Game - Final Fantasy 8, Day 60
Hours Played/Hours Total - 20 hrs / 76 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Deep Sea Research Center.
Current Goal - Rescue Rinoa. Find Ellone. Stop Ultimecia and save the world!
What Happened - As previously mentioned, I already missed my goal, but I won't be delaying by too much! This will be the last post for FF8...if it has to drag on for many more days than it should. It'll probably be fairly lengthy, so just warning you right now. However, I don't lack a whole lot outside of a few side quests, a lot of story, and the ending area. To start off, I'm going to work on a few side quests before moving towards the end. Let's get to it! (The twenty hours was done over like 3 days...so yeah.)
First on my list of side quests...a two parter! I'm going to go into the Deep Sea Research Station (that I just recently found) and retrieve the final two Guardian Forces I am missing (Bahamut and Eden). This would be no easy task, but the benefits would be well worth the time I spend doing it. Along the way, I might obtain some extra items that I desperately need for Ultimate Weapons. Worst case, I won't get them all, but I would most certainly like to! Back to the task at hand, I landed on the station and went inside.
The first thing that happens is a mysterious voice speaking to me. After that, I see a giant core in the middle of the room, and it starts to glow. I barely take a step and am thrusted into a battle. I easily and quickly deal with it, but the next step proves about the same. Basically, you have to time your movement through here based on the core's spinning. To put it simple, you stop when it glows and move when it isn't. This is fairly easily accomplished as I cross the room. I slip up a time or two, but none of these enemies seem to prove much of a challenge. Upon reaching the core, the voice speaks to me again and starts asking me questions. If I answer right, I battle a monster and proceed to the next question. If I answer wrong, I battle a monster, and then I get to try again. This would be simple enough...if the enemy wasn't ridiculously hard! The enemy is the Ruby Dragon. Seriously, it was a mini-boss of sorts a ways back in the game, but it seems that higher levels of the monster are insanely improved. One of its attacks is called Breath, and this is strong enough to wipe out weaker party members while bringing the rest to their knees. I got to fight 3 of these in a row before finally confronting the voice. I barely managed to survive, and then I am given the gift of BOSS BATTLE TIME!
For this round, I'm fighting the ever popular and all-powerful Bahamut! It is also one of the two last GFs that I am hunting down. I was expecting a harsh and grueling battle with the gigantic dragon god!...But that didn't happen. It was easier than the Ruby Dragon. Yup...easier than the Ruby Dragon. To be fair, it never used it's ultimate attack Mega Flare, but even with that, I doubt it would have improved the challenge. I pumped up my people with all the regular buffs (Haste, Protect, Shell) and just starting wailing on the dragon. After not as much time as you'd think, it surrendered to me and joined the team. Wooo! Bahamut is MINE! With Bahamut obtained, the core in the room was destroyed, and it seemed that there was nothing left there for me. I knew better of course and left for just a few minutes. I got back in the ship, took off, found a place to save in the ship, and then landed back down. Upon reentering the research center, I found that something had changed about it. The hole left by the core destruction had randomly grown a spire of sorts. This allowed me to climb down and further explore this mysterious complex.
