Poor Zell, his handshakes are always being rejected haha.
Poor Zell, his handshakes are always being rejected haha.
Squall doing his best Barry Burton impression...
Pic 8.jpg
I know how Zell feels first hand because my handshakes are often ignored as well T-T
"The Real Folk Blues" by Seatbelts ft. Mai Yamane
Just caught up with this! Loving it so far. Keep up the wit, Pumpkin!
And we are back! Time to meet the 'Princess' of the Forest Owls resistance group!
(SPOILER)
It's the girl from the party! Bet you didn't see that coming!
Also I swear I've seen that exact bed as a furniture option for a Barbie Dollhouse
Anyways, she leaps in to Squall's arms in excitement
Eventually she decided to as Cid himself for help
Not quite
Turns out she was actually at the dance looking for Seifer, who introduced her to Cid
So that's the situation. We also get an official introduction to the pretty girl, who is named Rinoa!
We also meet her puppy partner Angelo!
So cute~
Now with Rinoa awake, we can get the details on our mission
And since his train is going to show up soon, the Forest Owls came up with a nifty plan of how to deal with his train
Er... not quite
So we go in to the long, complicated plan
The mission takes less time than the explanation.
The group also takes the time to poke fun at the one model train Rinoa made, which she defends by saying she made it ugly on purpose to represent her hatred for the president
With that, we head out on the mission by sneaky sneaking around. Turns out the baddies re having some troubles of their own as the President is not a kind, patient man, who doesn't like having security check up on him. This leads to one soldier losing his salary for the month
Anyways, it's time to start inputting codes
Which I've always found nervewracking, even though it's relatively easy.
We see the plan start to work as the train cars uncouple and then we sneak our dummy train in
The dummy train also contains a dummy president, which seems to be working
Well, somewhat
After some more code entering shenanigans, we take off with the President and his train car!
Hooray!
With that mission accomplished, Rinoa and her mercenaries go interrogate the President, who doesn't seem too concerned
Well, it turns out we've been duped
Dang it, I was sure that this group of six that had strategy meetings by huddling up on the floor would succeed without fail when it came to kidnapping the President!
Oh dear
So the President attacks us
He goes down pretty easily and then this... happens...
Well that doesn't look good
That doesn't look good at all...
So I would show you some of the fight but it was boring because the game decided to unjunction Zell and Selphie for NO REASON so all they could do was attack. Wah wah waaahh
After the fake President is disposed of, we head back to base to discuss what's going on. Watts has some new intel for us
We explain to them what happened in Dollet
Rinoa spots opportunity in the middle of this
And so she, Watts, and Zone huddle around the floor to discuss their next plan. Squall starts to become concerned about going beyond the scope of the contract and so he asks Rinoa to see it
Greeeeaaaatt~
Timber is in a state of chaos with everything going on, and the soldiers catch on to a certain someone who has been sneaking around
And some of the soldiers decide to start cracking down on the citizens of Timber
Despite what their boss tries to tell them
So the group gets dropped off to try and steal the broadcast while Zone takes off with Watts trailing behind him
We also find this dude who has an obvious crush on Rinoa
You can also find a copy of Girl Next Door for a certain someone in the Timber Maniacs office, and you meet a dude who talks your ear off.
And this dude
What an... interesting uh subject for photography
We stop by a house to ask how we can get to the TV station
She lets us peek from her second story window while her child tries to charge us for the privilege. He gets a spanking
Also, relationship goals
You can also go visit an old man who offers you his magical healing water for free, since the Inn isn't available for use. Don't steal his money though or he won't let you use it anymore
We head to the bar which we need to pass through to get to the TV station, but the door is blocked by a drunk who is angry that the Forest Owls tried to kidnap the president and screwed everything up
Timber's a messed up place
Anyways, you can get him to move by buying him a drink or by giving him the card he lost that you get by defeating some baddies outside of the bar. If you give him the card he lets you keep it and gives you another one
With that we finally get a path cleared to our destination
Unfortunately, Rinoa is having second thoughts about what she should do since there's a lot of security guarding the President (who would have thought)
This leads to a comment from Rinoa about how sad we are and how easy it must be to just go through life following orders
This leads to a retort from Squall, who questions the seriousness of the whole business
As it turns out, he's not much impressed with the group
Selphie calls out Squall for being too harsh so he backs off. Rinoa is a bit put off though
She tells us she is serious and then takes off. The broadcast starts right after she leaves
The announcer introduces President Deling, who talks about how people currently have the means for peace
So he says he will hold a conference with world leaders to discuss it
As he is about to introduce a Sorceress, Seifer storms on set and starts causing a ruckus
He takes the President hostage and Quistis tries to calm him down. Selphie and Zell ask if they should do something
Quistis then speaks to the camera, giving us permission to help
So we rush up where we find Seifer holding the President hostage, saying he knows what are plan was
It seems maybe Seifer was going to do it for Rinoa
Unfortunately, Zell lets it slip that they're from Garden while he's taking a fit, which basically makes everyone angry
After fussing at Zell, Seifer grabs the president and heads to the next room, where he is met with
The ambassador sorceress herself!
She stops Quistis from interfering and riles Seifer up by calling him a boy when he insists that he's a MAN or whatever
Seifer releases the President and agrees to go with the Sorceress
The others arrive just in time to watch him leave with her
Rinoa shows up, asking where Seifer went. We tell her we don't know and she hope he will be okay. She also has some more bad news
Thankfully, everyone escaped
As we head back to the bar, Balcony Lady offers us to rest at her place while we plan our next move
Find out what happens next time!
