And right around where Omi has stopped the last time he's played it. Will history repeat itself? Will the witch win once more? Everything depends on FFVII remake minigames.
Reinforcing my decision to just watch someone else play it.
(mostly because the combat didn't feel good, and I don't know if they fixed that, but still)
On the opposite side I genuinely enjoyed the gameplay, but am wondering if I'm really going to wait a year like I did for part 1 for it to come to PC, or if I'm now invested enough to actively just watch it as a movie with no commentary first.
So I don't remember if I mentioned this, but this is all new territory for me, mostly. I never played FFVIII back when it came out. In the mid-aughts my brother got it and played it via PS2, but I didn't watch save him showing me some of the final dungeon. And my exposure to the story is via Noah Antwiler's videos, but he only got into early Disc 2 before he wrapped the game up in one final video that heavily compressed the story and I don't recall it. So Omi is now breaking new ground for me as well.
As he will when FFIX rolls around unless I ever actually go fire up the PS4, DL tthe game (bought from the PSN store), and play it myself. BUt that's unlikely. Still too busy playing Grand Tactician: The Civil War, lol.
Reinforcing my decision to just watch someone else play it.
(mostly because the combat didn't feel good, and I don't know if they fixed that, but still)
So far, I'm enjoying the gameplay much more than I did in Remake. There have been a lot of little tweaks, a greatly expanded toolkit for every character, Synergy Abilities/Skills are really interesting to use, and I am running into much fewer flow-breaking damage gates on bosses.*
*To clarify, one of my major issues with Remake's boss fight is that in almost every fight, I'll throw a very expensive or rare move like a Limit only for it to turn out that I was 100 damage from triggering a damage gate that keeps the boss from taking any further damage from the attack and go into a cutscene action. This got obnoxious enough that I didn't really enjoy Remake's boss fights. So far, this has yet to be a major issue in Rebirth.
For instance, to take Cloud as an example, his basic square button "Attack," which could previously do either a combo of light attack or one big AoE attack, can still do that, but can now be chained with dodge to either make a combo of light ranged attacks, or to launch an opponent into the air and start a combo of aerial melee attack on them. This means Cloud is never left twiddling his thumbs while Barret is the only one shooting down flying enemies, it means you can pry an enemy away from a pack with an aerial combo, it gives it a lot of tactical variance.
I've been running through every combat challenge the game has given me so far just because I enjoy these fights...
...within a reasonable standard of difficulty. There is a mechanic with which you can 'weaken' some Battle Simulator bosses ahead of time, and trying them at 'full power' had me nope out very quickly.
WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE GOLD SAUCER! WE ARE GOING WE ARE GOING TO THE GOLD SAUCER!
A minigame mechanics tidbit for you, in the name of preventing you from going mad like I very nearly did just now, on the verge of biting my controller in half.
Playing the piano? If you're trying to do the songs and are having trouble with the game not registering your notes and are wondering if you're doing something wrong or that there's something wrong with your controller?
Increase the note speed by one, up from the lowest level. Fuck knows why but on the slowest speed it won't always correctly register your notes even when you do it correctly.
WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE GOLD SAUCER! WE ARE GOING WE ARE GOING TO THE GOLD SAUCER!
A minigame mechanics tidbit for you, in the name of preventing you from going mad like I very nearly did just now, on the verge of biting my controller in half.
Playing the piano? If you're trying to do the songs and are having trouble with the game not registering your notes and are wondering if you're doing something wrong or that there's something wrong with your controller?
Increase the note speed by one, up from the lowest level. Fuck knows why but on the slowest speed it won't always correctly register your notes even when you do it correctly.
Having seen more of the sorceress, I wonder if that provides an explanation for why the Timber Owls got such a good deal for their contract. If Garden knows - or at leasts suspects - how dangerous she is, they want her dealt with before she can make a move on the Gardens, and so putting some SeeDs in a position where they'll be in conflict with Galbadia would give them a chance to take a swing at her, with the Owls' contract giving them a fig leaf excuse should they be captured.
Though, if she's as big of a threat as she seems, I wonder why they sent some fresh graduates after her. Unless they don't know how dangerous she is, and figured Squall and co might die to her, and just sent them in as probes to feel out her strength, and see if they can go the assassination route, or if they'll need to come up with an alternative plan.
At the very least, I haven't seen anything else that would explain that contract yet, and mind-controlling magic user with eyes towards world domination is definitely an existential threat to the Gardens as they are.
Having seen more of the sorceress, I wonder if that provides an explanation for why the Timber Owls got such a good deal for their contract. If Garden knows - or at leasts suspects - how dangerous she is, they want her dealt with before she can make a move on the Gardens, and so putting some SeeDs in a position where they'll be in conflict with Galbadia would give them a chance to take a swing at her, with the Owls' contract giving them a fig leaf excuse should they be captured.
Though, if she's as big of a threat as she seems, I wonder why they sent some fresh graduates after her. Unless they don't know how dangerous she is, and figured Squall and co might die to her, and just sent them in as probes to feel out her strength, and see if they can go the assassination route, or if they'll need to come up with an alternative plan.
At the very least, I haven't seen anything else that would explain that contract yet, and mind-controlling magic user with eyes towards world domination is definitely an existential threat to the Gardens as they are.
I don't think "we have a contract with your insurrectionists" counts as even a fig leaf excuse. Acknowledging them as legitimate business partners at all is in itself a political statement.
Going by the first confrontation with the sorceress, it seems like the initial plan was to conceal SeeD involvement completely. It's all Owls' doing, they just happened to have three powerful competent and very handsome combatants on their payroll. Where did they come from? It's a mystery. They certainly would fit among the SeeDs, but they definitely aren't.
That would also explain the use of inexperienced SeeDs: their faces and fighting styles are not widely known (there is the issue of junctioning being supposedly unique to the SeeDs, but, well, the lack of narrative integration of GFs was noted repeatedly).
Then the plan went sideways thanks to Zell, and the Garden went, "Fuck it, coup time."
I don't think "we have a contract with your insurrectionists" counts as even a fig leaf excuse. Acknowledging them as legitimate business partners at all is in itself a political statement.
Given that we see Garden openly aiding Dollet during Galbadia's previous invasion, and that hasn't sparked any incidents by itself - and nothing about that operation suggested anything particularly noteworthy about it - if Garden tries to position itself as entirely politically neutral, will work for anyone who can pay mercenaries, I think trying to claim that "yeah the insurrectionists hired some mercenaries, they had the money for it*, if you're having trouble feel free to hire some mercenaries yourself" is at least an excuse that could save a bit of face in terms of diplomacy, even if it's pretty shaky by itself.
Of course the ideal scenario is SeeD's involvement is never actually discovered, but the idea would be to have at least some excuse on hand should everything go sideways. Zell spilling the beans on that was unfortunate, but at least somewhat planned for.
I do also wonder if the coup was always sitting there as plan B, or if that was something they had to scramble to figure out on the fly. I suppose that depends on how much of a threat they considered Galbadia at the time, and if Deling's address made them think they had to shift into high gear.
*the Timber Owls absolutely did not have the money, but Galbadia doesn't need to know that part do they
I do also wonder if the coup was always sitting there as plan B, or if that was something they had to scramble to figure out on the fly. I suppose that depends on how much of a threat they considered Galbadia at the time, and if Deling's address made them think they had to shift into high gear.
Well, they've certainly found the general quickly enough that there probably were talks about the possibility of forceful regime change, at the very least.
The plan itself is super shaky, so they probably didn't plan to execute the coup then and there. The reveal of a sorceress and Seifer's capture most likely prompted them to accelerate their plans.
