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[SIZE=100]FINAL FANTASY VIII - THE REVIEW[/SIZE]
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Dizontinar
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Dizontinar
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CloseFinal Fantasy VIII
Review
After the big success that Final Fantasy VIII made, who would have thought that Squaresoft was going to make the next entry in the series, during the English localization of the previous game?
Well, 1997 was the year where the Company began the 2 years run to finish their future game…
But did it end well? No, it did not.
First of all, the context of the video game must be taken into account. The seventh title of the franchise was an enormous hit not only in Japan but in the rest of the world. This was nothing new for the west, despite only receiving the fourth and sixth title, which were named as final fantasy II and III.
It cannot be denied that due to Final Fantasy VII world spreading achievement, the bar was set very high, almost unreachable. There are many people who think that the company was doomed from the start, and I partly agree.
We must also know that, despite the exit of the previous title, it constituted the end of the Golden era for the franchise. Some of the changes introduced in the first PlayStation video game did not fulfill the desires of the older players. The new ability and magic system were highly criticized by them, the same happened for the main cast and for using 3D graphics as an incentive to buy it. It was the first time that the fan base was strongly divided; with detractors and lovers.
All of this was not that big, but when the eighth entry came out, the issue became bigger, and thus, the fans were completely disunited.
THE GAME
LEVELING AND GF SYSTEM
Final Fantasy VIII was a huge change from the past entries, reminiscent of Final Fantasy II, released in 1988 for the NES. The most important aspects of the gameplay of a role-playing game changed. The Exp gaining system, the battle system itself, the ability and magic learning, etc. It was not the same, and all these things have been one of the most common arguments against the game through almost 20 years; the reasons are easily found between the first half and end of the first cd.
Enemies level up with you, so this makes classical grinding useless. The system makes you use it as much as you can, so here comes the heart of the subject:
There are some summons; three that are linked to the main story, and thirteen optional ones that can be obtained through the game. As in Final Fantasy VI (III), those summons, that are called GF in this title (Guardians force), need to be equipped to a character, in order to gain access to the battle commands and for some passive abilities.
Therefore, GFs are essential. They are needed to use the battle commands, for the special battle commands and for raising up your stats. This is when magic is presented to the player.
There are some ways for obtaining spells; 3 actually. The first and second one are the clearer ways, those who are shown in the tutorial from the game. In some places, you will find a purple haze and if you have the GF ability "extract" attached to you, you will likely use them. These purple spheres are used to obtain some magic spells; each one contains a spell, of a random number (it can vary from 1 to even 13). You approach them by pressing the accept button when near, extract the spell and now you can do two things. Stock the magic ability, so you can use it in battle, or just link that spell to a stat, which varies depending on the GF and its abilities. Then, you can do two things, take a walk and keep walking (not in the same room where the magic extraction point is) until the extraction point is recharged, or just going on with the story.
The other way is more of the same. With the extract command equipped, you must enter a battle. In that fight, you need to use that ability to gain spells from the monsters. If you know that you can have 100 numbers of a spell and 32 spells per character, you have to know that filling your stacks will take some time; furthermore, "extract" can be also used for using the spells that the enemy has, so the players do not have to waste their stacked spells.
The third way is the easiest to use one, but the hardest to discover. There is a card game called Triple triad in this entry. In order to obtain cards to play it, you must speak to a man that is in a bridge in the Balamb garden or obtain a skill called "card" from the GF Quetzalcoatl. This battle command will let you turn monsters into cards. Then, you must have the ability "card mod", from the same GF and turn these cards into items (you can also obtain cards by playing the game, which is easier, but hard at the beginning with an initial deck). So now you must use another ability that some Guardian forces have; "refine", which it can be used to refine items to gain spells for a specific element, depending on the Gf, to gain curative items, or to convert items onto other items. If use this way as soon as you start the game, you will probably end up by having 100 curagas, 100 quakes, or even 100 holys between the first and second hour of gameplay.
One of the essential points of this game system is gaining AP (ability points). Ability points are some separated earnings from Exp points. They are used to gain skills for the GFs, which can be a trouble when you don't want to level up; that's why you turn monsters into cards, to end the battle without gaining Experience points but Ap.
Leveling can be troublesome; so at the end, you must be well junctioned, rather than overleveled;
And this is what makes the system tedious, that if you try the third way, the length of the game can be increased up to 60 or 70 hours, which is quite a lot. In fact, the battle system is quite the same as the other games, with an ATB bar that dictates the turns of the fight.
