Part 12: Part Twelve: Quistis's Bad Day

Part Twelve: Quistis's Bad Day


So, here we are, on our way to go meet Quistis at the secret make out area that people go to after dark. I wonder what she wants.


First, though, let's go visit the gatekeeper.


He doesn't have anything new to tell us right now. It must suck to be this guy if he has to be here 24 hours a day.



If you try to leave, he tells you off. What about the students who commute? Can they just not leave if they're here until lights out?


Try to leave three times, and he gets really mad at you. The idea of him telling our instructor about this is kind of funny, since she's the one who ordered us to bunk off curfew.


Doing this lowers our SeeD rank. Dang.


Thankfully, there's an easy way to get that rank back up.


In the menu, you can find written tests. Each written test bumps your SeeD rank up by one, and you can take all the tests up to Squall's current level. Theoretically, that means I could bump my SeeD rank up to 17 right now, but I'm not doing that because it would be boring and I'm not that hard-up for gil.


The tests consist of 10 yes/no questions like this one, dealing with general knowledge about the world of Final Fantasy VIII.


Most of the questions on the level one test are pretty simple.


I think this is the hardest question on this test, and that's mainly because I don't meticulously keep count of how many elements are in games. The answer is yes, by the way. Some of the questions on later tests can have confusing wording or be annoying bullshit, but I think you get the gist of it here, so I won't bore you with all ten questions.


The important thing is that I passed. Only 100% is considered a pass in the game. Also, I originally did this before I got the rank off for trying to leave, and just rearranged it for the update. My current SeeD rank is 9.


Oh, and if you're really bored, you can review the written tests.


This means you do the test all over again, after you got 100% the first time.


This gets you nothing but this screen. Whoopee.


Before I go to meet Quisits, I rename Siren to Kate Bush.




I also use this handy feature to remove Zell and Selphie's junctions. They're not here, so they don't need GFs.



Garden Faculty: Return to your room.

So the Garden keeps students out of facilities after-hours by just having people stand there all night. Seems like a great job to have.

Also, since it's late at night, there's no background music playing in Garden right now. I think it's a nice touch.


There's not much going on right now, so let's talk to Quistis.



: I'm not sure...

I'll tell you right now, if you've fought T-Rexaur, you'll be sure.

: You can defeat it quite easily by using Status-J. Let's go over status changes in the Tutorial.


You can junction status spells to your attack just like elemental spells. It's a good way to put status effects on enemies. Tutorial over.

: Well? Use a Sleep attack against T-Rexaur. Just junction 'Sleep' onto your ST Atk-J and attack.

Sleep is a pretty terrible status effect, and this is terrible advice. The main problem is that a sleeping enemy will wake up if you hit it with a physical attack, and physical attacks are usually better than magic.



Before we head in, it's important to junction Quistis some GFs. There are random encounters in the training centre, and you don't really want to be stuck with nothing but weak attacks.


At this point, Quistis has no magic.


So I give her Selphie's. It's very easy to rearrange your party in this game, which I really like. Later on, there's even an option to just move junctions over from one party member to another without having to do any of the other menu work. It's great.


Also, even though I still I have them, I won't be using Tornado or Thundaga as junctions here. Water is good enough for now.


Let's get a move on.


The training centre is a pretty nice-looking area. It's very lush.


This walkway looks janky as hell, though.


Look, I just like taking pictures in here, okay?


This is the first of two enemy types in the training centre, the Grat. Grats are not really a threat.


Quistis is very close to gaining a level.



We're already mostly at the point where I can move past first-level spells, since I have QuesoCola's Mid-Mag RF ability or however the game abbreviates it. It lets you take 5 first-level spells, like Blizzard and make them into 1 second-level spell, like Blizzara.


That glowing door there leads to the secret area.


Let's check it out.


Well, here we are. Make-out point.


Just so you know this scene is important, it has its own theme:




Quistis and Squall find a nice place for themselves with a view of the Garden.



Like their earlier chat on the balcony near the ballroom, this conversation is full of pauses when Squall should be talking.

: It's after midnight.


Quistis is unhappy about something here.

: I, Quistis Trepe, am no longer an instructor as of now!

Oh. That's probably what she's so bummed out about.



Quistis is speaking to him, but Squall doesn't answer straight away.


The pause here is actually really long. It's uncomfortable if you're playing.


And all for this.


Quistis brought Squall out here for a reason. If she hadn't wanted to speak to him specifically, she could just as easily have come with someone else she knows, like Xu.


When somebody tells you about their problems, this isn't a good answer.


