G-pinions

Last night I finally started up FFVIII again. I let it sit there collecting dusts for a week while I played some other, more immediately rewarding games. Nick and I have a deal that when I finish FFVIII I can finally borrow Disgaea though, so that gives me some incentive when the game itself isn't going as well.

I am only about 5 hours into the game, so my opinion shouldn't count for much, but the story is still lagging a little. I know in FFVII I was still doing vigilante stuff at this point as the story usually takes a little while to get going in these games, but I want something to happen. All that's happened so far is I became a member of SeeD and had a strange flashback/vision involving people I don't know yet. So, I have no clue where the story is going.

I did have one hardcore battle already. I got this Magic Lamp that warns "Save Before You Use" or something. So, I saved as soon as I got it and used it. Bam, I was whisked away to another dimension where I fought Diablos. I was still really early at this point, my 3 characters are between level 12-14. I didn't equip beforehand, not knowing it was going to be a fight, and only had one Guardian Force with me. So my strongest attack was 450 HP and my other attacks were under 100. Since Diablos has 8800 HP, I got my ass kicked.

Needless to say, I'm persistent. I don't like to lose. So, I fired up my saved game and equipped. This time I was ready. But he's a cheap bastard. He has one gravity attack that hits everyone and takes away more than half your life. Cheap! So I fought valiantly, but only got about three quarters of the way there before he put the kabosh on me, again.

I don't take no for an answer. Ignoring the mission I was supposed to be doing, I went to the training center to fight some decent enemies and level up. Bam! All of a sudden there's a T Rex there. And he has a ton of HP. This time, though, I'm ready for him and whoop his ass. Ah, the confidence is building. So I level up a little then go fight Diablos again.

This time I have a whole strategy. Cure constantly, make sure he can only attack my GFs in the beginning. Stuff like that. But I was still getting my butt kicked. The Asian chick died and I was just using the other two to constantly kill and revive each other. I told you, Diablos is a cheap fuck. So I'm down to the end. I can either raise Tom (Squall?) from the dead, or do my limit break with Zell. I have no life for Zell, so if I don't kill Diablos I'll probably die. So I pull the trigger and do the break.

His break is very cool. You are given a few button combinations to do, and you have 10 seconds to do it. The faster you are the more moves you can pull off. This was my 3rd or 4th time using this so I was pretty comfortable with what needed to be done. So I'm just kicking his ass for a huge time, I must have pulled off 13 or 14 moves. Yay! Then I jump away and... and... Diablos admits defeat! Nice. So he's my newest GF and I got a new card. Even better since I didn't even have enough to play another card game.

So the fighting is pretty cool in the game. I don't know why they took away the limit break bar. I have no idea when I'm getting it now. But it's still fun. The story leaves a lot to be desired, though. I don't like these antisocial characters. They're such assholes.