Overworld
-I found the forest to Galbadia. Entered just to check and it started a cutscene, but I meant to explore the overworld a bit before continuing. Hope I’ll have the chance go back outside and do this after the cutscene ends.
-Selphie echoes my worry about them getting killed by the Galbadian government. Quite colorfully.
It’s the self-strangulation motion that makes this so glorious.
-AWWW! Zell is super worried for the Balamb Garden, and doesn’t care what happens to them. What a Gryffindor. He also feels guilty, as the one who revealed their presence from the Balamb Garden to Vinzer.
-And of course, Squall does zilch to make Zell feel better, and is just like “dunno bro, maybe they’ll get attacked. They’ll probably lose.” He’s not wrong exactly, but Rinoa calls him on being a terrible captain.
-oh right, ofc. I almost forgot. Squall doesn’t believe in relying on anyone else.
-wtf just happened. A loud high pitched ringing sound that apparently only Squall can hear? Is this more Laguna stuff? And I was wrong, apparently all of the SeeDs can hear it. All of them are collapsing.
But not Zell. Huh. Now it’s QUISTIS and Squall and Selphie, so it’s not the same people. That’s new. [Later edit: I assume this is because I had those three selected as my active party members at the time and that if Zell and Rinoa were in my party, they’d be asleep.]
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”The Dream World”
-YES! More of the Galbadian Trio. Kiros, Laguna, and Ward overlooking what looks like a dam.
-They’re lost. Laguna brought the wrong map. XD I like that they’re not some Galbadian super-soldiers, just a bunch of goofs.
-The status screen tells me I’m at “Centra – Excavation Station.”
-The two subordinates notice that Laguna’s been acting weird. I don’t know if this is due to Laguna’s relationship with Julia or his connection with our SeeDs.
-Some Esthar soldiers emerge. Esthar was the Sorceress’s domain, right? They got surrounded by the Esthar soldiers and their “flashy uniforms.” I guess the Sorceress has pizzazz.
-The fact that they’re fighting Esthar make me change my mind (YET AGAIN) and believe that the SeeDs are connecting to the past. We’ll see if the Estharians refer to the Sorceress as their present queen or something.
-This fucking awesome Ninja Gaiden-esque combat music.
-The Esthar uniform is pretty great.
It looks like the carapace of a colorful and shiny beetle. The eyes add to this insectoid appearance. They wield the pickaxe and shotgun for weapons. A common combination of course.
-The Galbadians are just on standard patrol here, not doing their own thing.
-heeee! These guys constantly have wonderful small exchanges. Like, Laguna’s leg briefly cramped up again, leading to Kiros and Ward ribbing him for being out of shape.
-This excavation site is HUGE!
What are they excavating? There’s a blue crystalline structure on the wall. It doesn’t look like pure crystal, but smoother and bumpier. Reminds me closely of the material that encased the chicken esper whose name I can’t remember at the start of FFVI.
-This game just went into major troll mode. Laguna picked up [an Old Key]. I’m thinking, “Awesome! This clearly is going to open some secret door or whatever.” And like TWO SECONDS LATER Laguna notices a hole in his pocket and can’t find it.
-I won’t say this place is a maze just yet, but there are definitely more choices of where to go and forking paths than I’d come across before in FFVIII.
-Found a detonator that can blow up different boulders, which I get the option to do.
Hey. I have an idea: let’s NOT blow up the boulder right next to you, k? It blows up the boulder and opens a new hole. (lol – the boulder chases and crushes a guard down below.)
-Can’t get into the new hole. I’ll back track and see if I can find where it leads.
-AH SHIT! It seems like the boulder blocked an opening rather than just opening one up. Grr. Or maybe… maybe that guard we saw the boulder crush would’ve stopped our passage? Yeah, that’s more likely.
-Came to a tunnel with three hatch doors. When I walk across one I hear a sound like a switch being pressed. Not sure what that affects yet.
-We climb up a ladder, and the new area seems saturated in the blue stuff. Like it’s a buoy atop an ocean.
-Oh! We circled back to the start. Good. I have a way better sense of the layout of this place now.
-Save point. These things always get my heart pumping a bit because they can mean a boss is nearby. Going to backtrack a bit and try out that detonator again now that I’ve saved.
-Did it. Strange. It didn’t give a huge blast, just rolled the boulder away where it replaced the first boulder.
-Moved onto a portion where the rocks are red and not blue. Found a weird monster.
http://i.imgur.com/ZqTj2SR.jpg
LOLOL – the Elastoid attacks by stationing itself over one of us and then bopping us on the head.
-AND THEN THE ELASTOID TURNED INTO A DEADLY VERSION OF THOSE WACKY FLAILY ARMED INFLATABLE THINGS FROM CAR LOTS
-More boulder pushing, more Esthar soldiers making like failed Indiana Joneses and getting run over.
-Here I am again! This dungeon felt like a maze, but most routes link up with one another. Got to the same save point as before. Only one place left to go.
-Reached a cliff. Cornered.
-OW! One of the Esthar soldiers did a deathrattle (the Hearthstone word for an ability triggered on death) called “Soul Crush” where she reduced Kiros’s and Ward’s health to 1.
-Laguna sees ships below and thinks they’re saved, but Ward and Kiros are hurt.
-…is he… is he kidding around? Ward seems like he’s dying, but with how jovial these scenes are, it’s hard for me to tell whether he’s just out of breath and exaggerating or if he’s literally dead/dying.
-hahahahah wtfffff – After tickling Ward (I assume, since Laguna calls it administering the “cuchi-cuchi treatment”), he LAUNCHES THE INJURED WARD AND KIROS DOWN TO THE SEA BELOW.
*toss*
LAGUNA, THAT SEEMS LIKE A SUPREMELY TERRIBLE IDEA.
-Laguna follows them and dives himself.
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The Waking World
-The team wakes up. Quistis is more confused than the others since she hasn’t been through this before, and Selphie is worried.
-Still no confirmation one way or the other what the Laguna scenes are about, but my best guess at the moment is that it takes place in the past and their connection is across time. I’m far from certain.
-They don’t examine this really, choosing instead to move on.
-Rinoa apologize for being too harsh to Squall before. I personally feel this is unnecessary and her words were completely fair. I’ll admit though that I’m biased by my like for Rinoa and dislike for Squall.
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Next time: Out of the woods, continuing towards Galbadia.
