Board 8 > what is going on in that ffviii intro (playthrough/spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

it also totally explains why Irvine couldn't take the shot because he's the only one who remembers

(This is also kind of a problem with FFVIII because it does some really good foreshadowing but it doesn't always do a good job of following up on it)

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Leonhart4 posted...

it also totally explains why Irvine couldn't take the shot because he's the only one who remembers

I did think of that, just forgot to note it! That was probably the only detail that clicked for me about the orphanage scene.
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pjbasis posted...

Imagine how hard it would be to pull this off with voice acting.

It's funny you mention that, because the recent discussions in smfffc got me thinking of Dissidia, and then I looked into Dissidia NT and Rinoa's voice actress choice... not sure what I was expecting, but not that.

Not that we need to worry about a full FF8 remake with voice acting anytime soon but if it happens, hope they go a different direction!!

It doesn't sound that bad, but I wish they wouldn't try to imitate the very high pitches of japanese VAs.

In general though I haven't liked most depictions of FFVII or VIII characters post-ps1.

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Just bring David Boreanaz back to voice Squall and you can do whatever else for the rest of the cast

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weirdly i've just started watching bones, like 2 days ago. i had no idea david boreanaz voiced squall. i might have heard the name before, but not before i actually watched buffy the vampire slayer.

kingdom hearts, presumably?

pjbasis posted...

It doesn't sound that bad, but I wish they wouldn't try to imitate the very high pitches of japanese VAs.

my hero academia feels
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Yeah, KH1 only, unfortunately. They've had a different guy in his other voiced appearances. He's not bad, but he's no Boreanaz.

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well i just talked to edea again and she gave no clues, only said to help again if ultimecia possesses her again

cid just says they'll be sailing the world

i did discover quite a vast amount of ocean

also went to shumi village and built a sculpture of laguna for the power of friendship... plus a phoenix pinion. and $5000 for 14 ultima.
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oh wait

go visit Rinoa in the infirmary first

I always forget you have to do that first when someone else is playing

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Oh yeah I meant to bump this up asking if he was stuck, because I'm pretty sure that's the first time I had to go online to find wtf to do next. Figured Seabass would be similarly stuck.

I wonder if that's how I found FF:WA actually...

I don't remember how I found FF:WA. I think I was just looking for FF stuff and I happened to find it in my search. Actually, I think I originally ended up there because of the fanfiction forum.

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that laguna sequence is hilarious. great music, too. though kiros coming with no junctions was not good! surprised the dragon was so easy despite its high HP

where's centra?
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Centra is the area where the orphanage is

and always expect Kiros and Ward to have no junctions to start in any dream sequence

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hm, no luck finding the ship yet
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SeabassDebeste posted...

hm, no luck finding the ship yet

It's very tricky to find. It will be nestled in an alcove among the string of islands. Even once you see it on the map, it still may not be immediately apparent how to get to it. You have to approach it while piloting the Garden, for the record.

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also did Ward appear in that last dream sequence?

it's possible for him to be there and possible for him to not be there depending on whether you found certain items beforehand

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no, he didn't :(
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Yeah, I kinda figured he wouldn't when you visited Shumi Village. If you grab the Timber Maniacs magazine there before that dream sequence, Ward doesn't appear.

Also fun fact that a lot of people miss: You can actually see what those Timber Maniacs magazines were about if you go to Selphie's blog on the Garden computer in Squall's classroom.

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Huh I'm not sure I ever got Ward to show up there

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I deliberately avoid Shumi Village until after that part so Ward shows up

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is phoenix pinion actually good

also who should i use that speed scroll on? does quezlcoatl just make the most sense?
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Phoenix Pinion is just a Phoenix Down that can revive more than one person.

And just use a Speed scroll on a GF that's equipped to someone who isn't using Cerberus so it gets distributed between everyone.

There's also a dungeon in Centra where you can get a couple of GFs if you want.

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You can keep returning to the Ultima draw point in Shumi village. It recharges. And once you use a phoenix pinion in combat, there is a random chance for the rest of the game that the phoenix will automatically be summoned In case of a party wipe.

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Also, if youre still stuck theres a map at the top of this page:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/197342-final-fantasy-viii/faqs/72431/picking-up-the-trail

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redrocket posted...

You can keep returning to the Ultima draw point in Shumi village. It recharges. And once you use a phoenix pinion in combat, there is a random chance for the rest of the game that the phoenix will automatically be summoned In case of a party wipe.

