It turns out that 17 years ago, a mysterious event caused a worldwide signal interference. No communication using radio signals can be used. Instead, the means of long distance communication are chocobo messengers, and the Internet, which works entirely off underground cables which are frequently damaged by monsters or warfare.
That's a
wild piece of worldbuilding to just throw out in a missable side conversation, wow. It's actually kind of a masterful design decision, thinking about it a bit though. Final Fantasy has pretty much always wanted to have more than just raw fantasy in its settings, as far back as the space station in FFI and assorted pieces of technology like airships, with the technology coming more front and center over time starting with VI and the proliferation of magitek, which continues to a much more contemporary setting with VII.
The thing is though, that as you edge the baseline level of technology in the setting forwards, you need to start thinking about how to preserve the more classic Final Fantasy feel to the world, with widespread global communications in particular threatening some of that vibe. Making VIII a world which was much more interconnected and resembling a more familiar modern world, only to have an unexplained event shut down all radio communication and bringing back the idea of isolated communities with travel never being entirely safe - especially with the event happening long enough ago for the world to settle into a status quo, but not so far back that its influence would be forgotten entirely - is a really clever way to get the best of both worlds there.
Xu does lament that Galbadia is withdrawing too soon; if they had stayed and wreaked more havoc, SeeD could have made more money from the conflict. This is the first of multiple bits of dialogue in this update that are going to launch us from 'you know if you read between the lines Balamb Garden is kinda fucked up as an institution' into the stratospheric heights of 'oh wow they're not even trying to hide it.'
Okay wow, Balamb Garden was shady as hell before now but I honestly had my money on it being largely unintentional and me reading too much into it, I guess they're fully aware of what they're doing and are going for it huh. Though if we're given a salary by Balamb Garden and that isn't just a gimmick for the first couple hours of gameplay, presumably we don't realize that the whole institution is ludicrously evil and burn it all to the ground, so I'm curious what the game is going to do with it.
Today's not a good day for Seifer, and it's about to get worse.
Seifer: "Squall! D'you hear about the communication tower in Dollet? We would've been heroes if it weren't for that withdraw order."
Quistis (walking onto the screen with Xu): "You were only looking for a fight."
Seifer: "My dear instructor. I'm hurt. Those are rather cruel words for an aspiring student. A mediocre instructor like you will never understand."
Xu: "Seifer, don't be so stuck on yourself. You'll take all responsibility for leaving the designated area."
Seifer: "Isn't it the Captain's duty to take the best possible action?"
Xu: "Seifer, you will never be a SeeD. Calling yourself a captain is a joke."
(At this point, Seifer lowers his head; from his model it looks like he's doing a 'joyless laughter' kind of animation, but in the Remaster it's clear he's shaking with anger instead. They're both different takes from the same kind of feeling, regardless. He doesn't say anything further until the end of the scene. Quistis and Xu walk out, replaced by Cid.)
Headmaster Cid: "Seifer. You will be disciplined for your irresponsible behavior. You must follow orders exactly during combat." (While he's saying this, Cid is standing straight with his hands behind his back and looking severe.)
Headmaster Cid: "But I'm not entirely without sympathy for you. I don't want you all to be machines. I want you all to be able to think and act for yourselves.." (While he's saying this, his posture relaxes and he does casual things like rubbing his head, moving his hands while talking, or folding his arms.)
Headmaster Cid: "I am…" (As he starts talking, one of the Garden Faculty members approaches, each step audible.)
Garden Faculty: "Headmaster Cid, you have some business in your office…"
They passed Squall and Zell, but not Seifer. So they're blaming the breach of orders on Seifer, but not his subordinates. In fact, they hold these subordinates to have done so well that they deserve to graduate as SeeD, while Seifer is held back again. I can sort of see a logic for it - 'it's always correct to obey your superiors so you can't be blamed for obeying the wrong orders, but you can be praised for executing them well' - but they have to be knowingly slighting Seifer.
…
It also means that Squall's behavior was exactly correct. His deferring to Seifer's authority as an excuse to hide the fact that he wanted to cut loose as much as Seifer did resulting in Seifer, the Captain, suffering the full punishment, while Squall is rewarded.
Balamb Garden's core principle: Always obey authority, and you'll be given the chance to kill as you will.
Seifer is a fucking dick, but I actually feel kind of bad for him here. He seems fully cognizant of the kind of institution Balamb Garden is, and doesn't give it any respect because of it, and seems to be just using it as a means to fulfil his dream of going out and earning glory. And given that they passed Squall, which given how well Quistis reads him they have to know he's got largely the same motivations as Seifer, it seems like his only crime in their eyes is not falling in line well enough. They have no problems with the kind of person he is, they just want one they can better control.
