|
Cool Ghost posted:Oh, right, I meant to respond to this earlier. Anyway, my rank is 9 in the menu after the test results, not 8 like it would be if it deducted 1 from the score shown. That's why I thought that points deducted meant points deducted, not renamed Attitude, which is a stupid way for it to be. Huh, that's odd then. In your replays for GF renaming, did you maybe not show off your gunblade? Or maybe it applies the penalty later, I dunno. Either way, if you got to show it off without suffering any rank penalty, I guess you got to have your cake and eat it too.
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
Seifer isn't incompetent, though, and he's really only insubordinate to Quistis. We don't know enough about the past SeeD exams to know why specifically Seifer failed, other than because he's arrogant, but there are a lot of ways that can manifest. What we do know is that two-thirds of this class failed and that it's not uncommon to do so. It's really not that crazy for Seifer to be taking this exam, or to be the captain.Vil posted:Huh, that's odd then. In your replays for GF renaming, did you maybe not show off your gunblade? Or maybe it applies the penalty later, I dunno. I'm actually just using Rename Cards I got with a GameShark code to rename the GFs, so it's not that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 20:17
|
|
|
Fister Roboto posted:"Well, this guy has been a completely incompetent, insubordinate fuckup in the past... let's see how he performs in a leadership position." To be fair, people who don't take well to Authority usually make good commanders.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:23
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:Edit: Oh yeah, name 'er! You have until...the future. Probably Monday at noon. e: This thing:  e²: Failing that, FishLips. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:35
|
|
|
GrimRevenant posted:What are the available symbols on the naming menu? Since Siren’s musical, I wanna name her as close as possible to that symbol that The Artist Formerly Known As Prince used during the 90s when he was pissy with his label. You don't really know what "Monday" is, do you.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:40
|
|
|
Akratic Method posted:You don't really know what "Monday" is, do you.  I’m going to blame it on being in another timezone and having had to shut everything down yesterday while waiting for a 
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:47
|
|
|
GrimRevenant posted:loving hell, there weren't that many pages when I posted. I just blame it on AwfulApp, even if I'm at my desktop.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2014 22:54
|
|
|
Silegna posted:You can't get it right after the Seed Exam. I've tried. I just did exactly that in my playthrough, so either you're mistaken or it's something they changed in the English release. (I think I did have to leave the room and enter it again to enable card playing.)
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 00:01
|
|
|
So here we start seeing an interesting theme of the game, and that's that most of the main characters are a poor fit for the role they're trying to live up to. Seifer's a joke as far as being a student, soldier, and head of the disciplinary comittee. Squall's a great soldier, sure, but he's not exactly leadership material and he's not the sort of person you'd see as a protagonist in a typical JRPG. Quistis has some glaring faults as an instructor, Zell doesn't even come close to being as cool as he tries to, and even the Headmaster's authority is being called into question. It's a really neat angle, I think, and one that gives a lot of the characters more depth than you'd expect as the story goes on.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 00:49
|
|
|
Don't be silly, Selphie is living exactly up to her own expectations. I mean she got lost and fell off a cliff all in the same day, but still passed the exam with a pair of oversized nunchaku. Selphie is the true protagonist.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 00:54
|
|
|
Bonus Update: Balamb Garden Info Archives Today, we're going to take a trip all the way back to the study panel from the beginning of the game.  This thing is full of all kinds of information that very few people will ever see, since who reads tutorial poo poo like this? A lot of the information is just fluff, but some of it is very interesting/important, and it's all a sign of just how deep the dev team went with the design of Garden and SeeD. Besides that, somebody programmed all this into the game, so it's just polite for us to read it.  Let's start from the top, with the "About Garden" section.  This is the Garden info. I wonder how many kids come in here at 15 wanting to be SeeDs. That's the same age Quistis was when she graduated. I also wonder how they handle the 5-year-olds. They're probably not very good in combat training.  There are also individual rules pages for every Garden facility. I wonder how they separate classes with only one classroom in the whole building.  The training centre is not a petting zoo. If you go there for any reason other than to kill monsters, you will be expelled.  The infirmary is the only place in the whole Garden where the concept of "private property" is enforced.  At the library, they let you - get this - borrow books to read.  How do they know if somebody is out for a reason other than going to train? Do they walk you there and force you to fight? Or are they just hoping that when they ask where people are going, they'll be honest about it?  