As a reminder, last time, the SeeD team attempted to assassinate Sorceress Edea, failed, and Edea impaled Squall through the chest with an ice spike; he was last seen falling down from the parade carriage.
So. Today's lesson:
Surprise, It's More Laguna!
I had not initially expected it, but in retrospect it's obvious and I would have done the same as a writer. How do you keep up the tension of the cliffhanger at the end of Disc 1 when the player can just immediately move on to Disc 2? Present them with a slow-paced and suspiciously idyllic scene featuring Laguna instead while Squall and the others' fate remains uncertain!
This whole scene is scored by a simple, kind of sweet, kind of melancholy music that will play all throughout. It's hard to describe exactly what it evokes in me but it's kind of like… something sweet and fragile? Probably short-lived, but happy.
Laguna is inside a home we've never seen before, and a girl approaches to tell him that someone is here to see him; the translation is trying to convey she's talking in 'baby-talk,' I think, but using conventions I haven't seen before, like rendering 'you' as 'yoo' (I have no idea what that's meant to sound like) and others I've seen before like 'tawking' instead of 'talking.'
Laguna: "Huh? Me? What's this person look like?" Girl: "He was wearin' funny clothes. He's tawking to Raine right now." Laguna: "Hmm? Is he at the pub?" Girl: "Yup. That's why I came over to get yoo, Uncle Laguna!" (At this point, her dialogue box reveals her name as 'Elle.') "Am I a good girl?" Laguna: "No, you're not! It's dangerous to be out there by yourself. What if a monster comes and attacks you?" Elle: "It's only next door. It's ok." Laguna: "It's still dangerous!" (He crouches in front of her.) "And since you're such a cute little girl, the monsters will especially be after you! They'll catch you and then they'll suck all your blood out! If anything should happen, Uncle Laguna's gonna cry…" Elle: "I'll just call yoo, Uncle Laguna! You'll come rescue me, right!?" (She runs off.) Laguna: "H-Hey! Ellone! Wait!"
Okay, so they live in a town that is threatened with monsters, this girl may be a relative of Laguna or may just be someone he's formed enough of a bond with to be labeled honorary uncle (I'm leaning towards the latter for reasons that will soon be clear), and Laguna is both protective and scared and trying to get her to act more safely. All clear so far.
Laguna's bedroom includes a Curaga Draw Point, which is nice, and then a quick trip downstairs reveals…
…hm.
That is a lot of bullet holes.
That house was just riddled with machine gun fire, goddamn. So a place that has seen the scars of war fairly recently, and got messed up enough that fixing up a damaged home isn't really on the table.
Ellone tells Laguna she waited instead of rushing back out and asks again if she is a good girl, and he tells her that she is, then turns to the two pictures on the cupboard on the left and says to her mother and father that she's been a good girl.
Okay, so she's a war orphan. We're really underscoring that melancholy music with some serious tragic vibes, good to know.
When we head out of the house, it opens up on a public plaza, and Ellone waits on the threshold for Laguna to secure the route. Notably, the plaza isn't empty; it's full… of Galbadian soldiers.
They're not the enemy, though. In fact, they know Laguna personally as a fellow soldier, and chat a bit with him. No, instead, the town has random encounters with monsters.
They're your basic Bite Bug and Catcharpillar, nothing to write home about, but it's… Striking. This is a village under active Galbadian occupation, with soldiers patrolling the streets, and it is still so totally unsafe that people live locked in their homes and a single trip outside is a threat to one's life. What the fuck are these soldiers even doing?
The answer, it turns out, is 'not caring about the monsters to begin with.'
Soldier #1: "You think the Esthar soldiers are really comin'?" Laguna: "That was 2 years ago, right? They would've been here by now." Soldier #1: "But… You never know what a country ruled by a Sorceress could be up to…"
Soldier #2: "You seem to have recovered fully. Perhaps it's time you came back with the army?" Laguna: "C'mon guys, you could kill some monsters, too…" Soldier #2: "We're only on watch for Esthar soldiers. Screw the monsters." Laguna: "Give me a break, guys…"
Soldier #3: "I've been here 2 years. And boy, is it boring." Laguna: "It's a heckuva lot better than what Esthar soldiers do. They kidnap little girls, you know? I think they're looking for a successor to Sorceress Adel, the ruler of Esthar." Soldier #3: "If they come back again, I'm sure it'll be for Ellone this time." Laguna: "Hah! But they gotta go through me!"
So this is the bad kind of military occupation. Not that there is a good kind, really, but these soldiers actively do not care about monsters preying on the local population; they are here solely and entirely for the purpose of preventing a sneak attack by Esthar, the mystery nation that Laguna fought in Centra in the last flashback.
I don't remember if "Esthar is ruled by a Sorceress" is something we knew about previously, but if not, there we have it. The Sorceress Adel rules Esthar, and her armies are at the very least rumored to kidnap young girls to turn into a new Sorceress.
Should we take this as meaning that in the modern day, Adel has passed away and Edea is her successor? Hmm. Curious. But yeah, this is a bad spot for this town.
Anyway, having fought a couple of encounters just while crossing the plaza, we go back and enter the pub, whereupon Laguna tells Ellone that the coast is clear and she dashes between the two houses.
She immediately gets scolded for leaving the bar by Raine, who appears to be her caretaker as well as the bar's proprietor.
Laguna and Ellone have a really cute exchange where he tells her in mock children's speech that she got in trouble, Raine tells him to talk to her normally, and he tells Ellone that now he got in trouble too, and they both laugh.
But then… Enter stage right:
I love how hype he is to see his friend.
Kiros is here.
He's also no longer wearing his Galbadian uniform, instead wearing some kind of… Exotic outfit? That the other characters immediately remark on, and Laguna tells Ellone he's a good guy before joining him at the bar.
It looks like Kiros and Laguna haven't seen each other since the last flashback, which occurred a year ago. I was sort of off the mark with my read on the last pratfall on the cliff - it didn't kill anyone, but while it was played as a comedy beat at the time, it had severe consequences: Laguna spent 6 months recovering, being slowly nursed back to health by Raine, while Ward permanently lost his ability to speak. Kiros is the only one who made it out okay, recovering in only about a month, and has been searching for Laguna ever since.
…okay, so now I'm kind of wondering at the logistics of this. Like… Laguna is clearly in contact with the Galbadian army, they are literally right here. How did Laguna somehow end up stranded in a place where no one knew how to find and contact him? Weird.
Anyway, Kiros and Ward both left the army. Ward found a civilian job, but it's not a great one; he's a janitor in Galbadia's new state prison.
So he's literally a disabled veteran who is rewarded for his service by finding a dead-end job in the physical embodiment of the regime's ruthless authoritarian rule. You could… Pretty much take this out of any post-Vietnam American movie about vets, huh. Interesting.
Kiros, meanwhile, is wandering the world and just kind of bored. Life just isn't as fun without Laguna, although Kiros phrases this as Laguna being his entertainment, which Laguna takes offense at; he's been living a productive life here, he's not just some goofball! Raine immediately concurs with Kiros because Laguna can't catch a break.
Then we can ask Kiros a few questions. The greyed-out question would typically be Squall trying to figure out what's going on, but this time Laguna's reaction to that one is just… Weird.
Laguna: "...I think the fairies are here." Kiros: "...Fairies? Yeah, I guess so…" Laguna: "Then our work today should be a cinch." Kiros: "I'm looking forward to the battles."
