Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Remastered Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Squall learns his lesson from before and unlocks the door to the private area of the train before Selphie gets on, much to her delight. After Irvine boards the train, he says something about this perhaps being fate before following after Selphie. Of course, he still has memories of their past together because Galbadia Garden doesn't use GFs, and he's probably confused as to why no one else seems to remember him.

The other party members don't trust Irvine and they ask Squall to go check on him and Selphie (with Zell throwing in the addition shot that he doesn't want him to open up the guest room for him). To no one's surprise, he finds Irvine shamelessly flirting with Selphie, talking about how they're destined to be together. His flirting actually seems to have an effect on her though, whether it's because she unconsciously recalls him and feels the same way or she's just not used to guys flirting with her or she's nervous about the mission (as Squall seems to think), there's no way to tell!

Then Irvine starts trying to put the moves on Rinoa, but unlike Selphie, she ain't havin' it. Quistis chides him for his behavior, and he laments that no one understands him. He gives some pseudo-philosophical speech about how sharpshooters are loners by nature who pour their entire being into a single moment, a single bullet. He has to face all of that alone, and it ain't easy, so if they don't want him around, then he tells them to just leave him alone. Now that he feels rejected, he's decided to reject them in return. As an introvert and "loner" myself in my teenage years (Still an introvert, not as much of a "loner" anymore), a lot of times, we say we want to be alone to help us cope with the fact that we'd be alone whether we wanted to be or not. Squall's in the same boat, which is why he finds himself understanding what Irvine means when he talks about the loneliness of the sharpshooter.

Zell gets ticked off by Irvine's declaration and punches the floor as hard as he can, which causes the train to vibrate so much that they have to make an announcement over the loudspeaker that there was no damage to the train. Zell is great, just saying! After we disembark and ride the escalator up, we get an FMV of a familiar sight in Deling City. Even Squall can't hide his curiosity and wonders what probably every first time player is wondering at this point when he asks if Laguna is here now.

We're told to ride bus 08 to Caraway's Mansion, and that's easy enough because it's the first bus stop you come to, but if you look around at the different bus stops, all the buses are numbered 08! Didn't have enough resources to give all the buses different numbers? When we arrive at the mansion, Caraway's guard says he's not allowed to let us in until our skills have been "tested." We're supposed to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King and find a code number. Apparently, a student went there the other day and hasn't returned, so in order to prove we actually went there, we have to return with his ID number somehow. The number is randomly generated, so you can't just memorize it. Thankfully, you can find the number two screens in, but there's more to be found in this tomb than a code number!
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Ugh just realized that being blocked by ulti will actually be annoying during contest season because he makes so many of the discussion topics

On the plus side, if I make any of them myself hell probably have a meltdown
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For the record, Geezards have the best death animation in the series. As you enter the entrance to the tomb, a couple of students run out and give you a hint about what to do inside as they shout "Float!" The student ID number this time is 26, just to help myself out here...! You can find out some info about the Tomb of the Unknown King if you look in the info corner. It's the burial place of the Dollet Empire's last emperor, and the tomb is nameless because there was an ancient superstition that calling a dead king by his name was bad luck.

Now the Tomb of the Unknown King can be confusing to navigate if you don't know the trick to it. Basically, if you want to get the GF Brothers, you have to perform a series of events and win a couple of boss fights along the way. The easiest way to get everywhere you need to go is to go right at every intersection, and when you get back to the entrance, go back in and just go straight the whole way.

The trick in the first fight is to always cast Float on Sacred so he can't automatically regenerate from standing on the ground since he's an Earth element. In the second fight, you cast Float on the bosses and on yourselves because their most powerful team attack is an Earth elemental, so you'll avoid damage from it if you're floating, naturally.

After defeating the Brothers, the spirit of the entombed king is now free. After spending such a long time in there, he wonders if it's really necessary to prevent those traveling to the other side from getting there after such a long and tiring journey through life. I suppose it's the sort of question you'd come up with if you were stuck inside a coffin!

Now with the Brothers GF (best summoning animation in the game, for the record), everyone can have an HP junction, which is nice! Makes life much easier.

