Final Fantasy VIII Part #36 - Part Thirty-Six: Jailbreak

Part 36: Part Thirty-Six: Jailbreak

Part Thirty-Six: Jailbreak

Fuck, I'm sick of the D-District Prison. Let's leave.

: Yo, can you guys hear me?

There's no voice acting in this game.

Selphie is the kind of person who nods to answer your questions when you're on the phone.

: So, what do we do?

: Press the red button on the main panel.

For this task, the game gives you control of Squall. Selphie and Quistis will not talk to me.

I cannot leave. This truly is a prison.

Whatever, might as well press the button.

: There!

Using the arm leaves us at the very bottom of the prison's central shaft.

: Heeey, so what are we going to do now?

: Well, there's a door over there.

: And?

: ...... Let's check it out.

Those last two lines are a great stupid question/straight answer exchange.

Probably a popular phrase here, in prison. Let's get that door.

Spoiler: the door is full of sand.

Yes, sand.

: ......

Imagine this: you're in prison for attempting to assassinate a major head of state. You fight your way out of your cell and all the way to what you think is the front door. When you open the door, all you find is the prison's sand room. Imagine how pissed you would be. That's how I imagine Quistis is feeling right now.

We could be buried, but I think sand room is a little more likely. Let's be realistic here.

: In any case, we can't get out from here...

While everyone is pondering the possible purposes of the sand room, they hear a noise. Note: no noise is audible to the player.

: Gunfire?

: Sounds pretty bad...

Everyone's reaction to hearing gunfire: "ehh, what'cha gonna do?"

Squall's not in the mood for a group yell right now.

: Let's get back, quick!

While they run back upstairs, let's be somewhere else for a moment.

Warden: Seize the escapee, dead or alive!!!

: (Tch! Too many! I'm outta here!)

At this point, we're Zell again, running away from some guards.

If the guard catches up to you, you're forced into a battle.

Since the enemy is just two Guards, it's not much of a threat.

Good job, man, you found the guy you could see and were chasing. Promotion for sure.

(This is actually a line that pops up whenever you fight a random encounter including a human enemy in this area.)

Unfortunately for me, Zell is currently running without junctions.

I mean, it's not a real problem, it just slows things down.

Back to runnin'.

Coming around the bend, someone cracks Zell in the head from offscreen.

Warden: You bastard...

Things aren't looking good for ol' Zell.

Thankfully, Squall leaps down from above and cuts that guy's spine right in half.

He's dead now.

: Didn't think he'd go down that easy.

: Squall!!!

Zell, you're ruining his heroic posing.

Some people think this game takes itself too seriously.

Quistis and Selphie take the stairs down, and do not kill anybody to announce their presence.

: Squall, why did you go on your own? Is Zell that important to you?

Squall was never the sort of person to leave a comrade to die. He's just not the kind of person to announce that.

While everyone's chatting, though, the gunfire starts up again. Puts a damper on the conversation.

Not with that attitude.

As suddenly as the shots started, they stop.

There are a couple of shots from offscreen here, and it looks like it didn't go well for those nameless/faceless guys.

Hey, here's some shots of Irvine posing like a cool dude.

: Stop trying to act so cool!

...Right before Rinoa kicks him down a staircase.

: Gee, if only you had agreed with me earlier, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Rinoa seems happy to see Squall. I don't know why she crouches here, other than to get in the shot.

: Yeah!

Squall doesn't say anything here.

: Uh huh.

: Courtesy of my escort.

: What's that supposed to mean?

Reminder that Irvine wasn't in prison earlier.

: My father pulled some strings with the military. He told them to get me, and only me, out.

Based on this, it sounds like Caraway didn't pull strings to get Irvine out. Somehow, the actual gunman was not arrested for the attempted assassination.

: So this guy here... He came and got me. Just me! Knowing you were all captured!

: Ahh, that's...

Even though it's hardly been any time at all, Rinoa's come to consider the SeeDs her comrades. She's putting her life on the line for them, here.

Irvine tries to play this off all cool, but fuck, what a sleaze.

: I said I was sorry. That's why I'm here to help!

: After I scratched you to death.

: Uh...

: Of course it is.

Most basements are buried.

: This place is buried underground.

Oh.

: Buried?

: That's right. This prison is...

Just as Irvine is about to explain to Squall how basements work, the pesky staff comes back.

Irvine hates it when the staff talks to him.

