Tag: Galbadia

Read the earlier sections of my FF8 replay:
From Balamb to Timber
From Galbadia to the Assassination
From Prison to a Floating Garden

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Fisherman’s Horizon

Rinoa is good for Squall, getting him out of his head and going for a walk around Garden. He’s good for her too, with his tendency to think things through rather than act impulsively. Video game romances rarely read as relatable to me, but Squall and Rinoa totally do! I love them.

• The mayor of Fisherman’s Horizon lives in the middle of a giant solar panel? …Okay. If that weren’t bad enough, he’s made out to look ridiculous for wanting to talk to the Galbadian soldiers who have appeared looking for Ellone. Squall gives him a bit of credit, saying it would be great if fighting weren’t necessary, but this is a game about mercenary children. It was never going to be pacifist.
• Zell, Selphie, and Irvine pop out of the machine that was just trying to kill Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis (from my group alignment, anyway), which is strange! Were they pranking us?? Why does no one ask why they attacked?
• Squall is internally happy to see them, and Rinoa calls him on it. It is great!

Squall is then named leader of the mobile sorceress-hunting Garden without his consent. A student was given control over a war school over all of the teachers. There is a lot happening right now that requires significant suspension of disbelief! However, I’ll give it a pass, because being thrust into leadership triggers all of Squall’s fears. He doesn’t want to be responsible for everyone in case he cannot protect them. He’s just a big squishy marshmallow, and I adore this game for revealing that their taciturn loner is not actually cool – he’s just scared.

• The amateur band performance is such a fun mini-game.
• Lesbian Irvine (this is now canon in my mind) is very invested in setting up Squall and Rinoa, and it’s so cute! Something else that is cute is Rinoa telling Squall that his friends know he’s going to take on this responsibility by himself, but that he has to remember that they are here with him.
• It’s a new era with a mobile Garden that allows playing in a bigger world map! Xu suggests they check out Balamb, where the Galbadia Garden is…also floating. Copy cats.

Balamb

• Finding “the captain” is such a runaround, and I spent way too much time figuring it out. Thank goodness it turns out to be Raijin (with general Fujin)! We have to fight them again, and they are hard! Squall further reveals his inner softie by letting them go when they say they’re going to stay with Seifer because he’s their friend.
• Selphie then brings up a storyline that feels ages ago…remember those other bombs that Galbadia set off? The ones that hit Trabia Garden? She wants to go there.

Trabia Garden

• Many of the students are still alive, trying to restart their lives in the crater of a school that’s left. The trauma is understated, but hit me hardest when I found the graveyard, and one of the tombstones had a jacket draped over it.
• When Rinoa says she wishes there were a way to end this without bloodshed, Squall goes deep into inner monologue. She continues to win my heart by telling him, “If you don’t voice your feelings, I can’t understand.”

Orphanage reveal! When I was a kid playing this game, I thought this reveal was SO COOL. They all grew up together! But forgot because their connection to Guardian Forces eats away at their memories! Whoa!

As an adult, I cannot help fixating on how weird this is. Why would Irvine not say something before this, even accidentally? Quistis says her love for Squall was about being his big sister, which….okay. When they realize the GFs are affecting their minds, they SUPER QUICKLY agree to keep it up. Guys! You might someday forget this very conversation! This is not sustainable! And Sorceress Edea is Matron, aka their mom, but they’re soldiers so they’ll still kill her. (This revelation makes Irvine’s inability to shoot her in Galbadia make so much more sense!)

Shumi Village

• Also on the Northern continent, this little village is super cool. I love the weirdness of going down an elevator to a lush forest landscape with advanced technology.
• There is a draw point that costs 5,000 Gil to use, but it’s Ultima so okay!
• There is a statue of Laguna, and we learn that moombas (aka fire dogs) are the final form of Shumis, which is just so weird and delightful.
• Continuing the weird theme is the scavenger hunt for stones that winds up in a prize of…seeing the elders hands! Wah wah.

Galbadian Garden

• It’s too easy to just find the orphanage and get some answers…instead we have to fight Galbadia, flying garden against flying garden! It actually is super cool, with some great cutscenes of flying ramp motorcycles and attacking soldiers as Seifer watches with a grin.
• Zell decides the middle of a battle is the right time to ask for Squall’s ring, and then everyone is SO WEIRD about Squall prioritizing the safety of an entire school over Rinoa. “You’re the one that has to save her.” Um, why!? He’s kinda busy, and it’s his literal job to take care of everyone; a role that you guys all JUST SAID you would help him accomplish.
• I just realized that Squall has a cropped leather jacket.
• Squall DOES rescue Rinoa, though, and the mini-game of punching a soldier while floating over a battlefield was pretty cool! They then flirt over lions, and this relationship is heating up, omg omg! Squall says it’s so obvious that everyone wants them together that even he noticed.
• We have to run, run, run all over the garden to get keys that lead us to our final Raijin and Fujin interaction. They’re done with Seifer and all the chaos he has caused.
• Seifer continues to be very gay (no wonder I shipped Squall/Seifer as a wee one) and demands that Squall kneel before him.

The final battle with Sorceress Edea is pretty easy, but that’s because it isn’t the final showdown like everyone thought! Instead, she regains her sanity and Rinoa gets woozy. She heals Seifer before passing out, which is very alarming! Edea asks if she succeeded in saving Ellone, which is very strange! Everything is topsy turvy, and unfortunately, it seems like “sorceress” is a possessing spirit who is now in Rinoa. Dun dun dun!!

