Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
dinomannitro6
all your gender is belong to us
- Location
- The Land Where The Sunflowers Bloom
Kefka didn't kill all the Espers, he just sent them into the future
Those are actually esper clones made by Cid.
Bet you regret finding faster fish now in the second apocalypse.
Fun little fact I learned recently, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a mobile game with little cut scene for limit breaks on certain characters and the first none party lead or main antagonist to get one was Faris.
Guess people love their non-conforming pirate royalty.
View: https://youtu.be/EFvDTqrgXVY?si=KObsouvtWyzUR2E5
Guess people love their non-conforming pirate royalty.
View: https://youtu.be/EFvDTqrgXVY?si=KObsouvtWyzUR2E5
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- Pronouns
- He
And they even managed to resist putting her in a bikini top with epaulets and pants that are nothing more than paint on bare skin! Truly the least horny gacha girl ever.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...huh. They actually ditched Faris's in-game character design (purple hair hanging loose, bandana, green scarf) in favor of a somewhat lower key take on Amano's design - bond hair, ponytail, aristocratic-style clothing with black coat, gold adorments, white tights and black greaves. I'm genuinely kind of impressed.
The non NV Unit actually has the old hair and is closer to other games looks
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah, yes, FF:BE, the game thanks to which we can officially say that Katy Perry and Ariana Grande count as Final Fantasy party members.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Literal crossover. They show up in a special limited time gacha AND at least one instance of a bonus unit. Don't think there's any story attached either, IIRC the gacha and it's units are basically wholly divorced from FF:BE's story and purely exist for sales and gameplay
Edit: checking the wiki there are FOUR separate versions of Ariana Grande ("Dangerous Ariana" in leather, "Chic Ariana" in normal pop star clothes, "Sportive Ariana" in a one piece swimsuit, and "Charming Kitty Ariana in a cat ear headband), and two Katie Perrys ("Pop Star Katy" in a red dress and "Inmortal Flame Katy" in a blue dress). Both Katie Perrys were freebies, Ariana Grande was half freebie half gacha.
All six have the job "singer", but their in-combat abilities and roles vary.
Edit: checking the wiki there are FOUR separate versions of Ariana Grande ("Dangerous Ariana" in leather, "Chic Ariana" in normal pop star clothes, "Sportive Ariana" in a one piece swimsuit, and "Charming Kitty Ariana in a cat ear headband), and two Katie Perrys ("Pop Star Katy" in a red dress and "Inmortal Flame Katy" in a blue dress). Both Katie Perrys were freebies, Ariana Grande was half freebie half gacha.
All six have the job "singer", but their in-combat abilities and roles vary.
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- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah that only half surprises me, still... damn.
Personally I was a fan of Opera Omnia since it being a mobile game where the characters meet up and talk so you get things like Cecil giving orders on a airship since he's used to commanding airships or you get a good number of the cast talking about either are or know royalty that fights evil personally.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Also had some decent character moments, like Gilgamesh (who hasn't lost his memory of the latter half of his game like the rest of the cast) advising the FFV crew to spend as much time with Galuf as they can.
Final Fantasy VIII, Part 18: Fisherman's Horizon
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome back, class, to Final Fantasy VIII 201. Today's lesson:
But what if we tried pacifism, though (it doesn't work)
We left last time on Squall experimenting a brief flashback to his childhood while laying miserable in bed. Then, we have to go back in time.
We reload an earlier save, fight NORG again, and pull Leviathan off him. In the process, we also Draw a few dozen Esuna, Slow, Confuse and Bio from his and the Pods' Draw lists. Unfortunately, I entirely forgot to equip Squall with Mug for this, so we do not get the rare stat-raising item. It's a shame but I'm not reloading a third time. Now, let's try out Leviathan against some Garden encounters!
Leviathan has an incredibly cool animation where it appears first as a serpent-shaped stream of water, before turning into a sea serpent, raising a cliff out of the earth, and then summoning a waterfall from its top.
More importantly, Leviathan learns Support Magic Refinement, which will soon allow us to create buff spells. Let's move on!
Back in the present, Squall is being woken up by Rinoa again.
Rinoa: "Hey, again."
Squall: "I wasn't asleep."
Rinoa: "Oh really? I think I heard you talking in your sleep." [She laughs.] "I'm not telling you what you said."
The fact that the first thing Squall does, totally unprompted, on being caught sleeping in his own bed is to claim he wasn't asleep is so… Perfect. Squall simply cannot show any vulnerability, even completely normal, non-emotional vulnerability that everyone has like 'sometimes being asleep around another human being.' And, you know, I've been there.
Rinoa asks Squall to go for a walk, Squall is like "didn't we just do this," Rinoa quibbles on the semantics of a guided tour vs going for a walk, Squall tells her to go on her own and she admits that she's not doing this for her sake: She is trying to get Squall out of his headspace and to lighten up. This leads into one of her funniest bits: Rinoa does a reverence and says dramatically:
Rinoa: "It would be my honor… to have your company, your highness, in hope that I may get your mind off things. How about it, your highness?"
Treating Squall like he is royalty who needs to be placated by his dutiful handmaiden is just such a good way of poking fun at his overly serious affect. Choosing to 'play along' has Rinoa saying "thank you, your highness!" and we're off.
As we exit, Cid speaks over the speaker system which has just now be restored. Just in time for his planned announce to devolve into surprised shouting as Balamb Garden, still drifting without any manual controls, finally reaches something that isn't the ocean.
A poor, unfortunate fisherman gets first row to Garden crashing into his town's harbour, just as a fish finally bites on his line and he has to struggle against it and, eventually, drop his fishing rod and the fish with it so he can run for his life. Peak comedy.
Cid summons Squall to his office. We are conveniently teleported there while Cid tells all the students to remain calm and not leave the Garden unless authorized. As for us, he has new orders: The place we've landed on is Fisherman's Horizon, and he wants Squall, Zell and Rinoa to go ashore and tell the mayor that we come in peace and apologize for the damage.
Squall, mentally: "(...Why do I have to go?)"
Headmaster Cid: "Do you have something you want to tell me?"
Headmaster Cid: "SeeD is not just a special force for combat. I want you to see the world… To broaden your horizons. I have high expectations of you, Squall. Now go."
I initially wondered why Cid would send Squall on a diplomatic mission rather than one of the more senior and… socially apt SeeDs, but it makes sense from two compounding perspectives - he needs the more reliable SeeDs who are more okay with 'boring' tasks to keep order in the Garden and work closely with him, and it's very obvious that he has some kind of Big Plans for Squall. Xu may be a more trustworthy lieutenant, but Squall is the one he's grooming for the big final showdown, whatever that is, and as part of it he's trying to force him out of his comfort zone to become a broader individual.
Cid also says 'our fate lies in your hand' before laughing it off and saying he just meant not to offend the locals on Garden's behalf.
Outside the Garden, we are greeted by locals. Their first warning is to 'not engage in any kind of armed conflict in the city,' which is a perfectly sensible thing to say when you run into the world's most famous mercenary organization. To his credit, Squall isn't bothered by it and tells them we come in peace. We are pointed to the mayor's house in the center of town. Squall also apologizes for the damage to the pier, and the fishermen are surprisingly chill about it, saying it's fine as long as nobody got hurt and fixing stuff is a hobby of theirs. There's a more curious interaction: One of the men reveals that he recognized Balamb Garden from the patterns on the walls, which they painted themselves long ago. Which I guess means Balamb Garden was at least partially constructed in FH? Interesting.
Look at these shots of the moon. It's so impossibly huge. I wish our moon looked like this.
FH is an interesting location, architecture-wise. The whole place looks like some kind of industrial platform, without any trace of natural soil or vegetation. As we learn soon, this is because Fisherrman's Horizon is entirely artificial - it was built on the Horizon Bridge, a massive intercontinental railroad built across the ocean shortly before 'the war', and has since been derelict. FH is 'a haven for expatriates who refused to have their skills exploited by the government' - not sure if this is the Galbadian government specifically, or governments in general. Either way, we are effectively in a more sympathetic Sealand, an artificial nation carved out of a piece of contested/neutral territory between nations. There's an interesting emphasis on natural energy around the place - it's surrounded by wind turbines, and the mayor's house sits at the center of a giant parabolic array of solar panels.
In fact, let's check the codex! In addition to information on the Horizon Bridge and Fisherman's Horizon, we have two new entries: "The truth about Garden" and "White SeeD." Interesting!
…
You know, there is some information you really should convey in actual dialogue, not just informational entries in an easily missed menu. What do you mean, a haven for orphans? It seems fairly obvious by now that Squall is an orphan, but am I supposed to believe that Garden specifically recruits orphans, and/or that its primary purpose is to serve as a foster home for them? What about Zell? We met his mom! What about Selphie? She comes from an entirely different place and presumably has her own family? Are Squall, Quistis and Seifer all orphans?
Man, 'mercenary schools preferentially targets vulnerable orphans for recruitment, providing them a target population that doesn't have family to protect them and has no counterbalance to the indoctrination of Garden's values' would have been such a good sinister detail to clearly establish way earlier, before the game operated a lateral shift by casting Cid as well-meaning but bumbling and having us kill NORG.
Also, the White SeeD are orphans formerly in the care of Sorceress Edea, now traveling the world on her ship. They initially introduced themselves as Edea's SeeD, and it was unclear why they were so chill with us and Cid towards them, but… Put a pin in that.
Anyway.
One of the FH locals asks us if we're going to Esthar, the 'hi-tech city' beyond the train tracks; FH is apparently a common stopping point for people traveling towards Esthar.
