. Squall does mention to himself that Seifer had changed recently and used to be cool so I guess to Linoa's credit perhaps he was less of a childish asshole back when she dated him. Squall then starts to freak out over the thought of people grieving over him like that, finding it depressing if not downright repulsive and he storms off, yelling that no-one will speak of him in the past tense.

Now, that might seem random but that does tie into some of Squall's personal issues which will actually be explored more later on. Basically, the reason why he tries to stay detached from people is that he is afraid of sadness that comes with losing someone you were close to, which does explain why he'd be so disgusted at the thought of someone feeling that way because of him. I actually find that to be a rather interesting theme, especially since the moral of the game is that yeah, that sucks, but the good times and pleasant memories are way worth it. Either way, it does make Squall's behaviour more meaningful than him just being angsty and brooding just because he's a teen trying to act cool (and why I dislike it so much when they have him just be a dick for no reason as it goes against that theme).

So you go on as Squall alone for a while. If you've already visited there isn't much to do so I'll just go back down. On my way to the main hall, I am interrupted by two familiar faces:




That's right, it's Raijin and Fujin! Raijin explains that they're on duty (so... did they become SeeDs since the Dollet mission? Where they SeeDs before? Are they somehow on a mission without being SeeDs?) and have new orders for Squall and his team, although we have to meet with an official from Galbadia Garden for more information on that. Squall breaks it to them that Seifer's been executed, which naturally they don't take too well and they even refuse to believe it's true. Pft! get real, guys! People don't just come back from the dead in Final Fantasy!

So, we go to back to the main entrance to receive our new orders. Linoa asks us to pretend she's a SeeD member to avoid making things more complicated than they already are, which leads to her awkwardly trying to imitate the SeeD salute, which always amuses me. We meet the headmaster of Galbadia Garden, named Martine. What a strangely feminine name for a male military officer (to the point that due to the PS1 graphics and the lose clothing, I assumed it was a woman when I first played the game).




He announces that the BGU and Galbadia Garden have decided to work together on a mission. He explains that the sorceress, the new ambassador of Galbadia (the weird woman from Timber, remember?), is out for World domination. Since Galbadia Garden, despite its name, is actually independent, it is her first target. Martine gives Squall a message detailing the full mission. Squall reads it and points out that the mission requires a sniper, which they don't have. However, Martine thought about that and introduces a Galbadian student who will do the job.




Say hello to Irvine Kinneas, your friendly neighbourhood crazed gunman assassin. Looking quite a bit more androgynous in that screenshot than in the official artwork. In fact, in general I find it funny that people often mock Tetsuya Nomura for making his male characters look very girly yet when you look at this actual drawings, they often look far more virile than in the actual games. Martine leaves and you can talk to the other characters now. Speaking to anyone but Irvine will have them ask what the exact orders and Squall explains that it's simple: we, uh, kill the Sorceress.

the rest of the group is rather shocked by this, but Squall goes on to explain that should Irvine fail to shoot her from a distance, they will have to go in and finish her themselves. In order to prepare the mission, we must go to Deling City, Galbadia's capital to meet a Major Caraway. They decide to split up in order to go there (due to the 3 characters limit) and suggests that he should team-up with Selphie and Linoa. You accept or choose yourself. As I mentioned earlier, my favourite team is Squall/Quistis/Linoa so I'll stick to that.

Lots of people like to have Irvine on their team as his Limit Break CAN be useful, especially in boss battles but... heh, I don't think it really compares to Squistinoa (note t self: never use that name again), plus it takes a lot of careful crafting for his Limit Break to really become useful because yeah, that's what the bullets we've been collecting so far are. And even then it also takes some clever junctionning for it to really become a powerhouse in my opinion. Zell isn't impressed with having to team up with Irvine and the two start to bicker, causing Squall to facepalm like an overworked dad.

So, it's time to leave Galbadia Garden and make your way to the nearby train station to take you to Deling City BUT... since you can move around the overworld again and you can now cross the forest from before just like any other forest, I advise you to go do side quests if you haven't yet. Also, since I have collected quite a lot of items lately, I decided to go back to Dollet to upgrade as many weapons as possible. I actually have enough items now that I can skip an upgrade of Linoa and go straight to her third weapon, the Ninja Sun (which sadly is not actually a giant shuriken). I can also upgrade Irvine's weapon straight away so... sure, why not?

I also bought a bunch of Red Krosses, which is the bizarre name the French translation of this game gives to tents. And yeah, it's in Egnlish and using a K instead of a C for some reason. Now they can be useful on their own but the main reason I can use them is that a single one of them can be crafted into 10 Soin Max, the biggest healing spell. And the best part is that, of course, I can junction it to HP, giving me a downright ridiculous boost. Squall's max HP went from 1497 to 3497. I've said it before and I'll say it again: learning junctions is incredibly useful.

After a random encounter, Nosferatu learned "Mi-Combat", an ability that halves the chances of random encounters, making it safer (and less annoying if you just want to go from one place to another) to walk around. Golgotha learned an ability that allows the user to junction magic to defense against elemental magic. Usually what this means is that, for example, you can junction thunder magic to it and it'll make your character more resilient to Thunder. You can even make the defence go over 100% making you absorb the magic and heal from being hit with it. But I have a better idea than having Linoa resist to just one element:




Finally, after a bit more effort, I also got to upgrade Quistis' weapon. So now, off I go to Deling City! Inside the train, Squall immediately uses the tickets to open access to the other cars without having to be asked to do so beforehand. Again, another small detail but one I appreciate as it goes to show that he pays attention to what his teammates like and tries to keep them happy even if it's something he doesn't particularly care about himself. Once the rest of the team arrives, Selphie even notices it and thanks Squall for it. The train leaves and Irvine goes to join Selphie.

Once you to check on them, Irvine is hitting on Selphie who rejects him... or does she? Because when you go talk to her, she says her heart is racing. Squall tells her that on such an important mission you've got to control your emotions, to which Selphie replies that it's a shame.

So back to the previous car and Irvine is now hitting on Linoa! Wow man, you're doing a bang-up job fitting in. Quistis actually yells at him over his behaviour, which naturally makes him give a grand pretentious speech about the loneliness of snipers or something and asking to let his humanity express itself or whatever. See, if Squall really were just a whiny asshole, THIS is the kind of things he'd say.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like Irvine, it's just that the way he's introduced is very obnoxious, which I guess was the intent so he can have his own character arc. Anyway, this angers Zell so much he punches the floor of the train and considering this is a guy who can cause minor earthquakes by punching the ground, this totals the damn train! Well, it does make it to Deling City but once it gets there, it's out of order. But yeah, have indeed arrived at picturesque Deling City:




Linoa explains that in order to get to Manor Caraway, we have to take the bus N°8. Quistis asks how comes she knows so much about the city and she replies that she is a Galbadian. Yyyyeaaahhhh this may be a bit confusing as I originally assumed that the whole Western continent in that game, or at least the northern part of it, was Galbadia but no, despite Dollet and Timber being occupied by Galbadia, they are different nations. Meanwhile, Squall is also recalling that this is Laguna's homeland.

Well, you heard Linoa so there's only one thing left to do: wait until part 12 where we'll look around town and then get to Manor Caraway by foot!

[aka Cthulhu]

Memories of the game are still vague. Mind's a total blank on what happened to Seifer.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 12: More like Minus-taur, am I right?! HA HA! I'm good

Let's go! This screen is what you see when you keep going after leaving the station, going left, you'll find a fork in the road. Following the lower-left path will take you to a Rent-a-Car and an exit to the overworld. Going to the upper left will take you in front of the Manor Caraway. Going there the first time will have Squall think to himself that Major Caraway is the highest-ranked officer in Galbadia, making him wonder if he's seriously going to attempt a coup (since he's involved in the two Gardens' plan of assassinating the Sorceress).





There are three paths here. To the right, you'll get to Manor Caraway. Going down will take you to a big plaza. To the left is a straight path with a Foudre + draw point. Following it will take you in front of the Arc de Triomphe thing. Going down from there will take you back the plaza. To the left of the plaza is a marketplace with a weapons shop and an items shop and further down take you to a street with the hotel/bar Laguna and his friends went to. By the way, Ishtar is currently in the hotel (keep in mind it's not necessarily the case in you game as she only moves after losing certain cards to her and the place where she moves is semi-random). Not that I can do much with her as I don't have the next card she needs. Well, we'll get it soon so no big deal. Following the street takes you to a road which in turn leads back to the first screen.

So, now that we've taken a tour, let's go to Manor Caraway. Or not, because a Galbadian soldier is blocking the path, telling us that although the Major is expecting us, he wants us to prove our worth. To do so, we are to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King and recover the code of a student who was also sent there as a test after he asked an audience with Caraway and hasn't come back. No-one adresses the fact that Caraway apparently routinely sends young people to their deaths in a creepy old tomb for shits and giggles and so we're off!

BUT!! Before that, let's go see what side quests we can do! For starters, it's not really a side quest but near Deling City is a desert. There, you'll find a very strange monster called Koatl (Belhelmel). It's a big... I don't even know what is, just look at it! It's face (?) is like two Japanese theatre masks fused together, it's got blades spinning in its back and the whole thing is encased in some weird pendulum thing. That's got to be one of the most bizarre creatures ever designed in any Final Fantasy game.

Anyway, the reason why I want to fight those is that at high level (at least 30), there is a chance that they drop an item which can then be refined into Nuclides (Pulse ammo), which is one of the ingredients needed to build the Lion Heart, the most powerful weapon in the game which gives squall a ridiculously powerful finishing move of the same name. I think you can see why I want that as early as possible. You need 10 Nuclides for the Lion heart so you'll have to be patient. While we're at it, another ingredient for the Lion Heart can also be found right now: Adamantine. If you go to Hasberry Plains...



Here


And keep walking on the beaches, you will find an enemy called Ao (Adamantoise) who have a small chance of dropping the item at mid-tier (levels 20-29) and will always drop it a high tier (30+). You only need one for the Lion heart but it is also very useful for crafting magic and items so keep this place in mind if you ever want to farm it (you can find Ao in other places but it's where I find them most easily).

And finally, we can ALSO get the third ingredient for the Lion heart. That's right! It's possible to get the most powerful weapon in the game before the end f the first CD! In fact, I'm pretty sure I could have pulled it off earlier with a bit of effort. This one though, it's a bit weird. The item you need is called Lochness (Dragon Fang), you need 4 of the swines and at this point in the game, there are only two monsters who drop it: T-Rex and Feng (Grendel). In both cases though, they only drop it when they're below level 30. This is where the level mechanism from the game comes into play as the enemy's level is (usually) an average of your team's. So if your team's average is over 30 (which actually is the case for me because I spend way too much time faffing around), you're gonna have to switch one of you characters for a lower-leveled one. And since Irvine just joined the team, I'm gonna give him some exercise.

T-Rex, if you remember, can be found in the BGU's combat greenhouse, but you can also find it in the forest near Balamb. With Feng... it gets weird because I looked it up online and for some reason most sources, even the usually very accurate and professional Final Fantasy Wiki, can't seem to get their shit straight when it comes to Feng's location and as a result, I ended up looking for it in places it wasn't. The weirdest thing is that most sources claiming they can be found in the Roshfall Forest (North-East from Timber).

As far as I can tell that's completely false and your best bet to find them is to go to the forest where the second dream sequence happened, which is opposite of Roshfall Forest and is located between Yaulny Canyon and Monterosa Plateau, then walk along the mountains on the West side whilse still inside the forest. Also Nosferatu learned "Piller" (mug), an ability which, when activated, changes regular attacks into "mug", allowing you to steal items from enemies while you damage them them (note that they are often different from the ones they drop when dying) and later also learned an ability that lets me create "mental" magic, as in magic that inflicts a status.

And if you're going after the Fengs then be very careful as they are fast, have lots of HP and have some very strong attacks including an electric attack that deals damage to the whole team (might want to juntion thunder spells to your elemental defence). This is also one of those time when junctioning Morphée to Squall's physical attacks really pays off as I can put it to sleep and buy myself some time. In fact, since I raised the chance of castin Sleep all the way to 100%, I can basically just spam it until it dies.


*Literally five hours later*


GAAAAAAAHH!!!! F*** THIS SHIT I MUST HAVE FOUGHT LIKE A HUNDRED KOATLS AND NOT A SINGLE ONE DROPPED THE ITEM I WANTED!! Ahem, sorry about that and yes, I really did spend that much time trying to get that bloody item with no result, which is why I missed yesterday's update, so let's just move on to the freaking tomb already. On the plus side, I did get to upgrade Linoa's weapon. Also, my main team is now almost at level 50 which is somewhere in the ballpark of ridiculous for this early in the game. I'll just get the Lion heart later.

Once we arrive, we see two students running away while yelling "Decubitus!" (Float). This is the name of a spell that makes your character immune to earth attacks for a few turns and is actually a hint to a technique that will come in handy later.




We've got a map of the place that ca be brought up by pressing SELECT but it's frankly useless as it doesn't even show you where you are on it. If you get lost, you can press triangle while on the map to get to the exit automatically but you will lose a SeeD rank. Besides, the whole thing is basically just two concentric circles so keep going forward until you hit a wall and then keep turning in the see direction and you'll eventually find the exit.

If you really want to just find the student's ID number and go back, you'll find it immediately by checking a sword that's next to the entrance/exit. However, as I'm sure yoou must have guessed, there's more to this place than that. If you check the map, you'll notice that at the edges of the tomb are some bizarre rooms so in order to find them, keep turning in the same direction. I'm gonna keep going left.

Firs, I come across a massive stone with a message engraved on it that doesn't actually help (seriously, I find it more confusing than anything). Let's keep going. One of the enemies you'll find frequently is Schizoïd. Remember those? Yeah, normally I wouldn't bring up an enemy we've already seen but I'd like to remind you that at high level, they cast Ankou (Doom) upon dying so they actually can be a threat despite dying in one or two hits.

I keep going and find a similar stone which is just as useless. So I keep going and eventually find this bad boy:




Obviously, this is a boss, called Tauros (Sacred). It's actually not too bad. It's got some fairly powerful moves and will regenerate slightly every turn but it's also pretty slow and overall isn't particularly dangerous compared to other bosses we've seen so far, especially since he has a fairly low amount of HP. To give you an idea, I beat him in two turns by using Limit Breaks (yeah, I'm at this point where I keep my character's HP low almost constantly so I can spam Limit Breaks, especially since Linoa has that move that turns the whole team invincible for several turn, so it's not even all that risky a technique).

So I go back to circling the place and come across another common enemy: Incube (Blobra). It's another one where the French name is kind of odd as it is the French translation of the word "Incubus" which as you may know, is the male equivalent of a succubus, a mythical creature that lies on top of sleeping people to rape them. So.. yyyeeeaaaaah... kind of a random reference, especially since this creature, as its English name suggests, is this game's version of the traditional Flan monster, a big blob that is very resilient to physical attacks. Interestingly, its magical weakness varies depending on its level. You can also confuse it and it'll start casting healing spells on your party.

Eventually I make it back to the entrance (see how easy it is to find it that way?) but I'm not done yet so I go right back in. The stones are now down and behind the first one, there is now an area with a water mill. There's a lever here that you need to push down. There's also a draw point for some Soin +. I keep going, meeting a Scavenger (Armadodo), a monster that is not remarkable in any way and eventually make it to the second stone, behind which is a chained up plank blocking water. I remove the chain and keep going all the way to the entrance. I go back in again and keep going forward and I reach a place that would have been inaccessible before to find...




Yup! Tauros is joined by his big brother, Taurux (Minotaur). And you bet your ass they're doing the joke of the big brother being tiny. Quistis even calls him "a pocket bull". This is a much tougher fight than Tauros alone. This is when Decubitus comes into play. Casting it on them will cancel their auto-regeneration as it is earth-based and casting it on your team will protect you from some of their attacks, especially their special move Vache Folle (Mad Cow). Between the deadly disease and the rape demon, this place is just full of appropriate references.

Oh and if you're like me and relying mostly on Limit Breaks... you might want to start this fight with full health anyway, or at least a decent amount of it as their attacks pack quite a punch and they're pretty fast. They have some protective spells though so you can draw-cast those and Taurux even has Vie (Life), which can also be useful to draw-cast in case one of your characters goes down. As far as G-Forces go, Nosferatu is very useful against them.

I eventually defeat them and they join our team as Guardian Forces, and I get the Tauros card. If I remember correctly, their attack is not exceptionally powerful (although the animation is hilarious) but much like Ondine, they can learn a lot of very useful skills. After defeating them, the coffin they were standing on opens and a ghost appears! He thanks us for freeing him and gives us the Taurux card as a reward. Only thing left to do now is to leave the tomb, down an entire bottle of aspirin to recover from the headache trying to get that damn Lion heart sword gave me and tell you goodby and see you in part 13

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 13: The Parade

Now that I have come to terms with the fact that I'm not gonna get the Lion Heart on CD 1, let's go back to Deling City. Before we return to the main plot, I cana dvance the Queen of Cards side-quest a bit by losing my Tauros (Sacred) card to Ishtar. Yes, there will eventually be more to this quest than losing rare cards but the thing is, we can't do much else until Ishtar gets her ass to Dollet.

So I do that and after trying to challenge her a second time (as it turns out she had the MiniMog card I lost to her earlier and I was hoping to get it back), I discovered she actually tells you where she's going next (as there are multiple possibilities). And in this case, she's going to Horizon. Perfect! Excatly where I don't want her! I suppose I could reset and try again until she actually decides to go to Dollet but you know what? F*** it, I'll just roll with it. I don't want to spend five bloody hours on this like I did for the Lion heart.

