Let's Play: Final Fantasy VIII - Part Seventy Three

 Part Seventy Two

 Masterpost

 Day Thirty One: Don't You Know That I'm Lovin' You

 The plan for today was get Quistis' weapon up to the best level, so I needed to get two Malboro Tentacles, and let's face it, the easiest way to do that is to mug some Malboros.

 I tried the Esthar Plains like the last time I was out hunting for Malboros, but since they're infested with moon monsters (which still bothers me on a conceptual level), it was a lot less fun than the last time. I miss the Mesmerizes, they were so easy to kill and you got a decent amount for their horns.

 Alas, those days are long gone.

 Amusingly, though, the first encounter I got into had Odin pop up.

"Hiiiiii!"

 I've calmed down a lot about Odin, so I was actually kind of happy to see him.

 Unfortunately, he didn't help me out during any of the other fights, and I find Toramas to be a pain in the neck. They kept killing Zog with Death.

 Just Zog, though, Zell and Quistis were fine.

 Since I saw so many of them, it occured to me that the faces of the Toramas really remind me of Shere Khan from the Disney movie adaptation of The Jungle Book.

See what I mean?

 I guess it makes sense, tora does mean tiger after all. It's just... those spots.

 It felt like it was taking forever to find a Malboro on the plains, so I went back to the Island Closest to Heaven and lurked around there until I found a Malboro that I could steal tentacles from.

 Now, it didn't take an awfully long time, but the monsters on the Island Closest to Heaven are level 100 and do present a real threat as a result of that. I didn't mention this during the Ultima hunt because I was using Encounter None to avoid fights.

 Now, you can fight 'em, or you can do what I did and run away from non-Malboro fights and from Malboros when you've got what you need.

 Woo! Cowardice!

 With that goal accomplished, it's time to head back to the Deep Sea Research Centre and to the fight with Ultima.

 Here's where I let out a long sigh.

 I tried six times and failed on every attempt. I feel like I ballsed up on a fair number of those, but it remains that I would have failed regardless of what I did. The use of Light Pillar and the fact that the Ultima Weapon can spam it and use it on the last party member standing, means that any win is generally a matter of luck.

 Oh, that said, there was one particularly frustrating attempt where I died partially because I couldn't tell which character I was selecting for a healing spell because the user interface is a damn mess. The way it's set up means that often times, you can't even see which character is selected because menus are in the way.

 Dynamic battlefields are a mug's game if they interfere with gameplay, that's the lesson here.

 I'm not sure what to do at this point, I think the best choice is to give it another shot and then just move on for the moment. I saw someone on a forum saying that Nina has a Limit Break that can provide invulnerability, which -in a fight this heavily unbalanced- you kind of need.

 Find out what I end up doing next time, in Part Seventy Four.