Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy IX]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Canada, probably
That's, uh. Those are some peaks and valleys in the quality here.
Raaaaaaaaaaad.
Intercontinental bridge just like in FFV, so cool.
So, the past-and-future dungeon. I have to say it's actually a pretty cool idea? But they seriously shit the bed on implementation.
Whoa, hey people, let's save the hate crimes for later, okay? We're on FFVIII not FFX.
Instead, FFVIII is like "here's a dungeon I guess, there's some arbitrary things you can do that only really seem to change how many soldiers you fight at the end and give zero indication of secretly unlocking stuff for your main party whenever you finally get here in what could be five hours, could be fifty".
Past and Future dungeon is something that can totally be cool (and probably was in Chrono Trigger or Zelda Oracle of Ages IDK it's been a while since I played either), but it really needs to be more telegraphed just how what you're doing is effecting the other time, and needs to not be... kind of a mess to navigate with 80% of the rooms looking almost the same due to all the colored rocks everywhere. Either that or give the player access to transporting between the two times to check out the differences.
Instead, FFVIII is like "here's a dungeon I guess, there's some arbitrary things you can do that only really seem to change how many soldiers you fight at the end and give zero indication of secretly unlocking stuff for your main party whenever you finally get here in what could be five hours, could be fifty".
- Location
- Canada, probably
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages proves once again that it was a masterpiece.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were my initiation to Zelda games and nothing has ever quite captured the same high again.
With that said, if you want a modern example of a past/future dungeon, then the time warp level in Titanfall 2 is a true work of art.
With that said, if you want a modern example of a past/future dungeon, then the time warp level in Titanfall 2 is a true work of art.
- Pronouns
- Him/He
I don't even consider this a 'timewarp' dungeon. It's just a dungeon you visit twice, whatever framing device is used. If there's no back and forth it's just a bunch of basic set up and pay off interactions. Resident Evil 2 does the same idea of 'character A does something that impacts Character B' idea.
And even if we stick with Final Fantasy, Didn't FF7 have that thing with the vending machine in the shin-ra building?
And even if we stick with Final Fantasy, Didn't FF7 have that thing with the vending machine in the shin-ra building?
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
my god, we found it
another game that uses the zapping system
Timespinner is a metroidvania that does time travel pretty well. Just a warning, there is significant LGBTQ+ subtext going on. Normally not something I'd warn about, mostly because I generally don't notice, but I found it both obvious, and strangely hostile to the idea of monogamous heterosexual relationships. It's a very good game otherwise.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Don't think it'd really count as a spoiler to say Italy would be Esthar here, but covering it just in case.
Incidentally, I've heard Darkwing Duck was a really big hit in Russia. And Myster Mask does roll off the tongue better than something like Aile Sombre Canard.
Link's Awakening was mine, for an even more unusual introduction
21stCentury
Let's get down to bismuth
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Dybbukpossesed
Falling Somewhere
- Location
- California
I remember hearing a rumor that the entire game was supposed to be like that level and swapping between two different times mid fight and to solve puzzles was going to be a core mechanic. Sadly they ran into either time or budget problems and had to scrap it except for that one level. I can only imagine what could have been.
There are two translators in fact.
AFAIK :
- One who has continued to work on the french translation of FF games until today and was the boss of FF8 translation
- One who seems to have worked only on FF8
And... As the second one has a name which is a little bit uncommon, I have probably found his linkedin profile. So you know... If you wanted to give it a shot, we can try to reach him and ask.
Maybe we will not have any answer but in the same time, maybe it's worth it.
- Pronouns
- She/They
It's definitely an easy comparison to make, and it's an interesting one because the writers seem to be fully aware of the similarities and are in dialogue with it.
The other thing I've been thinking about between games is how some of the party members compare across them - you've noted some of the similarities between Rinoa and Aerith before, and I'm wondering if there's also something worth looking into between Quistis and Tifa. In VII, Tifa was not only unwilling to really challenge his aloof coolguy affect and inconsistent memories, but was at times actively enabling him. She knew enough about him to recognize something was off, but never acted on it.
Quistis, meanwhile, fully recognized that Squall's antisocial front is a defense mechanism covering for something, and can tell that it's unhealthy for him. She tries to help him open up, with the rapport she was trying to build early on, but it was less effective than she was hoping. With how she opened up after the party and tried to connect with Squall, it seems like she thought she had built a better relationship than they actually had, and she seemed genuinely surprised by it.
Ultimately, it seems like she knows Squall has some deep seated issues and wants to help, but doesn't really have the emotional toolkit to help him work through it, and doesn't know him well enough to really get to the root of whatever problems he has. All that combined with Squall actively pushing away attempts at forming bonds, and it makes for some very interesting parallels with the team from VII.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I am now fully ready to be incredibly normal about FF7: Rebirth.
somewhatLazy
Serial Procrastinator
- Location
- lurking
Yes, it will be truly a transcendent experience with all the new minigames. How lucky of you!
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
So, in the next round of notes for the Italian translation
- Selphie doesn't actually have a "bummer" equivalent word, she just says "Oh Noo!" in all caps here, and I believe she also said "Oh No!" the first time she used "bummer", adding an extra O for each new iteration of the exclamation. Otherwise, the discussion with Zone is the same except for his parting comment to Squall, which is "if anything happens to Rinoa I'll never forgive you".
- Going through the incidental dialogue in Dollet, the old soldier in the plaza finishes up his last sentence with "I'll better stop playing cards and start looking for work", which is substantially different from the "look for a young bride" line from the English version.
- The scene where the woman who flirts with Squall is identified as a man is still there, sadly. On the more positive side, so is the scene with the siblings which say that one of them is a scuba-diver.
- There is also the scene which @Adloquium referenced, and which @Omicron says includes a guy walking back and fort from pier to pier - in Italian the guy is waiting in front of the pier, has a long screed about how he is a terrible son, and misses his family, and then he says "I'm coming with you", and straight up jumps into the water and disappear; then, when the team makes to leave, he climbs up back from the water, panting and saying "I can't swim all the way to them, because I can't swim". Very weird situation.
- The scene with the kids is there, but the kid at the end of the sequence just says "Ah! That scared me!", with no mention of soiling himself. It's a possible implication, since he did say he needed to go to the bathroom, but it's not confirmed the way it apparently is in Japanese.
- Of course, there is the amusing little vignette that takes place if one pushes past the Dollet soldier guarding the road to the Communication Tower, but as @Omicron hasn't done that yet in his playthrough, we can't compare the dialogue there.
- It is worth pointing out that, if X-ATMO92 was destroyed in battle during the SeeD exam, so that there was no FMV of Quistis shooting it down, then the beach is clean of its remains, and there's a few conversational changes that stem from that.
- The discussion in the forest, where Rinoa gives Squall pointers on how to be a leader that he fails to answer out loud while complaining in his own head, follows mostly along the same lines, although when Squall is thinking about how relying on others is no use, Rinoa's follow-up line is different from English; instead of an appeal to emotion like in English ("don't you ever think about the well being of your comrades?"), she make the much more practical argument of "it would give them courage, the will to power through adversity", as if directly rebutting Squall's own line of reassuring others being useless. Which is then followed by Squall's thought of "I don't believe in relaying on others", which is basically conceding the argument even in his own head, by retreating to principles instead of engaging her criticism.
