Upon arrival we found two soldiers named Biggs and Wedge (their third FF appearance) at the tower trying to repair it. Apparently it was an old radio comm tower that's been down for 17 years. Everything has gone cable and nothing is broadcast over airwaves anymore. The Galbadian army finally pulls out under the stipulation that the town leaves the tower in their control and broadcasting. Ooookay. We beat up a monster at the top of the tower and obtain the summon Siren, then head back to Garden (the home base of SeeD).
After some time, they announce that Rhek, Zell and a new character Selphie have passed the exam. Seifer failed for disobeying orders and is locked up. At the celebration that night, Rhek is pulled into a cut scene dance by a new brunette character without name. After this he's pulled aside by Quistis to go to a secret area with her. We fight through the training grounds to a secret cove type place. She tells Rhek that she's no longer an instructor but a regular member of SeeD just like him. I guess she expects him to be interested but he's the usual cold main character. After that we head back and encounter another nameless brunette being attacked by monsters. We save her, and she's wisked away by Garden officials. This nameless brunette was the one who he saw momentarily when he woke in the ER at the beginning of the game. She knows Rhek and calls Quistis by a short name Quisty. She acts like she knows us, but we definitely don't know her.
The next day we recieve our first assignment. We're to go to Timber and aid a rebel faction there against the empire of Galbadia. Before we go we recieved the Magic Lamp. I go outside, save my game and use the item which summons Diabolos. After a long fight, I kill him and recieve the summon, next it's off to the train station. But as we board the train, we're knocked out by sleeping gas and.. we dream. The dream is about three other characters who I'm given control of, Laguna is the main character. We're obviously Galbadian soldiers and we're in a city off duty. Laguna is obsessed with a piano player named Julia. There's some dialogue between the two and the start of something like a relationship. We flash back to the real party who wakes up and finds out they all had the same dream.
When we arrive at Timber, the client is none other than the nameless brunette who pulled Rhek into a dance. Her name is Riona (Cysra). She's the only other character I've gotten to name aside from Squall (Rhek). Cool, another main character. From the game intro's she's obviously Rhek's love interest in the story. She doesn't like Rhek at all though to start but Rhek, Zell and Selphie are under an unusual contract; we three have to do whatever she wants until Timber gains it's independence. So basically she owns my team for the long haul.
We get a little back story from her about how there are several factions in Timber trying to rebel against Galbadia and that Seifer was actually her contact with Garden and the person who was able to get her a meeting with Cid (headmaster of SeeD). Seems like she has something of a crush on Seifer. For the time being.
Anyway, our first act with them is to try to abduct the president of Galbadia as he comes into Timber. It's a pretty cool mission with train hopping, fighting, decoding and deception. After we finally get the president, we find it's a body double. It turns into a viscous monster and we have to dispatch of it. We go back to Timber and find out that the president is going to air a message at the local TV station over the new comm tower they took over in that other town. We race to the TV station to get another crack at him but we're too late.
The president begins his broadcast. He announces that he's going to try to get nations together to resolve their conflicts (sounds good so far) and then he begins to talk about his new ambassador. The Sorceress... Before she can come on camer we see Seifer cut down some guards and snag the president, then Quistis pops on the screen and tells Rhek to hurry and come help. We race up and find out that apparently Seifer broke out and came to handle things himself when he found out that SeeD only sent three people to help Cysra. Quistis followed to try to stop him but was unsuccessful. With his sword at the president's throat, Seifer isn't really listening to any kind of reasoning. Enter deep ominous music, and the ticking of a clock. The Sorceress materializes out of thin air. She blocks Quistis and my party from interupting or speaking then begins to weave a spell on Seifer, convincing him to release the president and come with her. Seifer and the Sorceress both dematerialize and my party is released from her bonds.
After a chat my party has more questions than answers, but the Galbadian army is still after us. We fight our way out of town and start our trek to the closest local Garden.
Playing the game for several hours, I got a better feel for the battle system. It's a bit unweildy but fresh. Sometimes it's annoying sitting there and trying to stock up on magic by drawing over and over though. The GFs are cool, they don't actually come out to fight, just cast once like FF7 in a little cinematic. But they don't cast right away, they count down. And as they count down, you HP is replaced by theirs, and any damage that would be inflicted on you, is inflicted on them instead, so they can die. Interesting.
I still don't remember ANY of this at all. I have a pretty good memory usually but all of this is so foreign to me right now. It's nice to have something new but I keep waiting to run into something I remember. There are certain things I remember for sure. Like the back story of the Sorceress. I know that's late game, so I know I played that far, but all this game intro stuff is a total blank. This game also has a lot of little side things to do which don't necessarily do anything. Like there's info that has no bearing on story, there are magazines and mini games which yeild nothing. There's no magic, no weapons, no armor. You can upgrade your weapons, but you need to collect parts for the upgrades. Also, the summons can take items you find and turn them into things. So far I can make magic, items, and tools. I'll have to tinker with it some more. Lots of cool stuff but some seems unnecessary. Onward!
I ordered FFIX, hope it comes before I finish this one...
No comments:
Post a Comment