As I said before this was one of the main arguments against the title, so this means that there are most arguments in disagreement with the game.
THE CHARACTERS AND THE STORY
There are 6 main characters that form the cast and 5 that are secondary, thus not playable, with one exception. Compared with the 9 playable characters from the seventh game and the 14 playable characters from the sixth game, this falls short. By looking at this, you may have thought that they did this to stop making optional characters, but an adventure full of important characters, with greater development and backstories… It is just the opposite. Only one character receives some development; although Quistis seemed to receive some development, she was overshadowed by Rinoa, and then she became nothing, be just a cool fighter.
The characters suffer from that, from being nothing but a piece for the story, with a basic personality and almost no development.
Zell, for example, has no development through the entire story, and his personality is quite straightforward and really annoying.
Selphie is more of the same. Almost no personality and a pretty poor personality. As Quistis, she looked that she was going to receive some development in one part of the story, but then she is not developed. I can say this for every character from the game, but for Squall and some (but little) for Rinoa.
I cannot say this for Laguna, for example. He is far more interesting and well developed than most of the characters in the game. This let me develop a small theory. Laguna was going to be the main character from the actual game but was changed by Squall, to engage the younger audience, I guess.
Squall has a nice backstory and a personality change that made sense with the story. There are a lot of people who say that he is emo, but I disagree; in my personal opinion, I think he was a child suffering from PTSD and a bit of depression.
The story itself is not that bad, actually. It has an interesting world (though a bit empty), some nice locations, and an interesting beginning, with one of the most iconic Animated cutscene of all time. The problem is about the narrative.
The story is poorly told, with a lot of issues.
The plot is quite simple. In the world, there are three gardens with a group of elite soldiers called SEED. You are a part of that soldiers, and your mission is to protect the world for every possible conflict.
(Warning, Final Fantasy VII and VIII spoilers here)
GRAPHICS AND MUSIC
The graphics are amazing, they aged well, as the characters models are quite realistic. This is a huge step up from the previous game; the maps have more detail put into them, the battle scene is more dynamic, the monsters and the battlers feels more natural, etc.
To sumer it up, everything is more polished and, as I said before, realistic. Now you control characters who look like real humans, not only polygons.
The music is also pretty good; there are a lot of pretty good themes, and some of them that are amazing. Like most of Nobuo Uematsu works, it is consistent, and matches the scenes perfectly. We have some complex themes and some ones that are more simplistic, but there is not any song out of place, everything makes sense with the feel of the game. I must say that the use of the leitmotiv is done nicely, with two main themes; the Balamb Garden melody and “Liberi fatali”. One of my favorites song from this title is “The extreme”, the last battle theme. It is a fantastic track, and one of the best that the composer did. Other great tracks are “Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec”, “Premonition”, “Liberi Fatali”, “Fisherman’s horizon”, “The man with the machine gun”, etc.
REPLAYABILITY
The game has a lot of replayability value, with many secrets to discover and side quests. This entry also engages the player to start a new game and try to play without GF, without using cards to grind, without refine, and with more handicaps, so there is a lot to do with this title.
FINAL SCORES
-Graphics: 10
-Music: 9
-Story and characters: 6
-Playability: 6
TOTAL SCORE
7.5
Review
After the big success that Final Fantasy VIII made, who would have thought that Squaresoft was going to make the next entry in the series, during the English localization of the previous game?
Well, 1997 was the year where the Company began the 2 years run to finish their future game…
But did it end well? No, it did not.
First of all, the context of the video game must be taken into account. The seventh title of the franchise was an enormous hit not only in Japan but in the rest of the world. This was nothing new for the west, despite only receiving the fourth and sixth title, which were named as final fantasy II and III.
It cannot be denied that due to Final Fantasy VII world spreading achievement, the bar was set very high, almost unreachable. There are many people who think that the company was doomed from the start, and I partly agree.
We must also know that, despite the exit of the previous title, it constituted the end of the Golden era for the franchise. Some of the changes introduced in the first PlayStation video game did not fulfill the desires of the older players. The new ability and magic system were highly criticized by them, the same happened for the main cast and for using 3D graphics as an incentive to buy it. It was the first time that the fan base was strongly divided; with detractors and lovers.
