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

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://youtu.be/dfUsQPfIlc8

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Perfect thumbnail for that video by the way

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That reminds me of the person that leveled Cloud to the maximum level at the start of FFVII, though not as extreme.
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Getting to level 100 in FFVIII isn't as tedious as most games because enemies scale with you and the amount of EXP needed to level up never changes. Still, I would never do that when there's a much simpler alternative!

Random question: what is your SeeD level?

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He sure wasted a lot of time drawing magic in that video when it would be a lot faster to get it any other way

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Eh, I like the dollet grind because it's just a simple way to drop an hour or two in the very beginning of the game to get yourself a leg up. Getting access to the -ara or -aga spells isn't even the highlight. For me the highlight is getting some fast levels on the 3 GFs because you can end up spreading them out, one to each party member and you unlock a lot of their good GF abilities without having to painstakingly use Card a bunch of times. It's not overly complex and it only takes as long as you want to spend on it. But that's me.

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The only FF that I grinded for so far is FFX for the Monster Arena.

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It would be more interesting if Seifer stayed at level 100 when you fight him later on imo

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I've seen quite a few comments of late about people annoyed at having to Card enemies - not in this topic. Am I in the minority of people who has never really used Card? By the time you get Diablos you should already have a good enough deck by default to get the majority of level 5/6 and below cards which can turn you into a powerhouse early game (hello Abyss Worm)

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Cavedweller2000 posted...

people annoyed at having to Card enemies

I never cast card on enemies for the playing card itself. I would do it because when you defeat an enemy with Card you get AP (for your GF abilities) but you gain 0 XP so your characters stay low leveled.

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I have literally never used the Card command other than just seeing what it did the first time I got it because I don't actively try to stay at low levels

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I only learn Card to use Card Mod.


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bah, most of my playthrough I was big into Carding to keep levels low (and into playing cards and card modding of course), and using Level Up where necessary to draw better magic to further brutalize all opposition and THEN at the endgame after unlocking the "Bonus" abilities, then levelling the team up to 100 and getting all the stats bonuses along the way.

...all incredibly unnecessary but very satisfying!

Ahh ok, forgot Card gives no exp.

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I love that there are so many different ways to play FFVIII and they're all valid and effective

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Every playthrough has an obscene amount of triple triad, though. That is a constant mainstay.

SeeD mission in Dollet? Can I play 3 hours against Zell's mom first?

Oh, as soon as TT is available I chase down the running kid to win Mini Mog, then I pick up Quistis from the Trepe Fans and then straight to the doctor to load up on the other relatively strong cards.

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Yeah I was going to make a joke about cleaning out the Trepie Groupie in the cafeteria, funnily enough... but then I remembered my overwhelming desire to get 20 Elnoyle cards asap.

Getting MiniMog pre-Ifrit, with the basic card set you're initially given... that's always an adventure.

Speaking of cards, does Seabass know about the Card Club sidequest?

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andylt posted...

Speaking of cards, does Seabass know about the Card Club sidequest?

He hasn't been playing cards very much from the sound of it, so probably not. He may not have even played enough cards to trigger it.

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i have played zero card games
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you are missing out on arguably the best part of the game

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SeabassDebeste posted...

i have played zero card games

then you have not truly played Final Fantasy VIII

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You should at least try Triple Triad to see if you like it, or at the very least to hear Shuffle and Boogie.

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looking forward to his first match having Random/Same/Plus/Same Wall

MartinFF7 posted...

looking forward to his first match having Random/Same/Plus/Same Wall

oh yeah

don't try to play on Lunar Base

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well it's too late to play in balamb garden lol
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you'll be able to go back eventually

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more

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thanks

back from vacation so this will continue soon
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so zell/edea/selphie boarded the lunar pandora and immediately got booted off (i think?)

meanwhile squall has landed in the space station, which looks pretty cool!
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Yeah, the Lunar Base is a pretty cool location. I like the music.

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whoops

got stuck on another dumb minigame, trying to rescue rinoa in space...
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Probably the worst mandatory minigame in franchise history.