There's a weird beat where two of the FH locals are labeled in dialogue boxes as "Familiar Face" and "Familiar Face #2," and one of them berates Squall for not recognizing him, then tells him that he was one of the guys who greeted us at the Garden entrance. Which was… less than a minute ago in real time? I know Squall is bad with faces, but that's just baffling.
Familiar Face #3: "Are you a SeeD by any chance?"
Squall: "...yes."
Familiar Face #3: "I heard that you guys are, like, mercenaries, and basically fight anybody for money. Are you happy with that kind of life?"
Squall, mentally: "(What's his problem? Is he trying to pick up a fight?)"
Familiar Face #3: "Never mind. The way you live your life is none of my business. Just don't cause us any problem."
Squall, mentally: "(...He sounds just like me. I guess it doesn't sound very nice.)"
Bit by bit, Squall is developing a sense of self-awareness. It's nice.
Before heading for the mayor's house, I look around a little. There is a truly baffling bit of exposition here (also very missable), where talking to a completely random boatman has him give us information about NORG, a being so secretive that none of the students at his own school had ever met him until yesterday:
Boatman: "Say, the master of Balamb Garden is NORG, right? Did he evolve already?"
Squall: "What are you talking about?"
Boatman: "NORG. He's a Shumi, so he should evolve."
Squall: "Shumi…?"
Boatman: "What? You don't know diddly-squat, do you? Ah… Don't worry about it. You'll start gettin' it soon."
So I guess Selphie isn't a member of the Shumi Tribe after all, as they don't appear to be humans but rather weird monster people with multiple evolutionary stages. Which I guess also means we know why that weird sphere formed around NORG's pod after we defeated him. He didn't die, he merely went into some kind of coma state and formed a cocoon from which he will emerge like a beautiful butterfly. Probably for a second boss fight.
It's a shame our character literally hear this told them to their face and then fail to infer anything or do anything about it. Problems for later, I suppose. There's a Timber Maniacs issue we pick up at the inn, and I still have no idea what purpose those serve beyond minor alterations to Laguna's flashbacks that are impossible to tell without a guide. But, hey, plus side:
We can now upgrade our weapons!
Well, kind of. Rinoa is the only character who can upgrade to her maximum available weapon, the Cardinal, which leads to a substantial +13 Strength. Everyone else is stuck with lower level upgrades; Squall can't get the Flame Saber, for instance, due to still missing some of the crafting materials. It's a really annoying system.
Our next step is Mayor Dobe's house, where we meet him and his wife(?) Flo. The mayor is blunt: He immediately asks us when we plan on leaving. Squall explains that we'll depart as soon as the Garden is mobile again, but we have no idea when that will be, as we only recently discovered it could move at all. The Mayor tells us he'll send technicians to help us; Squall thinks it's not his call to make, as that will give strangers access to the Garden, and Dobe tells him to go and consult with his leader.
It's Rinoa who is the one to ask why Dobe wants us to leave so bad, which immediately makes Squall cringe to death.
Squall has a lot of problems, but it's interesting how sometimes his issues go into the direction of creating less conflict? You might expect his loyalty to the Garden to make him confrontational with people who don't want them here, but no, he's completely fine with taking their desire to see them leave at face value, remain polite and professional, and not question why they don't want him there.
Mayor Dobe: "We don't want military organizations in FH. You rely on force to solve problems. That is in direct defiance of our principles."
Flo: "We believe that any problem can be settled by discussion. If you reach a mutual understanding, there is no need to fight."
Squall, mentally: "(No argument there. Trite, and dull as hell, though.)"
Mayor Dobe: "Violence only leads to more violence. We believe that your presence here will attract violence. That's why we want you to leave as soon as possible."
Oh god, they're straw pacifists. Actually, judging by the implications of the codex and some dialogue, a significant number of FH's citizens are retired military scientists and military engineers? Fascinating demographic pool to draw a hippie commune from.
But yeah, these guys reject the entire premise of armed self-defense, which in a setting with a rampant fascist imperialist regime conducting constant wars of aggression is definitely A Choice. It's extremely funny to me that Squall isn't actually challenging their position on the merits; he literally says 'no argument' to the idea that if you can reach a mutual understanding there is no need to fight, he just thinks that's boring.
Our boy literally lives only to fight, it's incredible.
We take our leave to head back to the Garden. Before we do, though, just a quick check on the other side of the screen around the Mayor's house…
…Martine!?!
Headmaster Martine of Galbadia Garden???
Yeah, so, apparently, he got kicked out of Galbadia Garden in Edea's takeover. Predictable and probably one of the better fates he could have faced there.
Martine: "...A lot has happened since then. Banished from Galbadia Garden… Everything I built up, gone. After wandering around mindlessly… The people of this town welcomed me with open arms. The townspeople encouraged me to start over. Very kind, even towards a man like me who has nothing." [He puts his head in his hands.] "I… I'm so ashamed!!!"
Martine, my dude, you are severely overestimating how much I care about your personal life drama. You're lucky Squall has an underdeveloped sense of vengeance and won't cut you down for that trick you pulled with the assassination.
But hey, do you wanna play some cards?
OH MY GOD, YOU ABSOLUTE SCUMBAG???
The fact that Martine has a deck made out of all the cards he confiscated from students he just, holy shit, that is such a perfect scummy principal move you'd believe it was taken from the alternate universe version of FF8 where the game stays a story about magical high school shenanigans past the opening hours.
And he has Ifrit. Which we previously traded to Rinoa's father. Not sure how it made its way from there to Martine, but I'll take it. Then we leave Martine to wallow in his misery.
Zell, as the Id of the group, is the one most obviously pissed off by Mayor Dobe's dismissive attitude towards SeeD. Squall tells him to just forget it, they can't expect everyone to welcome them - and then the Galbadian Nation attacked.
No, really, it's that sudden, people start shouting about 'Galbadian soldiers!' and Flo, the mayor's wife, rushes to us and blames us for their arrival. Squall mentally is annoyed by her, but does decide to take it upon himself to dispatch the soldiers and protect the town.
This is one of Squall's redeeming qualities, I think. He's not the kind of person who will go 'you were rude to me, fuck you.' Even though he doesn't have a contract with this town, he understands he's probably responsible for Galbadian soldiers hunting him here (although, as we're about to see, he's wrong), and willing to take responsibility.
Which means it's too bad Mayor Dobe then appears and declares that they can't rely on us, we'd just make it a fight, so he'll just go and reason with the Galbadians.
Dude. Old man. My guy.
When he's right, he's right.
Alright, I guess it falls to us to go and save the old dude from his own naiveté.
New Galbadian mech just dropped, btw. You know, it's funny - it's the second time I've seen a direct reference to the M61 Vulcan rotary cannon in a Japanese game of that era, the other being MGS1's Vulcan Raven. And funnily enough, while Scan tells us it is using a Vulcan cannon… The name of its attack using its central mouth-mounted gun is Gatling.
The dialogue in the town as updated to reflect the townsfolk being scared, and there are now random encounters in the streets. Aside from the new mech, it's just soldiers, so we dispatch them easily and move on to a plaza kind of area where the mayor is predictably being manhandled by officers.
Surprise twist! The Galbadian soldiers aren't here for us. They're here for Ellone. It's not clear why they think she'd be there, but…
Mayor Dobe: "I already told you. I've never heard of this girl Ellone. There is nobody here by that name."
Squall, mentally: "(Ellone?)"
Galbadian Soldier: "Fine. We'll just have to torch this city."
Mayor Dobe: "Wait a minute! I'm telling the truth! I've never seen this girl!"
Galbadian Soldier: "It doesn't matter, old man. We're gonna burn this place anyway. Edea's orders. Ha ha ha."
Mayor Dobe: [Falling to his knees pleading] "No, please! I beg of you! Don't!"
Galbadian Soldier: "I'll start with you." [He lifts Mayor Dobe up into the air.]
Pacifism, while laudable in general, is not an effective defense against fascism.
The Galbadian army now answers to Edea. Edea sent them to find Ellone and destroy Fisherman's Horizon. But we know that Ellone has already been found by "Edea's SeeDs."
At this point, it seems extremely likely that the 'Edea is possessed by the Spirit of the Sorceress' theory is real; the White SeeDs were trained by the old, 'true' Edea, and they still consider themselves affiliated to/loyal to her, but between then and now Edea was taken over by some ancient evil and the White SeeDs had to split and be on their own. So the White SeeDs took Ellone with them to continue enacting some plan set out by the original Edea, while Possessed Edea is scouring the world to find Ellone and kill her. I fully believe this theory at this stage.
Squall has the option to "go help" or "listen a little longer," and I decide to jump in. The soldier tosses Mayor Dobe bodily aside and asks us who the hell we are; upon hearing we are SeeD, he asks other soldiers to bring in the Iron Clad, and more soldiers jump into the frame. And Squall…
Actually crouches to look at Mayor Dobe and apologizes for the violence he is about to inflict. Huh.
You know, a lot has been said about the perils of level scaling, but here I'm going to point to one thing the game is doing right: G-Soldiers do scale with player level, but their scaling is so undertune that even while Galbadia is fielding mechas and monsters that can threaten us, the basic soldiers are completely overwhelmed. The scaling brings in some utility, in that these opponents can still survive one hit from my weakest character, and an officer takes two hits to go down, but they are still completely overwhelmed in every fight.
This leads to a consistent feeling of progress, because we keep fighting G-Soldiers, and we are getting more and more obviously superior to them, but without being so superior that the system breaks down as it would in a static system where by down each soldier would deal 1 damage per attack.
Once the soldiers are dispatched, however, something comes to us from the railway/highway/bridge above the plaza… A familiar sight.
