Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
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...Actually. I was just thinking on that some more, reading your post, and I realized:Kuja said:
What odds is Quistis giving herself for there being an "after this" for her?
There's a lot that could go wrong with this plan, and she and her team are going to be right there, next to the controls for the gates the sorceress just saw drop. Sure, they're inside a pretty sturdy-looking building, but can the sorceress, the wicked witch of legend, punch through it? How much is Quistis willing to bet that she can't, or that she won't reach through with mind-control powers, or tank the hit, beat the sniper team, and then go after them?
Quistis is a professional on a vital mission, so she's doing it anyway. But I'm now thinking that maybe she wanted to apologize to Rinoa now because there did seem to be time now, and she was thinking it was more likely than not that apologizing to Rinoa, or not doing so, might be pretty much the last independent act as a person she'd ever have a chance to take.
"How many sharpshooters do you have here, by the way?"Gun Jam said:
"Well. We've also got a kid who shows real potential! But, uh, she's six and can't actually lift the rifle this mission will require yet, so..."
...Hm. Why, though? What would he gain from that that's worth the risk?21stCentury said:
There does seem to be something of a divide between people who look at that speech and can't figure out why the crowd is cheering instead of fleeing in panic, and people who look at that speech and think "Yep, totally makes intuitive sense they'd genuinely cheer for that." and have to step back and deliberately think that maybe actually they shouldn't be cheering for her.SerGregness said:
Well... my own interpretation is that the game leaves it ambiguous whether Irvine really would have killed her if he'd taken the shot immediately? Maybe she'd still have been able to get the shield up -- but maybe it was the delay that gave her the chance to realize what was going on and ready herself for an attack.Guile said:
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- Portugal
Damn, the Sorceress delivered presence and ominous mystique in spades. The barbed speech and the whole scene around it, as well as her contemptuous mastery of magic paint an unnerving picture of what she might want and what she is capable of. It's really interesting that's where disc 1 ends, with a chilling apparent defeat for the main protagonist after a sequence with half a dozen different things each building heat for Edea.
But Squall managing to guide the anxiety-frozen Irvine like a leader with a moment of unexpected empathy, after running into a wall when cold commands simply can't help, is a remarkable sign of improvement on his part. And I think it's not just Squall relating to him in that moment, it feels like it's also Squall shaking off his own cold and mercenary affect in a moment when the chips are down and acting on his better nature, rather than calculated.
(I wouldn't have thought of it without your read on how the assassination plan shakes out Omi, but maybe this bit - more clearly than other elements - makes an interesting statement about how the cast manages to pull off the plan despite the chaos convoluted to disrupt it.)
Aside from that, it seems like there's genuinely a lot of character beats stuffed in this sequence, from the unmasking of Irvine's enormous stress and sense of anxiety about the ramifications of what he's expected to do, to Squall's perhaps questionable inner musings about incompatible perspectives being the cause of conflict rather than clearly drawn moral lines, to the ambiguous situation with Seifer's motivations to be here, to Quistis's impulse to apologize to Rinoa, and to the setbacks and anxious efforts to validate her contribution in something that Rinoa keeps going through. Rinoa has it rough, she keeps landing on unfortunate outcomes that don't match the courage she put in to attempt something, and having no one available to comfort her or support her in a constructive way.
Excellent let's play updates, fascinated to see where this goes next.
But Squall managing to guide the anxiety-frozen Irvine like a leader with a moment of unexpected empathy, after running into a wall when cold commands simply can't help, is a remarkable sign of improvement on his part. And I think it's not just Squall relating to him in that moment, it feels like it's also Squall shaking off his own cold and mercenary affect in a moment when the chips are down and acting on his better nature, rather than calculated.
(I wouldn't have thought of it without your read on how the assassination plan shakes out Omi, but maybe this bit - more clearly than other elements - makes an interesting statement about how the cast manages to pull off the plan despite the chaos convoluted to disrupt it.)