As Squall approaches Caraway's mansion, he starts wondering about the more puzzling elements of this mission. It doesn't seem like Caraway is attempting a coup. He just wants the sorceress gone. Yet he doesn't understand why both Balamb and Galbadia Gardens are cooperating with the general from the Galbadian Army. Then he says there's no use in thinking about it because "SeeDs aren't meant to question why." That's actually in quotes, so I don't know if it was something Squall was actually taught in a class or something he heard from another SeeD, but he seems cool with it! He just wants to do his duty as a soldier, nothing more. He doesn't want to get too attached to the clientele, his teammates, or anyone else involved in his missions.

After being made to wait for quite a while, Rinoa decides to go complain, casually dropping in that this is her house, so don't worry. Her sense of timing could use a little work! She also asks them not to leave her here. She tells Squall just to treat this as an order from his client. When Caraway enters, Rinoa isn't with him. He says that she hasn't received the type of training they all have and so she could become a burden and a liability. It may sound harsh, but as we'll soon find out, he was right!
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Selphie asks if he's Rinoa's father, and he replies that he can't remember the last time she called him that. Zell recognizes the problem in their relationship, which the father being a top military officer and the daughter being a member of an anti-government faction. Caraway admits it's a serious problem, but it's not SeeD's problem. Squall thinks that isn't necessarily the case since Rinoa is his client. In a sense, Garden's directives and Rinoa's orders have the same value to him. He may use that sort of language, but he's definitely concerned for her well being at the moment. As such, he reminds Caraway that once this mission is over, they're still working for Rinoa, so he asks him not to interfere when that time comes. Caraway asks what they'd do if he did, and Squall replies that they'll act accordingly as SeeDs, which everyone else is in agreement with because they regard Rinoa as their friend now. Even as a general, Caraway has a problem with letting his emotions get in the way of his duty, much like his daughter.

Irvine tries to play peacemaker as essentially a neutral third party, reminding them that they're here to knock off the sorceress. With this, Caraway gets back to the subject at hand. For the first time, we learn that the sorceress's name is Edea, which catches Squall's attention and he mulls it over in his mind. The fact that we haven't heard her name yet is significant because Irvine probably had no idea who it was when he signed up for the job.

The plan seems pretty simple and straightforward, but it's never that easy when it's a JRPG and teenagers are involved...!
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The block function is super dumb anyway. I have no idea why it was implemented.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Ugh just realized that being blocked by ulti will actually be annoying during contest season because he makes so many of the discussion topics

On the plus side, if I make any of them myself hell probably have a meltdown

yeah Stats Topics have become way too complicated over the years
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Looks like I'm going to end up with the highest score in my fantasy league this week.

Maybe my team is better than I thought or maybe it was just a fluke! Still, I usually get off to a slow start, so this is a nice change of pace regardless!
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Man, the last minute of Saints/Texans was nuts.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Quistis wonders what will happen to Seifer, and Squall says he may already be dead. Rinoa says she feels sorry for him, which actually causes Squall to laugh because he knows Seifer would hate to hear someone say that about him. He actually understands Seifer pretty well...! Rinoa says she hopes he's still alive, and Squall inwardly tells her to think whatever she wants. Then we get our first real insight into Squall's personal philosophy that makes him who he is, when he thinks, "Reality isn't so kind. Everything doesn't work out the way you want it to. That's why..." and then he actually says the rest aloud to Rinoa, "As long as you don't get your hopes up, you can take anything...You feel less pain." That's what Squall's been telling himself since he was a little kid. As long as he stops hoping Ellone will eventually come back, it will hurt less when she ultimately doesn't. This isn't the way he wanted his life to be, but he has no control over it. He isn't the master of his fate. Rinoa maturely calls him a meany in all caps and a few exclamation marks, causing Squall to (rightfully) wonder what is up with her and then reluctantly (albeit likely insincerely) apologize.

popping in from my cold steel 4 playing/lurking to bring up something really cool about this bit in the original Japanese.

The exact wording Squall uses here is , genjitsu wa sorehodo yasashikunai nda. Why does this matter? Well, because the "MEANY" lines in Japanese is " " , "...yasashikunai. Yasashikunai!" Same word, except written without the kanji. Writing the word without kanji, especially right after it was written with kanji, makes her sounds really kiddy in Japanese. Which is bizarre, quite frankly--the line feels just as much out of left field in Japanese as it does in English. Which leads me to wonder: is she somehow echoing Squall's thoughts here, and just echoing the word rotely -- is that what the author is trying to signify?

