FVIII: Tomb of the Unknown King and Tons of Triple Triad

Okay again, not much today... I played through the Temple of the unknown king, to get the Brothers GF. Oh, and to also get the IDno, this game it was 47. The Temple is easy if you know that if you make ONLY right turns you can do the temple in one big loop, exit, save, and then come back in to fight the brothers. The Brothers are pretty easy, just GF and you'll win.

I'm basically now in the last few hours of the first disc. So to prepare(more like OVERprepare), I played some Triple Triad. The best place to play is in Galbadia Garden. In the second screen, there is this guy that walks around, if you play him, occasionally he'll use a Mesmerize card(it looks like a horse with a big horn). If you win a bunch (like 15), then you can card mod them in to Mesmerize Blades, these then turn into Regens by using L Mag Ref(life magic). With this method you can have 3000+ HP pretty easily. The other card that this guy uses rarely is a Gayla card(it looks like a white sting ray), these cards can be modded in to Mystery Fluid, that can be changed to Meltdowns, by S Mag RF(status magic). These when junctioned to your VIT-J give you over 75 in that catagory. Mystery Fluid also teaches Quistis a limit power. So if you take the time here, you can become very powerful.

There is a girl just near the gates in the next screen, play here and you can win all kinds of cards that can be modifyed in to items that you can use to get at least the first weapon upgrades for most of your characters. I got enough items to get Squall's, Zell's, Quistis', Selphie's and Rinoa's weapons upgraded to the first levels. I'm ready to finish the first disc tomorrow, so I'll have that to right about tomorrow.

(13h 34m)

FFVIII: Laguna Again, Galbadia Garden, and Deling City

To start off my session today, was the second of the Laguna dream sequences. It's pretty straight forward, and nothing special happens. In fact nothing much happened in the short playing session that I had. The party visited Galbadia Garden, it's a much bigger garden than B-Garden is. Squall and friends get the big mission for the first Disc. Take out the Sorceress! To do this they need a sniper, that guy is Irvine Kinneas. A new character that now joins your team for good. There is a funny sequence here if you just let Irvine take his choice of party.

Then your party visits Deling City, and gets sent on a quest to the Temple of the Unknown King, to find a student ID no. That's where I stopped. Man FF8 is a story driven game, I neve realized that, until I try writing these after every play session. I guess I'm gonna have to play more each time. I guess this marks the shortest post here at A Second Time Through.

(8h 7m)

FFVIII: I Dreamt I was a Moron, Train Hijack, and TV Station

Shortly after you board the train in Balamb, your party falls asleep mysteriously, and enters a dream world. Here they get their first looks at Laguna, Kiros and Ward, three Galbadian soldiers, they play a bigger role than your characters think at this point. In this dream, you control Laguna and his friends, who are heading back to Deling City. Once there they head to the hotel where Laguna goes to see Julia, a woman who plays the piano. This part is really awkward, he goes to wave at her and his leg cramps up.

To make a long story short, she invites Laguna to her room and they have a talk. That's it for that part these long story portions of the game sure make these logs awkward. FF7 didn't have as many of these. Anyways showing their lack of knowledge of these Laguna's importants, Squall says to himself: "I dreamt I was a moron".

Now the train has reached Timber, the group meets the Forest Owls, and Squall meets Rinoa, the girl he danced with back when he graduated. The next game releated mission is to hijack the president of Galbadia's car. You have to punch in codes using the buttons on the controller. It's pretty easy, but it is possible to get caught by the gaurds. After some cool FMV, Rinoa confronts the president... but... The president is a fake, The Forest Owls just got duped.

This boss fight is pretty easy, you just summon some GFs and he goes down pretty easlily. You can also take him out with a single Phoenix Down if you are lucky. After this boss there is a bunch more story, where the president announces that he has a sorceress as a ambassador of the "peace". Seifer attacks the president and Zell's big mouth get the garden in big trouble(this plays out more later). You see the sorceress for the first time as well.

The next thing that happens is the group needs to get to Galbadia Garden. That's where I stopped. I'll try to spice these up a bit more in the upcoming posts.

(7h 29m)

FFVIII: The Dance, Talking to a Wall and Diablos

First thing was the really great dance FMV, it's so funny(and just slightly embarassing). But it's memorable. Then followed by a short trip through the Training Center and then a scene with Squall, doing what he does best, stick to himself.

After that there is a short fight to save a girl(at this point you don't know who that girl is). That boss is easly dispatched by putting him to sleep and then beating down his rollys. Then You take him out with Squall's Limit Break.

Soon after, Squall, Selphie and Zell get sent on their first SeeD mission, they must go to Timber, via the train in Balamb. Before I went there I fought Diablos (you get his lamp by talking to Cid before you leave the garden). At this stage of the game this is one of the hardest, if not the most challenging battle you might face in the entire game. He can be beaten if you Draw and cast his demi spell on him right from the start, that does 1300+ damage to him for at least 3 rounds. Then you can follow up with Zell's Limit (doing only puch rush and booya) and Squall's Limit. You have to get lucky, I actually lost the first time, but won in the second because I managed to get Demi to work and then right at the end Zell got a 12 second Duel!

