Wednesday, October 14, 2015

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy VIII (SquareSoft, 1999; Playstation): Issue #037: Something, Anyway...

OK, so it's been two months since I've done an issue of this. Good money is you want to know what I've got to show for it.

The Solomon Ring. That's all I've got for it. The Solomon Ring.

It's not that I haven't been playing, or at least trying to. What I've been trying to do is the Doomtrain side quest. Getting the Solomon Ring is easy enough, but it's only part of the equation in this thing. We also need six Marlboro tentacles, six remedy plus, and six steel pipes to get Doomtrain to come help us. From what I understand, this is a good Guardian Force to have. Unfortunately, it's a real pain in the ass to get, and I'm not sure it's really worth the effort.

What makes this thing so damned frustrating to do is that not only did the game designers go for the whole six six six thing like a bunch of giggling middle school boys who think they're being clever, but the specific items needed to pull it off are harder than necessary to come by unless you're on your second full playthrough of this game and happen to know to get them when it's easiest.

Even that's not entirely true. The Marlboro tentacles can be dropped by or stolen from Marlboros, which can be found in Eshtar. The thing there is, they're only found in maybe one battle in fifty, and then trying to fight them is like trying to stop a train with a scrap of paper. The remedy plus is a potion that needs to be refined with an ability that Alexander learns, but I haven't taught it that yet. And the steel pipes, well, I'm clueless there.

With all that in mind, I suppose I should just try to continue on with the main story, but at this point, it's been long enough that I barely even remember where I'm supposed to go to do that. Fortunately, these things do serve as notes, so I may as well make use of them next time I decide to give this another shot.

I'm just at a point where if it looks like it's going to be another two months between these, I'll just officially call it quits. I'm not going to just yet, but maybe soon, I fear.

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