Tuesday, March 8, 2016

FFVIII – Part 64: Salt Lake City

Summary: Breakthrough! The team sets out on a journey together, crossing a dried up salt lake and arriving in Esthar.


Balamb Garden

-Forgot to check in on Rinoa last time. I do now.

-Oh. Wow. I guess I should’ve done that earlier. Squall goes into the infirmary, picks Rinoa’s unconscious body up, piggybacks her, and leaves in the hopes that Ellone will solve things.



-Uh.

-Squall.

-Dude.

-I appreciate your care and love for Rinoa. But maaaaybe carrying her on your back and leaving everyone without notice to wander Esthar isn’t the best idea?



-This is pretty strange. He walks out the plank and is just going.

-That’s dead weight you’re carrying too.

-Little montage. It’s sunset. He’s still carrying her.



-Nice music here. He starts to doubt himself and the logistics of his plan. (Btw, can you imagine how freaked out Dr. Kadowaki must be to have left the infirmary briefly and find her main patient gone?0

SQUALL: “(I………. sure have changed.)” I’ll say. I like it.

-I’m pretty confused on the logistics here. We parked outside Deling City and he just started walking. Now he’s on some train tracks with unconscious Rinoa, but no idea where.

SQUALL: “To tell you the truth, I worry too much what others think of me. I hate that side of me. That’s why I didn’t want anyone to get to know me. I wanted to hide that side of myself. I hate it. ‘Squall is an unfriendly, introverted guy.’ It made it easy for me when people perceived me that way. That’s a secret between you [unconscious Rinoa] and me, got that?”

This is so wonderful. Bless Squall.

-I get to move around with him a bit and see that he’s on the “Horizon Bridge.”

-He picks her up and keeps walking.

-Squall reaches a train station, one that I have to presume goes to Esthar. Zell and Quistis are there, waiting for him! Huh. I guess they knew where he’d go with Rinoa.

-And they immediately rib him a bit with some sleeping beauty stuff.



-They came here with him to the station towards Esthar because.. they’re Edea’s guard. Sorceress Edea strolls in from the side of the screen.

This is awesome. I love this team up so much!

-Edea wants to go to Esthar to see Doctor Odine. The name is familiar – I think it’s the guy who discovered the amulet that Rinoa thought could stop Edea/Ultimecia.

Edea knows that Ultimecia can still control Edea’s body, and wants to prevent that.

-Holy shit! No half measures for Edea. She wants Odine to remove her sorceress power completely if it’s possible.

-Selphie and Irvine show up. They had went ahead to scout.

IRVINE: “Esthar’s on this continent, right? It’s huge! I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”

RIGHT THERE WITH YOU BUDDY. RIGHT. FUCKING. THERE. WITH. YOU.

He checked, north, south, and west. Now he wants to check east.

Dude. Broseph. My man. I CHECKED EAST.

Whatever. Let’s try now.

-!!!!YES!!!?!?!? ahahahah Edea is in my party!



-We’re at the seaside train station. I have no earthly idea how we got here from Deling City, but I’ll roll with it.

-There’s a snowy gaping hole to the east. We head there. It’s like a little patch of winter. We’re gonna cross it.

-Edea warns us that if Ultimecia ever invades her again, possesses her, we’ll have to kill her.

-There’s a part of me that knows it’s possible that she’s faking. That Ultimecia may have possessed her once again and is really pretending to be Matron Edea in the hopes of finding Ellone with us. Then going all “MWA-HA-HA!! You FOOLS led me right to her!” Like Exdeath in splinter form. But if I’m being honest, I doubt this is the case.

-hahahaha – Selphie is so positive. 
 
 
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Esthar – Great Salt Lake

On the minimap, we’re on that continent I couldn’t reach northwest of the desert. I was sort of right before. Esthar is much more than that desert and the area ringed by the Talle Mountains.

-Played a random dude at the train station in Triple Triad. Random, One. Lost Seifer. Yeah, I’m pretty much done caring about cards at this point in the game. I’ll play! But I lose so much in the scenarios where I pick random cards, get awful cards plus a rare, and lose the rare. The rules aren’t remotely fun anymore. Sorry.

-The music here is so peaceful in a wintry way. Really complements the GINORMOUS DINOSAUR SKELETONS.




-Nasty enemies here. Vysage. A head and a bunch of hands, “Lefty” and “Righty” (lol), emerging from the ground. One of them uses Meteor on me.

-Speaking of which, I found a Meteor draw point. Nice!

-This place is eerie. It’s not just skeletons. It’s like the monsters here were somehow petrified.

-HOLY MOTHER OF PETE

-A monster just jumped out of a crevasse to scare the crap out of me and attack. Boss time.


Abadon.

-Tried Phoenix Down, but it missed.

-Weak against Holy.


“Alexander! Don’t forget to smiiiiite…”


”k np”

-Victory! This was one of the few battles where Squall was fairly useless. The all-stars were a Triple-powered Edea using cure magic on the boss and Zell summoning Alexander. Tough fight - the fact that we’re alive is a miracle.

-Something strange is happening. There’s a staticky symbol that keeps appearing on the screen. Force field? Telepathy? Not sure.

-A little stuck. Maybe I have to find the right spot to click on the static…. Yes!

-A hole opens up in the air.



I KNEW Cauldron was involved! (apologies – I’ve been reading too much Worm of late.)

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Mystery Building

-The funky porn music from one of the earlier sessions is back.

-Esthar must be super high tech. (I’m working on the assumption that this “Mystery Building” is a main city or entrance to a city in Esthar.) Camoflage technology, skybox.



The staticky thing I saw earlier must’ve been one of these panels fritzing out a bit.

-Zell doesn’t know what the point of this is, but if Esthar is so hermetic and secretive, seems pretty straight-forward.

-An elevator takes us upstairs.

-THAT’S AWESOME!




The sky changes, revealing a massive and beautiful city where once was the empty land beyond the Salt Lake.

-The platform they’re on sweeps them deeper into the city. I’m tearing up with how beautiful and surprising and creative this place’s design is.

-Ellone must sense us. A loud whistling sound takes over, signaling an incoming trip to the past.



Sending Squall, Zell, and Quistis.

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Next time: the past.