"Minor" details you picked up replaying a RPG.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Possible Spoilers Zomg?

Sorry for the lengthy title, but yeah, it says it all!

Example for me would be in FF7. I had not played it since it's release date, so was pretty young (9-10 maybe?). Something dynamic I picked up was Sephiroth's motives and the origins of Jenova. At first, I thought Sephiroth summoned Meteor 'cuz he was emo, but the second time around I than understood it was so he could merge with the lifestream and become a "god." With Jenova, I never knew "she" was an extra-terrestrial than destroyed the Cetra civilization.

Anyone else have a similar experience or am I just an ignorant sillyface?

[Exoduso]

Rinoa/Ultimecia connection. I just thought Ultimecia was some chick sorceress from the future, didn't even bother trying to understand what was going on until my last playthrough about a month ago. (last time I played it was like 6 years ago..)

[Bloodanaki]

Rinoa/Ultimecia connection. I just thought Ultimecia was some chick sorceress from the future, didn't even bother trying to understand what was going on until my last playthrough about a month ago. (last time I played it was like 6 years ago..)

It's been a long time since I've played these games, so my mind is a little foggy. What was their connection exactly between Rinoa and ultimecia? With the big "Spoiler" warning on the first post I think it's ok if we all spill the beans here.

I actually do like where this thread is going.

[Exoduso]

SPOILERS coming up just in case, but..




It's pretty much proven that Rinoa is Ultimecia in the future... Ultimecia seeks Ellone's power to bring Squall back to her. She doesn't remember him anymore, but rather knows she has a longing for someone dear that she had missed in the past.

Squall must've died while Rinoa stayed alive, since Sorceresses seem to have an infinite (or at least, a much longer) life span than regular humans. She must've then turned into Ultimecia and reigned by terror all this time and tried to get ellone through past sorceresses (Edea, Adel, Rinoa in the story at least)..

Also, she builds her castle right next to Edea's house, where Squall and Rinoa promise they will wait for each other (the area with all the flowers, same place Rinoa finds Squall dead at the end of FF8..)

EDIT: Also, Ultimecia wants to achieve time compression because she believes that may be the only way she can get Squall back to her (and well, she kind of does, but doesn't even remember him and ends up fighting the SeeDs ... pretty sad heh.) This is why she wants to get to the past, since she needs both future present and past together in order to achieve the compression, and for that reason she needs Ellone (and then the compression happens when you fight Adel, bringing all 3 into 1.)

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Wow I never thought about how Ultimecia/Rinoa's link lured Squall to her castle. Almost as if it was instinctive (he wanted to be with the one he loved).

[Charla]

Couldn't you explain it just by saying that Hyne's power/conscioiusness carried Rinoa's attatchment after her death? So then when Ultimecia becomes a sorceress at some point she also inherits a longing she couldn't understand, driving her to dominate the world and all that stuff.

[Exoduso]

Who knows.. it's the only logical explanation you really have for Ultimecia in the game, otherwise she would just be another "hayguyz!" boss like Necron/Yu Yevon...

Oh and another symbol that Ulti is Rinoa is that she summons Griever... Rinoa still has Squall's ring at the end of FF8, along with her own version that Zell made. Now, the game doesn't necessarily tell you that the ring can summon Griever, but you know that he's engraved onto the ring, so it makes sense.

[Helpoemer]

you could possibly say that Ultimecia forgot about Squall because she was probably using Griever a lot and since using GFs erases memories...ya

[Exoduso]

you could possibly say that Ultimecia forgot about Squall because she was probably using Griever a lot and since using GFs erases memories...ya

Well there you go... but if she did that, then why did she still want to compress time? Perhaps she just forgot what she needed to compress it for, but had strong feelings that it had to be done for some reason.

[Kaylia]

Who knows.. it's the only logical explanation you really have for Ultimecia in the game, otherwise she would just be another "hayguyz!" boss like Necron/Yu Yevon...

Oh and another symbol that Ulti is Rinoa is that she summons Griever... Rinoa still has Squall's ring at the end of FF8, along with her own version that Zell made. Now, the game doesn't necessarily tell you that the ring can summon Griever, but you know that he's engraved onto the ring, so it makes sense.

Was about to /slap you for forgetting the most obvious hint in your first post. Ultimecia having griever can't simply be a coincidence...especially with the meaning of the word "griever". There was also another hint in one of her line on the ragnarok after the space scene, but I forgot what it was exactly.


