I’m playing this again, and the one and only time I played this it confused the heck out of me. So I am following the plot very closely (even writing down plot points!), but I still have some questions.
I am up to defeating Norg in Balamb Garden. I’m confused about this stuff:
How did the Sorceress gain control of Galbadia?
She’s in control of Galbadia, how am I safe in Galbadia Garden and why am I getting a mission from Galbadia Garden to assassinate her?
I guess I understand why the Sorceress is going after Seeds. Why is Galbadia invading Dollet in the first place?
Is the Sorceress already in control, as the game opens? And we just don’t know?
And all of this doesn’t even include the whole Laguna aspect. (I dreamed…I was a moron.)
Please, remember I’ve already played this, so I don’t care if everyone goes spoiler-crazy. The major reason I never liked this is the plot points are so twisty-turny and don’t follow any sort of consecutive order. I know there are fans on the board, so I’m hoping they’ll have answers!
She sucked up to the president of Galbadia, gaining his trust, then Vader choked him in front of all of the citizens. For whatever reason the Galbadians eat this up and except her rule. I’m guessing mind control.
Errrr, I think initially the G-Garden was neutral, but the Sorceress gained control of it later on (mind control again?). Strike the first part. Initially G-Garden was anti-sorceress, as all gardens are, so that’s why they wanted her dead.
And come on, you can race chocobos while Meteor is hovering 5 feet above the Planet. You can play blitzball as Sin’s carcus rests on a city. Don’t sweat the small stuff, ya?
This one I know: To gain control of the only working satellite array to activate the floating Sorceress satellite to allow the dominant Sorceress to do her Rinoa possessing thing.
She’s behind the scene working her magic. She doesn’t overtly seize control 'til the parade.
I just finished Kingdom Hearts, the original yesterday. I highly recommend it. You get to smack around Yuffie (voiced by the woman who did Kim Possible), Squall (voiced by the guy who played Angel, Sephiroth (voiced by Lance Bass who actually did a very good job. Plus it made hitting Sephy a LOT more fun :)), and other PS era FF characters (Cloud, Tidus, Selphie, etc.). Only one gripe: Squall never says “whatever” in the game. Bullshit.
Anyway, I decided to replay FFVIII on the PS2 (I had played it on the PS the first time through). Long, story short (too late) after 20 minutes I finally got to the first save point only to be told that the game wouldn’t except my memory card. Apparently my generic brand card which is good enough for FFX and Kingdom Hearts isn’t good enough for FFVIII. Grrr! And I was really getting into it too. I forgot that you see Sissy while Squall’s at the nurse’s office.
I can’t remember answers to any of your other questions - but the Laguna thing gets explained at the end of the game: Whazzername (Rain’s sister/waif-orphan-minion) has the ability to put Squall’s conciousness into Laguna’s mind. But - contrary to what it may appear Squall is just watching, not controlling what’s going on. It turns out that Whazzername felt that Laguna abandoned her so she wanted to change the past - but since it was the past she couldn’t do it. It’s also shown in the last scene that Laguna is Squall’s daddy. And Rain was his mommy.
The Laguna sequences happen 20ish years in the past. Squall and Friends are having their spirits (and hence junctions) sent backwards in time by Ellone’s power (Ellone is Raine’s daughter, and also the mystery lady who you have to save at the very beginning of the game (when Quistis takes Squall to the training area)). He’s just some goofy goodhearted borderline incompetent with great battle music (so basically, the anti-Squall), who has adventures and eventually winds up leading a rebellion in Esthar.
Ellone’s doing it in an attempt to change the past (I don’t think she ever says exactly what she wants to change). After Squall makes her send him back in order to save Rinoa, she concludes that the past really can’t be changed by her power (though it demonstrably can be changed by the Ellone Machine that Ultimicea used, since she passes her powers to Edea, who gives them to Rinoa, who becomes Ultimicea).
Well, compared to the other SquareSoft hero I know (Cloud) he’s got brains, spine and character. I still wish he’d have been a bit more active. There were a few times I wanted to make him do something that seemed obvious to me, and he wouldn’t. And they kept coming back to bite me on the ass.
All the Gardens are anti-sorceress, but not sorceresses are inherently evil, are they? There’s Rinoa, and even Edea was married to Cid and seemed calm enough back then. Just… something happened?
You know, the last and only time I played this rinoa really annoyed me until about halfway through. This time? For whatever reason, she’s totally charmed me and I think she’s really sweet. i actually felt bad when we had the fight by the concert.
