Final Fantasy VIII Disc 3

Lunar Base

Talk to the guy in the white coat, then pick up Rinoa and follow them into the room.

Triple Triad Note: Alexander Card

Piet has the Alexander Card, but the Lunar Base starts with the . Let’s abolish that by exploiting the RNG:

Save your game.
Hard reset the game console, don’t use L1/R1/Start/Select.
Continue from that save and challenge the guy on the right.
Challenge and say no 1 time.
Challenge and say yes, then quit without playing 1 time.
Challenge and say no 11 times.
Challenge and say yes, then quit without playing 4 times.

You should see the message that the was abolished from this region. If not:

Challenge and say no 4 times.
Challenge and say yes, then quit without playing 5 times.

Abolishing the should make it significantly easier to win the Alexander Card from Piet. Save after abolishing and before playing. Don’t forget: if you challenge often enough, eventually most opponents will offer the trading rule One instead of the one typically used in the region. (Direct rule in my case. Yuck.)

Talk to Piet (in the white) then go into the next room to put Rinoa on the table. Save your game, then leave out the door on the right and head toward the control room at the far end of the screen. Go forward past the stairs and look at the screen when directed to do so.

You can now go visit Ellone. She’s up the stairs you walked past on the previous screen. Go up those stairs and continue straight. That’s toward you when you are playing and the game is upside down. Go through the door, but before you talk to Ellone…

Talk to her and eventually she’ll agree to come look at Rinoa.

(If you didn’t head to the control room already, then along the way she decides to take a detour and show you the moon. Until you go over there and look at it, she won’t follow you to the other parts of the station. Anyway, indulge her and then go ahead and follow her to the bridge. Go look at the monitor next to your other character, then talk to Ellone. You can finally get her to come with you to look at Rinoa.)

En route, of course, the worst possible thing happens. The game begins to make sense… No wait, that’s not what happens. Rinoa becomes possessed, that’s what happens. Anyway, here’s what to do now. And yes, you have to wait for her at each step. It can be kind of annoying.

Rinoa on Lunar Base route
Step	Action
1	Go save your game. Really.
2	Follow her into the control room.
3	When she deactivates the seal, try to grab her.
4	Click on the panel again and watch the neat Lunar Cry.
5	Follow Rinoa up the stairs and into the hallway where you found Ellone.
6	After the cutscene, take the door to the right. It’s hard to see.
7	Try to go out the airlock, then go look for a space suit. Hint: the space suit is behind door number three.
8	Head out the airlock toward space.
9	Hold forward on the controller until you get to the main docking doors.
10	Eventually Squall says, “I can’t get out; looks like I’ll have to go back.”
11	Follow the other clowns out of the hallway.
12	Go find Piet and talk to him.

You’ll see a little cut scene, after which you can talk to Ellone. Then you can follow people out onto the elevator, or press the button on the panel for a scary cut scene. I didn’t notice any time limits here, but there also isn’t anything useful to do here unless you LIKE playing card games with these GF-awful rules.

Lunar Base escape route
Step	Action
1	Talk to Ellone, get on the elevator and go down, then watch another cutscene. If your characters can Draw, there is Meltdown in a cupboard on the left if you need it.
2	If you have enabled, you may see a save point here. SAVE YOUR GAME. I’M NOT KIDDING. You don’t want to have to do all this over again if you screw up here.
3	Head through the door to your right.
4	Go talk to Ellone, then get in your escape pod’s harness.
5	When you get out of your harness, go talk to Ellone, then watch the long and boring Rinoa death scene. OK, some people may think it’s not boring, but they’re wrong. :)
6	When Squall decides to commit suicide, he leaves the pod.
7	But wait, a really smart guy, Piet, said they were both going to die, so I guess they have to live!
8	Point the controller up and right or left until she lines up with him. Point just up or down, or just right or left, if you are on the same vertical plane. If she’s drifting away too fast, press and hold triangle for a boost.
9	If you fail, you’ll have to go through that whole scene again! Just kidding, you’ll get one more chance and she won’t be so far off center.
10	A large red thing will appear, and you’ll be able to maneuver toward it.

OK, how come after the “OUT OF FUEL” light comes on Squall is STILL able to take Rinoa to the space ship?!? Sorry, force of habit.