All of this was not that big, but when the eighth entry came out, the issue became bigger, and thus, the fans were completely disunited.
THE GAME
LEVELING AND GF SYSTEM
Final Fantasy VIII was a huge change from the past entries, reminiscent of Final Fantasy II, released in 1988 for the NES. The most important aspects of the gameplay of a role-playing game changed. The Exp gaining system, the battle system itself, the ability and magic learning, etc. It was not the same, and all these things have been one of the most common arguments against the game through almost 20 years; the reasons are easily found between the first half and end of the first cd.
Enemies level up with you, so this makes classical grinding useless. The system makes you use it as much as you can, so here comes the heart of the subject:
There are some summons; three that are linked to the main story, and thirteen optional ones that can be obtained through the game. As in Final Fantasy VI (III), those summons, that are called GF in this title (Guardians force), need to be equipped to a character, in order to gain access to the battle commands and for some passive abilities.
Therefore, GFs are essential. They are needed to use the battle commands, for the special battle commands and for raising up your stats. This is when magic is presented to the player.
There are some ways for obtaining spells; 3 actually. The first and second one are the clearer ways, those who are shown in the tutorial from the game. In some places, you will find a purple haze and if you have the GF ability "extract" attached to you, you will likely use them. These purple spheres are used to obtain some magic spells; each one contains a spell, of a random number (it can vary from 1 to even 13). You approach them by pressing the accept button when near, extract the spell and now you can do two things. Stock the magic ability, so you can use it in battle, or just link that spell to a stat, which varies depending on the GF and its abilities. Then, you can do two things, take a walk and keep walking (not in the same room where the magic extraction point is) until the extraction point is recharged, or just going on with the story.
The other way is more of the same. With the extract command equipped, you must enter a battle. In that fight, you need to use that ability to gain spells from the monsters. If you know that you can have 100 numbers of a spell and 32 spells per character, you have to know that filling your stacks will take some time; furthermore, "extract" can be also used for using the spells that the enemy has, so the players do not have to waste their stacked spells.
The third way is the easiest to use one, but the hardest to discover. There is a card game called Triple triad in this entry. In order to obtain cards to play it, you must speak to a man that is in a bridge in the Balamb garden or obtain a skill called "card" from the GF Quetzalcoatl. This battle command will let you turn monsters into cards. Then, you must have the ability "card mod", from the same GF and turn these cards into items (you can also obtain cards by playing the game, which is easier, but hard at the beginning with an initial deck). So now you must use another ability that some Guardian forces have; "refine", which it can be used to refine items to gain spells for a specific element, depending on the Gf, to gain curative items, or to convert items onto other items. If use this way as soon as you start the game, you will probably end up by having 100 curagas, 100 quakes, or even 100 holys between the first and second hour of gameplay.
One of the essential points of this game system is gaining AP (ability points). Ability points are some separated earnings from Exp points. They are used to gain skills for the GFs, which can be a trouble when you don't want to level up; that's why you turn monsters into cards, to end the battle without gaining Experience points but Ap.
Leveling can be troublesome; so at the end, you must be well junctioned, rather than overleveled;
And this is what makes the system tedious, that if you try the third way, the length of the game can be increased up to 60 or 70 hours, which is quite a lot. In fact, the battle system is quite the same as the other games, with an ATB bar that dictates the turns of the fight.
As I said before this was one of the main arguments against the title, so this means that there are most arguments in disagreement with the game.
THE CHARACTERS AND THE STORY
There are 6 main characters that form the cast and 5 that are secondary, thus not playable, with one exception. Compared with the 9 playable characters from the seventh game and the 14 playable characters from the sixth game, this falls short. By looking at this, you may have thought that they did this to stop making optional characters, but an adventure full of important characters, with greater development and backstories… It is just the opposite. Only one character receives some development; although Quistis seemed to receive some development, she was overshadowed by Rinoa, and then she became nothing, be just a cool fighter.
The characters suffer from that, from being nothing but a piece for the story, with a basic personality and almost no development.
Zell, for example, has no development through the entire story, and his personality is quite straightforward and really annoying.
Selphie is more of the same. Almost no personality and a pretty poor personality. As Quistis, she looked that she was going to receive some development in one part of the story, but then she is not developed. I can say this for every character from the game, but for Squall and some (but little) for Rinoa.
