Final Fantasy VIII General Discussion

[Jason Tandro]

If you think Triple Triad in FFVIII is hard you should see it in FFXIV. There you're limited to one 4* or 5* card and four 3* cards (or lower). And of course you can't spread/delete rules since it's an MMO. Fortunately you can have five decks saved at once...

I think it's infinitely easier because while the deck rules are stringent you don't lose cards when you lose and you still earn MGP for playing. It's not the destination, it's the journey.


Also, my second journal is up:

Final Fantasy VIII - Journal 2: Loire-Friendly

 

[Ite]

Tandro!

1. Cast blind on Diablos.
2. The train job physics are all wonk. You're not crazy. But *shrug* rule of cool, eh?

 

[Tetsujin]

Spoiler: Missile base and shit

Done with the missile base and the Garden MD-level stuff.

How convenient that the missile base has a self-destruct mode. Games really loved that shit around the time, huh? I'm looking at you too, Resident Evil.
Even though it was all for naught what with the missiles launching anyway. Good thing we adjusted the error ratio!
...how convenient they let you do that too. What a weird system: "so like, do you want the missiles to actually hit the target or do you feel like flipping a coin today?" "I like to take chances, YOLO BITCHES!"

Also, I really like the explosion effect in the FMV: https://youtu.be/MqSkdLYFJYg?t=9s
I thought it looked impressively realistic for its time in the way it's less fireball and more a giant cloud of dust and debris.

I have to suspend my disbelief at how quickly Squall and the others manage to get to the Garden though. I feel like a trip from Galbadia all the way there wouldn't take less than a day...

I took Rinoa with me as you might as well have the designated canon couple of this game spend some more time with each other. Plus, it gives you an extra FMV once the Garden lifts off.

Speaking of which, I love climbing down into the MD basement levels. Seeing all this old-ass rusty but absolutely massive machinery making you realize there's a lot more to the Garden than being a school building.
Although I do wonder how the hell all that shit was just there and no one knew what it did apart from "well it used to be a bunker so hopefully it's something that defends against missiles lel"

Geez Cid, try reading the manual once in a while.

(btw, how the fuck was the elevator to Cid's office working again it literally crashed into the basement 10 minutes ago)

Also, I was reading the FF Wiki and saw this: "There is an FMV on disc 2 which shows Balamb Garden being destroyed by the missiles which is displayed if Selphie's party runs out of time escaping the Missile Base, or the player doesn't set the missiles' error ratio to the maximum."

...wait, what?

HOLY SHIT.

I have literally never seen this before! I also thought it was mandatory to adjust the error ratio...

Also, the datalog thingy described them as ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). Seems like someone at Square didn't know what 'ballistic' meant though as these are clearly cruise missiles!

Anyway! Going on a school trip! Yay!
Well we're just kind of drifting in the ocean.

Are the toilets still working though? Surely the Garden doesn't have its own sewage treatment plant and was connected to a sewage system before, right?
Is all the crap now just dumping into the ocean? Because that school is big and that's a lot of waste.
And that's not even including the fact they have actual dinosaurs living on that Garden. I mean:

Spoiler

I hope they think environmentally friendly and require the students to shit in buckets from now on, to be collected and disposed of once we reach land again!
Just stack 'em in the schoolyard at the stage setup, no one's participating in Selphie's dumb school festival anyway.

 

[Blade]

It's called the Shumi think of EVERYTHING.

 

[Clement Rage]

To be that guy again:

Error ratio- sometimes you want to hit a specific target, sometimes you want to bomb a general area.

And in Resident Evil, they absolutely do need to build in a way to raze their facilities to the bedrock if they need to, considering what is kept in them.

The game makes a lot more sense if you keep Rinoa with you, but her habit of wandering off alone in dangerous places usually got on my nerves too much.

 

[Tetsujin]

sometimes you want to hit a specific target, sometimes you want to bomb a general area

I mean yeah, but you'd just target a general area instead of "target very specific area then fuck up the targeting so it hits the general area instead"

 

[Jason Tandro]

And here be Journal #3:

It's Called Hentai And It's Art

 

[Blade]

Friendly reminder to gain access to the Chocobo cross-continental route to Cetra continent where you can fight Cactuars!

 

[Jason Tandro]

Friendly reminder to gain access to the Chocobo cross-continental route to Cetra continent where you can fight Cactuars!

You see here's the thing about that that bugged me. There are no Chocobo Forests on the Galbadia continent or (of course) Balamb. As these are the only two accessible landmasses before you gain access to the game's first flier Chocobos seem to only exist for that one mini-game and the Disk 4 method of returning to your ship.