Now if it ended here, maybe we could write this all off as me massively overthinking everything, but it doesn't. During Edea's unfortunately mistranslated speech at the end of disk 1, she says the exact same line: Genjitsu wa yasashikunai. Reality isn't kind. These aren't arc words, they don't show up all over the script -- this is it.

What does it all mean? Why do not one but two witches echo a line first contained within Squall's inner monologue? Is something going on here involving Ultimecia?

i have no fudging clue. it just keeps me up at night.
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dowolf you are my hero

yeah I can't even imagine what the significance of that was meant to be other than perhaps to show (in a rather roundabout way) that Squall has something in common with both of them

or perhaps it's meant to highlight the contrast between Squall and Rinoa by having them use the same word in different ways

yes it shows that they're similar and different at the same time

FFVIII is the best
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Just did like 3 or 4 zero cost battles with Edelgard as Byleth's adjutant (using Byleth pretty heavily) and still no A rank support

Ugh

(Also Byleth is now level 45 in Ch 15... whatever, I guess she was invincible anyway)
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Finally got it after a few more... hopefully S doesn't take as long. Then just have to get Edelgard to A with Caspar/Hanneman/Manuela. Not sure how much effort I'll put into grinding out other supports.
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S Rank is automatically available once you hit A rank with an eligible character. You'll know it when you hit a cutscene late in the game.

As a check, the S should be glowing blue if you look at Byleth's supports.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

(Also Byleth is now level 45 in Ch 15... whatever, I guess she was invincible anyway)

lmao. My team was like Level 41-43 when I beat the game so you should be good for the duration.

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Made my decision and started Dark Souls. Beat a couple of bosses (if anyone has played it here I stopped after finally beating the Bell Gargoyles after a ton of suffering against them.) It's pretty fun! I prefer the faster, more aggressive combat style of Bloodborne not the mention the crazy awesome trick weapons but it's still early so we'll see what happens.
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My team isnt uniformly leveled. The units with shitty movement (like Hubert and Lindhardt) are in the mid 30s, and besides Byleth Edelgard is the only one above 40. But yeah, Im definitely overleveled!
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Byleth and Dimitri were way, way ahead of everyone else for me. The timeskip was a huge help though because several of my units were falling way behind leading up to it!
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I think I only had one person at 40 by the end of my first playthrough.

The final Black Eagle map is fairly easy though. The Golden Deer one was quite a bit harder.
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Mob Psycho 100 Episode 6 complete

Mob's brother is becoming the most interesting character on the show
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Yeah, Ritsu is pretty interesting.
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also looks like AB might not be playing for the Patriots after all
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I have no idea what's even going on there anymore.
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Ritsu was also probably my favorite character, though Mob himself is solid also. I think Ritsu's arc(?) was my favorite part of the show though, at least up until like 60% of the way through season 2 where I stopped.
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https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1171592687004209152

Maddening Mode is now available for Three Houses
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Yeah, I'll probably pass on that, but good for everyone who's into that sorta thing...!
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Yeah, I was just reading the patch notes.

Oh snap +10k renown for NG+. There's also the expansion pass stuff but I don't have that (waiting to see what the story DLC stuff will be) but only the new song has my interest there really, though move+1 item is nice.
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When we return to Caraway's mansion, it's time to split into two teams. The sniper and the leader of the operation form the sniper team, and everyone else makes up the gateway team. The leader's role in the mission is vital because if the plan fails or the sniper misses, he basically has to go Leeroy Jenkins and lead a direct assault against the sorceress. Ideally, the operation is to be covert, but they need to eliminate the sorceress regardless, whatever the cost, so even if they get found out, so be it. Of course, the fact that Caraway spends all this time telling us about it means we'll surely never need to resort to it...!

When Caraway asks who's going to lead the operation, all eyes immediately turn to Squall, and he in turn volunteers for the role. For as much as Squall doesn't wish to stand out and just be a grunt, everyone around him recognizes his talents. He might not want to lead the mission, but he'll also be a good soldier and go along with the mission whatever his role is without complaint.

Then Selphie asks who's going to lead the gateway team, and Zell starts psyching himself up, thinking it's gotta be him. In his mind, Squall apologizes to him before selecting Quistis as the leader (He even calls her "Instructor" initially before catching it and correcting himself. Once again, he has a hard time seeing her as anything else). The fact that Squall feels sorry for not choosing Zell shows that he's actually starting to care about his feelings, but at the same time, he's able to make the logical decision despite that (unlike, well, virtually everyone else involved in the mission, as we'll soon see...!).