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It's not that hard!

redrocket posted...

Probably the worst mandatory minigame in franchise history.

Nope, Tetra Master

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I remember getting annoyed at that one, I think it was hard to tell if you're doing the right thing and the game just straight up doesn't tell you how to do it properly. Press boost like the whole time iirc.

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The game tells you to use fuel to move faster and then just try to line her up in the middle of the screen

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i thought that little thing might be rinoa (and i was in first person view), but then the controls were so unresponsive i thought that might have been squall and i was in third person view
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You're in space so you're not exactly going to be swift. That's what the fuel is for.

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I haven't played in many years I just remember it taking a few tries, and it's a real pace killer in the middle of this really important stuff going on.

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cool, so i caught rinoa!

The whole sojourn in space is... bizarre. It's unclear why Rinoa had to come here exactly, but naturally, things go awry almost immediately, undercutting the hilarious music that reminds me of Lordly Tailor in AA3. Lunar Pandora is somehow summoning a giant beam of monsters from the Moon to Earth; Rinoa gets possessed yet again; Sorceress Adel is freed about 120 seconds after we're told how dangerous she is but hey we're keeping her in check; the space station gets wrecked and people need escape pods.

(I had to consult my notes 'cause it'd been so long, but apparently Lunar Cry was also what wrecked the Centra continent and caused that giant crater. Interesting!)

I guess part of it is just that the game designer liked space and wanted to set some scenes here, because they like the look of the harder sci-fi and the sensation of the loneliness out there. There are few settings with the sense of isolation that space gives, and poor Rinoa of course, in one of our only times in her head, has to experience it. I both enjoy and roll my eyes at the off-screen flashbacks that give her identity - the scene where she berates our sniper friend (whose name I just had to look up in this topic) is fantastic; the scene where she asks Zell for Squall's ring is... kinda dumb and pointless-feeling (and it explained a very dumb scene to begin with.)

Squall goes out and gets Rinoa, because that's what heroes do. But what confuses me is... he literally had no plan whatsoever? He was really planning to die out there alone? We do wind up happening across a conveniently empty Ragnarok, but... what? I mean, it winds up in a nice scene, so the ends clearly justify the means, but it's not like Squall just goes out there in a deranged state; his friends actively encourage him to! It winds up working out because he's the main character, but yeesh!

Anyway yeah, Ragnarok has air, and we disrobe from the spacesuits. Rinoa is back to normal almost immediately, flirty and cute. The ship presents an odd sort of puzzle, with a bunch of different creatures. With a massive level gap (34 to 20), we tackle a whole bunch before reading that we need to kill consecutive creatures in consecutive colors. This is one of my favorite "dungeons" - no random encounters, a clear goal, and the chance to develop familiarity with the environment. These tentacled beasts are pretty intimidating, and they deal boss-like damage. Luckily though, Rinoa has taken Edea's junction set, which includes the Sleep-junctioned-to-Attack module... and these enemies are vulnerable to that. I wind up maxing out everyone's Thunder3 and Esuna junctions using Draw here.

Once I figure out the pattern and establish where all the monsters are, I take them out in order:
- Purple - the first enemy we encounter. I only need to duck one Red enemy (doors are very close to each other) to attack the second Purple dude.
- Red - this dude is sandwiched between the two Purples, so after taking out Purple, I kill it, then double back to the entry bridge and kill the other there.
- Green - there's one in a room by itself, and a second sitting on a pod. Both are very politely available and navigable.
- Yellow - there's one guarding the room where I learned the secret to defeating them, and one in the original entry save point room. (I originally tried going after Yellow first, but the Red dude on the bridge obstructed that plan.)

