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Thread: LWL's nontraditional Final Fantasy VIII Let's Play

  1. #16
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    -If Squall doesn't give in during the torture scene in the prison (he should choose "just let me die"), there are more moombas in the room when the party gets there. Presumably because they can smell/taste Laguna on his blood. I'm not sure if Zell sticking up for himself has the same effect or not.

    -When Zell's escaping, if you try to run towards the guards that are chasing you, you respawn near your starting point. You can't talk to the guard who is sending galbadian soldiers in your direction.

    -This is around the time where Squall starts acting in a way where he cares about his comrades. Definitely not through words, but through actions. Rushing forward faster than Quistis or Selphie to save Zell from gunfire.

    -It's interesting where they decide to place "hidden save points" that you can locate with move-find. You'd figure the one on top of the prison would be regular given its location, but you have to find it.

    -There wasn't really a reason to fire missiles at Trabia first. Not only was Balamb the one to attack the sorceress, but Trabia's students get transferred there to become SeeD. The only reason I can think of is you need enough time to save Balamb for story purposes.

    -When the two groups get split up between the missile base and Garden, I always put Zell and Quistis with Squall, because it's their home. Though you do get an impromptu tour of Garden with Rinoa, if she comes with you.

    -You can even break the money in this game. Buy 100 tents, refine them into mega-potions, then sell the mega-potions. 25,000 G profit each time.

    -General Caraway was dismissed from his duties after being involved with the assassination plan, but he still had enough pull to get Rinoa out of being captured? Friends in high places, I guess.

    -One of the big reasons Galbadia infiltrates Timber (and elsewhere) is because they're afraid of Esthar, and want as much support as possible.

    -If you drive to Deling City before the Missile Base, they make you leave in the same Galbadian vehicle if you try to leave on foot. Presumably because vehicles disappear if they don't belong there, and you need that specific one.

    -One of the soldiers in the base has commentary about the way you all walk single file, which I thought was humorous considering how a meme about this game is how everyone walks identically. I think it helps that you're military members, and it makes sense to be in unison.

    -Seeing Selphie in uniform reminds me that there's probably women in the Galbadian Army. It's hard to tell, since they're all Wedge clones.

    -I set 10 minutes at the missile base and blew it out of the water. The BGH251F2 always sort of struck me as sentient like the X-ATM092, probably because of the big eye on the front, but really it's just a big vehicle. I like how the group hides inside it like a fridge in nuclear fallout, another feature I'd like to see more often in future games is hiding in/controlling big tank bosses.

    -The dialogue you get for sending certain characters certain places is under appreciated, I think. If you send Irvine with Selphie, he's sad because he thinks Squall doesn't trust him. A lot of the dialogue between characters depends on who you choose for your party, so if someone complains that so and so didn't get enough screen time, maybe they need to use them more.

    -When you gain control of Squall again, you can still leave and play cards in Balamb despite the urgency of the plot. I took this opportunity spread "all" again. Yet later, if you challenge Cid, he says "This is no time for cards".

    -You don't have to mix card rules when you got to a new place. When they ask if you want to play with their rules and yours, keep saying no. Eventually they'll just ask if you want to play without prefacing it with anything. Then you'll just play with the regions rules. However, mixing does end up being important if you want to abolish rules later.

    -Some people don't know this, but if you fail to stop the missiles, you get a full fledged cutscene showing the Garden being destroyed.



    -By the way, at this staircase:


    -The square sticking out at the top always looked like a fat credit card to me. Also, I always walk up and down the left side. It's not even a conscious decision. Sitting here now, almost 20 years since release, I just thought "Hey, why don't I see if I can walk up the right side"?. Never even thought about it til now.

    -Too bad you can't strike the Garden Master minions (with the yellow hats). They're probably the only characters that appear in battle but can't be touched. They're just there to introduce the monster.

    -I like that the Garden battle color schemes stay true in a fight. I.e. When you fight a Grat in the library hallway, the stripe down the middle of the floor is still blue.