Aside from that, it seems like there's genuinely a lot of character beats stuffed in this sequence, from the unmasking of Irvine's enormous stress and sense of anxiety about the ramifications of what he's expected to do, to Squall's perhaps questionable inner musings about incompatible perspectives being the cause of conflict rather than clearly drawn moral lines, to the ambiguous situation with Seifer's motivations to be here, to Quistis's impulse to apologize to Rinoa, and to the setbacks and anxious efforts to validate her contribution in something that Rinoa keeps going through. Rinoa has it rough, she keeps landing on unfortunate outcomes that don't match the courage she put in to attempt something, and having no one available to comfort her or support her in a constructive way.
Excellent let's play updates, fascinated to see where this goes next.
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
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- They/them
There wasn't any clear 'thing to do while on leave', so I decided to try and get into some random encounters in the otherworld. I'll admit, part of my purpose in this was getting tired of Squall being 6+ levels above everyone and fucking up the encounter leveling, so I hit him until he passed out (everyone found that very cathartic) and had Quistis and Selphie fight some monsters.
Oh no, Squall is down!
Love the mental image of Squall getting beaten to death with hammers and then Selphie and Quistis just Weekend At Bernies his corpse around the Galbadian countryside for a while so they can have White Girl Summer.
…appears to send all the enemies to the Opening Movie dimension where they frolic in that same field of flowers Rinoa did in the intro cinematic and then all die.
Selpie's Limit Break be like
"Kill yourself <3"
Oh, my god, she literally does the laser eyes meme and obliterates her opponent. Incredible stuff.
People have surely explained what Aura does already but people who post that aren't me aren't real, so here's something amusing from the wiki; I mentioned that status effects the character suffers are used to calculate their overall Limit Level, which can 'overcap' into higher Crisis Level to both improve their odds of achieving Limit and improve their Limit's performance, yeah? The effect of status on this value is 'Status Bonus', which is 'Status Sum' multiplied by 10, so the more status effects you can add up together before that multiplier the better your final Limit Level calculation. This ranges from 15 to 45, with most statuses - like the aforementioned Darkness - having a value of 30.
Aura is worth 200.
So yeah Aura is pretty good if spamming Limits is what you want!
Okay but genuinely what are Quistis, Zell and Selphie supposed to be doing after they've pulled the gate lock. Do they run away? Sit and play with themselves? Why did the plan just not talk about what they do after their objective??
Edea: "...Lowlifes."
Edea: "...Shameless filthy wretches."
Edea: "How you celebrate my ascension with such joy."
Edea: "Hailing the very one whom you have condemned for generations."
Edea: "Have you no shame? What happened to the evil, ruthless sorceress from your fantasies?"
Edea: "The cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many nations?"
Edea: "Where is she now?"
Edea: "She stands before your very eyes to become your new ruler. HAHAHAHAHA."
Edea: "A new era has just begun."
Average conservative politician speech.
Gotta give FF8 credit, genuinely flabbergasted that Squall actually said words outside his own head and acted like a leader for once. And not only just to coax Irvine into shooting, but comfort him after it failed. It makes me wonder exactly why he finally pulled his head out of his ass, because not much has directly happened to him. Maybe it was the Seifer blowup about mortality that finally made him realise that his job carries serious risks and his conduct has consequences for himself and everyone around him. Maybe it was purely the "he just like me fr" factor upon seeing Irvine's mask slip. People are often much better at recognising and working around what they see in others than themselves.
As soon as the battle starts, Rinoa and Irvine arrive as our backup. One can only assume they weren't as swift as Squall in jumping down the clocktower and stealing a car. This is why he's in charge, guys.
Okay seriously though where's Team 2, did they stop for sorbet, in what world could Irvine and Rinoa beat them to the parade vehicle. They could be offscreening the Zuul dogs that Edea summoned I guess but I didn't see any indication of that!
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I see it as more like that one Twilight Zone Episode, only this is a brief gag on the PS1 so the field is an empty grassy field instead of a cornfield
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
I'm going to laugh if The End is literally the ending of the game. Which would mean that Selphie isn't killing the enemies she hits with it, she's punting them forward in time so they're a problem for future her, not present her. So after Squall and Rinoa no doubt have their romantic finale in that field of white flowers from the opening credits, and the screen fades to black with The End fading in on the corner...they suddenly get jumped by every boss and generic enemy you used The End to cheese your way out of fighting.
