JUST discovered the whole Master Fisherman/history of FH sidequest.

On like my tenth playthrough of this game. I think I always knew there was some quest to do with the Fisherman, but I always just got the Occult Fan from him and left. Turns out if you talk to him again in that small window of time when you first get to FH, there's a whole other sequence of conversations that eventually reveal more about Mayor Dobe and how FH was founded by people who broke off from Esthar because of differences in ideals.

It's little things like that that make VIII, and really all JRPGs of this generation, so awesome. The world is so rich and well-designed and (in VIII's case) gorgeous. There's really no room for it to move up my rankings, but I feel like I love this game more every time I play it.

After that you can meet him again at Shumi Village if you completed their quest.

I never knew that. That's pretty cool.

I was made aware of this whole thing perhaps last year when a friend linked me to a recording or it. I never actually saw the scene ingame in any of my playthroughs. I think it's wonderful when secrets like these are put into the game.

whaaaaaaaaaat