B-Garden School
-Before continuing, went back to the library draw point. Got 11 Esunas. I wonder why the draw point changes color from purple to blue when it’s used up rather than disappearing like a treasure chest in prior FFs. Could be so I know it WAS there if I try for some completionist thing, or could be that it restocks at some point.
Roaming the beautiful school.
-Random student: “You know what? I really like this Garden. Even though there are instructors who suck.” LOL
-Quistis is at the front gate.
-The stronger our GF, the stronger the character, so Quistis gives a little tutorial on GF.
-The only innate ability a character has without a junctioned GF seems to be Attack.
-“…Magic can now be junctioned to HP and Vit [in this example].” Still not sure what it means for MAGIC to be junctioned to different stats. Maybe… maybe, like, if I junction magic to HP, then the strength of my cure and fire and other stuff will go up with my health?
No. That doesn’t make sense, since one of the stats is magic.
-Three command abilities, and two non-command abilities. Like the passives you got access to in FFV. (Which, btw, this game reminds me more of so far than any prior FF.)
-WAIT A SEC
I JUST NOTICED
In the tutorial, Quistis had a portrait and stat screen and everything. She used it for HERSELF, not using Squall as the example. DOES THIS MEAN QUISTIS WILL BE A MAIN PARTY MEMBER PLEASE SAY IT IS SO
I’m not getting my hopes too high, since it’s been a common tactic to give me temporary party members early on, like Biggs and Wedge in FFVI’s intro.
-She says she’ll go over junctioning magic when we reach the Fire Cavern. Cool. Glad that they’re staggering out the tutorials like this. In past FF titles, there would usually just be a room of tutorials where you absorb ALL the things, all at once. This is a better approach.
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Balamb – Alcauld Plains
-The overworld music is playful, a bit mischevious. Some games use overworld music that seems fitting to a grand, epic adventure. This feels more like the soundtrack as I creep out of bed to sneak a cookie from the cookie jar.
I like it!
-On the overworld map, the B-Garden School reminds me of Midgar, but a much more pleasant version.
Less “rotting pizza” and more “glowing, bejeweled pizza.”
-Combat. Quistis’s weapon is a whip! AWESOME! Haven’t seen that as a main weapon since Rydia in FFIV.
-“B8 (R2 on my controller) is the trigger. Use it as you strike!” Um. I’ll be honest: I have no clue what this means. I saw the word “trigger” flash across the screen when I used Squall’s limit break at the Training Center, so maybe it applies there, but the way Quistis said it makes it seem like I should use it with normal attacks too.
-Outside the Fire Cavern, which is a hop, skip, and jump away from the school. Time to learn about junctioning magic.
-Junctioning magic raises character stats. GFs can learn to junction magic onto particular stats. Doing so – junctioning a particular spell to a particular stat – can improve the stat by a number that varies by spell/stat combo. I can do this manually, or auto-set it.
Not sure which I’ll wind up doing more. The auto optimize function in Crisis Core was not useful for me, and it didn’t let me use nuance or complexity. It did ALL magic or ALL attack or something, not letting me do a bit of each. That nuance must be what manual is for.
-Quistis doesn’t address whether this is passive explicitly, but I imagine it is. That if I junction, say, the Fire spell to Squall’s strength, then he gets that boost just by having Fire as an option even if he never uses it.
-!!!!!!!!! GUNBLADE
-That weirdo weapon that starting appearing throughout the FFVII compilation on Weiss and some of the Crisis Core enemies is what Squall has. You have no idea how psyched I am by this. I just assumed he had a revolver and a sword.
-There are hidden status screens I had no idea existed. Again: thank you for the tutorials, game.
-THAT’S what the Renzokuken is, and why nothing happened when I used it back in the Training Center. THAT’S what the trigger (R2) is. It’s an aiming thing. I can set it to auto hit, but if I do I won’t get a “perfect shot.” I’ll leave it off for now, but if I flat out suck at it and don’t get better [see also: aiming in Dirge of Cerberus], then I’ll try auto.
-Why would I ever want to turn the Renzozuken Indicator (which I assume is a targeting reticle) off? For more of a challenge, more immersion, something like that?
-Each GF has different compatibility ratings with Quistis and Squall. I’ll junction Quetzalcoatl to Squall and Shiva to Quistis to start. Quezacotl (just saw that spelling in the GF screen) is first learning Mag +20%, and Shiva is first learning SumMag +10%.
-Good for now.
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Next time: Fire Caverns.