If you're going to get the munchies at 1 AM, you better be ready. A SeeD is always prepared.  Now that we've done all the facility rules, let's look at the student code of conduct.  I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but there is a loving ton of poo poo in here.  The Garden tries to be cool like there are no real rules, but you know it's lying.  "There are no rules unless you break them."  One of those things you can be punished for is not like the others. Also, I feel like Final Fantasy usually stays away from explicitly mentioning sex, so it's weird to see it included as a rule here.  Garden will employ you, but if you use the skills you learned there in your job, you are so fired. All SeeDs are only allowed to be gardeners.   Front gate's blocked? You're dead, I guess.  Then how do they get to and from the training centre, huh? Ever think of that, The Man?  So they kick you out at age 20. Good to know.  You know, it says that SeeDs get priority for the single dorms, but I wonder if any of the "undergrads" get in. I wonder what it would be like for the 15-year-olds or whatever who had to live with all the SeeDs and instructors.  There are three Gardens in the world, but they don't all train SeeDs, so it looks like some of them are just military academies with silly names that aren't puns.  Garden proprietor? What's that about? Eh, I'm sure it's not important.  Trabia is the least remarkable, and smallest, of the Gardens. Basically the community college of Gardens.  Galbadia Garden is the largest, but does not train SeeDs. It just trains Galbadian Soldiers.  Good question, game.  SeeDs are magic-powered teen mercenaries.  SeeD is not a picky organisation, nor is it concerned with morality. Garden will employ SeeDs to fight for anyone who will pay.  There's nothing to say about this one, but it closes out the "About Garden" bit.  Now we can find out about the Garden social calendar!   So, there's only one SeeD exam, and it's in the spring. I guess that means that this first bit of the game takes place in spring.  Garden students are hosed up about hot dogs. Using GF causes uncontrollable hot dog rage, you heard it here first.  It's been brought up in the thread that the disciplinary committee might be just a student group, but it seems from this that it's at least acknowledged by the administration, since this is in the official postings section. It's probably just that Seifer's a douche and a bully that makes people think that. He probably took over from someone. Fun fact: the bit about reporting any unusual bugs comes from Raijin, who collects bugs.   If you know the characters from the game well enough, you know who all the holds belong to. Except maybe the one about edible flowers. I have no idea who would want to research that. Maybe it's Squall.  And there we go, we're done! That was certainly enlightening, n'est-ce pas?
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 04:21
|
|
|
I love this thread.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 04:34
|
|
|
There's so much easily missed world building in this game. I think Balamb Garden is probably the most well-developed single area I've seen in a video game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 04:56
|
|
|
Molly Millions posted:So here we start seeing an interesting theme of the game, and that's that most of the main characters are a poor fit for the role they're trying to live up to. Seifer's a joke as far as being a student, soldier, and head of the disciplinary comittee. Squall's a great soldier, sure, but he's not exactly leadership material and he's not the sort of person you'd see as a protagonist in a typical JRPG. Quistis has some glaring faults as an instructor, Zell doesn't even come close to being as cool as he tries to, and even the Headmaster's authority is being called into question. Yeah and this trend definitely continues with future characters. I never really noticed it before, but that does add an interesting angle to the story.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 04:58
|
|
|
I think Seifer is much more of a traditional hero than Squall is, and if you think about it, you'd normally be all over poo poo like chasing the Galbadians to the comm tower in a game like this.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 05:11
|
|
|
It always makes me really happy that this thread loves Zell and Selphie so much. I've seen them get a lot of poo poo at times, but they're so great. I also love Fujin. I sometimes talk a lot and say a lot of stupid poo poo, so I always enjoy how she doesn't waste words when getting her point across. Of course, if you think about how someone would actually voice her lines, well. All caps is usually shouting, but her punctuation isn't exclamation marks. It's true that it doesn't seem like it would work well. (I wound up looking up a Kingdom Hearts video to see how that game's voice actress handled her voice; I feel like she should have been louder and more forceful about it, but to do that and not shout every line would probably be a hard balance to strike.) Anyway. I'm also glad you went through all that stuff in the study panel, Cool Ghost, cause I definitely got impatient and skipped most of that while playing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 06:34
|
|
inverts posted:It always makes me really happy that this thread loves Zell and Selphie so much. I've seen them get a lot of poo poo at times, but they're so great. On the other hand, it can't be denied that Zell's running animation when he's told he passed looks like the absolute personification of "oh god I just poo poo myself, where's the nearest bathroom?"