    -It also helps to bring Zell with you to Garden because talking to the pigtail girl that has a crush on him will net you a mega-phoenix instead of a remedy.

    -I'm on disc 2 and the draw point in the library STILL can't be used after the first time I used it in disc 1.

    -I wonder what Seifer thinks of Fujin and Raijin being in the Garden while missiles head to demolish it.

    -Even with a turbo controller, you'd be unable to open the valve in the Garden basement with just Squall. At least one party member needs to join you.

    -You know, this game isn't hurt by not having any treasure chests. There's enough to explore, and enough to steal and draw, that you don't really feel like you're missing anything by not having boxes around.

    -Despite changing the error ratio on the missiles, it appears in the cutscene that if Balamb didn't fly away, it would have got hit anyway despite what the missile group did?

    -Part of this game's charm, and a reoccurring theme, is "If you just smash a control panel randomly, the thing you want to happen will happen".

    -Let it be known to all haters that this game has a flying school with dinosaurs on it.

    -Some games don't even have 1 airship (sorry, flying car) but this one has 2. Although I guess technically for world map purposes Garden is more of a boat that can hover.

    -Until the first time you have to go outside on the balcony on 2F, I don't know if I ever really knew you could go further on down that hallway past the classroom. Some of the screens are hard to tell which direction you're allowed to go to find a new room.

    -Found this and thought it was a great use of green screen:


  2. #17
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
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    Scotty Ffgamer (Sargatanas)
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    Some draw points can only be used once for whatever reason. I think the library is one of them. The ones who can be used multiple times refill based on the number of steps you take. I can’t remember specifics, but some take more steps than others to refill.

    I’m also pretty sure you can’t go to the second floor balcony before you have to. The screen won’t change at all when you run past the classroom before that point.

  3. #18
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Technically Trabia had to be attacked first because it's farther away. If Balamb had been hit first, Trabia may have learned about it fast enough to evacuate the students. Regardless the distance alone would mean that the missiles meant for Trabia would launch first even if they were suppose to be hit simultaneously.

    As for the Draw Points, Scotty_ffgamer is correct concerning how some never refill while your steps are used to count when they will refill. There's well over a hundred draw point in the field and of those, 32 of them are one time only deals such as the Garden Library and Timber Maniacs draw points. You can tell which ones are one time based on the color of the swirl when you draw from it. If it's a whiteish color it will refill but if it's blue then it's a one time deal. Funny enough, several draw points in one time locations like Laguna's dream sequences or the D-District Prison are actually refillable but unless you spend an incredible amount of time walking around, you would never know they refilled. It takes 10,240 steps before the game rolls a check to see if any of the drawn points will refill and even then you only have a 50% chance they'll refill.

    I don't remember having too much of an issue without treasure chests since draw points often fulfilled the same purpose. I think I had a harder time adjusting to the lack of equipment because I am a gear whore in RPGs so not having much to tinker with was a bit depressing for me at first but I got over it.

    I have one other comment about dialogue changes based on who you send, but I'll wait until you complete the FH sequence because I have a feeling it might be something you'll bring up. Great job so far!

  4. #19
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    -The Solomon Ring shown in Occult Fan III and the Ring of the Lucii from Final Fantasy XV look very similar, and the Occult Fan description says it used to belong to a royal family. This is believed to be an homage.


    -Apparently if you talked to the left Cafeteria lady early in the game about her son and let her tell her long story without interruption, he's supposed to show up in Fisherman's Horizon, but he's not showing up for me.

    -I really feel for Martine when he's sulking in FH. The townspeople welcomed him with open arms much like Winhill did for Laguna. I think these are my 2 favorite places in the game. It's funny, when you meet Martine at G Garden his robe looks sort of majestic but when he's sitting by the solar panels it doubles as a bathrobe. Best believe I won my Ifrit card back. He also has any cards you might have lost at G Garden.

    -I changed the FH card rules back in Deling City when you can face the tourist. It's just easier to do when a single person is in a different region than changing in the region itself.

