Let's Play: Final Fantasy VIII - Part Thirty Four

 Part Thirty Three

 Masterpost

 Day Fourteen: Thundurus and Tornadus Double Battle

 After some flying around, I found Trabia. Well, I thought I'd found it, but it turned out that I didn't know it from a hole in the ground.

This hole in the ground, to be exact.

 Trabia Garden is a short way away.

 Nida says that the 'gauge is going berserk' if you stay around the hole for too long, so I hope that's going to go some way to explain why Trabia Garden isn't a smoking hole in the ground. Because no one was messing with the error percentage when they fired on Trabia, but that same setting was up to one hundred and still managed to create a massive hole right where Balamb Garden was.

See? See?!

 Although, to be fair, Trabia Garden does seem to have a hole in it, so maybe it did take a hit.

 After not being able to do anything here, I headed back to Balamb and tried to get in again.

 This time it worked.

 I'm not totally sure why. It may very well be because I just talked to the guard again, but then again, the first time I had Rinoa and Quistis (for catching up purposes) with me and the second time I had Zell and Quistis with me.

 The reason I had Zell with me is because he's from Balamb, his mum lives there and I thought it was only fair to bring him along.

 So yeah, not sure which was the catalyst, but either way, Zog managed to talk his way into the town by lying to the guard.

You sly bastard.

 He's getting smarter, I like that. He may grow on me yet.

 From here it's a case of a lot of running around.

 And I do mean a lot.

 First, though, I headed to Mrs Dincht's house to see how she was and to let Zell say hi.

 They explain how they got into the town (although Zell does say it in a way that makes it sound like he did something helpful even though he didn't) and she's relieved. She'd thought they'd beaten up one of the guards.

 I'm not going to lie, I did have a moment where I went; 'Lady, you sent your son to train to become a child soldier but beating up a guard is your limit?'. However, in the next breath she does explain why, and it does make more sense

 Apparently the Sorceress has threatened to burn Balamb to the ground if there's any trouble.

 So her concern is logical after all.

 Zog asks if the Sorceress is currently there, and she tells him about a woman she has seen with the Galbadian army.

Wait, I only know one person who fits that description.

 It's Fujin, which Zog also realises pretty quickly.

 Now you need to go to the Hotel to try and talk to Fujin. The guards won't let you, mostly because they think Zog and Co. are bullshitting and don't want to risk getting their pay cut.

Worst pay practices ever.

 The really interesting thing here is that they place the blame for this at the lack of control the working person has over their employment. So they're more well acquainted with how the job market works than David Cameron.

 In order to get in, you need to look for the Captain, AKA Raijin.

 First you need to go to the dock, where you learn he's been fishing and has caught a fish that he wants to cook. Then you go back to Zell's house where you find out that he's cooked the fish. Then to the station where this happens:

I shouldn't laugh, but I still want to.

 It turns out that Raijin is not a very good cook.

 After this, it's back to the dock, where talking to the dog will lead it to lead you to back tot he train station where it chases Raijin out of the train.

 He legs it back to the hotel.

 (As a side note, you can find a journalist behind some vehicles by the docks and you can pay him for information. Don't bother, it's not worth it. Just do as I did here and you'll be fine.)

 Once you get there, you overhear him try and placate Fujin, who is angry at him for not doing his patrol properly. She gets so angry that she kicks him out of the hotel.

I did not mean this figuratively.

 Which adds a layer of 'Fujin has serious anger issues' to my theory that she can't control the volume of her voice.

 Once he notices Zog and Co., Zell incites an argument and Raijin responds by attacking with the help of the two guards.

 Now, I kept using Leviathan, because I still have issues reading the symbols in the game and misread the symbol for poison as the symbol for water.

 This is pretty pointless, just use Bio on the guy a bunch of times as well as making sure to hit him with your heavy hitters.

 And don't worry about the guards, they'll go down in a hit or two each, so they won't be around long enough to be an issue for you.

 There are two things you want to be wary of, though:

• One, do not use the Thunder magic family, and make sure that it isn't junctioned to any of your physical attacks. Raijin absorbs Thunder magic and will heal himself using it. (This is actually a cool little touch, as in Japanese mythology, Raijin is the god of lightning.)
• Two, you will run into another boss battle immediately after this one, so try and keep your HP as high as possible.

 Keep these in mind and you should be fine.

Unlike Zog, Raijin makes a short jacket look masculine.

 On my first attempt I didn't fall foul of point one, but I didn't know about the second part of the boss battle, so I was at very low HP when I went into it.

 Now, this is where I make a little confession.

 I didn't take notes and screenshots properly on Day Fourteen itself (I wasn't feeling super great that day), so in order to write this post I played through this section a second time to get all the screenshots and notes I needed.

 When I played through it the second time, I had no intention of actually winning the boss fight, but because I actually knew what I was doing, I did manage to defeat Fujin and Raijin with remarkably little difficulty.

 Here's the basic rule for the boss battle: Get your HP back up to snuff, then use whatever-you-called-Charles. Because reflect has been cast on the entire party, Fujin's magic attacks will be redirected at Raijin. She may continue to attack using magic, like she did on my second attempt, or switch over to physical attacks, like she did on my first. In hindsight, that's probably part of the reason that I lost on my first go.

Most sensibly dressed woman in the game.

 Now you've reduced Fuujin's effectiveness in battle, you really should concentrate all your attacks on Raijin, as he is the bigger threat right now.

 It is important to remember that you cannot use Aero and related magic on Fujin, just like you cannot use the Thunder family on Raijin, which is another nice little nod, as Fujin is named for the god of wind. This does mean that once you take Raijin her magic attacks will end up healing herself, but it's not a big problem. You're going to be doing more damage than she'll heal.

 Like Raijin, Fujin is also weak to poison, so Bio is your friend. Stock up before you head in and you'll have a good time.

 Not to say that if you don't have Bio, you'll have a bad time. I ran out part way through on my second run, but I used GFs a lot, so it was pretty easy.

 Now, this is the most important thing I can tell you in regards to this boss battle:

 Use draw on Fujin. This is how you get Pandemona.

 Never pass up an opportunity to get a GF.

 Like I did on my second run. So now I have to do this whole section a third time.

 I'll get into the aftermath next time, in Part Thirty Five, the beginning of Day Fifteen!