Upon climbing down, I found myself under the ocean in the research complex. I examined a nearby computer, and it explained the situation to me. The Deep Sea Research Center had multiple layers that spiraled downward into the ocean, and at the very bottom, there is some sort of excavation site. There's obviously something down there, but I can't just waltz down to it. The station has a "steam power reserve" with only 20 units left. Using the 20 units, I have to climb downward through the floors and try to reach the excavation site. On top of this, I need at least 10 of those units to activate something down there. Lucky for me, I had a guide on hand, and this allowed me to easily work my way through this puzzle. None of the monsters along the way through the research center were any real trouble. Once I reached the excavation site, it did ramp up a bit. It was a strange cave with what looked like remnants of a civilization. I had to climb downward into the depths while dealing with more monsters. These proved slightly more challenging than those in the station. One of these enemies is the ever famous Behemoth. They've been a staple enemy since the beginning and always offer a great challenge, and FF8's version of it was true to that belief. This particular one liked to counter attacks with the Meteor spell. Meteor isn't the strongest spell, but it is most certainly an annoying one. After the long trek to the bottom, I found myself in front of a strange body of water with a crane going into it. With the last 10 units of steam power, I activated the crank. This caused the alarm to sound out with "EVERYBODY EVACUATE EXCEPT THE LEADER!" This was obviously a prerecorded message from the previous group, but it was definitely ominous...and for a reason! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
For this round, I was using Selphie, Squall, and Irvine to fight the menacing side boss....Ultima Weapon! (Been a while since I posted a picture, so I looked up one for Ultima Weapon. Been terrible about spicing these posts up...)
I'm not going to fully explain what all I did, but let's just say this ruined my finishing this on Tuesday. I spent 10 hours of playing, and around 7 of that was easily just for hunting down monsters for items. Could I have done it easier? Probably, but the way I went about it was supposed to be fairly easy. Let me tell you, it most definitely wasn't! I had to use multiple guides and constant flying to find all the different monsters. You see, FF8 runs on a different weapon systems than any of the previous titles. You use items that you buy/find/refine from cards/steal off enemies/hope drops off enemies to upgrade all of your weapons. This is fairly easy at first, but the rarity and difficulty of the items drastically increases as you try to create the bigger and better weapons. This was expected, but I was met with a harsh reality of bullshit. The majority of the items I was looking for were "drop only" items. I had to fight specific enemies at specific levels and HOPE they drop the correct item. Each enemy has a possibility of dropping anywhere from one type to four types of items based on their level. Majority of what I needed was incredibly rare and had a low drop percentage. This meant hundreds of frustrating battles with enemies. Most of the battles were not even the right damn enemy either! I spent a majority of my time just trying to run into the ONE enemy I needed to. I must have been doing something wrong because at one point, things got insanely frustrating and angry-fying. I just needed to find a Blue Dragon. All I needed from it was Dragon Fangs....three hours went into finding it. Out of that time, I managed to level Squall to 100 and fought hundreds of battles. I started running from the more frustrating enemies so to speed it up. I ONLY MET THREE BLUE DRAGONS DURING THIS ORDEAL! If that isn't bullshit, I don't know what is. Despite all my anger towards it all, I managed to complete this quest and get everybody's Ultimate Weapon! The most notable of all the weapons is Squall's ultimate weapon...the Lion Heart! It's a blue glowing blade of coolness, and on top of that, it unlocks Squall's final limit break ability...Lion Heart! (They didn't expand on names too much it seems...) I've rambled long enough, so I'm going to return to the story.
The first thing on the list...go rescue Rinoa! This was a fairly easy task. All I had to do was go to the Sorceress Memorial. Once there, the guards let me immediately in since they thought I was just saying bye to Rinoa. However, the group immediately took control in the Memorial, and Squall went in to get Rinoa. She wasn't sure about doing it, but Squall promised to protect and stay by her regardless of anything that happened. After that, the group ran off and attempted to escape. It seemed that we weren't going to get too far, but a random big guy showed up and let us out. Squall thought he recognized him but didn't pay him much mind outside of that. The group took off and was flying away from the memorial. Rinoa wanted to see the orphanage, so I flew on over to the broken down orphanage. Once there, I went inside and her dog ran by into a different area. I followed after it into a large field of flowers. Once there, the third character (Zell at this time) left Rinoa and Squall to talk. Rinoa described a dream to Squall of not knowing where he was and looking all over for him. She didn't want that dream to become reality, so Squall told her to meet him there. He said that if she was to look for him that he would be waiting in that flower field. As they were wrapping up, Zell came back by and talked about a message from Esther. They wanted to hire us to deal with the Lunatic Pandora and the Sorceress. The person who sent the request was named Kiros. With that in mind, I returned to Esther to learn about their plan.