The great irony here is that Zell wants everything Squall has but can't get it, while Squall doesn't want it for himself. Zell wants to be the big hero everyone admires and respects, and yet he's almost always relegated to the sidekick role (although he comports himself rather well on the couple of occasions he does get to be the leader, so he does seem to have the skills for the job). Squall would be perfectly content to be the guy taking the orders, and yet he almost always seems to wind up being the guy who gives them. Final Fantasy VIII is full of foils like this, and it's one of the reasons it's my favorite game because I love me some foils.

As everyone makes to leave, we take control of Quistis. Before we can head out, Rinoa barges in to show off the fancy new gadget she's found. It's an Odine Bangle, which is designed to suppress a sorceress's powers, although its effects are still unknown, which is why it isn't being used for the mission. Zell recognizes the name Odine and says it should be pretty effective if he's the one who made it.

At this point, Quistis can't stop herself from laughing and pointing out all the flaws in Rinoa's idea. How exactly does she plan to get it on the sorceress? Is she just supposed to casually give it to her for her to put on? Rinoa says that's what they need to discuss, but Quistis has exhausted her patience and says that they don't have time for this. Squall and Irvine are already waiting for them, and they've got their own job to do. This is more than some father-daughter quarrel. It isn't a game. With that, she turns around and leaves, with Zell and Selphie awkwardly following behind. Quistis may have been a bit harsh, but she was right. Rinoa wants to do things her own way, but that's not how things work when you're a SeeD. You can't just improvise and fly by the seat of your pants (well, theoretically anyway...!).
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Once everyone steps outside, "The Stage is Set" begins to play, which is a really good song. As they walk toward their assigned positions, Irvine asks if it's true that SeeDs aren't supposed to question their missions. Squall referenced this earlier in his inner monologue when he said "SeeDs aren't meant to question why," so I guess that was something they were taught after all! Squall says that there are times he'd like to, such as, well, now.

Squall wonders why Irvine cares at all, and he says that if they knew their enemies were pure evil, then they'd get more fired up to fight them, right? Squall questions the idea of anyone being pure evil because it's not right and wrong that separate them and their enemies. It's their different perspectives. Both sides blame the other for their problems and believe they're in the right. That's all there is to it. This is Squall trying to be noncommittal and objective in order to keep himself from making any emotional attachments. He doesn't want his emotions to get in the way of his duty, for one thing.

In one sense, Squall isn't wrong. Virtually nobody out there is purposely choosing to fight for evil. Everyone sees some sort of "justice" in their cause that makes them right. Even someone like Ultimecia (who appears to be pure evil for all intents and purposes because that's all we ever see from her on the surface) fights for what she believes in. We can get into this more later, but the main reason she wants to compress time is to save herself from her destiny of being defeated by SeeD and to escape the hatred that all sorceresses are victimized by just for being a sorceress. Of course, the irony is that the very act of trying to escape her fate is what made it possible for Squall and company to fulfill it to begin with...! Final Fantasy VIII seems to operate on a closed time loop, but that's another discussion for later!

The gateway team takes their positions, and Selphie comments that there's really no need for 3 people for such an easy job. Ideally, you'd be right, but...! Now at this point when I first played this at 13 years old, I got hopelessly lost because I didn't see where Caraway went next and I didn't realize you could go behind the crowd gathered in the street. I ran all over Deling City so many times over trying to figure out where to go. It took me so long that I even made up a song to the tune of "The Stage is Set!" You can even go all the way back to the Caraway Mansion and talk to Rinoa, but unfortunately, she has nothing to say.

Once the sniper team is in position, Squall decides to ask Caraway why the sorceress chose to have such an extravagant parade. He replies that she wants to establish Galbadia as her base, Galbadia Garden in particular. Then he heads back to the mansion right as Quistis and company come down from their post. She says she may have been too hard on Rinoa and wants to go apologize. Selphie (rightfully) objects that they shouldn't leave their post, but Quistis says they have plenty of time and this won't take long. Even Quistis isn't exempt from "teenagers acting like teenagers!"
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LeonhartFour posted...

who appears to be pure evil for all intents and purposes because that's all we ever see from her on the surface

nonsense she's a main party member _
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get R=U out of here
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When Caraway returns home, Rinoa wordlessly shoos him away. He assures her that this is for her safety, but once again, she just shoos him away. Being the controlling father that he is, he activates a very slow and noisy lock on the door to lock her in, but Rinoa is able to get out in time. Then Quistis and company barge in right as the door locks, naturally! I don't know how they didn't run into each other since only like a couple seconds passed between her leaving and them arriving, but whatever! I don't know the layout of the house!