Now, back to the main quest. By the way, if there's anything else you still want to do before the end of the first CD, I'd suggest doing it now because we are about to start the final sequence of events on this disk, we won't get to explore or do side quests much and the second CD takes a while before it allows you to move freely. We have to give the guard the ID number and make sure you don't get confused as you have to enter the numbers in reverse order. For example, since the ID in this playthrough is 152, we have to enter 2, then 5, then 1. I know, it's weird, don't ask me why they did it that way.

Before entering the manor, Linoa asks Squall if their contract is still valid before asking him not to leave her there. Squall of course answers that her wishes are orders (which they literally are due to the contract). The team enters the manor and is joined by the rest of the group, who are now all waiting for the major, seemingly for a long time if their reactions are any indication. Talking to Linoa has her say that he always does that, which she finds very impolite. She leaves to go complain about it and explains that this is her home so they shouldn't worry about anything, which greatly surprises Zell. Soon after she leaves, Major Caraway makes his entrance.




Squall asks him where Linoa is and it's obvious that Caraway doesn't want her involved, saying simply that she did not receive the same training as the rest of the group and that she would become a load. Selphie goes "What are you, her father?". As a matter of fact, yes he is. Zell is further surprised by this, rightfully pointing out how awkward it is that the father is in the army while the daughter is a resistance fighter. Caraway confirms that they aren't exactly on good terms (which would explain why Linoa is using her mother's family name).

Squall has a pretty cool moment where he warns Caraway right away that once the mission given by the Gardens is over, they'll go back to working for Linoa and that it would be in his best interest not to interfere. In a way, I kind of wish that had happened as it would have been interesting to see Squall & Co on the run from one of their members' parent, but then again I suppose that would have been too much of a digression from the main storyline.

Irvine tells everyone to quit it with the family matters and to focus on the mission. Finally he's showing some sense and some professionalism. Caraway agrees and they go to rehearse the mission. I have to make a new team now since Linoa is temporarily unavailable and since Irvine is going to become very important soon, I'm picking him, with Quistis still completing the team.

On the way, Caraway explains that there is going to be a parade to celebrate Sorceress Edea being named ambassador of Galbadia, which is when they'll strike. One team, in charge of the sniping, will wait until the end of the parade, when the gates to the presidential palace will be momentarily open, before springing to action. There, they'll be able to find a sniper rifle which has been hidden there and make it to a vantage point.

Meanwhile, the other team, hidden in the Arc de Triomphe, will activate the Arc's gates as the Sorceress' float rolls under it, trapping her in place so Irvine can take his shot. That ends the briefing. Right, last chance to go visit the town or do side quests so if you're at the same point as me and still have stuff to do, do it now!

Back inside the manor, Caraway finally informs us that one team will be made of Irvine and Squall (due to him being the squad leader) and that should the shot be impossible or failed, Squall will have to attack and assassinate Edea directly, which of course would not do wonders for the secrecy of the mission. This means that the team at the Arc will be made of Selphie, Quistis and Zell. Selphie asks Squall who he wants to name leader of the Arc team and while Zell is very enthusiastic about it, he names Quistis, which does seem like the most reasonable choice. I find it kind of cute that he almost still calls her "instructor" despite they being of equal rank now (and in fact, Squall outranking her on this mission) and Quistis no longer being an instructor. Even now he still thinks of her as an authority figure.

I am now in control of Quistis' team, one of the few moments where Squall is not part of the team outside of the Laguna dreams. As I try to leave the manor, Linoa literally bumps into Quistis. She announces that she brought a "compteur Geyser" (or "Odine Bangle" in the English version) which can be used to neutralise the sorceress' power, although she admits it is an unreliable prototype. Quistis gets angry that Linoa thinks she can just barge in with a weird gadget that they aren't even sure works and interfere with the already established strategy, especially since Linoa has no plan on how to approach Edea or how to use the device. Linoa is rather distraught by Quistis' reaction and by the fact that as passionate and serious as she is about defeating Edea and liberating Timber, her lack of planning keeps holding her bacK. However, she does have her own idea on how to help...

The rest of the group leave, with Squall and Irvine having a talk while they make their way to their spot, with Irvine asking if it's true that SeeDs just blindly obey orders without asking questions. Squall is rather annoyed by this but has to admit to himself that Irvine is not entirely wrong. Irvine argues that it's easier to get rid of a nefarious target, but Squall thinks to himself that it's not good or evil that separates us from our enemies, just different points of view.

This, THIS is one of the major reasons why I like Squall so much. The idea that there is no such thing as an inherently good side and an inherently evil side is one that's very dear to me and with people always being desperate to reduce any argument to some manichean bullshit where one side HAS to be entirely wrong and another HAS to be entirely right and giving the "wrong" side any credit makes you the scum of the earth, I think it's a very important lesson to teach and a work that emphasises it scores major points with me. And truth be told, even though the Final Fantasy games are usually more thought-provoking than the average game, even those rarely make that point and you do tend to have one evil side versus one good side. However, the fact that good and evil are a matter of individuals and not countries, cultures or any kind of side is a major story element in this game and the main reason why I love it so much.

So anyway, both teams take position and Caraway goes back to his manor. Unfortunately... Quistis is remorseful, thinking she's been too harsh on Linoa and wants to go apologize. Well, you'll have all the time in the World to do so after the missi-oh... she picked up the idiot ball and wants to do it right now. Selphie points out what an astoundingly stupid idea it is to abandon their post at such a crucial time (okay, Selphie doesn't put it so bluntly) but Quistis says that she has time to do so and come back, asking Zell and Selphie to wait for her. Of course, they've seen horror movies and don't want to split up the team so they follow her anyway. So I'm back in control of Quistis' team as we make our way back to the manor.

Caraway comes home first and tells Linoa that she'll be safe in the manor despite the chaos that will erupt in town. After he leaves, Linoa realizes that he's about to lock her in so she can't try and do something foolish. She escapes and barely misses Quistis' team, which arrives just in time to get locked up! Quistis figures out that Linoa intends to go find the sorceress herself and try to stop her and indeed, after a fade to black, I am in control of Linoa, on her own.




I am in a place with a truck and many conveniently placed crates (the video game character's best friend!) that I have to climb. Before I dos, however, there is a manhole that I can go down, and I will as there is a Fanzine des Fanas de Flingues in there. Be warned that there you cen encounter monsters, although they are not very powerful except for the Seleks (Grand Mantis), giant scorpions that have lots of HP. Watch out for the Formicides (Creeps) though as they can cast some pretty powerful spells upon dying, which can take you by surprise.

Linoa manages to sneak into Edea's quarters and awkwardly tries to make up a story that, as major Caraway's daughter, she is here to bring her a welcome gift. It does not go well.




By the way, it doesn't come across in screenshots but the way Linoa's body flops down in this scene is very disturbing. The first time I played the game, when I saw this, I actually went "wait, did Linoa seriously just die?!". But no, Linoa isn't dead. Rather, it looks like Edea is possessing her. As Edea makes her public appearance, Squall and Irvine notice Linoa behind her. Edea then gives a rousing motivational speech:

Edea: You pathetic puttets... pitiful fickle toys... look at you! You now celebrate she who you used to condemn for generations! Don't you feel even the slightest bit of shame? How dare you worship the being who you vilified so much? You now glorify the one you always hated! Don't you understand? I am the queen of Necromancers and I am your new leader! A new era is finally about to begin!

Winzer Deling is of course rather confused by Edea's behaviour and tries to intervene and gets f'n impaled for his trouble.



Harsh.


Edea then leaves, with the still possessed Linoa on the stage, and once she is alone, says that she will to end the ceremony with a sacrifice. She brings two statues of some lizard-lion creatures to life and sends them after Linoa. Irvine tells Squall that they need to go rescue her and Squall answers that they can't do anything as long as the gates are closed. Irvine reacts as if he takes that to mean that Squall is putting the mission over Linoa's life but... what what did he expect them to do if they can't get in, exactly? I suppose he thought they could have tried forcing their way in somehow but I'm not sure how starting a riot and getting every soldier in the city after them is supposed to help. So as much as it sucks, waiting until the right moment IS the right thing to do as trying to get there now would not only make them fail the mission but prevent them from helping Linoa.

Before we go on, I'd like to address something about Edea's speech. People often find it weird that the crowd keeps on cheering even as Edea makes it clear that she hates them and wishes to either enslave or kill them. And to be fair, under most circumstances, it would make no sense. Now, the official Ultimania guide states that Edea put a spell on the people to keep them docile, which would make sense but isn't shown in the game (and parts of her speech seems to contradict that).

My explanation is that, well, Galbadia is a dictatorship. The kind where people are publicly executed for opposing the "president for life". These people are constantly afraid that if they don't cheer, their entire family will be murdered. And since they like their family the same way they like their coffee - not murdered -, well, they keep cheering no matter what.

Of course, there's also the even simpler explanation that her speech wasn't actually said out loud and only she and Deling could hear it. Or the even simpler than THAT explanation: the looped cheer was just a sound effect put there for atmosphere and the crowd wasn't actually cheering.

Meanwhile, back at Caraway Manor, Quistis is trying to find a way out. Many people get stuck at this part but it's actually quite simple. You can see a statue that looks like it should be holding something. Next to it are shelves with wine glasses on them. Pick up a glass and put it in the statue's hands and bingo! Secret passage opened! How very Resident Evil of you, Final Fantasy VIII.

And now, it's time to crawl through the sewers! Yaaaay! But don't worry, this one isn't nearly as annoying a the average sewer level. First you'll find a water mill which you have to use to make it to the other side, then open and cross the door. Keep going and a cutscene will start showing the parade has begun. Thus gives Squall and Irvine the opportunity they need to sneak inside the palace. Oh and a familiar face is joining the festivities.




That's right, looks like the Galbadian government was full of shit and Seifer never was executed. Also, I am now in control of Squall and Irvine, who use the same shortcut as Linoa to sneak inside Edea's quarters and rescue Linoa.




These guys are called Iguanor (Iguion). They have the reflect status by default, which deflects your magical attacks back at you. They also have some powerful attacks not to mention Magma (Fire Breath) a fire-elemental attack that does quite a lot of damage AND can petrify a character, making them for all intent and purpose dead. Thankfully, for bosses, they don't have very high HP so I advise the usual G-Force spam, with Taurox being especially good as the Iguanors are weak to earth-elemental attacks. Before you do any attack though, make sure to draw because like Sulfura, they have a Guardian Force you can draw, Ahuri (Carbuncle), who doesn't do any damage but casts reflect on the entire team.

I make short work of them and Squall rushes to check on Linoa. Back when I first played this game, I found it odd that Linoa didn't fight the Iguanors as it's not like it's her first battle. Now you could argue that the possession was still in effect, but the cutscene made it look like it broke just before Linoa was attacked. And interestingly the game addresses this as Linoa says that she was paralysed by fear. Squall even mentions that she fought before but she says that once she was on her own, she became too afraid to fight, once again showing that while Linoa has bravery to spare, her actual awareness of combat situations is lacking. Squall however tells her that he hasn't forgotten his promise and tells her to stay close to him and he'll look after her.

Linoa joins the party so check your junctions (remember to junction Ahuri!) and backtrack a bit to find the trapdoor allowing you to access the sniper rifle and the vantage point. Squall hands Irvine the rifle and reminds him that it all depends on him. No pressure. But Irvine suddenly falls oddly quiet. Squall figures that he's just focusing and decides it would be best to leave him alone for now. Besides, Squall has other thoughts rushing to his mind, like the little thing of Seifer being alive, a news he breaks to Linoa.

Squall: Linoa! Seifer is not dead, he is with the Sorceress!

Linoa: What does that mean?

Squall: I don't understand! (If I attack the sorceress... I will have to fight Seifer. When you're a mercenary, our friends can become our enemies) *to Linoa* I may end up having to kill Seifer.

Linoa: *trying to hide her anxiety* You saw it coming, didn't you? Your formation as a SeeD prepares you for this possibility, right? So it should mean nothing to you, right?

Squall: (It's so stressful!) I hope Irvine will solve the problem for us.

I love this exchange. The fact that Squall even started talking about it to Linoa already shows some major character development, but Squall's attitude really shows how much he cares no matter how hard he tries to hide it and that taking such difficult decisions really does affect him. But again, it also shows that he is ready to make those decisions, no matter how much it hurts him personally. Once again, we see one of the main themes of this story: Squall accepting the responsibilities that come with his status and doing what needs to be done.

Linoa gets some pretty good development as well. She seems to accept the possibility of things going horribly wrong when not too long ago, she would have freaked the f*** out at the thought of it. I also like the way her lines are somewhat ambiguous. Is she resentful towards Squall for trying to act so tough and cold and now he shows it's all just a façade? Is she giving him a genuine "don't feel ashamed of doing what's necessary" speak? She is obviously torn between wanting the mission to succeed and wanting Seifer to survive, not to mention Seifer is now an enemy of hers since he has allied with Edea, and therefore Galbadia.

And one thing I can't really show in this Let's Play is the animation, which deserves to be praised as there is some great body language here, especially from Linoa, who really gives the impression that she is trying to calm herself while trying to hide how anxious she is.

Squall goes back to check on Irvine and finds him shaking. Irvine admits that he is scared and I think Squall's facepalm says it all. We fade to black and we are once again back with Quistis' team where we left it. Keep going and you'll get to another water mill. You can't interact with this one so just walk past it and through the door in the upper-left corner. You'll end up in a place with a ladder that'll fall when you walk under it, allowing you to cross to the other side. You can go there if you want as it leads to an Esuna draw point but it's the wrong way so keeo going on the original path.

You'll find another water mill, open the door on the upper-right, keep going and plot twist! You'll find yet another water mill. You can go through the lower-left door for a Zombie draw point and to the bottom for a Cyanide (Bio) draw point. Climb the mill to a platform, then the other mill. At this point, it's just a straight line of mills and doors that you have to keep following. You can find a ladder that falls and allows you to cross but it just brings you back to the beginning so there isn't much point to this. Just stay on the same path, use one last mill and keep going until you eventually find a place with a ladder that take you back in the arc de triomphe. Go all the way up and at last, flip the goddamn switch to catch the sorceress.

Back to Squall & Co, he's telling Irvine to take the shot now that Edea is stuck. however, Irvine gets cold feet, sayng he can't do it, that he's gonna miss. He even admits that while he tries to be a player, he is weak. He says that killing the sorceress and changing the fate of the World is too much for him to bear. However, Squall has another great moment as he calmly manages to relax him, telling him not to worry about the consequences and that he (Squall) will handle that, that the shot is just a signal to tell the others to spring to action. Squall's pep talk actually convinces Irvine and he takes the shot...




... but a mere bullet is no match for a sorceress, and Edea casts a magic field which deflects it. Irvine apologizes and Squall tells him not to feel bad, that he did what he could and now, it's his time to take matters in his own hands. You are given one last chance to check your junctions and heal your characters (make sure you do so for Irvine and Linoa) and Squall goes to do the dirty deed. He gets to Edea's still stuck float and of course, before he can get to Edea, Squall is gonna have to go through Seifer. The first two lines of their dialogue pretty much sums the whole thing up:

Seifer: This was my destiny

Squall: You became Edea's obedient puppy.

Normally, Seifer would be a relatively tough boss. His regular attacks are nothing spectacular for a boss enemy but he is very fast and so attacks often and he's got very strong special attacks. He doesn't have much HP though so the best technique is to simply spam G-Forces on him to absorb the damage and finish him quick. However... in this fight, Seifer's max level is 20. And due to my stubborn attempt at getting the Lion heart early, Squall is now... at level 54. On top of that, I boosted his strength and defence stats with junctions and he also gained some HP-boosting abilities from Nosferatu. As a result, Seifer is chipping away at my massive health with pathetically weak attacks while I inflict seven times as much damage with my basic attacks. So... yeah. Not much of a challenge. He goes down after literally three hits of my basic attack. Even Edea mocks him, calling him "a small seed planted in a sterile garden".

In Part 1, I mentioned I would have waited to have Squall and Seifer scar each-other and this is the moment I would have chosen to have it happen. How much more meaningful would it have been than during a random spar? A symbol of the violence they have been thrust into, a constant reminder of the day they reached the point of no-return, former brothers-in-arms now turned mortal enemies. I feel it would have made future events far more personal. Anyway, it's time to face Edea herself.




I am joined by Linoa and Irvine for this fight. Linoa says she wants to be useful and Irvine says he wants to atone for his failed shot. Note that you actually cannot lose this fight as if you are about to die, it will trigger the end-of-CD cutscene so if you make it to Edea, you have pretty much already finished CD 1. Congrats! However, putting in the extra effort to actually defeat her is worth it for the AP you can get. A clever technique is to summon your newly-obtained Ahuri. This will cause Edea to waste turns casting Anti-Sort (dispel) on your party members one at a time, leaving her open for some attacks. She's got some good spells to draw (including Double, which you can draw-cast on your characters to make Edea waste a turn dispelling it) and while she too has her level capped at 20, she is significantly more powerful than Seifer, her magic spells being especially dangerous.

Still, with Squall and Linoa so absurdly overlevelled, even she isn't much of a threat and while she does put up a better fight, she can only survive a few turns. However, she still has an ace up her sleeve. In a cutscene, we see her raise her arm, conjure a massive ice spike and...




And so ends CD 1. The assassination attempt has failed and Squall ends up with a massive spike embedded in his shoulder, part of it having possibly pierced a lung. Things are looking grim. How are our heroes going to make it out of their situation? Well, we will find this out when we start CD 2!

And now, because you've all been so nice to follow him through this adventure so far, here's a special treat for you! If you look carefully at the dancers during the parade, you'll notice that they are doing the Thriller dance. Well, someone on YouTube has decided to take the reference to its logical conclusion and dub Thriller over the FMVs of the parade. Not only does it look and sound awesome but it's uncanny how well it matches:

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

I'd like to point out that I'll be taking a little break from this before starting CD 2 as this is a lot more work than I anticipated. Seriously, it usually takes me between 4 and 6 hours to complete a part as I often have to break my playing to write more commentary and then I go check info I'm giving to make sure it's accurate or I research stuff I'd like to do in this playthrough that I never did before, and sometimes I just straight up write like three paragraphs, forget to copy it in my Word documents I keep as a backup, and FireFox crashes and I have to start over. So while this IS fun to do, it can be surprisingly exhausting and takes up far more of my free time than I expected.

