Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: FFVIII]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So, uh, if Squall now has Cid's job, and NORG is busy metamorphosing... who's paying the salary Squall keeps getting? Shouldn't he be the one making salary decisions (and taking in the contract money, and paying his subordinates) now?
Did NORG set up an auto-pay system and forget to turn it off when the civil war kicked in?
Did NORG set up an auto-pay system and forget to turn it off when the civil war kicked in?
Squall's gonna make a command decision to up his salary. Luckily Cid's demotion comes with a massive paycut.
Possibly longer hours too.
Possibly longer hours too.
SEED's accounting department is a well-oiled machine. Neither sleet nor snow nor glom of nit will stop them from carrying out their sacred task.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think you missed a sidequest. If you went to talk to the Master Fishmerman right after you arrived (he's the guy under the umbrella), he'll give you the Occult Fan III magazine. After liberating the town and the Fisherkid finally learns to fish, you can talk to the Master again, and earn a Megalixir. Unfortunately, to get the sidequest, you must talk to the Master Fisherman first thing before doing anything else in Fishermans Horizon, otherwise the sidequest won't happen.
Also, you should look around the area where you fought the boss. The cafeteria lady's son is hanging out there, and maybe you can convince him to come home.
From what I've read, it's not that they swam across the ocean, it's that they hitchhiked in good ol' Iron Clad. Basically, they managed to get inside or under Iron Clad before the base blew up, and the mech's incredibly sturdy build sheltered them. However, they couldn't actually control the mech, so they just rode along (maybe drove it) until you destroyed it finally. That's why they pop up in the water after you knock it into the water.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???
You should have gone back there after talking to Irvine; a scene will play out and you'll get a Mega Phoenix.
Also, you should look around the area where you fought the boss. The cafeteria lady's son is hanging out there, and maybe you can convince him to come home.
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I choose to believe that the other option besides 'play along' is 'resist the inevitable'.
This is actually a really interesting, non-obvious train of thought for Squall to have at this point. You'd expect him to be worrying about the object level- how he was never trained for this job, he doesn't know how to succeed- but that's not on his mind at all. He's thinking first of taking care of himself (this job is stressful, maybe I should quit), then everyone he's now responsible for, then specifically Cid's emotions. He's got a surprisingly nurturing personality, under all that edge.
Man, FF8 actually has really good character writing, huh.
You should bring a few pokeballs with you next time.
Or a Masterball if you don't want to struggle against the RNG, which is one of the possible rewards for beating Triple Triad.
Mayor: Violence begets violence
Squall: Yeah, but I love violence uwu
Now I'm not so sure it was out of control. Perhaps Selphie just went on a rampage.
Nah, Selphie would've been funnier. Also very effective at killing the sorceress and the continent she was standing on.
- Location
- Te Ika-a-Māui
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Why do you think he didn't choose her?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
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!
I choose to interpret this as simply further support for my Lunar Ark theory for the Gardens' origin!
Where are the Garden Faculty guys, anyway?
Because he's a COWARD.
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- Location
- USA
For the longest time, my head-canon was that there was a scene between Cid's announcement and Squall moping around in his room again that the game decided to leave out.
Squall: "Why did you make me the leader of SeeD?"
Cid: "Because I needed a name when I was making the speech, and you were standing right before me."
Squall: "(This FUCKING guy.)"
Squall: "Why did you make me the leader of SeeD?"
Cid: "Because I needed a name when I was making the speech, and you were standing right before me."
Squall: "(This FUCKING guy.)"
Morganite
Happiness is a large book.
- Location
- Dynamis - Firefly Alley
I'll have you know that due to the missing quotation mark I thought "Charming Kitty Ariana in a cat ear headband" was all part of the name, and it is now my headcanon (for a game I don't play) that it really is all part of the name.
... But they have a weapons shop...
-Morgan.
FelOnyx
Love and Peace!
- Location
- Gunsmoke
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's for when they catch a really big fish.
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
For the Italian translation, this section has a decent amount of notes.
- So, the first change here is that, in Italian, after Rinoa tells Squall that he was talking in his sleep, she just has an ellipsis line, instead of the more teasing "I won't tell you what you said" she says in English. Doesn't really changes the scene, but it seemed worth noting.