The Iron Clad, the same machine we fought in the Galbadian missile base, looking wrecked to shit, has somehow made its way to us. This is explicitly the same vehicle Selphie's team fought, now 'out of control after being destroyed.' Did it… Did it literally drive all the way from the ruins of the missile base to here on a rampage? Damn, I have to respect the hater energy.
Anyway, we hit it with lightning magic and buffed punches until it explodes. It's not a hard fight. In the cutscene that follows, the Iron Clad slowly slides back away on a stretch of broken plaza… And falls into the water below.
Then three familiar figure emerge from that same water.
Wait. What?
How the fuck did they-
They were at GROUND ZERO of a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION an ENTIRE CONTINENT AWAY. We are in the middle of the ocean! Did they swim all the way?? How did they get into the water???
Let's… ignore that for now. Squall's inner monologue actually using exclamation points and expressing happiness that they're alright took me entirely by surprise and was really sweet. Our boy is experiencing character development. Not that he's intent on showing them the full extent of it.
Squall: "Hey, Selphie. Quistis, Irvine. It's great to see you guys."
Irvine: "Say, what happened to the Garden?"
Squall, mentally: "(A lot has happened…)"
Squall: "The Garden is safe."
Selphie: "Really!!!? Whoo-hoo!!!"
Squall: "What happened to you guys?"
Zell: "Yo, let's talk about this later."
Squall, mentally: "(I guess…)"
Squall: "Zell, Rinoa, why don't you guys take them back to the Garden? I'll see you guys later, after I take a look around."
Honestly, even just trying to play it cool and saying 'it's great to see you guys' out loud is more than we're used to from Squall. The group splits up, but Rinoa lingers for a moment.
It turns out, Squall's poker face isn't enough to fool the girl who's had her eyes on him this whole time.
Rinoa: "You know, you just surprised me. You looked and sounded so happy to see them."
Squall, mentally: "(Huh?)"
Rinoa: "It was the first time I've seen you so honest. It was… really sweet."
Squall, mentally: "(Well… umm…)"
Squall, mentally: ["(It's because I felt responsible)"] // "(I was really glad to see them)" // "(It didn't mean anything)"
Squall: "They're my responsibility. I was worried about them. That's all."
Rinoa: "Is that all?"
Squall, mentally: "(What more does she want?)"
Rinoa: "Ok. Well, it's great that everyone is all right. It must be a big relief for you, Squall." [She waves.] "Catch you later, Squall!"
Sometimes, I remember to save before dialogue choices to check the multiple options. A lot of the time though, I pick on instinct, and I remember too late to save. Here, having Squall not say that he doesn't care, which is too far, but playing it off as his sense of responsibility, seemed more right for his character. That's not the most interesting line of dialogue, though; checking YouTube footage while writing this update, I saw that the guy whose channel I follow picked the "Really glad to see them" line, and it results in a wholly different response.
Squall: "I was just happy to see that they were alright. What's so surprising about that? Is something wrong?"
Rinoa: [She shakes her fist angrily.] "No! There's nothing wrong! They're your comrades, but moreover, they're your friends." [She relaxes.]
Squall, mentally: "(...Friends, huh…?)"
Rinoa: [She clasps her hands behind her back and does a 'shy, awkward' pause shuffling her feet.] "Hey, Squall, would you have been worried about me, too? Y'know, if I were with them instead?"
Squall, mentally: "(What? Why is she asking me this? I don't know.)"
Squall: "I… ahhh… I don't know. Umm… Maybe… I don't know."
Rinoa: "Gosh, Squall! You're turning red!"
Squall, mentally: "(What? No I'm not.)"
Rinoa: [She laughs.] "You're so cute! Taking it so seriously!"
Squall, mentally: "The heck!? Why is she toying with me?"
Rinoa: [She waves.] "Catch you later, Squall!"
This is top tier fumbling teenager romantic comedy content. I love Squall getting paralyzed like a deer in headlight and completely stumbling over his words. I was ready to believe that Rinoa actually felt a kind of envy for the bond between Squall and the other SeeDs that she doesn't quite fit in, but I guess no, she was just leveraging that for some Aerith-tier bullying.
Either way, we're almost done there - we just have to check in with the Mayor. Who says we don't need to apologize for fighting on his behalf, but he won't thank us either. And that leads us to another really interesting moment:
Squall tries to explain the way he sees the world.
Squall: "You don't have to. It's just that…"
Squall, mentally: "(Just what? What am I trying to say?)"
Squall, mentally: ["(I want him to understand us)"] // "(Forget it)"
Squall: "I wish you could be a little more understanding about us. We're not just a bunch of warmongers."
Mayor Dobe: "Oh?"
Squall, mentally: "(I don't know what more to say…)"
Squall, mentally: "(Stop)" // ["(Try to continue)"]
Squall: "It's hard for me to explain… I wish… everything could be settled without resorting to violence… and there would be no need for battles."
Squall: "Like you've been preaching, it would be wonderful if things could be settled by discussions. The only problem with that is that it often takes too much time. Especially if the others are not willing to listen. So I believe that fighting is inevitable at times. It's really sad. That's all I have to say. I hope you understand someday."
Squall: "I think the world needs both people like you and people like us. Thank you for your help. Goodbye."
This is so fascinating. Squall does seem to believe that in some sense, peace and negotiations are desirable, just that they're not always achievable, and that when they aren't, people like him - people who are willing to cut to the chase, to end the talks, willing to kill - are necessary. But they're not ideal. It would be terrible, if problems could only be solved his way. He's a… necessary evil, I guess.
But 'the problem is that it takes too much time' is such a wild root cause to identify. The problem isn't competing over resources, incompatible interests, national security, it's time. The time it takes to hash things out. And others' unwillingness to listen.
What this seems to suggest is that, contra his previous discussion with Irvine, Squall believes that everyone could potentially be on the same page and cooperate to make the world a better place. It's just hard, and not everyone is willing to cooperate, and it takes too long. But it's not inherently impossible. Just impractical. It's a… nicer worldview than he's previously let on.
Anyway, let's head back.
I'm just posting this picture because I love scenes of urban decay so much, they are my favorite aesthetic. Also there's a Haste spring in the background.
There are a few amusing skits to be found in Fisherman's Horizon after the fight. One of the old men is glad the house that sat where the Iron Clad fell into the water is no longer there, it makes for a new fishing spot for him. A character described as 'Middle-Aged Psycho' says they looove cats, and they have 256 of them - which is, they say, the largest number they can count to. A programmer joke about overflow numbers, almost definitely. There's also a guy who seems to keep foreign trivia?
He's got a Moomba figuring and a giant flag, country unclear. And the flag is sitting behind a desk on a raised stage - some kind of political activist? Organizer? He's apparently an artisan who trades with the Shumi Village; there is another Timber Maniacs issue to pick up there.
This 'Fisherkid' is very excited to show us his fishing technique. Unfortunately, said technique is, shall we say, less than refined; he throws his line backwards and smashes the window of the poor weapon store merchant.
I also check the mayor's house to see if he or Flo have new dialogue, but neither is here. However, I find something perhaps even more interesting: a Draw point I missed the first time.
It contains Ultima.
Man, the stuff this game throws you in discrete chunks far ahead of the curse were you'd normally get it is wild. We won't be getting a chance to test Ultima this update due to not getting into any further fights, but her, we have it.
In the meantime, it's time to head back to the Garden.
Irvine is here waiting for us; he informs us that Cid has allowed the technicians into the Garden. Then he asks in a kinda evasive way if Squall thinks it'd be alright if Irvine asked the technicians to help him with 'other stuff'; characteristically, Squall doesn't care about the reasons as long as it doesn't slow down the Garden repairs.
Irvine joins the party, and only a few steps later, awkwardly pauses until even Squall manages to pick up on the vibes and asks him what's up.
Irvine: "...Selphie's feeling down right now. I thought I should let you know, since you're… kind of like everybody's leader. I think you should go talk to her. I know you're a klutz when it comes to these things, so I'll back you."
Incredible. I suppose it would make sense that Irvine, the inveterate womanizer, would be well situated to pick up on one of the girls feeling blue, but the combination of 'instead of making my move I'll report to squall because he's the leader kinda' and 'neg Squall about his poor social skills' is just. I guess Irvine really did get to know the group.
…we're still not being told how they escaped the missile base getting nuked.
Also that casual statement about Squall being 'kind of like everybody's leader' definitely isn't going to come back to haunt him in like, fifteen minutes, give or take.
Irvine: "Wow. I didn't expect all this heavy machinery."
Squall: "How else are they going to repair it? With hammers and nails?"
Irvine: "Hey, hey, hey, this isn't my department."
Squall: "Then what is?"
Irvine: "...Guns and women of course."
Never stop being a fuckboi, Irvine.
We head for the Quad, where the source of Selphie's despair is immediately evident.
The stage for the festival has been completely trashed. It survived the Balamb Garden Civil War, it did not survive Balamb Garden going mobile and crashing first into the sea, then into Fisherman's Horizon. Our girl is understandably in the dumps about it. She laments that she really wanted to see a band perform on that stage, and even had her eyes on a few people (this is foreshadowing). She tries to be shikata ga nai about it but it's clear even to Squall that she's really down.
This is it. His hour has come.
He must try to cheer her up.
Squall, mentally: "(Man, she's really down.)"
Squall, mentally: ["(Cheer her up)"] // "(Let Irvine handle it)"
The FACT that he STILL gets the option to just foist it off on Irvine. SQUALL. Anyway we don't pick that one.
Squall: "Come on. I'm sure you can still do something."
Selphie: "...Squall…being sensitive? That's weird. You're the last person I expected to cheer me up. I must look really depressed."