: Squall! You choose two more party members and head on up. I'll hold 'em here.

: Up?

Well, you can give it another go with the sand room, but the odds aren't good.

: Don't have time to explain now! The exit's up there, trust me.

: ...... Ok.

: I think I know the way!

So now we get to make a party. Squall and Rinoa are mandatory, and I'm taking Zell because he's been here, even if he was just mopping the floor. He's good with machines, too.

Irvine and the others can take care of the guards.

For now, it's time to go back upstairs.

It's fun.

I mean, who doesn't love to go up stairs, right?

As we go up from the twelfth floor, it's back over to the C-team. Probably my favourite part of this shot is Selphie just sitting there like nothing is going on.

: Hey, what do we do?

: Hmm...

: I got an idea! Can't we go up again with the arm?

This implies that they went up the stairs before, which means they went past Zell and doubled back to rescue him.

: Hey, good idea.

Quistis's ideas are so good they fired her.

: But they have to operate it from the control room upstairs.

: Leave that to me.

So, thanks to Ms. Trepe, we've come up with the exciting plan to go down the stairs now.

I love it.

Down on the fifth floor, we can find this guy.

Fifth Floor Friend: Escape? Still got fresh legs, huh? I'll stay here. I don't wanna die.

This guy will play cards with us, just like that other guy upstairs.

Again, though, it costs money. I have the gil, so why not?

Winning cards is easy.

And it gets you rewards like this!

We'll find out what these do later, promise.

Like the guy upstairs, you can win a stat-booster here, but only once. Unlike the other guy, you can't win something special like a Rosetta Stone, so there's nothing to grind for here.

Let's go.

On the fourth floor is a box. It contains a Tent.

And then we're there. Like 80% of this dungeon is just staircases, shit.

Once the C-team gets to the arm, it's back to the B-team over at moomba town.

Talking to these moombas nets us some items.

If you don't hold out during the torture sequence, you don't get these.

I also find out the annoying way that I forgot to do the junctions again. At least it was only a Guard.

Then Rinoa's dog kills him for me. This has a 6.25% chance of happening when she takes a hit. It's similar to how Shadow's dog works in Final Fantasy VI. I, personally, am a fan of the dogs in FF games.

While we're up at the top of the prison, we can go back to the torture room. There's nothing here anymore.

Going up.

Oh boy, a big round room with nothing in it but some stairs.

Now we're up at the top.

Honestly, even though the D-District Prison is so boring as an area, I do kind of like the actual design of it.

Let's head outside.

Zell is by far the most excited to be here.

Prisons never want to let you go.

Time for a boss.

Well, more of a mini-boss, really.

Spoiler: they will not be stopping us from going anywhere.

This fight is against a regular Elite Soldier just like every other one we've fought and two GIM52As, which are just regular enemies around the prison.

The only even remotely interesting thing here is that the robots have Haste to Draw.

Squall chops one of the robots in half.

And then Rinoa shoots her dog at the other bot and the soldier like she's a cannonball.

Dog's fine.

All enemies are defeated, though. Good dog.

Even though these enemies are all just regular guys, the game treats it as a boss and awards 0 EXP for beating them.

I sort of assumed that this was a fixed drop from this fight specifically, but it's actually just a rare drop (4.7%) from the GIM52A.

After the fight, Irvine pages us. Good thing we were right next to the door, not across that bridge.

Back inside the prison.

: Is this what you were talking about? What if Squall and the others have already gone ahead?

Like I said, this is better good luck than good management on the part of the C-team.

: See! I told you we'd be alright. Squall, go ahead and operate the arm.

: How?

: Yo, leave that one to me.

Thanks, Zell. I hate usin' stuff.

: Alrighty! We'll be there in like a second. Wait right there.

: Sure takes a while, doesn't it?

: So what? What's the rush?

I think she just wants to leave prison.

: Looks like they'll be just fine.

I know he said "right there."

But Irvine can bite me. I'm crossing this bridge.

That's a big desert.

This is the Dingo Desert.

What was it that Irvine said about being buried underground earlier?

: We still can't go anywhere.

: No way...! When I came in earlier, it wasn't like this...

Zell and Rinoa worried about shit like "being way the fuck up in the air" but Squall knows how to get things done: go back to prison through a different door.

Fuck it...might as well.

In the middle of running, Squall just decides to stop. You might be able to tell by the change in graphical fidelity, but an FMV is also starting up around him.