It's not that different overall, but I do think that Rinoa having a practical point of view to go with the emotional one presented in the earlier parts of the dialogue helps solidify her argument, and provide empirical evidence that Squall does need somebody like Rinoa to call him out on how he keeps hiding in his own shell out of fear of opening himself to others.
- When Squall, Quistis and Selphie fall down, Zell tells to Rinoa that they've gone to "the other world", which is somewhat confusing and not as effective as the "dream world" translation the English version used.
- In the Excavation Site, assuming somebody is actually lucky enough to stumble into one of them, the Elastoid is renamed to "Invicta". The Gesper however retains its own name, as does Esthar.
- The discussion at the end when Laguna throws Kiros and Ward in the sea and then slips down himself is mostly identical to the English version - I'm mostly mentioning it to confirm that the French version's changes are nowhere to be seen here.
And I think that's it, mostly.
- Selphie doesn't actually have a "bummer" equivalent word, she just says "Oh Noo!" in all caps here, and I believe she also said "Oh No!" the first time she used "bummer", adding an extra O for each new iteration of the exclamation. Otherwise, the discussion with Zone is the same except for his parting comment to Squall, which is "if anything happens to Rinoa I'll never forgive you".
- Going through the incidental dialogue in Dollet, the old soldier in the plaza finishes up his last sentence with "I'll better stop playing cards and start looking for work", which is substantially different from the "look for a young bride" line from the English version.
- The scene where the woman who flirts with Squall is identified as a man is still there, sadly. On the more positive side, so is the scene with the siblings which say that one of them is a scuba-diver.
- There is also the scene which @Adloquium referenced, and which @Omicron says includes a guy walking back and fort from pier to pier - in Italian the guy is waiting in front of the pier, has a long screed about how he is a terrible son, and misses his family, and then he says "I'm coming with you", and straight up jumps into the water and disappear; then, when the team makes to leave, he climbs up back from the water, panting and saying "I can't swim all the way to them, because I can't swim". Very weird situation.
- The scene with the kids is there, but the kid at the end of the sequence just says "Ah! That scared me!", with no mention of soiling himself. It's a possible implication, since he did say he needed to go to the bathroom, but it's not confirmed the way it apparently is in Japanese.
- Of course, there is the amusing little vignette that takes place if one pushes past the Dollet soldier guarding the road to the Communication Tower, but as @Omicron hasn't done that yet in his playthrough, we can't compare the dialogue there.
- It is worth pointing out that, if X-ATMO92 was destroyed in battle during the SeeD exam, so that there was no FMV of Quistis shooting it down, then the beach is clean of its remains, and there's a few conversational changes that stem from that.
- The discussion in the forest, where Rinoa gives Squall pointers on how to be a leader that he fails to answer out loud while complaining in his own head, follows mostly along the same lines, although when Squall is thinking about how relying on others is no use, Rinoa's follow-up line is different from English; instead of an appeal to emotion like in English ("don't you ever think about the well being of your comrades?"), she make the much more practical argument of "it would give them courage, the will to power through adversity", as if directly rebutting Squall's own line of reassuring others being useless. Which is then followed by Squall's thought of "I don't believe in relaying on others", which is basically conceding the argument even in his own head, by retreating to principles instead of engaging her criticism.
It's not that different overall, but I do think that Rinoa having a practical point of view to go with the emotional one presented in the earlier parts of the dialogue helps solidify her argument, and provide empirical evidence that Squall does need somebody like Rinoa to call him out on how he keeps hiding in his own shell out of fear of opening himself to others.
- When Squall, Quistis and Selphie fall down, Zell tells to Rinoa that they've gone to "the other world", which is somewhat confusing and not as effective as the "dream world" translation the English version used.
- In the Excavation Site, assuming somebody is actually lucky enough to stumble into one of them, the Elastoid is renamed to "Invicta". The Gesper however retains its own name, as does Esthar.
- The discussion at the end when Laguna throws Kiros and Ward in the sea and then slips down himself is mostly identical to the English version - I'm mostly mentioning it to confirm that the French version's changes are nowhere to be seen here.
And I think that's it, mostly.
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Katsuragi
The 1%
I am now fully ready to be incredibly normal about FF7: Rebirth.
You're not allowed to play to play it until you make it there after 16 in your let's play series.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
The ps5 really is giant when it's upright. I keep mine horizontal and it's still pretty bulky overall. Hope you enjoy FF7 Rebirth!
I am now fully ready to be incredibly normal about FF7: Rebirth.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Final Fantasy 7 never ends baybeeee let's rise and grind makoheads
I am now fully ready to be incredibly normal about FF7: Rebirth.
Final Fantasy VIII, Part 10: Galbadia Garden
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome back, class, to Final Fantasy VIII 101. Today's lesson:
On Mortality
Before we move on to Galbadia Garden, let's take a quick look at our Codex.
That's a lot of interesting stuff! It connects the Sorceresses to Hyne's legend, which true or false definitely looks like it's shaping to be a major part of the game's plot once it 'goes mythical', so to speak. Sorceresses also being known to exist but in hiding and hard to identify is also… Very interesting vibes there; more on that later but it does kind of make me wonder if this is supposed to be read at least somewhat sympathetically. The passage on the "process of embodiment" is a typical example of information that doesn't really tell you anything; it's words, it doesn't tell us what embodiment is or how it works.
Still, the reference to Sorceresses being afraid of spreading their power too thin, with the knowledge that sorceress power is passed down from generations, suggests that perhaps there is a finite quantity of sorcerous power in the world, and sorceresses who pass down their power to more than one person weaken the overall power by splitting it? That's interesting if true, although again, only vague implications.
Interesting to have a clear date on one of the Lunar Cries, 80 years ago, an event seemingly devastating enough to wipe out a 4000 year old nation. No word yet on whether that was the most recent Lunar Cry or whether there have been more since.
Alright. Let's head to Galbadia Garden!
This is very exciting. I'm actually really interested to see what one of the other Gardens looks like, the differences from Balamb in location and teaching.
The very first thing we see upon entrance is…
…flying mechs?
Okay, I think we may have found the answer to the question of how Galbadia Garden's graduates keep up with Balamb Garden's SeeDs despite not using GFs - they are a kind of mechanized infantry, with flight capabilities. That is certainly an interesting way to approach this.
Galbadia Garden has similar aesthetic sensibilities to Balamb Garden, but a different color scheme, favoring dark browns and reds that reflect the desert valley they're located in. According to the students, GGU used to collaborate willingly with Galbadia, but the sorceress is throwing a wrench into things - they don't want to obey her, and suspect of using Deling to 'take over the world.' Later, another student mentions rumors that the sorceress has the ability to brainwash others. It's not clear what is known for a fact about the sorceress, but rumors abound and, at least in Galbadia Garden, are universally negative. Nobody likes the sorceress.