Before I stopped I gained some GF abilites so that everyone had HP-J. It's easy to teach GFs abilites and not level up by using the Card power. Each Character has about 700HP. That's about it for today. But the game is just starting and there is a lot more to come!

(4h 22m)

FFVIII: SeeD Training Exam...

Back with a little more...

Today, I cover the SeeD (seed, not CD) candidate exam. After the fire cave(which was in the last post), Squall gets set to become a SeeD. You meet Zell Dincht. Squall finds out that Seifer is his squad captain. One of the best scenes, is in the truck on the way to Balam town. I think it's funny anyways...

You board the ship and it sets off automatically for Dollet. The FMV is pretty cool in this part of the game. After you get on land, the mission plays out in short spurts. Selphie joins your party and you fight FF staples Biggs and Wedge. Who are then replaced by Evorlet, a really annoying boss. First you have to remember to draw GF Siren. The annoying thing is that at this point your characters are pretty weak. So you have to rely on GF's to beat him, it takes alot of boosting GFs to win, and your finger gets pretty tired.

After you defeat Evorlet you goto the bottom of the tower, you are then attacked by a huge robot. you can defeat this robot, so you have to knock it down with Lightining and then run away. Once you've done this a few times, you get the the beach and get to see one of the many cool FMV's in this game. In this one Quistis blows away the robot with the ship's mounted machine gun!

Once you get back to Balamb Garden, Squall, Selphie, and Zell become SeeDs. I stopped in Squall's dorm, just before the next story part of the game. There sure isn't all that much gameplay at this part of the game. Tomorrow I will get in to the actual "game" and things will start to pick up and I'll have more to write other than a discription of the plot.

(2h 23m)

FFVIII: 0 Hours In...

And so the FF8 coverage begins!

I didn't get all that much in today, got a late start, and didn't get very far. First things first, I love the intro to this game. It's so awesome, the song the FMV, it's just a perfect start to the game, which mind you has a much slower pace. After the intro FMV, Squall is lying in the Infirmary after getting slashed by his rival Seifer. He now has a scar. Anyway, his instructor Quistis Trepe comes to get him. There isn't too much gameplay really in this first part. After the short scene in the classroom, remember to get the first to Gaurdian Force (GF) Monsters from Squalls classroom desk. There easy to miss if you've never played. And Quezqacotl has the two best GF abilities. The CARD command that turns enemies into cards that you use to play the Triple Triad card game (which I'll get to more in a bit), but it also allows you to defeat monsters and get AP but no EXP. And the Card Mod ablitiy, which allows you to mod(ify) cards in to VERY useful items.

First Squall literally bumps into a new character called Selphie Tilmitt. She's the hyperactive character of the game. After this you can get your first cards from a man standing just before the elevator to the first floor(theres still a bit more before I tell you about the card game). Squall then has to meet Quistis in front of the garden, and head to the Fire cave. Before entering it though, taking some time to draw magic. Yup DRAW magic, using GF the characters draw magic from their opponents, sometimes it takes awhile, but it allows you to use the new Junction System. In which you junction(attach) magic to various statistics to make you more powerful, the more magic you have stocked, the more it boosts the stat it's attached to. At first you can only attach magic to a couple of stats but as you progress you get more options.

This also brings us to the most interesting thing about FF8, rasing Levels is not exactly all that benficial. In fact you want to keep your overall level low as you feel comfortable with. Why you ask? Well it's because monsters, are at the same level as your highest level character(which is usally Squall). So staying at a low level and then Junctioning Magic to your stats is the only way to get more powerful.

Anyway you go in to the fire cave to get GF Ifrit, which is the first boss of the game. Then you head back to the Balamb Garden. That's where I stopped, but not without first getting in a little bit of Triple Triad. I'm not gonna explain the entire game here, but it's a pretty simple card game(some of the optional rules are deadly and more confusing). You play on a 3x3 grid, and take turns placing cards, each card has a 4 numbers on it, the represent the power of the card on that preticular edge. You win by flipping your opponents cards, by placing a higher numbered edge against the lower numbered edge of his card. It's pretty tricky at first but once you get some better cards it goes pretty easily if you just pick cards starting from the bottom of your list.

Anyways sorry for the play-by-play, but there just wasn't enough to cover without doing that. Tomorrow I'll play more, get to some interesting parts and tell you my thoughts on them. Oh yeah I'm gonna place the game timer at the bottom of the post in brackets from now on.

(1h 5m)

FFVIII: Intro to Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII is the "cult hit" of the FF series I think. The people who like it really like it and People who hate it really hate it. Personally it's my favorite one, and when I was nearing the end of FF7 I began to anticpate playing this one again!

For those that don't know Final Fantasy VIII was released on September 9th, 1999. Why the exact date and not just September 1999, like in the FF7 intro? That's because that date was important to me, no, not just because that was the date FF8 was orginally released, in fact, I didn't get FF8 until far later, like October 2000. What was important, was that was my 18th birthday. And I always thought that was cool.

Before I get started with my FF8 coverage please read my impressions of finishing the game for the first time: http://www.flatface.net/~ebcentral/tff/ff8.html. They are no where near as detailed as this is likely to be, but they are very honest impressions of the first time totally throught the game for me.

This time your gonna get my coverage of the game from the beginning, so hang on for the ride!! Here comes FFVIII!