Killing these enemies finally frees up the path to the cockpit. I alluded to it already, but Squall and Rinoa have an incredibly sweet scene here as we manage to make contact with a port. The English-language music is really pretty, and Rinoa almost annoyingly keeps insisting on staying in Squall's lap. But the reason for her insistence on extend the present becomes clear as we approach landing: she has become a sorceress and is now a possession risk, so she will need to surrender herself, terrified that no one will view her as anything other than a threat now. It immediately doubles the power of the moments preceding it. Squall has saved Rinoa's life and they've reunited for this euphoric moment as they head home... and that moment is all that they have. It's been a long time since I started the game, but this is likely my favorite scene of it.

Squall is torn when we land, but Rinoa gives herself up, and it tears him apart. The power of that agony is of course almost immediately undercut by everyone showing up and saying "dude let's just get her then?" Seems like it was an avoidable situation! We're now dealing with three threats: Lunar Cry and all the monsters; Adel possibly coming free; and Squall losing Rinoa. There's really no competition at all for Squall: Let's get the girl.

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* Squall: You'd better not do anything to hurt her! (dramatic hand gesture)
Rando staffer: All right, all right, you're her knight in shining armor, I get it.

* For a dude who's all but said he loves Rinoa, Squall sure is reticent about even giving her a hug. Japanese teen media FTW.

* And unfortunately, I'm also very disappointed by the damsel in distress storyline. We just got Rinoa back. Send one of these other losers into jeopardy, if this orphanage storyline is so important!

* When it comes to a love story, I do love a "screw the world" decision point. Heavens Feels had this going on in Fate/Stay Night, and it works great here in FFVIII too.

* And so, this segment as a whole kind of is a microcosm for my entire FFVIII experience! The sublime and the cringe-y and the goofy and the ugly and the satisfying, all rolled into one little bizarre, unnecessary trip into space. Here we go, onward.
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Yeah, space is where FFVIII goes off the rails for a lot of people, and I get it. Squall is acting completely irresponsibly pretty much the entirety of Disc 3, and it comes to a head there as you pretty aptly summarized about him just going out into space with no plan and it somehow worked out anyway. The game also does a fairly poor job of really explaining to you why all of this is significant while it's happening or why you're in space in the first place, so it just feels out of place and random while you're in the moment.

but man the "Eyes On Me" scene is so great, definitely a top tier moment for the series

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Loved reading your space takes, and pretty much agree with all of it. It's a very clunky and underexplained setup just to get you out there, but man once you're there there's some really great stuff going on. Also space is just cool. It's why I understand but can never agree with the people who think the game drops off a cliff after disc 2. The propagator puzzle stuff is great too.

Also love love love the Eyes on Me scene, if any one non-CG scene deserves to be remembered from this game it's that one. I can put up with any number of cringey moments if you have stuff like that going on. I don't think the series has ever used body language as well as 8 does.

SeabassDebeste posted...

* And unfortunately, I'm also very disappointed by the damsel in distress storyline. We just got Rinoa back. Send one of these other losers into jeopardy, if this orphanage storyline is so important!

Yeah it's definitely been the Squall/Rinoa show for a while, and they definitely go to the damsel well a couple too many times for her.

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Ragnarok beat airship in the series

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FFDragon posted...

Ragnarok beat airship in the series

Best airship and best airship theme

andylt posted...

Yeah it's definitely been the Squall/Rinoa show for a while, and they definitely go to the damsel well a couple too many times for her.

I feel like the damsel in distress thing isn't as bad as people make it out to be. There are really only three major occasions, but they also happen to be three of the biggest moments in the game, so they stand out, and she spends a huge chunk of Disc 3 completely unconscious, to boot.

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Three major examples of a character going damsel in a single game is two too many imo.

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I mean only one of them is even her fault!

although they're all kind of important to help Squall realize his feelings for Rinoa because it's only when he realizes he might lose her that he can act on and acknowledge those feelings

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I love how perfect the color-matching enemy dungeon music is. It's just called "Residents." It's weird but it fits.
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more FFVIII please

go get the girl

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Voxwik posted...

I love how perfect the color-matching enemy dungeon music is. It's just called "Residents." It's weird but it fits.

one winged angel and to zanarkand are great songs and all, but uematsu's quirky dungeon themes are why he's my favorite vg composer

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