Part 26: Part Twenty-Six: Deling City Vacation Slides

Part Twenty-Six: Deling City Vacation Slides


We've finally made it to Deling City.

While we're here, this track plays:



Now we can get to the heart of important issues.


Put it in your notebooks, everyone. The sorceress dresses exotically.


There are buses around Deling City that will take you to places, but we're going to have a look around on foot instead.


Plus, it's fun to run in the street. Try it sometime.


I bet you didn't know this FFVIII fact!


Everyone in this city is so interested in fashion.


Or, uh, apropos of nothing card tips.


This is the inside of Galbadia's big arch. We were here as Laguna, too, but it was just a dead end.


It's a pretty nice arch, though.


You know what's really nice? Learning about geography.

Deling City Tourist Information: This is the road that passes through the middle. So, this gateway is right in the center of the city. Take the path to the right of the gate to get to Caraway's Mansion. You'll see it as you exit the park.

Thanks, dude.


Of course, we're not doing that just yet.


Instead, we're going to go look at this big gate we can't open. It's not very interesting, to be honest.


This is the shopping district. I like that there are so many people here. I feel like most JRPGs don't actually include big crowds to represent big crowds.







They're not much for dialogue, but there are sure a lot of them. Everyone is very excited for the upcoming parade, it seems.


There are also, you know, shops in the shopping district. I took this screen just to show you that we already have a bunch of Normal Ammo. It's used for Irvine's Limit Break.


I also went to the junk shop.


While I was there, I fucked up and upgraded Rinoa's weapon to the Rising Sun. That means I skipped one of her weapon tiers, so yeah, the whole LP is ruined.


While we're here, why not visit the Galbadia Hotel, AKA the place Laguna almost got laid?


We might have difficulty staying, though.


Deling City is gonna be a busy place during the parade.



I really enjoy posting all this incidental dialogue. For me, that's what LP is really about.


This woman is still here sayin' the same thing she said when Laguna was around.


Oh, and we can stay in the hotel even though that one guy said it was booked up. What a piece of shit.


The only person downstairs is this girl. No piano tunes tonight.


She wants to play cards. I won the game.


There are still a couple screens of the city, but let's just skip to the meat.

: (No... I don't think he's out to overthrow the president...)

We still don't know everything that's going on with our current orders.


But shit, we're already here.

Caraway's Guard: I can't just let you walk in.

Nothing is ever easy.

: I believe he's been informed of our arrival.
Caraway's Guard: Yes indeed, but... I was ordered not to let you through until your skills have been tested.

Of course you were.

: What the hell's he talkin' about?

Jesus, Zell, we just got here.

: Test our skills? What does he want us to do?
Caraway's Guard: The Tomb of the Unknown King to the northeast.

My dude, let's talk about verbs.

Caraway's Guard: All you have to do is go there. It's real simple, but... You have to bring back proof that you were there. A code number.
: A code number?

It's six. Just tell him it's six.

: We came all the way out here for some stupid test of courage? Who does he think we are!?

I mean, the dude hired us. Is he paying us for the runaround?

Caraway's Guard: There are many students like yourself who wish to call on General Caraway.

Yeah, except Caraway called on us. He hired us.

Caraway's Guard: There was a student from Galbadia Garden yesterday, who has yet to return from the test at the Tomb of the Unknown King. The Tomb of the Unknown King is located northeast of the city.

Guess who, having played this game like a half-dozen times before at least, read that as northwest.


So, uh, if our job is to find this guy's body or whatever, what was his test?


What if monsters ate this guy's stuff? What if he just bailed? This doesn't seem like a well-planned test, is my point.


Spoiler: we're goin' all the way.



This map is indispensable because of the dungeon's gimmick.


I have never done this.


Now that we've got our mission, the guard will sell us some helpful stuff. By far the most helpful thing is the location marker. If you're going for the optional stuff in the tomb, the location marker is pretty much necessary.


We can also buy some hints. I have never done this before, but I have the gil, so what the hell?


This is the optional bit, and the real draw of the tomb.


Unless you have a great memory, you'll regret skipping the marker. We've already bought it, though.


This is sort of useful advice.


There are only the two hints for sale, so let's roll on out.


Thundara is okay, I guess. I'll probably never use these spells, but I'm not going to just ignore a draw point.


Since we're here, and since I have...


...47,000 gil in my pocket, let's rent a car.


Two things to point out: they don't sell Fuel here; and Fuel costs 3,000 gil per unit, but renting the car only costs 3,500 gil.


Whatever.



Driving is similar to riding a chocobo in other Final Fantasies: there are no encounters and it's faster than walking.


And here's the tomb itself. It looks pretty good, I think. Design-wise, not repair-wise.



We just got here and Galbadians are already running away.

The girl yelling "Float" is giving a hint, by the way.


You two have a good time out there.


Naturally, the draw point outside doesn't have Float. Protect is a lot less useful.

Oh well.