There also seems to be a bit of a different student culture (stricter? More discipline?), as despite Galbadia Garden being larger than BGU, the characters comment on how quiet things are, with Squall even adding that he likes the silence (this makes Rinoa laugh).
Then Quistis reminds us that despite being only a year older than the rest of the cast, she has experience as an early graduate and former instructor and has been to Galbadia Garden before, and knows the Headmaster pretty well; she tells the group to leave it to her and goes ahead, leaving us to just kind of… Explore.
We form a new party with Selphie and Rinoa, and just kind of hang out for a bit (although the speakers are loudly calling our attention to the 2F reception room.)
Galbadia Garden is… Large. Significantly larger than the areas of Balamb Garden we had access to. It also seems to have higher attendance even for its size: the class rooms look much more like lecture halls than the individualized desks of Balamb.
They are also loser dweebs. Light up, loser dweebs.
There's a number of areas that are sealed off to us as we are not Galbadia students, but we can explore a lot of neat places. For instance, Galbadia Garden has a whole sports complex with an ice rink!
That's really neat!
Although there is some… fascinating dialogue in the locker room of said ice rink.
Student: "Have you heard about that hockey team made up of a bunch of monsters? We're gonna play them next week. To tell the truth, I'm kinda worried. Some guys told me that they play so rough that some of our guys might get killed."
…okay. So it turns out the Gerogero situation wasn't a fluke; there are monsters that are integrated within human society to the point of holding public positions in jobs like sports. Although even in that situation they are dangerous enough (lack self-control? Violent instincts?) that they're a threat to human players… But not so much of a threat that they're barred from participation.
It's really looking like Galbadia might be purposefully integrating monsters into its society, maybe as a result of the failures of their war effort and looking for an edge in the fight against the Gardens' elites. That's… Fascinating.
We learn a little more about the local politics; Galbadia is 'the power nation of the west' and Timber and Winhill are 'also affiliated' (the students pointedly don't use a word like 'subject'), while the Garden is 'within Galbadian territory, but basically neutral.' They describe this arrangement as 'kinda hard to explain.'
Hm. I would assume the literal students of the Garden would be the best-suited to explain what the deal is with its pseudo-neutrality. Even if that explanation was bullshit, I would expect coherent bullshit. The fact that they're struggling to explain it suggests to me that even the Garden administration itself don't have a clear picture of where they stand and are uneasy with the current arrangement.
It's definitely looking to me like the Sorceress's emergence tipped over a leaning edifice and precipitated a set of pre-existing frustrations that were going to blow up eventually.
Eventually our group makes it to this very nice reception room, where we wait a little until Quistis comes back.
The news she brings are… Simultaneously the best and worst possible news we could get.
Quistis: "They understand our situation. And Balamb Garden is safe. The attack on the president in Timber was classified as an independent action."
Quistis: "There was an official notice from the Galbadian government saying that Balamb Garden is not being held responsible."
Zell: "So, Seifer's taking all the blame?"
Quistis: "The trial's over, and the sentence has been carried out…"
(Everyone looks horrified.)
Rinoa: "...He was executed? …Of course he was. He attacked the president."
Rinoa: "He sacrificed himself for the 'Forest Owls'..."
Quistis: "It was your group that got Seifer involved in all this. You're a resistance faction, right? You must have been prepared for the worst. I'm sure Seifer was prepared, too. So don't think of it as Seifer sacrificing himself for you." (She sits down, looking down sadly.) "I'm sorry. I guess that wasn't much consolation."
Man. What a way to accidentally hit Rinoa right in the wound set up by their previous argument about not treating the resistance seriously enough. She absolutely wasn't prepared to lose someone like this.
…
There's a lot to unpack there. First of all - all this feels extremely consistent with the theory that Seifer acted under Balamb Garden's orders, or with their approval, or was allowed to act on his own unobstructed as an opportunity. One of Balamb's strongest but least reliable operatives 'goes rogue,' attempts to kill the president, but is captured, and Balamb Garden immediately denounces him and cuts ties and accepts whatever fate befalls him? Yeah, it really feels like they might have been hoping he succeeded only for the sorceress's mind-control to be a trick up Galbadia's sleeves they hadn't expected, and so they decided to cut their losses and burn their deniable asset, as is, after all, the purpose of a deniable asset.
Meanwhile, Galbadia executing Seifer and allowing Balamb Garden to otherwise go unmolested is absolutely a save; if they felt confident they could make this into a casus belli against BGU and win, they'd have taken the chance. But they don't, so they compromised - killing Seifer, rather than ransoming him as a hostage, is a power play, a flex, a way to tell Balamb Garden that they will be cut if they step out of line, even as at the same time they save face rather than pushing the issue and demanding reparations.
…except of course Seifer isn't dead. That's the obvious mystery underlying all this. Not to get meta on us, but the fact that such an important character allegedly died off-screen without a last word or death scene would be weird enough if he wasn't plastered on the CD box cover and featured multiple times in the OP. So Galbadia is playing a hidden layer of the game here.
My guess, at this time, is that they think that Seifer might give them the opportunity to have their very own loyal SeeD, so they're keeping him for thorough brainwashing at the sorceress's hands, using his 'execution' as a cover so they can have the full benefits of surprise when they first deploy him.
Of course, our characters being people within the story and not readers with meta-knowledge, they have no reason to doubt the truth of this account.
Zell: "I didn't like the guy. But executed…?"
Selphie: "You really hated Seifer, didn't you, Zell!?"
Zell: "Yeah, but… He was from Garden… He was one of us. If I can, I wanna get revenge."
Selphie: "Kinda sad…"
Quistis: "I don't have any good memories of him. I've seen some troubled children, but he was beyond troubled. Well, he wasn't really a bad guy. Seifer… Never to be a SeeD."
Rinoa: "I… really liked him. He was always full of confidence, smart… Just by talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world."
Quistis: "Your boyfriend?"
Rinoa: "I don't really know. I… I think I was in love. I wonder how he felt…"
Selphie: "Do you still like him?"
Rinoa: "If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking about it." (She curls up on the sofa.) "It was last summer… I was 16. Lots of fond memories…"
And this is where we get probably Squall's most interesting scene so far.
Because Squall - who has always similar to Seifer, displaying a somewhat different personality, being less open about what he really wanted, but fundamentally seeing a lot of himself in the older boy and resenting him in part because of that - sees this, sees everyone eulogizing Seifer, talking about whether they hated or loved him, about their feelings towards the man he was, only minutes after learning he died, and he freaks out.
Squall: "(I liked him… wasn't really a bad guy… He was one of us… Seifer… You've become just a memory. Will they… Will they talk about me this way if I die, too? Squall was this and that. Using past tense, saying whatever they want? So this is what death is all about… Not for me. I won't have it!!!)"
Quistis: "What's wrong, Squall?"
To everyone else, this is a total nonsequitur. Squall has been silent the entire time, he hasn't said one word since Quistis came in and informed them of Seifer's execution, suddenly blows up, screams about how he won't have anyone talk about him in the past tense, and storms out of the room to run off through Galbadia Garden, without a clear destination, no goal but to escape the shadow of what happened to Seifer - what might happen to him.