Read the first section of my FF8 replay: From Balamb to Timber and the second section: From Galbadia to the Assassination.

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Winhill

After the emotional intensity of the assassination – the creepy music, the endless obstacles, the successful and attempted murders – we get dropped into the cutest, most idyllic dream world scene yet. Laguna is recovering from the disaster at Esthar in the adorable village of Windhill at the home of tiny child Ellone and her mother Raine.

• A Galbadian soldier guarding the village mentions that Esthar is a country ruled by a sorceress. They kidnap little girls, looking for a successor to Sorceress Adel. Does this mean that sorcery is genetic? But not so much that the sorceress can give birth to a magical girl?
• Laguna’s Desperado limit break with a machine gun is hilariously over the top.
• Kiros shows up, having apparently been separated since being thrown off a cliff. This begs a very important question: Are there no communication devices in this world? There is technology to create a mobile building but not to call long distance?
• Julia, the singer that Laguna had a crush on, wound up marrying General Caraway. That means she is Rinoa’s mother!!
• Laguna has the cutest relationships. Little Ellone wants her mom to marry Laguna; she’s into it, but afraid of brining it up because she doesn’t think he would be satisfied living in a quiet town like Winhill. This is such a realistic concern, and it shows FF8’s mastery of romance once again (as previously discussed re: their care creating a love triangle between Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer).

Galbadia D-District Prison

Zell was also dreaming, but conveniently, he was Ward working as a janitor in a prison…this prison! The gang has been arrested for their attempted assassination, and Zell, Selphie, and Quistis share a cell. They escape their cell, recover their weapons, and begin an incredibly tedious section of the game where we run up and down and all around the floors of the very boring prison, pausing to switch GFs incessantly.

• Squall is being held separately, and Seifer is very excited to taunt and torture him. Sorceress Edea wants to know what SeeD is, as though there’s a secret behind their mercenary exterior, but neither Squall nor I know what they’re talking about.
• Seifer is excited to know that Squall saw him in his moment of glory, asking, “How did I look?” He loves being Squall’s nemesis, and let me be honest. The fanfic writes itself for this scene.

“This is the scene where you swear your undying hatred for me!”

• The fire dogs are awesome, and if you didn’t hate Galbadia already, the fact that they’ve apparently enslaved this cute lil guys is more than enough to make them our enemy. Maybe Selphie too, since she freakishly suggests skinning the fire dog and wearing it as a disguise.
• When the group rescues Squall, the fire dog squeaks, “Laguna” at him. Interesting.
• This whole section is just terrible. I am so relieved when the group escapes and leaves the corkscrew prison behind.

Galbadia Missile Base

After watching missiles be launched at Trabia Garden (sorry, Selphie), I sent the chaos team (Selphie, Zell, Irvine) to the Missile Base to prevent the same thing from happening to Balamb Garden. I’m not very invested in these characters, so I did feel a little bad when they assure each other, “Squall chose us because he believes in us!” …Sure.

They manage to mess with the launch, but can’t get out of the compound before the whole place explodes. RIP Selphie, Zell, and Irvine.

Balamb Garden

Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis basically teleport back to Balamb Garden, where they find the place up in arms as Garden Master NORG demands that the students find Cid.

• Squall gives very vulnerable reasons for wanting to help save Garden…in his head. His walls are breaking down internally at least!
• The group makes their way through a basement maze at Cid’s request, where they find secret tech that enables the Garden to…levitate. Sure.
• Everyone, including the headmaster, wants Squall to be responsible for flying the school. The whole storyline of Squall having leadership thrust upon him is a bit weird. He is competent, but utterly standoffish and rude. But he’s the hero of this game, so everything works in his favor. I shouldn’t complain, because it brings out his vulnerabilities, and I love it!
• Squall hates having nothing to do because he worries! Why, I also rely on being productive to avoid having to live in my own head. #relatable
• Rinoa asks for a tour, and I appreciate that the game remembers that she has never been here. It quickly devolves into another little quest, since Garden Master NORG is still pissed. He is a being unlike anything we have seen to this point, and he yells “Fushifuru” a lot. It’s…weird.
• NORG wants to give the sorceress Squall’s head to get her off Garden’s back. He doesn’t trust Cid because he’s married to Edea, which is fair! But Squall and co. kill him anyway.
• Cid fills in a few more gaps, explaining that Balamb Garden was created to kill sorceresses. Edea knew she might become one, but didn’t think it would actually happen. This implies that becoming a sorceress necessarily makes you evil. But why?
• A ship approaches the floating Garden bearing Sorceress Edea’s ninja SeeDs. This makes no sense, nor does the fact that Cid capitulates to their desire to take Ellone.
• Yes, Ellone! The little girl from Winhill is grown up (and is the woman Squall and Quistis saved in the training center after the SeeD ball). Squall finds her in the library, and she admits that she knows Squall is being sent into the past to live Laguna’s memories. She leaves, and Squall lays on his bed in the fetal position, overwhelmed with responsibility and fear.

“I’m not a child anymore. I have all the skills I need to survive. That’s a lie. I don’t know anything. I’m confused. I don’t want to depend on anyone. How can I do that?”

• We get our first flashback of baby Squall missing his Sis, and it’s very sad and cute!

That’s where we’ll end this section of my Final Fantasy 8 playthrough. Squall’s character is developing rapidly, and I love that his aloof lone wolf attitude is explicitly taken apart, revealing an inner child who is afraid of being alone with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I can’t wait to see what happens next!