Basically just shit I didn't get about FF8 in general *LIGHT SPOILERS*

[Cat Rage Room]

Why was Galbadia so intent on getting the communications tower, and even when they did, how did they manage a live broadcast? I thought all air/radio communication went kaput after Adel's Tomb got launched into space for the past two decades? What made Galbadia instigate a war (or rather, a conflict) to capture a radio tower for a technology that everyone knew didn't work for the past twenty years?

And not only that, Galbadia is a major world power. I know they have their own comm towers. Why didn't they just use their own?

 

[Ryushikaze]

Radios did work, actually. But Adel herself could broadcast her thoughts and will as radio waves- you hear some right before the broadcast in Timber- so they were shut down and replaced with land lines to effectively shut her the hell up.

I suppose a better question is why did the receiver equipment still function/ why didn't they just encrypt broadcasts?

 

[Joker]

The stuff worked...they just stopped using it so the actual radio waves and all didn't interfere with the equipment, and so she wouldn't respond to outside stimuli and be woken up. I thought it said that somewhere in the game, but I could be wrong. :S

 

[Ghost X]

Yes it was explained. I don't remember the specifics, but I'm certain it was explained =P.

 

[Ryushikaze]

From the Ultimania itself-

Jamming

The worldwide jamming that spread 17 years ago. As all frequencies became filled with noise, and the radio waves that had been the routine means of communication became impossible to use. Presently, HD (Hyper Data) cables stretched along the underground are the primary means of communication, though areas are often cut off from the cable network due to battles and the behavior of monsters; not all areas above ground are connected. If the restoration of a radio wave-related facility is conducted, a brief radio broadcast is possible, but as it has no practical use, it is rarely performed.




IIRC, Adel herself is the 'Jamming'

 

[Joker]

I could have sworn that they DID the jamming BECAUSE of her. But I cba to go find out

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I could have sworn that they DID the jamming BECAUSE of her. But I cba to go find out

Yeah.

Adel's Tomb

A high-tech device intended for weakening and confining a sorceress' power. Shot into the moon's orbit after going through a special sealing process. Used to confine Sorceress Adel. It is the main cause of radio interference on the planet."

While Esthar is totally aware of the cause of the jamming (being the ones that did it) the rest of the world outside of Esthar didn't know why there was jamming (according to the in game database, the prevailing theory is that it has "something to do with the moon but no one is really sure".

What happened to Adel, and the cause of the radio waves is absolutely unknown by the world at large. Even one of the students at Garden comments that their history class doesn't even cover what happened to Adel because nobody knows. So as far as anyone is concerned, no one had any reason to think that radio world certainly work because all of the frequencies are filled with noise that makes communications, especially the kind that Galbadia pulled off, technically impossible.

So my question still stands, lol

If the restoration of a radio wave-related facility is conducted, a brief radio broadcast is possible, but as it has no practical use, it is rarely performed.

Oh. I guess this is what Galbadia did. But still, it seems to be a common misconception that Adel herself is causing the noise. Not true!

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Okay another thing that's not really a 'question' but something I didn't get. How casually the game handled Centra. I mean, it wasn't a big part of the game or one of its themes so I wasn't expecting a significant amount of game time devoted to it, still; just 80 years ago, a major, world influential, continent spanning, old and important major power got SMASHED along with the ENTIRE CONTINENT it was on by MONSTERS FROM THE MOON and a GIANT CRYSTAL BULLET, I repeat, less than a century ago and the game world and setting pretty much goes *kanyeshrug*

No mention of what kind of place Centra was.

No mention or appearance or descendants of refugees or people from there currently (or at least their kids, or something "I remember when dad used to talk about Centra back home yadda yadda")

No mention of how the sudden destruction of an entire civilization impacted world politics or world balance or anything.

No...nothing. It's like the place never existed. Like, "News at 11, cradle of world's civilization gets utterly annihilated in massive cataclysm. WAIT THIS JUST IN; DANCING CACTUAR SIGHTED IN KASHKABALD DESERT, OUR ANCHORMAN BOB CORWIN IS AT THE SCENE". Like, I'm not expecting something major, but for an entire chunk of the civilization of the planet to vanish overnight, there doesn't seem to be any sort of residual evidence or anything.

 

[Ghost X]

Isn't that the continent where the ruins are, where the orphanage was. I'd say the ruins are Centra ruins, and what about the Odin thingy.