Squall, mentally: "(What's so weird? I care just like everybody else. It's just that there are too many things that can't be helped. So why bother talking about everything.)"
Selphie: "Uh-oh! There you go again into your own little world. And you're not gonna share anything, huh?"
Squall: "...Yeah, whatever…"
Squall, mentally: "(Why is she teasing me? I was just trying to help…)"
Selphie: "Well, I think I'm feeling better. Don't worry about me, Squall."
Squall: "Irvine… You help her. I'm out of here."
Loudspeakers: "Squall, this is the headmaster speaking. Please come to my office."
Squall, mentally: "(What now?)"
I love the implication that Selphie was cheered up, not by Squall's terrible attempt at cheering her up, but by sheer surprise that he managed to actually get out of his own head long enough to make a positive comment, and then making fun of him for going right back into said own head. He's visibly getting better about social interaction, it's just that it makes him terrible in new ways.
Once he's gone, Irvine marvels at his own 'brilliance' and reveals to Selphie his plan: he asked Squall to let the technicians help him so that he could have them fix the stage, which means he is now the hero of the hour who will save the festival and Selphie's band project - at which point, his internal monologue informs us, he is all set to "make his move."
Okay, I was wrong earlier, Irvine. Maybe stop being a fuckboy. God. I mean, he's being helpful?? It's just the whole framing of his motives that further feeds into his fuckboyness. Incredible.
Alright. One last step before the end of this update. We are teleported to the observation or piloting… Place. Cid's office.
Squall concludes his report, delivered off-screen. Cid then tells him - and tells us, the audience - that Selphie also gave her report, and that we can see it in 'the diary.'
…
Did the information on her escape also get put into the codex?
The answer is no. Or at least, I could not find that information. Whatever Selphie's diary is, it's not available in the menu. I am left, once again, with no idea how Selphie's team survived a point blank nuke.
I mean, it's not that hard to guess, I don't think. The Iron Clad also survived the explosion. Selphie's team surfaced after it fell into the water. It was said to be 'out of control.' So the most likely scenario is that everyone jumped into the Iron Clad at the last moment in hope it might serve as a shelter, and then the vehicle locked up and ran on automatic with everyone trapped inside until we blew it up a second time. I'd just like to… Be told that. Well, we'll find Selphie's diary eventually, I suppose.
In any case, I did find some important information in the codex.
The information on the nature of Balamb Garden's original architecture was just there in plain sight. Except, it was hidden behind an additional page tab in one of the informational menu; Page 2 cuts off midway through, and you have to actually tab to Page 3 anyway to find the Shelter entry, so I missed it this whole time.
Turns outy? The Lunar Cry destroyed the ancient Centra civilization and used mobile shelters to move around the world, many of which now lie around the world in ruins. The Gardens are the remnants of these Centra Shelters, renovated into modern buildings. The 'MD Level' is the original Centra construction.
Those Centra people (whose name sounds a lot like 'Cetra') sure sound important to the plot!
Squall: "Oh, and one more thing… It appeared that the Galbadians were searching for Ellone. That seemed to be their main objective in FH. I believe the Sorceress Edea is behind all this."
Squall, mentally: "(Ellone has the ability to allow people to experience the past. Maybe the sorceress is after her for this ability. What other reason could there be?)"
Headmaster Cid: "So now the Galbadians are working for the sorceress, and were searching for Ellone in FH…"
Squall: "And regardless of whether they found her or not… They had orders to burn the city down."
Headmaster Cid: "That would help reduce the number of potential places where she could hide."
Squall, mentally: "(...That's right.)"
Headmaster Cid: "Most likely, the sorceress will not stop this onslaught until Ellone is found. She will continue to hunt her, and burn everything in her path."
Headmaster Cid: "We can't wait any longer."
Squall: "(So he's finally going official. About time.)"
Headmaster Cid: [Over loudspeakers] "This is Headmaster Cid. I have an announcement to make."
And then, the game plays out one of those classic movie tropes: We move from room to room, each of Cid's line being used as (textual) 'voice-over' over a shot one of the other main characters hanging out doing stuff, like so:
It's cool! I dig it.
…
Wait a second.
I am literally having this realization in real time as I write this. Let me just go back to earlier updates and check something.
Okay. I cannot be certain that this is the case without poring over every single line Cid has had in the game so far, but I believe that while Squall says "the sorceress Edea is behind this," Cid never says the words 'Sorceress Edea.' He only and exclusively refers to 'The sorceress' as the one the Garden must defeat, the one who planned to burn down the city, the one who is hunting for Ellone. Cid does use the name Edea - but only in sentences like 'Edea began talking about building the Garden' and 'SeeD might one day fight Edea.' The closest he comes to using the words 'Sorceress Edea' is when he says, 'She had been a sorceress since childhood.'
So… Yeah. Cid seems to make a mental distinction - whether or not it's conscious - between 'Edea,' his wife, and 'the sorceress,' Garden's enemy. It's quite notable in contrast to Squall, who frequently says 'Sorceress Edea'; I do not believe it's unintentional on the writers' parts. That could just be sentimentality on Cid's part…
…but it strongly reinforces the 'Edea is possessed by the sorceress' theory.
Anyway. Cid announces over the loudspeakers that their great journey must begin. Once the Garden is repaired, they will set off on a journey, and face many battles, in order to bring down the sorceress. Importantly, while Cid intends to continue leading the administrative angle of Balamb Garden, it seems he no longer believes himself capable or worthy of being its leader, the one guiding it, deciding its next move in this grand battle.
Balamb Garden and SeeD need a new leader.
And Cid makes what is simultaneously the only possible choice, and the funniest possible choice.
It went too fast for me to catch, but Squall is thinking "Are you serious?" then "I can't believe this" and "I don't even have a choice?"
Squall is officially the new leader of Balamb Garden.
Cid turns to Squall, and says "We're under your command from now on." Not they. We. Cid explicitly places himself under Squall's authority. Seeing Squall put his hand to his head in obvious frustration, Cid adds, as if that were not enough: "This is your fate. It is your destiny to lead the way in defeating the sorceress."
Cue the freakout.
It's a very animated bit of body acting, using several dramatic, slashing gestures to express his obvious anger. And there is no explanation of what Cid means by destiny and fate - but it seems clear to me that there is more to this than just 'Cid assessed all his SeeD and found Squall to have the best leadership-to-murder potential ratio and would have the best odds.' Thrusting the responsibility of all of Balamb Garden on Squall is… Harsh. And given that Squall is the target of Ellone's time-warping abilities (entirely did not expect 'Ellone is the source of the flashback effect' to be treated as immediately true instead of something Squall merely threw as a wild guess in their earlier conversation), it's clear there is something about him.
Is it his destiny? Does this world have prophecies? I do not remember one so far. But something is clearly going on here.
Cue the darkness, and more of Squall's inner monologue as he lies in bed, again, like the past two updates. It's an interesting way to punctuate plot beats.
Squall: "(I don't mind fighting the sorceress. It's unavoidable as long as I'm a SeeD member."
Squall: "(What? As long as I am a SeeD member? What if I quit?)"
Squall: "(Quit… Then what? What do I have left?)"
Squall: "(Don't even want to think about it. Just stop thinking…)"
Squall: "(I'll just have to do as I was told… Command the Garden and kill the sorceress.)"
Squall: "(How does Headmaster Cid expect me to take care of everyone?)"
Squall: "(It'd be best to go fight the sorceress soon, and end this nonsense.)"
Squall: "(...!? But isn't she the headmaster's wife? He wants us to kill his wife?)"
Squall: "(What does it feel like to give an order like that?)"
[Fade to next scene.]
…
From a narrative structure perspective, what I find fascinating is that Squall is experiencing character development, but his responsibilities are outpacing his growth.
He just realized that he cares about fucking up and getting someone under his command killed, and he has to send Selphie's team on a possible suicide mission. He just discovered that he cares about his friends on a genuine emotional level, and he is tasked with the entire Garden. At every step that Squall betters himself, improves his attitude, forges meaningful emotional connections, he sees something even heavier, something he isn't psychologically ready for, foisted upon him. It's a fascinating way to keep the character in a state of constant tension and struggle even as he is taking real steps towards being a better person.
Luckily, he is not alone.
His friends are here to help him…
With a band performance.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: I was going to make a gag here but now I'm remembering the 'God Knows' performance from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and I need to go lie down
But what if we tried pacifism, though (it doesn't work)
We left last time on Squall experimenting a brief flashback to his childhood while laying miserable in bed. Then, we have to go back in time.
We reload an earlier save, fight NORG again, and pull Leviathan off him. In the process, we also Draw a few dozen Esuna, Slow, Confuse and Bio from his and the Pods' Draw lists. Unfortunately, I entirely forgot to equip Squall with Mug for this, so we do not get the rare stat-raising item. It's a shame but I'm not reloading a third time. Now, let's try out Leviathan against some Garden encounters!
Leviathan has an incredibly cool animation where it appears first as a serpent-shaped stream of water, before turning into a sea serpent, raising a cliff out of the earth, and then summoning a waterfall from its top.
More importantly, Leviathan learns Support Magic Refinement, which will soon allow us to create buff spells. Let's move on!
Back in the present, Squall is being woken up by Rinoa again.
Rinoa: "Hey, again."
Squall: "I wasn't asleep."
Rinoa: "Oh really? I think I heard you talking in your sleep." [She laughs.] "I'm not telling you what you said."
The fact that the first thing Squall does, totally unprompted, on being caught sleeping in his own bed is to claim he wasn't asleep is so… Perfect. Squall simply cannot show any vulnerability, even completely normal, non-emotional vulnerability that everyone has like 'sometimes being asleep around another human being.' And, you know, I've been there.
