FF8 - the 'closed' shops in Esthar

[Radiosity]

I bought FF8 on the day it was released, and have played through and completed it (fully completed, including all secrets etc..) probably 30 or more times now. However, one thing that to this day still eludes me is the second closed shop in Esthar, the one that gives you a Rosetta stone if you click it enough times.

Has anyone ever actually managed to get in this shop? Is it even possible to get in, or is it just there to annoy and confise? And if you can get in, is it really worth the effort?

Any info on this would be appreciated

[yoshi314]

i think it was could be random. propably having bahamut with rare-item could make the difference. if that's true, that is. (i thought i read something like that in some faq)

aww, what's the big deal, since you can get rosetta stones elsewhere?

well, now you can try to verify some other rumors if you have nothing better to do in ff8

[Bunnie-Maru]

What I want to know is why all of the TOWNS are closed once you get towards the end of the game...-_-

or to be more specific, who's horrible idea was it to close everything off. >_<

[Radiosity]

There's one very good reason for everything being inaccessible on disk 4: space. ie, space on the last disk. That ending movie takes a hell of a lot of space, and frankly there isn't enough room to have all the locations available to the character and have the ending movie all on one disk.

[Qhimm]

Uhm... as far as I know, FF8 is exactly like FF7 in that it stores an exact copy of the field location database on all discs. (It can, of course, also copy it to the hard drive using a full install)

[yoshi314]

What I want to know is why all of the TOWNS are closed once you get towards the end of the game...-_-

or to be more specific, who's horrible idea was it to close everything off. >_<

heh it's ultimecia's or rather time compression's side-effect. isn't that abvoius? she might also have some connections with malicious ff8-development staff  

yeah, it's a clever excuse for no-space-on-cd-on-psx-version ever-existant problem - since you have almost everything locked up when you enter utimecia's castle, she could also block all the towns to make your life harder. but all your skills get unlocked when you exit the castle, which seems to be an area of influence of her minions - her area of influence might be bigger.
----
i heard that the final movies take almost 50% of the cd on psx. so _some_ towns could not 'make it' into cd4 on psx. they propably thought at square - we'll just block _all_ the towns as a result of a time compression, to save ourselves even more space for other stuff.

[Bunnie-Maru]

That always bothered me. That, and the general wackyness the plot eventually becomes on the later discs (which is a shame, FF8 is my favorite FF theme-wise, its sad to see the story turn somewhat cheesy towards the end, but thats my opinion).

:/

[Qhimm]

Is there some part of my previous post not getting through here...? The towns are not locked for disc space reasons. All field files are stored on all discs, and disc 4 actually has some extra scene data on it (which I haven't examined yet). The locked towns are more likely a result of development time cut short and/or not wanting to write extra dialogue for all people during time compression (ironically, adding the extra handling for disc 4 during time compression would make the field data larger, but the effect would be very marginal). Again, all discs contain an identical set of field data files, that is all script for all discs are stored on every disc.

EDIT:
The extra field data on disc 4 is actually just a sound file of a chorus echoing "FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC" accompanied by something that sounds like a blowtorch.

[yoshi314]

so are there some locked away areas that are not accesible normally?

btw. what do i have to do do get to the ff8 debug room?  /i'd like to see it at least once/ [i heard it exists in ff8 as well]. oh, and i heard that there is some sort of cinema in ff8 where you can watch game fmv's. is that true?

The extra field data on disc 4 is actually just a sound file of a chorus echoing "FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC" accompanied by something that sounds like a blowtorch.

blowtorch? maybe the sample is broken, or something. but, considering the fact that ffx has some metal songs on its soundtrack...it could be just ... a composer's 'warm up'

[snailrush]

Again, all discs contain an identical set of field data files, that is all script for all discs are stored on every disc.

Rather not.
I remember when I was making 8mimic last year, and noticed that each disc contains different and exclusive field data.

[Qhimm]

Right-o, which version are we talking about here then? I'm talking about the PC version, but if the PSX version is as you say then I guess I was in error in my statement by not checking that out more in-depth. My bad.

[CKtalon]

The only time that store is open when you are Zell, and chasing after Lunatic Pandora. And yes, there is a timer..so run to the store to get this rare Rosetta stone before catching up with the Lunatic Pandora..

[DarkestDream]

maybe i can explain why the town is locked in disc 4. it the time-compression effects. Since Past, Present, and Future is in one's time. THere is different people from past, present and future in each town at the same time. Shops is impossible to catch up cuz the times is different. That the main reason why it locked. but you can get in shop by using GF's ability in Main Menu

[Lieron]

you would think the entire world would be inaccessible (according to those laws) since peopel would be traveling all over time 0.o

[DarkestDream]

but one thing is confusing me, Queen of Card still available in Disc 4............

[13uRneR]

Then again, you could realize it's all just a game? Maybe that is just how they wanted the game to be?

I like the whole not enough production time, most game release dates are pushed back quite a bit, although them adding the call shop ability would make it seem more like they planned it that way

[CKtalon]

Actually the technical answer is that FF8 is unlike FF7 which has every map stored in every disc..The final FMVs take up too much space for them to allow u to wander throughout the FF8 universe(i.e. every map squeezed into the disc)  

[DLPB_]

It is likely that the field data was not stored on different disks on the psx version adn the pc just ported it as is.