Also I'm hoping to be able to take that time to watch more stuff for The Great SsnakeBite Movie Experiment. You know, that other thing I do.

In the meantime, I'd really like to know what you guys think of this Let's Play so far. Do you find it informative? Do you find it funny? Do you agree with the remarks I made regarding the story and characters? Do you find them compelling? And also of course I'd like to know what you think of the game in general. I mean, I imagine most people reading this probably do like the game to begin with or else they wouldn't bother (unless of course they really want to know what the French version is like).

[aka Cthulhu]

The LPs a fun read, and it does help me refresh my memory on the game itself, which is somewhat of a blind spot for the FF game I've played. I don't dislike the game, though honestly I only played it once and Disc 1 and 2 was me mostly watching it while my sister played most of the parts until I took over by Disc 3.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Hey guys! I intend to start CD2 in the coming days but before that, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about something I originally wanted to mention in the latest part but then kind of forgot about. A very popular fan theory... and why it's stupid.

Alright so Squall got a huge goddamn spike through his chest, which obviously isn't gonna be very pleasant. But some people take it further by claiming Squall dies at this point and everything that happens afterwards is his dying dream.



...



Yay, another damn "the main character was dead all along" fan theory. That's the first reason why I think this theory is dumb: it's so overdone. Every single work of fiction seems to have a "the characters are dead!" fan theory and while I get that they're (usually) just for fun, they're still always reaching and make no damn sense. Seriously guys, just because it worked in Jacob's Ladder doesn't mean it's ALWAYS clever (and it wasn't even really a twist in Jacob's Ladder). And it's not much better when works of fiction actually pull that twist because 99% of the time, it's barely one step above "it was all just a dream". Again, in Jacob's Ladder, it works because it actually fits the story and its themes and the story is developed around it, it's not just "if I find a twist nobody saw coming than it's automatically clever! Even if the reason why nobody saw it coming is that it makes no damn sense!".

Here, people argue that Squall's injury would be lethal because his heart was pierced and we all know people in Final Fantasy don't just come back from the dead so obviously he couldn't have just survived.

For starters, look at that screenshot again. That didn't hit anywhere near his heart so instant death isn't going to happen. In fact, it looks like his shoulder took the worst of the attack. At worst, that might have hit his right lung which admittedly would be a pretty nasty injury but considering this is Final Fantasy and seeing the kind of stuff people survive in this game, that would still only be a minor inconvenience to someone like Squall.

Then there's how asinine that twist would be as it would completely negate anything that happens and make the whole story entirely pointless just to be able to say "gotcha!!" to the audience. As far as I'm aware, M. Night Shyamalan didn't write this so a pointless twist for the sake of having a twist at the cost of ruining the entire story is not going to happen.

There's also the fact that Squall and friends keep having Laguna dreams so are we seriously saying that he's dreaming that he's dreaming?! (and I will thank you to avoid the obvious joke). And then there's the multiple scenes that Squall isn't there for.

So yeah, I find this to be really silly. It's right up there with "Reiko is totally Shao Kahn, you guys!" on the pointless and stupid fan theories list.

[J is Justice]

I'm enjoying the thread, I just can never think of anything to say.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 14: On to CD 2

Alright, break over! Time to get back to it and move one to CD 2. I’m really excited about this because while the first CD already gave us lots to do, this is where the game really gets into gear with lots of story development, lots of character development, lots of exploration (though it’s gonna take a little while before we can get to that), lots of side quests lots of secrets and generally a lot more stuff. So let’s go!

So last time, we ended CD 1 in pretty dramatic fashion. The attack on the sorceress, after a strong start, ended in disaster, with Squall getting impaled through the shoulder with a massive ice spike. So with the villains victorious and the main character possibly dying, what better way to pick up on that than with a cute little tune and a quaint little house?




Yeah, as you probably guessed, the developers are going to make us wait before we pick up on the cliffhanger from the first CD and we are instead going to start with another Laguna dream! A little girl who calls him "uncle" comes to tell him that a man in weird clothes is waiting for him at the pub. Laguna scolds her for going out alone when monsters could get her, but he does so in a playful way. Then the girl leaves. There is a draw point for some Soin Max in the room so draw some of that before leaving.

Going downstairs, Laguna finds the girl, who is called Ellone and interestingly, he turns to a framed picture and teells "Mommy and Daddy Ellone" that she's been very good. So Laguna knows Ellone's parents but the game never says who they are to him. Since Ellone calls him "uncle" (which is apparently the case in all versions so it's not a weird translation thing), I assumed one of them was Laguna's sibling but the general consensus seems to be that she just calls him that and they aren't actually related so I don't know.

I'll hold off on exploring the town for now as we'll have to do it in a moment anyway and I head straight for the pub where there's a little moment I find very cute, as a woman named Raine is scolding Ellone, who then turns to Laguna, saying she did something bad and Laguna calls her a piggyhead. Raine then scolds Laguna for talking to her like that, at which point Laguna says he did something bad and Ellone calls him a piggyhead. Anyway, the man Ellone told us is waiting for Laguna shows up and is none other than...




"It's been a while, Laguna"


Yep, it's Kiros (with his name bizarrely being mispelled as "Kyros" for a couple lines as well as at the very end of this sequence)! through a dialogue, we learn what happened since the last dream. Laguna's magnificent dive caused him to break every bone in his body but Raine took care of him and nursed him back to health over the course of 6 months. Kiros, on the other hand, was only out for 1 month, then he left the army and has been looking for Laguna ever since. The, you get a choice of things to ask about. You can ask about Ward or Julia and a third choice is in grey as it is Squall being confused, much like during previous dreams. You can also choose to skip all that and move on.

According to Kiros, Ward left the army as well and has become a janitor in a prison. He also says that Ward has never recovered his ability to speak.

Kiros doesn't know much about Julia, but apparently she started a singing career as Raine says that she likes her first song, called "Eyes on Me" a lot. She also married Major Caraway. Dun-dun-DUUUNNNN!! That's right, Julia is Linoa's mother! Raine also explains that she heard that the man of Julia's life never came back from the war and she fell into a depression, but Caraway consoled her, and that's how their love story started. Well, that sure must be nice to hear for Laguna.

Selecting the grey option just has them talk about "the fairies" again.

Laguna says he has to get back to work and invites Kiros to assist him, so off we go! Laguna is a hunter for the village, in that he protects it from monster attacks. There are Galbadian soldiers in the village but they're only there in case of an attack by Esthar. This means that for now, we have to patrol the village. In a cutscene, Laguna explains that he does this as a way to repay the village for taking care of him while he was injured as all able-bodied men have been sent to fight the war against Esthar. Don't worry about the patrols, the monsters are very easy to beat, being only Larvas and Elmideas so just walk around the village, which isn't very big so it shouldn't take too long.

You can find a draw point for some Saignée (Drain), a spell that makes you regain as much HP as you've drained from the enemy and another one for some Boomrg. Also, while most people in the village seem to like Laguna, there is a shop owner who angrily tells him to leave now that he's healed. At the end of the patrol Kiros makes Laguna an offer: he spoke to the editor in chief of Timber Maniacs and he'd be interested in publishing articles from travellers and Laguna is very enthusiastic about it. However, he does want to stay in Winhill a little bit longer as he wants to make sure Raine and Ellone are safe.

Once we get back to the pub, the girls are nowhere to be found, but once we go upstairs, we find them having a chat.




Laguna wants to leave them alone but Kiros says he's got a feeling that they'd better listen. Oh Kiros, you creepy bugger. Ellone asks Raine if she's going to marry Laguna. You get the sense that Raine wouldn't be opposed to the idea, but she explains to Ellone that Laguna doesn't seem to be the type to settle down in a quite little town like Winhill. Laguna interrupts before things get even more awkward and gives them his report. A nice little detail is that he actually gives the number of monsters you've killed during this sequence.

After that, Raine tells Laguna to go get some rest before they have lunch. So let's go back to Laguna's house and get some sleep. Before he goes to bed though, we get an ominous moment, with Laguna being surprisingly serious:

Kiros: What? What's wrong?

Laguna: I get scared sometimes. Scared of waking up somewhere else... scared to lose Ellone...

Kiros: Scared to lose Raine?

Laguna: What's happening to me? I... what is wrong with me? Please let me wake up in this room! In this raggedy old bed!

Kiros: You've changed quite a bit, Laguna.

But only does he not waked up in this bed, he's turned into a completely different person! With blonde hair and a tattoo on hi-oh... we're just back with the regular team, nevermind.




Yeah, Zell wakes up and actually, I lied to you because his dream didn't even involve Laguna! He was Ward, who was bored to death by his job as a janitor, wishing he could go back to exploring the World with Kiros and Laguna. Linoa figures out that being Galbadian, there's a good chance that the prison Ward was working in was the same as the one they've been thrown in, which is a prison for political dissidents. The team is rather gloomy as having attempted to kill Edea and with the president dead, they're likely to get the death penalty. They have no news of Squall and are worried he may have already been executed.

however, we are immediately reassured that he was not.



"I fought Edea. My wound... what wound? How... ?


Through a short CGI cutscene, we see Squall's cell being lifted to the top of the prison. Afterwards, we get back to Zell & company, who are visited by three guards. One of them tells them that the noise they're hearing is Squall being tortured, then he starts beating Zell while the other two keep the rest of the team at bay by aiming at them with machine guns. They've come to take Linoa and she agrees to follow them just so they stop beating up Zell.

We return to Squall's cell, where Seifer makes his entrance, gets his kick by smacking the still-dizzy Squall around before having him dragged out by two adorable little buggers. These lion-like creatures are called Moombas and we'll be seeing them multiple times through the adventure and ohmygodthey'resocute I want one I want one I want one!

What isn't so cute is that Seifer has stuck Squall in a torture device.



Yay! A crucified hero shot!


He wants Squall to tell him all he knows about the SeeD but of course, Squall doesn't know any more than Seifer does. I do love how after Seifer says that he knew Squall wouldn't talk easily, Squall replies with "I'm flattered". Seifer tries to shock the sass out of him by having him electrocuted. He then shows that he's gone completely off the deep end as he threatens to also torture Selphie, Quistis and Zell if he doesn't talk, but these threats only succeed in making Squall relieved that they are still alive.

Seifer is completely oblivious and keeps threatening Squall. There is one of the few moments I actually like about Seifer as he says that Squall is the vile mercenary assaulting the priestess and her knight, saying that it is a true fairy tale. It goes to show that Seifer at least thinks he's the good guy of the story and from that point of view, you can sort of follow his insane logic.

We fade back to Zell, Selphie and Quistis where Selphie is trying to cast a healing spell on Zell but it doesn't wortk, with Quistis explaining that it looks like there is an anti-magic field in the prison, which I guess is their way of explaining why prisoners don't just use magic to blow a whole through the prison's walls and esca-



*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*


Oh my God look at the cute little guy carrying an itty-bitty plate in its itty-bitty paws!! I want to hug him and squeeze him and call him Lord Fluffington of the House Fluffystein!

Ahem.

I apologize for this most unprofessional outburst. I have composed myself and this will not happen again. So the Moomba brings a plate but trips on his wa- aaaawwwwww! Poor little guy! It's okay, big boy, we'll make it all better! Come here, kitty, kitty, kitty!

Ahem. Sorry again. But yes, The Moomba falls over, which actually attracts the guard from earlier, who comes and kicks it for messing up.

He... He kicked the Moomba.


He... kicked...


Lord Fluffington...





You can then choose to either stop him or avoid getting involved. Not sure why there is even an option because screw just sitting there! Zell gets up in the guard's face, who tries to hit Zell, who grabs his arm mid-swing. The guard realizes he's now one-on-four and leaves, promising to Zell that he'll pay for this.

We fade back to Squall, whose fun time is interrupted by a guard informing Seifer that the missiles headed towards the BGU are ready. That's right, he's going to have it bombed the Hell up for training the SeeD, which is against the sorceress! Squall isn't even trying to hide how distressed he is over this, loudly going "no!". Once again we see that as much as he usually tries to hide it, Squall very much cares about the people around him and his journey so far has made him more likely to show it.

Seifer leaves to oversee the missile thing, leaving Squall to keep being tortured by a lackey. Said lackey insists that Squall MUST know some secrets about the SeeD, with Squall still saying that he doesn't. At this point, you get a choice between "Let me die..." and "I will say... nothing...".

Picking the first one has Squall tell the guard "You... really... stink". Picking the second one has Squall take the piss out of him by saying the SeeD's goal is to plant flowers all over the World so that when people see those beautiful flowers, they lose the will to fight, thus creating world peace.

Honestly, I like both choices, they pretty much are the same thing anyway with Squall seemingly having a lot of fun mocking the guard. However, I like the first one a little bit more because while it may be less creative, I find what happens next amazing. As you may expect, the guard doesn't take being insulted well and shocks Squall again, which causes him to pass out... but just before he does, he actually says (or at least thinks to himself) "good night...".

I'm sorry, you can't deny that Squall is a badass for being so hilarious casual about being tortured to exhaustion and even throwing in a one-liner just before passing out.

Meanwhile, back at Zell's! The gang is trying to figure out a way to escape. Quistis says that with magic being neutralized, they'll have to rely on their weapons. That's when Zell realizes that since he fights unarmed anyway, he is best suited to get Selphie and Quistis their stuff back, especially since thanks to his dream of being Ward, he is more familiar with the place. The Moomba also decides to go with him, although unfortunately it isn't actually a playable character.

So for a little while, it's just Zell. By the way, I don't know if the magic shield thing is supposed to have any effect in gameplay but I can still use magic in battle and there doesn't seem to be any change. Maybe it's only the cells that are shielded?

Anyway, going downstairs I find a save point so I'll call it a day and I'll be seeing you for part 15, where Zell is gonna get physical.

[SAJ Forth]

Interesting stuff.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 15: Don't drop the soap

Hello everybody and welcome back! We've got a prison to break out of so let's get to it. I am currently on floor 6 and while the weapons we're looking for are on floor 8, I'm gonna head downstairs for now just to check if there is some interesting stuff. There are some monsters in the prison. Most of them aren't too bad and are ones we've already encountered before but I would like to bring your attention to this guy:




This is an ExoSkelet, known as GIM52A in the English version, continuing the trend of the English version giving robotic enemies serial numbers while the French version gives them... Codenames, I guess? Anyway, those are actually pretty strong, especially since they have an attack that halves your current amount of HP so if you're not careful, they can quickly sap your health away and then finish you with a strong attack. Like all robot enemies, they are weak to thunder so use that to dispatch them quickly. It's also useful to defeat at least one of them as they can drop an enemy that teaches Quistis a new attack for her Limit Break (the health-halving attack).

And then there's these buggers:




These steampunk monstrosities that look like they'd be more at home in FF6 than 8 are probably the most randomly named enemies in the French version of the game as they are called Pikasso (GIM47N in English). What a famous Spanish cubist painter has to do with bizarre vaguely humanoid combat robots, I have no idea. They have Esuna to draw at any level, which is nice, especially if you're going to junction it. Other than that, there isn't much of note about them. They're of about average strength and toughness. I guess they can be good to farm basic crafting/refining items. Oh and I did come across a Wendigo, which I am genuinely wondering if it's a glitch because I'm fairly certain I've never seen them there before.

Well, turns out I was wasting my time by going all the way down as there is nothing of interest there for now. Oh well, time to go back up to the 8th floor. On that floor are two Galbadian soldiers pissing about with the weapons they took from us. There's a fight but at this point, these guys are ridiculously easy to beat. Afterwards, we fade back to Squall, who is being freed by Moombas! Man, these guys keep getting more awesome each time they appear. However, they do appear to be confused about out hero's identity:




Aaand that's enough of that! Back in the cell, Zell gives Quistis and Selphie their weapons back. After checking my junctions, we get to meet some of our good friends again.



I love how Quistis is completely unfazed by this


That's right! Wedge and Biggs are back! Turns out poor Biggs was demoted due to our last encounter and he's pissed. Nothing much new about this fight except the two of them have some nice spells to draw such as Blindage, Carapace, Boomrg and Récup (Regen). they're not particularly tough and they g down fairly easily. Afterwards though, much like the first time, Biggs finds a way to screw us over as he activates the alarm. Note that despite the fact that we could already use magic, the alarm now says the anti-magic field is deactivated. My guess is that the developers did intend to make it impossible to use magic during this section or at least have it strongly weakened but they forgot to actually do it or for some reason decided against it. Also, the other Moombas come up to lead us to Squall.

By the way, now is actually the time to go downstairs as several cells containing some good stuff are now open: on Floor 5 is another card-playing NPC. He too will give you a reward if you beat him but his price is 500 gils. On Floor 4 is a Red Kross, which is the French name for a tent in this game and no, I don't know why it's got an English name (especially when the French for "tent" is "tente") and I don't know why they felt the need to Mortal Kombat-ize the spelling either. On Floor 3 is an item called "Zoologie" which is basically a tent for G-Forces. On Floor 2 is a an item called "Collier de chien" (translates as "dog collar" and is called "Pet tag" in English) which allows you to rename Linoa's dog (and I honestly didn't even know it existed before doing this LP) as well as what is probably the best item in these cells, a "Bonus Vigueur" (Str Up) which gives a character an instant Strength bonus. Finally, on Floor 1 is a save point and a "Baston Magazine" (Combat King), a magazine that teaches Zell new finishing moves for his Limit Break.