Rinoa asks Squall to go for a walk, Squall is like "didn't we just do this," Rinoa quibbles on the semantics of a guided tour vs going for a walk, Squall tells her to go on her own and she admits that she's not doing this for her sake: She is trying to get Squall out of his headspace and to lighten up. This leads into one of her funniest bits: Rinoa does a reverence and says dramatically:
Rinoa: "It would be my honor… to have your company, your highness, in hope that I may get your mind off things. How about it, your highness?"
Treating Squall like he is royalty who needs to be placated by his dutiful handmaiden is just such a good way of poking fun at his overly serious affect. Choosing to 'play along' has Rinoa saying "thank you, your highness!" and we're off.
As we exit, Cid speaks over the speaker system which has just now be restored. Just in time for his planned announce to devolve into surprised shouting as Balamb Garden, still drifting without any manual controls, finally reaches something that isn't the ocean.
A poor, unfortunate fisherman gets first row to Garden crashing into his town's harbour, just as a fish finally bites on his line and he has to struggle against it and, eventually, drop his fishing rod and the fish with it so he can run for his life. Peak comedy.
Cid summons Squall to his office. We are conveniently teleported there while Cid tells all the students to remain calm and not leave the Garden unless authorized. As for us, he has new orders: The place we've landed on is Fisherman's Horizon, and he wants Squall, Zell and Rinoa to go ashore and tell the mayor that we come in peace and apologize for the damage.
Squall, mentally: "(...Why do I have to go?)"
Headmaster Cid: "Do you have something you want to tell me?"
Headmaster Cid: "SeeD is not just a special force for combat. I want you to see the world… To broaden your horizons. I have high expectations of you, Squall. Now go."
I initially wondered why Cid would send Squall on a diplomatic mission rather than one of the more senior and… socially apt SeeDs, but it makes sense from two compounding perspectives - he needs the more reliable SeeDs who are more okay with 'boring' tasks to keep order in the Garden and work closely with him, and it's very obvious that he has some kind of Big Plans for Squall. Xu may be a more trustworthy lieutenant, but Squall is the one he's grooming for the big final showdown, whatever that is, and as part of it he's trying to force him out of his comfort zone to become a broader individual.
Cid also says 'our fate lies in your hand' before laughing it off and saying he just meant not to offend the locals on Garden's behalf.
Outside the Garden, we are greeted by locals. Their first warning is to 'not engage in any kind of armed conflict in the city,' which is a perfectly sensible thing to say when you run into the world's most famous mercenary organization. To his credit, Squall isn't bothered by it and tells them we come in peace. We are pointed to the mayor's house in the center of town. Squall also apologizes for the damage to the pier, and the fishermen are surprisingly chill about it, saying it's fine as long as nobody got hurt and fixing stuff is a hobby of theirs. There's a more curious interaction: One of the men reveals that he recognized Balamb Garden from the patterns on the walls, which they painted themselves long ago. Which I guess means Balamb Garden was at least partially constructed in FH? Interesting.
Look at these shots of the moon. It's so impossibly huge. I wish our moon looked like this.
FH is an interesting location, architecture-wise. The whole place looks like some kind of industrial platform, without any trace of natural soil or vegetation. As we learn soon, this is because Fisherrman's Horizon is entirely artificial - it was built on the Horizon Bridge, a massive intercontinental railroad built across the ocean shortly before 'the war', and has since been derelict. FH is 'a haven for expatriates who refused to have their skills exploited by the government' - not sure if this is the Galbadian government specifically, or governments in general. Either way, we are effectively in a more sympathetic Sealand, an artificial nation carved out of a piece of contested/neutral territory between nations. There's an interesting emphasis on natural energy around the place - it's surrounded by wind turbines, and the mayor's house sits at the center of a giant parabolic array of solar panels.
In fact, let's check the codex! In addition to information on the Horizon Bridge and Fisherman's Horizon, we have two new entries: "The truth about Garden" and "White SeeD." Interesting!
…
You know, there is some information you really should convey in actual dialogue, not just informational entries in an easily missed menu. What do you mean, a haven for orphans? It seems fairly obvious by now that Squall is an orphan, but am I supposed to believe that Garden specifically recruits orphans, and/or that its primary purpose is to serve as a foster home for them? What about Zell? We met his mom! What about Selphie? She comes from an entirely different place and presumably has her own family? Are Squall, Quistis and Seifer all orphans?
Man, 'mercenary schools preferentially targets vulnerable orphans for recruitment, providing them a target population that doesn't have family to protect them and has no counterbalance to the indoctrination of Garden's values' would have been such a good sinister detail to clearly establish way earlier, before the game operated a lateral shift by casting Cid as well-meaning but bumbling and having us kill NORG.
Also, the White SeeD are orphans formerly in the care of Sorceress Edea, now traveling the world on her ship. They initially introduced themselves as Edea's SeeD, and it was unclear why they were so chill with us and Cid towards them, but… Put a pin in that.
Anyway.
One of the FH locals asks us if we're going to Esthar, the 'hi-tech city' beyond the train tracks; FH is apparently a common stopping point for people traveling towards Esthar.
There's a weird beat where two of the FH locals are labeled in dialogue boxes as "Familiar Face" and "Familiar Face #2," and one of them berates Squall for not recognizing him, then tells him that he was one of the guys who greeted us at the Garden entrance. Which was… less than a minute ago in real time? I know Squall is bad with faces, but that's just baffling.
Familiar Face #3: "Are you a SeeD by any chance?"
Squall: "...yes."
Familiar Face #3: "I heard that you guys are, like, mercenaries, and basically fight anybody for money. Are you happy with that kind of life?"
Squall, mentally: "(What's his problem? Is he trying to pick up a fight?)"
Familiar Face #3: "Never mind. The way you live your life is none of my business. Just don't cause us any problem."
Squall, mentally: "(...He sounds just like me. I guess it doesn't sound very nice.)"
Bit by bit, Squall is developing a sense of self-awareness. It's nice.
Before heading for the mayor's house, I look around a little. There is a truly baffling bit of exposition here (also very missable), where talking to a completely random boatman has him give us information about NORG, a being so secretive that none of the students at his own school had ever met him until yesterday:
Boatman: "Say, the master of Balamb Garden is NORG, right? Did he evolve already?"
Squall: "What are you talking about?"
Boatman: "NORG. He's a Shumi, so he should evolve."
Squall: "Shumi…?"
Boatman: "What? You don't know diddly-squat, do you? Ah… Don't worry about it. You'll start gettin' it soon."
So I guess Selphie isn't a member of the Shumi Tribe after all, as they don't appear to be humans but rather weird monster people with multiple evolutionary stages. Which I guess also means we know why that weird sphere formed around NORG's pod after we defeated him. He didn't die, he merely went into some kind of coma state and formed a cocoon from which he will emerge like a beautiful butterfly. Probably for a second boss fight.
It's a shame our character literally hear this told them to their face and then fail to infer anything or do anything about it. Problems for later, I suppose. There's a Timber Maniacs issue we pick up at the inn, and I still have no idea what purpose those serve beyond minor alterations to Laguna's flashbacks that are impossible to tell without a guide. But, hey, plus side:
We can now upgrade our weapons!
Well, kind of. Rinoa is the only character who can upgrade to her maximum available weapon, the Cardinal, which leads to a substantial +13 Strength. Everyone else is stuck with lower level upgrades; Squall can't get the Flame Saber, for instance, due to still missing some of the crafting materials. It's a really annoying system.
Our next step is Mayor Dobe's house, where we meet him and his wife(?) Flo. The mayor is blunt: He immediately asks us when we plan on leaving. Squall explains that we'll depart as soon as the Garden is mobile again, but we have no idea when that will be, as we only recently discovered it could move at all. The Mayor tells us he'll send technicians to help us; Squall thinks it's not his call to make, as that will give strangers access to the Garden, and Dobe tells him to go and consult with his leader.
It's Rinoa who is the one to ask why Dobe wants us to leave so bad, which immediately makes Squall cringe to death.
Squall has a lot of problems, but it's interesting how sometimes his issues go into the direction of creating less conflict? You might expect his loyalty to the Garden to make him confrontational with people who don't want them here, but no, he's completely fine with taking their desire to see them leave at face value, remain polite and professional, and not question why they don't want him there.
Mayor Dobe: "We don't want military organizations in FH. You rely on force to solve problems. That is in direct defiance of our principles."
Flo: "We believe that any problem can be settled by discussion. If you reach a mutual understanding, there is no need to fight."
Squall, mentally: "(No argument there. Trite, and dull as hell, though.)"
Mayor Dobe: "Violence only leads to more violence. We believe that your presence here will attract violence. That's why we want you to leave as soon as possible."
Oh god, they're straw pacifists. Actually, judging by the implications of the codex and some dialogue, a significant number of FH's citizens are retired military scientists and military engineers? Fascinating demographic pool to draw a hippie commune from.
But yeah, these guys reject the entire premise of armed self-defense, which in a setting with a rampant fascist imperialist regime conducting constant wars of aggression is definitely A Choice. It's extremely funny to me that Squall isn't actually challenging their position on the merits; he literally says 'no argument' to the idea that if you can reach a mutual understanding there is no need to fight, he just thinks that's boring.
Our boy literally lives only to fight, it's incredible.
We take our leave to head back to the Garden. Before we do, though, just a quick check on the other side of the screen around the Mayor's house…
…Martine!?!
Headmaster Martine of Galbadia Garden???
Yeah, so, apparently, he got kicked out of Galbadia Garden in Edea's takeover. Predictable and probably one of the better fates he could have faced there.
