Saturday, January 16, 2016

FFVIII – Part 34: When Puppies Fly

Summary: SeeD test level 2. Diabolos goes down (somehow). A new quest before we can meet with General Caraway.


Deling City

-Galbadians seem torn about the sorceress



I’m gonna go with dangerous.

-Trying to get a mental map of the city. I exited, and when I first start here I see the gas station and then the city square.

-Neat touch: if I run in front of a car, the car stops!

-I reach Caraway’s mansion. The guard needs to test me before letting me in for my skills – Rinoa seems to know Caraway since she thinks it’s in character for him to do this.

-I thought the test would be to fight the guard, but it seems he’s interested in other skills. He wants us to get a code from the Tomb of the Unknown King.

-Weird. Apparently, lots of students want to see Caraway and get the same test. A student was given the test yesterday and hasn’t returned. Someone we know?

-There seems to be a difficulty setting for this task. I get a map, and once I find the lost student’s ID number I can auto-exit the tomb, but doing so would lose me a SeeD rank. (Speaking of which, I should take the next test.)

-He warns us to not go farther in the Tomb than we need to. I honestly don’t know if this is a challenge, an honest warning against monsters that are above our level, or just hyperbole. But damned if it doesn’t escalate my curiosity.

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Galbadia Overworld

-Decided to head immediately to the Tomb rather than seeing more of the city for now.

-Y’know what? I’m gonna give Diabolos another try.



-Blizzara doesn’t do as much damage to him as I had hoped.

-OMG I JUST SAW “ANGELO CANNON” – RINOA LOADS UP ANGELO INTO HER CROSSBOW THING AND FIRES HIM AT DIABOLOS





THIS IS THE BEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THINGS

-HOLY SHIT I BEAT HIM



-Rinoa was dead, Irvine was dead, and Squall had literally 6 HP left. And I beat him. Hahhahah YES

-I scanned Diabolos when I was sure I wasn’t going to beat him and saw he was weak against wind. My next step if I lost would’ve been to load up the Quezacotl GF and Aero. But apparently boosted Shiva, some well-timed Renzokuken from Squall, and A FUCKING PUPPY CANNON was enough.

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Deling City

-Actually heading back into the city – I want to head to the shopping arcade to pick up some potions and tents, and then the hotel to heal up before moving on. Low on supplies.

-oh wow, I’m still on an adrenaline rush from that fight. Honestly thought I’d lose.

-Remodeled Quistis’s whip from a Chain Whip to a Red Scorpion, Rinoa’s Pinwheel to a Rising Sun,

-Rested up at the Galbadia Hotel and found another old issue of Timber M*****s. Must be a bonus thing.

-There’s a ceremony tomorrow, but not sure what kind. My guess is that it’s the ceremony where Vinzer introduces the sorceress to the city and Irvine shoots her, but we’ll see.

-I junctioned Diabolos to Squall. There are two abilities he has that really intrigue me: Darkside and Mug. Don’t know what Darkside does, but Mug is a known and wonderful quantity. Changes Attack to Mug. I figure Squall is my main physical attacker, so him being able to steal stuff will help.

-Btw, the Diabolos card is pretty awesome.


Walking around the city.

-Some wandering around Deling City, and I now have a decent idea of which sections connect with which despite not being able to picture the full layout in my head. Interesting – and no doubt, deliberate – choice by the designers to not include a map.

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SeeD Test #2

-I’m not going to make it to the tomb this session, but want to knock out the next SeeD test.

-Let me note here the questions that I’m not sure of:

#5) Being hit by a physical attack removes confuse. (I think true.)
#6) [up arrow] signifies junction ability. (I think true.)
#10) There is a limit to how much magic you can draw from monsters. (I said true, but actually misunderstood the question. I think there is a limit to how much you can draw, but that limit is defined by your stock capacity, not by the monster.)

-Changed my answer to the last one and got that right. Now at 90%. Maybe the confuse answer was wrong?

-No. The tutorial says confuse can be removed by attack. And the up arrow signifies junction ability. Hm.

-Aha! The tutorial said I was wrong about poison. It’s not just something that damages you periodically, but only when you do actions.

This always accessible tutorial is really one of the best additions to the FF series. I love it so much.



Success!

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Next time: Tomb of the Unknown King.