Luckily for me, I found out a little something to avoid having to manually fly my spaceship everywhere. You can open the world map, go into the full view, select places, and autofly there. This saves lots of time, and it is nice to not have to always manually fly the ship. I flew into Esther and landed on their nice airship landing pad. I proceeded to the Presidential Palace and finally got to meet the President of Esther...Turns out it is Laguna Loire! Although mostly unimportant, I did ask how he became President. Basically, after rescuing Ellone, the group decided they owed the resistance in Esther. They worked together with the group and Odine to get Adel. They made a device capable of sealing the Sorceress. Next, they tricked Adel into going inside of the device by claiming that "Ellone" was there. She only somewhat fell for this, but Laguna managed to push her inside and seal her away. With that said and done, Esther was finally free of her rule. When deciding a new leader, Laguna was seen as a hero and thrust into the position. He wasn't necessarily okay with it, but in the end, he ended up sticking with it. Now...on to the plan!
He and his crew had figured up a plan to stop Ultimecia and save the world and time itself. Well...Dr. Odine had a plan. Basically, we knew that Ultimecia wanted to cast the spell known as Time Compression. This spell would cause all of time to exist at one point. We weren't sure WHY she wanted this, but she did. Odine figured she was using a machine that he was planning to construct based on Ellone's ability. However, she could only come back in time to inhabit a Sorceress's body. She also couldn't go back as far as she needed to and was in search of Ellone to send her back further in time. The biggest problem was that Ultimecia was going to go for Adel as opposed to Rinoa. To compensate for this, our first goal was to go and eliminate the revived Sorceress Adel. After that, Ultimecia would inhabit Rinoa's body. During THIS instance, Ellone would be used to send her back to the past where she wanted to be. Once this was done, Ellone would separate Rinoa from Ultimecia and bring her back to the present. (Personally, this seems like we are LETTING her win...but I guess I'm out of the loop somehow.) At this point, Time Compression would happen, but this would allow us to go through time to the future and defeat Ultimecia. Hopefully with her defeat, everything should return to normal. Laguna warns them that they'll have to use "love and friendship" to return to the present. With these details in mind, everybody, including Laguna and co, jumped on the Ragnarok and set off for Lunatic Pandora.
This resulted in one of the cooler cutscenes from the game. The group charged at the Lunatic Pandora with the Ragnarok. After forcing their way THROUGH the shield, we blasted a way in and began the plan. The first obstacle I ran into...BOSS BATTLE TIME! It was another round with our favorite duo Raijin and Fuujin. They were powered up and ready to give us a challenge! Unfortunately, all of my earlier level gaining threw me waaaay above them. I managed to beat them in only a few turns. Upon defeat, they retreated back further into the giant complex. I made chase and ran into Biggs and Wedge! I thought I had another battle on my hand, but then they both quit! Wedge was complaining about getting crappy jobs, and Biggs asked him why he didn't just quit. Wedge thought that was great! He went ahead and quit right there. The two of them walked out, and that was the end of that. I walked about the Pandora Lunatic for a little bit and finally worked my way around to Raijin and Fuujin. The two of them jumped back though and let me run into a giant flying robot for BOSS BATTLE TIME! This flying robot was an interesting battle, but he proved to be no real challenge either. He did have a powerful strike that shot everyone's health down to 1, but that was about it really. With his defeat, Rajin and Fuujin made another tactical retreat. I followed after them and finally came face to face with Seifer again. They had Ellone with them and were holding her captive. It looked like I was about to fight another big battle. Things went a bit differently though.