 

[Joker]

Okay another thing that's not really a 'question' but something I didn't get. How casually the game handled Centra. I mean, it wasn't a big part of the game or one of its themes so I wasn't expecting a significant amount of game time devoted to it, still; just 80 years ago, a major, world influential, continent spanning, old and important major power got SMASHED along with the ENTIRE CONTINENT it was on by MONSTERS FROM THE MOON and a GIANT CRYSTAL BULLET, I repeat, less than a century ago and the game world and setting pretty much goes *kanyeshrug*

No mention of what kind of place Centra was.

No mention or appearance or descendants of refugees or people from there currently (or at least their kids, or something "I remember when dad used to talk about Centra back home yadda yadda")

No mention of how the sudden destruction of an entire civilization impacted world politics or world balance or anything.

No...nothing. It's like the place never existed. Like, "News at 11, cradle of world's civilization gets utterly annihilated in massive cataclysm. WAIT THIS JUST IN; DANCING CACTUAR SIGHTED IN KASHKABALD DESERT, OUR ANCHORMAN BOB CORWIN IS AT THE SCENE". Like, I'm not expecting something major, but for an entire chunk of the civilization of the planet to vanish overnight, there doesn't seem to be any sort of residual evidence or anything.

This one's EASY.

Who cares, as long as the Triple Triad factory survives?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I'd say the ruins are Centra ruins, and what about the Odin thingy.

Yeah, those ruins are the Centra ruins. That's about all we really see in the game about them.

 

[Ryushikaze]

IIRC, they'd been wiped out earlier by successive Lunar Cries, but a LUDICROUS one 80 years ago scarred the continent itself and unearthed the LP.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Uh...I don't think that happened. From what I remember, it was just one big Lunar Cry that took them out altogether 80 years ago.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Centra

History
Approximately 400 years ago, the nation that would leave behind the name of the Centra civilization came to be. Due to destruction caused by the Lunar Cry more than 100 years ago, it fell into ruin. People immigrating east and west from the Centra continent founded the nations called Esthar and the Holy Dollet Empire.
Geography and Foreign Relations
Possessing territory in every continent of the world, most was located in the south, with the center of Centra civilization and culture believed to have been toward the middle, where ancient ruins are. Their name is the Centra Ruins. Northwest of the ruins is an area of ocean where there was great damage caused by the Lunar Cry, having extreme effects on the surrounding coastline. In order to excavate a strange crystalline object believed to have fallen from the moon at the time of the Lunar Cry, Esthar troops were stationed here some ten-odd years ago. This would lead to Lunatic Pandora. In the present, almost no one visits Centra.
Lifestyle and Industry
As most of the land has been ruined, permanent settlers are few. Following the direct hit of the Lunar Cry, all survivors evacuated to the mobile shelters. It would appear that there was high industrial productivity prior to the downfall.


So it was a direct hit of the Lunar cry that took them out, though since it's been happening for 4000 years, they'd probably dealt with it before. Heck, the existence of Gardens suggests they had experience with Lunar cries before, since that's what they were built to deal with.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

So it was a direct hit of the Lunar cry that took them out, though since it's been happening for 4000 years, they'd probably dealt with it before. Heck, the existence of Gardens suggests they had experience with Lunar cries before, since that's what they were built to deal with.

I mean, Lunar Cries aren't exclusive to the Centra civilization or civilization in general. They've happened everywhere for tens of thousands of years. Even then, they've never had one that wiped them out and smashed the continent into nothing. That still however doesn't explain why the in game narrative glossed the entire event over.

I admit this is more of a gripe and not something that can really be answered by anyone.

 

[Vendel]

Uh...Lunar Cry?

 

[cheeriolord]

the lunar cry is fairly well documented in the game and i like ryu's answer to the centra civilization but the one thing that always bothered me was ...... tears point ......just why ??? ....... if the centra continent was wiped out by a lunar cry (odd but believable within the game) why is there a giant homing beacon in esthar that basically brings these things down ... who built it ?... why did they build it? ...or was this just something that magically appeared one day. like heathrow airport bringing in thousands of strange visitors and losing their luggage (thats why the monsters are pissed believe me)

 

[Ryushikaze]

the lunar cry is fairly well documented in the game and i like ryu's answer to the centra civilization but the one thing that always bothered me was ...... tears point ......just why ??? ....... if the centra continent was wiped out by a lunar cry (odd but believable within the game) why is there a giant homing beacon in esthar that basically brings these things down ... who built it ?... why did they build it? ...or was this just something that magically appeared one day. like heathrow airport bringing in thousands of strange visitors and losing their luggage (thats why the monsters are pissed believe me)

Well, the closest to an 'official' answer is that it was brought down with one of the Lunar Cries, and acted as a Homing Beacon for it, thus leading to the pummeling Centra Received.