Going back up, if you need items, on Floor 8 is a cell you can actually enter where another Balamb student is held who can sell you some stuff. On the 9th is a draw point for some Furie (Berserk). On the 10th is another cell you can enter with a guy who... doesn't say anything. Okay, full disclosure, I forgot a little something early in the game as between the end of the SeeD test and leaving for the first mission, you can go talk to Cid and he'll give you what's called a "mouchard de combat" (not sure what the English name is but it translates as "combat snitch") which gives you stats on how you've been doing in combat which you can access from the menu. It's not that big a deal as it's pretty much just a little gadget but if you do have that, this guy can upgrade it if you beat him in a game of Triple Triad. You can also find a save point in another cell.

On Floor 11 is a draw point for some Foudre X and another NPC who wants to play Triple Triad, making you pay 200 gils per game but in exchange, he'll give you a reward if you can beat him. We finally make it to Floor 12 where the torture room is, with Squall still inside. He's… understandably still a bit shaken up.



"I've been through hell..."


By the way, if you talk to the Moombas there, they can open shortcuts on some of the floors so you don't have to circle the whole thing each time. Since Zell was there as Ward, he asks Squall if the same thing happened to him as Laguna, hoping that he'd know about an exit but of course, we know they're not that lucky. Since unless you intend to take a suicide dive, the best way to exit a building isn't to go up, they want to go back down and since Squall's cell was lifted by a crane, they want to use that to bypass the guards and monsters. Pretty clever trick, except one person had to man the controls from a platform outside the crane and since Zell did it as Ward he gets "volunteered" to do it by Selphie and Quistis.

The plan works and they make it all the way down. They find an exit door and...




In the immortal words of Anakin Skywalker: "I don"t like sand". Turns out they're actually underground, which is an unfortunate turn of events. Also unfortunate is that they start hearing gunfire and realize that Zell is in danger, which means... yep, they get to climb back up to save him! It's turning into a Benny Hill routine!

We cut back too Zell, who is running away from guards. There's an interesting feature here where you're actually chased by guards and if they catch up to you, it starts a fight. It doesn't last long though as when you make it back to the end of that floor, Zell gets caught by a guard, who is about to execute him, when...




Squall to the rescue!! He even gets to throow in a one-liner right after, saying "And here I thought I was nice to him". So not only did Squall go full Big Damn Hero, he just got revenge on his torturer.

BAD.

ASS.

Needless to say, this is one of my favourite moments in the game and it gets even better when Zell drops to his knees and grabbing Squall and shaking him while thanking him profusely, to the point Squall has to ask him to stop and even taps him with the handle of his gunblade to get him to let go. I don't, I just find that part really funny. Quistis and Selphie arrive and Selphie even yells at Squall for going on his own, asking if Zell is that important to him that he'd act so recklessly, causing another facepalm from Squall while Zell gets to gloat that Squall got so worried about him. Seems a bit weird to me that Selphie would be surprised; I mean, Zell was about to be executed but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, since she and Quistis only just arrived, maybe they didn't realize what happened, plus it does show that Squall rushed harder than them.

This is actually the real reason why I love this moment so much, as it shows that Squall really is starting to think of the other characters not just as co-workers but as actual brothers and sisters in arms, that he is growing attached to them and doesn't want to see them harmed, plus it's the beginning of his "Team dad" mentality that grows bigger as the game progresses and which is often emphasized in fan work.

No time for emotional downpours though as the team gets shot at and they barely have time to find cover. It looks like they're out of options this time, but suddenly...

... Irvine! Irvine is back! And he's brought Linoa with him... and she kicks him down the stairs for trying to be a hero when he kind of screwed up. You see, Linoa explains that her father used his connections to have her freed, which is why Irvine came to get her... and left the rest of the team behind, until Linoa made him go back. He does make up for it as he has a plan for them to escape. First, they need to make two teams. Since Linoa knows a way out, she has to be part of the first team, as does Squall so once again you only get to pick the third member (I choose Quistis as usual). They actually have to go up because, as Irvine explains, the prison is actually underground, hence the sand. I do so, making it to the top.

This is when the second part of the plan gets into action as Irvine's team now has to go back to the crane, that way Squall's team can bring them up and they can all escape together. So you know what that means: time to go back down. On Floor 5 is another card-playing NPC. He too will give you a reward if you beat him but his price is 500 gils. On Floor 4 is a Red Kross, which is the French name for a tent in this game and no, I don't know why it's got an English name (especially when the French for "tent" is "tente") and I don't know why they felt the need to Mortal Kombat-ize the spelling either.

After Floor 4, we go back to Squall's team, who made it to the top and there is a mini boss battle with two ExoSkelets and a red Galbadian soldier. They're fairly easy to dispatch but then the team realizes something isn't quite right.




Boy, what an underground prison this is! Actually, Linoa points out that it wasn't like that when she and Irvine arrived so there are some shenanigans going on. And we soon find out exactly what they are:




Squall eventually makes it to the other side and afterwards, they rejoin with Irvine's team and find a garage, with Squall explaining that the towers stopped just as he touched the ground. Well that sure was convenient, Squall! They take two cars and escape and stop in the desert after they've gone far enough to decide on what they're going to do next. Since they now know that Galbadia intends to intend the BGU (as well as Trabia Garden), they want to go warn the people there ASAP but they also want to find a way to prevent the missile launch at all and stop the missiles that have already been launched towards Trabia.

As you probably guessed, this requires making two teams, with Squall even thinking to himself that it's a tough choice to make as infiltrating the missile base is pretty much a suicide mission. And indeed, be careful here as you won't be able to switch team members for a while. Note that Squall and Selphie can't be on the same team as Squall will go to Balamb while Selphie will go to the missile base. By now it's probably not a shock but I'm taking Linoa and Quistis with me while Selphie will be accompanied by Zell and Irvine.

They go their separate way with Squall's team sneaking aboard a train, then I am given control of Selphie's team as they head for the missile base. But this is a story for later.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 16: Missile Crisis

Welcome back, everyone! The next few parts should be particularly interesting as we'll be following the characters I usually use the least (and indeed, they have much lower levels than the other team), but that's not to say they're not good and I actually really like the missile mission. We're back on the overworld so if you want, you can explore and maybe grind (although as I said earlier, it's not really necessary in this game), get some items or continue side-quests. You can even go back to Deling City on the Tomb of the Unknown King.

I already have done nearly everything I can do here but before we head to the missile base, there IS one thing I'd like to do, if only so I don't forget to do it. And for that, we need to get back to Deling City and to Caraway Manor. Here you find the Major just casually resting against his desk. If you talk to him, you can ask him about Edea and Esthar, but he can also tell you that he has a card representing Linoa that he is will to trade for an Ifrit card. This means you have to lose the Ifrit card to him, and then he will play the Linoa Card. You CAN get the Ifrit card back, but not by challenging him again. It's a bit weird and you'll have to wait for a while before you can get it back. By the way, Linoa's card is only one of 3 cards that has two A's (the maximum value) so yeah, you definitely one to pick it up, although the other two values are rather low (a 4 and a 2), which interestingly reflects the contrast between her drive and her lack of experience.

Anyway, now that that's done, let's actually head to the missile base! You need to use the car stolen from the prison to get inside because, well, they aren't going to just let three fugitive "terrorists" waltz in like that. Once inside, you'll notice that the characters found Galbadian uniforms, obviously a plus when trying to sneak in.




Selphie's plan is very... Selphie: blow everything up! Now that's what I'm talking about! An important thing to keep in mind during this mission is that the game keeps tabs on how well you perform through it and you can earn up to two SeeD ranks from that. Now, let's actually start the mission and get in the mood for some sneakin' with the music for this sequence.

The first room has two doors and both are locked and by checking the lock in the middle, Selphie finds that you need a pass to open the left door. Irvine found one in the car and yup, it works. In the next room, the team finds a guard and there are multiple choices, although it doesn't really matter as they are basically all variations on "cross quietly". In general, you want to avoid confrontations as much as possible. You can't enter the door he's guarding for now so ignore it and keep going. Next is this room:




See that yellow arrow to the left, next to the save point? That's where you have to go. I really wanted to include a screenshot there because when I first played the game as a kid, I didn't realize that this lead to anything and so I got stuck in the base for ages. In the next room is a draw point for some Cécité (Blind) and two soldiers. Talking to them makes them ask you to tell the people in the missiles room that they'll be joining them later for the control room inspection.

To relay the message, go back to the previous room and then north. It's a hangar with missile silos with a Vie Max draw point. There are two soldiers, the one you need to talk being the one checking the silos. I relay the message but the guy say that they're too busy to do the inspection, meaning I can now go to the room behind the first guard. It contains a Glacier + draw point and approaching the control panel gives you a choice of actions and no matter what you choose, you end up causing a power failure.

As you exit, you get caught by two Galbadian soldiers. You CAN fight them but it'll hurt your score for the mission, so it's best to choose to talk your way out of this pickle. Due to the power failure, the automated system to load the missiles will be turned off and the two guards from the room in the screenshot above will be asked to help the guys in the missile hangar, allowing you to access the panel you can see to the right on the screenshot. However, before you can get to it, another soldier pops up and stops you. Once again, talk your way out of it and you'll end up having to help them move a silo manually. Afterwards, the soldier tells you to enter the coordinates in the control panel. Ding-a-ling-ding! Now's our chance to reroute the missiles!

Opening the control panel, you have to make several modifications. First, set the error ratio to maximum. Not sure why you'd ever want the error ratio to be anything but minimum but hey, that helps us. I guess maybe sometimes you want to only attack one specific target and sometimes just carpet bomb the whole area around the target?




Then go to "Data Upload" and just choose "yes" (The entire UI of the control panel is kept in English in the French translation, by the way). You're done so you can exit now, but if you want you can also check the equipment to take a look at some 3D models of the missiles, and view a simulation. there isn't much point to that, but there is a really strange Easter egg if you in the equipment. By holding triangle and square at the same time and then pressing up or down, you'll be able to see Galbadian soldiers dancing. I have no idea why that's there and the animations aren't used anywhere else but it certainly is... something.




After that, talk to the guard near the stairs to the South-East to tell him that you have to report how you totally entered the right coordinates for super real and did not sabotage the launch at all so he'll let you pass. I love how the guard will then comment to himself that they really hire kids in the army now due to Selphie being so small compared to everyone else and of course being a girl, she has a higher-pitched voice. Silly Galbadian, only the BGU would REALLY use child soldiers (seriously though, you can become a SeeD at as early as age 15).

In the room, we find more Galbadian soldiers. Selphie tries to once again talk her way out but unfortunately, the group's inaccurate salute blows their cover and we have to fight. The boss music plays but really it's pretty much a regular fight as these soldiers are only slightly stronger than average, although the commander does have some strong healing spells so I'd recommend getting rid of him first.

After that, the team checks through the computers to see if they can cancel the launch. Zell finds the right one and bingo! The BGU is safe! Now all they have to do is activate the self-destruct system and get the Hell out of there (although I do find it amusing that they just assume that there is a self-destruct system, and that they happen to be right). They find it in the next room and like with the Sulfur mines, you get to choose a time between 10 and 40 minutes and also like in the mines, you get the max amount of points for choosing 10 minutes. Also of note is that is you do choose the 10 minutes limit, you unlock a shortcut to the base entrance.

But unfortunately...



"You won't get away with this!"


One of the Galbadian soldiers we just beat crawled back to the computer and and reactivated the missiles. As Irvine, Zell and Selphie get out, they can only watch as the missiles are launched towards the BGU. Things are looking grim, but at least they've escaped so all is not lost! Maybe they can make it to Deling City, ask Caraway to contact the BGU and tell them to evacuate and everything will be all ri-



"You won't get out of here alive!"


OH COME ON!





Freaking Galbadia and their freaking robots! This one is called Omniborg, called BGH251F2 in English and is really tough. Seriously, it's in my opinion one of the hardest bosses in the game, at least outside of optional ones. Being a machine, it is weak to thunder so of course, thunder spells and Golgotha are your best bets (I'd also recommend junctionning thunder magic to your physical attacks). In addition, it is also weak to earth and water so Taurus should be useful as well. But even with that, it's a very tough battle as it has a lot of HP, attacks often and deals a lot of damage especially once it runs low on HP (after 4 of its 6 turrets) where it will use its most powerful attack every move. It does have protective spells you can draw but honestly, I don't think it's worth it, especially as it would waste three turns to protect the entire team (six if you want to cover both physical and magical attacks). If you really want to use protective spells, I'd recommend doing it through Selphie's Limit Break.

Speaking of Jackpot, I actually lucked into getting "The End" immediately (remember? I mentioned it early into the LP, it's that attack that kills all enemies instantly), destroying Omniborg in one turn and I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am. However, once it's defeated, the soldiers manning it come out and you have to fight THEM as well (I was not impressed the first time I saw that). Fortunately, they're not too difficult and since I already had my G-Forces prepared... yeah, not a problem. Winning that fight got me some pretty good spoils too as I get another Fanzine des Fanas de Flingues, Ifrit learns Mad Rush (called that in the French version as well), an ability that casts Haste, Berserk and Protect on the whole team, Nosferatu learns No-Combat which, as the name implies, turns off all random encounters (don't you wish more JRPGs had that?).

Well, now that all enemies are either defeated or have evacuated, we can finally escape! Hang on... no... it can't be... every way out is locked! The team is stuck inside the base as it's about to explode... that... that's got to be a trick right? ... Right?! Well, no. The characters realize that there is no way out and all they can do is resign themselves to their fate as clock ticks down and we have one of the saddest scenes in the game, and indeed in the Final Fantasy series:

Selphie: (We are trapped? Squall will take care of the rest. But will he remember to organise the school's party? I doubt it... Such a shame. What a total failure!)

Zell: And here I always thought my life would end on the battlefield... But, here or during a fight... I don't want to die!!!

Irvine: Squall always hated me. That's why I'm here right now!¹

Selphie: (What are you talking about! Squall chose us because he trusted us! I'm sure of it. You trust us. Don't you, Squall?)

And after they finish speaking their last words...





...



...



... I'll be seeing you guys later for part 17.






¹ This is a rare occasion where the French version is actually harsher than the English one, as you can see Irvine downright claims that Squall hates him, whereas in the English version, he only says that Squall doesn't trust him and that's probably why he was put on the team and it generally feels less accusatory. Also, the French version of each character's last words appears to be more wordy in the French version.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 17: School cliques ruin everything

Squall, Linoa and Quistis arrive at BGU, relieved to see that it is still in one piece.



I can see Selphie's leg flying in the sky!


One thing I didn't really get a chance to bring up so far and something that unfortunately I don't remember well enough to compare it to the English translation is that ever since CD 2 began, Squall's dialogue has been more friendly and warmer, compared to the very professional and distant tone he had in the first CD. It's hard to explain but I guess the best way I can put it is that he's being more casual, like he trusts the other characters more and isn't as defensive as he used to be. It's a subtle change, which I like, but it's there.

Anyway, even though they're safe for now, there's still a risk that the launch was merely delayed, not stopped (and boy do we the players know how true that is) so they still have to hurry to get the message, so they rush in to find the headmaster and...




... er, what's going on, here? Students are running everywhere and templars are shouting. At first, Squall thinks they may have somehow heard about the missile already and be evacuating, but then the templar says "Find the headmaster! Get him dead or alive!". What the f** is going on?! Going further, another templar stops us, asking if we're on the "Great Master"'s side or Cid's side. If you're confused, so is Squall, saying that he has no idea what they're even talking about. The templar then says "Do you swear allegiance to the great master NORG?" and you have a choice between "er, yes... for now" and "I don't understand".

If you choose the second answer, he'll take it to mean you're with Cid and will release a Larva and an Orchid (note that refusing to side with NORG can get you items from various NPCs during this segment). Even outside of scripted events, there are random encounters with various monsters, mostly weak ones that you'd find around Balamb normally. I'm actually going to use the No-Combat ability I just gained because the characters are already at a high enough level and random encounters are annoying.

Next to the entrance gates is an injured student, talking to him twice gets me a Méga-Potion, which heals 1000 HP on the whole team. Useful in a pinch if you want to save your characters from death while still keeping their HP low enough that you can use limit breaks. In the main hall, we find a familiar duo:



"Hey! You're back!"


Raijin and Fujin are here! They explain that the Templars went nuts and started telling students to kill the SeeD and now everyone is either siding with NORD or Cid, although they say their only allegiance is with Seifer (not sure what they're doing so far away from him and seemingly unaware his whereabouts then but oh well). People picking sides just because they're told to and being overly aggressive about the opposing one despite having little to no understanding of what the conflict is even about? Did the BGU turn into Twitter? Joking aside, Squall gives them the news about the missiles and they say they'll warn everyone and try to stop them from murdering one-another and actually, you know, do something constructive, further driving the point that Raijin and Fujin are far more interesting and complex "villains" than Seifer.

In my quest to find Cid, I go to the infirmary, where cadets are attacking SeeDs. I help the SeeDs out and afterwards, Kadowaki (remember? The nurse who took care of Squall at the very beginning?) comes to help a wounded cadet. When he asks why she'd help him when he's with NORG, she basically goes "bitch please, your faction bullshit is bullshit" and after Squall advises to leave because missiles are coming, she immediately decides to stay because otherwise there won't be anyone to tend to the wounded. I f'n adore Doctor Kadowaki, one of the most under-appreciated NPCs in gaming if you ask me. She's such a badass.

Talking to her twice gets me an Elixir (heals HP and cures mental ailments) but Cid is not around. A funny detail is that on the way out, you can talk to one of the SeeDs who is called Nida and he was the fourth student who graduated at the same time as Selphie, Squall and Zell. He recognizes Squall but Squall doesn't and looks somewhat embarrassed about it, then Nida gives him a "you never change".