I… think what's going on here is that Laguna and Kiros are aware of the SeeD group's presence, but because they lack any knowledge of it, they've been attributing these odd episodes of strange thoughts they hear to 'fairies'? And the talk about battles being a cinch suggests to me that they also sense that they fight better when these 'fairies' are with them. Which means that perhaps the power of Junction is being transferred to Squall, Kiros and Ward when the SeeDs dream of them? They are literally empowered by their presence.
Fascinating.
We covered Ward already, but the Julia question is definitely interesting because it's not at all going in the direction I was expecting. That is, I was always expecting Julia and Laguna's romance to end in some manner of separation or sadness or tragedy, but my theory up to that point had been that Laguna and Julia would father Squall, hence the connection-across-time between those two. It's… not looking that way, though.
Raine instantly recognizes Julia's name as that of a famous singer.
Raine: "You mean Julia, the singer?" Kiros: "That's right. Laguna really admired her and always frequented her night club." Laguna: "Shut up! So what if I did!" Raine: "Julia used to sing at a night club?" Kiros: "No, she didn't sing. She just played the piano." Raine: "Then the first song she released was 'Eyes On Me'?" Laguna: "H-How does the song go?" Raine: "You don't know?" Laguna: "Well, you never hear me hear it!" Raine: "I didn't know you listened to music. The song's about being in love… I really like it." Kiros: "Heard she recently got married." Raine: "Oh yeah! To some army general, right? General Caraway or something?" Kiros: "I'm not too sure." Raine: "I read in a magazine that her true love went off to war and never came back. General Caraway comforted her while she was feeling down. That's how they got to know each other." Kiros: "...So she didn't wait for the soldier to come back..?" Laguna: "So what! Who cares!? As long as she's happy, right? That's all that matters! (He turns around and leaves the screen.) "Ain't that right, Elle?" Ellone: "Right! Uncle Laguna and Raine are…" Laguna: "Ahhhhhh!"
(Side note: Here, Laguna's "Aaaah" overlays the 'Raine' bit of Ellone's dialogue box, so it's clear he's trying to drown out whatever she's saying because he's embarrassed..) Laguna: "OK, enough talk about this!"
I… Was not expecting this.
I mean, good for Julia. She finally wrote that song, based on that one evening with Laguna, and broke out into a superstar. He knew Madonna before she was famous. That's nice.
But also what's going on.
My second theory, after 'Squall is Laguna and Julia's son,' was 'Squall and Rinoa are the reincarnations of Laguna and Julia who couldn't be together in their previous life.' (My third theory was 'GFs are people and the reason why Squall starts the game with Quezacotl and Shiva is because Quezacotl is Laguna's spirit and Shiva is Julia's,' but that's more or less compatible with anything else, and the reason I thought that would matter would have been because Squall is unknowingly carrying around the deified spirits of his parents, but clearly not). Except if Julia married General Carraway, considering the timeline (Rinoa is 17, Laguna met Julia 18 years ago, Julia married Caraway at some point in the year that followed, Laguna and Raine know each other now one year later, so 17 years ago), it seems clear that Rinoa is General Caraway and Julia's daughter, and she was born while Julia was alive, and Squall is probably already born. So…
Yeah, no, I've played myself. The only way the 'parent' theory can still hold is if Squall and Rinoa are… Okay so if Squall is Laguna and Raine's son, and Rinoa is Julia and Caraway's daughter, then this would be a really weird kind of generationally displaced romance that I… don't really want to think about. And also I'm not sure the timeline would line up. Squall has to be born already by the time this sequence is happening, right?
…
Wait a second.
Outside of FMVs, characters in this game are identifiable primarily by their clothing and hair color/hair style due to low facial resolution. People have gotten on my case and made fun of me for mistaking Blue Girl and Rinoa.
But.
Light blue dress. Light brown hair. Yellow shoes?
The Mystery Girl from the infirmary and the prom ball is Ellone, isn't she?
I have no idea what's going on.
It's fine. We'll figure it out as we keep going.
For now, Laguna asks Kiros if he intends to stick around for a bit, and Kiros asks Raine if that's okay. She tells him he has to work for what he eats, but other than that he's welcome to stay. Luckily, it turns out a town plagued by monsters whose occupying military force has no interest in chasing them has one very obvious use for two ex-soldiers with nothing to do but a need to pay for rent!
I have complicated feelings about the way Kiros's visual design 'exoticizes' him as a Black character between his use of katars and his new outfit, but he kinda does look really cool.
Kiros: "What exactly do you do here?" Laguna: "It's like this. All the working men in this town were sent off to war. The only ones still left in town are old people, children, chocobos, dogs, and cats. And I'm sure you've noticed, but the monsters have made their way into town. This here town took real good care of me. So basically, I want to return the kindness. You're looking at the Monster Hunter of Winhill!" Laguna: "So as of today, you'll be my assistant. We're to patrol the town up to the town entrance! If we see anyone in need along the way, we help them. That's our basic duty!"
…
This is at least the second time this game mentions chocobos and I have yet to see one. You know when we saw our first chocobos in VII? Immediately after leaving Midgar. Where are the dang chocobos, game!? It's a conspiracy. They're hiding the birds from me.
Winhill, incidentally, was mentioned once in passing in Galbadia Garden as one of Galbadia's subject states along with Timber. It looks like not only was it conquered, but all the able-bodied men (and women? Laguna says 'able-bodied men' were sent off to war and Raine is still here, but he also says that only 'old people and children' were left, so it's not clear whether Galbadia conscripts women as well as men. Wonder if it's a translation issue.) were conscripted to fight in Galbadia's many wars.
I also get the strong impression that Laguna's role as Monster Hunter of Winhill is self-imposed. Despite the town's obvious monster problem, no one other than Raine (and even that's arguable, as we'll see later) seems to particularly want him to be doing that. In fact… Well, let's follow Kiros and Laguna on their 'patrol.' If nothing else, we'll get some gorgeous backdrops out of it.
This is some "The hills are alive with the sound of music" shit. Okay, so the color palette is a little gray and washed out, that's true. But still! Green hills rolling! Fields of flowers stretching under an azure sky! Quaint little fences around tiny little pasture fields! Snow-crowned mountaintops ringing the horizon! This is pretty much the same Alpine village where my grandparents had their vacation home where I would go in the Summer and Winter as a child. You can't really call it 'idyllic' considering the monster attacks, but this is some pure Alps energy.
…
Wait a fucking minute again.
The plot of The Sound of Music is based on [briefly goes to ask on Discord] a retired naval officer and governess who bonds with children over music over a backdrop of the rise of fascism and a coming invasion leading to them having to flee to Switzerland.
I mean… It's not a perfect fit, but… Retired military man? Stranger who's come to a falsely idyllic Alpine town and bonds with the children of a local? The rise of fascism in the background? Combined with the town's aesthetic, yeah, I'm calling it, FFVIII is pulling from The Sound of Music.
So how are the people? Nice too, I'm sure?
Old Lady: "It's been quite some time now since you've recovered from your injuries." Laguna: "Thanks to everyone in town!" Old Lady: "This here town must be quite dull for a young lad like yourself. Perhaps it's time you returned to Deling City?"
Side note: This shop is what a thread reader was referring to when talking about spending all the money you get in the next Laguna sequence because you don't keep it but keep the items, because Laguna in this dream gets a specific sum of money that is unique to the dream. It's not signaled in any way though, so I completely missed that was happening, also 3k is literally less than I get for like 15 minutes of existing as a SeeD, so I don't really think it matters, none of the items were unique.
Shopkeeper: "...The hell!? You've recovered. Now get outta here!" Laguna: [They hate me… But try to converse) Laguna: "I just wanna chat." Shopkeeper: "...How's Raine?" Laguna: "Uhh, she's doing fine." Shopkeeper: "That's good. But it'd be even better if you left!"