Part of Quistis's firing probably had to do with Seifer's stunt in Dollet.



This kind of gives me the feeling that Quistis was under examination as much as the students were, to see if she could hack it as an instructor, and she just didn't pass.


Faced with someone pouring their heart out to him, Squall literally looks away.



: I did my best...

Quistis wasn't a very good instructor, and she does lack leadership qualities.



I really like this conversation because it develops both characters well.



These two lines are just insanely cold, and the way Squall turns away from Quistis, then leans back to tell her to shut up shows how distant and blunt he can be.


To him, though, he's just being pragmatic. Squall's not being a dick to Quistis here on purpose, he's just not considering at all that he might be being a dick.



: I just want you to listen.

Remember all the times Quistis finished Squall's sentences, and when she called him her best student? Yeah, I don't think this is what she expected here.



Quistis's question gets right at Squall's core.


And, in case I haven't harped on this enough, he literally looks away from something he doesn't want to face. Squall completely wants to be able to share his feelings with someone else.



This is the base of Squall's worldview. He's distanced himself from others because he thinks that everybody just leaves eventually.


And so, when someone who cares about him needs him, he leaves.



The end, no moral.


Well, let's go back to our room, I guess.


On the way out, I run into a literal tyrannosaurus.


Squall can't see it, so he's not too out-of-sorts, but Quistis freaks out.

: Squall, be careful! Sometimes it's better to run!


We are not going to run.


T-Rexaur is pretty tough, but he's not unbeatable. It actually wasn't until my second run of the game that I realised you're supposed to be afraid of it.


Its attack is pretty ugly, though. Squall's almost down here.



An important thing to know if you're going to fight T-Rexaur is that it's weak to ice, so IcyNips can really clean up.


Since I don't want EXP, I turned it into a card, and managed to even get a rare one (6.3% chance)!


Dino Bones turn into a pretty good spell, but we don't have the ability to refine them quite yet.


T-Rexaur is also worth a ton of AP.




Naturally, I find out after the fact that three of my GFs are learning pretty lame abilities. Also, as you can see here and as Vil pointed out in the thread, Kate Bush only needs 400 EXP to gain a level, rather than the 500 that's standard for GFs. There are two other GFs that follow that pattern, and one that takes more than 500 EXP to level up, which we'll see later on.


At this point, I also remember the Power Wrist I have languishing in my inventory.


I gave it to IcyNips.


It boosts Quistis's Strength quite a bit.


On our way out of the training centre, we hear a cry for help.


We'd be remiss if we ignored it.


Hey, isn't that the girl from the infirmary?


Yup, there he is.


"Quisty"? That's awfully familiar. Who are you?



Well, I suppose it'll have to wait.


Here's our newest boss. The big bug is called Granaldo, and the three little guys are Raldos.


Hey bug-face.


Granaldo has two mystery spells. The top one is Sleep, and the bottom one is Shell. Sleep just puts something to sleep; as discussed earlier, this isn't a great option. Shell halves magic damage on a character, which is pretty nice if you're fighting something that puts out a lot of magic damage and can't be killed in one round.


The Raldos don't have anything special.


Having overestimated the boss's strength, I released a Renzokuken on it.


I just checked, and Granaldo at my level has around 1,500 HP.



This was not a hard fight.

Wizard Stones, by the way, are just refinement trash. They refine into five third-level spells each. 16 Wizard Stones is a lot of third-level spells.



For example, they let me make the 80 Curagas that gave Squall this boost to his HP.


14 AP isn't bad, either.


Now maybe we'll have a chance to talk to this girl.


Wait, who's that?


Who are these guys? What's going on?



I guess we're not going to have a chance to talk to her.


Even Quistis doesn't know who she is.


Not much we can do about it now, I guess.


On the way out, we stop.


Quistis hasn't quite given up on Squall.


She leaves anyway, though.


Well, Squall, I believe that was Socrates.


Let's just go to sleep.


Zell, I swear to god, if you are here to order me to go somewhere else, I will throw you out the window.

: Where the hell were you? I was lookin' all over the place.

Well, here we are. What do you want?

: We're both members of SeeD now, right? Well, guess what!? We got our own rooms, baby!

Great, I'll move tomorrow.

: Your new room's right across the hall from your old one.

Wait, does that mean somebody else already moved my stuff?

: That's what I was asked to tell you. Man, it took me forever!

Well, thanks.


Now, let's get back to our room. (If you talk to Zell, he just repeats the line about your room being across the hall from your old one.)


And Squall finally gets his nap.