Martine: "...A lot has happened since then. Banished from Galbadia Garden… Everything I built up, gone. After wandering around mindlessly… The people of this town welcomed me with open arms. The townspeople encouraged me to start over. Very kind, even towards a man like me who has nothing." [He puts his head in his hands.] "I… I'm so ashamed!!!"
Martine, my dude, you are severely overestimating how much I care about your personal life drama. You're lucky Squall has an underdeveloped sense of vengeance and won't cut you down for that trick you pulled with the assassination.
But hey, do you wanna play some cards?
OH MY GOD, YOU ABSOLUTE SCUMBAG???
The fact that Martine has a deck made out of all the cards he confiscated from students he just, holy shit, that is such a perfect scummy principal move you'd believe it was taken from the alternate universe version of FF8 where the game stays a story about magical high school shenanigans past the opening hours.
And he has Ifrit. Which we previously traded to Rinoa's father. Not sure how it made its way from there to Martine, but I'll take it. Then we leave Martine to wallow in his misery.
Zell, as the Id of the group, is the one most obviously pissed off by Mayor Dobe's dismissive attitude towards SeeD. Squall tells him to just forget it, they can't expect everyone to welcome them - and then the Galbadian Nation attacked.
No, really, it's that sudden, people start shouting about 'Galbadian soldiers!' and Flo, the mayor's wife, rushes to us and blames us for their arrival. Squall mentally is annoyed by her, but does decide to take it upon himself to dispatch the soldiers and protect the town.
This is one of Squall's redeeming qualities, I think. He's not the kind of person who will go 'you were rude to me, fuck you.' Even though he doesn't have a contract with this town, he understands he's probably responsible for Galbadian soldiers hunting him here (although, as we're about to see, he's wrong), and willing to take responsibility.
Which means it's too bad Mayor Dobe then appears and declares that they can't rely on us, we'd just make it a fight, so he'll just go and reason with the Galbadians.
Dude. Old man. My guy.
When he's right, he's right.
Alright, I guess it falls to us to go and save the old dude from his own naiveté.
New Galbadian mech just dropped, btw. You know, it's funny - it's the second time I've seen a direct reference to the M61 Vulcan rotary cannon in a Japanese game of that era, the other being MGS1's Vulcan Raven. And funnily enough, while Scan tells us it is using a Vulcan cannon… The name of its attack using its central mouth-mounted gun is Gatling.
The dialogue in the town as updated to reflect the townsfolk being scared, and there are now random encounters in the streets. Aside from the new mech, it's just soldiers, so we dispatch them easily and move on to a plaza kind of area where the mayor is predictably being manhandled by officers.
Surprise twist! The Galbadian soldiers aren't here for us. They're here for Ellone. It's not clear why they think she'd be there, but…
Mayor Dobe: "I already told you. I've never heard of this girl Ellone. There is nobody here by that name."
Squall, mentally: "(Ellone?)"
Galbadian Soldier: "Fine. We'll just have to torch this city."
Mayor Dobe: "Wait a minute! I'm telling the truth! I've never seen this girl!"
Galbadian Soldier: "It doesn't matter, old man. We're gonna burn this place anyway. Edea's orders. Ha ha ha."
Mayor Dobe: [Falling to his knees pleading] "No, please! I beg of you! Don't!"
Galbadian Soldier: "I'll start with you." [He lifts Mayor Dobe up into the air.]
Pacifism, while laudable in general, is not an effective defense against fascism.
The Galbadian army now answers to Edea. Edea sent them to find Ellone and destroy Fisherman's Horizon. But we know that Ellone has already been found by "Edea's SeeDs."
At this point, it seems extremely likely that the 'Edea is possessed by the Spirit of the Sorceress' theory is real; the White SeeDs were trained by the old, 'true' Edea, and they still consider themselves affiliated to/loyal to her, but between then and now Edea was taken over by some ancient evil and the White SeeDs had to split and be on their own. So the White SeeDs took Ellone with them to continue enacting some plan set out by the original Edea, while Possessed Edea is scouring the world to find Ellone and kill her. I fully believe this theory at this stage.
Squall has the option to "go help" or "listen a little longer," and I decide to jump in. The soldier tosses Mayor Dobe bodily aside and asks us who the hell we are; upon hearing we are SeeD, he asks other soldiers to bring in the Iron Clad, and more soldiers jump into the frame. And Squall…
Actually crouches to look at Mayor Dobe and apologizes for the violence he is about to inflict. Huh.
You know, a lot has been said about the perils of level scaling, but here I'm going to point to one thing the game is doing right: G-Soldiers do scale with player level, but their scaling is so undertune that even while Galbadia is fielding mechas and monsters that can threaten us, the basic soldiers are completely overwhelmed. The scaling brings in some utility, in that these opponents can still survive one hit from my weakest character, and an officer takes two hits to go down, but they are still completely overwhelmed in every fight.
This leads to a consistent feeling of progress, because we keep fighting G-Soldiers, and we are getting more and more obviously superior to them, but without being so superior that the system breaks down as it would in a static system where by down each soldier would deal 1 damage per attack.
Once the soldiers are dispatched, however, something comes to us from the railway/highway/bridge above the plaza… A familiar sight.
The Iron Clad, the same machine we fought in the Galbadian missile base, looking wrecked to shit, has somehow made its way to us. This is explicitly the same vehicle Selphie's team fought, now 'out of control after being destroyed.' Did it… Did it literally drive all the way from the ruins of the missile base to here on a rampage? Damn, I have to respect the hater energy.
Anyway, we hit it with lightning magic and buffed punches until it explodes. It's not a hard fight. In the cutscene that follows, the Iron Clad slowly slides back away on a stretch of broken plaza… And falls into the water below.
Then three familiar figure emerge from that same water.
Wait. What?
How the fuck did they-
They were at GROUND ZERO of a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION an ENTIRE CONTINENT AWAY. We are in the middle of the ocean! Did they swim all the way?? How did they get into the water???
Let's… ignore that for now. Squall's inner monologue actually using exclamation points and expressing happiness that they're alright took me entirely by surprise and was really sweet. Our boy is experiencing character development. Not that he's intent on showing them the full extent of it.
Squall: "Hey, Selphie. Quistis, Irvine. It's great to see you guys."
Irvine: "Say, what happened to the Garden?"
Squall, mentally: "(A lot has happened…)"
Squall: "The Garden is safe."
Selphie: "Really!!!? Whoo-hoo!!!"
Squall: "What happened to you guys?"
Zell: "Yo, let's talk about this later."
Squall, mentally: "(I guess…)"
Squall: "Zell, Rinoa, why don't you guys take them back to the Garden? I'll see you guys later, after I take a look around."
Honestly, even just trying to play it cool and saying 'it's great to see you guys' out loud is more than we're used to from Squall. The group splits up, but Rinoa lingers for a moment.
It turns out, Squall's poker face isn't enough to fool the girl who's had her eyes on him this whole time.
Rinoa: "You know, you just surprised me. You looked and sounded so happy to see them."
Squall, mentally: "(Huh?)"
Rinoa: "It was the first time I've seen you so honest. It was… really sweet."
Squall, mentally: "(Well… umm…)"
Squall, mentally: ["(It's because I felt responsible)"] // "(I was really glad to see them)" // "(It didn't mean anything)"
Squall: "They're my responsibility. I was worried about them. That's all."
Rinoa: "Is that all?"
Squall, mentally: "(What more does she want?)"
Rinoa: "Ok. Well, it's great that everyone is all right. It must be a big relief for you, Squall." [She waves.] "Catch you later, Squall!"
Sometimes, I remember to save before dialogue choices to check the multiple options. A lot of the time though, I pick on instinct, and I remember too late to save. Here, having Squall not say that he doesn't care, which is too far, but playing it off as his sense of responsibility, seemed more right for his character. That's not the most interesting line of dialogue, though; checking YouTube footage while writing this update, I saw that the guy whose channel I follow picked the "Really glad to see them" line, and it results in a wholly different response.
Squall: "I was just happy to see that they were alright. What's so surprising about that? Is something wrong?"
Rinoa: [She shakes her fist angrily.] "No! There's nothing wrong! They're your comrades, but moreover, they're your friends." [She relaxes.]
Squall, mentally: "(...Friends, huh…?)"
Rinoa: [She clasps her hands behind her back and does a 'shy, awkward' pause shuffling her feet.] "Hey, Squall, would you have been worried about me, too? Y'know, if I were with them instead?"
Squall, mentally: "(What? Why is she asking me this? I don't know.)"
Squall: "I… ahhh… I don't know. Umm… Maybe… I don't know."
Rinoa: "Gosh, Squall! You're turning red!"
Squall, mentally: "(What? No I'm not.)"
Rinoa: [She laughs.] "You're so cute! Taking it so seriously!"
Squall, mentally: "The heck!? Why is she toying with me?"
Rinoa: [She waves.] "Catch you later, Squall!"
This is top tier fumbling teenager romantic comedy content. I love Squall getting paralyzed like a deer in headlight and completely stumbling over his words. I was ready to believe that Rinoa actually felt a kind of envy for the bond between Squall and the other SeeDs that she doesn't quite fit in, but I guess no, she was just leveraging that for some Aerith-tier bullying.
Either way, we're almost done there - we just have to check in with the Mayor. Who says we don't need to apologize for fighting on his behalf, but he won't thank us either. And that leads us to another really interesting moment:
Squall tries to explain the way he sees the world.
Squall: "You don't have to. It's just that…"
Squall, mentally: "(Just what? What am I trying to say?)"
Squall, mentally: ["(I want him to understand us)"] // "(Forget it)"
Squall: "I wish you could be a little more understanding about us. We're not just a bunch of warmongers."
Mayor Dobe: "Oh?"