Stay tuned~
Somehow reading this the whole story feels so much more dramatic because you don't have all that pretty lighthearted OST playing in the background =P
I don't know why, but the train mission is one of my least favorite parts. Maybe it's because they take so long to explain it..
It's starting to get intense now!
Also it was a really clunky puzzle!
I loved the music though.
AnD thE fAkE pReSiDenT DelInG!
Quality stuff.
Welcome back~ Being searched for by the Galbadian Soldiers, we take refuge in a lady's home
Turns out the lady is a member of another resistance group fighting for Timber's freedom
Selphie asks the all important question about what the heck happened last time
And Rinoa explains that she told Seifer all about the Forest Owls and she thinks he showed up to help
Meanwhile, soldiers show up at the house
The lady's daughter ushers us upstairs and assures us that her mother will be alright
Selphie says that the beauty part really makes it sound like a legend because she just can't help herself.
Thankfully, Galbadian Soldiers apparently don't know how to go up stairs so we're safe to converse about what's going on
Quistis says Seifer was talking about going to Timber but she didn't think he was serious
Reason #1 Quistis was fired: Lacks Leadership skills
Reason #2: Apparently doesn't know anything about her own students
Reason #3: Acts like crazy girlfriend towards her student when he dances with a pretty lady at his graduation party
Don't you worry, there will be more
They ask what happened to Seifer and Squall says he may already be dead. Because of the whole assassination attempt on the President thing
Rinoa does not take kindly to his considering the possibility of his death and says she hopes he's okay. Squall says what she wishes for is her business
At this point, it seems the Galbadian Soldiers have withdrawn
So we head back downstairs to consider our next move
Quistis points out some Garden SeeD rule number
And because Squall is a surprisingly good student, he knows what she's talking about
With our destination in mind, we head over to the train station where we run in to our old friend Zone who is disguised as an old man. He informs us that all of the train tickets are sold out buuuuut
Unfortunately, he didn't know Quistis would be showing up, so he kindly offers her the ticket he had planned to use to escape. She tries to reject it but
He fakes one of his stomach aches and shoos us away
So we hop on the train for a short time. Selphie interrupts Squall's motivational speech a few times to ask for the pass to be let in to the train hallway to gaze out the window. Shortly afterwards, we arrive at our stop and head through a forest to get to our destination
Unfortunately morale is low and Selphie worries about them getting arrested while Zell worries about Balamb Garden being attacked because of his earlier slip up
He's so worried that his speech bubble is way on the other end of the screen
He asks Squall is they would really attack Garden and Squall says maybe
Squall says that they might
Rinoa once again doesn't approve of the military student giving a realistic rundown of possibilities instead of telling them what they want to hear. She says that he needs to give words of support and encouragement to Zell instead
But before Rinoa can fuss at him more (I'll give you a rundown of their early game relationship: Rinoa fusses at Squall and Squall gets confused and exasperated) the high pitched noise starts up again
And while it may seem like he faked a headache to get out of an argument, Selphie and Quistis soon pass out as well
"Oh, okay, that explains it"
Sure enough we do end up back with Laguna and co.
Anyway, we head down to the weird place where weird mining is being done and find ourselves surrounded by Esthar Soldiers. One can only assume these are soldiers from a place called Esthar
They're weird lookin
So we head deeper in to this weird, unattractive, and somewhat maze like area
You can also find two Old Keys which Laguna will promptly drop
This may seem pointless but all of the extra little things you do here that seem to have no effect do end up having an effect later on
Here's a quick note in case you play the game!
*Pick up the Old Key near both entrances
*Remove a lever from a floor panel
*Find the detonator and flip the red switch followed by the blue switch
*Move the boulder away from the tunnel to reveal the Cure Draw Point
After doing all of that we find an exit. Unfortunately some Esthar Soldiers find us and the exit led to a cliff. Roc and hard place
So this leads to a battle with some creepy Esthar Soldiers
When you defeat the last one, he will render two party members to 1 HP before he finally kicks the bucket
Unfortunately, Ward sustained a heavy injury
"I can tell magically without properly examining him because this is a dramatic moment"
Ward manages a few last words before becoming mute
................................
Moving on
Laguna spots some boats in the ocean and decides to throw the others off the cliff to safety
As you do
Laguna then tries to gingerly ease himself off the cliff before he falls off
With their fate undetermined, we return to Squall and his companions who have finally woken up
Quistis is confused about what the heck just happened but we all decide its best to put it out of our minds for now and keep going to Galbadia Garden. But not before Rinoa apologizes to Squall
Stay tuned for next time when we get another party member!
Don't forget to mention setting the lever on the other two trap doors. If you do, the fuse explosions will end up breaking them and open those two doors as well, revealing some more goodies later on.
I do love Laguna. He's such a loveable douche. I can take or leave Kiros but Ward was also pretty great.
I thought the junctioning in the dream sequences was a direct correlation? Squall/Laguna Zell/Ward Selphie/Kiros? I could be wrong.
FF8 is another FF game where I get heavily distracted by mini-games because Triple Triad is life. HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING? WHAT CARDS DO YOU HAVE? I DEMAND TRIPLE TRIAD PICTURES.