I then head for the campus. Once again, a Templar sends some monsters and when checking the stage, three SeeDs drop down from their hideouts and talking to them earns me a "Potion totale", which fully heal one character. Going to the cafeteria, another Templar stops us and then we find a group of two SeeDs and two cadets who explain that they're here to make the NORG side think Cid is with them despite it not being the case so they wouldn't look for him wherever he actually is and that it was Shu who came up with this plan. Man, this part really makes me realize how many great NPCs this game has and how it really helps building its lore.

Going to the dorms, there is only a Templar, although you can then gain access to a save point (the first one since the military base. I actually had to use a save state at the end of the last part). Amusingly, you can also use Squall's bed to recover because what better time to take a nape than the middle of a violent uprising?

In the garage, another Templar gives us our first real challenge since getting to the BGU: a Feng. As I mentioned earlier, Fengs are very dangerous and hey're especially bad at high level and during my first playthrough, it really took me by surprise to find one here and it wiped me out. Going deeper, we find Cid! Actually it's just an hologram set up by SeeDs as another decoy.

Going to the combat greenhouse, we find a Templar and two cadets have cornered a lone SeeD who is trying to protect two children who they're apparently planning to kill! Squall isn't about to let this happen and leaps into action and OHMYF'NGODITSAMOTHERF'NT-REX!! Oh well, I get rid of him and save the day, for which the SeeD gives me a Remède. Going further down the greenhouse, I find a student in a green jacket and a yellow bandana who you can find at multiple places and he will sell you items so feel free to stock up if you want (note that the student's appearance is random so it's not guaranteed that he'll always be there). He's also a CC member but he won't let me challenge him yet .

Finally, going to the library, we don't meet a templar for a change. Naaahhhh, just kidding, we do and I get a Remède from the ponytail girl who has a crush on Zell. Going back to the main hall, Quistis notices Shu dashing towards the elevators. Following her takes us to a previously inaccessible part of the 2nd floor (although it isn't very relevant for now)




She asks which side we're on but Squall says they aren't on either side and Quistis convinces her to help them. Shu takes us to Cid, who was simply in his quarters while everyone else while looking for him in some sort of secret spot. Hiding in plain sight: works every time. Shu goes to warn the students and Cid tells Squall & the gang to go help Shu, Raijin and Fujin evacuate everyone. When Squall asks him what he intends to do, Cid replies that he'll stay because this is his home. The team thinks it's suicidal, although Cid tells them not to worry as he would like to "try something" to save the university. Hm, maybe I've been a bit harsh on hi- oh, and he immediately drops to one knee saying that he's too old for this.

Squall tells Cid that whatever he chooses to do, he'll be by his side and when Cid asks why, Squall thinks to himself "because I want to help and because this is my home too" but says that his feelings have nothing to do with it. After a chuckle, Cid says that Quistis is right in saying that he doesn't really know how to express his emotions and I love how Squall gives Quistis a death glare while she tries to act innocent. But all joking aside, I really like this little moment as up until now, I actually wondered why Squall often merely thought this kind of stuff to himself, but it made me realize that it's to show that while he does have emotions, he doesn't want to show them and even now that he's warming up to others, he still doesn't quite know how to deal with them and articulate them, he still has that teenage feeling that showing emotions is a sign of weakness.

Cid explains that the BGU actually used to be a shelter before it became a university and gives Squall a key that will unlock the elevator. He further explains that below the MD level is a control room which was used before the place was turned into a uni, although he has never been there himself and that it's supposed to be used in case of emergency but he doesn't know how. Welp, it's worth a try, I guess. Also, Cid is a save point. Seriously, talking to him opens the menu and allows you to save. The team uses the key to go to the MD Level... and the elevator suddenly stops. Thankfully, a trap door is here just for such an occasion and allows them to access a long ladder down:




And then the elevator falls, blocking the exit. Well, sure hope there's another way out or else we're screwed. They get to an old oil stratum, which makes Squall think that the monsters down there are weak to fire and suggests junctionning fie magic to physical attacks. There's a weird part where I have to mash the square button to turn a valve which opens a door and after Squall tries on his own and fails, Linoa joins in and they still can't do it, Quistis finally decides to help and they open it. I really don't know why this part is here and I'm not even sure you can succeed before Quistis helps and as far as I'm aware, there is no bonus for succeeding early and no penalty for failing. Kinda feels like busywork, to be honest.

We finally make it to an impressive room with massive contraption and I come across a monster I haven't met before:




This is an Adéphage (Tri-Face). It's pretty strong, can poison characters and it's a great source of spells and items as it has Supplice (Pain, which inflicts Darkness, Silence and Poison) and Fournaise (Flare) and drops Weirdos (curse spike), which can also be mugged from it, 100 of which can be refined into an item that allows Quistis to learn her most powerful attack, which is also one of the few attacks in the game that can inflict over 9999 damage. The group then gets to what they think is a dead end, but they then realize a ladder goes up and leads to another room and they decide to investigate it. You inexplicably get a choice which doesn't really affect anything other than dialogue that leads to Squall going to check it on his own. Seriously, what is the deal with Final Fantasy and pointless choices? Anyway, the ladder detaches from its support and Squall comes crashing through the glass window of the room they saw!




Squall activates a path then rejoins with the group (as the ladder ended up resting against the window). We keep going down, finding a save point and I think it's as good a spot as any to stop for now, so see you later for part 18.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 18

Near the save point is a lever. obviously we have to push it, which opens a giant door, but as the group crosses the bridge leading to it, they are attacked by these things:




These are called Cyanide (Oilboyle). Nothin special in term of drawable magic, just some status and healing stuff. Like all monsters in this area, they are weak to fire. They don't have especially high HP but some of their attacks are pretty strong so they can be a bigger threat than you might think, especially when they are reduced to a third of their max HP. Degenerator works on them so I use that on one of them and a rousing round of Renzokuken takes care of the other.

After a cutscene showing the missiles making their way towards the BGU (and revealing that the missiles have an eye, because this game is insane, sometimes), the group finds a massive mechanical device.





They don't know what to do and Squall pretty much starts Selphieing it up by pressing random buttons until...




That's right! The BGU has turned into a ship!! THAT IS AMAZING!! Oh of course naysayers will call bullshit, say it's a deus ex machina, I say it's freaking awesome!

Ha... so, Cid tells to go check on the students and see how they're reacting and unsurprisingly, they're freaking out. Yeah, bet THAT made you stop your in-fighting bullshit, didn't it? Some of them tell us to go check the bridge. It gives us a nice view of the BGU flying around, but Shu comes looking for us, as Cid has no idea how to control it and asks Squall what to do because... clearly he's more likely to know? Dammit, Cid, you're useless.

However, it actually is a big deal as they are about to crash on Balamb City (and yes, they call it that despite it looking more like a small harbour town). Cid, Linoa and Quistis all urge Squall to do something about it and Squall's usual quiet uncharacteristically breaks as he applies the amazing technique of randomly mashing the goddamn controls. This somehow works and they land in water, where the BGU continues its route because yes, it can work on both land and sea.

Everybody finally relaxes as Cid states that they'll basically be drifting for a few days until they can figure out how the ship works. I say they should ask Fujin, she already looks like a pirate. We fade to several days later apparently as Squall is lying in bed. He has a bit of a character moment as he ponders how long they've been gone and that he has to report to Cid on their mission, although he figures he's busy with putting everything in order.

He also says to himself that he hates just sitting around like that, with thoughts shaking in his head. He's also wondering why he's getting so sensitive as even he's noticed how worried he was about the whole thing, and then hopes that Selphie, Zell and Irvine are alright and wonders if he did the right thing by sending them to the base. Oh you poor fool, if you only knew. He even has a thought for Seifer, hoping he'll escape the clutches of Edea.

After another fade, Linoa is standing over Squall as he wakes up, saying that it's cute how he's sleeping like a baby, because she apparently snuck in his room and has been watching him in his sleep like a creeper.



Then again, that is a rather enjoyable sight to wake up to...


She asks him to give her a tour of the BGU so she gets to know it better as it is the first time she's been there (so I guess my previous theory that she visited several times before is out the window) and Squall accepts because hey, it's something to do while waiting for their next orders, innit? So yeah, the rest of this part is basically be a lot of faffing around.

Squall isn't a fantastic tour guide though, only giving the most barebone of indications. When Linoa asks if the Galbadia university is as big as the BGU, he says "maybe" and when sh asks what they're looking at, he simply says "the cafeteria" and "the garage". Linoa points this out, asking if he could try and make it more fun, although she is still very polite about it and does admit that it's nice of him to give her a tour.

There are a few interesting anecdotes in the cafeteria. First, if you're familiar with the English version of the game, you know there is a running gag about how famous its hit dogs are, with Zell constantly trying and failing to get one. Well, the French translation (and for all I know, all European versions) did something weird with the localization as it replaced the hot dogs with pretzels. Now, pretzels are indeed a European dish, but it still seems weird to me.

It's not like Europeans don't know what hot dogs are and pretzels are a rather specifically Germanic dish (the region of France I come from actually has it as a local dish too but our history and culture is heavily influenced by Germany anyway) so I find it an odd choice for a European localization. That said, I actually do like that choice as it's rather original and I wonder if the original Japanese also had a unique dish.

Also, if you made Zell part of the BGU team, he'll be here, waiting in line and asking for one, only to be told they're out of pretzels/hot dogs. Come to think of it, this makes me realize that I always had Linoa in the BGU team so I never saw what happens if she isn't with you for that segment. I'm guessing it just skips the tour?

Anyway, yeah, Squall tells Linoa about the hot dogs and even adds that he thinks it's a myth as he has never seen anyone actually eat them and Linoa gets a laugh out of how serious he is about the explanations he gives. I love how Linoa seems to be getting her kicks teasing Squall, especially with how seriously he takes himself.

Next, I go to the garage. There is only a short exchange there but I love it:

Squall: And here is the garage.

Linoa: Fascinating.

Squall: Do you really think so?

Linoa: *facepalming* Forget it. Let's go

Gotta love it when someone out-snarks Squall.

Next is the combat greenhouse, with another funny little exchange as Squall asks Linoa if she's up for a little bit of training, to which Linoa sarcastically replies that it's a very romantic setting for a first date. I also love that Squall isn't objecting her remark that they're dating. Guess he figured hey, when you've got this kind of opportunity, you take it.

Next is the library, which you will quickly find out becomes Linoa's favourite spot in the BGU as when she isn't in the party, she's there. With that in mind, it's no surprise that she loves it and even asks if Squall minds if she looks around for a bit, which he doesn't. And interestingly, if you check the other room...




Remember her? It's the girl who came to visit Squall at the infirmary at the very beginning of the game and who Squall saved from that shitty boss! Things get weird as she seems to believe she and Squall have some history together but Squall can't remember a thing about her other than what we've seen. After their dialogue, every time you talk to her, she says "what do you say we talk about the past?". Oh and by the way, outside the library is Dr. Kadowaki. She's looking for Cid as she thinks he's overworked and asks Squall to tell him to go visit her.

In the campus, we find several students around the stage. One of them is playing the guitar and actually plays the song that plays in Balamb. There are also the three girls who are always seen together in the BGU.

In the infirmary, Kadowaki enters after Squall and Linoa do. She expresses her surprise to see Squall walking around with a girl and asks him if she's his girlfriend and you actually get a choice between saying "Yes" and "No, I'm giving her a tour" and bother are pretty amusing. Saying "yes" has Linoa be surprised and say "be careful or I'll end up believing it.", after which you get another choice between "I'm expressing my desires" and "Oh no, I'm just kidding".

Choosing "I'm expressing my desires" has Squall say "it will soon be true, won't it?" after which Linoa gets incredibly flustered and Squall says he's just joking, seemingly getting a good laugh out of Linoa's reaction. Choosing "just kidding" has Squall say "Just a joke... between lovers". Either way, Linoa ends up saying she doesn't get Squall's sense of humour.

Finally choosing "No, I'm giving her a tour" has Linoa say "couldn't you have said YES, just to make me happy?", after which Squall goes "Alright. Yes." and Linoa facepalms again, telling him to forget about it. In all cases, Kadowaki tells them they're adorable together and I have to agree, plus I really like that Squall is the one joking around and making Linoa loose her footing for once.


Going back to the main lobby, a templar tells me to go to "the temple", which Squall has never heard of. The templar explains that it is in the basement, which Squall has been granted access to. Before I get there though, how about we get some side-questing going? Remember the CC club, which I mentioned early on? Well, the Jack has finally challenged me, so let's do it.

After beating him, I can challenge the Knight Club (called Trèfle in French), who can randomly be found in front of the dorm. You will recognize him as he is in a SeeD uniform when most unnamed students in the BGU are in cadet uniform. Next is the Princess Diamond, which is actually two people, the two girls who are always chatting in front of the screen in the main lobby. After that, it's Prince Spade, who is an NPC next to the elevator on the second floor, the guy who actually give you your first deck of cards.

That, however, will have to wait as using the elevator automatically takes me to the basement.




Quistis joins us, saying she is looking for Cid. Speaking of him, he appears to be having an argument with someone. We see him recoil from what seems to be him getting hitand here's a very noticeable difference between translations as in the French version, Cid tells the Templar he is being stubborn. In the English version, he flat-out calls him a son of a bitch.

A Templar comes into frame as Cid keeps talking to someone off-screen. They're obviously disagreeing on the SeeD's purpose, with Cid calling the other person greedy, accusing them of only being interested in money. The Templar then grabs Cid by the collar and shakes him around! Looks like the Templars have more power than we thought if they can get away with that kind of shit.

Anyway, Cid leaves, telling Squall to meet him later in his office for his report, and Squall tells him Kadowaki wants to see him. The Templar then angrily tells us that Grandmaster NORG is waiting for us. It is revealed that NORG is the financial backer, and therefore owner, of the BGU. And he is...




... a giant, bloated, yellow testicle thing who frequently goes "fushurururu" or "Bushurururu". Well, that's weird. He demands that Squall gives him his report on the Trabia mission. When Squall gets to the part where Galbadia Garden and the BGU ordered the assassination of Eda, he gets mad, claiming that it was a trick. He explains that Martine, Galbadia Garden's headmaster (the guy who gave us the order) is one of NORG's vassals, and NORG himself ordered Martine to have the sorceress assassinated to prevent her from taking over or destroying all universities, but Martine used Squall and his group so the blame would be put on the BGU.

In order to appease the sorceress and make it look like the BGU was just an innocent victim in the whole thing, NORG wants to hand her all SeeDs to do as she sees fit (i.e.: kill them), hence why the civil war happened earlier. Squall has had enough and snaps back, asking him why he won't just fight Edea, and he asks him why they even bother training if they're not going to actually fight. NORG is now furious, yelling that this is HIS university and that he won't let Cid destroy it and that he's going to inject it with a lethal dose of poison, him and the n... W... o...

Wait no, but the idea is more or less the same, and he drops an equally shocking bomb: Cid and Edea used to be married! NORG goes full-paranoid, believing that Cid is conspiring with Edea to seize control of the BGU. He then retreats inside his giant pod and attacks!




NORG can actually be pretty dangerous. There are two orbs on either side of the pod. They start blue, then turn yellow, then red. If they turn red, they will cast powerful magic spells, either damaging your team or protecting NORG, so it's best to have two characters keep them in the blue by hitting them, while the third does the damage. He is weak to wind and since most of his attacks are magical, summoning Ahuri to cast Boomrg on the whole team is worth it. After he's been damaged enough, the pod will be destroyed, revealing NORG himself. At this point, it is very important to remember to draw as he has a Guardian Force: Leviathan. Norg also has a very powerful attack called Psycho Blast that will do a lot of damage to a single character.

Bizarrely, the pod and the orbs are named after satellites in the French version. The pod is called Odyssey and the orbs are called Spootnik and Tupolev. Anyway, I beat him, after which he appears to have retracted in some sort of cocoon. Quistis wonders what happened to him and Squall tells her to just forget about it. Linoa finds it incredible that he'd act as if nothing happened, to which Squall replies that there is no point in speculating about things they don't understand a thing about. He then says that he feels like he's being manipulated and pulled apart from every reaction. Linoa tries to comfort him and Squall thinks that Cid will help them.

Alright, I think now's a good time to wrap things up for today but before that, I'd like to continue the CC quest, so off to the second floor we go! If the guy isn't there, try leaving and coming back multiple times as he appears randomly. Next on the list is Coeur (Queen Heart), who is none other than Shu! The only problem is she is supposed to be on the bridge, but right now she can't go there so we're gonna have to wait. Note that it's always a good idea to challenge CC members, even if you've already beaten them as they have some rare and strong cards. Well, goodbye for now and I'll see you later for part 19!

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 19 : Fisherman’s friend

In order to find Cid, I go to the infirmary. Talking to him, he aks what you want to discuss and you get a list of 5 options:

- Report
- The true mission of SeeD
- Talk about Edea
- Grand Master NORG
- What to do now?

Let's go through them in order, shall we? Choosing "report" has him just flat-out say it's not necessary and he pretty much gets the picture. Nice to see you're big so thorough, Cid.

Next, asking about the SeeD's true mission has him awkwardly stating the obvious: they are mercenaries. He quickly realizes Squall knows there is more to it than that and he reveals that the BGU's purpose is to defeat the sorceress and that ever other mission was just training for this.

On NORG, he says that he is from the Shumi tribe, which rejected him. Cid met him as he was trying to find funding to create the BGU and, being very rich, NORG made it possible. However, it turns out it wasn't enough as running the SeeD is very expensive, which is what lead to turning the SeeD into a mercenary force.

As for what to do next, he says that the first thing to do is stop the BGU's drifting which, yeah, seems fairly obvious, in retrospect.