    -Some subquests only have a very small window they can be completed in and that can be good or bad. It's realistic and makes sense certain things can only be done at a certain time (Master Fisherman quest), on the other hand, if you aren't using a guide like me, you may miss out on some good stuff.

    -Me, when someone interrupts my Final Fantasy VIII gameplay:


    -I used to be finicky about modding cards for items, especially one of a kind cards, but now I kind of appreciate it. It allows you to use cards that might not have normally been in your top 5. Plus you can win them back endgame, anyway.

    -It's pretty poignant social commentary how against all odds the Mayor marches down to the station to try and talk things out with the Galbadian soldiers, but of course, it was to no avail. There are some people that you can't just talk things out with, as ideal as that would be. There's the world you want and the world you live in. Squall thinks it's best if there are people with both the viewpoint of the Mayor to carry to the future and the practicality of SeeD for the present.

    -Absence does make the heart grow fonder if Rinoa was not in your party. Squall actually opens up and has the opportunity to say he missed her. If the prison was where he started physically showing concern for his comrades, FH is where he starts begrudgingly verbalizing it.

    (I probably missed what you were thinking of, WK)

    -Looking at Selphie's diary, it appears you do end up getting both Balamb journal entries even though you can only pick up one. Unless the second was a repeat you can find later.

    -I wish you could reenter the secret area of the training center.

    -There's a library girl scene for Zell's love quest when you're Irvine solo. Another example of an easily missable quest without a guide. There isn't really a reason you'd think to go back to Garden when you're trying out instruments.

    -Irvine rightly calls out an NPC who accuses them of being warmongers. Who are you to leer down from your mountaintop and accuse us, what have you done that's significant?

    -Ever try to eat pizza with one hand and use your non dominant hand to use the analog stick to walk? (This has been the sidequest of this Let's Play. Thank you.)

    -Never really noticed this before, but when you come down the elevator from 2f to 1f, you're only ever able to use the left side of the stairs to walk down to the main hall of Garden.

    -I chose the Slow Dance over the Irish Jig. It's way more fitting for the coming scenes. I gave Zell electric guitar, Selphie bass guitar, Irvine saxophone, and Quistis piano. Based off the 4 choices I try to go with what I feel like closely resembles their personality. Zell is loud, Irvine has a cowboy jazz thing going on, the rumbling of the bass represented Selphie's booming personality. Quistis I chose piano because I associate pianos with high learning curve, and Quistis has the most Garden experience, at least in terms of being able to be an instructor so young.

    -I really love the concert scene on top of its location in Fisherman's Horizon. This entire place is a moment of bliss, a blip between conflicts.

    -At first I wasn't sure how the technicians would know how to fix and fly the Garden, but since FH is full of people from Esthar who wanted to live under different ideals, presumably they have a wealth of knowledge on a whole lot of things.

    -Sometimes, annoyingly, the card rules will change back from "all" to "one", even if you changed it with the Card Queen and she's still in the area.

    -I'm glad Quistis is the Card King. They do a good job of sliding that under the radar, and not allowing you to challenge her at all beforehand.

    -As soon as I had free roam, I went to get the Tonberry GF right away, especially considering certain attacks it has get stronger the more enemies you kill, so the sooner the better. The Centra Ruins are a great example of a place where you want low HP so you can use Renzokuken to take out the enemies high HP.

    -I enjoy this video where someone describes why Fisherman's Horizon is important to them. Especially the music. It's worth a look:


  5. #20
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    -The phrase "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" in the song Liberi Fatali is an anagram of the phrases "Succession of Witches" and "Love", and not Latin like the rest of the song.

    -You shouldn't pick up the Timber Maniacs in Shumi Village until after visiting Trabia Canyon, otherwise Ward will be absent for Laguna's Ruby Dragon fight on disc 3.

    -I got 14 Ultima my first draw! Feels good man.

    -I feel like you could live in the Shumi elevator. So spacious, a rug, a lot of seats. Just give it some wifi and you could take a nap in there. Also, I wonder why the outside of their village looks like a giant spider? Just a really cool design, I suppose.

