Role playing games especially Japanese ones - often boast ridiculously huge play times, with the Final Fantasy titles on the Playstation spread over several discs. That's not solely because of their epic stories, though; it's because of all the other extra crap they jam in there to stretch the pace out a little. Like how Skyrim takes hundreds of hours to complete to 100%, even if the actual story can be completed in fifty minutes. It's all the side quests and non-essential missions that eat up your play time, and Final Fantasy VIII was no exception. It's just it also had a side quest that was impossible to find. Seriously, this one was so well hidden it's a surprise anybody managed to come across it. The only hint that the Pupu The Alien side quest exists comes from a singular mention in a n in-game magazine called Occult Fan, which you can only read by repeatedly interacting with a stack of other publications which don't actually do anything. From there it's off to the races, as the magazine includes infuriatingly vague clues as to where on the world map you can come across this wily UFO. If you actually persevere eventually you'll be confronted by the alien itself = after you've already destroyed his ship and then figured out another secret location - and you can give him five elixirs. Then he leaves. And you get a playing card. Seems worth it.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
