Dollet

The Duchy of Dollet is a small, independent duchy in Final Fantasy VIII lying in the northeast region of the Galbadia continent. It is the setting for Squall, Zell, Seifer and Selphie's SeeD entrance exam. Dollet is one of the few locations in the world to possess broadcasting technology, which makes it important to multiple parties. It is the last remnant of the Holy Dollet Empire, most of which is now governed by Galbadia. Due to its warm climate and beautiful scenery, it has become a popular tourist attraction.
==Story==
Together with Esthar, Dollet was founded by the Centra civilization, which controlled the entire southern continent. When Lunar Cry destroyed the Centra civilization, Dollet carried on as the Holy Dollet Empire, and eventually controlled the entire Galbadian continent as well as Balamb. During a military conflict, Balamb declared independence and seceded from the empire. 80 years ago, Galbadia and Timber gained independence, while Dollet was reduced to a small duchy in the northeastern corner of the Galbadian continent.
In the present-day, Dollet hosts one of the few radio communication facilities left after the abandonment of radio technology 17 years ago due to the worldwide radio interference. When Galbadian president Vinzer Deling wants to broadcast Sorceress Edea's ascension as the nation's new ambassador, he attacks Dollet take control of the duchy's radio tower. In 49 hours the Galbadian Army breaks through the Dollet lines of defense and occupies the city, forcing the Dollet army to withdraw to the surrounding mountains. 54 hours into the battle the Dollet Parliament votes to hire SeeD mercenaries to assist, and 18 hours later the reinforcements arrive in seven SeeD Assault Boats.
Squall, Zell and Seifer are among the mercenaries, their deployment being their final SeeD exam mission. Their main purpose is to remove remaining Galbadian soldiers from the town center, but Seifer becomes impatient and decides to follow soldiers heading for the radio tower on the mountains, disobeying a direct order from Balamb Garden. On their way to the radio tower they meet up with Selphie from the intelligence squad who has a message for Seifer, and joins the team after Seifer runs ahead.
Atop the tower Biggs and Wedge reactivate it, and fight the aspiring SeeD. A monster Elvoret blows Biggs and Wedge out and after Elvoret is defeated, Selphie delivers an order to withdraw to the beach within 30 minutes; failure to show up in time would result in them being considered missing in action. Biggs sends a mechanical spider after the cadets which chases them to the beach. The party can either defeat the spider, or, once they have reached the beach from which they arrived, Quistis will take it down with a gun turret mounted on the SeeD Assault Boat.
Following the SeeD withdrawal, Galbadia reaches a truce with the Dollet Parliament. Dollet is forced to let Galbadian troops have permanent control of the radio tower and the mountain, and in return, Galbadia withdraws its troops from the city. The defeat leaves the locals disillusioned with their military, and some fear that another assault will occur.
==Geography==
===Overview===
Dollet is a small independent duchy situated within the Hasberry Valley in the Galbadian Continent, right on the edge of the ocean.
According to the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, Dollet Dukedom is the last remnant of the Holy Dollet Empire, which once governed most of the world. Dollet Empire was the first major settlement started by the people who emigrated from Centra. Most of what used to be part of Dollet Empire is currently governed by Galbadia. Lying in the northeast region of the Galbadian continent, Dollet is a small territory. Being known as Holy Dollet Empire alludes to the real world Holy Roman Empire, a weak, fragmented empire of city states proclaimed as a successor to the Roman Empire. In the game, locations related to Centra have an architectural style reminiscent of ancient Rome.
Due to Dollet's warm climate and beautiful scenery, it has become a popular tourist attraction, with the wealthy from various nations setting up high-class resorts. Dollet holds a small-scale infantry troop, but they lack combat experience and cannot cope with a sudden offensive surge. Due to a small military budget, the necessary funds to commission SeeD were raised by an extra tax on the residents.
Enemies in Dollet appear during the SeeD field exam, aside from the G-Soldiers that can still be fought afterward on the bridge. The X-ATM092, after the first battle, is fought in various locations during the chase sequence with it at the end of the Siege of Dollet.
If the player revisits Dollet later in the game, certain things will be different depending on how X-ATM092 was destroyed. If the player destroyed it, X-ATM092's remains will not be on the beach. If X-ATM092 is destroyed after passing the central square, a blue car in the path leading from the square to the beach will have been destroyed and replaced by a green car. However, if X-ATM092 was destroyed on the bridge, the blue car will still be replaced with the green car.
===Car Rental===
The Car Rental at the town entrance hires out cars for a small fee. Although driving a car allows the party to avoid random encounters, they need fuel to run them.