- The next change is more interesting, in that Rinoa takes a very different approach to telling Squall to lighten up; instead of commenting that it's not good to think too much, she says that all this frowning he does while he's deep in thought will keep his scar from ever healing. It's less personal/pointed and more playful as far as commenting on Squall always being lost in his own thoughts is, and I'm not sure if it really works, although it does feel like it's in character enough for Rinoa. Also, if you refuse, she still keeps up the "your highness" joke, but her parting line is less carefree; instead of "see you around", she goes with "apologies for distrubing Your Grace", which sounds just a bit more passive-aggressive. I think this whole exchange works better in the English version overall.
- Of note, if Rinoa isn't part of the group, it's Zell that shows up here, asking Squall to go to the Training Center to blow off some steam; if neither Rinoa nor Zell are around, Quistis is the one who shows up, and her lines are a call-back to her meeting with Squall earlier in the game, where she asks if he feels like having somebody listen to his thoughts, rather than just share them with a wall.
- Interestingly, Cid is more receptive to Squall's feelings here, as he asks "do you dislikes the orders?", to which Squall answers with "no", same as in English, instead of the more general "something on your mind?". Also! If you ask him right here, Cid will play cards here, providing another brief window were the unique card he owns can be obtained under Balamb rules.
- The kid has a different comment in front of the security exit - instead of saying "seeing the do not open sign makes me want to open the door", he has a more prankster attitude and says "you bet that if I write do not open on this security exit, everybody will want to open it?", and then he gets scolded by Xu for it.
- The one guy that mentions Norg could evolve into something else is "curious" in Italian, whereas in English he was "worried", for whatever difference that makes.
- When talking with Dobe, after Rinoa asks "why do you want us to leave so badly", Squall's berating of her(in his own head) is limited to only the "they'll have their own reasons" part, making it come across as less annoyed with her.
- After leaving Dobe, going down grants the opportunity to listen in on the conversation as the man explains the presence of armed Galbadia troops; Dobe says that he's a friend of Deling, and upon being told Deling's dead and the Sorceress is in charge by Squall's team, he says that's no reason to worry, and Flo insist a solution through dialogue can still be found even with the Sorceress.
- When Dobe decides to go talk with the Galbadians, the impetus of the game is to follow him... but this is not mandatory. It's entirely possible to go back to the Garden and spend a few hours playing cards, fighting monsters, and chatting without any consequences whatsoever. However, nobody in the Garden has updated dialogue, and even meeting with Cid won't cause any new exchange, he just ask "what is it?" over and over.
- Squall's lines with Rinoa after defeating the iron clad are VERY different from the English version, in that she starts with the "so, if I was...", which Squall interrupts with "yeah, I'd have worried about you as well". To this, Rinoa is surprised that Squall pre-empted what she was about to say, since that means he was paying attention to her feeling, and she say she's happy for it. To which Squall thinks to himself that she'd overreacting, as typical for her, but he does so in a fond manner. It's still a step forwards in the relationship, but is predicated more on a broadening of Squall's understanding and ability to admit his feelings, which is quite different from the English take.
- Talking with Dobe, Squall asks "was it wrong to do so?" when Dobe says he saved his life, instead of apologizing; this makes it clearer that Squall doesn't think he made a mistake saving the guy's life, he's only curious whether Dobe's pacifism will extend to saying he did wrong by saving his life.
- Irvine's line about "my department is guns and women" has been removed from the Italian translation; he still comments on the working equipment that'll be used to repair the Garden, but when Squall says "what did you expect?", he just has a line that comments on Squall's attitude with a "you're never surprised by anything, are you?" instead. Not sure if reducing Irvine's playboy attitude is a good thing or not, but it was clearly intentionally toned down here. Unless the English translation added more, but that seems unlikely.
- Reassuring Selphie mostly follows the same beats, but Selphie ends her portion of the speech with "Don't worry Squall, I'm feeling better; take care of yourself, too!", returning his encouragement instead of just accepting it. Makes Selphie feel more involved. And in return, Squall's add-on to asking Irvine to handle things is a softer "I don't know what else to say", instead of the harsher "I'm out of here" of the English version.