Zell expresses his frustration at getting caught in the middle of their family quarrel, but Quistis recognizes that the real problem is that Rinoa is probably on her way to see the sorceress. She's correct, of course! Rinoa is bound and determined to prove her worth and to demonstrate her resolve. Both Squall and Quistis have belittled her efforts and ambitions as a "game," so she wants to prove them wrong. Rinoa tries to approach Edea with the Odine Bangle, but she ain't havin' it. Edea's FMV introduction is pretty spectacular as she shows off her fashion sense and effortlessly brushes Rinoa to the side and hypnotizes her. For the record, the Ultimania says that Edea used some sort of mass hypnosis spell to get the crowd into the hysteria that allowed her to make the speech she did, as well as kill the president in front of everyone without repercussion. I suppose Squall and Irvine weren't susceptible to it because they were biased against her from the start, but who knows!

Squall and Irvine spot Rinoa on the platform with Edea as she begins her speech. Unfortunately, the speech wasn't translated very well. I remember reading something about how badly they botched it, which is surprising because FFVIII's localization seems fairly solid aside from this (although I'd defer to dowolf on this, naturally). Of course, President Deling is rather disturbed by her speech, but as he approaches Edea, she ruthlessly kills him on the spot, saying, "This is reality. No one can help you. Sit back and enjoy the show," as the game zooms out to show the crowd reaching a fever pitch. It's a really well done moment, and Deling certainly deserved the ignoble death he received! Anyway, in the phrase, "I will let you live a fantasy beyond your imagination" in the Japanese (I believe), she actually title dropped the name of the series, so it should have said something about a Final Fantasy. I don't know how you miss such an obvious reference, but I don't localize video games!

Edea decides to end the ceremony with a sacrifice and animates a couple of lizard statues to attack Rinoa. She's apparently pretty resilient to be able to fight them off for as long as she did until Squall and Irvine show up! Irvine says that they've gotta go help her, but Squall points out that they can't get in until the parade starts since the gate is closed.

We cut back to Quistis and company attempting to escape the locked room. The puzzle can be pretty tricky, but Zell and Selphie will gradually give you more and more hints until you figure it out (or you have the strategy guide, like I did! I used to love strategy guides growing up. I would even buy them for games I didn't own if they looked cool enough, or I would buy multiple guides for the same game. I think I owned like 5 guides for Super Mario 64!). The sewer is probably the worst dungeon in the game. It can be difficult to navigate because so many of the screens look the same, and you can't always tell where the gates break apart and things like that. Fortunately, I've played it so many times that I pretty much know it by heart now!
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Yeah, from what I've seen, the main script (i.e. mandatory scenes) is pretty good. I know there's some major mistakes elsewhere (Bahamut's speech at the beginning of the battle with him immediately comes to mind), and I obviously haven't analyzed the entire script for errors, but it's super bizarre to find it here. Kinda like if you were translating Hamlet, and decided to leave the To Be or Not To Be speech to a rank amateur.

Anywho, as for the speech itself, because It Is Awesome:

"...The stench. The reek of you sordid fools. Since ancient times we sorceresses have dwelt within fantasies -- fantasies you yourselves created. You clothed us in fearsome garb and set us to perform cruel rituals that hexed and slew good, innocent folk. You crafted us as horrors whose merciless magics scorched your verdant fields and froze your warmest hearths... Stupid, all of it.

Now that you learn the sorceress that terrified your fantasies allies with Galbadia, you sigh with relief? Which one of us, I wonder, is the dreamer layering fantasy upon fantasy?

(this is the part where edea goes stabby)

Reality isn't so kind. Not in the slightest.