I cannot say this for Laguna, for example. He is far more interesting and well developed than most of the characters in the game. This let me develop a small theory. Laguna was going to be the main character from the actual game but was changed by Squall, to engage the younger audience, I guess.
Squall has a nice backstory and a personality change that made sense with the story. There are a lot of people who say that he is emo, but I disagree; in my personal opinion, I think he was a child suffering from PTSD and a bit of depression.
The story itself is not that bad, actually. It has an interesting world (though a bit empty), some nice locations, and an interesting beginning, with one of the most iconic Animated cutscene of all time. The problem is about the narrative.
The story is poorly told, with a lot of issues.
The plot is quite simple. In the world, there are three gardens with a group of elite soldiers called SEED. You are a part of that soldiers, and your mission is to protect the world for every possible conflict.
(Warning, Final Fantasy VII and VIII spoilers here)
One, for example, is the Laguna mystery. This was nice in cd1, but it stretched until the last part of the game, knowing that it could have been solved way before.
Another example is the garden master NORG. This happens out of nowhere and when you kill him… everyone forgets it, no one cares about anymore.
The game is full of this kind of mistakes, that could have been solved easily, but this is nothing compared to the biggest twist in the game. The Orphanage scene.
This scene is pretty bad, not because it does not make sense, which it does in the game world, the issue is the way it is told. It is told rushed, like if it was added after the ending of the game. Same for the GF erasing the memories. It is too convenient! They tried to add three plot twists at the same time, but it failed. These twists look like they were added after the game was finish, or just because they did not want to write a custom backstory for every character, and just wanted to say that the main theme of the game was love and fate, so they can make a common backstory for almost all characters. Irvine not telling nothing about that reminded me of Final Fantasy VII when Tifa did not tell Cloud that he was lying all the time. It was a small plot hole
that was used to keep the plot going on the way they wanted. But in this case is not that, because the Orphanage scene is not that important to the entire plot, they could just kill Ultimecia off without knowing that they came from an Orphanage, nothing would change, as they don't mention that event anymore in the story.
In the middle of the game, we are introduced into time travel. Not classic time travel, that happens later in the game. A character named Ellone has the ability to make consciences go to the past, and he uses that power to Squall friends, in the parts of the game known as the Laguna dream sequences. In these sequences, you play as Laguna (who is Squall father) and you see some parts of his past, which is pretty good and serves as a rest from the story of the main characters.
The Laguna mystery becomes bigger when the cast discovers that Ellone is sending the party back to the past of Laguna, because she wanted to change the past, but could not do it (as she was adopted by Laguna). The problem is that this subplot is kept until the end of the third disc, and at that time it loses a lot of importance.
Another problem with the story is the third and fourth disc because the story becomes completely absurd at this point. In fact, this game is a lot like the fourth title of the franchise. A story that stars promising and interesting, but that falls gradually into nonsense.
The time traveling part is really confusing, and again, told in a messy way. Ultimecia, who is the main villain of the game; an evil sorceress that came from the future by using a time-traveling instrument called the Junction machine Ellone, wants to compress time (it's not explained why). She travels to the past through the game and uses her powers to possess another sorceress, such as Edea. When the time compression
begins, Ellone uses her powers to help the party go to the future. (Time compression is condensing all of time and space into a single moment, or "singularity", so she could be the center of the universe and could manipulate the past, to not die at the hands of the legendary Seed.)
When you travel to the future you see that Ultimecia destroyed and ruled the entire world. She has a castle in the middle of it, and what you need to defeat her.
Well, after you defeat her, your party must travel back to their time by focusing on each other; However, Squall does this wrong and ends up in the wrong timeline (due to the reminds of his antisocial personality, I guess). Then he sees that a dying Ultimecia is giving her powers to Edea, so she can become a sorceress (because witches only die if they pass their powers to someone else)
So it was all a loop? Ultimecia gives her powers to Edea, Squalls tells Ultimecia about the gardens and the Seeds, Edea creates the garden and the Seeds, the story begins again, endlessly.
After this Squall has a vision of a desert (since he is lost in time) but as Rinoa wants to be with him, and her desire is strong enough, he is back to his proper timeline. In the end, everyone is together in the Balamb garden; all the problems are over.