Raijin and Fuujin turned over Ellone and planned to leave Seifer. They said that they were always on his side to help him fulfill his dream, but his current goal wasn't his own. He was being controlled by Ultimecia, and they had to depend on Squall rather than him! (They made this seem fairly sad.) They cleared out and Seifer came at me for BOSS BATTLE TIME! This wasn't much of a battle, but it did have an interesting twist occur during it. Right as the battle starts, Odin comes flying in to take out Seifer. However, he wasn't about to go down that easily! As Odin went by Seifer, he got cut in two, and his sword was flung into the sky and caught by a mysterious hand. The battle continues on as usual...I spent most of my turns drawing the Aura spell off of Seifer. (Aura allows a character to easily use their limit break, so I had to monopolize on the situation!) After a bit, I started using a few limits on Seifer. I mostly struck out with Squall's limit. Everything was going pretty well, and just as I finished him, a follow up event from earlier came in. A mysterious figure clad in a red cape came down. He said something about Seifer giving him the fourth sword, and then he struck out against Seifer and took him down. (To translate that event, Odin was destroyed and replaced by Gilgamesh. He's one of the big names from FF5 if you remember!) Seifer wasn't about to go down without a fight. He grabbed Rinoa and ran off. I quickly chased after him.
Seifer had taken Rinoa to Adel to fulfill Ultimecia's plan somehow. As the group got there, Seifer tossed Rinoa to Adel. Adel came to life and junctioned Rinoa to herself somehow. Then...BOSS BATTLE TIME! This made for an interesting battle. Basically, Adel was one enemy, but Rinoa was in her chest and "junctioned" to her. I had to be careful who I attacked and had to keep healing Rinoa. Adel kept draining health from her. However, outside of managing this, Adel never dealt any real amount of damage. Even when she cast Ultima, I easily recovered from the minimal damage. I couldn't use any GFs in this battle because they would hit Rinoa. Otherwise, it was a real snap. With Adel's defeat, the plan was finally ready to go! /end Disc 3
Ultimecia seemed to possess Rinoa. Laguna came in with Ellone, and Ellone sent Rinoa into the past. A few moments later, Rinoa was brought back into the current time. As soon as she got back, Laguna and company ran off. I was left to sit there as everything around me started to...melt!? It seems that Time Compression was a go, and the group was falling through what appeared to be a stretch of sky with bubbles of "time" (assuming). They eventually found themselves in a strange ocean and began swimming through it. They had agreed beforehand to meet at the orphanage of the future. Eventually, they found themselves in STRANGE AND WEIRD BOSS BATTLE TIME! As they were cruising through time compression, images of past Sorceresses began to attack me. Every time I killed one, another took its place and was attacking me. The initial group of them was fairly easy and offered little challenge. Eventually, a hideous and mutated Sorceress worked into the warp of sorts and started fighting. This one had more health than the rest and lasted quite a bit. Seemed that everything was going okay, but then she started to count down. I wasn't sure what was coming and did my best to heal up and strike at her. Turns out...she cast Ultima on the party! It was better than the rest of her attacks, but it still proved quite pointless. I healed up and attacked the mysterious Sorceress unto defeat. With her defeat, the warp around us finally gave in and thrust us into the future. The group arrived at the orphanage and made their way around and out. Once outside, time fully changed around them, and I found myself right outside of Ultimecia's Castle. All around me was the fallen bodies of this timeline's SeeD members. They had attempted to fight Ultimecia and failed. I was going to change that! I charged into the castle and began the final dungeon.
Let me just say...Ultimecia's Castle is a pretty cool final dungeon. It's got a couple different puzzles and some interesting items. However, the biggest thing would be the seal on my abilities. As soon as I walked inside, I was robbed of all my abilities outside of Attack and the ability to Junction. This wouldn't have been much of a problem had it not taken away basically everything! I couldn't even save or heal while I was in the castle! However, this was easily rectified. For our final mission of sorts, we split into two teams to take on the challenges of the castle. For my main team, I had Squall, Zell, and Selphie. For the secondary team, I was left with Irvine, Quistis, and Rinoa. With my teams assembled, I was ready to take on this dungeon!