|
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 07:47
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:I think Seifer is much more of a traditional hero than Squall is, and if you think about it, you'd normally be all over poo poo like chasing the Galbadians to the comm tower in a game like this. I think that's how Seifer sees it, too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 08:01
|
|
|
inverts posted:It always makes me really happy that this thread loves Zell and Selphie so much. I've seen them get a lot of poo poo at times, but they're so great. The way I always heard Fujin's voice in this game was gruff and fast rather than loud. Apparently, in the Japanese she spoke in a different alphabet than everyone else (no idea what that would signify), and the all-caps was meant to signify it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 08:38
|
|
|
Gnoman posted:The way I always heard Fujin's voice in this game was gruff and fast rather than loud.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2014 09:57
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:
There's a difference here: They're actively discouraging underage sex. Whereas usually when FF dodges the topic of sex, it's in situations where mentioning it would be tantamount to saying "yeah, Characters X and Y are banging".
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 00:44
|
|
|
Part Eleven: Graduation Last time, Selphie broke into our room to stop us from going to sleep.  I think I just want to go to sleep.  The graphics make it hard to see where the top ends and the skirt starts, so it looks like a dress.  : You should get changed, too. We have that party to go to. If you talk to her again, she's still excited about her new threads.  This is one of our last chances to come in here and look at Squall's roommate's bed. I wonder why they never had us meet the roomie.  Might as well, I guess.  That's the last time we'll ever see Squall in the cadet's uniform.  Thanks, Selphie. : Alright! Let's go hit the PAAH-TAY! This party is off the hook. drat.   Standing around and drinking while waiting to leave. Squall is truly a man after my own heart.  Here comes Zell. You can tell how happy Squall is to see him.   : Heh-heh, I guess we're both SeeDs now, huh?Yup, we sure are.   I'm sure Squall would shake his hand, if his right wasn't full of his drink. It's delicious, Zell, you should try one. : Hah, even as a SeeD, you're still the same. Well, that's typical of you. Bye, Zell.  : Sorry, I...ah... Just remembered something! G-gotta go. See ya!: Hmmmm... Squall! Hi! Selphie said earlier that she was the head of the Garden Festival committee, but I don't think there are any other members. : Please? It's good manners to help people, even if they did break into your home.  : Sure. You seem to be putting a lot of effort into this. Yeah, no problem. : I know we'll be busy with a lot of SeeD stuff, but let's work hard on the Garden Festival, too.We will not be working hard on the Garden Festival.  Yeah, have fun.  Taking a quick step back, here's what happens if we're a jerk.  I'd love to help, Selphie, but I'm too busy drinking alone.  So she just runs off to ask someone else. This is the boring way to do it.  Whatever we do with Selphie, the game moves into an FMV of the moon.  Oh, a shooting star! Everybody make a wish.  Holy poo poo, he looks so glassy-eyed here.  Who this?  "Keep your eyes on the moon, fucker."  "Do you even go here?"  Ah, poo poo, she's coming over here. Quick, look cool.  FMV Focus: Dance with me?  Oh, I'd love to dance with you, but my hands are just full of drink. Ehh, wha'cha gonna do?   FMV Focus: Okay, then...   Fun fact: SeeDs cannot be hypnotised, because of the systematic brain damage the GF causes.   He's still Blind from the exam this afternoon.  Jesus, lady, take a hint.   Now that's just rude.    Having found someone unwilling to dance with her, the girl drags Squall right into the middle of the FMV dance floor. For this scene, we also have FMV dance music:   I'm so glad I got this shot of Squall looking wasted.  When she stops, he just sort of leans onto her.   And so, they start dancing.  It doesn't go very well.  Squall is distracted by the drink girl.  He probably doesn't need any more.  He insists that he's fine and tries to go get another glass.  She won't let him go.  Really, it's her dancing at this point, and Squall is just also there.  When he tries again, they ram into another couple.  Squall is making the same face I make whenever I realise I'm just doing a play-by-play on an FMV.    After they run into the other couple, Squall starts dancing well. I guess Squall just wanted an excuse to bump into the other guy. Probably his roommate, and Squall's sick of him leaving his magazines all over the place.  When the game goes to this angle, I always look at the couple at the top, even though Squall is right in the middle of the shot.  