Overworld – Esthar: Talle Mountains, Kashkabald Desert
-Starting to get a slightly better sense of the geography of the world.
-Found a huge bridge with something awesome looking in the middle.
-I had thought Centra was a single landmass, but I was wrong. It appears to be half of one landmass, the western half of which is Esthar, as well as a massive destroyed crater and series of rocky islands to the north. What destroyed it and created the crater? I know from FFVII and FFIV:TAY that the series loves its meteors.
-Found my way in. Landed on the continent just across from Cactuar Isle. The Garden can’t get through, but there’s a pass I can walk through. “Esthar – Talle Mountains.”
-To the east, there’s an expansive desert. To the west, a mountain pass. Which way? Hm. Let’s try… east.
-OH HELL YES!
Hola, gracialsgc!
Though my li’l buddy runs away quickly, as Cactuars are wont to do.
-This is the Kashkabald Desert.
-New enemies and making judicious use of Scan for tactics. Like, an Abyss Worm attacked. Scan told me that it retaliates with Quake, so used the Siren GF to silence it before attacking.
-The Cactuars always run away. New strategy: I’m having Pandemona learn “Initiative” which will let me attack immediately. Once she learns that I’ll try again.
-Finally killed two Cactuars. !!!!! GOT 40AP?? Wow. Farm Central right here.
-Chimeras are just as nasty in FFVIII as they are in any other game.
-THERE IT IS AGAIN
FINALLY FOUND IT
-IT’S A LITERAL UFO CARRYING A PYRAMID IN ITS TRACTOR BEAM I HAVEN’T SEEN IT SINCE LIKE THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME??? Can’t target it. Can’t see what its name is.
-I won’t say heading to the Kashkabald Desert was the wrong choice since I got to see Cactuars and the devastatingly tough Chimera and that frigging weird-ass UFO, but Ellone doesn’t seem to be here. Let’s head the other way.
-Actually, I can head south a bit. The Shalmal Peninsula. Some forests here.
-oh god. One of these forests is a chocobo forest.
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The Enclosed Forest
-Ok. Chill, Coldrun. Give it a little bit of a try. The music is annoying, but deal with it a bit, see what’s here, then leave.
-This is the “Enclosed Forest.” “Collect on outer side, then go in.” I’ll start my sonar on the outside edge of the forest.
-There’s some puzzle here. As I collect the chicks in a random order, some come down and then leave. I have to find the right order. What counts as the outside and then what counts as in?
-Woohoo! Victory. Got the chocobo to come out.
-WAIT A SECOND
-Apparently, I may not be quite done in the forest yet.
-I keep pinging, and now instead of getting three pips I get two sometimes, and the red sonar bar filled up at one particular spot. Let’s try the ziner here.
-oh god a thing is happening, the big mama chocobo came to me and started pecking the ground
-THE METEOR STONE WTFFFFFFF
-THE HOLY STONE WTFFFFFFF
-THE ULTIMA STONE WTFFFFFFF
-I guess they’re not that great since they’re single use items, but still! That’s a really neat prize.
-I’m trying to figure out why this was more fun than the Forest of Solitude. Maybe I was just more mentally and emotionally prepared to take my time and knew what I was looking for. I also used the hint more actively, treating it as a puzzle and not just a needle-in-a-haystack.
-Basically, the change was in me.
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Overworld
-Rode my chocobo with li’l Boko by my side a bit east, but I noticed I was no longer in Esthar. I’m in Centra again. The Almaj Mountains and Lolestern Plains. Hm. Gotta go back to Esthar I guess to explore better.
-Yeah – Esthar is just this eastern half of the continent ringed by the Talle Mountains.
-I don’t really feel like searching on foot over ground I’ve already trodden. The encounter rate is too high for my tastes, even with the half-encounter ability equipped. Going to grab a chocobo to explore.
-Huh. No luck. I really expected to find a city or something, the place the soldiers are from.
-Ok. Searched for a while and starting to get a bit frustrated.
-Rode back to Edea’s House to see if she or Cid have anything new to say
lolnope
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Forest of Fun
-I guess I hadn’t solved the puzzle last time for this place, so will give it a shot.
-The hint here is “Chocobowling with 4 bottles, 1 ball.” Bottles must be a strange translation of pins. I can call down chicks in sort of a bowling-pin formation, and there’s one farther away that’s probably the ball. I’ll try calling that one down last.
-hahahahaha - I got them all down, then talked to the “bowling ball” chocobo. He walked up away from the formation of other chicks and charged at them, making them fly away. XD
-Found the sonar spot afterwards.
Mama Chocobo did her thing and gave me Meteor Stone, Flare Stone, and Ultima Stone. Nice!
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Overworld
-Back to Esthar, and I got nothing. Xu and Quistis on the Garden sure think we’re supposed to go to Esthar, but there’s just a desert and open land here.
-Simply at a loss here. No other way to put it. I’ll check out the continent to the northwest of Esthar in case that place is also Esthar?
- No way to access the continent to the northeast of Esthar by Garden. There must be something here I’m missing.
-Fought in the forests here a bit. They’re different and I had hopes of triggering a Yuffie-esque story thing. No luck. Just monsters.
I’ve been wandering Esthar looking for anything that might look like a city or a ship or really anything that might help me progress.
-The game got me pumped up to head to Esthar, the secretive and secluded country, ringed by mountains, filled with weird soldiers, formerly led by the Sorceress Adel. I get there, and spend two fucking hours walking around doing random encounters.
At least I finally got the Diabolos No-Encounter ability.
-Just. So. BOOOOOORED.
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Next time: more wandering Esthar trying to find Ellone I guess. If I weren’t doing this project, I’d have looked up a hint or guide long ago, and may still end up doing it if I don’t find what I’m supposed to do by the end of the next session. My immediate next step is to try wandering around the Balamb Garden in case someone there will tell me “Oh, btw, play the magic flute in the middle of the desert and the sunken city of Esthar will rise up” or some damn thing. Maybe I'll even be able to interact with Rinoa.