Squall, mentally: "(I don't know what more to say…)"
Squall, mentally: "(Stop)" // ["(Try to continue)"]
Squall: "It's hard for me to explain… I wish… everything could be settled without resorting to violence… and there would be no need for battles."
Squall: "Like you've been preaching, it would be wonderful if things could be settled by discussions. The only problem with that is that it often takes too much time. Especially if the others are not willing to listen. So I believe that fighting is inevitable at times. It's really sad. That's all I have to say. I hope you understand someday."
Squall: "I think the world needs both people like you and people like us. Thank you for your help. Goodbye."
This is so fascinating. Squall does seem to believe that in some sense, peace and negotiations are desirable, just that they're not always achievable, and that when they aren't, people like him - people who are willing to cut to the chase, to end the talks, willing to kill - are necessary. But they're not ideal. It would be terrible, if problems could only be solved his way. He's a… necessary evil, I guess.
But 'the problem is that it takes too much time' is such a wild root cause to identify. The problem isn't competing over resources, incompatible interests, national security, it's time. The time it takes to hash things out. And others' unwillingness to listen.
What this seems to suggest is that, contra his previous discussion with Irvine, Squall believes that everyone could potentially be on the same page and cooperate to make the world a better place. It's just hard, and not everyone is willing to cooperate, and it takes too long. But it's not inherently impossible. Just impractical. It's a… nicer worldview than he's previously let on.
Anyway, let's head back.
I'm just posting this picture because I love scenes of urban decay so much, they are my favorite aesthetic. Also there's a Haste spring in the background.
There are a few amusing skits to be found in Fisherman's Horizon after the fight. One of the old men is glad the house that sat where the Iron Clad fell into the water is no longer there, it makes for a new fishing spot for him. A character described as 'Middle-Aged Psycho' says they looove cats, and they have 256 of them - which is, they say, the largest number they can count to. A programmer joke about overflow numbers, almost definitely. There's also a guy who seems to keep foreign trivia?
He's got a Moomba figuring and a giant flag, country unclear. And the flag is sitting behind a desk on a raised stage - some kind of political activist? Organizer? He's apparently an artisan who trades with the Shumi Village; there is another Timber Maniacs issue to pick up there.
This 'Fisherkid' is very excited to show us his fishing technique. Unfortunately, said technique is, shall we say, less than refined; he throws his line backwards and smashes the window of the poor weapon store merchant.
I also check the mayor's house to see if he or Flo have new dialogue, but neither is here. However, I find something perhaps even more interesting: a Draw point I missed the first time.
It contains Ultima.
Man, the stuff this game throws you in discrete chunks far ahead of the curse were you'd normally get it is wild. We won't be getting a chance to test Ultima this update due to not getting into any further fights, but her, we have it.
In the meantime, it's time to head back to the Garden.
Irvine is here waiting for us; he informs us that Cid has allowed the technicians into the Garden. Then he asks in a kinda evasive way if Squall thinks it'd be alright if Irvine asked the technicians to help him with 'other stuff'; characteristically, Squall doesn't care about the reasons as long as it doesn't slow down the Garden repairs.
Irvine joins the party, and only a few steps later, awkwardly pauses until even Squall manages to pick up on the vibes and asks him what's up.
Irvine: "...Selphie's feeling down right now. I thought I should let you know, since you're… kind of like everybody's leader. I think you should go talk to her. I know you're a klutz when it comes to these things, so I'll back you."
Incredible. I suppose it would make sense that Irvine, the inveterate womanizer, would be well situated to pick up on one of the girls feeling blue, but the combination of 'instead of making my move I'll report to squall because he's the leader kinda' and 'neg Squall about his poor social skills' is just. I guess Irvine really did get to know the group.
…we're still not being told how they escaped the missile base getting nuked.
Also that casual statement about Squall being 'kind of like everybody's leader' definitely isn't going to come back to haunt him in like, fifteen minutes, give or take.
Irvine: "Wow. I didn't expect all this heavy machinery."
Squall: "How else are they going to repair it? With hammers and nails?"
Irvine: "Hey, hey, hey, this isn't my department."
Squall: "Then what is?"
Irvine: "...Guns and women of course."
Never stop being a fuckboi, Irvine.
We head for the Quad, where the source of Selphie's despair is immediately evident.
The stage for the festival has been completely trashed. It survived the Balamb Garden Civil War, it did not survive Balamb Garden going mobile and crashing first into the sea, then into Fisherman's Horizon. Our girl is understandably in the dumps about it. She laments that she really wanted to see a band perform on that stage, and even had her eyes on a few people (this is foreshadowing). She tries to be shikata ga nai about it but it's clear even to Squall that she's really down.
This is it. His hour has come.
He must try to cheer her up.
Squall, mentally: "(Man, she's really down.)"
Squall, mentally: ["(Cheer her up)"] // "(Let Irvine handle it)"
The FACT that he STILL gets the option to just foist it off on Irvine. SQUALL. Anyway we don't pick that one.
Squall: "Come on. I'm sure you can still do something."
Selphie: "...Squall…being sensitive? That's weird. You're the last person I expected to cheer me up. I must look really depressed."
Squall, mentally: "(What's so weird? I care just like everybody else. It's just that there are too many things that can't be helped. So why bother talking about everything.)"
Selphie: "Uh-oh! There you go again into your own little world. And you're not gonna share anything, huh?"
Squall: "...Yeah, whatever…"
Squall, mentally: "(Why is she teasing me? I was just trying to help…)"
Selphie: "Well, I think I'm feeling better. Don't worry about me, Squall."
Squall: "Irvine… You help her. I'm out of here."
Loudspeakers: "Squall, this is the headmaster speaking. Please come to my office."
Squall, mentally: "(What now?)"
I love the implication that Selphie was cheered up, not by Squall's terrible attempt at cheering her up, but by sheer surprise that he managed to actually get out of his own head long enough to make a positive comment, and then making fun of him for going right back into said own head. He's visibly getting better about social interaction, it's just that it makes him terrible in new ways.
Once he's gone, Irvine marvels at his own 'brilliance' and reveals to Selphie his plan: he asked Squall to let the technicians help him so that he could have them fix the stage, which means he is now the hero of the hour who will save the festival and Selphie's band project - at which point, his internal monologue informs us, he is all set to "make his move."
Okay, I was wrong earlier, Irvine. Maybe stop being a fuckboy. God. I mean, he's being helpful?? It's just the whole framing of his motives that further feeds into his fuckboyness. Incredible.
Alright. One last step before the end of this update. We are teleported to the observation or piloting… Place. Cid's office.
Squall concludes his report, delivered off-screen. Cid then tells him - and tells us, the audience - that Selphie also gave her report, and that we can see it in 'the diary.'
…
Did the information on her escape also get put into the codex?
The answer is no. Or at least, I could not find that information. Whatever Selphie's diary is, it's not available in the menu. I am left, once again, with no idea how Selphie's team survived a point blank nuke.
I mean, it's not that hard to guess, I don't think. The Iron Clad also survived the explosion. Selphie's team surfaced after it fell into the water. It was said to be 'out of control.' So the most likely scenario is that everyone jumped into the Iron Clad at the last moment in hope it might serve as a shelter, and then the vehicle locked up and ran on automatic with everyone trapped inside until we blew it up a second time. I'd just like to… Be told that. Well, we'll find Selphie's diary eventually, I suppose.
In any case, I did find some important information in the codex.
The information on the nature of Balamb Garden's original architecture was just there in plain sight. Except, it was hidden behind an additional page tab in one of the informational menu; Page 2 cuts off midway through, and you have to actually tab to Page 3 anyway to find the Shelter entry, so I missed it this whole time.
Turns outy? The Lunar Cry destroyed the ancient Centra civilization and used mobile shelters to move around the world, many of which now lie around the world in ruins. The Gardens are the remnants of these Centra Shelters, renovated into modern buildings. The 'MD Level' is the original Centra construction.
Those Centra people (whose name sounds a lot like 'Cetra') sure sound important to the plot!
Squall: "Oh, and one more thing… It appeared that the Galbadians were searching for Ellone. That seemed to be their main objective in FH. I believe the Sorceress Edea is behind all this."
Squall, mentally: "(Ellone has the ability to allow people to experience the past. Maybe the sorceress is after her for this ability. What other reason could there be?)"
Headmaster Cid: "So now the Galbadians are working for the sorceress, and were searching for Ellone in FH…"
Squall: "And regardless of whether they found her or not… They had orders to burn the city down."
Headmaster Cid: "That would help reduce the number of potential places where she could hide."
Squall, mentally: "(...That's right.)"
Headmaster Cid: "Most likely, the sorceress will not stop this onslaught until Ellone is found. She will continue to hunt her, and burn everything in her path."
Headmaster Cid: "We can't wait any longer."
Squall: "(So he's finally going official. About time.)"
Headmaster Cid: [Over loudspeakers] "This is Headmaster Cid. I have an announcement to make."
And then, the game plays out one of those classic movie tropes: We move from room to room, each of Cid's line being used as (textual) 'voice-over' over a shot one of the other main characters hanging out doing stuff, like so:
It's cool! I dig it.
…
Wait a second.
I am literally having this realization in real time as I write this. Let me just go back to earlier updates and check something.
Okay. I cannot be certain that this is the case without poring over every single line Cid has had in the game so far, but I believe that while Squall says "the sorceress Edea is behind this," Cid never says the words 'Sorceress Edea.' He only and exclusively refers to 'The sorceress' as the one the Garden must defeat, the one who planned to burn down the city, the one who is hunting for Ellone. Cid does use the name Edea - but only in sentences like 'Edea began talking about building the Garden' and 'SeeD might one day fight Edea.' The closest he comes to using the words 'Sorceress Edea' is when he says, 'She had been a sorceress since childhood.'