I didn't have to go too far to run into the first boss. This would be the very first boss of many (8 not including Ultimecia). BOSS BATTLE TIME #1! The first boss was a giant sphinx creature. I call it a boss because it had the appearance and aura of a boss, but I managed to kill it in 2 full rounds of attacks. With its defeat, I reclaimed my Magic ability and explored the castle more. If nothing else, Ultimecia's Castle has some pretty cool music. Really enjoyed it as I walked about. My next target was located beneath the castle in a cellar of sorts. I charged at it for BOSS BATTLE TIME #2! This boss was a flying/floating beast with three points on it. The only strategy necessary for him was "junction thundaga to my elemenal defense." The only attack he got off was his counterattack Mega Spark. He used it after every physical attack, so that made the battle take three to four times longer than it should have. Upon his defeat, I reclaimed my GF ability (summoning). I left the cellar and looked around for the next target. Next on the list required two teams. I had to hold a switch down with my main group as the secondary group made their way to the target.
I walked over a strange chandelier towards the third boss. I tried to walk over it with the first group, but they were dropped down into the bottom floor. With them now holding the switch, the second group was free to cross it though. I went outside and went to battle with BOSS BATTLE TIME #3! Round 3 of Boss Battle Time is against a giant crystal monster called Krysta. According to the guide, it's highly resistant to both physical and magical attacks. Any attempt to use either ends with a powerful counterattack. That leaves...GFs! I summoned all the powerful ones as well as anything it was weak against. As I landed the last summon, it threw a final Ultima spell my way, but that was pointless and did very little. Another boss down and another ability recovered...I chose Revive so that I could revive anybody if they died. (Yes, for some reason, they sealed the ability to REVIVE downed people. Bunch of bull crap there...) With this area clear, I regrouped both teams at the entrance and headed for the next area. Exploration of the right branch of the castle revealed a mysterious art room. Looking about the paintings revealed some strange pictures with even stranger names. Thanks to my guide book, it explained that the painting's names correlated to the clock on the floor with roman numerals. I didn't look into how you got the solution though. I just took the solution. I had to name a painting that was clouded and unnamed. The name came out to be "In the Garden Sleeps a Messenger." With the painting name revealed, it spawned another boss...so let's do this!
BOSS BATTLE TIME #4! The boss this time was a giant golden robot named Trauma. It spit out little robots called Dramas and was not challenging at all. The funny thing about the suggestions in the guide...They all involve the GF Doomtrain. Doomtrain works a lot like Hades from FF7. He does a decent amount of damage summon-wise, but the real kicker is he can cause all the status effects possible! A single use of Doomtrain can easily hinder a boss for the rest of the battle, and this has helped me beat basically all of the bosses since I got him waaay back there. Anyways, after Doomtrain, all it took was a few physical attacks and a handful of GF summons. Trauma went dooown! After its defeat, I unlocked the Item ability and left the art gallery. From there, I made my way downstairs into the dungeon! I explored a cell in there and got locked in. I picked up the key inside the cell, but that summoned the fifth boss for BOSS BATTLE TIME #5! This round's boss wasn't so much original. It was a repainted monster called Red Giant (slightly upgraded model of the monster Iron Giant in-game). It proved pretty easy with a little Doomtrain magic. From there, it didn't take no time to fell this monstrous giant. With the Red Giant gone, I used the key and got out of the cell. I also unlocked the ability to Save my game.
Next on the list...I had to go key hunting. The next boss was locked inside the Armory, but that room was locked. I switched to my secondary party and looked about. The armory key was hidden off behind the main part of the castle on a old rickety bridge. I had to slowly walk across it, or the key would fall down below. After grabbing the key, I made my way back to a swap point and switched to the main party. I opened the Armory and fought the monster inside. BOSS BATTLE TIME #6! At first, the enemy appeared to be a regular ol' monster. It looked like a Vysage plus a pair of hands called Lefty and Righty. However, upon their defeat, a much larger and more dangerous version appeared called Gargantua. Let's just say the same Doomtrain tactic came into play. After that, I simply had to avoid physical attacks and kept after him with GFs. Any physical attacks would be countered, and I prefer to avoid those when I can. WIth Gargantua's defeat, I reclaimed the Limit Break ability. Next up on my list was the Treasure Vault.