===Dollet Pub===
Dollet Pub is a two-floor installation; the first floor for beverages and confectionery and the top floor devoted to the game of Triple Triad. Another room, accessed via a bridge that cuts over the street outside, also plays host to the game, albeit only those invited are allowed, very V.I.P. The player can't enter here during the SeeD exam, but if they hide in the pub when running from X-ATM092, they will miss out on the scene where Quistis destroys the mecha with a machine gun, and will gets points docked from their exam score.
The bar sells drinks named after chocobo feed from Final Fantasy VII. The person on the left seems to be a crossdressing man, trying to hit on Squall but then getting paranoid if the player doubts they are a woman.
There is a hidden save point, revealed with Siren's Move-Find, in the second floor of the pub. There is a Timber Maniacs magazine on the table. The Queen of Cards is found here when she comes to Dollet, and this is where she lets the player advance her sidequest. If the player wins a game of cards against the pub owner, he invites the party to his V.I.P room across the street. Here the player can examine the stacks of magazines on the floor to get various items, including Occult Fan II, and the pub owner gives the party various monster cards. He also holds the rare GF card Siren.
The possible items/etc. found in the magazine stacks are:
*Potion
*Phoenix Down
*Antidote
*Occult Fan II
*Aphrora Pub-1 drink discount ticket? It expired 5 years ago...
*There's a really old book on top...
*There's a worn out book underneath...
*There's a note in an old magazine...
By reading the notes on old magazines that appear randomly when looking through the magazine stacks, the player can discover that the pub owner once played cards against Laguna.
===Street===
Dollet's streets have cobblestone paving, and along either side are houses as well as small cafes. All buildings along the side are attached. The streets are just wide enough for cars to run through, and to run a circuit through the town, and cars are seen parked along some streets.
The streets comprise three areas, signified by a notable building found along them: the first is features the Spice bar on the left-hand side, the second features a bar named the Shining Bomber on the left-hand side, while the third features the Nautilus store on the right. These three areas are connected to the same street into the Town Square from the beach. The first two areas have a slight bend to the right along the street, while the third has another bend left before leading into the Town Square. A sky bridge can be seen across the buildings in the second area, linked to the Shining Bomber bar.
Random encounters along the streets are available after the party has access to the bridge, and are variations of either G-Soldiers or Elite Soldiers. G-Soldiers are relatively weak enemies, though the party can draw Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Cure, making them useful. Elite Soldiers are more challenging enemies, and though Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder can be drawn from them, Cure cannot as it is replaced with the less useful Scan.
===Town Square===
Dollet's Town Square is a round plaza with a statue placed on a fountain in the center, and a mosaic on the cobblestone floor around it. The plaza connects with three roads and is surrounded by three buildings. Of the three roads, the bottom-left street leads to the streets, the top-left leads to the bridge, and the top-right is blocked by cars. The Dollet Hotel, signified by the Dollet flag just above the entrance, is found directly behind the water fountain, while the building to the right of the fountain is a cafe, and the building to the left is presumably residential.
During the Siege of Dollet Squad B was assigned to hold the position on the town square. There are two fixed battles with G-Soldiers, but no random encounters. A dog could be found wandering the plaza.
===Dollet Hotel===
The Dollet Hotel is a large building found in the town square, with a dome on top. To the left of the entrance is a restaurant on the first floor, while the floor above contains a balcony for the hotel rooms. Timber Maniacs journalist Laguna Loire once wrote an article about this Hotel, having stayed during his trip to Esthar. The magazine is found on the table in the hotel room.
===Bridge===
The bridge crosses the long gap of water between the township and the mountain path. It is lit by street lamps and seems to have the capacity for car travel.
There are possible random encounters with a lone G-Soldier, or three G-Soldiers, aside from during the chase from the X-ATM092. To avoid the X-ATM092 on the bridge, the player must run toward the town until the mecha jumps over the party to block the path. The player must them turn around and race toward the mountain path, and X-ATM092 will give chase and leap over the party again. The player can then turn around immediately and head toward the town; the X-ATM092 will not have enough time to jump ahead again.
===Mountain path===
The mountain path connects the bridge and the Dollet Communications Tower. It is primarily made of a cobblestone path across the mountains, with grass and rocks alongside it, and is made of five areas. The first area is a small path cutting through grass leading to a stairway bending up to the left along the side of the rocks. The second is a continuation of the stairs followed by a cobblestone path leading upwards with some grass along the side. The third is a cliff overlooking the entrance to the Communications Tower, leading right. The fourth is a high-up path on the mountainside leading right before bending to the left again, while the fifth is a path leading left straight to the front of the Communications Tower.