You marginalized chocobos into practical nonexistance. That may be your greatest sin FFVIII.

 

[Ite]

I don't even need chocobos to get Ragnarok back, I just go through a door and there it is. Unless I'm misremembering... those chicobo puzzles are shittyyyy.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

You need to find the Ragnarok and go through the portal nearby in order for that portal you're thinking of to be outside the castle.

 

[Kuja9001]

Spoiler: Missile base and shit

Done with the missile base and the Garden MD-level stuff.

How convenient that the missile base has a self-destruct mode. Games really loved that shit around the time, huh? I'm looking at you too, Resident Evil.
Even though it was all for naught what with the missiles launching anyway. Good thing we adjusted the error ratio!
...how convenient they let you do that too. What a weird system: "so like, do you want the missiles to actually hit the target or do you feel like flipping a coin today?" "I like to take chances, YOLO BITCHES!"

Also, I really like the explosion effect in the FMV: https://youtu.be/MqSkdLYFJYg?t=9s
I thought it looked impressively realistic for its time in the way it's less fireball and more a giant cloud of dust and debris.

I have to suspend my disbelief at how quickly Squall and the others manage to get to the Garden though. I feel like a trip from Galbadia all the way there wouldn't take less than a day...

I took Rinoa with me as you might as well have the designated canon couple of this game spend some more time with each other. Plus, it gives you an extra FMV once the Garden lifts off.

Speaking of which, I love climbing down into the MD basement levels. Seeing all this old-ass rusty but absolutely massive machinery making you realize there's a lot more to the Garden than being a school building.
Although I do wonder how the hell all that shit was just there and no one knew what it did apart from "well it used to be a bunker so hopefully it's something that defends against missiles lel"

Geez Cid, try reading the manual once in a while.

(btw, how the fuck was the elevator to Cid's office working again it literally crashed into the basement 10 minutes ago)

Also, I was reading the FF Wiki and saw this: "There is an FMV on disc 2 which shows Balamb Garden being destroyed by the missiles which is displayed if Selphie's party runs out of time escaping the Missile Base, or the player doesn't set the missiles' error ratio to the maximum."

...wait, what?

HOLY SHIT.

I have literally never seen this before! I also thought it was mandatory to adjust the error ratio...

Also, the datalog thingy described them as ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). Seems like someone at Square didn't know what 'ballistic' meant though as these are clearly cruise missiles!

Anyway! Going on a school trip! Yay!
Well we're just kind of drifting in the ocean.

Are the toilets still working though? Surely the Garden doesn't have its own sewage treatment plant and was connected to a sewage system before, right?
Is all the crap now just dumping into the ocean? Because that school is big and that's a lot of waste.
And that's not even including the fact they have actual dinosaurs living on that Garden. I mean:

Spoiler

I hope they think environmentally friendly and require the students to shit in buckets from now on, to be collected and disposed of once we reach land again!
Just stack 'em in the schoolyard at the stage setup, no one's participating in Selphie's dumb school festival anyway.

I got the balamb destruction as a kid somehow.

I like that Squall says to use fire magic on the monsters under the garden except for one thing, they're near flammable oil. He's trying to kill everyone before the missiles do.

 

[Blade]

Friendly reminder to gain access to the Chocobo cross-continental route to Cetra continent where you can fight Cactuars!

You see here's the thing about that that bugged me. There are no Chocobo Forests on the Galbadia continent or (of course) Balamb. As these are the only two accessible landmasses before you gain access to the game's first flier Chocobos seem to only exist for that one mini-game and the Disk 4 method of returning to your ship.

You marginalized chocobos into practical nonexistance. That may be your greatest sin FFVIII.

True though that may be, once you have access to Trabia you're good for quite the Journey. I think they planned all that out, so players don't wander in to danger zones (not that they really could, since monsters level up scaled against party average, except Malboros maybe).

It's why I found FFII and now FFXV so intriguing, because you could wander in to dangerous places.

Balamb is small though, and Galbadia compensates via the Trains and Cars you use. Ironically Winhill has Baby Chocobos and no Forest nearby.

 

[Jason Tandro]

True though that may be, once you have access to Trabia you're good for quite the Journey. I think they planned all that out, so players don't wander in to danger zones (not that they really could, since monsters level up scaled against party average, except Malboros maybe).

It's why I found FFII and now FFXV so intriguing, because you could wander in to dangerous places.

Balamb is small though, and Galbadia compensates via the Trains and Cars you use. Ironically Winhill has Baby Chocobos and no Forest nearby.