There are 2 theories to explain the story properly. The issue with these theories is easy to understand; they try to explain the story. Most theories just explain some questions or give sense to a particular part of the story (or another point of view). But Final Fantasy VIII theories were written just to explain the entire purpose of the story. There are three explanations:
-Squall is dead: Wrong, because Laguna dreams sequences would not have taken place
-Rinoa is Ultimecia: Kitase, the director of the game, said it was not true, but I think this made the story more interesting and made a lot of sense for me.
-Final Fantasy VIII is set in the same world than FFIII: This theory is absurd, it does not make sense at all, just because most games in this franchise shares some similar creatures, but that does not mean anything.
Another example is the garden master NORG. This happens out of nowhere and when you kill him… everyone forgets it, no one cares about anymore.
The game is full of this kind of mistakes, that could have been solved easily, but this is nothing compared to the biggest twist in the game. The Orphanage scene.
This scene is pretty bad, not because it does not make sense, which it does in the game world, the issue is the way it is told. It is told rushed, like if it was added after the ending of the game. Same for the GF erasing the memories. It is too convenient! They tried to add three plot twists at the same time, but it failed. These twists look like they were added after the game was finish, or just because they did not want to write a custom backstory for every character, and just wanted to say that the main theme of the game was love and fate, so they can make a common backstory for almost all characters. Irvine not telling nothing about that reminded me of Final Fantasy VII when Tifa did not tell Cloud that he was lying all the time. It was a small plot hole
that was used to keep the plot going on the way they wanted. But in this case is not that, because the Orphanage scene is not that important to the entire plot, they could just kill Ultimecia off without knowing that they came from an Orphanage, nothing would change, as they don't mention that event anymore in the story.
In the middle of the game, we are introduced into time travel. Not classic time travel, that happens later in the game. A character named Ellone has the ability to make consciences go to the past, and he uses that power to Squall friends, in the parts of the game known as the Laguna dream sequences. In these sequences, you play as Laguna (who is Squall father) and you see some parts of his past, which is pretty good and serves as a rest from the story of the main characters.
The Laguna mystery becomes bigger when the cast discovers that Ellone is sending the party back to the past of Laguna, because she wanted to change the past, but could not do it (as she was adopted by Laguna). The problem is that this subplot is kept until the end of the third disc, and at that time it loses a lot of importance.
Another problem with the story is the third and fourth disc because the story becomes completely absurd at this point. In fact, this game is a lot like the fourth title of the franchise. A story that stars promising and interesting, but that falls gradually into nonsense.
The time traveling part is really confusing, and again, told in a messy way. Ultimecia, who is the main villain of the game; an evil sorceress that came from the future by using a time-traveling instrument called the Junction machine Ellone, wants to compress time (it's not explained why). She travels to the past through the game and uses her powers to possess another sorceress, such as Edea. When the time compression
begins, Ellone uses her powers to help the party go to the future. (Time compression is condensing all of time and space into a single moment, or "singularity", so she could be the center of the universe and could manipulate the past, to not die at the hands of the legendary Seed.)
When you travel to the future you see that Ultimecia destroyed and ruled the entire world. She has a castle in the middle of it, and what you need to defeat her.
Well, after you defeat her, your party must travel back to their time by focusing on each other; However, Squall does this wrong and ends up in the wrong timeline (due to the reminds of his antisocial personality, I guess). Then he sees that a dying Ultimecia is giving her powers to Edea, so she can become a sorceress (because witches only die if they pass their powers to someone else)
So it was all a loop? Ultimecia gives her powers to Edea, Squalls tells Ultimecia about the gardens and the Seeds, Edea creates the garden and the Seeds, the story begins again, endlessly.
After this Squall has a vision of a desert (since he is lost in time) but as Rinoa wants to be with him, and her desire is strong enough, he is back to his proper timeline. In the end, everyone is together in the Balamb garden; all the problems are over.
There are 2 theories to explain the story properly. The issue with these theories is easy to understand; they try to explain the story. Most theories just explain some questions or give sense to a particular part of the story (or another point of view). But Final Fantasy VIII theories were written just to explain the entire purpose of the story. There are three explanations:
-Squall is dead: Wrong, because Laguna dreams sequences would not have taken place
-Rinoa is Ultimecia: Kitase, the director of the game, said it was not true, but I think this made the story more interesting and made a lot of sense for me.
-Final Fantasy VIII is set in the same world than FFIII: This theory is absurd, it does not make sense at all, just because most games in this franchise shares some similar creatures, but that does not mean anything.