Yeah, so everyone wants Laguna gone. The Old Lady is polite about it, but she's clearly trying to nudge him to leave, while the Shopkeeper is actively hostile, and one of the Galbadian Soldiers none-too-subtly hints that maybe that he's back on his feet it's time to join up with the military again, yeah? Raine and Ellone are the only ones who aren't suggesting he should leave.
Which is a little strange, to me, at first. Because again, the town is overrun with monsters and Laguna is the only one willing to help. But… No, that makes perfect sense to me. Because Winhill was conquered recently enough to still have bullet holes in the interior walls of houses, and most of the able-bodied population was drafted to war, and it is currently under occupation by Galbadian soldiers who literally do not care what happens to the population.
Laguna may be trying to help, but he is also the only person here who is 1) a (retired) Galbadian soldier, 2) not currently part of the military. So everybody hates him for his association with the Galbadian army, but he's also someone you can talk back to and tell to fuck off without retribution from the actual military. The Shopkeeper is centering their resentment towards all the Galbadian troops on Laguna, and the Old Lady is nice-ish but she not-so-subtly wants that Galbadian soldier who is acting like he's her friend out of her sight, and the soldiers are like 'Laguna dude, why are you staying in this shithole when you could join the army again.'
But Laguna is just… Nice enough that he doesn't even seem to notice it. He's not completely naive, he knows the Shopkeeper hates him, but he's decided to put on a resolute face of 'everybody helped me and so I'll pay it back' no matter how obnoxiously people try to get him to leave.
There's another element to it, of course, which is that this was never Laguna's dream. He wanted to quit the army and become a world-traveling journalist, not get stuck in one village fighting monsters for the rest of his life. And Kiros points this out, too:
Kiros: "Hey, Laguna… Are you doing this patrol thing every day?" Laguna: "'Thing'!? What're you callin' 'THING'!?" Kiros: "Weren't you aiming to become a world-travelling journalist? You've heard of 'Timber Maniacs,' right? I had a talk with the chief editor. He said he's interested in any article related to world travel." Laguna: "That's great!" Kiros: "We should go talk to him sometime." Laguna: (Turning around) "Y-Yeah…"
As we get close to the village, Laguna turns and asks Kiros sheepishly if it'd be okay to stay a little longer. Kiros asks if it's to get more material, since writing about this beautiful little town Laguna's been spending so much time in seems like a good idea for his first article, and Laguna immediately goes no, then there'll be tourists and stuff, and Kiros jokes that he's afraid someone'll take Raine away, at which point Laguna runs away.
Incidentally, we've just learned the Doom Command, which allows us to inflict Doom (instant death on a timer) on enemies. I dunno if I'll really find any use for it.
We get back to the pub; Raine is upstairs with Ellone, but as we approach, we hear a conversation. Laguna wants to leave them to it and come back later, but Kiros has a hunch that this conversation is relevant and they should listen to it.
Ellone: "Raine… Are you going to marry Uncle Laguna?"
Well!
Such characteristic childish bluntness. Raine immediately denies it, but she does so with the characteristic demeanor of someone who has spent way too long making a list of all the little things that would make dating this guy a Definitely Terrible Idea, to the point that her dialogue boxes overwhelm the screen.
How do you even know he's talking in his sleep, lady, he has his own bedroom?
Anyway Ellone doesn't care about any of that, she likes Laguna and wants them all to be together, at which point Raine admits the real reason she's afraid of the idea: Laguna's true dream is to travel all over the world. She doesn't believe he could stay tied down in a little country town like this, even if he honestly tried. And that's… Probably fair, honestly.
Then Ellone, for whom all of this is a little high-concept, asks Raine if she doesn't like Laguna, and Raine says she "feels the same way" as Ellone, at which point Laguna emerges before this conversation can further cause him to experience too many Feelings to distract everyone with his battle report.
Also, Laguna and Ellone refer to Raine as the "Commander" and to Ellone as the "Assistant Commander," and Ellone does an excited pose and tells Laguna to 'report to the Commander!', which is unbearably cute.
Laguna: "Here's my report on today's patrol and monster extermination!" (He does a serious, hands-behind-back pose and turns to Ellone.) "Including Buchubuchus and Bunbuns that Assistant Commander Ellone oh-so-hates…" (He turns back to Raine.) "I've exterminated 12 monster(s)!" Raine: "Alright! Thank you. Shall we eat before you get started on your next patrol? I'll call you when it's ready, so wait in your room."
The Buchubuchus and Bunbuns aren't in the list of enemies in this area, and in fact I believe Laguna may have made them up, or rather Ellone did.
Ellone asks if Kiros will be with them for dinner, he agrees, and all that's left to do is head back to Laguna's room.
Kiros: "Hm? What's the matter?" Laguna: "I get scared sometimes. Scared of waking up somewhere else… Scared of not seeing Ellone…" Kiros: "Scared of not seeing Raine?" Laguna: "What happened to me? I feel… What is this I'm feeling?" Laguna: "Oh, please let it be this room when I wake up! Please let me be in this puny bed when I wake up!" Kiros: "Laguna, you've changed."
Fade to black.
And appear in Galbadia's Desert Prison.
…
Man, that got… A little bit chilling at the end right there, didn't it? Laguna's existential angst combined with the fact that it's very obvious this dream is about to end.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the thrust of this sequence is that Laguna has lost the wanderlust, the drive to go out and explore the world and write about it. Maybe he's afraid of that urge, of that dream. All he wants is to stay in this sleepy little town (aside from, huh, all the monsters that make it impossible for a child to set foot outside unaccompanied) with Raine and Ellone, and now he's afraid the Call of Adventure will pull him away.
It's notable to me that Kiros, the stranger who arrives one day to remind Laguna of the world outside, is also the one who is shocked at the development regarding Julia getting married and not waiting for her 'true love,' because Laguna seems… Resistant to that thought, to the idea of this soulmate he's left behind, because Raine is right here and he's… Probably genuinely in love with her? But to accept that, he has to accept that he no longer wants to travel the world.
It's interesting, isn't it, that the bit just after Squall was struck down and left for dead, is also the bit where we see Laguna stuck in a rut with no idea what to seek for in his future?
Speaking of Squall. I usually dedicate these updates to just the Laguna sequence, but this one was pretty short, so let's just keep going.
So! Zell was asleep, having his own Laguna dream.
Except when Selphie asks him how Laguna is doing, Zell reveals that it wasn't a 'Laguna' dream; he dreamed of Ward… The one character who was absent from that dream.
Zell: "It's not like I know everything about Ward, but… Well, you know Laguna and company went to that Centra place and got into a real fix, right? After that, Ward's been all alone. He's working in some sort of prison-like place. And he's bored outta his mind! All he wants is to be fightin' alongside Laguna." Quistis: "So, what is this we're experiencing?" Zell: "How the hell should I know!?"
…so it turns out the dreams can be disconnected. Zell can dream of Ward separately from someone else dreaming of Kiros/Laguna while they're in separate places. Also, last time, the dream captured Selphie, Quistis and Squall, not Zell, so it's not like Zell is 'permanently' bonded to Ward. The mechanics of all this are… Curious.
But then, Rinoa has a stroke of genius: If Ward was working in a prison, and he's Galbadian… Then he was most likely working in the Desert Prison, which is where they are most likely currently being held! At first Zell doesn't see where she's going and thinks these are 'stupid questions,' until finally he realizes that the very cell they're in is one of the cells Ward used to clean. This doesn't exactly help anyone right now, it's not like Ward stashed some secret keys behind a flower pot, but it's at least a point of familiarity they might be able to take advantage of later.