You see viewers, this is what we in the business call 'Foreshadowing."
Oh no, Squall is down!
Because at the end of this update, Squall Fucking Dies.
Zap mentioned it, but yeah, The End? Strongest Limit Break in the game if you manage to roll it, because it does exactly what it says on the tin, instantly ends the battle. You're fighting the final disk super ultimate secret boss with twelve billion HP that oneshots your fully junctioned Level 100 party? Nah, not anymore, Selphie just introduced them to the power of Love and Peace!But she has unique options, including Full-Cure which heals everyone to full HP, and even more strikingly, her ultimate LB, The End, which…
…appears to send all the enemies to the Opening Movie dimension where they frolic in that same field of flowers Rinoa did in the intro cinematic and then all die.
In general, a lot of Blue Magic items will just drop or be stolen from specific enemies. In particular, just look out for ones where the scans say something like "Uses this Specific Named Attack", or of course just use a recognizable Blue Magic from previous games themselves.
Or of course you can just dive into refining cards and get like half the Blue Magic in the game before fighting Ifrit. Either or.
As for Aura, yeah it's basically a short buff that gives everyone a much higher chance to proc their limit breaks, along with making it possible to do so without being at critical HP (similar to how Seifer could pull out his limit break back in Dollet more easily than Squall or Zell).
...You know, somehow I never thought about this before, I just went "yo cool car Squall" so I was fine with it.
I feel like the end of Disk 1 is... probably the lowest point for Rinoa and my opinion of her. She has a lot of character, and wants to accomplish things, but as both Squall and now Quistis have pointed out she's all enthusiasm and not all that good at the actual "coming up with a good plan" part of things. That's not even getting into how her father, dick though he may be, is still right (gameplay/story segregation aside) that she's nowhere near as capable as a bunch of magically enhanced and trained child soldiers.Quistis is… less than impressed.
I mean, her questions make perfect sense. On its face, if we assume that the Bangle works, then a garment that would neutralize the Sorceress's power would be invaluable… but that requires getting it on her. This is an item that has two real uses - as shackles for a captured opponent, or as something you'd sneak on them with an elaborate plan to trick them into putting on. The first angle would require achieving their objective of neutralizing Edea to begin with, and the second angle would require significantly more prep work than they have available.
She is pretty aggressive about it, though. Once again, that same accusation of treating this whole thing like a game, a proxy for her father-daughter dispute. Quistis shuts Rinoa down, and leaves; once alone, Rinoa slumps down, muttering that this isn't a game to her, clearly depressed. Those series of rejections have done a number on her morale.
Well, I'm sure she'll get better, we still got 3 more disks to go, and someone has to take over for Squall's Corpse as party leader. God knows it won't be Quistis.
Quistis, barely two days after getting fired from her job as an instructor because she has mediocre leadership: "I'm going to make what's a terrible leadership position immediately".
Now granted, on the surface she probably looks like a better choice than either Zell or Selphie for this operation, and things do work out in the end, but somehow I don't really see either Zell or Selphie deciding to abandon their post just to go apologize to Rinoa in the middle of a vital, multi-part mission, at least if they were in charge.
Can't wait for the New Frame Plus video in 2047, right after Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 6 releases!
Really though you're right, finally having fully realized, actually human-resembling 3D models does a lot for the personality of the characters, much like FFVI did a lot back in the previous generation as an upgrade from the condensed spritework of previous game.
I totally didn't appreciate Edna enough as a kid, she's got some top tier introduction goin on here.
Man, all that scrambling back in Timber over how terrible it would be to actually assassinate this guy and it's apparently this simple. Guess the people really did hate him!President Deling, clearly concerned with the contents of Edea's speech, yet interestingly not so concerned that he'd call guards or worry about his safety, instead approaches her and asks "E-Edea… Are you alright..?"
Edea's response is to stab him through the chest with her claws, effortlessly lifting him up into the air as purple flames engulf his body.
Edea: "This is reality. No one can help you now. Sit back and enjoy the show."
One might expect confusion from the crowd, even a wave of panic, if not at Edea's speech, at least at the apparent public murder of their leader. But no. The camera pans up over the crowd, just as vast, just as enthusiastic, still cheering.