So then, you fools, all of you! You have but one choice: to flee within your self-made fantasies! And in that world of fantasy I will dance on for you -- dance for all eternity as the fear-begetting sorceress! You and I, together, will craft that final fantasy, in which life and death are both a sweet dream. Long live the sorceress and her fantasy! Long live her servant Galbadia!"
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The sorceress assassination mission is definitely one of the highlights of the game because Final Fantasy VIII's style is on full display here. As Quistis and company enter the sewer, the parade starts and we get a really cool FMV of Edea rolling out as the people in the parade do the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller." No, seriously! Plus, "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" is a great song. Also, in case you didn't know, that isn't actually a Latin phrase! It's an anagram of "Succession of witches" and "Love," two of the game's main themes!

As Squall and Irvine rush to Rinoa's aid, we see Seifer riding on the parade float by Edea's side. I like that Deling's corpse is still just laying there when you get up to the platform. When Squall sees Rinoa, he shouts her name with three exclamation points! If you like to read between the lines (and I do), that's a pretty big deal from a guy who normally tries to keep his emotions bottled up! After defeating the Iguions (and drawing Carbuncle, of course!), Squall rushes over to Rinoa's side, who can only say over and over that she was really scared. Squall says that he thought she was used to fighting battles, but Rinoa said she couldn't fight alone. Squall realizes she's not ready for all this. He tries to get moving, but she won't let go of him. As such, he tells her to just stay close to him (Remember those words because Squall won't...!). While nominally it's just a way to get Rinoa moving again, he wouldn't really mind her staying close to him at the same time!

When they get to the appointed spot, Squall finds the sniper rifle and hands it to Irvine, who wordlessly takes it and walks over to a corner and sits down by himself. Squall thinks he must just be concentrating, but we'll soon discover that's not the case! He divulges to Rinoa that Seifer is alive, and he saw him in the parade with the sorceress. The fact that he chooses to tell her means a lot because he knows she was worried about him. Rinoa wonders what it means, and Squall dismissively says, "Who knows," but in his mind, he wonders if he'd have to go through Seifer to face the sorceress. He says that's how it goes as a SeeD because you don't get to choose your enemies. Then Squall tells Rinoa that he might have to kill Seifer. She asks if they're both prepared for that because of the world they live in, but of course, she'd rather it not happen at all. Squall says it's up to Irvine how things play out. He walks over to him and sees that he's visibly shaking. He realizes that Irvine is freaking out. He tells Squall that he can't do it, which results in one of the most epic facepalms in history.

Then we cut back to Quistis and company as they escape from the sewer. I get through relatively effortlessly and make it back to my post, just in time to hit the switch to trap the sorceress! Then we switch back to Squall, trying to help Irvine get his head on straight. We honestly see him mature by leaps and bounds throughout this mission. He's really the only one who seems to have it all together during this entire arc. Irvine says he always chokes like this and can't handle the pressure of possibly changing the course of history, but again, it's probably because of Edea rather than that. Squall's ability to get Irvine to calm down and just take the shot regardless of whether he makes it or not is really impressive. He removes the pressure of the situation by saying it doesn't matter if he misses and to just think of it as a signal for the next step in the mission.
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Squall manages to get Irvine to take the shot, but Edea was ready for it and blocks it with a barrier. Irvine apologizes, but Squall says his aim was perfect. He tells Irvine to take care of Rinoa before he takes off (Noteworthy that he specifically tells Irvine this). This next FMV is one of my favorites in the game, as Squall charges in to face the sorceress (although they made a slight goof because the parade float is facing away from Squall as he approaches, which would be impossible considering Irvine shot her straight on and the back of the float would have obstructed his shot anyway) as Seifer and Edea await his arrival. It's super cool.

Seifer tells Squall that being the sorceress's knight has always been his dream, but he's obviously a bit out of practice because he's super weak and doesn't even successfully pull the trigger on the gunblade half the time! Still, I love the atmosphere of one-on-one battles, so it's all good! Before the next battle, Edea calls Squall a SeeD planted in a rundown Garden. I love how Irvine and Rinoa run in to join as the battle begins, Rinoa saying that she can fight as long as she's with him and Irvine saying he has to redeem himself. The battle theme for sorceresses, "Premonition" is super great, by the way. This first fight with Edea is super easy to cheese if you use Carbuncle to set up Reflect because she'll spend three turns casting Dispel on each individual party member, and then you can just summon him again. If she does attack, her physical attack is super weak. Even so, the atmosphere for these fights is off the charts! I love it. You don't actually have to win the fight against Edea to advance the story, but you do get 20 AP for it, so it's obviously better to win!