Oh yeah, that's true. I forgot about that.

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redrocket posted...

You can keep returning to the Ultima draw point in Shumi village. It recharges. And once you use a phoenix pinion in combat, there is a random chance for the rest of the game that the phoenix will automatically be summoned In case of a party wipe.

That was a huge part of how I beat Omega Weapon when I was a kid. Activated twice, IIRC.

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So, I used Spd-J-Scroll on Queztlcoatl, then promptly realized that Alexander is also junctioned to Squall. This was after about 30 min unsaved (but mainly exploring), so I reset the game and taught it to Ifrit, who seems pretty worthless otherwise (sorry bud).

After a lot of putzing around, I finally find the white SeeD ship nestled between two north-south stacked, east-west length-wise rocks. It was visible coming off a mainland area. I just want to say that navigating this Garden is absolute misery. I hate the camera angle, I hate that it forces rotation on you, I hate how slow it moves, and I hate how little access it actually gives you to the world at large. Would vastly prefer fast-travel like Fly in Pokemon, or just a top-down view. (I'm annoyed that the World Map as a whole isn't top-down, in fact.)

After the reset, I board the White SeeD ship with Irvine and Quistis for real, and the captain there demands proof that Edea sent us. Rinoa's buddies are also there, having been rescued by Ellone from Galbadia. We scuttle back to Edea, who gives us a letter, and then the captain of the SeeD ship tells us that Ellone left with an Esthar ship during a dogfight with Galbadia.

We switch to Selphie and Zell and take to the Talle Mountains, the only region where I've found the name "Esthar" show up, but the area past the pass blocking off the Balamb Garden doesn't seem to have any town areas, so I'm at a loss again. I do wind up farming that spider enemy with Draw to the point where all three of my characters are saturated with Water and Esuna, and I also take some from the mysterious cactus enemies that provide Haste. What an interesting area.

But yeah, not sure where to go again!
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Yeah, you literally can't get there with the Garden. Go to the place where you can get to the continent by crossing the bridge, Fisherman's Horizon.

Also you can change the primary angle of the camera, but yeah, piloting the Garden is no fun.

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Also you can farm Cactuars (the cactus enemies) for easy AP in FFVIII because while they have high evasion stats, Squall's weapon literally cannot miss, so it negates that advantage.

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i mean they bolt on me so i haven't had a chance!
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Yes, they escape quickly, but if you can get them, they're good AP.

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do i need to catch this chocobo in order to progress
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SeabassDebeste posted...

do i need to catch this chocobo in order to progress

I told you where to go.

You don't need to do any of the Chocobo Forest stuff ever if you don't want to.

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ah, just clicked your spoiler link. i took "crossing the bridge" to mean passing through the mountain so i just went into that nightmare of random encounters again
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Made my way around the Galbadian continent and to the Fisherman's Horizon. A pretty tune plays as Squall carries Rinoa along the long walk, as he admits to her unconscious form how much his shell is meant to protect himself from rejection. The walk continues.

Edea suddenly appears and warns us yet again that she's probably gonna be turned into Ultimecia at some point, and that we "know what to do" if that happens. I mean, we kinda tried to kill her the first time, too... this game has been pretty merciful compared to other FF games about killing people in battle!

Er, but anyway, I decide to let Edea (lv26) join my party (Squall lv30, Irvine lv18) and we go forth into a whole new continent. I'm surrounded by glaciers and dinosaur skeletons here, and the random encounters are terrifying because they cast Stop/Petrify. BAD CREATURES.

Eventually we come to a split in the road, and I go left for starters. Almost immediately I'm beset by a crazy-looking boss, but Squall informs us that it's undead. I'm able to Draw from it to cast Cure3 for massive damage. It also has a ???, though it's not a GF.

Past that, we reach a shimmering hologram of a hole in the sky. Turns out we're able to climb up the invisible wall into an extremely futuristic elevator/shuttle-thingy. When we disembark, Edea informs us that we're on the lookout for Dr. Odine...

... and then flashback to Laguna, in the same area. He's in compelled labor at the moment (it's annoying how they skip what lands us in these situations!), but his kindness to another adorable Moomba compels a fellow prisoner to nominate us leader of the Adel resistance. Kiros and Ward are brought back, and a few battles ensue.