Rinoa reminds everyone that this is a prison specifically intended for political prisoners, and Quistis muses that it's no wonder since they attacked the Sorceress. Rinoa is afraid they'll be executed for attacking the president, but as Quistis points out, since the President is 'no longer in charge' (due to being fucking dead, one presumes), there really is no telling what will happen to them. As they speak, Zell wonders what happened to Irvine and Squall.
That last question is answered almost immediately by Squall waking up in some kind of hexagonal cell. He's still in the same clothes with no sign of injury, so I guess they just… Took him in, healed him, then put him back in his old clothes and threw him in jail? Best not think too hard about it.
…okay, never mind, he's explicitly drawing attention to the absence of any injury and wondering what the hell happened. However, he is quickly distracted from how weird that is when he tries to remember the fight and remembers Seifer "leering down at him," yells "Damn you, Seifer!" then tries to stand up and promptly falls to his knees.
Then a sick FMV plays out of that hexagonal cell he's in, which turns out to be a movable pod, being grabbed by a crane and moved through a massive vertical complex.
This is huge.
And also weird. The Desert Prison is a prison for political prisoners, isn't it? This has been emphasized repeatedly. Now, there are many ways to lock up political prisoners, with varying degrees of brutality, up to the full 'gulag where everyone fucking freezes to death' type of prison, but what you don't need to lock up a bunch of activists and anarchists and political nerds is individualized steel cell that are disconnected from each other and moved through a complex crane system.
Like… That is so extra. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it does make me wonder if there isn't more to the Desert Prison than we've heard so far. Like if it isn't used to house superpowered inmates, perhaps. Or perhaps we're retreading FFVII grounds and Galbadia has a prisoner-to-monster transformation program, although I hope not just for the sake of variety.
Back in the main cell, a group of guards comes in to harass the SeeDs (and also Rinoa). Zell reflects that he doesn't like the guy in charge at all, and the guy comments that they can now hear the sound of their friend being tortured (no sound effect to go with it so it's just kind of confusing). Zell asks what the hell he's talking about while taking a step forward, and the guards immediately flinch and point their guns at him.
Mean Guy: "Shut up!!! Don't screw around with me!!! You understand who's in charge here!?"
They're scared. I mean, they're touchy, and aggressive, and trying to be intimidating, but they're clearly actually, physically afraid of this unarmed teenager. Zell stomps the ground angrily; in a classic petty thug move, the Mean Guy gets up in his face, pushing on Zell's chin with is baton, but notably still with the other two guards pointing guns at Zell the whole time. He's only tough because he has guns to back him up. Then he decides to assert his power by beating on Zell, first by smacking him with the baton, then kicking him in the ribs; notably at one point Zell is angrily shaking his fist and starting to stand up, and one of the guards immediately gets up in his face and puts the gun to his temple so he'll stay still and let himself get beaten.
This is genuinely really well handled as a scene of petty brutality by a petty man who wants to assert his sense of power while being deeply afraid, where Zell is only being kept in check by the immediate threat of guns already pointed at him. That's going to matter in a moment.
Rinoa calls out to the guard to stop, and he does, although it's to ask if there is a Rinoa with them; our girl immediately names herself, which was probably not the best move but they don't have a lot of alternatives; the guard grabs Rinoa take her away, Zell asks what they want from her and gets kicked again, Quistis yells at them to stop, and the guards leave with Rinoa.
Things are looking pretty grim. Meanwhile, over at Squall's cell…
…Seifer has come to gloat.
He grabs Squall by the head, manhandles him and tosses him around the room, then orders the guards to take him away. There is a… Weird furry creature I didn't get a good shot of along said guards, we'll see it again later, and Squall is carried to the Torture Chamber.
No, seriously.
They have a huge metal slab with holds to put people into in a crucified position, for real. And it has ominous lightning too!
But of course, the real question is, what do they even want to torture Squall for? Well, sociological conceptualization of torture as a form of group-bonding behavior rather than genuine information-seeking aside, they have a question to ask him. There's just one problem.
It's not a question Squall actually knows the answer to.
Squall: "...What do you want?" Seifer: "Tell me what SeeD is. Edea demands to know." Squall: "SeeD…" Squall, mentally: "(...A code name, for Balamb Garden's elite mercenary force… SeeD… Combat specialists…)" Squall, mentally: "(.....???)" Squall: "...Don't you already know?" Seifer: "I'm not a SeeD. There must be some kind of secret you're given when you become a SeeD!" Squall: "There's nothing. Even if there were, you think I'd tell you?" Seifer: "You're on my 'tough-nut-to-crack' list. Didn't think you'd talk that easily." Squall: "...Geez, I'm honored." Seifer: "So here's a little something for ya."
(He motions to the guard, who pulls a lever, and electric current runs through Squall's body.)
…Metal Gear Solid was released in 1998. Now I'm wondering if there was a particular trend of Japanese games of that time period featuring a scene in which the protagonist is tortured with electricity using a high-tech apparatus and if so, where it came from.
The problem is, of course, that it doesn't work, and it has nothing to do with Squall's resistance to torture.
It's really clever, IMO. It's been obvious the entire time to us, the players, that there is something deeply sinister about Balamb Garden and SeeD as an institution, some secret of conspiracy they're involved in. And it's entirely fair for someone in-character to suspect the same. Seifer, specifically, has never been allowed to join SeeD, and as a result he resents the entire institution. So it's completely believable for him to become convinced that SeeDs have some sort of big secret that everybody in SeeD knows about that is revealed at their initiation ceremony, which he probably imagines to be some kind of sinister Illuminati-style introduction instead of being boringly invited to the Headmaster's office where he gives everyone a few platitudes and words of encouragement. And because SeeDs are elite operatives with supernatural powers, and Squall specifically is the one he is closest to actually respecting, of course they'd resist a little torture.
His logic is sound, and he's probably even right about the dark secret behind SeeD. He's just wrong about Squall knowing about it, but there's no way of convincing him of that. Squall protesting that he doesn't know about that supposed secret is just more proof of how tough SeeDs are and how much harder they need to push to break him.
I do wonder if the reason Squall doesn't know the answer is because SeeDs don't know, being merely tools wielded by the Garden Faculty and Master NORG, or if it's because the Timber Squad doesn't know, seeing as they graduated and were immediately sent on a dangerous mission and the Garden might have elected to leave them in the dark until they weren't risking capture by Galbadia. In the latter case, Quistis would actually know the answer. We'll see.
Seifer gloats that even if Squall doesn't talk, one of the others will; 'Chicken-wuss' wouldn't last three seconds. This actually reveals to Squall that everyone is alive and here in the prison, which is information he didn't previously have. I do love it when an interrogation scene is turned around with the interrogated character managing to draw intel from the interrogator.
Seifer: "I was hoping you'd be there, Squall. So… How'd I look in my moment of triumph? My childhood dream, fulfilled. I've become the sorceress' knight." Squall, mentally: "(...Sorceress' knight… His… Romantic dream…? But… Seifer… Now, you're just…) Squall: "...A torturer." Seifer: "What did you say!?" (No reply.) "Passed out cold, eh?" Seifer, waving his sword theatrically: "This is the scene where you swear your undying hatred for me! The tale of the evil mercenary vs the sorceress' knight… The fun's just started, Squall. Don't disappoint me now!"
(More electric torture; fade to black.)
Yeah, he has huge theatre kid energy, damn. His life dream was to become some kind of storybook figure affiliated to an almost unanimously hated and despised fairy tale character and now he wants Squall to be his fated rival. That's what he'd been seeing in him this whole time, wasn't it? The potential for a shounen rivalry, only in Seifer's head he's the Naruto and Squall is the Sasuke, or whatever.