Nothing more to do here so I leave and head back to the main lobby, where Shu calls for Squall, asking where Cid is. She explains that an unknown ship is approaching and considering the recent events, she fears that Galbadian or the sorceress herself may be attempting an assault, and tells us to go check on it ourselves on the bridge. The ship is already there and is populated by soldiers in white uniforms. Things get weird when Squall asks them to identify themselves.



"We are SeeDs. This is Edea's ship. We are Edea's SeeDs!


Ooo-kaaayyyy, these guys claim to be SeeDs working for Edea. That doesn't seem quite right. Obviously Squall & the gang are on their guards and even draw their weapons, but these so-called SeeDs are unarmed and claim to come in peace so... might as well keep thing pacific for now. They're looking for Cid, who conveniently arrives at this very moment. And if things weren't confusing enough already, they say they need to take an Ellone with them. Is the name just a coincidence or is it really that girl Laguna was taking care of? Anyway, Cid asks us to go looking for her, claiming that Squall knows her.

Quistis, Linoa and Squall decide to split up to find her as they have no idea where she could be, and since she never had the dreams, Squall brings Linoa up to speed on who Ellone is. hey wait a second, they're looking for a mysterious girl, Cid claims Squall knows her and Squall just met a mysterious girl who claims he knows her. Hm... to the library!

Girl: Yes, Squall?

Squall: Are you... Ellone?

Girl: Of course.

Squall: You are... Ellone. Then you know... Laguna?

Ellone: Of course. He is my favourite uncle.

Squall: *uncharacteristically excited* Tell me then! What are these dreams we're all having?

Ellone: I'm sorry, Squall. It's difficult to explain. I can merely tell you that... it is taking place in the past.

Squall: (We time-travelled?)¹

Ellone: They say the past cannot be changed, but... If even the slightest chance exists, we should try.

Squall: *facepalming* (Change the past? Is she joking? That's impossible) Are you the one behind all this? Are you the one who takes us to this parallel world?

Ellone: I'm sorry.

Squall: *facepalming* (No! There are so many things I don't understand!) Why me? I have enough problems as it is. Don't bring me into this!

Ellone: I'm sorry.

Squall: *reeling back* No... don't count on me.

I'd say Squall is being rude here... but honestly, how would you react if you met a strange woman who claims to know you and then announces to you that the weird shared dreams you've been having with other people are the result of her using your mind to see the past? Yeah, I think I'd be rather upset too. Besides, I'm getting the feeling that he's not really acting that way to be a dick but rather because, well, it's part of his refusal to form bonds with people, mixed in with a fear of perhaps remembering memories he'd rather keep forgotten.

Shu arrives, asking Squall if he's found Ellone, at which point she points herself to Shu. Ellone follows Shu, but not before trying to comfort Squall by resting her hand on his shoulder, looking genuinely sorry for what she's putting him and his friends through (once again, I have to applaud the body language for a PS1 game). As we see Ellone discuss with Cid and then leave on the "Edea's SeeDs" ship, we get some insight on Squall's inner feelings.

Ellone needs me, it's obvious. I am her only hope.

Never rely on others. Stand on your own two feet. That's the rule. Only I am responsible for what happens to me...

When I was a child, the others, the adults, ruled my life... I really suffered from it. When I was a kid, I need other people. Now it's different, I have all the tools to survive. I am not a child any more...

I'm such a liar! I know nothing... I am completely screwed. I don't want to rely on anyone, but... one day I'll have to decide if I want to be alone forever.

This really shows the depths of Squall's character in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, ever since the beginning of CD 2 (and indeed even a bit before that), Squall appears to have become less sure about his lonesome ways. He appears to have been really worries about losing his teammates and relieved to see them come to his rescue. As I said before, Squall represents the teenage delusion that being an adult means that you should never ask for help, ever because you're supposed to be able to take care of yourself at all times, and showing emotions, getting attached to people, means that you need them and therefore are immature and he is slowly coming to the realization that it is a ridiculous thing to say, that no-one can go through life without help and in fact, part of adulthood is learning humility and realizing when to ask other people for support and trust them to help you when you need it.

And beyond that, we also see that what is eating at him is that this girl really needs him. She's not being selfish, she's using her last resort and clearly, as much as he doesn't want to get involved, he's also realizing that it would be wrong to deny her her one chance when she needs it the most just because it hurts his feelings. Once again we seem the theme of reaching adulthood by taking responsibility in this game and this is part of what makes him realize that being an adult means relying on others sometimes as someone else needs him and she isn't weak or childish for asking the one person who can help her to do so. A man doesn't run crying like a little boy when asked to step up, he takes a stand and does what's right.

We then fade into a flashback, but not a Laguna one this time. Instead, it appears to be a child Squall in the courtyard of a strange building.




He calls for a Lellone, obviously a mispronunciation of Ellone and realizes that she's gone and he's all alone, then says that he's going to be brave and he'll be alright on his own. Back in the present day, Linoa once again barges in Squall's room. Heh, it's a JRPG, people have no sense of privacy. She wants to go on a walk with Squall, arguing that last time was a guided tour and it would be a real pleasure walk. He tells her to go on her own now that it's safe.

I love Linoa's reaction there, as she first says she doesn't need a bodyguard, then essentially tells Squall to lighten up and relax a bit, saying that it's not healthy to keep brooding like that and then starts taunting him, going "What I'm trying to say is... I would be honoured to keep you company, your highness. I hope to be worthy of the honour you would do me by accepting", complete with taking a knightly bow. I just love how she's basically taking the piss out of him for being a diva. It's really not the sort of stuff you'd see in any other Final Fantasy game.

You get a choice between "Play along" and "This is stupid". If you choose the latter, Linoa will leave, still doing the "your highness" bit. Choosing "play along" will of course have Squall accept and as the option's text suggests, he'll start doing it too, going "Very well, my good lady". I really do like those nicer options as it gives Squall a more jokey side and shows that there's more to him than just angst. Just as they exit Squall's room however, Cid announces over the speaker that the communications system has been repaired. He appears to have troubles though and we see a short scene of him tripping, before we're shown the cause of his loss of balance:



"Linoa, we need to stop going on walks."


Cid summons Squall to the bridge because it appears that the BGU's official policy for any and all issue is "have Squall deal with it". He orders Squall to go with Quistis and Linoa to meet with the mayor of the town they just crashed into to offer the BGU's apologies and explore the town. While he doesn't speak up, Squall wonders why he's tasked with doing that, and apparently he doesn't even need to ask as Cid tells him he needs to open up to the world, so I guess he considers it a diplomatic exercise for Squall.

I also question how come he can apparently give Linoa orders considering she's not even a BGU student and is in fact their client, so if anything you'd think she could be ordering him around but I suppose she isn't likely to refuse anyway, partly out of politeness and partly because it gives her an opportunity to keep hitting on Squall. Amusingly, it does actually make sense from a meta point of view for Cid to ask Linoa to assist considering she is a gifted diplomat and could do damage control if/when Squall f***s it up.

Before going, I'm going to challenge Cid to a game of Triple triad because yes, you can do that and he has the Seifer card, which like all characters cards is very good. The RNG gods are smiling upon me today as he plays it immediately and I win the game and the card. I also just realized I forgot to junction Leviathan to anyone. I'm gonna give it to Quistis as Leviathan knows a skill that allows to junction magic to the Magic stat and Quistis is the only one who can't junction magic to that stat yet.

We can enter the town through the bridge from the second floor (as opposed to the one in Cid's office). As we do, locals inform us that fighting is forbidden there. Despite us literally crashing into their town and causing material damage, the people are actually quite welcoming as they tell Squall not to worry when he apologizes. Anyway, time to actually get into town!

This is Horizon, which has a longer name in English as it is known as Fisherman's Horizon. This appears to be one of the things that people remember the most about the game as I keep hearing people refer to it when mentioning FF8, even people who don't like the game. Personally, i find the place a bit dull compared to most locations in the game but I guess I can see why it's so memorable to most people as it has a rather unique look and the music that plays there is the sound of nostalgia. Seriously, that is one of Uematsu's most brilliant pieces. So peaceful and relaxing.

In fact, everything about this town is relaxing and wants you to take it slow, such as the fact that there are many sidequests so it's best not to rush to advance the story. In fact, one of them begins now!




This huge tanker is one of the first things to see. It has a climbable ladder although it is hard to see as it blends with the background (hence why I took a screenshot where they're climbing it). Go down it and follow the path. You'll find an old fisherman who gives you the Occult Fan III. Sweet! And that's not all as talking to him again, he asks us to say "hi" to his student, who is by the dock.

One of the most prominent features of the town is a massive solar panel system, at the centre of which is the mayor's house. However, I'm going to ignore it for now and explore the town. First, next to a save point and a Récup draw point is good ol' Ishtar. However, I can't advance her quest yet as I don't actually have the next card she needs and it's probably going to take a while before I do because in order to get it, we need to embark on another side quest which we can't start yet.

Moving on, I go to the docks and find the fisherman’s apprentice, who is near a store owner. Talking to him the first time a saying I like fishing has him show off his casting sills… which end up breaking a window, much to the store owner's dismay. Ahem. Talking to him a second time and saying you’ve seen the old fisherman has the kid ask you what you think of the fisherman, giving you a choice between “What an old coot” and “What a great fisherman”. Oddly, you need to pick the ruder answer to advance the conversation (otherwise he'll just keep asking the same thing each time you speak to him).

Talking to him a third time will have him once again show his casting skills, and this time somehow manages to get his line wrapped around the store owner's neck and hang him! Fortunately, Squall comes to rescue and cuts the line with a spell (no, I don't know why he didn't just use his gunblade). By the way, the store is actually a weapons shop. Seems weird that a town with strict pacifist policies would have one, but it does allow me to upgrade Squall's weapon to his second most powerful one.

Back in the previous screen, you can access a hotel/general store. There's also a TV set there which isn't very important in the grand scheme of thing but is somewhat amusing as it gives short info on current events. The bedroom has a Timber Maniacs issue, as usual and it's got a weird quirk: it's the only hotel in the game where the characters other than Squall move to a specific spot and do something instead of just following you, and I don't know why...

Going further, we arrive at a square. There is a house to the right which can be entered. A mechanic lives there. There's nothing to do here now but he'll become very relevant very soon. To the left is a run-down train station with a Booster draw point. Well, we've seen everything there is to see for now so let's finally go to the mayor's house. Before meeting the mayor, though, let's go to the right of the house, where we can meet a familiar face...




It's Martine! You know, Galbadia Garden's headmaster? Turns out he was fired, presumably due to this whole "attempted assassination of the sorceress" thing, and has found refuge in Horizon. He is actually very important if you're into Triple Triad as he has every rare card you've lost to Galbadian students as well as that Ifrit card I had to lose to Caraway, so he is a great way to recover lost cards and of course, to get some good ones as well.

I meet with the mayor, called Dobe, who gets straight to the point by asking when we're leaving. Well, they may be pacifists but apparently they're passive-aggressive assholes. Squall answers that they'll leave as soon as the BGU is fixed and Dobe offers the help of Horizon technicians, although of course Squall can't accept without an authorization from Cid. Linoa asks why they want them to leave so bad, which causes another facepalm from Squall as he hopes to avoid a scandal. Dobe and his wife, Flo, explain that they don't like having an armed faction around and that the BGU could attract trouble which, to be honest, is a fair point considering they just escaped getting blown to smithereens.

That's the end of that but before we go, I want to play some more Triple Triad as Dobe has the Golgotha card and Flo has the Irvine card. Well, all that's left to do now is just sit back, relax and wait for the BGU to be repa-




Aaaaaah shit.

The Galbadians are attacking. Flo and Dobe blame us and Dobe foolishly wants to go talk them down so let's go rescue his ass. There will now be random encounters in this area, including this:




Name's Barbarian (SAM08G) and I f'n love them because CYBORG BIPEDAL GATLING GUN ALLIGATOR. They're actually fairly strong as far as enemies go and can take a beating. As you probably expect, they're weak to lightning, although not as much as you'd expect and they are far more weak to poison. So yeah, really weird enemy on all accounts. Oh and it had an item that can be mugger or dropped that teach Quistis a Limit Break attack.

We find Dobe, who is desperately trying to negotiate with a Galbadian commander. Quistis wonders if he even wants their help and Squall does seem a little concerned as he wonders why the Galbadian are attacking the Horizon people when they're looking for the Balambian guys. Squall & co decide to assess the situation from a distance and hear Dobe deny that he knows anyone by the name of Ellone. Well, looks like everybody wants here these days. The commander threatens to raze the town and when Dobe keeps trying to convince them, he says that either way, Edea has ordered the town burned to the ground.

The commander is about to kill Dobe and Squall decides to intervene. Before the battle starts, he even apologizes to Dobe for resorting to violence to protect the town, saying that they have no choice. The first battle is very easy, just a few Galbadian soldiers. Easy-peasy. but then, this shows up:




Yeah, this bloody thing is back with a vengeance! No idea how it survived let alone made it all the way here and somehow, despite being busted in every conceivable way, it is even more dangerous than before as it uses glitchy versions of its special attacks which do a lot more damage than during the first fight, and they were pretty powerful to begin with. Guess the Galbadian army should spend more time beating the tar out of their own equipment. However, due to this being a boss, it has a level cap and my team is massively overpowered so I still take it out in like three turns. At least now Zell, Selphie and Irvine are aven-




WHAAAA- yeah okay, the jig is up. Selphie's team was okay the whole time! Yeah, I doubt I actually fooled any of you. Got you going for a second though, didn't I? No? Okay. Selphie actually jumps in excitement when seeing Squall, and Squall himself is genuinely overjoyed to see them alive and well. And look, I know I've already done the dialogue quote thing twice in this part but I HAVE to do it a third time:

Selphie: Squall!!!

Squall: (Yes! They made it!) Good to see you, Selphie. Zell, Irvine! I'm so happy to see you guys!

Irvine: Say, what about the BGU?!

Squall: (So much has happened) The BGU is alright.

Selphie: Really? That's awesome!!!

Squall: And you? What happened to you?

Quistis: We'll talk about it later.

Squall: (Ah? Alright...)

Squall then tasks Quistis and Linoa with bringing the rest of the gang back to the BGU as he still has stuff to do. After a fade, you can talk to either Dobe or Linoa, who I guess came back after helping the rest of the team back. Dobe still seems shaken up and only says "Oh..." so let's talk to Linoa. She tells Squall about how surprised she is by his how demonstrative he's been just now, even saying that he was adorable, and right she is, because he truly was.

You get three choices: "I felt guilty", "I was happy for them" and "That doesn't mean anything". The third option has Linoa give him a "yeah, right" answer, teasing him about how he's lying to himself trying desperately to hide the fact that he cares about them. The first one has him say that as the team leader, it would have been his fault had something happened to them, with Linoa having a hard time believing that's all it is, and indeed Squall comes across like he's mostly trying to convince himself.

However, my favourite and the on I'm going with is the second one, which has Squall ask her what's so weird about being happy that your teammates are alright and she replies hat on the contrary, it's a very good thing. Then she teases him, saying that she knows he would have been even more worried had she been with them. He falls for it and asks why while actually blushing, with that bit of self-betrayal both surprising and amusing Linoa, who finds it cute how seriously Squall takes everything, with him getting offended at being called "cute". I really love this interaction as not only is Linoa fully dominant there, she also once again proves to be the only person who truly manages to make Squall lose his composure.

No matter what option you choose, Linoa caps it off with a brilliant "à plus tard, têtard!" (which is the equivalent of "later, alligator" and literally translates to "see you later, tadpole!", which is of course the best way to end any speech, be it at a political rally, a grand opening or a funeral.

Meanwhile, Dobe has recovered a bit and you can now talk to him properly. He is bittersweet about the situation. Squall's team saved his life and his town, but they had to resort to violence to do it and still blames them for the attack. You can choose to either end the discussion right here or try and explain your point of view. Of course, I prefer the second option, especially since Squall gives a really good speech, saying the the SeeD isn't a group of mindless war fanatics, that he wishes all conflicts could be resolved peacefully, but sometimes it's not an option, and that this is why the World needs both pacifists like the Horizon people and warriors like the SeeD. He then leaves him to think on that, stopping just short of rummaging through the town to find a mic to drop.

On the way back I go to the docks to talk to the fisherman's student again and this time, he finally manages to cast his line without causing a catastrophe! He is so proud he asks me to tell the fisherman. Well, I make it back to the save point so I'm going to end this part here. Phew! That was a long one, especially when I was trying to keep it shorter lately but man, I couldn't think of anything to cut. There are so many good scenes, so much emotion, so many incredible character moments, what little fighting there was was good and even the music is great! ... Why did I ever wonder why this is often regarded as the most memorable part of the game, again?




¹ I'm a bit confused by his reaction here as I don't see how you'd come to the conclusion that dreaming about the past = time travel.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 20: Going on a date

Alright so last time was very emotional in many different ways and guess what? It's far from over! I'm warning you right now, this part isn't really plot or gameplay heavy. It's more of a breather episode, put it that way. On my way to the BGU, I meet back with Irvine, who doesn't seem all that shocked about the BGU being thousands of miles away from where it should be, ad a ship. He wonders if it'd be okay to ask the Horizon repairmen to repair "something else" and Squall that as long as it doesn't slow down the main repairs, it should be cool.

We can now finish the old fisherman's quest so let's go ahead and do that. We have to go back to the old man, who tells me to meet him at the inn as he wants to give a "conference". At the inn, he starts giving us the story of Horizon. He explains that Dobe is actually from Esthar (a country in the game that we won't get to visit before a loooong time) as are most... Horizonians? Horizoners? Horizontals?. Apparently, Dobe was pushing for social changes in Esthar as it was getting overly militarized.