- At the end of the discussion with Selphie, another of Irvine's more sleazy lines is replaced with "at least I managed to make her happy", which makes him look a lot more altruistic, in that he's helping Selphie for her, rather than for himself.
Anyway, the most often missed piece of content in the game is about to come up, that being that, when you gain control of Irvine, you can actually control him, having him move around and experience a few unique scenes (special mention to the workshop with the Moomba doll) and some unique dialogue.
Also, the section were you control Irvine includes a very significant choice; the fact that you can move out of the initial screen where you gain control of Irvine to save before making that choice would allow you to check out what happens with the three different options, and allow you to make your canonical choice the good option (classic guitar, flute, violin, tap dance), instead of either the annoying option (sax, piano, electric guitar and bass guitar) or the bad option (other mixes of the four instruments, with some variation). Getting the good option here is actually one of the most important missable plot-beats in the game, as the story makes less sense with the other two options.
As I mentioned, there's another very easily missable thing is here, in that, on the third screen from entering FH, the one with the giant water tank, there is a ladder going down, and taking it will lead to the old Master Fisherman that was shown in the "Garden crashing into FH" FMV; he will hand over the "Occult Fan III" if spoken to, and mention a minor side-quest that can be carried out in FH. The man can only be encountered if going down the ladder in a brief window of time (I believe it needs to happen before fighting the Iron Clad), and "Occult Fan III" can only be obtained here; it's a unique item.
When Irvine joins Squall's team is the only time to complete the Master Fisherman quest, and there's also a unique meeting with a Galbadian soldier in the workshop right next to the station (the one with the Moomba doll), another small thing that is very easy to miss; as mentioned above, the recompense for this is a rare Mega Phoenix, the item which revives the whole team. The recompense for completing the Master Fisherman quest, on the other hand? Missable lore about the founding of Fisherman's Horizon. A lot of it, at that.
- So, the first change here is that, in Italian, after Rinoa tells Squall that he was talking in his sleep, she just has an ellipsis line, instead of the more teasing "I won't tell you what you said" she says in English. Doesn't really changes the scene, but it seemed worth noting.
- The next change is more interesting, in that Rinoa takes a very different approach to telling Squall to lighten up; instead of commenting that it's not good to think too much, she says that all this frowning he does while he's deep in thought will keep his scar from ever healing. It's less personal/pointed and more playful as far as commenting on Squall always being lost in his own thoughts is, and I'm not sure if it really works, although it does feel like it's in character enough for Rinoa. Also, if you refuse, she still keeps up the "your highness" joke, but her parting line is less carefree; instead of "see you around", she goes with "apologies for distrubing Your Grace", which sounds just a bit more passive-aggressive. I think this whole exchange works better in the English version overall.
- Of note, if Rinoa isn't part of the group, it's Zell that shows up here, asking Squall to go to the Training Center to blow off some steam; if neither Rinoa nor Zell are around, Quistis is the one who shows up, and her lines are a call-back to her meeting with Squall earlier in the game, where she asks if he feels like having somebody listen to his thoughts, rather than just share them with a wall.
- Interestingly, Cid is more receptive to Squall's feelings here, as he asks "do you dislikes the orders?", to which Squall answers with "no", same as in English, instead of the more general "something on your mind?". Also! If you ask him right here, Cid will play cards here, providing another brief window were the unique card he owns can be obtained under Balamb rules.
- The kid has a different comment in front of the security exit - instead of saying "seeing the do not open sign makes me want to open the door", he has a more prankster attitude and says "you bet that if I write do not open on this security exit, everybody will want to open it?", and then he gets scolded by Xu for it.
- The one guy that mentions Norg could evolve into something else is "curious" in Italian, whereas in English he was "worried", for whatever difference that makes.
- When talking with Dobe, after Rinoa asks "why do you want us to leave so badly", Squall's berating of her(in his own head) is limited to only the "they'll have their own reasons" part, making it come across as less annoyed with her.
- After leaving Dobe, going down grants the opportunity to listen in on the conversation as the man explains the presence of armed Galbadia troops; Dobe says that he's a friend of Deling, and upon being told Deling's dead and the Sorceress is in charge by Squall's team, he says that's no reason to worry, and Flo insist a solution through dialogue can still be found even with the Sorceress.