Also another all-timer hit of Squall putting together a cogent reply to what the other person is saying but keeping 90% of it in his inner monologue so Seifer just heard him mumble 'a torturer' before passing out so it completely failed to land. Never change, Squall.
Wait, could it be?
Characters are casting Cure in cutscenes? Holy shit. I thought that wasn't allowed!
Yeah, I hadn't expected that but so far FFVIII is addressing my whole complaint about magic use in FFVII at multiple turns. Unfortunately in this case it doesn't work; the cell contains that old crutch of settings with magical superhumans, an anti-magic field. It doesn't fully suppress magic but it makes it weaker.
And then that fucking thing walks on screen.
It's like… A lion? It's like how Sonic the Hedgehog might choose to draw a lion or a maned cat of some sort. It has strong 'mascot' energy, I don't trust it. It's carrying some kind of plate, which it drops after tripping. It's not clear what it was hoping to do but Mean Guy hears it, comes in, yells "You again?" and proceeds to kick it several times, as if we didn't already know he's a petty, violent asshole. We're given a dialogue option to stand up and stop him, which prompts Zell to stand up tall despite his injuries to get in the way and for Selphie to do the same, calling the guard a big meanie. The guard goes to smack Zell with his baton again, but…
Well, the power has gone slightly to his head and he forgot the point of the previous scene.
Zell easily catches the baton, then shoves the guard back and puffs his chest. It's very clear he could just punch his head off his shoulder, but he doesn't, and the guard slowly back down while promising later punishment.
A coward, as was already clear.
The mascot sits up and Selphie asks it if it's alright, then casts another neutered Cure, which seems to help at least a little.
Back in the torture chamber, Squall was awoken by yet more electric torture. Seifer asks him what is SeeD and why they oppose the Sorceress, which confuses Squall; he clearly wasn't aware that SeeD and the Sorceress were some kind of sworn enemy factions, he just thought she happened to be one of their targets during an otherwise normal conflict. Before Seifer can add more, though, a prison guard comes in to relay a message:
Galbadia's long-range missiles, the advanced weapons that made them so feared across the world, are locked on Balamb Garden and ready to launch. Seifer is pleased, and turned to Squall to gloat some more: "Balamb Garden is to be destroyed on charges of training SeeDs to oppose the Sorceress."
…yeah, there have been some, ahem, changes in political direction since Edea took over, damn. Deling was clearly concerned enough about a direct confrontation between Galbadia and Garden to agree to the plausible deniability of the 'rogue SeeD' attacking him. Meanwhile, Edea is not here to play games, and is just going to nuke the place, consequences be damned. It's clear whatever SeeD is, she hates them.
Seifer laments that he grew up at Balamb Garden and it's a pity it has to be destroyed, but orders are orders. It really feels like his romantic dream of becoming a sorceress's knight mostly resulted in him being some fascist lieutenant who doesn't think beyond his orders and is happy to resort to torture and weapons of mass destruction. When Balamb Garden is destroyed, he explains, surviving SeeDs will be hunted across the world; Seifer will be "Edea's bloodhound" and hunt down everyone of Squall's kind. He asks Squall not to die on him, then leaves to tend to the missile launch.
Needless to say, Squall is horrified. He might not have a lot of attachment to a lot of people, but Balamb Garden is the only place where he belongs, SeeD is all his life, and now it's all about to be destroyed.
Unfortunately, there's nothing he can do. The guard left behind keeps torturing Squall and asking for questions Squall definitely doesn't have the answer to, until Squall is left with only two options:
…you know, one of my favorite tropes in fiction is when a character is caught in an impossible situation at the hands of another character, and they managed to get out of it by wildly bullshitting. Yeah, yeah, 'guy is so tough he gets tortured but never cracks' is cool and all, but really it's boring and uncomfortable to watch; 'guy reacts to torture by begging for his life and seeming to spill his guts while actually making up a line of total bullshit' is a much better beat, imo.
Squall: "...Flower." Warden: "What did you say?" Squall: "The true… goal of SeeD… To spread… seeds all over the world… Fill… the world w… with flowers." Warden: "Yeah right…!" Squall: "I… It's the truth. See… Seeing flowers… Takes… away people's will to fight." Warden: "What then? SeeD wants to bring love and peace to the world…? Ha haha hah! Don't make me laugh! You can't fool me!" Squall: "W-We… steal the will to fight… Then we in… invade…" Warden: "...What?" (He calls another warden off-screen.) Hey!!! Watch him!"
Fade out.
I love this. I love how Squall starts out with some absolutely bizarre nonsequitur, literally the first thing that comes to mind because he's being tortured and completely exhausted and worn down, literally just the word 'flower,' then starts spinning it into something inane (SeeDs are literally trying to plant flowers across the world), and then manages to save that nonsense by making it sound metaphorical and letting the warden's mind connect the dot - from 'SeeDs are literally trying to plant flowers' to 'SeeDs are trying to spread peace', which the Warden laughs at, because obviously that doesn't make sense for two reasons, first being that SeeDs are mercenary and war is their job, the other being that it's supposed to be a dark secret, something sinister they'd want to hide…
…which is exactly why 'We try to spread peace to make people complacent so we can invade them' is what sells it. That makes sense given what people believe about SeeD. That's a plausible dark secret for the organization to have. They're mercenaries who 'save' countries while making them complacent and weak so they can take over the world! That makes perfect sense!
And sure, as far as Squall knows that's not true, and it won't stand up to scrutiny because it's not what Edea probably wants to hear, but it accomplishes the immediate goal: getting the Warden to stop torturing him and leave because he now has his 'answer.'
It's clever, it shows improvisational skills on Squall's part of the same kind he talked about to Rinoa when talking about how he'd learned to dance, and it's, in my opinion, a more believable way out of a torture scene than just toughing it out. It's a great beat.
The alternative, "Just let me die," is a lot shorter and more grim, in that it has Squall insult the Warden in an attempt at making the guy mad so that he turns up the voltage as punishment and actually kill Squall, releasing him from the torture. It's certainly one of the darkest beats in a Final Fantasy game but it's also… Very short and while it ends with Squall thinking "Good night" and a fade out on him being electrocuted, but he'll probably be fine when we catch up to him again. I'm not going to give this one a thousand-word retrospective like Solitary Island, is what I'm saying.
Back in the big cell, the party is brainstorming ways out of this. Zell asks if anyone has suggestions, and Selphie has this incredible line:
Holy shit, Selphie.
I love how there is absolutely zero connective tissue between what Selphie loves or finds cute and why she's fine gruesomely destroying for the sake of the mission. Train? Blow it up with a missile! Cute furry mascot? Skin him for a disguise! The mascot immediately backs away in fright and she insists she was kidding (while doing the hand-on-head 'eto bleh!' pose to boot!) and Zell thinks that no, she didn't sound like she was.
What a girl.
The other characters continue to think: As SeeDs, they're trained in the use of magic, GFs and weapons, but the room has an anti-magic field, and their weapons were all taken away, leaving them powerless.
Except.
This is when Zell realizes, having somehow not thought about this until now, that his weapons are his fists. Everyone else is a specialist trained exclusively in the use of a specific weapon, but he just knows 'punching.' And, as Selphie points out, because he experienced this place as Ward, he knows the place's layout!
(Weirdly enough Zell mentally comments that this isn't really the case, 'all Ward did was mop the floors,' which doesn't seem like it would in any way change that he would know the layout of the prison which would be useful to Zell. Dunno why.)
It's time for Zell to redeem his fuckup at the Timber TV Station.
