B-Garden Classroom
-Some students are huddled around Quistis.
-A prerequisite for today’s SeeD exam is that Squall has to go to the Fire Cavern.
-The game uses keywords in a way that vaguely reminds me of FFII.
-Oh! Quistis is Trepe. Her fans are Trepie. I’ve become a Trepie and didn’t even know it.
-One of the students acts jealous that Squall is getting alone time with Instructor Trepe, but I don’t think it’s like that.
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B-Garden
-Out in the hallway. This is a beautiful school!
-A girl who’s late for class charge down the hall, crashing into Squall.
-They talk. She says, “This place is way bigger than my last Garden!” I guess Balamb Garden is just one of many, or that Garden is a type of school.
-She asks for a quick tour of the school, which Squall will give.
-I can’t find a mini-map so I just start wandering. A dude talks to me about cards.
-The guys just says “Hm, cards are complex so read the tutorial” basically. But apparently I can play cards with almost anyone. This is going to be more than a simple bestiary system it seems.
-He gave me 7 cards. I looked briefly at the cards, and they seem to be two things: 1) monster-based, and 2) INCREDIBLY OVERWHELMING.
I’ll have to spend some major time with that tutorial.
-Only 12 people qualified for the SeeD field exam, and the failure rate is high.
-Elevator to the first floor. We find the directory.
-This place doesn’t look like “school” so much as “Fortune 500 office complex.” And one of the nice ones.
-The game uses weird button names, like “Press B2 to do [thing]!” My controller’s buttons are named differently. I’ll have to use trial and error. [Later edit: I found a configuration option that tells me what buttons are mapped where on my controller.]
-We review the locations of the dorm, parking lot, library, etc., most of which I promptly forget.
-LOLOL – THE HEADMASTER IS CID.
-This girl (Selphie) is also taking the SeeD exams today.
-I keep thinking about what that guy just said, that I can play cards against most people here. Time to learn a bit about that.
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Card Tutorial
-LOLOL – the guy who invented the game looks like one of the generic black mages from FFI and FFIV.
Love the callback.
-Reading this tutorial makes me think back to the first time I bought a Magic: the Gathering starter deck. It was this horrific five-color deck that had no rhyme or reason (this was back when Revised came out). I was young, probably elementary school, and remember trying to work through the sample card the instruction booklet used, Scryb Sprites.
I failed miserably. Had NO CLUE what was going on, though I liked the art. I’m slightly older (32) now. Maybe I’ll do better this time around.
-Cards have numbers in a diamond, and each number corresponds to how strong the card is.
-Cards also have elements. I haven’t played Pokemon before, but I enjoy the Pet Battles in World of Warcraft. Maybe this is similar? In WoW, water works well against elemental, elemental works well against… something else which I forget, and so on. Like a massive version of rock paper scissors.
-There’s a game board. I’ll bet positioning becomes important for cards – so that sample card whose highest number was a 7 on the left side, maybe that’s the side you want to use to fight the other player or whatever.
-Ok. I’m 6/13 pages into the tutorial and getting a bit overwhelmed. It seems that it’s not just like a game of War where the highest number beats the lower number, but rather something that works more subtly.
-Looks like there’s a collectible element to this. I loved collecting Rage as Gau in FFVI. This may also be fun.
-The rules talk about “Same” and “Plus” without saying how you get those states. Maybe they’re cards you draw, or things on the board? Like, maybe I place a card on a “Same” space triggering something “Same”-y.
-….aaaaand a bunch of other rules I don’t quite get. That’s ok! I’ll try to pick it up more in the context of a game.
-Interesting: you can lose or win cards. This isn’t just like Magic: the Gathering – this is ANTE-BASED Magic: the Gathering!! I foresee both the joy of winning a cool card and the rage of losing a beloved card in my future for FFVIII.
-I have 7 cards so far that the dude upstairs gave me. All are Level 1 monster cards. The card menu also has room for Boss cards which must be better, and GF cards, which must be the best.
-Gonna see if I can find someone around the school to play against.
-Found someone upstairs. I assume I’ll lose, and will try to merely put what I read about into some sort of context.
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Game On
-This is a “Trade One” game. If I win, I get a card. If I lose, he gets one of mine. Also “Open.” I can’t remember what that means – will have to check later.
-oh my god, THIS MUSIC IS AMAZING! I’ve just been sitting here staring at the “Do you want to play?” screen for a few minutes and bouncing in my chair.
-The board says “Triple Triad.” Maybe that’s the name of the card game.
-I pick five of my seven cards for my hand pretty randomly.
-The opponent immediately freaks me out because I see a Tonberry card in his hand. FUCK TONBERRIES. Seriously.
-His first card goes down in the top left corner. Maybe mine will go in the top right….nope, it goes wherever I want it.
-AHA! I see what’s going on. It IS like a game of war, and that whole “Same” and “Plus” stuff describes the interactions when various sides of the cards meet.
-I lost the game (and a card), but I understand a bit more. Not sure what’s up with the elements yet.
-Reading through the instructions again. Ok. Higher number than the adjacent number flips the adjacent card. “Plus” and “Same” describe only special interactions.
Plus: “Cards adding to the same number on two adjacent sides are turned over.” AHAHA!!! I get that now! So the opponent having cards with higher numbers isn’t a death sentence for me. I can still math out a win.
Combo: “Cards turned over using Same or Plus turn over adjacent cards in Combo.” Hm. This one isn’t quite clicking. I think it means there can be a bit of a domino effect, where if I flip one card, that flipped card (now mine) can flip cards around it.
-Now on re-reading the Elemental tutorial, I think it just depends on where I place the card. Placing an ice card on an ice square increases the value of the card’s numbers by one. Placing an ice card on an elemental square other than ice decreases the value of the card’s number by one. Placing an ice card on a square that has no elements doesn’t affect the card. Maybe?
-AHA! “Open” means that we can see each others’ hands. Ok.
-One more game…. I drew! Progress.
-…One more game. I gotta. Sorry.
-Ok, here’s the test. I think I’m about to get a “Plus,” and we’ll see if I misunderstood.
Yeah. It didn’t work. Hm. I reviewed the rules and am still unsure why the card I placed in the middle didn’t trigger a “Plus” and flip both the top and right cards.
But I won the game anyway! Victory music and all.
I took his Death Claw card.
-THAT WAS AWESOME!!!
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Next time: I should probably get going on the story and check out the Fire Cavern, but I’ll probably just explore the school more and play more card games because WHEEE!!!!