It's genuinely a really compelling moment for a character who's spent this whole time trying to avoid showing vulnerability only to just suddenly snap when confronted with his mortality. Squall is a teenager, and he is a soldier. One side of this equation lends itself to delusions of immortality, a conviction of his own invincibility, the idea that life is forever and he has all the time he ever needs to grow up and live. The other lends itself to constant confrontation with mortality and the risks that come with war, death striking senselessly and without resolve, out of nowhere. So far, he's been able to navigate that cognitive dissonance thanks to his skill - death isn't something that happens to him, it's something that happens to other people, the weaker soldier he defeats by the handful or the incompetent resistance members who don't have clear-eyed vision like he does.
Except Seifer was the strongest of them, the closest thing he might even have had to a role model in his own way, and now he's fucking dead, and it drives a wedge between those two questionably-reconciled parts of his identity.
It probably doesn't help that like… Everybody hated Seifer. And Squall knew this. And here is everyone, trying to find something nice to say, papering over who Seifer was with platitudes about how he was 'one of them', and now Squall is probably realizing:
The same thing will happen to him. He'll die, never having made a single friend, and everyone will take the messy problematic picture of 'who Squall was' and massage it into a more convenient, more acceptable memory, and put it on a shelf, and that'll be the long and short of him.
No wonder he's having a little bit of a freakout.
"I hear it's one of those under-the-table, sketchy deals, though."
…you know, at first I just thought the game actually having wheelchair models for disabled characters and giving those characters actual dialogue lines, both related to their disability and not at all, was just a neat bit of inclusivity.
But, hm.
I'm thinking that now because the very first such character we saw was in Dollet, and most we've seen so far are in Galbadia Garden.
We haven't seen a single one in Balamb Garden.
And it just so happens that Galbadia Garden makes use of powered exoskeletons, of a kind that might perhaps allow a disabled person to move unimpeded, while Balamb Garden's training focuses on physical combat using magic and weapons. So Galbadia Garden's style of elite combat lends itself naturally to inclusivity, whereas Balamb Garden's style lends itself to exclusivity. There is no place for a disabled person in SeeD, at least the way Balamb Garden's faculty sees it.
It's a really neat touch of implicit worldbuilding making Balamb Garden just a little bit darker. Although just as I say this, we see a student explicitly comment on students' in-setting awareness that Balamb Garden and Galbadia Garden's relationship is sketchy, whatever that means.
(They're both in on the Moonspiracy.)
Without clear directions and having explored most of what's available in Galbadia Garden, we head out, where we run into surprisingly familiar faces.
Fujin and Raijin are here.
I hadn't noticed it at the time of our first meeting, but now that I know that both Fujin and Raijin each have a speech mannerism unique to them, it's obvious that Raijin's deal is a compulsive 'ya know' added at the end of pretty much every sentence. "I'm a messenger, ya know? Brought you a new order from Headmaster Cid, ya know?"
What this message is, Raijin has no idea, he just gave it to the Galbadia Headmaster and left. Apparently, they were meant to go to Timber, but with the trains shut down, they had "no choice" but to go to Galbadia Garden. So… They were supposed to go to Timber to find Squall and update the group's orders, couldn't, so they went to Galbadia Garden and entrusted the Headmaster to transmit the order to us? That is a weirdly carefree approach to something so sensitive.
Of course, Raijin and Fujin proceed to ask about their friend and leader Seifer. Squall says, noticeably with some hesitation and qualifiers, that he "believes Seifer may be dead" and he "heard" he was tried in Galbadia and executed.
Fujin immediately yells "LIES!" and Raijin laughs off the very idea. Neither of them entertain for a second the idea that Seifer would put up with a trial and an execution, it's just not his style; they decide to head to Galbadia to find Seifer and tell Squall goodbye, leaving our boy just… Standing there denied even a proper reaction to the news that just rocked his world.
There's a draw point for Haste just under that sunwell; it is nearly if not literally invisible and I only found it by pressing X there at random.
The speakers call on the Balamb Garden team to gather up at the front gate, so it looks like whatever other business the group had was settled.
Rinoa suggests just pretending like she's a SeeD to avoid awkward questions, which is honestly a pretty good idea. Like, sure, they could explain the whole deal, but it's so unnecessary. Rinoa's from Balamb Garden, bam, done.
Then a car drives over from inside Galbadia Garden? Like, it literally appears from inside the university, driving through the atrium.
That's it. I am officially declaring Galbadia Garden to be The American Garden. Overcomplicated mechanical exoskeletons, cars everywhere, everything is way larger than it needs to be, and there's an ice hockey rink? It's American.
Now the only need that would complete this picture would be if we received a new party member whose power is GUN.
The fancily-dressed man stepping out of this car (WHICH HE PARKED AT AN ANGLE, OVER THE SIDEWALK) is Headmaster Martine.
In French they changed it to Martin. Because "Martine" is a feminine name. It's going to feel weird for me the whole time.
Also, in a funny gag that really utilizes the new complex character models, the SeeD members reflexively do stuff like salute, stand at attention, or relax when at rest, and every time Rinoa acts on a delay because she has no idea what she's supposed to be doing and has to follow after they do. I feel you, Rinoa.
Martine: "Good day. I have official orders from Headmaster Cid addressed to you. Following regulations, I have gone over these orders."
Martine: "After careful consideration of our options, we have decided to fully assist and cooperate with Headmaster Cid. Actually, we too, have been planning for this for quite some time now."
Martine: "In order to stress the importance of this mission, I must first brief you on the current situation. At ease."
Martine: "You all know about the sorceress being appointed as the peace ambassador for the Galbadian government. However, this ambassador thing is just a cover up. There will be no peace talks, only threats."
Martine: "The sorceress creates fear among people. Therefore, peace talks are impossible. Galbadia is planning to use this fear to negotiate favorable conditions for itself. It is clear that Galbadia's ultimate goal is world domination. Garden is no exception, either. It is a fact that the sorceress is planning to use this Garden as her base."
Martine: "…We have very few options available to us. We entrust world peace, and the future to you. Any questions?"
…I'm starting to wonder if the game isn't laying it on a bit too thick.
We've learned much about the sorceresses already, but all of it is fragmentary and presented as in-character knowledge, with gaps and biases. And talking to the Galbadia Garden students stresses that the sorceresses are feared and despised and have been living in hiding, and now Martine tells us, the sorceress creates fear; Deling is counting on the general fear of sorceresses ingrained in world culture to take advantage of.
Could it be that the sorceresses aren't so evil as has been suggested so far..? Or perhaps, have been driven to secrecy and antagonism by a society that is prejudiced against them..? It's too early to tell. We'll need to actually meet the sorceress for that, in more than a single scene where she mind-controls one of us. In the meantime, as far as everyone is concerned, Deling's plans for the "world summit" are exactly what they guessed they would be, an opportunity to try and frighten the whole world into submission with his new sorceress as a superweapon, possibly up to outright mind-controlling world leaders.
So what is that mission that Martine is alluding to in oblique terms?
Squall: "The orders say by mean of 'a sniper.' We have no one with that skill."