Inside, the tomb is a lot less visually exciting. This is a part of the gimmick. See, in this area, the camera is always placed behind your party when you enter a new screen. So, which exits lead where changes depending on how you enter a screen. It's very disorienting, and part of why the location marker is so important.

Note: as reader Yukari pointed out, you can also hit all the places you need to hit by taking rights at every intersection.


While it doesn't show your current facing, if you know which direction you came from, you can figure it out. The whole disorientation thing is probably also why they gave you an escape route. This place can get very confusing.



That said, if you just want to move on with the story, you don't have to go any farther than the second screen. You can go right back to Caraway now. I want that GF, though, so I have a lot more tomb to raid.


Here's the other thing that makes this place disorienting: random encounters. It is very, very easy to enter a new screen, get in a fight, and forget which direction you were facing. In this place, Enc-Half is a blessing and Enc-None is straight up amazing.


At least the GF learned how to make bullets. This is important for getting the good shit for Irvine's Limit Break, but it's also required to get Squall's ultimate weapon.


Back to the tomb, though. Our first destination is over here on the right side of the tomb.


Inside the room is some minotaur or another.


Doesn't seem to be a big fan of us.



In fact, he's such a not-big fan that he starts a fight with us. This is Sacred, the first of two optional bosses in the Tomb of the Unknown King.


His Draw spells aren't really prize-winners.



This is Sacred's main deal: as long as his feet are on the ground, his HP regenerates over time. If you cast Float on him, it stops this from happening.


I didn't do that, instead opting to just outpace the healing. It's pretty easy to do if you have good junctions.



Not terribly rewarding, though.



Once we kick his ass, he fucks off. He's not dead, so we'll probably see him again.


Whatever thing he was standing on here rises up once he's off it. Great.


Back to the tomb.


Probably the most interesting enemy in the whole place is right here, Blobra.


See, Blobra has a lot of Vitality, so to kill it effectively, you need to use magic.


I don't have a lot in the way of magic during this fight, so I summoned Kate Bush instead.







Being a siren, Ms. Bush does siren-y things to enemies.


She's not much for damage (she's actually the least-damaging GF in the whole game). The main effect of Kate Bush's attack is that she inflicts Silence on enemies.


Still got the job done, though.



For the next one, though, I made sure to get Zell some Blizzagas.


When I found the next one, it happened to be weak to Ice. With Blobras, hitting a weakness means seven times the damage.


Now it's over to the other side of the place, the extreme left side of the map.



Here, Squall fiddles with the gears and nothing in particular happens. I'm doing things out of order.


This room, way at the top of the map, is the last place to hit.


Number one: Float draw point. 9 Floats is enough for what I need to do. You can't refine Float, and I don't draw a lot in battle, so it's gonna be pretty rare for me.


Number two: this lever over here.



Now there's water in the thing. Great.


Just in case you weren't sure, imagine some of these between all those screens of things happening.


Last stop: dead centre.


Now that we've played with the gears and filled up the thing, the bridge is lowered and we can reach the room in the middle of the place.


See? There we are, right in the middle.


Hey, it's Sacred.




Guy's got some bravado.

: (Man, this guy's a major idiot!)


Here comes a second one, I guess.


Big ghost minotaur might be a problem.


Oh, nevermind, it's a tiny non-ghost minotaur.


And it's very relaxed.

Sacred: Y-YO BRO, THESE GUYS CRASHED THE TOMB! P-PLUS, THEY ATTACKED ME!
minotaur: oh, really... they attacked you? not bad for a human...

: The puny one's the Elder brother?

Zell would know this if he could read kanji. Sacred's shield has the kanji for "little brother", and minotaur's has the kanji for "big brother".

Sacred: Y-YO BRO! T-THEY'RE MAKIN' FUN OF US!
minotaur: ...foolish little humans. ...i'll show you not to judge a book by its cover...


And now it's time for boss fight number two!



In this fight, both Sacred and minotaur are healed while they're on the ground.


When the two of them are on the field, they have the ability to use their special attack, so it's actually helpful to Float one of them to prevent their healing this time.


I got started on Sacred, since he's the weaker of the two.


He didn't last long.


His brother didn't fare any better when he was alone.



Much more conciliatory in defeat than his brother, n'est-ce pas?





Sacred's fight wasn't rewarding, but the fight against the two together gives out a lot of loot. 40AP is great in particular. We're most of the way to Enc-None now.


We also now have a new GF!



And, now that they're gone, we can talk to an actual ghost.

Unknown King: Thanks to you, I am now free from this cramped stone coffin...

No problem, hoss.

Unknown King: ...However, there is something I have been thinking of for a very long time. Is it really necessary to entomb those traveling to the other world, after such a long and tiring journey through life?


And with that, he's gone, leaving behind the minotaur card.

And that means, we could get Squall's ultimate weapon right now if we wanted to .


After all that work, the entrance is just a straight shot away.


Fun fact: this screen with the sword is the only one in the whole place that changes depending on how you enter it. The sword is always by the south exit.


Now all that's left is to report back to Caraway for our mission.