To get into the Treasure Vault, I had to find another key. This key was easily found in the fountain by the Chapel. After that, I had to work my way back around to the Treasure Vault. (I kept forgetting I could switch parties and save time.) The Treasure Vault had a little box puzzle for me. I cheated yet again and solved it with ease. (Messing with a box caused others to open or close. You had to get them all open.) With all the boxes open, Catoblepas popped out, and I had another boss on my hands...BOSS BATTLE TIME #7! Catoblepas was a bigger and menacingly colored Behemoth. However, a little Doomtrain and a lot of Leviathan and Brothers put him in his place! (Yeah, I'm really speed tracking the end of this game. Gimme a break.) I regained the ability to do Commands and went on my way. Commands are any special commands that aren't Draw, Item, Magic, or GF. Moving right along, I was ready to climb the Clock Tower and make my way to Ultimecia. I'd fight the 8th boss and regain my final ability before getting to her though. However, I did complete one small task before leaving the main part of the castle.
Working around the castle, I was on a hunt for a special GF Ability item called Rosetta Stone. It's kinda hard to explain what it does without going into details, but I will say it is definitely worth it. This required switching my parties up to use a special elevator. Like a giant twin-scale, I had to lift up all the girls in the group with all the boys on the other side. I messed this up twice and had to work my way around a couple of times. Eventually, they got up there, retrieved the key, and came back down. With that done, I just had to play the organ in the Church. This unlocked the gate and gave me access to the area with the Rosetta Stone (might as well have been a D&D quest). I immediately made use of the Rosetta Stone. With everything done except the climb, I ran back to the front to save one last time. I fully prepared my party for what was to come...and I climbed. The Clock Tower wasn't too tall though. On the way there, I had to jump from one side to the other using a bell. There, on the outside of the Clock Tower, I fought the final boss for unlocking my abilities...BOSS BATTLE TIME #8! For this round, I came face to face with an old friend...or at least, I thought it was an old friend. This boss was an "evil" version of Bahamut known as Tiamat. However, it was somehow even EASIER than Bahamut. It only has one attack, and it never got that attack off. It spends every turn spelling out the word "Dark Flare." The first couple of turns are just a single letter, but it eventually builds up to two letters around halfway. This would be a problem...if my group wasn't so fast and powerful. I led with Doomtrain and then unloaded everything I could. I summoned Eden, I physically attacked, and just went all out. My physical attacks were proving the most effective outside of Eden (who is capable of doing 20,000+ damage!!!). I managed to defeat this dark dragon before it could even get off its ONLY attack. With its defeat, I claimed my final sealed ability...Draw. Why save Draw for last? At this point, I had no need to Draw any magic off of enemies, so I figured I would leave it last compared to everything else. It was finally time to climb this tower...and defeat that sorceress!
Before starting up the final boss battle paragraph, I figured I would go ahead and answer this question. IF there are any readers who played 8 and wonder why I'm forgetting something...I didn't. There's an extra boss in Ultimecia's Castle known as Omega Weapon. It looks just like Ultima Weapon, but it can have over one million HP and is insanely difficult. I looked up a few different strategies to defeat it as well as the attacks it has available. According to what I read, the only possible way to beat it is through the use of special items known as Hero and Holy War. These items make your characters invincible for a brief period of time. Without them, you would easily die to one if not most of his attacks. I only had a few Heroes (the work on one member where Holy War does the party), so I was in no position to try him. On top of this, I was really only curious about him. I didn't feel like wasting anymore time though, so I finally made the decision to skip him. Worst case, I can always go back and reload the game to give him a shot. I'm pretty sure I'd die though since he sounds ridiculous if you mess up the formula suggested by most guides. Anyways...on to Ultimecia!
