It's to play cards and steal magic.
After pregaming by beating up a child in a game to steal his stuff, I finally went home. I changed into my uniform, went to the entrance of the school (the wrong way), and awaited further orders.
Instructor Trepe, along with Robin Williams lookalike, Headmaster Cid, informs us of our final exam. A nearby country, Dollet, has been attacked by the Galbadian Empire. Dollet has hired us to defend them. Yep, we're child soldiers. Actually, no. We're child soldiers in training. Garden is using Ukraine to test its ability to raise biological killing machines. Rad! Anyway, we meet our group for this assignment as well. Zell Dincht, a guy who doesn't understand why he keeps losing Mike Tyson lookalike contests (it's because he's white), and our BFF Seifer. Seifer is our leader, and everyone is annoyed.
We go the wrong way to reach the garage and take a car to Balamb Town. This is a giant car, and Zell stands up to start punching the air after Squall doesn't show him the gunblade. Seifer yells. Squall asks Quistis about the girl he saw in the infirmary, but she doesn't know. Seifer yells. When we reach the docks, we all jump into a boat. Xu, another SeeD, reaffirms our mission. We, specifically, are to fight our way to the center of town, killing the G-army as we go. Once there, we're to remain until further orders. Seifer yells.
Our boat makes a cool landing at the beach after we get a good look at the moon. Seifer, Squall, and Zell then make their way to the goal. Our test has officially begun, and how we act will affect our score at the end of this. It's based on how often we talk to people (don't) and how many people we kill (a lot). We easily mow down the few soldiers in our way, and even the unjunctioned Seifer can one shot them. It's a short walk, but Seifer wants more action. After we've secured the square, everything calms down. All that's here is a dog, and I'm bored. Eventually, Seifer can't handle it anymore.
The dog howls, and we hide. A squad of soldiers runs past us and up towards a radio tower. Seifer wants to follow. Zell reminds us we're to remain here, but our gunblade rivals demand action. So away we go!
En route, we save several allied soldiers from a giant snake and reach the tower. We overhear them trying to repair it. Seifer jumps ahead to make a push, but he shouldn't have. We do have a fun conversation about dreams, which is kinda deep. Sadly, Squall has no personality and, therefore, no dreams. A voice comes from behind us. A messenger from another SeeD training group named Selphie falls down a cliff for some reason and informs us we're to return to the beach. Sadly, we're not given the option of leaving without Seifer. For more points, don't jump down the cliff. Seifer wants to tell us about his ROMANTIC dream one day...
We'll see Seifer chase several fully trained soldiers out of the tower. Selphie tries to give him our new orders, but he ignores her. Inside is an elevator, which takes us to two soldiers repairing the tower. It's not a technician but an army commander. Makes sense. The three of us (Seifer disappeared) corner the red armored Wedge. Before doing anything, he turns on the tower, and we see a massive satellite dish emerge from within. Wedge notices us and tries to escape, but Dear Leader shows up and strikes something out of his hands. With no option, a battle begins!
Wedge is joined by Biggs after a few turns. They're not important, though. After a while, the real boss shows up. Biggs warned his boss of this guy: Elvoret. Before doing anything, Draw Siren from him. This'll be our next girlfriend. One of the many things I hate about FF8 is how boring the battles ate. GFs are terrible at DPS, and using magic weakens your stats. So the only thing to do is attack. I tried to Draw Double, but I got bored fast. You can also steal Cures from him if you don't want to use your own. Heal after you're stuck with Lightning Breath, his only real move, and this'll be fine.
With the dust settled, Selphie reminds us we're going home. The retreat time is thirty minutes, so we'll need to hurry! As we head towards the elevator, Wedge crawls to his tablet and turns on the tower's defense.
It's a mechanical spider! Or...half spider. After three turns, it'll collapse, and Zell suggests we run. We have no choice but to follow his request. For now... As we turn around the cliff, X-Ato58 repairs itself and attacks us. We're supposed to keep running, and it's possible to reach the beach without fighting it again. It's faster, and we get more points on the exam score. I'm not sure how to avoid it, though, so I just fought it on the bridge.
X-ato58 will fall down and repair itself when you take out twenty percent of its HP. It can only do this five times, so get ready to take out 200 percent of a giant robot's health. It's weak to lightning, but Qutzelcolotl takes too long to summon. Time still runs in battle! You can Draw Protect from it, which I did to half damage. Draw Cure after it uses Sister Ray. It took fifteen minutes, but I got fifty AP, and the rest of the walk down was a breeze. I missed a fun scene of Quistis shooting it with a minigun, but that fifty AP is more important. You'll also get 100 bonus points, which should offset the time penalty.
We'll return to Balamb. Seifer and his Disciplinary Council, Fuujin and Raijin, take the car back alone, so we walk. Quistis, Xu, and Cid congratulate us on not dying! And then they yell at Seifer for disobeying orders. Cid's kinda glad Seifer isn't a robot, but that conversation ends quickly. Cid has a meeting to attend... Try to go to your dorm, but we'll be ushered to the classroom. Talk to Zell twice, and a faculty member will say the names of the candidates who passed. It's only Zell and I. Everyone else does a dance if dejected in unison.
The two of us are joined by Selphie and some rando. Cid has to hurry to a meeting, so he gives us a word of advice, and we get our grades. Return to the classroom, and Seifer will start a clapping symphony to congratulate us. Our results appeared, and I got to level seven. I think my best is twenty, so I barely passed.
We'll be warped to our room, and Selphie is waiting. She wants us in our new SeeD uniform because there's a party in our honor. But I'll do that...
... tomorrow!
Child soldiers...
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