    -The Shumi's have a similar stature to the Guado of FFX. No similarity in the face, but in the long hands and slender frames. It really shows in comparison how gluttonous NORG was. It's so amazing how they turn into moombas. I really enjoy that the elder's house has an aquarium that surrounds the room.

    -The Shumi live in a unique way. The only reason they want you to collect rocks is so you appreciate their village. The elder shows you his hand, not because of vanity (not a "kiss the ring" moment), but because his hands have shoveled the earth and he wants to show you a symbol of his energy, passion, and hard work. It's a great concept. (Really they knew it was a handful of nothing, but they wanted to give you peace in thinking about it.)



    -I'm doing the Chocobo Forests now, but sadly since I don't have a Pocket Station or the PC version, I won't be able to continue Boko's adventures in the Chocobo World. It would be nice if the forests showed up on the world map with a yellow dot after you found one.

    -Winhill is one of the few places (along with the orphanage, and maybe the boy in the chocobo forest) that uses Centra card rules. Fortunately there is only a card or two to win that's rare so you might not bother with changing the card rules.

    -It would be neat if the hole where Garden once was had a hidden draw point.

    -Zell's Ehrgeiz weapon definitely has to be an homage to the Square fighting game of the same name.

    -If you find Raijin in Balamb with the dog you get a full SeeD rank, you get less if you pester the guy in front of the train station or just generally waste time.

    -Raijin won't hit a female if there are still male's standing.

    -From what I gathered about the way Fujin talks in capital letters, essentially in the Japanese release she uses a unique/different kind of Kanji which cannot make grammatically correct sentences. And it doesn't translate well, so for some reason they went with caps lock. I figured she was yelling, but she doesn't in Kingdom Hearts, so it's likely just the way it was translated and not that she's angry all the time. Could be wrong, though.

    -Taking a GF from an enemy removes a skill from the enemy as well, when you draw Pandemona from Fujin she loses her tornado ability.

    -There are so many more optional scenes than I'll ever be able to keep track of. Having certain members in your party can net you different conversations in Garden if you talk to the inactive members in your party. For example Rinoa asks Zell about the book he's after in the library. I wonder how many combinations there are.

    -If you try to revisit the Dollet communication tower, you can cross the bridge but two X-ATM092 block you from going to the actual tower, one of which hilariously falls off the cliff.

    -I would have liked to see Trabia before it was nuked. I tried to look up some concept art in case they hadn't decided if it would be destroyed in the early drafts, but even the concept art is of a ruined Garden.

    -The infamous orphanage scene. I actually think it's great that using GF had a real consequence. There's repercussions for being able to summon these large demons at will. They also explain how those lingering emotions from the past effect how Seifer and Quistis treat Squall.

    -However, the only thing I can't defend is how Irvine knew all along but didn't say anything because everyone else forgot:



    -I think how well you've done in battle will determine what type of shot Irvine makes with the basketball.

    -The message on the blue board in the 2F classroom changes periodically.

    -Zell's little buddy the big bad rascal can give you a Spd Up. But it's another one of those random quests where you have to talk to the right person at the right time.

    -The battle between both Gardens has some of the most epic cutscenes in Final Fantasy history. Airships ramming eachother, motorcyles flying from one to the other, that beat-em-up with the paratrooper while the cutscene plays behind you, running through a battlefield. It's a good thing you don't get a game over if you fall off that paratrooper, because I think I always lose the first time. Doesn't help they take off 30% of your HP at the start of a minigame you've never played before. It's still awesome.

    -I really like that Angelo doesn't have to wait until the limit break to show up. Her random appearances are great, as well. Angelo was designed after an Australian Shepherd that one of Nomura's co-workers had during the game's production.

    -As per other scenes in the game, the Seifer battle has different dialogue depending who you bring with you. I brought Rinoa and Irvine. He tries to convince Irvine to side with him since he's a Galbadian student, and with Rinoa he hits her with an "Et tu, Brute?".