Martine: "Don't worry about it. Let me introduce an elite sharpshooter from Galbadia Garden. Kinneas! Irvine Kinneas!"
Cue FMV.
…this may be the prettiest of our arrangement of pretty boys so far, damn. They really made him a full on bishie. Look at him. He's wearing eyeshadow. Also? A fuckboy. I can sense his fuckboy energies from here.
And he makes that extremely clear if we talk to him before the next plot conversation.
Irvine: "Looks like I'm with you rubes from Balamb. Greetings."
(In the background, Zell does his 'shaking angrily' pose.)
Squall, mentally: "(Zell… Why do you have to overreact to everything?)"
Irvine: "You cool with me helping you?"
Squall: "That depends on your attitude."
Irvine: "I say things that get a rise out of some people. Just don't let it bother you and we'll get along fine."
Squall, mentally: "(I shouldn't put him together with Zell…)"
Squall: "I'll remember that."
Oh my god. He admits it. He admits to being a fuckboy who needles people for no reason. Incredible. AND GUESS WHAT? HE NOT ONLY HAS A GUN, HE'S A FUCKING COWBOY. THIS MOTHERFUCKER IS COSPLAYING A TEXAN. GOD!
This is Irvine Kinneas. He will be our sharpshooter. If you're guessing where this is going, then you're probably right, and once Headmaster Martine has gone back to his car and driven off (BACK INTO THE ATRIUM???), Squall helpfully lays it out for everyone:
They are to assassinate the sorceress.
I should have held back my "assassinating zombie JFK" joke from the train heist, because this is much closer to the real deal: We're taking on Irvine because our plan is not at all to give her any kind of fight, or even to perform an abduction or anything like that, but rather to ew close to Selphie's "blow it up with a rocket launcher" philosophy: the plan is to shoot her with a sniper rifle from as far as possible.
If this fails, then the rest of the team will be the backup option and commit to a direct attack. While Irvine boasts that he never misses his target, it's clear that killing the sorceress is a high enough priority that Balamb and Galbadia Garden are willing to risk multiple assets on a direct confrontation if the initial plan doesn't work out.
I love this. The sorceress is, as far as we know so far, a purely antagonistic force, yet there is something inherently murky to the business of a sniper assassination that casts our protagonists in shadow, even though they're ostensibly acting for the sake of 'world peace.' Or at least that's how Martine frames it - but of course, what use do mercenaries have for world peace? More like 'preventing Galbadian world domination,' ensuring the continuation of the international conflicts that bring them jobs and money.
Which doesn't make what they're doing bad. It's good to prevent one nation from subjugating the world through military power, threats of violence, and magical brainwashing. It's just that their motives are far from pure.
…Rinoa has no comment to make at this stage. Between the collapse of the Timber cell and Seifer's alleged death, she has been pretty thoroughly rattled, and now she's in the difficult position of pretending to be a SeeD and going along with a mission that will benefit the cause of Timber's independence but that she will probably have very mixed feelings about, later. For now, she's just… Rolling with the current.
Squall tells everyone to roll, and Irvine says we should form parties.
He immediately puts himself in a party with Rinoa and Selphie, leaving Squall, Quistis and Zell behind.
I was wrong. He isn't a fuckboi. He is the fuckboiest. Holy shit. Just absolutely shameless. And why Selphie and Rinoa specifically? Why not Quistis? Is she too old for him?? Is it the teacher vibes that he doesn't like??
God. We're truly getting a party made up of the characters of all time here. "Cowboy sniper horndog," what an archetype.
I go for Squall and Rinoa (I think I'll default to having these two whenever possible just because it seems the best way to build up the narrative relationship between the two, whatever it ends up being) and Irvine because he's new and I want to take him out for a spin. This is, also, when we get the tutorial on how to change our party at will while on the world map, which is welcome.
We have, at this point, recruited six characters in total. From the layout of the PC box, there could be up to eight. I'm not sure if there will be; this is pretty much where my knowledge of any party member stops. I know we recruit Irvine, and if there's anyone we recruit later (Seifer joining back, maybe?) then I don't know for sure.
…needless to say, the fact that Irvine is a fully functional party member just like Rinoa only raises further questions on SeeD's alleged unique status as GF users. Like, if it was even something as simple as "anyone can use a GF with basic instructions, it's just that most people don't because of the supposed risks," you'd think it deserve some kind of mention. Rinoa or Irvine would have, like, at least one line of dialogue mentioning their use of GFs and Junction and whether they're worried about it or welcome the power boost, but no. This could have been almost completely avoided by not specifying that only Balamb Garden uses GFs, but we're not doing that either. Irvine joins the group and gets to Junction and use GFs just… Because he has to as a mechanical entity within this game's system, I guess.
It's frustrating because even if the game later brings up a narrative explanation for it, that's too late, it needs to at least show that it is aware that it's raising questions here and now. I don't need an explanation; I just need the game to tell me that this is in fact meant to be something that matters in-character, as opposed to just "it's mechanics, don't think about it." Because that just makes me think about it more.
Ah, well. Short update today, with zero gameplay content, but I feel we hit some interesting enough story beats to call it there, especially with something as major as a political assassination by the protagonist in our near future.
I do get into at least one random encounter just to test out Irvine. He has a gun; he shoots monsters. It's straightforward. The thing is, it's... Shockingly easy to go through huge stretches of the game without running into any random encounters if you're efficient about traversal? It's weird, especially after last update's hell-dungeon.
We head for the train station, and with it, onward to Galbadia.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: To Deling City!
On Mortality
Before we move on to Galbadia Garden, let's take a quick look at our Codex.
That's a lot of interesting stuff! It connects the Sorceresses to Hyne's legend, which true or false definitely looks like it's shaping to be a major part of the game's plot once it 'goes mythical', so to speak. Sorceresses also being known to exist but in hiding and hard to identify is also… Very interesting vibes there; more on that later but it does kind of make me wonder if this is supposed to be read at least somewhat sympathetically. The passage on the "process of embodiment" is a typical example of information that doesn't really tell you anything; it's words, it doesn't tell us what embodiment is or how it works.
Still, the reference to Sorceresses being afraid of spreading their power too thin, with the knowledge that sorceress power is passed down from generations, suggests that perhaps there is a finite quantity of sorcerous power in the world, and sorceresses who pass down their power to more than one person weaken the overall power by splitting it? That's interesting if true, although again, only vague implications.
Interesting to have a clear date on one of the Lunar Cries, 80 years ago, an event seemingly devastating enough to wipe out a 4000 year old nation. No word yet on whether that was the most recent Lunar Cry or whether there have been more since.
Alright. Let's head to Galbadia Garden!
This is very exciting. I'm actually really interested to see what one of the other Gardens looks like, the differences from Balamb in location and teaching.
The very first thing we see upon entrance is…
…flying mechs?
Okay, I think we may have found the answer to the question of how Galbadia Garden's graduates keep up with Balamb Garden's SeeDs despite not using GFs - they are a kind of mechanized infantry, with flight capabilities. That is certainly an interesting way to approach this.