GRAPHICS AND MUSIC
The graphics are amazing, they aged well, as the characters models are quite realistic. This is a huge step up from the previous game; the maps have more detail put into them, the battle scene is more dynamic, the monsters and the battlers feels more natural, etc.
To sumer it up, everything is more polished and, as I said before, realistic. Now you control characters who look like real humans, not only polygons.
The music is also pretty good; there are a lot of pretty good themes, and some of them that are amazing. Like most of Nobuo Uematsu works, it is consistent, and matches the scenes perfectly. We have some complex themes and some ones that are more simplistic, but there is not any song out of place, everything makes sense with the feel of the game. I must say that the use of the leitmotiv is done nicely, with two main themes; the Balamb Garden melody and “Liberi fatali”. One of my favorites song from this title is “The extreme”, the last battle theme. It is a fantastic track, and one of the best that the composer did. Other great tracks are “Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec”, “Premonition”, “Liberi Fatali”, “Fisherman’s horizon”, “The man with the machine gun”, etc.
REPLAYABILITY
The game has a lot of replayability value, with many secrets to discover and side quests. This entry also engages the player to start a new game and try to play without GF, without using cards to grind, without refine, and with more handicaps, so there is a lot to do with this title.
FINAL SCORES
-Graphics: 10
-Music: 9
-Story and characters: 6
-Playability: 6
TOTAL SCORE
7.5
author=Dizontinar
We must also know that, despite the exit of the previous title, it constituted the end of the Golden era for the franchise.
Ecks dee. The older fans had no idea what would come in Final Fantasy 15. Now THAT is a complete derailing of what made Final Fantasy.
IMO the peak of the series was 6 through 10: five straight classics. 6 and 9 in particular are just oozing with charm. Square as a whole was untouchable from 1993-2001, kinda like Blizzard over the last decade.
TheNecromancer
3160
[SIZE=100]FINAL FANTASY VIII - THE REVIEW[/SIZE]
<span style="font-size:64px"FINAL FANTASY VIII - THE REVIEW</span>
Nope.
Shinan
4314
This feels like it might have been twenty years late.
'member FF8? I 'member.
Damn I was hyped back then too. And damn the graphics were nice. And damn it fell apart in the final act.
'member FF8? I 'member.
Damn I was hyped back then too. And damn the graphics were nice. And damn it fell apart in the final act.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
More like not the Final Fantasy at all!
I'm biased in favor of FFVIII since I loved the game. I agree that there are a lot of plot holes, but I don't agree with what you consider a plot hole. I don't think the orphanage scene came out of nowhere. In fact, once you make it to that scene, I feel it was actually a bit overly telescoped by quite a few moments in the game. I do feel that it was a bit overwrought and silly, however the cringiness doesn't really kill the story for me.
My main problem with the time travel act is that it takes me out of the world that I've really enjoyed exploring. Every FF game has it's world of ruin act, but this is the only one that actually bars you from exploring the world you've become familiar with. Some would argue that the FFVI world of ruin did, but pay attention. The configuration of the map is changed, but everything you know is still there, just in different locations, and some you have difficulty getting to but eventually you manage it.
Also, you don't seem to have been particularly fond of the junction system. I don't blame you. Personally, I loved it because I was able to figure out how to exploit it. Of course, that's just me. It really is enjoyable to one shot Edea in Galbadia Garden.
My main problem with the time travel act is that it takes me out of the world that I've really enjoyed exploring. Every FF game has it's world of ruin act, but this is the only one that actually bars you from exploring the world you've become familiar with. Some would argue that the FFVI world of ruin did, but pay attention. The configuration of the map is changed, but everything you know is still there, just in different locations, and some you have difficulty getting to but eventually you manage it.
Also, you don't seem to have been particularly fond of the junction system. I don't blame you. Personally, I loved it because I was able to figure out how to exploit it. Of course, that's just me. It really is enjoyable to one shot Edea in Galbadia Garden.
Dizontinar
65
author=pianotmThe problem I had with the junction system was that it made my gameplay time up to 100 hours xd
I'm biased in favor of FFVIII since I loved the game. I agree that there are a lot of plot holes, but I don't agree with what you consider a plot hole. I don't think the orphanage scene came out of nowhere. In fact, once you make it to that scene, I feel it was actually a bit overly telescoped by quite a few moments in the game. I do feel that it was a bit overwrought and silly, however the cringiness doesn't really kill the story for me.
