Summary: This’ll be my last of these exam sessions for the moment. Getting to the point where it’s more guess and check than experience, which seems to go against the spirit of the tests. Also just feel like moving on.
Test #11
#1) “GF can regain HP while walking.” I.. don’t think so? But maybe. I’ve never had HP issues with my GFs before. Maybe that’s why. Starting with no, but may end up changing. – “YES.” Neat.
#2) “The Draw command must be set in order to use a draw point.” I’ve always had Draw equipped so not sure. I’ll say yes. – “YES.”
#6) “Adamantine is an item dropped by a level 10 Adamantoise.” Haven’t encountered one of those yet. I’ll say… no. That’s a pretty specific level. – “NO.”
#8) “Shiva can learn Doom right after becoming an ally.” Don’t remember if Doom is Shiva, but if so I think I got it pretty early. Yes? – “NO.” Took her a bit to reveal it.
#9) “Drain absorbs HP from enemies, but can’t be used to absorb HP from party members.” Probably right. – “NO.” This was a surprise to me. I guess you can have one party member spot-heal themselves by draining their buddy, though I’m not sure why I’d want to do this exactly when I could drain the enemy. …though maybe the enemy is undead and draining them would hurt? Pretty niche. Interesting.
-7/10 to start with. Most of the adjustments made sense.
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Test #12
#1) “Armadodo absorbs Earth attacks.” I think so. I remember that guy from the Tomb of the Unknown King. – “NO.” Good to know.
#2) “You can refine 20 Curas from 1 Healing Water by using L-Mag Ref.” No. That ratio sounds high. – “YES.” Nice way to stock up on Curas.
#3) “You receive EXP after the battle is won even when KO’d.” I feel like the GFs receive AP but the characters don’t receive EXP. No. – “NO.” Correct.
#4) “You can only draw GF from an enemy or defeat a GF to make them yours.” The only two ways I’ve seen at least. Yes. – “NO.” VERY interesting. I’ll have to keep on the lookout for other ways to get GFs then.
#6) “You can’t steal Sharp Spike from a Grand Mantis.” No idea. Yes? – “NO.”
#8) “Magic and GF commands are the only commands disabled by silence.” I answered yes to this, but forgot that other commands like Doom and Treatment and the like are probably also disabled by silence. No.
#9) “You can use Scan on party members.” OH GOD I DIDN’T EVEN THINK OF THIS! I hope the answer is yes. I now really want to scan our party members and see what it says. – “YES.” I’m really excited to try this out.
#10) “If you set Poison magic (100%) to ST-Def-J, you don’t receive damage from poisonous physical attacks.” Yes… I think this is the definition of what happens most of the time. Though I remember reading that some enemies could go around this. – “NO.”
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: Can you help me understand this? I struggled with this answer for a while, why it would be “no.” Best I can come up with is that if the attack were 100% poisonous maybe you’d absorb it, but if only a percentage of the attack were poisonous you’d only reduce its damage. Is this right, or am I missing something about how ST-Def-J works?]
-lol got 4/10 to start with. Ow. Worked up to 10/10.
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Test #13
#2) “You can mug blue spikes from a Chimera.” No idea. Start with yes. – “NO.”
#5) “GF Quezacotl can learn the Card Mod ability without using an item.” Have to check this. Yes? -- “YES.”
#7) “When a GF is KO’d, its compatibility goes down with the junctioned party member.” Dunno, and it could go either way. Start with no.
-9/10 on my first try, and the only one I missed was the pure guess about mugging a Chimera. This went way better than the last test.
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Test #14
#2) “In critical situations, Squall can use Renzokuken more often.” I doubt it. This was a thing in Crisis Core iirc, where Zack got significant boosts from tense situations, but not in FFVIII that I’ve seen. I think it’s just based on his HP. – “YES.” Huh. Curious. Maybe this means that in boss fights he has a higher likelihood.
#5) “Under Shell, magic damage is reduced to 1/4 of its usual amount.” I think it’s 1/2, but have to check to be sure. – “NO.” Correct.
#6) “There is a monster called Belhelmel.” I believe so. I’ll check the cards to make sure the spelling is right.
“YES.”
#9) “Cover only protects a party member standing next to you.” I don’t have this Brothers ability just yet, but based on prior FFs I doubt this is the case. More likely that it protects any party member with low health. – “YES.” Cool. I like this. I’ve been planning a strat to use Defend or Cover or something to help keep a Limit Breaking ally alive, so gotta remember to keep the person using Cover in the middle.
#10) “Pressing B1 continuously is the best way to use Boost.” B1 is the correct Boost button, but intermittent pressing > continuous because of that dang red x. – “NO.” Good, correct.
-Started 7/10. Some adjustments, then 9/10, and I thought I got the rest right… what am I missing? Time to take a look at some answers I took for granted.
#8) “Defeating enemies by physical attacks rather than magic attacks gives you more EXP.” I was certain the answer was no. – “NO.” And I was right. Huh.
#3) “Higher the Hit stat, higher the accuracy of physical attacks, but if the enemy’s evade is high, you still may miss.” I was sure this was true. But maybe you can get your hit high enough to be unmissable? -- “NO.” I was right the first time. Evade can still a high-HIT character miss.
#4) “Some items affect the compatibility value between GF and party members.” I thought this was true, that I saw items like this. – “YES.” I was right. Wtf am I missing?
OH. I think I see.
I misunderstood this. I thought it was saying that the only time you could use “Attack” was if no GFs were junctions or command abilities not set. Instead, it may be saying that under those circumstances, “Attack” is the only thing you can do. Which I think is true. Changing my answer here to “yes.” -- “YES.”
-Woohoo! Passed it. Let’s do one more, then move on.
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Test #15
#1) “Compatibility with GF increases as you summon them.” Sounds right.
#2) “It’s not possible for one member to hold all types of magic.” Not sure. I’ll say no to start.
The wording in some of the questions makes my head spin.
#5) “Confuse doesn’t make you attack yourself.” It did in past games iirc. I’ll say no.
#6) “You can refine Arctic Wind into Blizzard using an ability.” That sounds powerful. I’ll say no.
#7) “GF Cerberus can use the Spd Bonus ability.” THERE’S A CERBERUS GF?!?! Awesome! No idea. I’m also not going to test this out. I’ll learn when I get him.
-I’m just gonna stop here. I’ll take test #15 later. This was fun. I’m pleasantly surprised by how many tests the game provides.
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Next time: A little bit more learning. Just a bit! I want to read through the list of magic and statuses to see if there is anything new to learn, anything I’d assumed that’s not true. Then moving on with the story. I’ll do more tests gradually, a test every couple of sessions or something.