- When Dobe decides to go talk with the Galbadians, the impetus of the game is to follow him... but this is not mandatory. It's entirely possible to go back to the Garden and spend a few hours playing cards, fighting monsters, and chatting without any consequences whatsoever. However, nobody in the Garden has updated dialogue, and even meeting with Cid won't cause any new exchange, he just ask "what is it?" over and over.
- Squall's lines with Rinoa after defeating the iron clad are VERY different from the English version, in that she starts with the "so, if I was...", which Squall interrupts with "yeah, I'd have worried about you as well". To this, Rinoa is surprised that Squall pre-empted what she was about to say, since that means he was paying attention to her feeling, and she say she's happy for it. To which Squall thinks to himself that she'd overreacting, as typical for her, but he does so in a fond manner. It's still a step forwards in the relationship, but is predicated more on a broadening of Squall's understanding and ability to admit his feelings, which is quite different from the English take.
- Talking with Dobe, Squall asks "was it wrong to do so?" when Dobe says he saved his life, instead of apologizing; this makes it clearer that Squall doesn't think he made a mistake saving the guy's life, he's only curious whether Dobe's pacifism will extend to saying he did wrong by saving his life.
- Irvine's line about "my department is guns and women" has been removed from the Italian translation; he still comments on the working equipment that'll be used to repair the Garden, but when Squall says "what did you expect?", he just has a line that comments on Squall's attitude with a "you're never surprised by anything, are you?" instead. Not sure if reducing Irvine's playboy attitude is a good thing or not, but it was clearly intentionally toned down here. Unless the English translation added more, but that seems unlikely.
- Reassuring Selphie mostly follows the same beats, but Selphie ends her portion of the speech with "Don't worry Squall, I'm feeling better; take care of yourself, too!", returning his encouragement instead of just accepting it. Makes Selphie feel more involved. And in return, Squall's add-on to asking Irvine to handle things is a softer "I don't know what else to say", instead of the harsher "I'm out of here" of the English version.
- At the end of the discussion with Selphie, another of Irvine's more sleazy lines is replaced with "at least I managed to make her happy", which makes him look a lot more altruistic, in that he's helping Selphie for her, rather than for himself.
Anyway, the most often missed piece of content in the game is about to come up, that being that, when you gain control of Irvine, you can actually control him, having him move around and experience a few unique scenes (special mention to the workshop with the Moomba doll) and some unique dialogue.
Also, the section were you control Irvine includes a very significant choice; the fact that you can move out of the initial screen where you gain control of Irvine to save before making that choice would allow you to check out what happens with the three different options, and allow you to make your canonical choice the good option (classic guitar, flute, violin, tap dance), instead of either the annoying option (sax, piano, electric guitar and bass guitar) or the bad option (other mixes of the four instruments, with some variation). Getting the good option here is actually one of the most important missable plot-beats in the game, as the story makes less sense with the other two options.
As I mentioned, there's another very easily missable thing is here, in that, on the third screen from entering FH, the one with the giant water tank, there is a ladder going down, and taking it will lead to the old Master Fisherman that was shown in the "Garden crashing into FH" FMV; he will hand over the "Occult Fan III" if spoken to, and mention a minor side-quest that can be carried out in FH. The man can only be encountered if going down the ladder in a brief window of time (I believe it needs to happen before fighting the Iron Clad), and "Occult Fan III" can only be obtained here; it's a unique item.
When Irvine joins Squall's team is the only time to complete the Master Fisherman quest, and there's also a unique meeting with a Galbadian soldier in the workshop right next to the station (the one with the Moomba doll), another small thing that is very easy to miss; as mentioned above, the recompense for this is a rare Mega Phoenix, the item which revives the whole team. The recompense for completing the Master Fisherman quest, on the other hand? Missable lore about the founding of Fisherman's Horizon. A lot of it, at that.
As other mentioned, this is in the classroom terminal, but more specifically: the section about the Garden Festival committee. It has been updating the whole game, and it will keep updating going forwards after every new significant plot development.