I made my way to the top and entered the Sorceress's room. She made a small speech about SeeD and how she was going to not only defeat us but use us as her slaves forever! I can't remember the specifics, but they aren't important in front of FINAL EPIC BOSS BATTLE TIME EXTRAVAGANA! This boss battle versus Ultimecia turned into one of the coolest boss battles I've done so far. The only other one that was remotely this cool...Kefka or MAYBE Exdeath. The music was fairly epic, and the game wasn't ready to let me just have the victory. I had to work for it! For this battle, I wasn't allowed to directly choose who went against Ultimecia. As characters died, they were "thrown out of time" as the game put it. I wanted my perfect and prepared party of Squall, Zell, and Selphie though, so I had to get the other three killed off to get my group in place. This made the initial battle take longer than it should have since I actually started with Zell and Selphie...was only missing Squall. Most of Ultimecia's attacks at this point were no real bother. The only problem came from her super-powered Maelstrom. This one attack easily drained the party of 6,000 HP across the board (pretty brutal even with everybody having 9999 across the board!). Maelstrom even screwed me over by killing a crappily planned GF summon. On top of that, it took out the ONE GF I was hoping to keep...Eden. I lost Eden and Doomtrain before I got anywhere. I wasn't super worried about this since I figured Doomtrain wouldn't do much good later on. Once the dream team stepped forward, it was only a matter of time to remove the first form from the field. (Despite the guide, I already figured that they'd have at LEAST two or three forms. Stay tuned for the actual number!)
Once I defeated Ultimecia's initial form, she summoned a little surprise for us....She brought forth what she called the most powerful GF known as...GRIEVER! (DUN DUN DUUUUUN! This does suggest some serious implications, but I'm not going to get into it.) Griever was a giant evil lion-dragon man thing, and he looked badass. The music started to really pick up and get cool too! The worst thing about Griever is that he started drawing magic off the party. Thankfully, he didn't steal anything super powerful, so I just had to keep up the strategy...The strategy? Buff my people like crazy and follow it up with Aura. With Aura in place, I was free to let loose all the Limit Breaks I could handle. Selphie's Limit Break of Slots (you cast random magic and blah blah blah) proved to take too long and was overly complicated to manage in mid-battle, so I kept her on healing duty. Squall and Zell simply unleashed the gates of Limit Break hell! Zell's Duel ability proved to be the biggest dog in this fight after Squall's Renzokuken. The Duel ability allows you to attack multiple times while pressing in different inputs. As long as you type them in right, the time is briefly paused and gives you a chance to type in more. With this, I was easily able to pull of five or six attacks of decent strength. After Zell's Duel, it was up to Squall's Renzokuken. Squall basically ran up and strikes the enemy multiple times with his Gunblade. When he strikes, you are given an opportunity to boost the strikes with the gun shot. There's also a chance that he activates a secondary super-powered attack. (Doesn't matter if you make all the strikes or not though....) The best secondary attack is the Lion Heart. It resembles Omnislash from FF7, but it's much cooler and kick-assier! As long as I kept Aura on those two and healed up when I needed it, Griever didn't stand a chance.
Upon Griever's defeat, Ultimecia came back into the picture and "junctioned" herself onto Griever. This revived Griever in super ultimate Griever dragon mode (not the real name). At this point, it was unleashed some fairly powerful attacks, but nothing was getting through my super defenses. As long as I kept healing, things weren't going to get me down. I did have to watch out for these Helix things she summoned though. If she got two on the field, it was supposed to bring some bad shit on the field. I tried to get a few GFs in, but UltiGriever started one-hit blasting them away. This made me lose two or three GFs, so I went back to just using Limit Breaks as I could. The only overwhelming part of all this was trying to keep up with everything while being thrown off by Limit Breaks. Thankfully, this didn't stop me from destroying Grievermecia and putting an end to her...OR SO I THOUGHT! That's right...fourth form baby!