During the Siege of Dollet, the mountain path has more varied random encounters, as in addition to G-Soldiers and Elite Soldiers, Anacondaurs and Geezards are fought, the former of which is fought in a fixed encounter in the first mountain path area, after which it may appear in pairs in random encounters. Geezards are weak enemies from which Thunder and Cure can be drawn, while Anacoundaurs are more challenging from which Fire and Cure can be drawn; as the Geezard is much weaker, it is a better choice for drawing Cure from.
The cliff along the mountain path overlooking the tower has no encounters. This is where the party teams up with Selphie for the first time. The player can jump the cliff or walk around; if the player jumps the cliff, points will be deducted from their SeeD exam score.
Throughout these areas, X-ATM092 can be fought during the chase. To avoid in the cliff area, the player must simply cross as fast as possible. In the next area where the ground is shaking, the player must walk down; if they run, the party is stopped by the shaking ground and X-ATM092 will catch up. The player can then keep running toward the bridge.
Later in the game, if the player tries to return to the Dollet communications tower, a Galbadian Soldier will call two robots identical to X-ATM092. The first one (RoboVite 001) falls off the cliff, and the second (RoboSharp 002) falls from the mountain path, entering the screen in an upside-down position, blocking the path to the tower.
===Dollet Communications Tower===
The Dollet Communications Tower is a large radio tower with a lower and upper floor, connected to the mountain path. It is one of the few locations in the world with broadcasting technology. This made it the primary target during the Siege of Dollet, as the Galbadian Army attempted to gain control of the tower in an effort to restore communications around the globe. Although successful in reactivating it, the army was pushed out by SeeD forces soon after.
The tower itself is a tall, metal structure with several satellite dishes around the top and an electric door as its entrance at the bottom, as well as a circular beam at the top which, when the tower is activated, transforms into a huge dish. The first floor inside is a dark, round room centered around a round structure leading all the way to the top, with an elevator just in front of it that leads to the upper floor. The upper floor is a round area on the outside at the top of the tower, with machinery close to its satellite dishes, and blue canisters around the structure in the middle.
The tower features typical random encounters with G-Soldiers and Elite Soldiers. On the upper floor, more notably, are boss battles against Biggs and Wedge and Elvoret. Biggs and Wedge are not significantly stronger than the random encounters fought, though Esuna can be drawn from Biggs. Elvoret is a more challenging enemy, which is best defeated by draw-casting its own magic spells to use against it. Most notably, Siren can be drawn for Elvoret, and if the player misses Siren here, they can draw her from Tri-Point in the final dungeon. A Weapons Monthly Magazine is also won after defeating the boss.
Outside the entrance to the tower, when leaving following the defeat of Elvoret, X-ATM092 is fought for the first time. Though Protect can be drawn from it, it should not be drawn from too much due to the time limit in this section. After the first encounter, it is fought in various other areas.
There is a hidden Pain draw point behind the tower on the world map.
===Dollet Harbor===
Dollet Harbor is a small harbor, complemented with small cafes dotted along the wharf. It also has larger roads than those featured in the main town which connect to the docking stations for the boats. Adjacent to the roundabout near one of the wharfs is a larger building with a restaurant to its right.
There is a despairing man standing on the pier. If the player talks to him when he is standing there, he will jump into the water. Walking away has him come back ashore, panting that he forgot that he can't swim.
===Lapin Beach===
Dollet's beach is contained by man-made walls as well as large rocks. A small stairway leads up to an outer street connected to the main town, with a tunnel entrance leading into the main town with its cobblestone roads. A lighthouse can be seen from the distance on the beachfront.
The beach was used as the primary entry point by the SeeD forces during the Siege of Dollet. During this, there is a single fixed encounter with two G-Soldiers, though there are no other random encounters.
==Shop==
===Dollet Store===
Recovery Items	Price (gil)
Potion 	100
G-Potion 	200
Hi-Potion 	500
G-Hi-Potion 	600
Phoenix Down 	500
G-Returner 	500
Antidote 	100
Eye Drops 	100
Normal Ammo 	20
Soft 	100
Shotgun Ammo 	40
Echo Screen 	100
Holy Water 	100
Fuel 	3000
Remedy 	1000
===Junk shop===
Weapon remodeling can be done at the junk shop, located within the Nautilus.
==Quests==
===SeeD exam score===
The score Squall receives after the exam is mainly determined by his actions on the day of the field exam, and his score determines his starting rank as a SeeD, which in turn determines his salary. The player can get extra points by destroying X-ATM092 head on instead of letting Quistis destroy it, and should interact with the dog on the town square during the escape to save it. Points are deducted for poor conduct, such as not following Seifer's orders.
===Dog sidequest===
After coming back to Dollet after the SeeD exam, the player can do a sidequest involving the painter, his grandson and a dog. The boy will paint a bone into the man's paintings indicating the dog's location. Finding the dog nets an item.