I didn't have Magic or Item junctioned to Squall, and he's been Blinded, so I'm actually not able to deal damage... however, I do have draw, and damn, this enemy has some awesome spells! Four different lv3 magics! I draw myself to 100 on all of them, using Recover as needed, and then wipe him out easily using his own Firaga.

We witness a scene where Odine is clearly unhinged and eager to experiment on children for some sort of special weaponry technology, but we stay hidden. His assistant is also with the resistance, so while we've escaped the lab/factory complex, we're still amid the conspiracy or whatever. Save point for now in Laguna-land.

(Is a gap in levels that big typical? I have to assume it is - Squall is always in the party, and any rotation of other characters at all will result in Squall jumping way ahead.)
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Inactive party members don't get EXP, so Squall can end up way ahead if you aren't regularly rotating the others in and out.

But once again your junctions are way more important than your levels

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oh that reminds me

i had all my magic junctioned to edea, and she wasn't an option to switch over to any of the three party members i've got atm

so ward actually has no magic attached to him. i'm able to give him a bunch of GFs but i have to draw all over again in order to actually get anything junctioned to his stats

i'm sure it won't matter pretty soon, but it's actually a bit of an issue!

(edit) also i have rinoa at 20, selphie/zell at 19, quistis at 18 as well - i actually have been rotating, and that seems to even everyone out relative to one another, but increase the gap with squall!
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Yeah, the game trolls you a bit there by letting Edea join and then not letting you swap her junctions over. I guess Square assumed you'd give stuff to everyone and not just your active party!

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i did give stuff to everyone at first, but junction exchange and magic exchange, plus deliberate junction breaks, and the fact that GFs need to be in battle to gain experience, all seem to encourage you to do otherwise!
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Yeah, I don't think anyone does it that way except as a special challenge where GFs can only be assigned to one character for the whole game.

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ellone rescue in the last get

leaving rinoa with this creep in the present seems like a BAD IDEA (tm). gonna result in her becoming the new ultimecia or getting sacrificed for lunar sky or something.

this capital city reminds me of the sky city in gulliver's travels - it has a very "sky city" look to it and the people are very proud of themselves. i got lost in the city for sure.

passed ozine's out-of-city lab - now time to enter the lunar gate

there was a random enemy that cast a thousand status afflictions on everyone and almost killed me. ran just in time
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SeabassDebeste posted...

there was a random enemy that cast a thousand status afflictions on everyone and almost killed me. ran just in time

I just literally laughed out loud. It's a classic FF8 moment we all run into...

Yep, everyone remembers their first Malboro.

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I remember when i first played this trying to spam degenerator to get the Marlboro tentacles before they used bad breath.

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Finally caught up with your playthrough, it's fun reading your thoughts on this ridiculous cool game.

A lot of people love the first two discs but hate everything after Ultimecia gets introduced, I think there's a lot of good stuff afterwards though. Esthar looks cool but is easy to get lost in, a common theme in this game. Don't worry too much about keeping levels low, I played through this game as a kid knowing nothing about that and barely understanding the junction system and got through it OK, just play however feels most fun for you. I agree with you that the world map theme isn't great either, I love so much of the OST in this game but that one is a miss for me.

Btw you don't have to worry about drawing GFs from story bosses after Alexander. And I may have missed this but did he get Odin?

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andylt posted...

Btw you don't have to worry about drawing GFs from story bosses after Alexander. And I may have missed this but did he get Odin?

not yet

I told him about the Centra Ruins but as far as I know he did not go

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i didn't go explore centra's ruins

i was sick of waiting for the story to advance, and i didn't realize i'd be locked out of returning!

hopefully i'll get a real airship that won't be godawful to navigate soon

in the meantime, not sure how to handle this lunar pandora thing
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Are you trying to board it? The first location is actually very close by the lab.

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If you do another playthrough my favorite way to abuse the junction system is during the SeeD mission.

1) Get to the part where you are leaving the courtyard.

2) Equip all 3 GFs on Seifer

3) Stay on the bridge and get into random encounters.

4) Attack Zell and Squall until they are knocked out.

5) Fight encounters with Seifer until you get bored.

He will level up but Zell and Squall will not. Eventually you will have access to enemies with -ara and -aga spells to draw from them and you can unlock a LOT of important abilities on Shiva, Ifrit and Quezacotl. You can spend a few hours grinding the bridge before moving on and then Selphie steps in (at level 7 or whatever level Squall is) and all the experience on Seifer just disappears and doesn't get held against the party.

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that type of grinding has never appealed to me

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