Galbadia Garden has similar aesthetic sensibilities to Balamb Garden, but a different color scheme, favoring dark browns and reds that reflect the desert valley they're located in. According to the students, GGU used to collaborate willingly with Galbadia, but the sorceress is throwing a wrench into things - they don't want to obey her, and suspect of using Deling to 'take over the world.' Later, another student mentions rumors that the sorceress has the ability to brainwash others. It's not clear what is known for a fact about the sorceress, but rumors abound and, at least in Galbadia Garden, are universally negative. Nobody likes the sorceress.
There also seems to be a bit of a different student culture (stricter? More discipline?), as despite Galbadia Garden being larger than BGU, the characters comment on how quiet things are, with Squall even adding that he likes the silence (this makes Rinoa laugh).
Then Quistis reminds us that despite being only a year older than the rest of the cast, she has experience as an early graduate and former instructor and has been to Galbadia Garden before, and knows the Headmaster pretty well; she tells the group to leave it to her and goes ahead, leaving us to just kind of… Explore.
We form a new party with Selphie and Rinoa, and just kind of hang out for a bit (although the speakers are loudly calling our attention to the 2F reception room.)
Galbadia Garden is… Large. Significantly larger than the areas of Balamb Garden we had access to. It also seems to have higher attendance even for its size: the class rooms look much more like lecture halls than the individualized desks of Balamb.
They are also loser dweebs. Light up, loser dweebs.
There's a number of areas that are sealed off to us as we are not Galbadia students, but we can explore a lot of neat places. For instance, Galbadia Garden has a whole sports complex with an ice rink!
That's really neat!
Although there is some… fascinating dialogue in the locker room of said ice rink.
Student: "Have you heard about that hockey team made up of a bunch of monsters? We're gonna play them next week. To tell the truth, I'm kinda worried. Some guys told me that they play so rough that some of our guys might get killed."
…okay. So it turns out the Gerogero situation wasn't a fluke; there are monsters that are integrated within human society to the point of holding public positions in jobs like sports. Although even in that situation they are dangerous enough (lack self-control? Violent instincts?) that they're a threat to human players… But not so much of a threat that they're barred from participation.
It's really looking like Galbadia might be purposefully integrating monsters into its society, maybe as a result of the failures of their war effort and looking for an edge in the fight against the Gardens' elites. That's… Fascinating.
We learn a little more about the local politics; Galbadia is 'the power nation of the west' and Timber and Winhill are 'also affiliated' (the students pointedly don't use a word like 'subject'), while the Garden is 'within Galbadian territory, but basically neutral.' They describe this arrangement as 'kinda hard to explain.'
Hm. I would assume the literal students of the Garden would be the best-suited to explain what the deal is with its pseudo-neutrality. Even if that explanation was bullshit, I would expect coherent bullshit. The fact that they're struggling to explain it suggests to me that even the Garden administration itself don't have a clear picture of where they stand and are uneasy with the current arrangement.
It's definitely looking to me like the Sorceress's emergence tipped over a leaning edifice and precipitated a set of pre-existing frustrations that were going to blow up eventually.
Eventually our group makes it to this very nice reception room, where we wait a little until Quistis comes back.
The news she brings are… Simultaneously the best and worst possible news we could get.
Quistis: "They understand our situation. And Balamb Garden is safe. The attack on the president in Timber was classified as an independent action."
Quistis: "There was an official notice from the Galbadian government saying that Balamb Garden is not being held responsible."
Zell: "So, Seifer's taking all the blame?"
Quistis: "The trial's over, and the sentence has been carried out…"
(Everyone looks horrified.)
Rinoa: "...He was executed? …Of course he was. He attacked the president."
Rinoa: "He sacrificed himself for the 'Forest Owls'..."
Quistis: "It was your group that got Seifer involved in all this. You're a resistance faction, right? You must have been prepared for the worst. I'm sure Seifer was prepared, too. So don't think of it as Seifer sacrificing himself for you." (She sits down, looking down sadly.) "I'm sorry. I guess that wasn't much consolation."
Man. What a way to accidentally hit Rinoa right in the wound set up by their previous argument about not treating the resistance seriously enough. She absolutely wasn't prepared to lose someone like this.
…
There's a lot to unpack there. First of all - all this feels extremely consistent with the theory that Seifer acted under Balamb Garden's orders, or with their approval, or was allowed to act on his own unobstructed as an opportunity. One of Balamb's strongest but least reliable operatives 'goes rogue,' attempts to kill the president, but is captured, and Balamb Garden immediately denounces him and cuts ties and accepts whatever fate befalls him? Yeah, it really feels like they might have been hoping he succeeded only for the sorceress's mind-control to be a trick up Galbadia's sleeves they hadn't expected, and so they decided to cut their losses and burn their deniable asset, as is, after all, the purpose of a deniable asset.
Meanwhile, Galbadia executing Seifer and allowing Balamb Garden to otherwise go unmolested is absolutely a save; if they felt confident they could make this into a casus belli against BGU and win, they'd have taken the chance. But they don't, so they compromised - killing Seifer, rather than ransoming him as a hostage, is a power play, a flex, a way to tell Balamb Garden that they will be cut if they step out of line, even as at the same time they save face rather than pushing the issue and demanding reparations.
…except of course Seifer isn't dead. That's the obvious mystery underlying all this. Not to get meta on us, but the fact that such an important character allegedly died off-screen without a last word or death scene would be weird enough if he wasn't plastered on the CD box cover and featured multiple times in the OP. So Galbadia is playing a hidden layer of the game here.
My guess, at this time, is that they think that Seifer might give them the opportunity to have their very own loyal SeeD, so they're keeping him for thorough brainwashing at the sorceress's hands, using his 'execution' as a cover so they can have the full benefits of surprise when they first deploy him.
Of course, our characters being people within the story and not readers with meta-knowledge, they have no reason to doubt the truth of this account.
Zell: "I didn't like the guy. But executed…?"
Selphie: "You really hated Seifer, didn't you, Zell!?"
Zell: "Yeah, but… He was from Garden… He was one of us. If I can, I wanna get revenge."
Selphie: "Kinda sad…"
Quistis: "I don't have any good memories of him. I've seen some troubled children, but he was beyond troubled. Well, he wasn't really a bad guy. Seifer… Never to be a SeeD."
Rinoa: "I… really liked him. He was always full of confidence, smart… Just by talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world."
Quistis: "Your boyfriend?"
Rinoa: "I don't really know. I… I think I was in love. I wonder how he felt…"
Selphie: "Do you still like him?"
Rinoa: "If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking about it." (She curls up on the sofa.) "It was last summer… I was 16. Lots of fond memories…"
And this is where we get probably Squall's most interesting scene so far.
Because Squall - who has always similar to Seifer, displaying a somewhat different personality, being less open about what he really wanted, but fundamentally seeing a lot of himself in the older boy and resenting him in part because of that - sees this, sees everyone eulogizing Seifer, talking about whether they hated or loved him, about their feelings towards the man he was, only minutes after learning he died, and he freaks out.