On disc 1 or disc 2 the rewards are Potion, Phoenix Down and Soft, but if the player waits till after the Battle of the Gardens with the quest, they get X-Potion, Mega-Potion and Elixir.
===Triple Triad===
Dollet uses Dollet region rules where Random and Elemental are the starting rules.
Dollet is a pivotal location for the Queen of Cards sidequest. Once the Queen travels to Dollet, her artist father can create new rare cards, and the cards the Queen requests can be won back from her son (the boy who paints the bone in the artist's paintings). The queen moves when the number of rare cards (Lv.8–10) in her possession changes; the player needs to lose a rare card to her, or win one from her, but she doesn't start with any rares. From Dollet, she will move to Balamb (37.5%) or Deling City (62.5%). Because Dollet has Random as a default rule, the quest is easiest done by losing the cards the queen needs to her elsewhere, preferably before she even requests them if the player is following a guide, to make completing the quest less tedious. The player can also try to deliberately abolish Random from Dollet by trying games with mixed rules, but the outcomes of mixed ruleset games are random and thus often take numerous soft resets for a specific outcome.
The Siren GF card is held by the pub owner. If the player wins any game against the pub owner, they can visit his "secret room" where they can obtain various items by observing the magazines, one being the rare Occult Fan II.
==Musical themes==
"The Landing" accompanies the SeeD field exam, accompanying the FMV of their arrival in Dollet. "Starting Up" plays following the activation of the Dollet Communications Tower. "Never Look Back" plays during the chase scene between the SeeDs and the X-ATM092 Assault Mech. "Dead End" plays during the final moments of the chase scene.
"Dance with the Balamb-Fish" is the field theme for Dollet when it returns to being a normal town. This theme is also shortly used at the SeeD graduation and on the Lunar Base.
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy VIII demo===
The demo revolves around the Dollet Invasion, but certain aspects are different from the game version. Most notably the playable cast features only Squall, Zell and Rinoa, Squall and Zell are in their civilian clothes and not their Garden uniform, and the game's demo uses a music track during the Dollet invasion which is not featured in the game's final version. Leviathan is the only available GF to summon.
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
FFAB Dollet FFVIII.png|Background (Dollet).
FFAB Dollet FFVIII Special.png|Special background (Dollet).
FFAB Dollet Harbor FFVIII Special.png|Special background (Dollet Harbor).
FFAB Dollet Central Square FFVIII Special.png|Special background (Central Square).
FFAB Radio Tower FFVIII Special.png|Special background (Radio Tower).
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
====SeeD Field Exam====
Squall and Zell are assigned to a three-man squad led by Seifer for their SeeD field exam. As they approach the exam site in the Duchy of Dollet, the shells whizzing overhead make it clear that they are entering a true war zone.
====Dollet====
Squall and his party make their way toward the beach to withdraw before their ships pull out, but Biggs has one final plan to stop them from escaping.
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
FFBE Dollet Battle BG.png|Battle background.
FFBE Dollet Battle BG 2.png|Battle background.
FFBE Dollet.png|Dollet.
FFBE Dollet 2.png|Dollet.
FFBE Dollet 3.png|Dollet.
FFBE Dollet 4.png|Dollet.
FFBE Dollet.png|Radio Tower.
==Behind the scenes==
Dollet was written "Dole" in some promotional materials before its English release.
On close examination of the introductory FMV, the Dollet soldiers use the same machine guns as Laguna.
A dummied line in the game data indicates the player would have been prevented from going back to the beach after the exam started, with Zell stopping the player if they tried to return. This doesn't happen in the final game.
The painting called VIATOR in the Art Gallery in Ultimecia Castle may depict Dollet, as the coastline of the town in the painting is similar.
==Gallery==
DolletArt.jpg|Dollet Artwork.
8b-dollet_soldier.jpg|Dollet Soldier uniform.
Dollet Communications Tower lift from FFVIII R.png|Communications Tower.
FF8ScreenshotBiggsWedge1.jpg|Communications Tower.
Dollet-mountain-dummied-background.png|Dummied background not seen in the full game, only in the Final Fantasy VIII demo.
Dollet-pub-FFVIII.jpg|Inside Dollet Pub, second floor.
Dog in Dollet from FFVIII Remastered.png
Dog next to the Dollet pub from FFVIII Remastered.png
Dog outside the artists house from FFVIII Remastered.png
Dollet Beach Xatm092 remains.png|X-ATM092 remains.
FFRK SeeD Field Exam JP FFVIII.png|Dungeon image for SeeD Field Exam in Final Fantasy Record Keeper (Japanese).
==References==
de:Dollet
es:Dollet
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Towns
Category:Organizations in Final Fantasy VIII