It Feels Just Like I'm Playing For the First Time...Okay, Maybe Not ~ FFVIII

Long story short, I've decided to play Final Fantasy VIII. Again. Honestly I cannot tell you how many times I have played this game. But it's a lot. I have done everything in this game that you can possibly do. And yet I keep coming back for more.

I guess it's special to me for two reasons: one, it's the first Final Fantasy game I played, and two, I can identify a lot with Squall, the main character. He's a brunette who's cranky and doesn't trust people. I'm also a brunette who's cranky and doesn't trust people. Luckily for me I don't overuse the word "Whatever." Squall is far and away my favorite Final Fantasy lead character.

But back to the game.

I didn't get very far last night. I played for around two hours and just finished the Fire Cavern. Right now I'm supposed to go to my room and change into my uniform for the SeeD Field exam. But instead I ran around Garden playing cards. But more on that in a minute.

There's several things that always annoy me at the beginning of this game.

• When Squall and Seifer are in their class at the beginning of the game, everyone else is wearing their school uniform. Why do they get special permission? I guess you can make the argument that Squall just came from the infirmary, but if he slashed Seifer across the face too (which we can assume from the matching scar Seifer sports) why wasn't Seifer seen in the infirmary as well?
• Squall has apparently been studying at Garden for a long time. And apparently he knows nothing. I understand they want to explain to you how to play (and badly, because those tutorials blow ass) but the guy is supposed to know all this stuff already. He's about to take an important exam. He should know how to use his gunblade. I know I'm totally nitpicking, but they could have presented that information in a context that actually made sense.
• Quistis is supposed to be like this prodigy who became a SeeD at like age 15 or something. So why is she only 2 levels above Squall?

So anyway, I get the starter deck of cards, skip all of Quistis' stupid tutorials, and leave Garden. I junction Shiva to Quistis and Quzeqotal (totally not spelled right) to Squall. Then I fight some stuff for awhile, until Squall has 100 blizzard and 100 cure spells and both GF's have learned boost and summagic10%. Then I go into the fire carvern and picked the 20 minute time limit. Mistake! I did not take my time getting through that cavern. And even though I spent more time drawing spells from Ifrit than attacking him, I still beat him with 10 minutes to spare. Blah. That is bad for the SeeD exam results. Oh well.

So back out of the fire cavern and back into Garden. "Go change and meet back here!" Quistis commands. Yeah, okay. I go save, and then it's a mission to win some cards that don't suck.

This is not a very easy mission. The starter deck of cards SUCKS. I won't play cards until after I beat Ifrit, because at least then I have his card, which is pretty good. It's definitely leaps and bounds better than the other shitty cards you get at the beginning of the game.

So I go on a mission to find someone whose cards suck just as much as mine. And I'm LOSING (and resetting after each loss). Of course I'm making the mistake of playing offensively rather than defensively. Finally I manage to win a Mesmorize card from some kid in the cafeteria. Then I find a guy who appears by the front of Garden who has crappy cards. I change to a defensive game and take an Abyss Worm card. This is a pretty decent card because while it's not overly powerful it's good starting card because it's got decent numbers protecting it if you put it in the bottom left corner. I keep playing this guy until I've got a decent hand of cards. His cards are no longer any good to me. So I move onto the guy at the reception station and beat him. He's got bettter cards. Now I'm feeling pretty confident so I go inside and find that kid who runs around. He plays MiniMog, and I take it. MiniMog is super strong up and down (with 9's) and weak on the sides, but it's still a very useful card early in the game. Then I head for the library where I know there's this guy who plays pretty good cards. I manage to win a Malboro card from him, which is a good card for this stage of the game. Finally I've got a good hand. It's time to go win the Quistis card.

I've been saving after every match until this point because I don't quite trust my hand 100% yet. I'm a decent card player now (a far cry from the days where I had no idea what I was doing and spread the random rule all over the freakin' place) but I still don't want to lose my Ifrit card and then have to win it back. But by now I'm feeling pretty good. I know the kid in the cafeteria, one of the Quistis groupies, has the Qusitis card, but the rest of his cards aren't very good. It takes him awhile to play the card, but once he does I win it. Victorious! I finally have a decent hand. Happily, I go off to save. Now I'll go forward with the game so I can do the SeeD exam and go play cards in Balamb. (Gotta win Zell's card from his mom!)