Squall: "(I liked him… wasn't really a bad guy… He was one of us… Seifer… You've become just a memory. Will they… Will they talk about me this way if I die, too? Squall was this and that. Using past tense, saying whatever they want? So this is what death is all about… Not for me. I won't have it!!!)"
Quistis: "What's wrong, Squall?"
To everyone else, this is a total nonsequitur. Squall has been silent the entire time, he hasn't said one word since Quistis came in and informed them of Seifer's execution, suddenly blows up, screams about how he won't have anyone talk about him in the past tense, and storms out of the room to run off through Galbadia Garden, without a clear destination, no goal but to escape the shadow of what happened to Seifer - what might happen to him.
It's genuinely a really compelling moment for a character who's spent this whole time trying to avoid showing vulnerability only to just suddenly snap when confronted with his mortality. Squall is a teenager, and he is a soldier. One side of this equation lends itself to delusions of immortality, a conviction of his own invincibility, the idea that life is forever and he has all the time he ever needs to grow up and live. The other lends itself to constant confrontation with mortality and the risks that come with war, death striking senselessly and without resolve, out of nowhere. So far, he's been able to navigate that cognitive dissonance thanks to his skill - death isn't something that happens to him, it's something that happens to other people, the weaker soldier he defeats by the handful or the incompetent resistance members who don't have clear-eyed vision like he does.
Except Seifer was the strongest of them, the closest thing he might even have had to a role model in his own way, and now he's fucking dead, and it drives a wedge between those two questionably-reconciled parts of his identity.
It probably doesn't help that like… Everybody hated Seifer. And Squall knew this. And here is everyone, trying to find something nice to say, papering over who Seifer was with platitudes about how he was 'one of them', and now Squall is probably realizing:
The same thing will happen to him. He'll die, never having made a single friend, and everyone will take the messy problematic picture of 'who Squall was' and massage it into a more convenient, more acceptable memory, and put it on a shelf, and that'll be the long and short of him.
No wonder he's having a little bit of a freakout.
"I hear it's one of those under-the-table, sketchy deals, though."
…you know, at first I just thought the game actually having wheelchair models for disabled characters and giving those characters actual dialogue lines, both related to their disability and not at all, was just a neat bit of inclusivity.
But, hm.
I'm thinking that now because the very first such character we saw was in Dollet, and most we've seen so far are in Galbadia Garden.
We haven't seen a single one in Balamb Garden.
And it just so happens that Galbadia Garden makes use of powered exoskeletons, of a kind that might perhaps allow a disabled person to move unimpeded, while Balamb Garden's training focuses on physical combat using magic and weapons. So Galbadia Garden's style of elite combat lends itself naturally to inclusivity, whereas Balamb Garden's style lends itself to exclusivity. There is no place for a disabled person in SeeD, at least the way Balamb Garden's faculty sees it.
It's a really neat touch of implicit worldbuilding making Balamb Garden just a little bit darker. Although just as I say this, we see a student explicitly comment on students' in-setting awareness that Balamb Garden and Galbadia Garden's relationship is sketchy, whatever that means.
(They're both in on the Moonspiracy.)
Without clear directions and having explored most of what's available in Galbadia Garden, we head out, where we run into surprisingly familiar faces.
Fujin and Raijin are here.
I hadn't noticed it at the time of our first meeting, but now that I know that both Fujin and Raijin each have a speech mannerism unique to them, it's obvious that Raijin's deal is a compulsive 'ya know' added at the end of pretty much every sentence. "I'm a messenger, ya know? Brought you a new order from Headmaster Cid, ya know?"
What this message is, Raijin has no idea, he just gave it to the Galbadia Headmaster and left. Apparently, they were meant to go to Timber, but with the trains shut down, they had "no choice" but to go to Galbadia Garden. So… They were supposed to go to Timber to find Squall and update the group's orders, couldn't, so they went to Galbadia Garden and entrusted the Headmaster to transmit the order to us? That is a weirdly carefree approach to something so sensitive.
Of course, Raijin and Fujin proceed to ask about their friend and leader Seifer. Squall says, noticeably with some hesitation and qualifiers, that he "believes Seifer may be dead" and he "heard" he was tried in Galbadia and executed.
Fujin immediately yells "LIES!" and Raijin laughs off the very idea. Neither of them entertain for a second the idea that Seifer would put up with a trial and an execution, it's just not his style; they decide to head to Galbadia to find Seifer and tell Squall goodbye, leaving our boy just… Standing there denied even a proper reaction to the news that just rocked his world.
There's a draw point for Haste just under that sunwell; it is nearly if not literally invisible and I only found it by pressing X there at random.
The speakers call on the Balamb Garden team to gather up at the front gate, so it looks like whatever other business the group had was settled.
Rinoa suggests just pretending like she's a SeeD to avoid awkward questions, which is honestly a pretty good idea. Like, sure, they could explain the whole deal, but it's so unnecessary. Rinoa's from Balamb Garden, bam, done.
Then a car drives over from inside Galbadia Garden? Like, it literally appears from inside the university, driving through the atrium.
That's it. I am officially declaring Galbadia Garden to be The American Garden. Overcomplicated mechanical exoskeletons, cars everywhere, everything is way larger than it needs to be, and there's an ice hockey rink? It's American.
Now the only need that would complete this picture would be if we received a new party member whose power is GUN.
The fancily-dressed man stepping out of this car (WHICH HE PARKED AT AN ANGLE, OVER THE SIDEWALK) is Headmaster Martine.
In French they changed it to Martin. Because "Martine" is a feminine name. It's going to feel weird for me the whole time.
Also, in a funny gag that really utilizes the new complex character models, the SeeD members reflexively do stuff like salute, stand at attention, or relax when at rest, and every time Rinoa acts on a delay because she has no idea what she's supposed to be doing and has to follow after they do. I feel you, Rinoa.
Martine: "Good day. I have official orders from Headmaster Cid addressed to you. Following regulations, I have gone over these orders."
Martine: "After careful consideration of our options, we have decided to fully assist and cooperate with Headmaster Cid. Actually, we too, have been planning for this for quite some time now."
Martine: "In order to stress the importance of this mission, I must first brief you on the current situation. At ease."
Martine: "You all know about the sorceress being appointed as the peace ambassador for the Galbadian government. However, this ambassador thing is just a cover up. There will be no peace talks, only threats."
Martine: "The sorceress creates fear among people. Therefore, peace talks are impossible. Galbadia is planning to use this fear to negotiate favorable conditions for itself. It is clear that Galbadia's ultimate goal is world domination. Garden is no exception, either. It is a fact that the sorceress is planning to use this Garden as her base."
Martine: "…We have very few options available to us. We entrust world peace, and the future to you. Any questions?"
…I'm starting to wonder if the game isn't laying it on a bit too thick.
We've learned much about the sorceresses already, but all of it is fragmentary and presented as in-character knowledge, with gaps and biases. And talking to the Galbadia Garden students stresses that the sorceresses are feared and despised and have been living in hiding, and now Martine tells us, the sorceress creates fear; Deling is counting on the general fear of sorceresses ingrained in world culture to take advantage of.