    -When I was young, for the longest time the fight with Seifer and Edea on disc 2 was the farthest I had ever gotten. I didn't know how to do junctions properly. Now all these years later, as my playthroughs have gotten better, I am able to get through this with relative ease and proper planning.

    -Well, as far as discs are concerned, we've made it halfway. Thank you to everyone who has been reading and writing so far. I'm having a lot of fun with this.


  6. #21
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    To elaborate on Fujin's talking, in the Japanese version she speaks only in kanji (for reference, Japanese uses three different writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji) so her speech pattern is unique in the original script, but you lose out on her uniqueness when you translate it cause she technically talks normally and there is no English equivalent to this unique trait. Apparently some of the European translations did different changes to make up for it as well.

    As an added fun bonus, Raijin and Fujin were originally created for FFVII but the devs decided there were too many characters and that the Turks largely fulfilled their role anyways so they were dropped. Edea has a similar origin as well by being a potential design for VII that was rejected. She was also Nomura's attempt at drawing someone in a style similar to Amano.

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    This is a really good thread

  8. #23
    Total Sweetheart
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    -Finished the Zell love quest. This can be kind of hard to do even when following a walkthrough, because sometimes there's just no one in the library when you expect them to be. You don't have to see every single scene to progress the story, but the reward is the same. Combat King 03.

    -If you wait until disc 3 to scavenger hunt the dog's bone all around Dollet, the rewards are better. Upgraded potion to x-potion, etc.

    -When you're talking to Cid and Edea, make sure to listen to every single thing they say until they repeat themselves. Otherwise you'll miss out on data entries for Esthar, Time Compression, and Hyne in the tutorial.

    -Full credit for this next image goes to Nebezial at Deviant Art at http://nebezial.deviantart.com/ , please give them a look for some more great art:



    -You'll only be able to spread and abolish rules if the place you're playing doesn't already have every rule you have. I learned that the hard way. Well, you can technically abolish a rule but you'll still have to play a few rounds to get the prompt. I went to Centra and all I had was open, which I guess I gave them earlier. So even if I go back to Balamb or Deling City to get those regions rules, it won't help me, because Centra for me already has open and same. I just decided to tough out random for the Edea card, as that's the only one of value now to me in Centra, anyway.

    -When same plus is in effect, you have to change your entire approach to triple triad. Instead of looking for the highest number, your focus should only be on additions. 7+3 on two sides 4+6 on another side, etc. Don't worry if someone flips your card with a higher number, because your goal is just to add numbers. All the same, I'm glad to be out of this region.

    -During the Trabia Canyon flashback, your team is Squall as Laguna, and then whoever you want. If you've played the game than this isn't anything new, but I'm keeping track. If you picked up the Timber Maniacs in the Shumi Village, Ward won't be here. For the record I picked Quistis (Kiros) and Selphie (Ward) since Zell and Irvine were in the last time.

    -Laguna fighting the dragon for his movie is another awkward defend/attack minigame like the paratrooper. I'm really not good at these. But I ended up getting it my third or fourth time.

    -Seifer was inspired to become a gunblade wielder by Laguna's movie, hence the reason they have an identical stance with a gunblade.

    -The novice SeeD candidates who are always talking in the cafeteria are now in SeeD uniforms. I've talked to them enough to "complete the quest", which was essentially just dialogue.

    -If you decide to give Zone the Girl Next Door magazine for free, he'll give you the Shiva card. On the other hand, if you're concerned about having the magazine as a one of a kind item, then wait until disc 4 to get the card. I just gave it to him.

    -I've been taking notes the whole time to decide my GF ability order (most have learned the important ones), among other things, they look like this presently:

    -I love being able to use Edea. Maybe it's because it's only for a limited time, but her limit break is really cool and I like her look, and the little sparkle noise when the battle starts.

    -Resistance flashback: Squall is Laguna, everyone else is whoever you want. I picked Zell (Kiros) and Irvine (Ward). At this point in time Edea has one third of my magic, so one of my characters is nerfed.