I do wonder just how much of an unexpected turn this was for Deling though, considering he's apparently familar enough with Edna to react with "whoa wait are you okay" instead of panic or fleeing.
Jokes aside about Most Hated President In FFVIII History, I would be entirely unsurprised if it's some kind of widespread mental effect. Edna's clearly been mentioned to have mind control abilities multiple time, and is already actively demonstrating them in this scene with Rinoa (not to mention how the parade just... goes on with zero real reaction to her summoning monsters in the middle of the city).
I suspect Squall is just doing his usual thing of repressing emotions and defaulting to "Follow the mission, follow the mission" here. Like, he probably is worried about Rinoa, but this is just his way of coping instead of leaping out to try and save her.Irvine shakes Squall's shoulder, telling him Rinoa's in big trouble and they gotta help her, but Squall brushes him off - the gate's not open, they can't head in.
…
Again, Rinoa managed to sneak into the residence perfectly well on her own. I don't know what this is about.
...Also, considering the sewer manhole nearby, maybe that's how Rinoa got there in the first place and the party just doesn't realize it's an option that would escape being seen jumping the gate in full view of the guards? Though then that becomes "okay but why didn't Caraway send SeeD through the secret sewer passages under his house instead of having them run their assassination in broad daylight running around the city".
Zell - Strong enough that he can almost accidentally derail a train by punching the floor inside of it
Also Zell - "Damn this glass be THICK can't punch that"
Considering it's already been established the game can just swap magic and junctions automatically with the Laguna sequences, would probably be nice if each party swap just auto-swapped your junctions between characters. Something like Squall <-> Quistis because group leaders and so on, and if the player isn't satisfied with that they can always play with things a bit more themselves.
I genuinely remembered this as being Squall and Irvine just leaping up the boxes in comparison to Rinoa because trained supersoldiers in comparison to semi-civilan girl... but nope, apparently boxes too stronk.
To be fair, both Iguions also have Esuna in their draw list so that's an option to counteract Petrification. Apparently Esuna cures all status effects in this game, dunno if it countered petrification in previous games.
And understandable reaction to many a shitty dungeon. Thank god FFVIII gives you Encounter-None so early.
I think she's just got a bad case of Resting Bitch Face, personally, because basically every little FMV in the Disk 1 conclusion that shows Edna looks exactly like that.
Squall pulling up his stats screen and finally leveling up Leadership just in time!
Really though, it's nice to see the designated leader of the group finally start to exhibit more proper leadership skills. He's always had the "accomplish the mission and follow orders" part down perfectly, don't get me wrong, but that's only one part of what makes a good leader, isn't it?
I mean... maybe if we caught her by surprise instead of slamming some giant metal gates in the way and then stuck our thumbs up our asses for the next ten minutes? Like, you know, just sniping her in the middle of the still active parade with no warning?
Ah well, on to Plan B.
Bold talk for a guy I killed in two hitsFirst, off, he opens the fight with-
...What do you mean 80+ Strength at this point in the game is cheating? Git Gud Scrub, no wonder you didn't make SeeD.
I just snipped this to say oh god Carbuncle is so adorable.
And also one of your only options in the game for multicasting a buff, because FFVIII.
I can't believe SQUALL IS DEAD
Guess Square had to one-up themselves on killing off a major character at the end of Disk 1 previously, this time they kill the main character and tell you to figure it out from there!
Really though, I heavily considered recruiting the spoiler thread posters to all come in after this update and try to gaslight you with "Squall is actually FRFR dead ded", probably could have been hilarious. Buuuuut yes, it's a pretty obvious fakeout considering we've had decades of Squall being plastered as the face of FFVIII in other media. Plus, who would they even pick as the new main character? Other than Rinoa he's pretty much the only member of the party who has those... main character qualities, kinda.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Unless you went straight chi build like I did, of course. Then it was annoying because he was a lot better at that ability than I was.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Look man, the game gave me slow time, what am I gonna do, not slow time?
daniel_gudman
KING (in land of blind)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It is kind of funny that this game takes "you just fukkin' lose in the cutscene" and turned around and gave that to Selphie as a special move. Probably the least-satisfying way to win a fight in a video game I've ever experienced, just a random-slots "never mind, you win"
Although now that I think about it, it feels strangely under-cooked that Selphie didn't have sorta, a little minigame for her Limit? Squall has his little proto-Quicktime Event, Zell has his little fighting game combos, it seems weird that Selphie didn't get a rehash of like, Tifa's little slot machine thing.