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- Location
- USA
Now that I'm thinking about it, this is actually more than a little amusing--Selphie's blogging before weblog culture became A Thing in real life. Sure, she simply calls it the "Garden Culture Festival" webpage, but that's totally what she's doing.
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- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
Fisherman's Horizon is always one of my favourite places in FFVIII, entirely due to its background music. My favourite version is from the arrangement album for FFVIII, which is mostly the same tune but with proper instrumentation.
It's pretty great, yeah. The Japanese script has Rinoa talking like a loyal retainer. She calls him "Squall-sama", and uses flowery formal language. Japanese players would be familiar with it from period piece media of samurai and such.
I like how the fisherman initially goes "It's a slow day. I wish something big would happen, like 'BAM'", and then something big happened like BAM.
An interesting difference in the Japanese script is the chief of Fisherman's Horizon has the title of Stationmaster. As in "stationmaster of a train station". It makes sense upon consideration, with FH being a settlement in the middle of what is essentially a huge intercontinental railroad. I assume the English translation just goes with "mayor" for simplicity.
I might be missing some nuance in the Japanese text, but the way Esthar is described is a little odd: it's called 近代国家 ("kindai kokka"), which translates more or less to "modern nation". As in a nation that's in "modern times", probably meaning in its design or architecture.
Which is weird, because surely most of the settlements we've seen in FFVIII are "modern", with the only exceptions being places like Winhill being "rustic". Fisherman's Horizon itself is pretty modern, and Deling City is definitely modern.
The English translation of "hi-tech city" (I'm assuming "city" and "nation" are interchangeable here, due to the prevalence of city-states) feels like it's emphasizing how Esthar is even more modern than what we think "modern" means. "Futuristic" might be another way to put it, but the Japanese text doesn't say anything like that. (未来的な国家 would be the translation.)
Dobe is a minor example of another character who got a name change from Japanese. This is understandable, because in Japanese, his name is Dope.
(I usually hear "dope" in Japanese in the definition of "drugs", as in "doping up" athletes. It's a fairly common joke in gaming streams to refer to taking stat buff items and such as "doping". I don't know if "Dope" here is supposed to be a joke about "hippie commune", or if it's just a random syllable generated as a name that doesn't mean anything.)
Both Dobe and Flo are titled "Stationmaster", as in "Stationmaster Dobe" and "Stationmaster Flo". So the idea is they have the same rank and position as equals.
Slight difference in nuance in the Japanese text. Squall says "That is absolutely true. It's so true that it's sleep-inducing."
So not only does Squall agree, he strongly agrees and thinks it's an obvious truth. It's such an obvious truth that even stating it is so boring, it would put people to sleep with how obvious it is.
I imagine Squall mentally doing the teenage thing of rolling his eyes and going "Duh."
Sadly the script site doesn't have the chat with Martine. Incidentally, I also found a playthrough of FFVIII in Japanese on Youtube, which is actually fairly unusual, because at the time FFVIII was popular enough to have video playthroughs, the Japanese segment of gamers were on Nico Nico Douga, so Youtube playthroughs in Japanese were comparatively rare. I mention this because the game streamer also does not have the chat with Martine, because she never bothered to explore to the right of the mayor's house.
I don't know why Zell holds such a grudge in English. In Japanese, he says "He's an irritating old man, but I can't let him be killed." Which is much more sympathetic.
I wasn't sure when this song would play, since most of the Googled mentions I've seen only say it plays farther in the story, but with the Youtube playthrough, I can confirm that this track plays in this scene.
The title is "Ami", and it's a variation of the Balamb Garden theme. I can't link the song from the Square Enix Music Channel due to spoilers, but that's fine, because I can link the FFXIV version of it. I really like this tune too, so the Fisherman's Horizon sequence does stick in my mind for the excellent soundtrack.
Personal anecdote: for the longest time, ever since I heard this song and learned the track name back when I first played FFVIII, one of the biggest questions I had about the game's story was "who the heck is Ami". I was convinced there was some character called "Ami" in the backstory somewhere I had missed.
It was only very recently, ie when I finally decided to look it up while reading this thread playthrough, that I finally learned "Ami" is supposed to mean "friend". As in "amigo" and "mon ami". The track is named "Ami" because it plays when a group of friends get together.