Somewhat disappointingly, their plan to draw a guard into the room is for Quistis and Selphie to just play dead and for Zell to call out the guards and say they need help because they fell unconscious and a snake might have bit them. It's a trick so old there is no way it should ever work, but one of the guards does enter the room to check what's happening, wherein he quickly finds out what happens when you're in the same room as Zell without two guns pointed on him.
Zell drops him in one punch, then Zell says it's time for him to head out.
…I was initially expecting him to slip out of the room somehow, but no, the door is now wide open, so why can't Quistis and Selphie just come with him?
I guess the idea is that it's too dangerous for them without their weapons because they could get involved in combat, so it's best if Zell looks for and retrieves their weapon or a means of escape himself, but… It does make me miss when the role of mandatory unarmed fighter was attributed to Tifa and it was a girl who would have done the whole daring punch-based escape thing, ah well.
Still, Zell has been mostly just comic relief for most of the game so far, so it's actually pretty nice to see him get a chance to be the big hero in a way that makes sense based on his skills.
One last thing, though… The little critter is coming. No, we still don't know what it is or what it's called. But it sure is there.
We soon run into a random encounter, the GIM52A, an autonomous robot. It's weak to multiple elements but its Spirit stat is so high it's not worth using magic that isn't very high tier; and it has 1736 HP, with Zell only being lv 11. It's a long fight, requiring several healing spells and a dozen attacks before it's over, and that's with just a random encounter. Damn.
…oh, yeah, magic works just fine. I'm going to choose to ignore that as a gameplay contrivance, because if the anti-magic field is only working inside the cell then there was literally no reason for Quistis and Selphie to stay in rather than go out with Zell.
One floor up, we find a duo of Galbadian soldiers studying SeeD's fancy weapons, one of them marveling at the rare gunblade.
Zell quickly approaches and says he's here to retrieve these weapons; the guards immediately engage him in battle but they are hilariously easy to defeat. Within moments, Zell has recovered all his comrades' weapons, and is headed back to the Cell.
As each of the three party members reclaims his or her weapon of choice, their model actually gets blown up to huge size at the center of the screen while striking dramatic poses, which is a really cool bit of 'We're back, baby' visual language that I really like.
Even the cat is contributing.
And with this… That concludes our update. Not the most conclusive of notes to end on, but the Gateway Team is now fully armed and loaded and ready to tackle the prison and, presumably, rescue Squall. There were some hiccups in the execution of Zell's solo escapade, but overall I liked it, and our boy needed a W after getting constantly dunked on in the rest of the game; "wait a minute, it turns out that guy's weapon is [fists]" followed by him punching his way through half the prison is a fantastic beat conceptually.
We're also seeing a lot of mysteries, between Laguna's story, the alleged secret of SeeDs, and the stakes have been hugely raised with the threat of Galbadia straight-up nuking Balamb Garden. Can we stop them? I genuinely don't know! A game like FF8 could easily go both ways, either 'we interrupt the launch and Balamb Garden sticks around to come back to once we're freed' or 'bye bye doomed hometown time to go into hiding with the rest of SeeD' and I think I might give it to the latter as the more likely option. Guess we'll find out!
I always liked the idea that the idylic field of flowers of THE END was censoring, because it is explictly not working against undeads , so clearly it is something horrible life draining .
Very fitting for Selpie as the nightmare fuel producer
Prison escape time! It probably won't get quite as simple as just climbing up the floors one by one. Or down, whichever way the entrance lies. Wonder why they took away Rinoa?
Sorry, I accidentally blurted out my own answer there. Either, there's no plothole you can't fix and no theory you can't force by adding sufficient doses of timetravel.
Rinoa is afraid they'll be executed for attacking the president, but as Quistis points out, since the President is 'no longer in charge' (due to being fucking dead, one presumes)
Omicron please, this is Final Fantasy Shounen Battle Academy Edition. You know there's a very real chance something as minor as dying isn't enough to stop the President.
He even had a zombie as his body double, so it would technically have been foreshadowed.
Yes the goal of SeeD is to plant flowers so Selphie can use THE END constantly, then unleash her as the Garden's ultimate weapon and conquer the world.
Back in the big cell, the party is brainstorming ways out of this. Zell asks if anyone has suggestions, and Selphie has this incredible line:
Holy shit, Selphie.
I love how there is absolutely zero connective tissue between what Selphie loves or finds cute and why she's fine gruesomely destroying for the sake of the mission. Train? Blow it up with a missile! Cute furry mascot? Skin him for a disguise! The mascot immediately backs away in fright and she insists she was kidding (while doing the hand-on-head 'eto bleh!' pose to boot!) and Zell thinks that no, she didn't sound like she was.
Holy shit. My brain is so fried from Rebirth I only have a tenuous mental connection to some of the previous updates so nothing more insightful from me but Selphie is Mad Quirky in a way I could not have possibly expected.
You say Ellone is supposed to be speaking childishly, but with that phonetic accent I can't read it in anything but a thick New York accent. Think Arleen Sorkin's Harley Quinn.
Laguna and Ellone have a really cute exchange where he tells her in mock children's speech that she got in trouble, Raine tells him to talk to her normally, and he tells Ellone that now he got in trouble too, and they both laugh.
While you may not have had the thought from his first two adventures, putting Laguna next to a kid makes it obvious that of course he's going to get along great with them! It's almost aquaman-ese how well his personality works with being an uncle, even with him being soldier.
Teenagers are probably going to be a problem though.
I… Was not expecting this.
I mean, good for Julia. She finally wrote that song, based on that one evening with Laguna, and broke out into a superstar. He knew Madonna before she was famous. That's nice.
But also what's going on.
....
Yeah, no, I've played myself. The only way the 'parent' theory can still hold is if Squall and Rinoa are… Okay so if Squall is Laguna and Raine's son, and Rinoa is Julia and Caraway's daughter, then this would be a really weird kind of generationally displaced romance that I… don't really want to think about. And also I'm not sure the timeline would line up. Squall has to be born already by the time this sequence is happening, right?
I think at this point, has FF8 created/broken up more ships then any previously FF game? I don't think there's ever been a story that plays with gunnerkrigg court style 'all the adults actually had lives and interacted with each other before the events of the story, and now the kids are living in the aftermath of that'. But we've had two ships basically confirmed in this sequence with another buried. I suppose Vincent's backstory came close, but what's being presented here is much much more human-like.
Kiros: "What exactly do you do here?"
Laguna: "It's like this. All the working men in this town were sent off to war. The only ones still left in town are old people, children, chocobos, dogs, and cats. And I'm sure you've noticed, but the monsters have made their way into town. This here town took real good care of me. So basically, I want to return the kindness. You're looking at the Monster Hunter of Winhill!" Laguna: "So as of today, you'll be my assistant. We're to patrol the town up to the town entrance! If we see anyone in need along the way, we help them. That's our basic duty!"
Kiros: "Hey, Laguna… Are you doing this patrol thing every day?"
Laguna: "'Thing'!? What're you callin' 'THING'!?" Kiros: "Weren't you aiming to become a world-travelling journalist? You've heard of 'Timber Maniacs,' right? I had a talk with the chief editor. He said he's interested in any article related to world travel."
Laguna: "That's great!" Kiros: "We should go talk to him sometime."
Laguna: (Turning around) "Y-Yeah…"
Kiros is the guy who acts exasperated with his friends antics, but secretly was on board with all the shit he was dragged into. He was traveling around the world for five months and probably hated every time he didn't take a shortcut, get embroiled in some local plot, or just wandered into a monster den because he didn't bother reading any of the clearly visible signs. Good on him for knowing what makes him happy.