You can even see them doing more visually interesting stuff, but nope, I'm lookin' at the people on top.  Then the camera zooms and I'm like "what the hell?"  Oh, here's a fun fact: this FMV was remade as a tech demo for the PS2.  Here's another fun fact: the dance sequence has its own page on the FF wiki.   Ooh, fireworks.   While Squall is looking at the fireworks, it seems the girl sees someone over his shoulder.  This screen included because it looks silly.   Having finally set eyes on Zell, the real best-looking guy here, the girl heads off.  And so we're out of the FMV and out of the party.  Here comes Quistis, out of uniform at the formal.  "I mean, except for the parts where you almost knocked the girl over. Those were poo poo."   Something to note is that Squall tends to pause when talking to Quistis.  They just stand here for a while. It really conveys how uncomfortable the whole conversation is.  He doesn't even look at her.  Quistis's feelings are hurt because Squall is being so lovely.  A lot of people take Squall's behaviour here as whiny or "emo", but I think he's just not comfortable with an instructor coming over to him and being so casual. I don't think he's aware that Quistis has been trying to flirt with him the entire time, either.  : It's kind of awkward when you don't say anything. Quistis has a little laugh here, probably at the fact that Squall is the one who's really not saying anything - the lulls in the conversation are where his lines should be.  : That's true. I was like that myself.This is probably an allusion to Quistis's time as a student and SeeD - at 15, she probably wasn't in a class with people her own age, and likely didn't get much as far as socialisation. : ...Oh, I completely forgot. I wonder what's to become of me? I've come to give you an order.Oh, so she didn't just come over here to flirt. : You and I are to go to the 'secret area'. It's where students secretly meet up and talk after curfew.She came over here to order Squall to take her to make-out point. : It's inside the training center.: What do you want to do there?Everyone knows but you, dude.   I want you to appreciate Squall's body language here. He's not interested in doing things that aren't his job.  Quistis starts laughing at the mere idea of the disciplinary committee disciplining anyone. (Also at Squall's idea that she wants to go to the secret area for real business.)  Last order?    If we talk to Quistis again, we get a chance to ask about that.  What the hell does that mean?  Oh well, if it's an order, we have to do it.  Squall's as confused as anyone, here.  And that's the last time we'll be in the SeeD uniform! It's all casual clothes all the time for the rest of the game!  Now, let's go meet Quistis. Cool Ghost fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Mar 31, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 18:46
|
|
|
I never noticed before seeing this in screenshot form, but it seems like all of the SeeDs (or, at least, everyone wearing a SeeD uniform) in this sequence appear to be men. That's kind of odd, given that the mix in SeeDs we've met isn't too far off from even.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:00
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:25
|
|
|
Wait, so Selphie ISN'T Squall's Roommate? I always thought that was why she was in there.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
I still love Rinoa's Death Face during that dance FMV. I don't think I'll ever stop trying to emulate it in real life. As for all of the SeeDs dancing being men, it might just be personal bias here but I'm willing to bet it was a conceit of the design team just so they could make up lots of evening gowns for the female participants. Women's clothing is just so much more fun to design. If everyone was in SeeD uniform it would be such a wasted opportunity. But suits are suits are suits. I mean nobody really looks at the mens' costumes on Strictly Come Dancing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
Silegna posted:Wait, so Selphie ISN'T Squall's Roommate? I always thought that was why she was in there. It seems kind of weird that his roommate would be a girl whose name he didn't even know until she found them in Dollet.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:34
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:It seems kind of weird that his roommate would be a girl whose name he didn't even know until she found them in Dollet. Meeting his roomate as part of his mission for the first time would be pretty in character for Squall.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:36
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:It seems kind of weird that his roommate would be a girl whose name he didn't even know until she found them in Dollet. Looking things up, it might have been Zell, as Zell and Seifer were the only two students he actually had met before...could Seifer have been his roommate as well?