Also a minor note about the translation: Squall here is generally happy to see the Missile Base team alive and well. In Japanese, his thoughts have enough ellipses pauses to make it seem like even when he's silently thinking, he's breaking up with happiness and barely able to keep it together.
And yes, he's just as deliberately casual out loud with "Welcome back".
The last bit is an invention of the English translation. In Japanese, after Irvine says "this isn't my department", Squall just says "Let's go", and Irvine praises him for being "so reliable" in a playful way, which makes him sound like he's being a little sarcastic. I might be reading too much into that, though.
Yeah. It's more subtle in Japanese, because as mentioned, Japanese grammar relies a lot on surrounding context, and generally doesn't specify between definite and indefinite articles, or singular and plural. But Cid has consistently been saying "the Sorceress" (or "Sorceresses" in general), while other characters have been relatively free in specifying "Sorceress Edea", or using "the Sorceress" to mean Sorceress Edea in particular.
It's pretty great, yeah. The Japanese script has Rinoa talking like a loyal retainer. She calls him "Squall-sama", and uses flowery formal language. Japanese players would be familiar with it from period piece media of samurai and such.
I like how the fisherman initially goes "It's a slow day. I wish something big would happen, like 'BAM'", and then something big happened like BAM.
An interesting difference in the Japanese script is the chief of Fisherman's Horizon has the title of Stationmaster. As in "stationmaster of a train station". It makes sense upon consideration, with FH being a settlement in the middle of what is essentially a huge intercontinental railroad. I assume the English translation just goes with "mayor" for simplicity.
I might be missing some nuance in the Japanese text, but the way Esthar is described is a little odd: it's called 近代国家 ("kindai kokka"), which translates more or less to "modern nation". As in a nation that's in "modern times", probably meaning in its design or architecture.
Which is weird, because surely most of the settlements we've seen in FFVIII are "modern", with the only exceptions being places like Winhill being "rustic". Fisherman's Horizon itself is pretty modern, and Deling City is definitely modern.
The English translation of "hi-tech city" (I'm assuming "city" and "nation" are interchangeable here, due to the prevalence of city-states) feels like it's emphasizing how Esthar is even more modern than what we think "modern" means. "Futuristic" might be another way to put it, but the Japanese text doesn't say anything like that. (未来的な国家 would be the translation.)
Dobe is a minor example of another character who got a name change from Japanese. This is understandable, because in Japanese, his name is Dope.
(I usually hear "dope" in Japanese in the definition of "drugs", as in "doping up" athletes. It's a fairly common joke in gaming streams to refer to taking stat buff items and such as "doping". I don't know if "Dope" here is supposed to be a joke about "hippie commune", or if it's just a random syllable generated as a name that doesn't mean anything.)
Both Dobe and Flo are titled "Stationmaster", as in "Stationmaster Dobe" and "Stationmaster Flo". So the idea is they have the same rank and position as equals.
Slight difference in nuance in the Japanese text. Squall says "That is absolutely true. It's so true that it's sleep-inducing."
So not only does Squall agree, he strongly agrees and thinks it's an obvious truth. It's such an obvious truth that even stating it is so boring, it would put people to sleep with how obvious it is.
I imagine Squall mentally doing the teenage thing of rolling his eyes and going "Duh."
Sadly the script site doesn't have the chat with Martine. Incidentally, I also found a playthrough of FFVIII in Japanese on Youtube, which is actually fairly unusual, because at the time FFVIII was popular enough to have video playthroughs, the Japanese segment of gamers were on Nico Nico Douga, so Youtube playthroughs in Japanese were comparatively rare. I mention this because the game streamer also does not have the chat with Martine, because she never bothered to explore to the right of the mayor's house.
I don't know why Zell holds such a grudge in English. In Japanese, he says "He's an irritating old man, but I can't let him be killed." Which is much more sympathetic.
I wasn't sure when this song would play, since most of the Googled mentions I've seen only say it plays farther in the story, but with the Youtube playthrough, I can confirm that this track plays in this scene.