Could it be that the sorceresses aren't so evil as has been suggested so far..? Or perhaps, have been driven to secrecy and antagonism by a society that is prejudiced against them..? It's too early to tell. We'll need to actually meet the sorceress for that, in more than a single scene where she mind-controls one of us. In the meantime, as far as everyone is concerned, Deling's plans for the "world summit" are exactly what they guessed they would be, an opportunity to try and frighten the whole world into submission with his new sorceress as a superweapon, possibly up to outright mind-controlling world leaders.
So what is that mission that Martine is alluding to in oblique terms?
Squall: "The orders say by mean of 'a sniper.' We have no one with that skill."
Martine: "Don't worry about it. Let me introduce an elite sharpshooter from Galbadia Garden. Kinneas! Irvine Kinneas!"
Cue FMV.
…this may be the prettiest of our arrangement of pretty boys so far, damn. They really made him a full on bishie. Look at him. He's wearing eyeshadow. Also? A fuckboy. I can sense his fuckboy energies from here.
And he makes that extremely clear if we talk to him before the next plot conversation.
Irvine: "Looks like I'm with you rubes from Balamb. Greetings."
(In the background, Zell does his 'shaking angrily' pose.)
Squall, mentally: "(Zell… Why do you have to overreact to everything?)"
Irvine: "You cool with me helping you?"
Squall: "That depends on your attitude."
Irvine: "I say things that get a rise out of some people. Just don't let it bother you and we'll get along fine."
Squall, mentally: "(I shouldn't put him together with Zell…)"
Squall: "I'll remember that."
Oh my god. He admits it. He admits to being a fuckboy who needles people for no reason. Incredible. AND GUESS WHAT? HE NOT ONLY HAS A GUN, HE'S A FUCKING COWBOY. THIS MOTHERFUCKER IS COSPLAYING A TEXAN. GOD!
This is Irvine Kinneas. He will be our sharpshooter. If you're guessing where this is going, then you're probably right, and once Headmaster Martine has gone back to his car and driven off (BACK INTO THE ATRIUM???), Squall helpfully lays it out for everyone:
They are to assassinate the sorceress.
I should have held back my "assassinating zombie JFK" joke from the train heist, because this is much closer to the real deal: We're taking on Irvine because our plan is not at all to give her any kind of fight, or even to perform an abduction or anything like that, but rather to ew close to Selphie's "blow it up with a rocket launcher" philosophy: the plan is to shoot her with a sniper rifle from as far as possible.
If this fails, then the rest of the team will be the backup option and commit to a direct attack. While Irvine boasts that he never misses his target, it's clear that killing the sorceress is a high enough priority that Balamb and Galbadia Garden are willing to risk multiple assets on a direct confrontation if the initial plan doesn't work out.
I love this. The sorceress is, as far as we know so far, a purely antagonistic force, yet there is something inherently murky to the business of a sniper assassination that casts our protagonists in shadow, even though they're ostensibly acting for the sake of 'world peace.' Or at least that's how Martine frames it - but of course, what use do mercenaries have for world peace? More like 'preventing Galbadian world domination,' ensuring the continuation of the international conflicts that bring them jobs and money.
Which doesn't make what they're doing bad. It's good to prevent one nation from subjugating the world through military power, threats of violence, and magical brainwashing. It's just that their motives are far from pure.
…Rinoa has no comment to make at this stage. Between the collapse of the Timber cell and Seifer's alleged death, she has been pretty thoroughly rattled, and now she's in the difficult position of pretending to be a SeeD and going along with a mission that will benefit the cause of Timber's independence but that she will probably have very mixed feelings about, later. For now, she's just… Rolling with the current.
Squall tells everyone to roll, and Irvine says we should form parties.
He immediately puts himself in a party with Rinoa and Selphie, leaving Squall, Quistis and Zell behind.
I was wrong. He isn't a fuckboi. He is the fuckboiest. Holy shit. Just absolutely shameless. And why Selphie and Rinoa specifically? Why not Quistis? Is she too old for him?? Is it the teacher vibes that he doesn't like??
God. We're truly getting a party made up of the characters of all time here. "Cowboy sniper horndog," what an archetype.
I go for Squall and Rinoa (I think I'll default to having these two whenever possible just because it seems the best way to build up the narrative relationship between the two, whatever it ends up being) and Irvine because he's new and I want to take him out for a spin. This is, also, when we get the tutorial on how to change our party at will while on the world map, which is welcome.
We have, at this point, recruited six characters in total. From the layout of the PC box, there could be up to eight. I'm not sure if there will be; this is pretty much where my knowledge of any party member stops. I know we recruit Irvine, and if there's anyone we recruit later (Seifer joining back, maybe?) then I don't know for sure.
…needless to say, the fact that Irvine is a fully functional party member just like Rinoa only raises further questions on SeeD's alleged unique status as GF users. Like, if it was even something as simple as "anyone can use a GF with basic instructions, it's just that most people don't because of the supposed risks," you'd think it deserve some kind of mention. Rinoa or Irvine would have, like, at least one line of dialogue mentioning their use of GFs and Junction and whether they're worried about it or welcome the power boost, but no. This could have been almost completely avoided by not specifying that only Balamb Garden uses GFs, but we're not doing that either. Irvine joins the group and gets to Junction and use GFs just… Because he has to as a mechanical entity within this game's system, I guess.
It's frustrating because even if the game later brings up a narrative explanation for it, that's too late, it needs to at least show that it is aware that it's raising questions here and now. I don't need an explanation; I just need the game to tell me that this is in fact meant to be something that matters in-character, as opposed to just "it's mechanics, don't think about it." Because that just makes me think about it more.
Ah, well. Short update today, with zero gameplay content, but I feel we hit some interesting enough story beats to call it there, especially with something as major as a political assassination by the protagonist in our near future.
I do get into at least one random encounter just to test out Irvine. He has a gun; he shoots monsters. It's straightforward. The thing is, it's... Shockingly easy to go through huge stretches of the game without running into any random encounters if you're efficient about traversal? It's weird, especially after last update's hell-dungeon.
We head for the train station, and with it, onward to Galbadia.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: To Deling City!
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I can't wait until some of the answers to some of your questions are revealed.
The more I look into it with an adult's eyes, the more I see that FF8 was a bit scuffed, but surprisingly good. I might have to replay it when I have disposable income again.
The more I look into it with an adult's eyes, the more I see that FF8 was a bit scuffed, but surprisingly good. I might have to replay it when I have disposable income again.
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- Pronouns
- Him/He
Aaaarfgh. You couldn't have reviewed five more minutes? Just to the next train scene.
Do love the character beat that seifers actual friends went 'nah, he'd die in prison or be put down trying to kill a judge, no way he's got enough self control to not cause a mess before an execution.'
Full on 'we love our rabid mess of a bro, seeing his flaws as charm points'
Do love the character beat that seifers actual friends went 'nah, he'd die in prison or be put down trying to kill a judge, no way he's got enough self control to not cause a mess before an execution.'
Full on 'we love our rabid mess of a bro, seeing his flaws as charm points'
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
GalBaDia STaTioN? oh god, it's spreading.