Friday, January 22, 2016

FFVIII – Part 39: Quiet Little Mountain Town

Summary: A relaxed domestic session of Laguna’s life in Winhill. We meet Ellone and Raine and wander the town. Reunion with Kiros.


Winhill – Vacant House

-We’re starting with “Uncle Laguna.” Someone with “funny clothes” is here to see him, talking to someone named Raine.

-His niece is named Elle.

-Before going forward, I just have to say how nervous I am right now. It’s hard to describe, since I really don’t know what’s coming, but there’s just no way that it’s any good.

A good comparison is around the midpoint of FFV. The party in Galuf’s world had just fought Exdeath, got knocked out, and woke up in their home. Everything was fine. There was dancing! And joy! And I just KNEW shit was about to go down because shit had just GONE down and been left totally unresolved.
http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2014/10/ffv-par...

Yeah. That’s this.

-Hm. He is worried about monsters getting Elle outside.



-Elle (short for Ellone) is adorable. SUPER adorable.

-Just saw that we’re in “Winhill – Vacant House.” Winhill is a town affiliated with Galbadia from what I remember.

-The music is like a children’s lullaby.

-Laguna heads downstairs. The walls are bullet-riddled.



-Laguna is such a great and likeable uncle! Though something about their interaction makes me think they may not be biologically related, that she’s an orphan and he’s just someone who happens to care for her. Or I could be 100% wrong.

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Around Winhill

-Some soldiers are in the town square, and he’s friendly with them. The soldiers worry whether Esthar will attack, but this is apparently two years after we last saw the Laguna Trio and Esthar hasn’t come yet.

-OH. This is the past. These are Galbadian soldiers, and the Sorceress rules Esthar now but not Galbadia. I guess that magazine I saw magazine I saw in the sewers on Laguna that I picked up with the Gateway SeeDs was just a continuity mistake. Np.

-He wasn’t kidding about monsters. A caterpillar and bug attacked me (the bug casting “Fart” which made Laguna berserk lol). Drew slow, stop, thundaga, curaga. Serious heat. Not sure if the game will include the x-aja as a fourth spell rank or if x-aga is the highest. I’ll best x-aja.

Laguna tells a soldier in the streets that the Esthar soldiers kidnap little girls. “But why would they do that?” I ask myself.



FJDLSFHDKLSFHDLSFHDJKLS MIND BLOWN TO BITS

I was 100% certain that Edea was the same Sorceress who ruled Esthar. Didn’t even question it. Just assumed she used magic to stay young. But apparently Sorceress is a title and they have successors and holy shit.

This has got me wondering whether Ellone will get kidnapped and become Edea (that’s my prediction right this second), or maybe whether Edea is really still Adel but with a new name. Dunno. If Edea is Ellone, it’s possible that an older Laguna will save the day by touching Edea/Ellone with the POWER OF FAMILY AND LOVE or something like that.

-Fully stocked up on Slow in a random battle against a caterpillar.

-Before I enter the pub, I wander around the town. This is really a beautiful, idyllic village.



I’m assuming it’ll get burned or invaded or destroyed shortly. I’ve played FF games before. I know it’s where joy goes to die.

-An old woman in a flower shop comments on how dull it must be here, how she thinks Laguna may want to return to Deling City.



[By the way, I assume that Kiros and Ward recovered from their injuries too, but no confirmation yet.]

-Holy crap, this town is huge. I’m beginning to regret not having just done the pub thing immediately… but you never know when exploration might be snatched away from you by the plot moving along.

-Found a caterpillar with Thundaga AND Curaga AND Stop… I want to draw them all, but I don’t want to sit here for 60+ rounds drawing. I’ll hold off until I have a few party members to help.


Caterchipillars aren’t known for their respect for personal space.

-Man, fuck these Bite Bugs I keep running into. They poison me and I don’t have a lot of Antidotes.

-The whole town outside that main square looks abandoned. The hotel, the residences.

-They sure like flowers here.

-Not everywhere’s abandoned I guess. There’s an item shop that reacts really negatively to Laguna. They ask after Raine, who is “doing fine.” Raine is female.

SHOP OWNER: “That’s good. But it’d be even better if you left!” The fuck? What the hell did Laguna do?

-Explored everywhere I can in town. Back to the square.



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Winhill – Pub

-Raine scolds Ellone gently. We get to see some more Laguna and Ellone adorableness. This is great.



-Hi, Kiros!

-While it’s been two years since Esthar attacked, it’s only been one year since the escape from Centra. Raine nursed Laguna back to health.

-AWWWW – Kiros has been searching for Laguna ever since!



We haven’t spent much time with the Laguna plot and this is still a fantastic friendship. I don’t necessarily ship it… but I don’t not ship it, if that makes sense.

-Both Ward and Kiros quit the army. Ward is a janitor at the D-District Prison. (The one in the desert?) Oh He lost his voice entirely.

-Kiros doesn’t know what’s up with Julia, but to my surprise, Raine does. Or at least she knows Julia, who’s apparently a famous pianist. She released a song, “Eyes on Me.”



(Possible lyrics: “I know greatness lies in you,/ but remember from here on in/ history has its eyes on you.”)

-Julia recently got

wait what!!!!!?!?!??

Julia recently got married to GENERAL CARAWAY. Are you telling me Julia is possibly Rinoa’s mom? Or am I seeing coincidences where they aren’t?

RAINE: “I read in a magazine that her true love went off to war and never came back.”

Good. Great. My heart’s right here, so keep on punching. Why not?

LAGUNA: “So what? Who cares? As long as she’s happy, that’s all that matters, right?”

That’s right, keep punching game. I'm right here.

-Laguna tells Kiros he thinks the faeries are here. Uh.

-Kiros plans to stick around for a bit. Time for Laguna to go to work, doing… something?

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Next time: more Winhill.