Part 32: Part Thirty-Two: Monster Hunter
Part Thirty-Two: Monster Hunter![](1-FFVIII_07014.jpg)
Well, it's time for Laguna and Kiros to get to work.
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Here's a fun fact: in these sequences, Kiros and Ward usually have junctions already set, but Kiros doesn't here. It's easy to not check that and get a surprise when you get in a fight.
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Lines like these are nice little displays of Laguna's life in Winhill. They're also very sweet.
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Unfortunately, to go to work, we have to leave the pub. This is also a problem I face in real life.
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At the bridge, Kiros starts a conversation.
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Laguna is very proud of himself for this.
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As useful as it is, and as amusing as it is to be the "monster hunter" while not hunting any monsters, it would be bad manners, so Enc-None is off for this one.
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I still have Tornado junctioned to Str here, so Laguna's pretty powerful. The enemies around here aren't very tough anyway, though, so it's just overkill.
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To make sure they got EXP, I just dumped all the GFs that weren't junctioned to Laguna off on Kiros.
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I also used some old Abyss Worm cards I had lying around and made some Tornados for the guy.
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Shit, might as well, right?
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And we're off!
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Winhill is a very scenic place. Shots like this would be great in a modern game, I think.
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Along the way, we can pop into this flower shop.
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Old Woman: This town here must be quite dull for a young man like yourself. Perhaps it's time you returned to Deling City?
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There's nothing else to do in the flower shop, but there's a Drain draw point over here.
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Drain is okay on Vit or Spr, and it can be a semi-useful utility spell in a pinch, I guess. It can also be junctioned to your attacks to make them heal you.
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Over here, we can see the huge-ass moon.
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I also got into a random encounter. The enemies in Winhill are the same weak enemies we saw around Balamb Garden, and they still absolutely suck.
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A Caterchipillar can't even have 1,170 HP until level 33.
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There's a truck here, but we can't do anything with it. Probably something good underneath if we could move it, though.
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This carriage isn't looking so hot, though.
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Here's another encounter you can have in Winhill: Caterchipillar with Bite Bugs. Bite Bugs won't break 1,000 HP before level 58, they fuckin' suck. Like I said, enemies in Winhill are nothing to worry about.
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At the end of the road is downtown Winhill.
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There's nobody in this house.
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And there's nobody in the hotel, either. Like Laguna said, there aren't a lot of people left around town.
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Going upstairs, there are some nice flowers, but still no people.
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It's just past there that we finish the patrol.
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And now we just have to get back to the pub.
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First, though, we can stop at this shop.
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As you might gather from this, Laguna isn't really well-liked in Winhill.
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Store Owner: ...How's Raine?
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Store Owner: That's good. But it'd be even better if you left!
Like I said. They don't go into it really in-depth, but it's probably because he's a Galbadian soldier. The Galbadians aren't really popular.
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Even though they hate Laguna, they like Raine, so they'll let him shop.
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Too bad I'm Laguna right now, so I don't have any goddamn gil to buy Tents with. Now I'll never get more Curagas that I don't really need.
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It's good to have manners when you don't have gil.
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Now to run back across Winhill.
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Partway back, Kiros took some hits and dropped to critical HP.
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Due to this, I can fire off his Limit.
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Blood Pain makes the screen turn into a rave while Kiros goes nuts on an enemy for six hits. The hits are slightly higher-powered than the hits in Squall's Renzokuken.
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SquarEnix were so impressed by this display that they learned a new ability.
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Their major ability set is the HP+ abilities (20%, 40%, 80%), which lead to HP Bonus. They can be very useful later on.
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On the next screen is Winhill's famous Chocobo crossing.
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It's pretty much impossible to see a Chocobo crossing sign and not have a chat about it.
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This line is a pretty good summary of the point of this section. Laguna looking away when Kiros asks about journalism is a pretty stark contrast to how he talked about it with Julia, rambling about it and about how his letter to the editor got published. Our man Laguna is settling down.
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We're almost back to the pub.
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At the crossroads, Laguna starts the conversation back up.
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Kiros is starting to get it.
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Laguna hasn't changed completely, though.
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He runs all the way back to town (about half a screen).
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And hey, there even was a monster there. Would ya look at that?
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Getting back to the pub, it looks like nobody's around.
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I guess they've gone upstairs.
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Kiros shakes his head at Laguna wanting to leave. I guess someone has no manners.
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So that's the story of how Raine and Laguna met. How romantic.
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Raine seems to have some trepidations about the L-Man.
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Ellone: Raine, Uncle Laguna and Elle should all be together!
Ellone has a powerful counter-argument.
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Raine: I think what he really wants to do is travel all over the world. I don't think he has it in him to live in a quiet country town like this one. Some people are like that...
As I pointed out earlier, Laguna likes living with Raine in Winhill, but it sounds like he's conflicted.
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Understandably, this is frustrating for Raine.
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Ellone doesn't really understand, because she's just a kid.
Also, you can see here that Laguna and Kiros have ducked down to avoid being seen.
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It sort of works.
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Laguna pretends to have just run back.
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Ellone, at least, is fooled.
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For whatever reason, the game gives you control after that line, so you can run downstairs for no reason.
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Ellone has nothing very useful to say, so it's over to Raine to move things along.
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I like Laguna's pose here.
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Yes, that's a real count of monsters killed, and yes, if you have Enc-None, he proudly announces 0.
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Raine is happy with the results either way.
Raine: Shall we eat before you get started with the next patrol? I'll call you when it's ready, so just wait in your room. You seem pretty tired. You should take a quick nap.
I've been waiting for that order since the SeeD exam.
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And now it's back to Laguna's place.
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There's no real point in not resting. Unless you feel a strong need to go fight some random encounters, I guess.
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