…okay, never mind, he's explicitly drawing attention to the absence of any injury and wondering what the hell happened. However, he is quickly distracted from how weird that is when he tries to remember the fight and remembers Seifer "leering down at him," yells "Damn you, Seifer!" then tries to stand up and promptly falls to his knees.
The Squall/Seifer thing is not a one-way street, no matter how hard Squall tries to pretend he doesn't care.
I do wonder if the reason Squall doesn't know the answer is because SeeDs don't know, being merely tools wielded by the Garden Faculty and Master NORG, or if it's because the Timber Squad doesn't know, seeing as they graduated and were immediately sent on a dangerous mission and the Garden might have elected to leave them in the dark until they weren't risking capture by Galbadia. In the latter case, Quistis would actually know the answer. We'll see.
Cid was trying to turn and give a big epic speech starting with 'When the time comes...' at the SeeD graduation meeting, before the faculty interrupted him. The fact that he found time to give Squall a cursed magic lamp later, but made no effort to tell these three rookie seeDs anything else before going on a long-term contract with no clear end-point is pretty funny.
It might mean the speech was something he wanted to do for that fourth person there, but didn't really care if Squall and Co heard it or didn't.
Seifer: "I was hoping you'd be there, Squall. So… How'd I look in my moment of triumph? My childhood dream, fulfilled. I've become the sorceress' knight." Squall, mentally: "(...Sorceress' knight… His… Romantic dream…? But… Seifer… Now, you're just…) Squall: "...A torturer." Seifer: "What did you say!?" (No reply.) "Passed out cold, eh?" Seifer, waving his sword theatrically: "This is the scene where you swear your undying hatred for me! The tale of the evil mercenary vs the sorceress' knight… The fun's just started, Squall. Don't disappoint me now!"
(More electric torture; fade to black.)
I really want to know what Seifer thinks makes Squall 'evil'. Is it just flat out being a mercenary who kills for cash? For taking the evil mission of taking out a hot dommy girlboss mommy? For being opposed to Seifer specifically, thus automatically Evil?
He did say after the SeeD exam that they'd be 'heros' for what they did if it wasn't for the withdrawl. But being heros isn't really what SeeD is for, they may go up against tough odds, but that's part of their job. The sort of triumph over evil is just not part of SeeD's culture that we saw, just cold pragmatic 'points of views in conflict, and our point of view is we can make money from that'
Wait, could it be?
Characters are casting Cure in cutscenes? Holy shit. I thought that wasn't allowed!
It's interesting that it's specifically drawing cure and then casting. Now literally all enemies let you draw magic from, even human ones and robots that don't cast magic. Does this mean a SeeD, or anyone with suffiecient para-magic, can literally draw infinite cure spells out of each other, and then cast them to heal?
The anti-magic field seems to make this a diminishing returns strategy, but if they were just stuck on a floating chunk of debris in the ocean, how long could they keep that up?
Yeah, I hadn't expected that but so far FFVIII is addressing my whole complaint about magic use in FFVII at multiple turns. Unfortunately in this case it doesn't work; the cell contains that old crutch of settings with magical superhumans, an anti-magic field. It doesn't fully suppress magic but it makes it weaker.
For the most part, Magic is treated as a technology, there are brands that are trusted, scientific experts, and proven strategies with upsides and downsides, so it makes sense that a nation that mass-produced magic soldiers would also have ways to limit magic in their security abilities.
Seifer laments that he grew up at Balamb Garden and it's a pity it has to be destroyed, but orders are orders. It really feels like his romantic dream of becoming a sorceress's knight mostly resulted in him being some fascist lieutenant who doesn't think beyond his orders and is happy to resort to torture and weapons of mass destruction. When Balamb Garden is destroyed, he explains, surviving SeeDs will be hunted across the world; Seifer will be "Edea's bloodhound" and hunt down everyone of Squall's kind. He asks Squall not to die on him, then leaves to tend to the missile launch.
You ever get the sense that Final Fantasy has a lot of Star Wars influences? I just sometimes get the feeling tha Star Wars has a lot of influences on the characters and plot ideas put through the sausage making machine.
…you know, one of my favorite tropes in fiction is when a character is caught in an impossible situation at the hands of another character, and they managed to get out of it by wildly bullshitting. Yeah, yeah, 'guy is so tough he gets tortured but never cracks' is cool and all, but really it's boring and uncomfortable to watch; 'guy reacts to torture by begging for his life and seeming to spill his guts while actually making up a line of total bullshit' is a much better beat, imo.
Fade out.
I love this. I love how Squall starts out with some absolutely bizarre nonsequitur, literally the first thing that comes to mind because he's being tortured and completely exhausted and worn down, literally just the word 'flower,' then starts spinning it into something inane (SeeDs are literally trying to plant flowers across the world), and then manages to save that nonsense by making it sound metaphorical and letting the warden's mind connect the dot - from 'SeeDs are literally trying to plant flowers' to 'SeeDs are trying to spread peace', which the Warden laughs at, because obviously that doesn't make sense for two reasons, first being that SeeDs are mercenary and war is their job, the other being that it's supposed to be a dark secret, something sinister they'd want to hide…
…which is exactly why 'We try to spread peace to make people complacent so we can invade them' is what sells it. That makes sense given what people believe about SeeD. That's a plausible dark secret for the organization to have. They're mercenaries who 'save' countries while making them complacent and weak so they can take over the world! That makes perfect sense!
And sure, as far as Squall knows that's not true, and it won't stand up to scrutiny because it's not what Edea probably wants to hear, but it accomplishes the immediate goal: getting the Warden to stop torturing him and leave because he now has his 'answer.'
It's clever, it shows improvisational skills on Squall's part of the same kind he talked about to Rinoa when talking about how he'd learned to dance, and it's, in my opinion, a more believable way out of a torture scene than just toughing it out. It's a great beat.
The alternative, "Just let me die," is a lot shorter and more grim, in that it has Squall insult the Warden in an attempt at making the guy mad so that he turns up the voltage as punishment and actually kill Squall, releasing him from the torture. It's certainly one of the darkest beats in a Final Fantasy game but it's also… Very short and while it ends with Squall thinking "Good night" and a fade out on him being electrocuted, but he'll probably be fine when we catch up to him again. I'm not going to give this one a thousand-word retrospective like Solitary Island, is what I'm saying.
Sadly, of these two choices one is objectively superior in plot and gameplay in the next bit, and it's not the one that has Squall doing an interesting thing and doing a funny thing. And unlike the previous choice, it's really not clear which is the 'better' option with the information you're given. And while we're on spoilers: You want to play cards with everyone you can once, even with the cost. It's not worth the effort past that unless you want to break the game in every possible way, of which there are easier/more effective ways anyways.
We soon run into a random encounter, the GIM52A, an autonomous robot. It's weak to multiple elements but its Spirit stat is so high it's not worth using magic that isn't very high tier; and it has 1736 HP, with Zell only being lv 11. It's a long fight, requiring several healing spells and a dozen attacks before it's over, and that's with just a random encounter. Damn.
I really do think the game expects you to be slightly broken at this point. I bet the game is designed with the assumption that you're going to find at least one of the many many ways to get overpowered things you can do in menus by this point, and starts balancing the enemies accordingly. Sure, having all three characters stocked with a full 100 of a dozen types end-game magic is probably too much, but you've probably figured out how to get a couple high-end junctions, and probably have 20 thundaga's floating around just in case.
. . .Of course, they also gave you Enc-None, and it's plausible that you'll encounter zero enemy ecounters in your 100 foot dash as Zell here. You also did just ran into probably the worst fight at the worst time, since most of the game you have a party of 3.
