He is replaced by a fellow SeeD candidate, Genki Girl Selphie Tilmitt, who attacks using a giant nunchaku and has a slot-machine style Limitbreak.
Militarily, Squall's mission is a success: after a chaotic beach landing, he and his team make their way to the radio tower and rebuff the Galbadian soldiers there, including a duel with their commander, Major Biggs and Lieutenant Wedge, whence Squall can obtain his next GF, Standard Status Effects inflicter "Siren." Squad discipline, on the other hand, suffers quickly: Seifer, looking for a test score that is Over Nine Thousand, abandons the squad and hares off after enemy soldiers. This extends to his Limit Break, "Renzokuken," a flurry of sword slashes. Quistis fights with a whip and uses Blue Magic for her Limit Break, learning new spells by consuming certain items, but we won't get to use her for this mission Squall wields a "gunblade," a Vibro Weapon powered by gunpowder combustion, which does extra damage if the player presses R2 at the correct time.
Quistis, the instructor, will keep the landing craft safe and monitor from a distance. Squall's fire team will consist of himself, Seifer (the only other gunblade user in Balamb Garden) and Zell Dincht, a backflipping bare-knuckle brawler whose Limit Break allows him to string Fighting Game combos together. Several squads of SeeDs will be dispatched to aid in Dollet's defense. Only Dollet's still works, and Galbadia wants it.
A little town called Dollet is under attack by the larger nation of Galbadia, who covet Dollet's radio tower - the only one in the world still functioning, as electromagnetic communication was largely abandoned about 20 years ago, shortly after the Sorceress War, because a persistent jamming effect blanketed the planet at that time. This execution can have lots of House Rules added onto it, which can make the situation much more complicated, but at its heart it is quite simple - and incredibly addicting.Īfter completing this dungeon, Squall is briefed on his final exam - which, as befitting a school which trains mercenaries, will take place during a live military maneuver. After the grid is filled in, the player who "owns" the most cards wins. If you place a card you own next to a card your opponent owns, the rules compare the numbers that are facing each other, and if yours is higher, you "flip" their card to your side by changing its color to yours. You play these cards one at a time on a 3-by-3 grid. Squall also learns to play the local Collectible Card Game, called "Triple Triad." Gameplay is quite simple: you get cards based on monsters and characters who have numbers in all four directions. That said, the tutorials were awful, and all of it is Infodumped on you right at the start as a Forced Tutorial, which many players found overwhelming and/or boring - in addition to how cumbersome the system itself can be. Squall can also unlock the ability to turn items and CCG cards (yes, we haven't covered those yet, keep reading) into magic, resulting in dizzying amounts of menus to control a system of almost unparalleled flexibility. Squall starts out with the Shock and Awe "Quezacoatl" and An Ice Person "Shiva" GFs, and from the Fire Caverns gets the Playing with Fire GF "Ifrit." All of them can be renamed, and all of them start out with various Junction abilities and can learn more. Quistis accompanies him to the Fire Caverns, where he subdues his first "Guardian Force." GFs are not only the Summon Magic of the game, they are also the heart of the "Junction" system, by which player characters can augment their statistics using their quantified inventory of Vancian Magic. ( Theme Naming!) Squall, 16 years old, is ready to graduate. Squall is a student at Balamb Garden, a school that turns orphans into Private Military Contractors called SeeDs.
Quistis rousts him out of bed he has much to do today.īefore Quistis arrives, Squall is greeted by a brunette Mysterious Waif he does not recognize, but who knows his name. His instructor, Quistis Trepe, arrives and scolds him for overzealousness: in a sparring incident (depicted in the somewhat cryptic opening FMV ), Squall received a scar, slanting diagonally between his eyebrows, from his arch-rival, Seifer Almasy, and gave one in return. Disc 1The player character, Squall Leonhart, awakens on a bed in an infirmary.