I offer FF2 only scant praise but one of the things I did like (well like-hate as it got me killed a few times) was that the world was basically open from the start and actually felt pretty organic. That was ambitious for an NES game.

I also regret that the trains and cars were woefully under utilized - if you only stuck to the main story. You see I take an hour or two towards the end of Disk 1 to hop around the continent riding the rails and on wheels to get stuff in Dollet, level up, search for draw points etc. And even though they later become obsolete I still love the aesthetics and tangibility of them.

Vis a vis Winhill - ODEKA DE CHOCOBO is one of my favorite chocobo renditions.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Double-post. Here's Journal #4. I rage quite a bit at the logic (or lack thereof) of the Sorceress Assassination.

She Knows Spells. She Has The Best Spells

 

[ForceStealer]

That really is a frustrating sequence with how inconsistent it is. Rinoa's normally annoying, but Quistis being insufferable when she was usually the one I would count on to be reasonable is off-putting. And then Squall suddenly deciding to be a hero with that badass scene. The parade and the music are creepy and awesome as hell, but Irvine completely losing his nerve is so annoying. And no, the twist that explains it does not make it better. It only makes it more confusing as to why he didn't say anything!

 

[Ite]

Yeah, dialogue along the lines of...

Irvine: "I just can't. The pressure, it's too much! The whole world will change because of my shot! Squall, do you have any idea who we're killing here!?"
Squall: "She's the sorceress. She's our mark. You have to take the shot!"
Irvine: "...No... I just can't do it."

Would be enough.

edit: Oh JT the float DOES figure-8 around the city and is heading back towards the presidential palace when they pass through the arch, that's what Caraway was describing when he was doing all that manic running around. I don't know why they slammed her shut in the arch before Irvine took the shot though -- way to signal Edea to cast Protect lol.

 

[Jason Tandro]

edit: Oh JT the float DOES figure-8 around the city and is heading back towards the presidential palace when they pass through the arch, that's what Caraway was describing when he was doing all that manic running around. I don't know why they slammed her shut in the arch before Irvine took the shot though -- way to signal Edea to cast Protect lol.

Technically, but it's not what I'm referring to. What it's doing is a circle around then city then going down the middle. I'm referring to a skater's figure 8 going through one half of the city, through the middle, through the other half and through the middle.

I even made a really sloppy diagram using the city map from Square.

In the game it's the top. I would rather it be the bottom which makes sense.

 

[Tetsujin]

The arch should've been the sniper's nest, really.
You have a direct view of Edea coming towards you from the palace, an escape route through the sewers right there and you don't have to suspend your disbelief at the palace having ZERO SECURITY WHATSOEVER NOT EVEN CAMERAS WTF.

 

[Ite]

The arch should've been the sniper's nest, really.
You have a direct view of Edea coming towards you from the palace, an escape route through the sewers right there and you don't have to suspend your disbelief at the palace having ZERO SECURITY WHATSOEVER NOT EVEN CAMERAS WTF.

Hey yeah there weren't any guards up there or anything! You're telling me I can fight a hundred bats and fifteen weird shadow creeps while in the middle of a cinematic sequence, but I don't have to fight a single guard??

And you're right, Tandro! Bugger me. Fifteen years ago I thought that parade was the coolest shit, and now it's just... facepalm.

As for my current progress, I'm in FH, the gang's all back together, and I'm wiping the floor with all the local cardmasters even with their elemental and sudden death rules (which are damn fun by the way). Got the Quezacotl card from the mayor. That's for all your pacifist hogwash, MAYOR. For some reason, Martine isn't here. Am I misremembering? Does he come by later? Caraway gave my Ifrit card to him and I want it back! Rinoa's card is a useless, side-attacking throwaway.

I have feelings about Triple Triad now! I'm a full FF8 nerd!! I also legitimately care about Martine's safety, I hope he's okay.

At this point in the game, I start to permanently assign GFs to party members, as I have enough to ensure that everyone gets at least one and I never have to Junction-exchange again. This actually spikes the difficulty somewhat, which is a welcome change as even at my most casual I break this system like a vase in an after school special.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Are you sure you're checking the right place? Martine should be there from the first time you can visit that spot outside the FH Mayor's house.

 

[Ite]

He's usually sitting outside the mayor's house with his legs dangling off. Not in this playthrough...

 

[Clement Rage]

Edea just ripped out the President's throat in public. If she doesn't have the Protect up the entire time she's an idiot. The presidential bodyguards may have attacked her or fled after that.

 

[Tetsujin]

Japanese news report of the FFVIII launch:

 

[Shademp]

Physical version of Triple Triad