Although now that I think about it, it feels strangely under-cooked that Selphie didn't have sorta, a little minigame for her Limit? Squall has his little proto-Quicktime Event, Zell has his little fighting game combos, it seems weird that Selphie didn't get a rehash of like, Tifa's little slot machine thing.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Another example of this: "Who gets to go first?...How about...me."
If you know, you know.
That's been a trademark ability of Slots ever since Final Fantasy introduced it, to be fair. FFVI had Setzer's Joker's Death which would kill all enemies (barring some select bosses), FFVII Cait Sith has Game Over which can even kill things like the Ruby/Emerald Weapons iirc, and now FFVIII Selphie has an option that can do similar.
That said, it's kind of a toss up who gets a cool minigame limit and who doesn't in FFVIII. Squall gets his quicktime rhythm game, Zell gets combos, and Irvine makes you pull the trigger to mow down your enemies, but Selphie is just spamming "Reroll", Quistis just selects an option you want from a list, and Rinoa is basically just Seifer-tier "click limit, something happens I guess".
For better or worse this is basically a tradition. Setzer and Cait Sith's slots also both had the ability to insta-win against everything. Although at least with them there are battles where you can't pull that result (except both games have ways to get around that limitation due to bugs) and if you get close but fail the last reel your party gets wiped instead.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Those also were balanced by being on Setzer and Cait Sith, and thus not likely to ever be actually seen by a decent chunk of players
That, plus the fact both versions of them were "get 3 in a row of the best slot option to kill all your enemies! Also btw if you miss the last one your party dies instead". Selphie's slots are just "mash that Reroll button like you're playing a Mario Party Minigame until something good shows up", though The End might not always be in the slots rotation if I'm remembering exactly how it works. Sure, you can still be attacked while rerolling, but that's easily beaten by just queuing up a few longer animations with other party members or casting defensive spells first.
NexysDhyArchen
Throne Breaker
Imagine the world where, after Edea tanks Irvine's shot, a second shooter from the grassy knoll whom the General didn't inform the untrustworthy child soldier mercenaries about shoots her after her shield clearly drops.
Half Moon
In the end, there is no end.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That moment where Edea declares her hatred for the cheering crowds? That's an excellent moment. I love it, and I personally think that any plot holes are made up for by the fact that it's awesome.
I don't know what happens next, though. My suspension of disbelief may be strained further in the future. But right now, I love Edea.
I don't know what happens next, though. My suspension of disbelief may be strained further in the future. But right now, I love Edea.
I mean, if a fantasy witch suddenly appeared to murder Biden while calling the audience filthy wretches, I think
It's pretty realistic, idk what you're complaining about.
I mean, sure, there is the whole speech about the reign of terror, but it's not so different from the status quo anyway, and at least she's honest about her goals. I can respect a woman with a strong
SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MISS ONE?! Enemies find them and turn into a cutscene weapon!
Irvine: I can't do it, I can't be the one to shape history.
Squall: Fortunately, you won't be. The Great Man theory of history is wrong, you see. Everything that happens happens because of complex sociopolitical currents set in motion long before we were born, and individual people can only ride them or drown. Succeed or fail, your shot will only ever affect a minutia of historical records, but the ultimate outcome is already decided.
Irvine: Ok, I'm calmer, but now I want to punch you.
Squall: Many such cases. That's why I usually only talk mentally.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The whole 'everyone celebrates while Edea takes over' scene also brought us by far the most prescient part of Spoony's old review:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSZ7DpPeVw
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSZ7DpPeVw
Hold up… let her cook.Edea: "...Lowlifes."
Edea: "...Shameless filthy wretches."
