Training Center
-We start to leave. Drew some Silences along the way from Grats.
-A cute sound which is probably a T-Rex roaring.
-oh shit wtf is that thing. It’s attacking some woman.
-lol, she called Quistis “Quisty.” Another faculty member? She has dark hair and could possibly the dancing woman from last night in different clothes, but I don’t know… no. I see now her hair is brown and not black. (Though the models are inexact, so… dunno. Could be?)
-The monster is Granaldo, with the “Raldo” monsters along with it.
-It picked up one of the Raldos and dropped it on Quistis. XD
-I wonder if I can “Card” bosses… nope. “Can’t turn into a card.” I’m actually glad. A boss fight is NOT the place to stall out. (Though even as I say this, I’m drawing out this fight to get more Shells.)
-Draw has failed a couple of times this fight. Hm.
-Granaldo also has Blind to draw. (This woman we’re helping is probably like, “WTF are you doing? It’s almost dead. Stop sucking it’s magic and tend to my wounds!”) This could keep going for a while, so I’ll set a stop loss. I’ll stop Drawing when it gets either Squall or Quistis into limit break range.
-Neat! I had cast Shell on Squall earlier in the fight to see what it does (it doesn’t tell me, but I think it probably mitigates physical or magical damage), and the game gave me a message when it wore off. Usually I have to guess. Good addition, game.
-And yeah. While I think the Draw mechanic is a cool concept and cool in practice, the fact that the game encourages these stalled out fights where you’re drawing over and over is a kink they should have worked out or designed against.
-Limit break time. Let’s end this. I get to see Ultra Waves, which is like a sonar attack and it’s awesome.
It lacks the pure damage of Laser Eyes blue magic, but it’s probably a group attack also.
[Later edit: a huge mistake I made in FFVII was not trying to trigger as many limit breaks as possible from different characters. I find myself staying at high health and falling into that same trap. Going to actively fight this, try to stay low health, and cast a lot of limit breaks in case doing so opens up more later.]
-Siren learned “Tool-RF.” I’ll have to remember to try this out.
-Two dudes jump down and escort the hurt woman out of here. Weird.
-QUISTIS: “Who was that?” What? She called you “Quisty.” She definitely knows you, even if you don’t know her.
-Outside the Training Center, Quistis tries to explain herself once more.
Squall responds with “…Says who?” I both hope and expect that they allow Squall to grow from being just the somewhat tired “lonesome hero who is does not need anyone.”
-Crickets are chirping and faculty still guard everywhere except the Training Center and the Dormitory. Still night.
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Dormitory
-Zell greets Squall. They’re going to be living across the hall from each other.
-Squall’s new room. Nice! A single. …which is good because he doesn’t need anyone argle bargle. (I know I’m being overly harsh on Squall based on not a lot of evidence. I’ll try to be more generous and give him the benefit of the doubt.) (Except when he’s a massive asshole towards Quistis because fuck that.)
-The next morning, Selphie knocks on the door to alert Squall to their first SeeD mission in Timber.
-Strange conversation between some kids in the hall (heh). One person thought they were fighting, but they deny it. Just one of those passing conversations probably that make the school feel alive.
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Around B-Garden
-Talked to a woman in the main corridor circle of the Garden and it’s Xu. I got an achievement! She gave me salary! I try to also get her to play Triple Triad with me, but she says she’s rusty and needs some time to brush up. (Why do I get the feeling that she’s going to be, like, a Triple Triad superboss and is playing it coy for the moment?)
-The library is threatened with budget cuts. Talk about realism in game.
-I’m literally that annoying guy from middle school who goes around with a Magic decks saying to everybody “Wanna play? Wanna play?” (Also realism. )
-omg this guy has a cactuar card WANT
-The card game is a pretty cool way to tease monsters. I could see an argument that it spoils those monsters instead, but I actually think hinting at them in this kind of low key way heightens the anticipation.
-I’m hesitant to play boss cards in this open trading system because I won’t be able to get another Ifrit card if they take mine. But might as well risk it.
-I haven’t been losing games, but I’ve been drawing more than winning.
-Noticed that the names of the cards when I win are in different colors. White, blue, yellow. Rarity maybe. …just checked my card collection, and it seems more likely to correspond to card level. Maybe?
-Exploring the school. Some students in the classroom are protective of Quistis.
-OH! These people in the classroom are record keepers of sorts.
The fact that they’re here makes me believe it’s likely that number of kills is tied to something in game.
They tell me how many different enemies I’ve defeated and how often I’ve been “knocked out” (probably killed). Wait… she says 0, but I got killed by T-Rexaur. Not sure what this is about.
-!!!! I challenged one of Trepe’s groupies to Triple Triad, and she has a QUISTIS CARD! Ok. Focus, Coldrun. I must must must win this.
-Going first feels like a disadvantage.
-NOOOO! FUCK.
Drew. (My mistake was starting out on the left side, that allowed the Trepe card to be played with its weak left side protected.) Tried again and she doesn’t play her Trepe card. Grrrrr.
-Won some games against them after that and got some good cards, including a Behemoth, but no more Quistis.
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Next time: probably more loitering around the school playing cards. Will also check out 3F, a new floor that opened up to me.
