Galbadia Overworld
-One change I wish for FFVIII is that they showed you the name of the zone you’re in on the mini-map rather than having to check the status screen. The names they choose are fun, like the Monterosa Plateau that I start out on here.
Some weird monsters.
-LOL – one of the enemies used Confuse on Rinoa. She then randomly cast Life on that enemy and killed it because it was undead. XD XD Talk about a backfire.
-Irvine’s limit break requires a trigger like Squall’s. I’m happy about this. I don’t want the game to get too twitch-reaction-based, but having interactive elements like this and a bit of a skill cap on using limit breaks adds fun imo.
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Galbadia Train Station
-The way forward is blocked, but there’s a train station that’ll hopefully take me to Deling City.
-Some students at the station are worried about the return of the Sorceress.
Galbadia on edge.
-There’s mention of a Deling Shopping Arcade.
-We board the train.
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Train to Deling City
-Speaking of “board.”
I’m already bored of the “hotshot womanizer” archetype that Irvine seems to embody. I hope he gets a bit more characterization and depth than this. (Note: if he has a past with a girlfriend who died and made it tough for him to commit, that does not count as “depth.”)
-Irvine goes to hit on Selphie.
”I choo-choo-choose you!”
Hard for me to tell whether she’s disgusted or into him.
-Then he goes back to the main train car to hit on Rinoa.
IRVINE: “Sharpshooters are loners by nature…”
OH MY GOD PLEASE STOP TALKING
-He goes on about the intensity of being a sharpshooter. I can believe that. For fans of American football, that role sounds a lot like being a field goal kicker. Short bursts of intense pressure and precision.
-After his spiel, the train gets hit by a “minor vibration.” Earthquake? The engineer sounds nervous.
-That was strange. Something to come back to later maybe.
-The train rockets east across Galbadia.
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Deling City
-That lovely jazzy music.
-FFVIII is artistically my favorite of the FF series so far. The models and settings and details and color palettes are so unqiue.
-The city is beautiful as we emerge from the underground train.
-Rinoa tells us to take Bus 08 to the Caraway Mansion. How does she know Deling City so well?
-We hop aboard the bus. It takes us around town, first to the Caraway Mansion, then the Presidential Residence, the Shopping Arcade, the Hotel (!!!!), and back to the Mansion. A part of me wants to explore everything right now, but I’ll rein it in. Going to head directly to the mansion.
-…nm. I can’t help myself. I need to at least see the hotel, to see if they’ll be like “Oh, Julia? She hasn’t worked here in 25 years!” or if Julia will be there herself or something else.
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Galbadia Hotel
-An exchange outside the hotel:
RANDOM PERSON #1: A new age is upon us, where women will step forward!
RANDOM PERSON #2: The sorceress is a feminist?
I hope so. That’d be awesome.
-I head downstairs to the piano lounge. It’s mostly empty, except for a woman who challenges us to Triple Triad. The trade rule is “One,” which I don’t remember.
My strategy for choosing cards against a new opponent is to only pick cards where I have copies of them. I want to try to make it so I still have at least one copy of the card even if I lose badly.
-Her cards are awful. I whomp her.
-No clues about Laguna’s group or Julia that I can find.
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Next time: I plan to explore the city more fully before talking to Caraway.