This is kind of a wild power to just casually imply your antagonist has, though. If she can get literally the entire population of a city to cheer as she promises them their own destruction, without any noticeable effort, then what can't she do?
I guess our protagonists are resistant to her Dom Aura thanks to their GFs (lol), but do they have any reason to expect that, say, General Caraway wasn't caught in the citywide "love me and despair" field?
- Location
- Te Ika-a-Māui
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This thread Is Not Escaping The Accusations, huh.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
In the Japanese text, Caraway emphasizes that the plan to assassinate the Sorceress is one of those "at any and all costs" things; particularly, "any sacrifice that has to be made must be made". This includes compromising their identity and affiliation, so I think Caraway is re-iterating that this is going all in.
He does also mention that this plan is a complex one born from a lot of secret maneuvering and dealings (he uses "we" when talking about the people involved in the planning, but I don't know if it's a rhetorical "we"). It's plausible that there are other, less brawny aspects to the plan involving politics that Caraway has to handle, which might well be a power play as well.
Slight loss of nuance in the translation here. When Quistis was questioning Rinoa on how she planned to use the Odine Bangle, Rinoa's only reply was "Let's all figure it out together". Meaning she doesn't have a plan. And here, she says "I've been trying to figure it out too".
So Quistis is correct that there is no plan, and they have no time to come up with a proper plan. Meanwhile, Rinoa is used to how the Forest Owls do things, which is to huddle down on the spot and come up with a plan in minutes, while not considering all the angles of that impromptu plan.
It might be a clash of expectations, where Quistis and the SeeDs are used to orders and plans coming from on high, which they then execute to the best of their precision. Rinoa and the Forest Owls are used to a more ad-hoc arrangement where there is no higher authority, and so they have to come up with everything on their own, essentially winging it as they go along.
A weird part of this conversation is what comes before, where Irvine asks "Is it true that SeeD is not supposed to ask 'why' when we are given our orders?"
Which is weird because Irvine is also a SeeD, so surely he should know. I'm not sure if the English translation smooths over that weirdness.
Still, at least Squall does answer that question, albeit unhelpfully with "What would you do if you knew the reasons (behind our orders)?" And his lack of response to the follow-up quoted above feels like Squall just doesn't want to go into his Deep Thoughts at the moment, because he's a teenager and he thinks this is Too Deep For Others To Understand.
(For extra irony points, before Irvine asks his very first question about SeeD orders, he assures Squall that the Direct Assault plan will not be necessary, because he'll do the job.)
Selphie even mentions that this very simple mission of pressing a switch doesn't need three entire people on the Gateway Team. Which is a very sensible point if you assume Caraway's plan is going to go normally, including leaving only Squall and Irvine as the Direct Assault team.
When I first played FFVIII, this was an immediate clue that the Gateway Team is going to run into lots of trouble, requiring a full party. I just didn't expect that the trouble would be caused by Quistis.
The English translation did its best to interpret the more puzzling Japanese text, I think. There, Squall asks why the Sorceress is doing such a "gaudy" parade, and Caraway says the Sorceress wants to move to Galbadia Garden to use it as her base. Which is a non-sequitur, since we've seen that the parade is just making a loop around Deling City, as opposed to a procession to Galbadia Garden.
MINUS POINTS
The entire mission in Dollet had strict rules about staying in one's assigned area, and here is (former) Instructor Trepe running off and abandoning her post due to personal feelings.
Also Quistis tells Zell and Selphie to stay at the Triumphal Arch, yet they follow her anyway, so MINUS POINTS
Honestly this entire sequence feels like filler. As we saw, everyone ended up in their proper places for the plan, and Quistis never did manage to meet up with Rinoa for that apology, so getting trapped in Caraway's mansion and escaping was entirely unnecessary for the story. Even Rinoa's escape via the very slow locking mechanism, and Quistis and co. somehow missing her on the way out, felt implausibly contrived.
I suspect this was the writers wanting a way to temporarily limit Squall's party to Squall, Irvine, and Rinoa for the Sorceress battle, and lacking enough time or imagination to come up with a better way to get them together. So the Gateway Team has to have the other three people, but as Selphie says there is no need for three entire people to press one switch, so the devs shoehorned in a sewer dungeon to have them see some action.