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:47
|
|
|
How many fully-fledged SeeDs do we even meet during the course of the game? There's Quistis, Xu I guess, and everybody else whom we've literally seen take the exam. The Garden data on Squall's computer says that SeeDs are trained to be hired out to various armies. The "real SeeDs" were supposed to take care of everything really dangerous in Dollet, so they do exist. Do they just never appear? In FFVII at least you could meet SOLDIERs as random enemies sometimes, even if otherwise SOLDIER was strictly an organization for characters important to the plot.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:47
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:
Zell handshake rejection count: 2
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:52
|
|
|
Aithon posted:How many fully-fledged SeeDs do we even meet during the course of the game? There's Quistis, Xu I guess, and everybody else whom we've literally seen take the exam. The Garden data on Squall's computer says that SeeDs are trained to be hired out to various armies. The "real SeeDs" were supposed to take care of everything really dangerous in Dollet, so they do exist. Do they just never appear? Not many. I don't think there's any discussion of how large the SeeD organization is, so you can just assume it's a pretty small group.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:53
|
|
|
Gnoman posted:I never noticed before seeing this in screenshot form, but it seems like all of the SeeDs (or, at least, everyone wearing a SeeD uniform) in this sequence appear to be men. That's kind of odd, given that the mix in SeeDs we've met isn't too far off from even. Maybe Selphie is the only woman psyched enough about being a SeeD to go to the ball with her uniform.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 19:57
|
|
|
Aithon posted:How many fully-fledged SeeDs do we even meet during the course of the game? There's Quistis, Xu I guess, and everybody else whom we've literally seen take the exam. The Garden data on Squall's computer says that SeeDs are trained to be hired out to various armies. The "real SeeDs" were supposed to take care of everything really dangerous in Dollet, so they do exist. Do they just never appear? SeeD is pretty small, but there are a few you see around in the game other than your party. Silegna posted:Looking things up, it might have been Zell, as Zell and Seifer were the only two students he actually had met before...could Seifer have been his roommate as well? Zell lives in Balamb and commutes to Garden, and the roommate's room doesn't look like it belongs to Seifer. I'm 99% sure that Squall's roommate is just never named or talked about.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 20:55
|
|
|
mycot posted:Maybe Selphie is the only woman psyched enough about being a SeeD to go to the ball with her uniform. She's also the only new SeeD lady. I think it's just like regular formals where guys all wear similar black/charcoal outfits and the ladies wear an assortment of colorful dresses. I wonder if there's an in-game reason it's just player characters who like to stay out of uniform? Maybe those few gents around Garden who don't uniform are also SeeDs? Bar Seifer and the posse of course.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 21:29
|
|
|
Aithon posted:How many fully-fledged SeeDs do we even meet during the course of the game? There's Quistis, Xu I guess, and everybody else whom we've literally seen take the exam. The Garden data on Squall's computer says that SeeDs are trained to be hired out to various armies. The "real SeeDs" were supposed to take care of everything really dangerous in Dollet, so they do exist. Do they just never appear? The game forgets that SeeD is an actual organization with presumably several years' worth of graduates, at least, which makes a bunch of stuff that happens later on make no real sense.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 21:49
|
|
|
Cool Ghost posted:Part Five: The Fire Cavern I know this is a few updates ago now but I've just started playing along myself and one thing that struck me about the Fire Cavern is how good the music is in this game. I know people have commented on Balamb Garden bgm being good but I think because this game followed FFVII as a whole the music gets a short shift... Apart from the Best Character's Battle Music of course.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 21:51
|
|
|
Silegna posted:Looking things up, it might have been Zell, as Zell and Seifer were the only two students he actually had met before...could Seifer have been his roommate as well? What? Why would you think this? It's not like Squall just popped into existence at the start of the game. His roommate is just some nameless mook who's not relevant to the story in any way.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 23:10
|
|
|
Just out of curiosity, will you ever be putting the rules of the card game in a side update?
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 23:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
Fister Roboto posted:What? Why would you think this? It's not like Squall just popped into existence at the start of the game. Honestly, never interacting with and possibly not knowing the name of his roommate is just so Squall.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2014 23:19
|
|