So… Yeah. Cid seems to make a mental distinction - whether or not it's conscious - between 'Edea,' his wife, and 'the sorceress,' Garden's enemy. It's quite notable in contrast to Squall, who frequently says 'Sorceress Edea'; I do not believe it's unintentional on the writers' parts. That could just be sentimentality on Cid's part…
…but it strongly reinforces the 'Edea is possessed by the sorceress' theory.
Anyway. Cid announces over the loudspeakers that their great journey must begin. Once the Garden is repaired, they will set off on a journey, and face many battles, in order to bring down the sorceress. Importantly, while Cid intends to continue leading the administrative angle of Balamb Garden, it seems he no longer believes himself capable or worthy of being its leader, the one guiding it, deciding its next move in this grand battle.
Balamb Garden and SeeD need a new leader.
And Cid makes what is simultaneously the only possible choice, and the funniest possible choice.
It went too fast for me to catch, but Squall is thinking "Are you serious?" then "I can't believe this" and "I don't even have a choice?"
Squall is officially the new leader of Balamb Garden.
Cid turns to Squall, and says "We're under your command from now on." Not they. We. Cid explicitly places himself under Squall's authority. Seeing Squall put his hand to his head in obvious frustration, Cid adds, as if that were not enough: "This is your fate. It is your destiny to lead the way in defeating the sorceress."
Cue the freakout.
It's a very animated bit of body acting, using several dramatic, slashing gestures to express his obvious anger. And there is no explanation of what Cid means by destiny and fate - but it seems clear to me that there is more to this than just 'Cid assessed all his SeeD and found Squall to have the best leadership-to-murder potential ratio and would have the best odds.' Thrusting the responsibility of all of Balamb Garden on Squall is… Harsh. And given that Squall is the target of Ellone's time-warping abilities (entirely did not expect 'Ellone is the source of the flashback effect' to be treated as immediately true instead of something Squall merely threw as a wild guess in their earlier conversation), it's clear there is something about him.
Is it his destiny? Does this world have prophecies? I do not remember one so far. But something is clearly going on here.
Cue the darkness, and more of Squall's inner monologue as he lies in bed, again, like the past two updates. It's an interesting way to punctuate plot beats.
Squall: "(I don't mind fighting the sorceress. It's unavoidable as long as I'm a SeeD member."
Squall: "(What? As long as I am a SeeD member? What if I quit?)"
Squall: "(Quit… Then what? What do I have left?)"
Squall: "(Don't even want to think about it. Just stop thinking…)"
Squall: "(I'll just have to do as I was told… Command the Garden and kill the sorceress.)"
Squall: "(How does Headmaster Cid expect me to take care of everyone?)"
Squall: "(It'd be best to go fight the sorceress soon, and end this nonsense.)"
Squall: "(...!? But isn't she the headmaster's wife? He wants us to kill his wife?)"
Squall: "(What does it feel like to give an order like that?)"
[Fade to next scene.]
…
From a narrative structure perspective, what I find fascinating is that Squall is experiencing character development, but his responsibilities are outpacing his growth.
He just realized that he cares about fucking up and getting someone under his command killed, and he has to send Selphie's team on a possible suicide mission. He just discovered that he cares about his friends on a genuine emotional level, and he is tasked with the entire Garden. At every step that Squall betters himself, improves his attitude, forges meaningful emotional connections, he sees something even heavier, something he isn't psychologically ready for, foisted upon him. It's a fascinating way to keep the character in a state of constant tension and struggle even as he is taking real steps towards being a better person.
Luckily, he is not alone.
His friends are here to help him…
With a band performance.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: I was going to make a gag here but now I'm remembering the 'God Knows' performance from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and I need to go lie down
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Luckily, he is not alone.
His friends are here to help him…
With a band performance.
Thank you for reading.
Kemayo
A Certain Cheerful Tone Of Voice
- Location
- Missouri
I'm fairly sure, from hazy memories, that this is on the computer system in the classroom that you had to interact with at the very beginning of the game, and which the game has literally never hinted might be updating occasionally. (I think this is also where the Timber Maniacs stuff is going, but I could be completely wrong there.)
That's FF8 for you!
- Pronouns
- Him/He
By the way, the Mayor of FH may not believe in fighting, but he does believe in competitive card games, and has something worth having. Not something worth reloading for, just keep it in mind if you missed it, if you get a chance later.
Something that is less obvious, is when you get control of Irvine, even for a moment? You can actually go for a long walk. An Enthusiastic walk even. With lots and lots and lots of incidental dialogue.
Something that is less obvious, is when you get control of Irvine, even for a moment? You can actually go for a long walk. An Enthusiastic walk even. With lots and lots and lots of incidental dialogue.
Dybbukpossesed
Falling Somewhere
- Location
- California
Oh really? I wonder if that's where the KOTOR 2 team got the idea for the bit with the protocol droid? Or maybe both were intended to be part of something bigger that had to be cut due to time/budget constraints.
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Thank you, Omi, for these perfectly contrasting screenshots. Really made my night.
"Your... FISHERMANS HORIZONS"
"GET IT SQUALL, DO YOU GET IT"
What with the whole "the Gardens are actually repurposed old tech/bunkers" info we've gotten over the last few updates, it's probably less "constructed" and more "contracted for the paint job and some touch ups". Idunno, maybe they built the cafeteria and imported the monsters for the training center, those Grats have to be coming from somewhere in the world.
I could believe Zell is adopted, maybe? Though if he is the game sure hasn't hinted at it in any way.
And yeah, the whole "mercenary schools that adopt orphans to train up into teenage supersoldiers" thing is kind of sus, and obviously the reason we had so many "Cid Evil Mastermind" memes going on. This might still be one of the most "evil" Cids in the series, tbh, with actions like that, only surpassed by Banana Mengele... though also once again the game doesn't really portray Cid as all that bad for his actions.
Oh alright, so NORG was just a Pokemon all along
Or maybe a Digimon I guess with his design, you don't usually get Pokemon looking quite that humanoid while Digimon goes wild with that kind of stuff.
Genuinely surprised Edea didn't just Command Grab explode the shit out of Martine. Ah well, guess he survives to be...
...A Yu-Gi-Oh villain. Truly, what a fate for a character in a Final Fantasy game of all things.
So having not caught back up with this part of the LP yet and not remembering what happens to the Mayor... I totally took this screenshot as Squall looking at the Mayor's already freshly murdered body because negotiations broke down just that fast. Whoops, that pacifism thing must not have worked out.Which means it's too bad Mayor Dobe then appears and declares that they can't rely on us, we'd just make it a fight, so he'll just go and reason with the Galbadians.
Dude. Old man. My guy.
Pacifism is a great ideal to hold... but also one that's much simpler on an individual basis. When you start getting into the scale of countries (let's be honest most cities in Final Fantasy games are basically their own countries), though, especially in a world with monsters and evil empires, you really, really should have at least some kind of standing military.
Bro really just drove across the sea floor to get all the way here
Either that or the twenty mile sea bridge, which is still pretty nuts for a berserk, half-destroyed robot.
Frame Perfect Dodges, obviously, Selphie last second realized she could use The End on the party so they were actually just in the flower field while the explosion went off, then popped back into the missile base afterwards. Makes perfect sense.
So for the record, while this is obviously an absoutely absurd power spike to find sitting here in the middle of Disk 2, this is also a Draw Point that's both invisible (you need that one Siren ability to even see it) and doesn't recharge (whatever Ultimas you just got, is all you're ever getting from it). Not even the first time the game has pulled this as a sort of "top tier magic preview", there was that draw point in a side office back in the Timber Maniac Headquarters which had iirc Blizzaga pretty early in the game.
Just Cast Float Bro
Reduces your weight enough that the explosion just sends you flying instead of blasting you to bits, then you safely land afterwards.
You know one thing I've liked about this update is how not only is Squall clearly developing as a character, but also that most of the party members are getting to know him better and realizing he's actually just a big softie under that brooding edgelord Perfect Mercenary outer shell he likes to put up. Rinoa, Selphie and Irvine all called him out at some point or another, and Quistis was doing it in literally the first five minutes of the game. Guess that just leaves Zell to be somewhat oblivious, which... fair, he would be.
If I'm remembering correctly, Selphie's "diary" is just
an updating series of entries written on the Garden system you access from your desk in your classroom, where she writes about all kinds of stuff.
Yes, somehow you were supposed to know you need to go back to visit your classroom from 20 hours ago to find out these details.
Cid just casually sussing out "oh yeah Sorceress is just committing a little bit of genocide and city burning so her target has nowhere in the world to hide." Dude's got some scary thought processes when he wants to... though that probably comes with running a mercenary school.
Definitely a lot of evidence for the possession theory at this point, yep. Though could also be disassociation on Cid's part, where he's just trying not to acknowledge that his own wife has become his mortal enemy by going "The Sorceress" instead of speaking or even thinking her name, to avoid breaking down over it.
Honestly I think some RPG teams just have fun throwing together all that alternate text for small sequences like this. Granted it's easier in a game like FFVIII with no voice acting to just slap in a variable or switch or whatever on a bunch of NPCs for "Is the party leader Irvine" and then give them a few lines of alt dialogue.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...those don't look like parabolic solar panels, those look like a parabolic mirror array. Of the kind used to direct a large area of sunlight into a single point so as to derrive electrical power from the resulting heat of that point.
...a point which appears to be the mayor's house. Man likes to keep his house toasty, I suppose (how is it not on fire).
...a point which appears to be the mayor's house. Man likes to keep his house toasty, I suppose (how is it not on fire).