It's interesting to see the differences between the English translation and the Japanese text for the misdeeds of sorceresses as told in history, while all retaining the same idea of "the sorceresses did bad things".
For example, "What happened to the evil, ruthless sorceress from your fantasies" and "The cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many nations" is, in the Japanese script, "The sorceress wearing terrifying clothes who cursed good people to die" and "The dreadful sorceress who mercilessly burned your fields to ash and froze your hometowns".
Also Edea says "fantasy" (幻想, "gensou") a lot, to make a point in her speech: sorceresses feature significantly in the "foolish fantasies" of the masses, and now they assume a "fantasy" that this fearsome sorceress is now their ally. So Edea will dispel that fantasy, and trap them in her own newly-created "ultimate fantasy" that is "not as kind as you think". It will be an "eternal fantasy" where life and death will be "sweet dreams", all of Galbadia will be her slaves, and it will all be an eternity of the rule of sorceresses.
So the cheering crowds even after this speech is a pretty big indication of widespread mind control.
I had a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this sequence when I first played FFVIII, because I was under the impression that this was a secret mission to assassinate the Sorceress.
So of course to get to the sniping point, the sniper team has to run through the parade in progress, past the dancers, in full view of the cheering crowd, to get into the mansion.
I don't think crouching is enough to stealth through all of that.
Squall's "Who knows" is harsher in Japanese: he says "How should I know", with the implication of "the heck are you asking me for".
Rinoa's "emotional training" line is more like "training to prepare your hearts" for the possibility of killing fellow SeeDs. Which makes a bit more sense, because that sort of training (as might be imagined) would likely lead to someone like Squall, whereas "emotional training" is too broad and rather implausible given that Rinoa has seen the SeeD trio of Squall, Zell, and Selphie in action, and "emotionally trained" is not a descriptor I would use.
Squall's ellipses thought is the English translation straight up deleting one of his lines, although I can understand why: it's just Squall thoughtfully repeating Rinoa's "rather it not happen" in his head. The implication is Squall is briefly considering and dismissing the possibility of not having to kill Seifer on the way to Edea, but it's not really significant for the story or characterization.
Interestingly, in the Japanese text here, Squall has not referred to Irvine by just his given name so far. It's always either "Kinneas" or the full "Irvine Kinneas". Or, more commonly, just "you" or not using subject-object in the sentences at all.
I forgot to check if this was also the case earlier, but Squall does switch to first-name "Irvine" when making the plans for the direct assault after the failed shot.
The Japanese text does have "SeeD" (in romaji), but "Garden" is just, well, "garden" (庭), and explicitly saying "... A SeeD. ... A seed (種) planted in a rotten garden". I assume players would also think Edea is making the link between "SeeD and Garden" with "seeds and gardens", but I think the Japanese script is playing it safe by making it especially obvious.
We know Irvine is back to normal, because in Japanese he says "I've been really uncool so far". He's not concerned about redeeming the failed shot, he's concerned about redeeming his cool image.
And again, Edea is making it obvious by saying "... SeeD. The accursed seeds."
When I played both FFVII and FFVIII on PC (in their original PC ports), I found that for FFVII, the FMVs were actually just there as plain files, which I could read straight from the disc. (I forget what format; I don't think it was AVI. MPG, maybe?)
FFVIII seemed to have encoded its FMVs directly into the game files, so there were no convenient movie files to be played. We can kind of see this by how some of the FMV cutscenes also allowed for the player models to move around, like Squall and Irvine attempting to infiltrate the mansion during the parade. It might be an advancement in development allowing them to do so.
Also I feel like FFVIII made a lot more use of motion capture, for both the FMV cutscenes and the regular character movement. FFVII might have used motion capture as well, but only for basic "this is how humans usually move their joints" ways, and the actual model movement was done by manually moving it in the 3D software.
Compare to the various FMV cutscenes introducing each character, like Zell's backflips or Quistis's exasperated sigh, or even Rinoa's "go away" handwave to Caraway.
I don't know if this is actually true, or if both FFVII and FFVIII used the same amount of motion capture, and FFVIII just had better software to capture the movement more faithfully.