This whole thing made FF8 so much more enjoyable for me. The first time I beat the game, I always thought Ultimecia was a random cliché villain, but when you realize it's not the case, it add a lot of depth to everything that was said before. I still have a few gripe about FF8, but it was probably my biggest one first time I beat the game.

you could possibly say that Ultimecia forgot about Squall because she was probably using Griever a lot and since using GFs erases memories...ya

Well there you go... but if she did that, then why did she still want to compress time? Perhaps she just forgot what she needed to compress it for, but had strong feelings that it had to be done for some reason.

Summons erase your memory, not your deep feeling. That's probably why. Game never explained clearly what happen, so it's hard to argue against that, since there is no other obvious answer.

[Exoduso]

I agree, I didn't even make the connection until recently... makes it far more enjoyable playing the game from the beginning now.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

you could possibly say that Ultimecia forgot about Squall because she was probably using Griever a lot and since using GFs erases memories...ya

why did she still want to compress time?

I believe when time compression is casted, the caster is the only living entity to exist. Seems evil enough to me, and I'm sure that was her ultimate motive.

[Fayttt]

Damn, I never even thought into FF8 that much; granted it was 4 or 5 years ago; all I picked up playing the game was that for some reason Rinoa was ultimecia but how I didn't understand. This got me to download the game though. Totally have to play it again =x.

[Exoduso]

Damn, I never even thought into FF8 that much; granted it was 4 or 5 years ago; all I picked up playing the game was that for some reason Rinoa was ultimecia but how I didn't understand. This got me to download the game though. Totally have to play it again =x.

Damn right lol, i'm already on CD3 now... stupid Rinoa is in a comma thank god, so sick of her constant bullcrap, she's worse than Xenosaga's Shion heh.

It's been so long since I originally beat the game though, it took me like 10 minutes to find the White SeeD ship......

[Charla]

You mean you didn't go get tonberry and then use the "double target's level" move to draw all the best magic and PL yourself to like 60 with degenerator as soon as you got the flying garden? (I used snow lions, cause they can be berzerk + blinded and can't hit you even at level 100) Not to mention solving all the chocobo forest puzzles.

[Keria]

Jesus, that made me want to replay FF8. Just put it in my PS2 and it fucking froze on the opening CS. Maybe I shouldn't have spent the last 7 years using my game discs as coasters.

[Elcura]

Goddamn. I hated FF8 for the lame story mostly (I didn't like the Draw/Junction system either, but the story was a bigger gripe). Now this actually makes me think, "hey, maybe they DID put some thought into the story!" Actually, I would've liked them to make it a bit more obvious, because when you're dealing with time-travel it's like the story goes everywhere and bringing it together is hard. I hate stories that deal with time-travel because it's just a bad concept to just randomly use.

The connections were there, but we probably were all to young to see them. This actually makes me hate 8 a whole lot less. But there's still the problem of bad execution, annoying characters and a pretty poor system. Well, at least the music was good, I loved the music.

[arus2001]

Been replaying Valkyrie Profile 2 off and on the past few days. Some of the subtleties I've noticed so far would be how Dylan tends to behave in some of the CS (hinting to his identity as Brahms), how Rufus reacts to things involving elves (Since he's half-elf), Lezard refusing Silmeria's offer to an object reading due to how it will point out an obsession (His being Lenneth, which would totally blow his cover), and a bit before my last save how Silmeria goes quiet within Alicia shortly before bumping into Leone and Arngrim since she sensed Hrist's presence without warning anyone. I guess Leone focusing on Rufus' ring could be considered a hinting of things to come, too.

[Kaylia]

Goddamn. I hated FF8 for the lame story mostly (I didn't like the Draw/Junction system either, but the story was a bigger gripe). Now this actually makes me think, "hey, maybe they DID put some thought into the story!" Actually, I would've liked them to make it a bit more obvious, because when you're dealing with time-travel it's like the story goes everywhere and bringing it together is hard. I hate stories that deal with time-travel because it's just a bad concept to just randomly use.

The connections were there, but we probably were all to young to see them. This actually makes me hate 8 a whole lot less. But there's still the problem of bad execution, annoying characters and a pretty poor system. Well, at least the music was good, I loved the music.

The hard to catch stuff in FF8 are not lacking. There was a ton of obvious one like Laguna being Squall's father, but there is plenty of little details here and there that show the story was carefully planned. However, I agree with you that in certain case, they should have been a more obvious and have character realize those things.

Magic system is where the problem was, junction itself was ok <_<

[Skyylya]

This thread has made me realize one thing.

That I really dont' pay attention to the story line in the games I play...

I played ff8 and while it's probably one of the least memorable for me I never even thought about connections like this or even in any game for that matter.

Perhaps i'll re-fix my PS2 and give this game another go-around.