LogFAQs > #943417801

Just wrapped disc 2. I don't remember any random encounter in the ice area, so no comment there. Is it a missable item that requires me to replay it? Or is it just something funny I can glance at?

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I really disliked the orphanage sequence. After that, I also had no idea where I was supposed to go exactly, but eventually I ran into Galbadia Garden.

What the hell is this Zell/Rinoa ring subplot. The ring has never been mentioned before this, but it's suddenly meaningful. Is Zell shipping Squall and Rinoa? Or is he jealous of Squall and hoping to win Rinoa's heart himself? Either way it feels like it comes out of nowhere and has zero space to breathe, since Rinoa immediately becomes damsel in distress and Zell is utterly incapable of even trying to rescue her. Bleh.

That aside, the sense of action here is phenomenal. Seifer sneering as he deploys troops; the different waves that fly from Galbadia to Balamb; the sense of resolve and desperation that overcomes Balamb. Everyone trusts Squall implicitly - whether this is earned or not is debatable, but he does wind up justifying it. But for all Squall's defense tactics, Balamb Garden can't hold the line, so it's time for an all out attack. The speech he gives before they ram Galbadia for good is excellent. And naturally, since he's the hero, he can't possibly abandon one kid - and so he gets trapped into an unwinnable fight with a mecha.

At first I was exasperated by the robot punching, but when I figured it out, it was actually really cool... from a cinematic perspective. Love the swooping beautiful scenery as we soar above the water and the Gardens. The only problem is that the controls really suck, as FF minigames are wont to do. I wind up dying a few times only getting a sliver of damage onto the enemy combatant. But when I actually figure out the timing to do the doomstrike counterattack, I wind up killing him in two hits... leaving a ton of awkward remaining time as we soar around.

The disconnect between Rinoa's portrayal as a damsel in distress and her actual usefulness continues; she's clearly the second-strongest character after Squall for me, and it would be great if she weren't always the one we had to rescue. That said, the rescue is a swashbucklin' great cutscene. But when we land on solid ground, for ten seconds we change from an adventure movie to something out of Children of Men - a long pan across carnage as one Garden fights another in bloody combat. It's utter mayhem, and we need to sprint across the entire battlefield to begin the invasion. It might be the definitive shot of the game so far.

It's utterly separate from the gameplay itself, but Squall has several times now repeated that they have to see Edea and Seifer as the enemy. It's becoming increasingly clear that he's saying it to convince himself. It's flagrantly clear that being a mercenary doesn't mean being a good person. The game is aware of this but hasn't delved deep yet; despite Squall's misgivings, we still continue to press forward. Maybe at some point peace will win, but not yet.

I love Galbadia Garden's layout as a dungeon. It's got a clean aesthetic and lots of loops and backtracking. But it's got a save point in the center, and for all its backtracking, each time you empty out a wing, you're given a faster route back. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it does feel like FFVIII's cleanest dungeon design yet; it's the only one where I manage to develop a good sense of space and flow. I also appreciate Raijin and Fujin, who have dropped enemy status and again just want us to bring Seifer back to the light side of the Force. The enemies here are a mixed bag of strong and weak, but almost all of them have good stuff to Draw. I give Rinoa the job of casting Doom on them and Mugging them, then farm them with Selphie/Squall/Rinoa-post-Doom until they expire.

Or at least I keep doing that until I reach Cerberus. The first time through, he silences everyone, and I have no Item equipped. This prevents me from curing myself or Dispelling his Triple, so he quickly wipes me out as I'm doing puny damage with regular attacks, and soon he wipes me out.

Back to the junctioning board. I strip Selphie of her Draw command and instead slap on the Treatment ability. When we return, I immediately use Treatment any time someone is Silenced. I also discover the power of the Double spell, which I'd never even tried before; I save my Lv3 magic but hit Cerberus hard with 3x Double Lv2 spells after doing 3x Shell. I Dispel him whenever he Triples up and use Double-Cure2 whenever I'm feeling low, and eventually down he goes. Sadly I'm not able to farm him much; only a single draw on Quake and a few on Double.

One of the enemies I'm able to farm holds Silence. After reviewing, only one character has the ability to junction to ST-Defense: Selphie. She also happens to have Brothers, which gives her the highest HP. So I give her 100% Silence junctioned to ST-Defense. I'LL NEVER AGAIN BE SILENCED, SUCKERS.

After collecting the final keys, we go up and see Seifer and Edea, with yet another convenient save point right there. Thank you game. Seifer's up first, and he alludes to our past and how we can't fight Matron. Squall repeats his mantra that his enemy is a monster; then we dive in. Seifer's not too hard since I've junctioned the hell out of everyone, particularly with a fairly high Dispel score so his magic attacks don't hurt that much. I begin with Cerberus, which I realize gives everyone Triple. Since Seifer has no annoying status effects, we just hammer him with Lv2 and Lv3 spells, Tripled, with the occasional Cure2 to maintain dominance. Without even casting Protect or Shell, down goes Seifer.

We're very politely given the chance to re-junction and heal before we face Edea, who's run away, calling Seifer worthless... and Seifer pops in again. This dude has Vegeta-level will - he's literally on his knees as we fight. Again, I just cast Cerberus, and he's got even less HP this time, so I don't waste time casting protective spells and hammer him quickly into submission. The Scan tells me he's improved his skills, so I don't hold back and hit him with some Lv3 spells too.

Of course, that was with the expectation a battle would end, so that Shell wouldn't carry over. Whoops! It doesn't. Edea picks up right where Seifer left off. Problem: She immediately kills Selphie. What the hell. Fortunately Squall's got six Full-life (which I forget where I drew from), and we revive her quickly. Rinoa's doing a bit of Triple-casting Shell, Lv3 magic, and the like, but soon Edea begins using Silence and Slow and Dispel and Reflect. I start feeling pretty bad about de-junctioning the Treatment option when I realize Carbuncle doesn't cure status ailments! It's also beginning to waste my time as I scramble to make sure characters can use all their abilities.

During this time, while Rinoa's silenced, she Mugs away some sort of Crown from Edea. Cool?

In the end, Cerberus is killed in a single hit, so after the first few sets of Triple-Ice3s, I'm reduced to single-strikes. Squall of course is useful here, as his single strike is comparable to a Lv3 spell. Edea moves away from casting Reflect (and alleviates my reliance on Dispel); however, she picks up a nasty habit of casting Death. Often. This is the only thing that kills me. It's the worst when it hits Squall; he's the only one with Full-life and the only one with items, but I do have Life on other characters, so when he goes down I'm able to bring him back (and desperately Shell/Cure3 him).

Eventually I finally do a scan and see she's down to only 2000ish health, so I go all out with attacks, and down she goes.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness