Final Fantasy VIII [8] – Downtime

Disc Two starts with another dream sequence starring Laguna. It’s six months after the events at the mine (if ti was a mine) and he’s now pretty much recovered from the injuries. He was recovering at the village of Winhill. His new love interest is a woman named Raine and he’s also taking care of a little girl called Ellone.

Kiros visits him so they go on a monster hunt through the village. It’s obvious he has gotten a bit complacent, so Kiros keeps hinting in that direction to. Other than that, nothing is really happening. The only other thing of note is that we find out Julia got married to Caraway, meaning she’s Rinoa’s mother. Also, Esthar soldiers seem to be abducting little girls, trying to find a successor for their sorceress.

The flashback is soon over and the game switches to Zell, Selphie and Quistis, imprisoned in the D-District prison. Zell gets beat up by guards and then the game switches again, to Squall. He’s at the same prison, being tortured by Seifer. Back to Zell, he realizes he doesn’t really need weapons, being a martial arts expert and all, so he beats up the guard and recovers the groups’ weapons.

Final Fantasy VIII, Zell's Chance to Shine

Hell yeah! Some people hate Zell because they’re hipster like that. Not me!

There was some more switching back and forth, but eventually, I managed to get Squall with the group and then, just as it was about to end, Irvine and Rinoa came to the rescue. I got control of Squall back and teamed him up with Zell and Rinoa to get to the top of the prison, where the exit was. There was a short and easy boss battle and we were out.

During the escape, I took some time off to play the card game against some of the prisoners. I finally had a good, strong set of cards, so I used the opportunity to get a bunch of extra mid-level cards so I could possible refine them into items in the future. I think it’s about time I started seriously accumulating stronger spells for junction.

After the escape, I was finally told that Galbadia is targeting Balamb and Trabia Garden with missiles. I had to split the group into two, with Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa (if I remember correctly) going for the missile base, while Squall and the rest went to warn Balamb Garden.