Ultimecia was most definitely not letting me get off easily. As the fourth form rised from nothingness, the battle started ramping up with even epic-er music. Ultimecia's super form claimed something about Time Compression and "existence denied." However, this didn't stop me from kicking her ass! She only had a few attacks, but they were pretty annoying. Hell's Judgement swoops in and knocks everybody down to 1 HP. This was easily rectified, but she did it enough that I had to keep re-healing people. I just stuck with the Aura strategy since my best GFs were gone at this point. She also drew Apocalypse magic off of herself to launch against us. This made me scared when I first saw it...but then it wasn't very effective. (Thank you Shell spell!) I just kept up with Duel and Renzokuken. They were dealing out all forms of damage against her. I imagine I could have beaten her without them, but this battle would have taken a lot longer and been quite a bit harder. When I landed the final blow...the joy spread to my face. As the battle was coming to a close, she started talking about places and memories to the group. I can't remember it all because I was kicking her ass!
Anyways, with Ultimecia defeated, the Time Compression was coming to an end, and the group had to hurry back to their own time. I'm going to try and do the short version of this since a lot of it turns into a giant cutscene, but I'll hit the higher points. I'd suggest looking up a video if you truly want to see it without playing it (I'd say play it BUT WHATEVER). The group all began to run about so they could make it back to their time. However...it seemed that not everyone made it out. Squall was bringing up the rear and seemed to miss the point. He was running about in a blank space. While moving about, he jumped out and appeared in the wrong timeline. The kid version of himself ran by him, and he met younger Edea. She asked who he was, and this was followed up with the game's explanation for how Edea thought up SeeD and Garden. Basically, Squall told her everything (not EVERYTHING, he mentioned that Garden trains SeeDs to defeat the Sorceress) in the past and thus she made it in the future, even the SeeD salute! However, it seemed like things might not be finished yet. Ultimecia appeared and was still alive somehow. Squall was going to attack her, but Edea explained what was going on. A Sorceress has to pass on her power before she can truly die. Ultimecia was dying, so she had to pass on her Sorceress powers. Edea took in those powers, and thus was the end of Ultimecia. Edea figured out who Squall was and told him that he needed to get back to his time. Squall began to walk...CUE LONG AND CONFUSING CUTSCENE!
To summarize it easily...Squall was lost in time, but he managed to get back to his time thanks to Rinoa and the promise they made to meet in the flower field. It's got more depth to it than what I plan to say in a sentence or paragraph, but that is the basic idea. With Ultimecia defeated, time was restored and the world could finally be at peace. The final video revealed what happened to everybody and Garden. Seifer and company set out to live life. Laguna, Ellone, and company were still doing okay and visiting Raine's grave. Balamb Garden was flying all over and having a nice big party aboard. The whole crew was there in celebration of...I'm assuming new SeeDs, but it might be something else. NOT IMPORTANT! It showed that everybody seemed happy and such, and it highly suggested at Irvine X Selphie. I'll leave that to your opinion of course. After the credits went by, the game ended with a small scene of Squall smiling for the first time in-game (supposed to be a big deal), and Rinoa and he kiss as the game comes to its final end...
Hooooly crap! That was an experience. I'm sooo glad I managed to finish it, and despite earlier anger towards items, I still enjoyed the overall game. Just...damn man....nearly 80 hours in FF8 alone! I'm really looking forward to playing through FF9 again, but I can guarantee that I won't make the goal of finishing before September is done. I'll probably aim more for mid-October, but I digress. Look forward to my Final Thoughts for Final Fantasy 8 popping up in a few days. As for now though...thanks for reading my post, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Ending Point - End of Final Fantasy 8.
Current Party -
- Squall - Level 100
- Zell - Level 61
- Selphie - Level 58
Next Goals - Start Final Fantasy 9.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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