He wasn't listened to and decided to create his own town, with hookers and black jack. The old fisherman concludes by saying that Horizon was founded by a group of dreamers. He then asks if you want to hear more and in order to complete the quest, you have to say yes. He tells us to follow him, then leaves the hotel. He talks with a few NPCs until we gets to the place with the weapons shop and the apprentice. We learn that the apprentice is the shopkeeper's grandson and that the fisherman himself was the one who organized the exodus from Esthar to Horizon and that back in the days, Esthar was a dictatorship ruled by an Adel. They also explain that the name of the town is a reference to them going towards a better horizon. Geesh, that's almost as cheesy as calling a video game "Final Fantasy" because you think it'll be your company's last.

But seriously, Squall outright calls the name of the town stupid. Rude. To be fair, he does have a point as he explains that the definition of a horizon is that you can never reach it, though he also does understand the appeal, saying that it represents a place between the Earth and the sky, between reality and dream. At this point, the fisherman will leave after giving you a Megalixir, ending the quest. The game doesn't tell you, but doing this quest also earns you 20 points towards a SeeD rank. You can now go back to his fishing spot, where you will find a Vie Max draw point.

There is something else we can do before moving on and for that, we have to go back to the square where we fought the machine and reunited with Irvine, Selphie and Zell. To the far right, you'll find a house with a blueish door I mentioned in the previous part. The one with the mechanic.




If you enter, you'll find a Galbadian commander! He demands the mechanic to make repairs to the Omniborg. Squall challenges him to take it outside... but once you leave, you'll notice he's not following. Going back in, the mechanic tells us the Galbadian ran out the window, saying the two-on-one is unfair. As thanks for getting rid of the Galbadian, the mechanic gives us a Maxi MT-Psy, which revives all KO'd allies, including those not in the party. Noice.

And that's not all! Going back on the square, you can talk to this NPC:




He'll say that his life is a failure. He wanted to make it as an actor, but he keeps being given the dumbest lines. Talking to him again has him say he hopes nothing bad happened to "her". That's when Squall realizes he's heard of this guy and you're given three choices:

"He is the son of Dr. Kadowaki"

"He is the son of the cafeteria waitress."

"He is the son of Shu"


Really Squall? Really? The son of Shu?! 20-something Shu has a son as old as she is, does she? Well no, that is indeed the son of the cafeteria lady. Remember? The one she mentioned aaaaall the way back in the first part 3? Yeah, we actually get to meet him. Squall tells him that she's worried about him and that it'd be a good idea for him to go see her. He is very excited to learn his mom is around and bolts out. Aw, Squall, the reuniter of families. And they say he doesn't care. Oh and by the way, this kid WILL be visible in the cafeteria from now on.

We're done for now so let's head back to the BGU. After we make it back to the tanker, Squall stops, asking Irvine why he's following him. Irvine, replies that Selphie is a bit down and being the team leader, Squall should probably go talk to her... buuuut considering Squall isn't the most tactful, Irvine figures it would be best if he tagged along and I love how Squall doesn't even object, just asking where she is, which is the campus, near the stage.

Speaking of interactions I love between the two, as they get back to the BGU, Irvine is surprised to see the kind of heavy machinery they use for the repairs. When Squall asks what he was expecting, Irvine replies he's not interested in this sort of stuff. Squall then gives a snarky "what ARE you interested in, anyway?!" (for the record, the answer is, of course, girls and guns). The reason I love it is that although it's snarky, it does show a genuine interest in Irvine as he's actually having a discussion and joking around with him; it wasn't so long ago that he wouldn't even have bothered with a snarky response.




Not much new in the BGU so I'm heading straight to the campus and oooooooh... yeah, the stage has seen better days. After all the work she's put into the end-of-year celebration, Selphie is understandably upset to see it ruined. And to Squall's credit, he does genuinely try to lift her spirit but the best he can come up with is "at least we never get bored, huh?". You have a choice between "cheer her up" and "let Irvine handle it". Asking Irvine to do it skips straight to the next part but having Squall do it leads to another good character moment:

Squall: Cheer up. There's gotta be a solution

Selphie: (Since when does he have the ability to sympathize?) It's weird that you'd try and cheer me up... I must really look like I hit rock-bottom.

Squall: (Hey! I have feelings too! It's just that so many things are going wrong... I don't even know where to begin)

Selphie: Hey! You went back to Planet Squall! It was interesting to see you be nice! Keep going!

Squall: No, forget about it. (Why is she making fun of me? I was just trying to be nice)

Selphie: You know what? I feel better. Don't worry about me, Squall.

After that, Squall is summoned to the bridge by Cid and he leaves Irvine to continue the pep talk. By the way, if you go back to the classroom, you can check Selphie's website. You already could before but there was hardly anything on it so I didn't feel it was worth bringing up, but now she'll post reports on the group's missions as well as stories about Laguna collected from the Timber Maniacs magazines you find. It's just a little bit of fluff but I think it's neat. Little quirks like that is what give video games personality, in my opinion.

Squall reports to Cid that the Galbadians were looking for Ellone, under orders from Edea. Cid and Squall figure that Edea will keep razing towns so Ellone can't hide there until they find her. Cid says that they can't afford to wait any longer, making Squall think to himself "he's finally taking responsibilities". So that means Cid is going to lead the SeeD against Edea, right?



...



Nope! He's gonna have Squall do it! Cid immediately makes an announcement that he's putting Squall in charge of all tactical and military operations, meaning he's the commander of the SeeD and it's now his duty to come up with a plan to eliminate the sorceress and to order the rest of the SeeD to do so!

If you were wondering why I've been so harsh on Cid and why I treated him like such an asshole, this, THIS is why. I joked earlier that he raised an army of child soldiers but seriously, he created this institution, which trains kids who graduate and become professional mercenaries at as early an age as 15-years-old (and if the beginning of the game is any indication, they don't go easy on younger recruits either), doesn't tell them the true ultimate purpose of their training, makes money off them from the mercenary work, with the stated single goal to fight the sorceress and when the time comes to actually do THE ONE THING he did all that for, he wusses out, absolves himself of any responsibility, puts one the the greenest recruits who only just graduated in charge and tells him "lol, you figure it out".

I actually liked him when I was a kid, thinking he was a cool father figure but as time went on I realized what a massive f'n prick is hiding under his jovial Robin Williams-esque features. What an ass.

This is also one of the defining moments why I disagree completely when people say that Squall is whiny because despite being thrust in such a situation and understandably not being impressed with it, he doesn't complain as there is a scene with some inner monologue where he says that fighting the sorceress doesn't scare him as, being a SeeD, he's prepared for it, but he didn't ask to be a leader and is anxious about having to take care of everyone in the BGU. And yet, he still intends to do it, because it's his responsibility, his task and he has to see it through. he even feels sorry for Cid for having to give the order to kill his wife. I'd just be pissed that he's using me as his hitman.

He doesn't cry about how unfair it is (not that I would blame him if he did, honestly), he puts on his big boy pants and gets to work on how to fix the mess that other people created. It's kind of like with Raiden from MGS2 where I don't see how he's the whiny one when frankly, he deals with an insane situation impressively well and seems to be the only who remains sensible when everyone else around him are losing their goddamn mind.

We need some levity and Irvine is the one to provide it.




He meets up with Selphie, Quistis, Zell and Linoa. Selphie announces that the concert WILL happen, and that they're the ones who will play, dedicating it to Squall and his rather unexpected promotion. Zell points out there's a little problem with that: none of them can play an instrument. Quistis even confirms that she sucks at playing music, which makes Linoa want to see it even more. They decide they're going to give it a shot anyway and work as hard as they can to make it work. Linoa won't be part of the band as she is in charge of "something more important". She then explains that with the BGU's take off and crash, the partitions got all mixed up so they'll have to figure out which one are the right ones.

Alright so this is a rather weird part of the game and I'm gonna have to spoil a bit to properly explain how this works. You see, you have 4 musicians (Zell, Selphie, Irvine and Quistis) and a list of 8 instruments. As you may have guessed, this means that 4 of the instruments fit one song while the 4 other fit another song and you have to carefully pick the instruments to create one of the songs. It's not as difficult as it may sound as the two songs are of very different styles: one's a romantic slow-dancing song (it's actually an instrumental version of "Eyes on Me", a song that plays at multiple points in the game) and the other is an Irish jig. Note that it is possible to pick instruments from both songs, resulting in an unrecognisable cacophony.

The instruments you pick will affect a cutscene between Linoa and Squall that plays during the concert and oddly enough, picking the less romantic music will actually result in a more romantic scene. If you pick the piano, the electric guitar, the sax and the bass, you get Eyes on Me and a scene where Squall and Linoa end up arguing. If you pick the violin, the flute, the accoustic guitar and the tap, you get the Irish jig and a happy scene between Linoa and Squall. If you mix them up, you get a negative scene as well.

Interestingly, there is some nice attention to detail with Linoa's reaction as if you pick 2 instruments from one song and 2 from the other, Linoa will complain that the music is awful but if you pick 3 from one and 1 from the other, he'll say she knows the song but it's hard to recognize. If you pick Eyes on Me, she'll say the band isn't playing it well but if you pick the jig, she'll say the music is good.

Needless to say, I'm going for the jig, not only because I said at the start I was going for the nicer options, not only because I like more positive stories anyway but also because at this point, I think it really feels like story regression to have Squall and Linoa bicker again after all the great character moments and developments we've seen from them.

It doesn't feel right to have Squall act so cold and distant when he's spent the better part of the second CD moving away from that, and it seems especially awkward when it doesn't carry over to the rest of the story, so if you get one of the bad options, it really feels like he's acting out of character and being a dick just to be a dick and it especially doesn't make sense for him to act that way in the context of what's just happened.

It really seems to undo the progression that's been building up and I kind of have to wonder if this (and other colder dialogue options) isn't at least part of what made some people have a negative opinion of Squall and the game.

Anyway, I make my picks for the Irish jig, the song of love and romance. We fade to the night, with Squall in bed being bored. Guess nearly escaping missiles, finding out your school is a vessel, crashing into a town, fighting a war machine and finding out your friends aren't dead and being made the leader of one of the major military forces in the world weren't enough excitement after all, huh? He gets up to find out what the others are doing and comes across Linoa.




And she's in her sexy ball dress too! Bet THAT cures your boredom right away, huh, Squall? She invites him to the concert and you get a choice between "I don't feel like it" and "I don't know". It's another bit where he translation is a bit awkward as picking "I don't know" actually has Squall immediately agree and Linoa happily taking him with her.

Picking "I don't feel like it" has Squall politely refuse and while Linoa first chuckles, saying Quistis was right about how predictable his reaction would be, she then admits she gets why he'd be down what with suddenly being made commander and all that, but she argues that she and the gang feel it would do him some good to get out and relax. Once again, you get to choose between agreeing or not and if you don't, she insists and basically twists his hand, even threatening him with her own improvised a capella concert! I kind of like this bit though as she goes "you finally get it now, don't you? You have no choice!" as it almost feels like Square is making fun of their own tendency to use the "but thou must!" trope.

The stage is actually in Horizon, right in front of the Mayor's house (guess that's his way of thanking the BGU for saving his town). On the way there, we see a couple cadets looking at the stage from a distance, which seems to imply that the concert is indeed for the whole university (and the people of Horizon), but Squall and Linoa get VIP access.

We meet Irvine, who takes Squall aside for a moment, thinking to himself that Squall and Linoa would make a nice couple. He tells Squall that he knows a good spot for "what he intends to do", which is right next to the stage. It takes Squall a moment to process what he means, before Irvine tells him not to take too long as he too intends to take someone there (I assume he's talking about Zell). After which Irvine goes back to hitting on Selphie.

I go back to talk to him, just as Irvine was about to seal the deal with Selphie. Even Squall realizes he screwed up and feels rather bad about it, while Linoa gets a good laugh out of it. We make it to the stage and Selphie congratulates Squall on his new status. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you... the Final Fantasy VIII Irish Jig!




And then, not to make assumptions about Squall but all I'm saying is that he does take Linoa to spot Irvine told him about... and Linoa notices a porno mag was left there by someone who I'm sure isn't Irvine, causing Squall to lament about what a sex maniac Irvine is.



Squall facepalming in front of a porno mag while Irish music is playing in the background. That's a beautiful thing right there.


Linoa did mention earlier that she has something important to tell him and he apparently does want to hear it. She tells him that with his new functions, he's going to have a lot of responsibilities, maybe too many. She also knows that he tends to want to do everything by himself and never wants to delegate important tasks. he actually admits (to himself anyway) that she's right and she tells him that everyone is here to support him so he shouldn't feel like he has to carry the load of his work on his own and that he should trust his friends. She wants him to truly speak his mind, show his feelings to the people around him, and even shoves him off the stage onto the sun panels to try and get him to do so!

This is another point where get some interesting insight on Squall's psyche as he says to himself "soon she'll say I'm scared of other people... but is she wrong?". He further thinks that he's afraid of getting attached to people as once someone you love goes away, the feeling of abandonment is unbearable and he'd rather be distant than risk being disappointed. Interestingly he ends this inner monologue by saying "I've already been there".

I didn't want to overdo the quotation thing especially since I already did so much last time so for this conversation, I'm keeping it to a minimum, but I think this part really needs be experienced in its entirety:

Linoa: What a wonderful night! Nice music, a handsome boy. Not only is he easy on the eye, but he's a big thinker. Right now, he's thinking very hard about what I just told him... he's also a shy guy who doesn't dare to express his feelings. So, you think you can handle this on your own?

Squall: I appreciate you worrying about me, but...

Linoa: No "buts"! Think about it, that's all. It's rare that we get to be alone, just the two of us, so let's make the most of it. For once, we can talk quietly, face to face.

Squall: Good moments only end up becoming regrets...

Linoa: Oh, you're such a downer! You can't predict the future. That's why the present matters so much! Climb down from your ivory tower, Squall. You have friends down here, you know? All of us, we love you. There, I said it... you're probably going to freak out, but that's the truth. We love you...

Squall: You love me...

Linoa: Keep that in mind, OK? Think about it in your relationship with us... We won't change our mind. I think the feelings we have for you are going to further intensify with time. Talk to me, Squall. What do you want? What is your dearest dream?

Squall: (I hate dreams) I'd rather not talk about it. And you, how do you see the future?

Linoa: I don't know, it's rather vague... For now... I'd rather enjoy the present...

I just... love... this scene... so much!! There's so much going on, Linoa giving Squall a heartfelt speech about how the rest of the team will always be there for him, and I think she told him that at a time when he really needed to hear it too, Squall realizing that he does indeed need to rely on others more and actually, genuinely opening up to Linoa, if only a bit, telling her how he feels, trusting her with his emotions, it does show that, more and more, he's treating the rest of the group as genuine friends (and let's be honest, that he views Linoa as more than a friend) and seeing that they would all gain a lot from him letting them know how he feels and letting them help him, as being a leader also means trusting your teammate's abilities. On top of that, Squall is showing genuine interest in Linoa, asking about her feelings and her point of view instead of brushing her off.

And speaking of Linoa, her speech on the importance of sharing the load, be it the pressure of work or simply emotional distress, is very good and one I can very much relate to. I also love how once again, she comes across as being in control in the discussion, being dominant but at the same time respectful, making Squall understand that the reason people try to get him to express his emotions isn't to find a weak spot but because they genuinely care about him and want to extend a hand. And of course, as I mentioned before, I love that this is the one game where the characters call out the hero's unnecessary angst.

All of this is just more reasons why I really dislike the other options. Why go for far less meaningful scenes when you have such a fantastic one where so much is said and done?

After this scene ends, we have another flashback of Child Squall (same one as before) before Squall is woken up by the intercom, calling him "chief Squall" to call him to the bridge, which of course is something that's going to take a while to get used to. So yeah, it's not the part where we made the most progress and yet, I feel it's a very important one. Next time, we should get back to more action as the game world opens up, so I'll see you let for part 21!

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 21: Shumi the world

Welcome back to the Let's Play! Now that we got all our emotions out in the last two parts, this one should allow for more gameplay. As you probably remember (especially since it's written just above this post), last time, Squall was called to the bridge. Going there, I meet Quistis, Shu and Nida.

They inform Squall that they worked out a system to manage the SeeD. Shu will take care of gathering resources while Quistis will assist Kadowaki (don't worry, you still get to put her in your team) and it all sounds good to Squall. Nida will be the BGU's pilot as the Horizon people have finished repairing it and taught him how to manoeuvrer it.

Shu suggests going back to Balamb as they have no idea what happened there since they left and considering it is a port town just like Horizon, it's a potential target for Edea, so that's our destination! But before that, heh heh heh... we can finally challenge Shu, the Queen of Heart for the Cards Club quest! Shu has some really good cards too, including he only Ahuris card you can get so it's a good idea to challenge hear often to complete your deck or find some good cards to refine.


After beating her, Shu tells me that the only other person to ever beat her is the Cards King, and I now have to find him in order to beat the Cards Club. Anyway, it's time to leave! Squall tells Nida to warn everyone that the BGU is about to take off, which he does... before handing the mic over to Squall, asking him to give a speech, but Squall awkwardly refuses, which of course greatly amuses Linoa. Before leaving, you get to pick your team (although Selphie is unavailable for now due to Quistis asking Squall to let her relax for a while to recover from the missiles base mission).

And yes, we can now use the BGU as a ship!




BEST. SHIP. EVER!! And it works both on sea AND on land! There is still some terrain it can't get to and cruising around the world can get tricky as there is a huge train track running from the Galbadian to the Estharian continent (with Horizon in the middle of it) but the world is opening up a lot more from now on. And you know what that means...

SIDE QUESTS!

Seriously, there are A LOT of side quests to do and there is no way I can cover them all in just one part so unless you want me to move on with the main plot (in which case, please make a post saying so), I will be dedicating this part and at least the next two to doing as many of them as possible.

For starters, let's actually finish the Cards Club side quest. First, you have to talk to Kadowaki by pressing the square button (as if to challenger her) and she'll tell you she used to be the king but passed the torch 4 years ago. Well, I'm out of ideas so might as well call it a day and go to bed.