    -Esthar is one of the more unique and futuristic cities in any Final Fantasy game. It's the type of place people talk about when they speculate on FF places they would like to visit in real life. It's very big and sprawling, and at times I wish I had a map, Tomb of the Unknown King style, where I could open it like the world map and an x says you are here.

    -Your "Call Shop" list will never have a Trabia Shop, though the data is on the disc. If you were to hack your game to put the Trabia Shop in your list, it would just be a generic shop like Timber or Deling City.

    -Off to Doomtrain land. The idea was that Occult Fan magazines were supposed to help here, but the translations made the hints kind of unintelligible.

    -If the Lunatic Pandora passes through Esthar and you don't catch a ride, you just skip to the next scene, there's no penalty or game over. Though, it's important to get on at the first stop so you can get the items from the second Laguna flashback.

    -I'm reminded of the limitations of our own technology when I see the space stations in video games and anime. You get shot in to space, literally like a bullet in a chamber, and the team slows you down and picks you up with invisible force fields. Places like these have me aspire towards greatness for our future just as much as any real life accomplishment.

    -You should play Ellone for the Laguna Card before even talking to her, because once you talk to her in the Lunar Station, you don't have much longer.

    -When Adel's trapped in space she kind of looks like an Aeon from FFX encased in glass.



    -There's a bonus little cutscene showing the Lunar Station dangling in space if you examine the control panel after everyone has evacuated.

    -Another nondescript minigame. I don't think I've ever caught Rinoa in space on the first try, I didn't quite get it. Vague directions about pointing the analog stick in her direction. But once you're able to finally land it, it's satisfying. Certainly the following scenes are, and finding the coolest airship in the series.

    -If Edea is still junctioned when she leaves your party, the magic gets distributed among your other party members. If for some impractical reason all 6 characters are full, you're out of luck.

    -Killing the Propagators by color combination isn't the only way to clear out your new ship. You can also just kill 25 of them randomly, but it's a significant use of time with little pay off.

    -To this day, the Eyes on You scene on the Ragnarok still has magic. It still makes me happy to see that scene play out, and realize Squall is becoming the person he really needs to be. He can't be afraid of letting people in. Rinoa helps him see that loss is the risk you have to take in order to live a life with any meaning.

    -Finders keepers. You find the Ragnarok floating through space, and it's no longer Esthar property. You found the keys in the cockpit, it's yours. This also makes flying to Shumi Village to draw Ultima much less laborious. As great of a concept as the flying Garden is, and as much as it feels like home, you can't beat the speed and efficiency of the Ragnarok. This is also my personal favorite airship in the series when it comes to design. Maybe not the interior, I'd have to think about that, but certainly the dragon exterior.

    -If you return to Shumi Village after getting the Ragnarok, you get a scene where you can see the Laguna statue being finished. The master fisherman is there, as well. That may be dependent on whether you did the master fisherman quest.


  9. #24
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    -You could make a case that it wasn't a good idea for Squall to break Rinoa out of Esthar captivity. She has the powers of the sorceress within her, and your party's argument for freeing her is basically "She's our friend, let's go get her". As the player, we know our group can handle the danger. I'm personally in that long line of people who says hell yeah let's do it.



    -Right after getting the Ragnarok is a great chance to go get not only the Cactuar GF, but to farm the cactuars in the sands for AP. You get high AP gains and little to no experience. Around this point in the game you'll have most if not all of your stat boosting abilities, so there isn't really a need to avoid battles now unless you want to.

    -Finished getting my ultimate weapons. Quistis had the hardest to get, fortunately there's a fixed Elnoyle battle in Esthar that drops energy crystals. I think the malboro tentacles took a while to get just because you either have to mod 4 cards for 1 or find them rare in the wild, on top of needing the tentacles for Doomtrain.

    -By the way, I pronounce the name Quistis with the Qwiss sound. Apparently if you go off the romaji it's Kisutisu, making it more like Kee-stis. Ain't nobody trying to hear that.