The title is "Ami", and it's a variation of the Balamb Garden theme. I can't link the song from the Square Enix Music Channel due to spoilers, but that's fine, because I can link the FFXIV version of it. I really like this tune too, so the Fisherman's Horizon sequence does stick in my mind for the excellent soundtrack.
Personal anecdote: for the longest time, ever since I heard this song and learned the track name back when I first played FFVIII, one of the biggest questions I had about the game's story was "who the heck is Ami". I was convinced there was some character called "Ami" in the backstory somewhere I had missed.
It was only very recently, ie when I finally decided to look it up while reading this thread playthrough, that I finally learned "Ami" is supposed to mean "friend". As in "amigo" and "mon ami". The track is named "Ami" because it plays when a group of friends get together.
Also a minor note about the translation: Squall here is generally happy to see the Missile Base team alive and well. In Japanese, his thoughts have enough ellipses pauses to make it seem like even when he's silently thinking, he's breaking up with happiness and barely able to keep it together.
And yes, he's just as deliberately casual out loud with "Welcome back".
The last bit is an invention of the English translation. In Japanese, after Irvine says "this isn't my department", Squall just says "Let's go", and Irvine praises him for being "so reliable" in a playful way, which makes him sound like he's being a little sarcastic. I might be reading too much into that, though.
Yeah. It's more subtle in Japanese, because as mentioned, Japanese grammar relies a lot on surrounding context, and generally doesn't specify between definite and indefinite articles, or singular and plural. But Cid has consistently been saying "the Sorceress" (or "Sorceresses" in general), while other characters have been relatively free in specifying "Sorceress Edea", or using "the Sorceress" to mean Sorceress Edea in particular.
- Location
- USA
近代 can also refer to "modernism" or "modernist", which is slightly separate from plain "modern." While I don't dispute Deling City is a modern urban center, I've pointed out that aesthetics-wise, it's very Art Deco and retro-looking. Modernist architecture looks very, very different from it.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
It's one of those things I might be thinking too hard about. Primarily, what does "modernist" (or 近代) mean in the setting? Would Deling City call themselves "retro"? What would it be a "retro" of, and is Esthar's design sufficiently "modern" (as opposed to "futuristic" or "post-modern") that it is now the standard for "modernism"?
Or is it all just another case of "you, the player, know what we mean", like the reference to Romeo And Juliet? (It's probably just me thinking too hard about it.)
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
As I mentioned, the Italian translation doesn't have the "gun and women" line either, and goes with "you're never surprised by anything, are you?" instead (continuing the line of discussion on the construction equipment).
If it helps, the line where you're told that the easiest way to reach Esthar is to follow the railway on foot from FH identifies the city as "Hi-tech" in Italian. So, that's a pretty big change from "modern", but also a lot less ambiguous.
- Pronouns
- She/They
This is the really fascinating thing to see about Squall's development here. When going through an arc of self improvement like this, it would be really easy to regress in the face of further hardships, or have all his newfound emotions overwhelm him and cause him to double down on his original behavior. But we're not exactly getting that, he does seem to be steadily improving and growing, along with the help from his friends as he suffers the mortifying ordeal of being known. It's honestly kind of impressive, seeing him continue along despite life throwing ever greater curveballs at him.
I do have to wonder if we're on course for something breaking though. His responsibilities are increasing at what looks to be an unsustainable rate, and I wouldn't be surprised if he reaches a tipping point soon where he just can't keep up with what's expected of him. Though at that point, I imagine the bonds he's slowly realizing he has with his friends will come in clutch for him.
This is... absolutely fascinating to see. I think if we had seen something like this closer to the start of the game I would've called bullshit on it not fitting Squall's character at all, but at this point? I can see it. He's so up in his head all the time, and we've seen that he doesn't (just) use that to absolutely crush other people in arguments that he'll never say out loud, he honestly has a lot going on in his head he doesn't want to let on.