The FMV to end Disc 1 (of course, it's not the end of Disc 1 here, but still!) was pretty shocking, to see Squall impaled and fall to the ground as Edea mercilessly looms over him, with the player having no idea what's become of him as he closes his eyes to end the disc. Nothing was ever going to top Aerith's death as far as a big end of Disc 1 shocker, but this one was pretty great. Disc 1 ends with a setback for the heroes in all three of the PS1 FFs, although FFIX's is a bit tamer than FFVII and FFVIII. Still, a fantastic way to close everything out. I was completely hooked on the game from this point on my first time through.
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FFVII Remake TGS Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBpq_Jq7yn0" data-time="

hd squats we're livin' the dream
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Finished all of the part 2 paralogues (assuming none open up later)

Marianne: There werent any enemies with items hidden in the fog, were there? I was gonna stall for a route, but then enough monsters showed up that I actually had to cut my losses and kill the boss before I could explore the right hand side of the map.

Oh ugh read your writeup xp. Looks like I missed the stat booster! Oh well. I also wanted to have Marianna kill the boss, but she could only reach a shielded tile and deal zero damage; so I needed to have someone else do it.
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Yeah, that FFVII trailer looked pretty amazing. Less than 6 months away!
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Aerith after my heart. How long will I have to wait for cowgirl Tifa
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Also wtf is going to be the spoiler policy for this gamr
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I mean, its not going to include *the* spoiler anyway!
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Also wtf is going to be the spoiler policy for this gamr

You actually want to know?:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/168653-final-fantasy-vii-remake/77901475
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so basically treat it like it's a brand new game
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7wi7LX9F40" data-time="

A new Death Stranding trailer

the more I see of this game the less I feel like I understand it
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After the intensity of the climax of Disc 1, Disc 2 immediately sets us gently down without warning or preface into a Laguna dream sequence, and the most relaxed and laid back of the bunch, to boot, with the childlike "Fragments of Memories" playing over the whole thing. This effectively acts as a breather episode. Even though there are random battles, they're all enemies you encounter at the very beginning of the game, so there's no real danger.

Honestly, kicking off Disc 2 this way was a brilliant move. As we're left wondering what's become of Squall, we're caught up to speed with what happened to Laguna, as his last adventure ended on a cliffhanger of its own. We're introduced to Raine and Ellone, and as we saw how much Squall matured over the course of Disc 1, we also get to see how Laguna has changed since the last time we saw him. We can assume Squall must be okay if we're having a dream sequence with Laguna (who has Squall's junctions and whatnot from the end of Disc 1, naturally), but that's the only assurance we have for now.

If you open the menu, the location will be listed as "Vacant House," but this used to be Ellone's family's home. The room Laguna starts in is clearly a little girl's room. If you go downstairs, the walls are riddled with bullet holes, signifying what transpired here before when Esthar tried to kidnap Ellone and her family resisted. The relationship between Laguna and Ellone here is undeniably charming. You can tell they both think the world of each other.

Ellone tells Laguna that someone is at the pub to see him, and it turns out to be Kiros. We learn that it's been about a year since their escape from Centra. Laguna was bedridden for about six months, although Kiros recovered in about a month. Since then, he's been searching for Laguna. I guess they all got separated at some point due to their injuries. They've all left the Galbadian army at this point, as we can see by the fact that they're wearing civilian clothes.

Kiros offers to catch Laguna up on what's happened since the last time we saw them. We find out Ward is working as a janitor in D-District Prison (which we'll be seeing soon enough!), but he never got his voice back. When Laguna asks about Julia, Kiros doesn't know, but Raine recognizes the name as that of a famous singer who recently released her first hit, "Eyes On Me." She also recently got married to General Caraway, making it pretty clear that she's Rinoa's mother if you didn't make that connection already. Raine says she read in a magazine that Julia's true love got sent off to war and never returned, and Caraway was there to comfort her in her time of need.