Also Cid seems much more lenient of him, when he must know what kind of person his student is, which I'm not entirely sure how to take. His actions this update seem to portray him as a doddering principal figure who's doing his best, but is being led around and controlled by the Most Shady People Ever, but given Seifer's actions it kind of makes Cid seem like someone who's fully willing to hand a violent and impulsive young adult official paramilitary backing and sending him out to raise hell on some battlefield.
All I'm saying is my "Cid is the true mastermind behind every evil in FFVIII" theory is still alive and well.
This is a step beyond 'to you, this a life-or-death battle for the freedom of your homeland against foreign aggression, but to me, it's a high school graduation exam.' SeeD seems to have made a calculated choice to make an example of Dollet - we showed up just long enough to roll over all opposition, annihilate the Galbadian presence within the city, seize the Comm Tower, destroy the Galbadian mech, and then immediately withdrew without giving Dollet's forces time or resources to actually consolidate their position.
This also throws the SeeD exam into a whole new light. This isn't
just using an active military conflict as a practical test for their mercenary students, this is actively snubbing Dollet and sending a message that if they're not going to pay up, they're not even going to send real mercenaries to their battlefield. They'll just use it as an exam and walk away as soon as they've done the bare minimum the contract stipulates.
(Or if they're feeling particularly peevish, I'm sure Balamb could pull out before then anyway and muster up a halfhearted excuse of their client not providing enough information or misleading them as to battlefield conditions. If SeeD is as much of a gamechanger as this update suggests, there's only so much a client could do in response, and I have no doubt Balamb would pull that kind of stunt if they really wanted to stick it to a client)
I'm not crazy, right? It feels like these guys are managing Cid. Between cutting him off when he was starting to tell Seifer that he didn't want robots for students and initiative was good, and cutting him off now when he's starting to tell us that we're more than just soldiers and he has a great plan of some kind, both times distracting him with a 'meeting' and telling him to cut it short…
It almost feels like Cid isn't really the one in charge. I know this is a huge stretch from two minor incidents we've seen so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if all these 'meetings' weren't the Garden Faculty regularly taking him to the Mind Control Room to adjust his behavior.
No this is exactly the vibe I was getting from this update, everything surrounding Cid and the Faculty
screams of a sinister background force manipulating a well-meaning but clueless old man. Which like I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure how to take, because even at it's most generous Cid has to be at least partially complicit in the mercenary organization Balamb Garden is today. Unless it's a really coldly calculated approach to make him seem more friendly and well meaning, to throw the scent off him from anyone that
does get suspicious and look into matters, but that might actually be reaching.
When it comes to a Mind Control Room though, I can't help but think about the referenced potential for GF junctioning to cause memory loss. If Cid was an early adopter of the technique and got his brain scrambled in the process, that could certainly create an opening for some sinister organization to move in and take over. But again, with how shady the Garden is as a whole I'm kind of at a loss as to where to take this without getting into Wild Speculation.
Incidentally this also tells us that the use of Guardian Force junctioning is unique to Balamb Garden; neither of the other Gardens (Galbadia and Trabia) use them, nor do any of the world's militaries. SeeD's godbound teenagers truly are a unique fighting force in the world.
If they are truly as disproportionately powerful as they seem, then I expect that won't last forever. "Memory loss" may be unfortunate, "personality alteration" (if we take from the FR even more so), and there may be drawbacks we have yet to hear from… But a conquered country is a conquered country. If SeeD is as much of a game changer as our early performance in Dollet suggests, it won't be long before other nations have no choice but to follow suit. But it may well be that we're still early in the development of this new military system that nobody has caught up yet. After all, none of the SeeD we've seen so far seems any older than twenty.
I'm going to be honest, this whole time I thought SeeD was just the name of the active combat section of the Gardens, not a new and experimental force of
one of the Gardens. That
does explain why Selphie would want to transfer to Balamb a bit better I suppose. Though now I'm wondering what the other Gardens focus in, do they focus on more mundane mercenary organizations or something?
And with the reference to Balamb being the first Garden constructed "in accordance to headmaster Cid's vision" or whatever the quote was, I thought that was referring to the idea of the SeeD program and giving students incredible cosmic power with frighteningly little oversight. This update is raising a lot of questions that I'm interested to see the game's response to.
Oh yeah, all monsters are moon aliens that have rained down on the earth in an apocalyptic event.
... well then. Moon's haunted I guess. Talk about unexpected pieces of lore to just tuck away for a player to maybe stumble across. This one strikes me as particularly odd because there being giant monsters in a Final Fantasy game is one of the last things I'd ever question, so it's certainly a choice to explain them like this.
You're right, we're definitely going to go shoot the moon ghosts with a sword gun by the end of the game.