"Ha! The Cards King is a ... queen by the name of Quistis Trèpe!


WWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH?!! Yeah, Quistis is the Cards King and she will randomly challenge you after you've beaten Shu and talked to Kadowaki when you get to sleep in Squall's room. I love the idea that serious and proper Quistis is an avid cards gamer. And not only that, but during her dialogue, he says she can't believe Squall got better at cards, which means that she and Squall must apparently have been playing Triple Triad fairly often, and Squall sucked at it. I just love imagining that. Just like Shu, Quistis has some very strong cards, including a unique one: Gilgamesh. After beating her, you can challenge her again whenever you want on the bridge.

And with that side quest over, let's begin another one! For this one, we need Zell in the team.




When you go to the library, you will usually find this girl with a ponytail (although the English translation inexplicably calls her "Library girl with a pigtail"). She has a crush on Zell and if you talk to her while he's in the party, it will trigger a short cutscene, with different scenes happening at different points in the game. You only need this to happen once to activate the quest but doing it more often will get you a longer dialogue when we complete it, but we'll have to go back to Balamb for that.

Well, that's all we can do inside the BGU so let's move on and actually explore the World! First, let's get to the northernmost island on the map:




There are two interesting things here. The most obvious is that dome to the right which is actually the entrance to a town, but before that, let's get inside that tiny, round forest there. Hang on... a small, round forest? That's right! This is a chocobo forest! Inside, you will find a child NPC called Chocoboy who will sell you a device to catch chocobos (well, technically he gives it for free, but he explains you how to use it for 1000 gils).

Now, the way to use the device is to... you know what? It's not worth it, just ask the kid to do it for you. Sure, it'll set you back another 1200 gils but doing it yourself is unnecessarily difficult and time consuming, plus the chicobos (baby chocobo) who drop down can still the device and you'll have to buy another one anyway.

Once you have your first chocobo, Chocoboy will give you a baby one as well! Its default name is Boko (yay FFV reference!) and it is actually a Guardian Force. However, it doesn't work like the other G-Forces. See, you can't junction it, meaning you can't learn skills from it, and you summon it by using ChocoLégumes (Gysahl Greens), which you can buy from Chocoboy.

It doesn't do a lot of damage either. So if you can't get skills from it and it's not good in battle, what the point of it? Well, once you have Boko, you can plug in your PocketStation, a handheld accessory for the PlayStation, and import items (including ones that allow you to summon two more non-junctionable G-Forces, MiniMog and *squeeee* Moomba) you've gained from Chocobo World, a game for the PocketStation. This is also where you can level up Boko to make his attack stronger and even get him new ones.

Well that sounds awesome! Yeah, too bad the PocketStation was never released outside Japan. So everyone else is screwed. Okay, that's not true any more as the PC port of FF8 comes with Chocobo World but that's not the version I grew up with and that's not the version I'm playing.

As for the Chocobo, as always, it's a fast and safe way to move around the overworld. You may think it's not all that useful considering the BGU can move around without the risk of any random encounter as well, but there are some places on the map that can be reached only by Chocobo, including one that becomes accessible after you have visited all 6 chocobo forests. But of course, the main reason to ride a chocobo is for the theme tune.

We'll wait a little bit to do that quest though and for now, let's enter that dome.




Upon entering, I meet these three NPCs. Hey wait... they're yellow, they have massive hands...they're from the same species as NORG! LET'S MURDER THEM!! Okay not really. These are actually quite friendly. They tell me this is Shumi Village, I can use an elevator too enter the village itself and these three are guarding a draw point which contains Ultima and you have to pay 5000 gils each time you want to draw from it. If you're played any Final Fantasy game, I don't think I need to tell you how good Ultima is.

And in this game, it's even better than usual because if you junction it to elemental defence, you get a defence against ALL magical elements and since if you raise your defence against an element high enough, you can actually absorb it so it heals you, it means Ultima allows you to do this with ALL elemental spells. So yeah, junction enough of that and you'll basically be immune to half the attacks in the game. Obviously the 5000 gils are worth it. There are other ways to get the spell but this is the easiest one.

The Shumi architetcure is strange but very aesthetic as they live in houses shaped like turtle shells. You can talk to an informant, who explains that they mine gems, which is why the village is 323 metres below the ground, which... is a questionable claim considering there is clearly sunlight, the place is surrounded by plant life and we can hear birds chirping and frogs croaking. Then again, as we will soon find out, the Shumi love to f*** with visitors.

The first building you see is a hotel. Entering it, Squall notices that the ambiance music playing is the song that Julia was playing during the first Laguna dream, an instrumental version of "Eyes on Me". Going further, you'll find a building which is guarded by *squeeeeeee* a Moomba! Talking to it causes it to do its usual adorable squeak... until you do it enough to piss it off, at which point it'll let out a blood-curdling roar and call two more Moombas as backup. Holy shit don't f*** with the kitties!

On the next screen is a house in front of a pond and its inhabitant is called Artisan (almost all Shumi people are named after their function and refer to themselves as such). Next to it is a workshop and at the back, the team finds this:




Hey, it's a statue of Laguna! Between this and "Eyes on Me", it's pretty obvious he has made an impact on the village. But how? The sculptor explains that years earlier, a Moomba brought a wounded Laguna to the village and they nursed him back to health. He then advises us to meet with the Elder and that he'll ask the Moombas to let us pass. He also informs us that Moombas are one of the final transformations of Shumis.


Well.


Certainly didn't see that coming.

Sculpteur then tells us that all Shumis evolve and those who don't become Elders become Moombas and that it is the good within their heart that makes the red hair grow ("everybody knows that!" says Sculpteur). You're making that up, right? You... you've GOT to be making it up. Anyway, let's go. Don't forget to draw the Brasier X behind the statue.

Now that the Moombas are out of the way, you can access a Glacier X draw point near the Elder's house. Inside, the Elder tells us that it was 17 years ago that they saved Laguna, who was around because he was looking for Ellone, who had been kidnapped by Estharians. While he was healing, he tried to teach the Moombas how to speak.

The Shumi were very impressed with Laguna and they believe he has the ability to draw people to him, and it is to honour that ability that they have decided to build the statue. As we leave, the Elder tells us that he'd like to give us a welcome gift, but he explains that the Shumi only reward a meaningful action and so he wants to help finish the statue in exchange for the gift.

Sculpteur needs 5 gems. Shadow, wind, life, water and a blue gem. He tells us the gems resemble their names and to start with the blue gem. Hm... look at the screenshot above... there are blue gems right next to the stature. Surely they're not... yup! They are! The fool forgot he already had blue gems. Oh well, on to the wind gem. Back to the screen with the hotel, there is a big rock between the hotel and another house. Checking it shows that a draft is coming from it. That's the wind gem!

Next is the life gem. On the way, we passed a massive rock stuck under tree roots; there's your life rock right there. After that, we have t find the shadow stone. For that one, go all the way back to the screen with the first three Shumi. There's a spot with a fairly wide shadow. Yup, that's where you have to look. Finally, the water gem. Obviously that would be near the pond, right? Nope! It's actually in Artisan's home in his sink. Yes, seriously. At least Artisan is cool with you taking it.

Sculpteur congratulates us on finding all the gems and tells us we can go see the Elder to claim our prize. Once there, the Elder gives us... the opportunity to see his hand. The valet explains to us that seeing an Elder's hands is a great honour. That's funny because he didn't seem to be making a particularly big effort to hide them before and in fact, even the valet seemed surprised at first and even claimed that Elders have the ability to render objects that they hold in their hands invisible, as if he was claiming there really was something in the Elder's hand rather than that seeing his hand was a gift in itself.

Linoa and Quistis leave but before Squall does, the valet agrees to give us a more meaningful present, a Phénix (Phenix Pinion). This is a very, very good item. You see, using it summons Phénix, another non-junctionable G-Force, which as you may have guessed revived all downed rivals but not only that, after you've used it once, it gives you a random chance of having Phénix be automatically summon when your entire party perishes. Obviously this is amazing to have as not only can it save you from a Game Over, but it gives you an opportunity to counter-attack with Limit breaks.

After Squall joins the girls, they wonder what that hand deal was about. Squall explains that he believes they were telling the truth as the Elder was hiding his hands the whole time (no he wasn't, Squall). Squall also notes that NORG, on the other hand (no pun intended), displayed his proudly, which to be fair is a more accurate claim. Also, for some reason I didn't get it to happen in this playthrough, but usually, Squall ends up making Sculpteur admit that the rocks thing was a wild goose chase. The Shumi congratulates Squall for figuring it out and admits that they just wanted to offer them some peace of mind. So yeah, I will stick with my "The Shumi love to f*** with foreigners" theory.

Well, there is nothing else to do here for now, so I'm going to go ahead and leave and I'll be seeing you for part 22, where we will continue the Obel Lake quest and hopefully visit the Centra ruins as well. Be there!

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Part 22: Chocobos, shadow people and Norse gods

As I alluded to last time, today, I'd like to continue the Obel Lake quest but before that, I checked if all chocobo forests are already accessible and indeed they are, so let's finish this quest while we're at it. First, something important I wasn't aware of as I have never actually completed this quest before is that you HAVE to dig up the treasures in every chocobo forest for this to work, meaning you have to play the mini-game. I'm not a fan of it myself but you can get some pretty good and rare items out of it so I guess it's worth it. *sigh* Okay, I'll explain briefly.

The goal is to attract the mother chocobo. To do so, you need to make sure there is only one chicobo down and then interact with it. To do that, you have two devices: the ChocoSonar, which allows you to detect where chicobos are and the ChochoAimant (ChocoZiner in English. The French version translates literally to "ChocoMagnet"), which allows you make them either drop down of fly up.

Depending on where you use the ChocoAimant, the number of chicobos going down or up will change, so you have to use that until only one is left. Make sure you only use the ChocoAimant in spots where the sonar beeped loudly, filling up the bar almost entirely or else the chicobo will drop on Squall's head and steal his gear, making you have to buy another one.

Once the mother is down, you can ride her on the overworld BUT you can also keep using the ChocoAimant to get her to dig around and if you find a spot with treasure, bingo! Not only do you get it but you will become friends with the chocobo, meaning they will always be in that forest and you won't need to either do the mini-game or ask Chocoboy to get her down for you. The good thing is that the chocobo will only start sigging once you've found the right spot, so at least you don't waste time watching it dig only to find nothing. And before you get any idea of asking the Chocoboy to get the mother down to skip the mini-game and go straight to the treasure-digging, it doesn't work. Trust me, I tried.

I'm gonna link you to a map that shows where all forests are located although ignore the easternmost one for now as this is where we need to go last.

If you look at the map, you'll notice some light-coloured parts on the coasts of the various continents. Those are beaches, which allow you to reach land when the BGU is at sea so keep their locations in mind when travelling.

The first forest we visited was the furthest one north, on the island. Take the BGU south to the mainland. Follow along the mountain range and you should soon find another snow-covered chocobo forest.

Go to the east past the mountains and then to the north and you'll find the third and final snow-covered chocobo forest. As a matter of interest, it is located near the Trabia University, which is now on the map when you press "select" until the map fills the whole screen. You can technically visit the university now but the gates are locked and there is no way of getting in for now.

The next three forests are to the south on the Centra continent, which is finally accessible. However, the shortest way to get there from where we are is actually to go north. To reach the southernmost forest, you have to find a small beach to the south-east of the continent. Mountains block your path but there is a small path where you can go by foot.

You have just enough room to land the BGU, so do that and walk through the path, go left along the mountains and you'll easily find the mountain. Tread carefully as there are new monsters there, some of which are pretty dangerous, such as Tikal (Bliz), who has powerful lightning spells (which it occasionally uses to heal itself as it absorbs lightning and also knows Ankou (Doom).

Go back to the BGU, head west and follow the coast until you find another beach. On your way there, you should actually see the forest. Just go east and you'll find it immediately. Can't miss it. Also, you'll probably notice a white building on the way. You can't go there yet but it will have Squall say that it reminds him of something. Hm... foreshadowing...

Finally, to get to the last forest, go back to the BGU and go to the northern half of the continent. At the northernmost point is a beach. Go there, then go t the peninsula to the north-east and you'll find the forest at the very end. Oh and because finding the treasure in this forest is annoying as f*** and there's no way in Hell anyone would figure it out without a walkthrough, I'll tell you what you need to do: after you got the mother to come down, challenge Chocoboy to a game of Triple Triad then ask him to move. Twice. The treasure is in the spot he was standing in.

Now that we've visited every chocobo forest, it's time to head to the chocobo sanctuary! To do that, we have to go back to forest near the Trabian university as it is only accessible via chocobo. Getting there is a bit tricky as you have to go south-east, find a beach which leads to some shallow water which the chocobo can cross.




Following it will lead you to another beach which allows you to access the Grandidi Forest. Keep going north and you'll find a chocobo forest standing out from the rest of the forest. This is the sanctuary! The Chocoboy is there but won't sell anything due to the place being sacred. If you have found the treasures in every chocobo forest, you will see the Dance of Chocobos, after which the chicobo at the centre will give you the Chicobo card. You can also buy Chocolégumes from the chicobo for 600 gils a piece.

Now that this is done, let's go actually back to the Obel Lake! Humming a song has the shadow tell me that there's surprise waiting for me on an island east from Timber. There is only one such island so I go there (the BGU can reach it from the mainland) and find a rock with letters and numbers carved on it.

Next, the shadow tells me to go rest near the railway bridge. This isn't a thinly-veiled passive-aggressive way of telling me to go kill myself but rather, a hint on where to look for a draw point for some Mégalith (Break), a spell which instantly turns an opponent to stone, in effect killing them, assuming it works.

After that, it tells me that at the beach near Balamb, the sea brings strange things. Once again, there is only one spot that matches the description. At the Balamb beach, after many fake-outs, I find another carved rock. Oh yeah and you'll alo notice Galbadia Garden casually floating around near Balamb. Ignore it, it's not that big a deal.

The shadow then tells me to take off my shoes at Eldbeak Peninsula. Eldbeak Peninsula is the easternmost part of the Trabia continent just above Balamb. Going to the end of the peninsula, I find a pillar with the inscription "TRESTESORA ILEPOMMINPEDES". This may seem like nonsense but if you remove the letters "TES POMPES" (which is French for "your shoes"), you gets "TRESOR A ILE MINDE" which... probably still seems like nonsense to most of you, come to think of it, since it's in French. But it means "Treasure at Minde Island".

There is of course a similar concept in the English version of the game but the hint says "Take some time off at Eldbeak Peninsula" and you have to remove the words "TIME" and "OFF" which means the French version is more accurate as you only need to remove the words given in the hint, so point to the French version.

I shall however retract that point because in the French version, the hint refered to the place as "Eldbeak Peninsula" despite the French name of the area being "Crête d'Eldbeak", which is very confusing to non-English speakers and actually made me think I was in the wrong place and made me fruitlessly look for an "Eldbeak Peninsula" for hours the first time I tried to do this quest as a kid.

Anyway, Minde Island is south of Esthar and unfortunately inaccessible for now. Finally, the shadow tells me that something is waiting for me at the top of the mountain near the cave lake. This is not accessible yet either. That's all we can do here for now so let's continue and head to the Centra ruins!



There they are!


If you have the No-Combat skill, I highly recommend using it here as the moment you enter, you'll notice a 20 minutes timer ticking down and this is in my opinion the only timed event where it actually is tough to beat the clock (with the possible exception of the Sulfur Mines if you go with the 10 minutes option) so you'll want to avoid random encounters as much as possible, especially since some of the monsters there take a while to beat.

I really like this place. It feels mysterious and a bit spooky, the strange architecture gives it a memorable style, the music, while not exclusive to this location, is beautiful and eerie and the fact that it's entirely optional adds to the feeling of discovering and exploring the remnants of a lost culture. It's almost got a Silent Hill thing going on.

After entering, a message appears on screen. "My name is Odin". Oh yeah, it's time for some classic summon action! Following the path eventually takes you to a place with two ladders:




Using the one on the right takes you to a Rafale (Wind) draw point. Going left takes you to a room where I activate some kind of mechanism. Going back down, the shrine between the ladders now has a blue thing sticking out and activating it reveals a flight of stairs. Following it takes me to an area with a short ladder to the left and more stairs going up. Taking the ladder takes me to a statue of a demon which has a gem in one of its eye sockets and nothing in the other. I take it.

following the stairs, I arrive to the roof, with a ladder going to the top. There is another demon statue there. It too has only one eye and inserting the gem I just got makes the statue give me a code:




I can now take both gems and go back down. You probably see where this is going. Back at the previous statue, another message appears: "To whom triumphs over my strength, I grant my august powers". Insert the two gems in the statue's eyes and you get to enter the code you just got (it's random so no using one from a previous game) and it'll open a door. Man, collecting random objects to solve a puzzle to get a code which opens a door? It really is Silent Hill!

At this point, a commonly used trick is to leave the ruins, save on the overworld and then go back in as the door will still be open but th timer will be reset, but I want to do it the legit way, dammit! So inside is of course Odin, who challenges us:




This "fight" is a bit odd because, well... Odin doesn't attack. He just wants to see if you can take him out before the timer runs out and if you can't, you end up on the bad end of his Zantetsuken. So since there is no risk of getting hit, spamming Limit Breaks seems like the best option. He's got some neat spells to draw such as Triple if you want and you can also mug an item that teaches a G-Force the ability to junction magic to luck.

I defeat him, which nets me his card as well as an item to heal G-Forces. But most importantly, I get him because as you probably expected, he is a Guaradian Force! However, he is not junctionable. Instead, he is randomly summoned at the start of a battle and kills all enemies. Well, that's it for today but we are not done with the Centra ruins as there is another very good thing to find there. But this is something we'll be taking a look at in part 23. See you then!