Laguna and Kiros seem to make the connection that Julia meant him, but Laguna says that she's happy now and that's all that matters. He looks to Ellone for confirmation, and she agrees, saying that Laguna and Raine are....something, but he doesn't let her finish. Presumably "in love" or something of that sort was how that sentence was going to end...! Either way, to his credit, Laguna manages to have a pretty healthy perspective about the whole thing. He considers his time meeting Julia a fond memory, but he wishes her the best.
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Marianne Prologue: I want to say the stat booster was a Giant Shell (DEF+2) but I'm not 100% sure. Was it the 4 wolves spawning at once as reinforcements on the right that pressured you into ending it early? I almost couldn't believe that spawn. I had some units there to see 3 of them as it happened and then the 4th rushed me. Thankfully I had the firepower in the area to handle it but I can definitely see how that could be a problem if you were unlucky with how you moved/positioned, especially if you haven't used Marianne and her stats are at/near what they were when recruited.
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Squall's inner monologue can butt into one of the dialogue choices, and Laguna actually senses it. He tells Kiros that the "faeries" are here today, which means their work should be a cinch. Since GFs are junctioned into their minds, what Squall and company have junctioned at the time gets carried over into the minds of Laguna and his friends as they share the same mental space. Laguna, Kiros, and Ward are just ordinary dudes most of the time, so they definitely notice the boost Squall and the others provide. They just don't know what it is or how to explain it, so Laguna just calls them the "faeries." In his mind, he'll think, "I know there's something here, but I don't know what it's saying."

Once he's all caught up, Laguna says it's time to get to work. Kiros asks him what exactly that work entails. He explains that all the working men in Winhill were sent off to war, so there's really no one around to protect the town when monsters appear. Patrolling the town and taking out the monsters is his way of repaying the townsfolk for their kindness (although, as we'll see, they don't all appear to be THAT kind to him!).

During the patrol, Kiros asks if he intends to keep doing this thing. After all, Laguna wanted to be a world-traveling journalist, and he tells him about a place called Timber Maniacs that's looking for articles related to world travel. On a couple of occasions, Kiros comments on how much Laguna has changed. When they return, they overhear a conversation between Raine and Ellone, where the latter asks if she's going to marry Laguna. She immediately proceeds to roast him like there's no tomorrow, but Ellone chimes in with how much she likes him and that they should all be together.

Raine says that she thinks Laguna wants to travel all over the world, and he doesn't have it in him to settle down into a small little town like Winhill, which seems to indicate that she has no desire to leave to travel the world herself. Ellone starts to think that Raine doesn't like Laguna, but she says that she feels the same way about him, but before she can continue, she notices him and Kiros hiding on the stairs. It's hard to tell if Laguna and Raine have actually showed romantic interest toward each other, or if this is the imagination of a child at work. Obviously, they eventually end up getting married, as we see in the ending, but it's hard to tell how serious they are at this point because the game always stops short of saying so.

Anyway, Laguna pretends to be exhausted in order to make it seem like he hasn't been eavesdropping for a while. After giving his patrol report, Laguna returns to his room to rest. Before that, he admits to Kiros that he gets scared sometimes that he'll wake up somewhere else and not be able to see Ellone anymore (and Kiros adds Raine's name to the mix). He doesn't know what's making him feel this way. Kiros comments on how much he's changed one last time as the sequence ends.
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xp1337 posted...

Marianne Prologue: I want to say the stat booster was a Giant Shell (DEF+2) but I'm not 100% sure. Was it the 4 wolves spawning at once as reinforcements on the right that pressured you into ending it early? I almost couldn't believe that spawn. I had some units there to see 3 of them as it happened and then the 4th rushed me. Thankfully I had the firepower in the area to handle it but I can definitely see how that could be a problem if you were unlucky with how you moved/positioned, especially if you haven't used Marianne and her stats are at/near what they were when recruited.

Yeah. I probably could have survived it (especially if I had been willing to let some units die since I'm on casual...), but the biggest threat was the boss and I was kinda committed to engaging with him. Tanking his attacks for several turns while cleaning up everything else was looking kinda dicey.
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The boss is kind of weird. He stays put unless you move close enough to him (with someone who isn't Marianne, I presume.) The tell is when he talks that means you made him mobile. I had to Divine Pulse once or twice for accidentally coming too close to him while trying to deal with other monsters.
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just when you think the Jets can't get any more Jets they find a way
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spoken like a true non-jets fan

jets fans know there is always a way
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Well, I'm not used to being a fan of a rock bottom team, I'll admit that much

the Vols are trying really hard to teach me what it's like though
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