    -Even though you can get Bahamut and Eden from the Research Center, it may be recommended just to get Bahamut your first time through, because if you defeat Ultima Weapon, the enemies of the area disappear. If you're not interested in the high level monster drops for a perfect playthrough or farming certain items, than go for it. I'd rather get Eden now.

    -Using protect or shell while they're already active doesn't re-up their time, it just misses.

    -Ruby Dragon's won't use their terrible "Breath" attack on you if one of your members is KO'ed.

    -The Deepsea Research Center is also called Battleship Island. There's a Battleship Island in Japan, with an abandoned city named Hashima built around a coal mine. It went into decline after power plants switched to petroleum. There are ruined structures in both the real and game Battleship Island.

    -I'm abandoning the Queen of Cards quest. Manipulating the RNG and running around to certain locations she chooses is way too much hassle just for the sake of getting 5 cards early. I've beaten the Card Club quest, and I'll be on to PuPu soon, so there isn't anything I'm really missing out on other than the sake of doing it. I've done it on previous playthroughs, so I'll let it go this time. I did however do most of the quest so I could manipulate rules in certain regions.

    -Even though they explained why it's there for story purposes, it seems like a missed opportunity to not use that crater in Trabia for anything. Secret dungeon, hidden draw point, whatever.

    -A nice Ellone concept sketch:



    -I wish that AP carried over when you learned an ability. If you learn boost for 10ap, but your recent battle dropped 30 ap, you lost the 20ap. But in any case, I just got the last GF ability I needed to learn.

    -There are a lot of similarities between Seifer and Squall. Headstrong leaders with insecurities, parallel scars, and by the end of disc 3, desperately wanting to be someone's knight against the world.

    -I don't know if I ever really noticed this before, but Ward has a blonde beard in the present day.

    -We never really find out what happened to Galbadia Garden after disc 2. Presumably it gets destroyed, and then you just never see it again.

    -The FFVIII Ultimania explains that Ellone's powers to connect to people's minds is kind of like how the characters can equip a GF. The game explains how her powers work, but doesn't really describe how she got it. She just has it, which is believable that there's a unique person in a world where people already have supernatural powers like sorcery.

    -Kiros mentions how Squall looks like his mother and not one person says "wait, what?"

    -Talk about a life lived. One of the great things about playing as Laguna is that we get to go through his life. From a young soldier, to a journalist, doing odd jobs including movie star, and finally the Estharian President. (I'm coining the term, Estharian). We also get to see him lose and regain so much love.

    -I made a second save right before the disc 3 fight with Seifer. This is our first point of no return, and I may want to go back to Balamb Garden after I finish the game to read Timber Maniacs or whatever else.

    -It was a really nice touch to have Seifer's coat be tattered in this 3rd battle. Physical representation of wear and tear in a game where people don't change their clothes really helps. I've also elected not to get Odin until disc 4, so that he doesn't get taken out in this battle. You miss out on Gilgamesh, but Odin is stronger. However, I did get Gilgamesh on my last playthrough.

    -This is an excellent rap, using the game's music and relevant lyrics. Have a listen. I was looking forward to posting this video more than any other because I really like it:



    -And finally, we have arrived at....


  10. #25

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    Isn't the crater in Trabia a UFO encounter point?

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Golbez View Post
    Isn't the crater in Trabia a UFO encounter point?
    Nope. You do find one in the Trabia region on I think a peninsula but the final showdown with PuPu is the Balamb Garden crater.

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    -You could mug 8 Megalixer's from Rinoa when she's attached to Adel, but since she has to live in order to win the fight, an overpowered party might not want to take the chance. It's a good idea to draw regen from her and then cast it on her.

    -People often mistake Adel as male, having a traditionally masculine torso (certainly for a 90's jrpg). However, the appearance of sorceresses change as they acquire their powers, such as Edea growing claws. Adel got her powers from Hyne directly and so her physical representation is a manifestation of all that energy and power. Even growing exceedingly larger and taller than a normal human. That's my take on it anyway.