I get the impression that he's probably spent a lot of time by himself mulling over... philosophy I suppose? Building up a worldview and weighing the pros and cons, it's just one that he doesn't have thr words to really articulate out loud, along with not seeing the point most of the time. And it's strange how he seems almost resigned to the necessity of fighters like him? Like he so honestly cannot see himself as anything but the Ideal Mercenary, that even if his worldview doesn't see them as actually good necessarily, it's the only part he knows how to play, so that's what he'll be no matter what he believes.
deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
It being extended to that absurd point does give it a bleak kind of comedy. He literally can't even admit to participating in basic biological functions because that would mean admitting he has to rely on external things. Like 'Sleep' and 'Food'.
The cast dunking on Squall's attitude is great as ever. (trans reading intensifies)
It gives the scene a great character to have him be visibly terrified but still hesitate to run for it without his prize.
I think it's more of a joke about how to the player these are forgettable nameless background npcs, whereas obviously diegetically they're actual people, not low resolution blobs at enough distance that they're basically impossible to be visually distinct.
Only two TM magazines affect scenes, we've already had one of them, and none of these are the other.
I think it's not that he disagrees because it's boring, but rather he finds the mayor's statement of his position rather rote. Like, the mayor is reading off a one-line summary of 'what pacifism is' from a dictionary.
The fact that the monster has actual machine guns biologically integrated does fit into the style which brought us the demon missiles.
The FH people make more sense when you see them as ex-soldiers who decided to retreat from the world due to PTSD. Yeah the mayor hasn't thought this through, but the whole idea is about never having to think about the problem ever again.
It's also interesting development because previously Squall has definitely looked down on more 'civilian' or 'unprofessional' people before.
It's very funny that Squall showing empathy is a red flag that you must look really bad.
Comparing this and FF7 it's interesting from a character point of view as well. Both Cloud and Squall have avoidant personalities, but Squall seems way more conscious of his tendencies.
A song that illustrates how the character has unwound enough to connect to the people around her and get out of her own head for once? Thematically appropriate!
- Location
- Columbus, OH
I blame Gundam. In American pop-culture, any rotary cannon tends to be called a 'minigun' these days because that's the recognizable movie/game weapon, or maybe sometimes a 'chaingun' because of Doom (though a chaingun has a different meaning). People with a more historical outlook often insist on 'Gatling gun' but it's not really any more correct, it was just the first, and arguably not quite the same thing. The Gundam franchise frequently refers to headmounted autocannon as 'vulcans' (though I'm not sure we ever see multiple barrels), so I assume it's a Japanese pop-culture thing that either started with Gundam or is even older than that. For whatever reason, the names Equalizer and Avenger never caught on, and the dozen or so other models of rotary gun never had a name.
I'm reminded here of what you said about Materia in FF7, about how it has such an inconsistent connection between gameplay and story. Like, how materia are part of important plot points, but are so rarely mentioned otherwise that it's hard to understand how they affect everyday life.
In FF8, draw points sort of replace treasure chests, but like Mako they're magic you can find in the environment. But... is there any lore for them, like at all? Should we just treat them with the same credulousness that we treat finding the perfect new weapon in some rando's basement? How is it that a place where SeeDs can draw Ultima has no political relevance? It seems like an opportunity was lost, here.
The steal mechanic always seemed to me like a really bad idea that somehow never sees much improvement across multiple games. Mechanically, you give up some combat rounds for the chance of extra loot. It's almost never worth it on field enemies (except certain special snowflakes), so you're encouraged not to equip it unless you expect a boss, but then you fight surprise bosses. So now you have two different reasons you might want to reload from a save: equipping Steal, and savescumming the drop chance. If you want more challenging fights to give better loot, there are better ways to go about it.
From a lore perspective, what is even happening with Steal? What is your character doing during the fight that they couldn't do after the fight? Do all enemies just have some kind of soul-bind to an object such that you can only take it while they're alive?
I know little about Dragon Quest, but as I understand it those games have a similar mechanic, except bosses never drop anything, and 'steal' just gives you extra chances at getting the random drop from ordinary enemies. Somehow that seems worse, but I'd have to see it in gameplay.
There are much cooler things that could have been done with this kind of mechanic. Like, maybe most enemies have a recovery item and you can prevent them from using it. Maybe lots of enemies have a cool throwable, so you can choose between just throwing items you have, or stealing and then throwing. Now that I think about it, 'draw' is just another reimagining of 'steal', yet they kept 'steal' in the game.
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