    -It's believed that the fight against Adel was meant to be the last boss of disc 3, but they ran out of space (or could potentially run out of space). Not only is Seifer a pushover, but it would also make it so that a sorceress is the last boss of every disc.

    -I don't know if you hit R1 too soon if it messes up your chances to hit it again on time, I've never wanted to take the chance to find out.

    -I really like that the fight against multiple sorceresses takes you through multiple battlefields used in the game. It's a nice representation of all the places you visited in the game and reminds me of how far I've come.

    -I love that Ultimecia's Castle is in itself a puzzle to be solved. It's a nice twist on the typical end game dungeon, which could be a long area with hard enemies.

    -Playing Left Diamond on Ragnarok will net you every single card in the game except PuPu. She uses Trabia rules, which fortunately for me, is only "open" thanks to the RNG manipulation I did earlier in the game. I'm gonna take some time to win every card I've either modded or didn't get in the QC quest.

    -I beat Omega Weapon! I'm very happy about this because I've never beaten Omega Weapon before. In fact, I think it's the only thing I've never done in all my playthroughs. Unlike other encounters, Omega Weapon is fixed at lvl 100, so you're fighting an uphill battle when you do the low level playthroughs. I had to spam invincibility and limit breaks, and even then, I took it down on my last invincibility. Apparently in the Steam version, he levels with you like every other monster instead of being 100 no matter what.

    -After Omega Weapon, Ultimecia was like a cake walk. I spammed Irvine's Pulse Ammo.

    -That's the end, everyone. Another playthrough in the bag, and my first Let's Play, non traditional as it was. Time to wrap up my final thoughts.


    I started this thread on December 10th, and I started playing the game the next day. December 11th is my birthday, so that's another reason I wanted to start up a playthrough of my favorite Final Fantasy. As i'm writing this it's December 19th, so I beat the game in 8 days.

    It was around 70 hours of game time. I got everyone's ultimate weapons, did the majority of the sidequests, and learned every GF ability. There are only a few things I didn't do.

    I didn't beat the Queen of Cards sidequest. By the end of disc 3 I was so done with manipulating RNG. However, I feel like I can still check it off the list, since I did get the rest of the playing cards on disc 4 from the Card Club members.

    One other thing I didn't get is the Shockwave Pulsar limit break for Quistis. I didn't have the foresight to get the 100 cursed spikes before the endgame, and at that point I didn't want to go to the Island of Heaven/Hell to farm them, especially because I knew I wouldn't use the limit break at that point.

    Here are the 5 times you're able to control Laguna:

    Timber Forest: Squall (Laguna), Zell (Kiros), Selphie (Ward)
    Excavation Site: Squall (Laguna), Selphie (Kiros), Quistis (Ward)
    Winhill: Squall (Laguna), Irvine (Kiros), Zell (Ward, off screen working at the prison)
    Trabia Canyon: Squall and whoever you want
    Esthar Resistance: Squall and whoever you want

    Looking at the list I was surprised it was only 5 times. It always felt like more.

    It's been a few years since my last playthrough, and it'll likely be a few more until my next one. I still enjoy this game as much as I ever have, and I'm glad I've been able to talk to people about it here over the years. Fingers crossed by the time my next playthrough rolls around, whenever that is, we'll be able to give it the current gen treatment like these other games are getting. I won't hold my breath for the HD remaster, but I'll settle for PS5 trophy support and a new coat of paint.

    Thank again to everyone who has been following along. I probably won't do this with another game, but if you have any final questions or comments, I'll be glad to hear them. Otherwise, I'll finally get back to posting in the other areas of the forum, haha.

    There's only one proper way to send us off.


  13. #28

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    You went through this game so bloody fast ! wtf ?!

  14. #29

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    Nah. Adel is a Behemoth. Fact.

  15. #30
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    It usually takes me about a week or so to play through this game if I’m not too busy.

    This was enjoyable to read though. Thanks for the let’s play!

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