My main problem with the time travel act is that it takes me out of the world that I've really enjoyed exploring. Every FF game has it's world of ruin act, but this is the only one that actually bars you from exploring the world you've become familiar with. Some would argue that the FFVI world of ruin did, but pay attention. The configuration of the map is changed, but everything you know is still there, just in different locations, and some you have difficulty getting to but eventually you manage it.
Also, you don't seem to have been particularly fond of the junction system. I don't blame you. Personally, I loved it because I was able to figure out how to exploit it. Of course, that's just me. It really is enjoyable to one shot Edea in Galbadia Garden.
I always felt that this game, and Chrono Cross, were an experiment in alternative costs. Like, the basic question that was asked was: if spells didn't consume MP, what would be the cost? I don't know if they considered warm-ups or cool-downs. They were more a thing in FF10-2, if memory recalls. However, the Junction system is what they pushed out for FF8, and it was okay. Though, I sometimes wish I could just extract/Draw a spell once, and always have access to it from there on (maybe loose access to Fire, and it's ilk, after obtaining Fira/Firaga, and it's ilk), but, I dunno what the end-cost would be to such an idea.
Darken
3952
Some spoilers I guess:
I feel like what a lot of people missed the point of the orphanage scene was that it basically forges the connection between the main characters and the villain of the story. Before the orphanage scene all we knew about Edea was that she was just this evil lady who happens to go into power. But to realize why Irvine hesitated on the sniper shot, or why Cid couldn't properly manage the Garden, or why things were falling apart in general, there had to be the personal connection of why killing the bad person isn't so simple.
Edea creating SeeD because knew ahead of time that she would one day be possessed is the driving force of the story. Cid and Edea creating White SeeD in order to keep Ellone safe which in turn caused Squall to be more independent minded. Which also meant Cid couldn't just simply explain right off the bat on what's going on which further creates complicates the story and frustrates characters like Squall. Once Edea gets defeated and transfers the sorceress over to possess Rinoa instead, the same dilemma happens where the solution isn't so simple.
A lot of people really magnify on the details in FF8, but it isn't the point of the story. The themes of the story are Fate and Love. Squall's whole mindset is just asking "Why can't things just be straight forward and simple? Why is being an adult so complicated and stupid." until at some point he realizes that you have to let go and have faith in yourself, and fight for what you believe in even if a little blindly. Things may not go the way you expected, but there's some thread of fate that will line up everything in the end even if it's not perfect. There's some truth in that about life, that not everyone truly knows what they're doing and are winging it essentially. Whenever Squall is promoted to a higher leadership position, the inner conflict about this intensifies throughout the story in a very progressive way.
The Squall is Dead theory is dumb because it just ignores what the story is actually about in favor of some nonsense "yo dude what if like, this reality isn't real" which can be applied to just about any interpretation of a fictional work the moment a character goes unconscious. I think a lot of things in FF8 are somewhat poorly paced in terms of exposition, but in terms of what the game is about, the character study of Squall, the world and the theatrics, it actually ends up being the better RPG stories that still holds up.
whenever someone mentions FF8 i am full on LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT FF8
also a direct quote from the game from the orphanage scene that is actually in line with some of the above stuff:
author=Dizontiar
But in this case is not that, because the Orphanage scene is not that important to the entire plot, they could just kill Ultimecia off without knowing that they came from an Orphanage, nothing would change, as they don't mention that event anymore in the story.
I feel like what a lot of people missed the point of the orphanage scene was that it basically forges the connection between the main characters and the villain of the story. Before the orphanage scene all we knew about Edea was that she was just this evil lady who happens to go into power. But to realize why Irvine hesitated on the sniper shot, or why Cid couldn't properly manage the Garden, or why things were falling apart in general, there had to be the personal connection of why killing the bad person isn't so simple.
Edea creating SeeD because knew ahead of time that she would one day be possessed is the driving force of the story. Cid and Edea creating White SeeD in order to keep Ellone safe which in turn caused Squall to be more independent minded. Which also meant Cid couldn't just simply explain right off the bat on what's going on which further creates complicates the story and frustrates characters like Squall. Once Edea gets defeated and transfers the sorceress over to possess Rinoa instead, the same dilemma happens where the solution isn't so simple.
A lot of people really magnify on the details in FF8, but it isn't the point of the story. The themes of the story are Fate and Love. Squall's whole mindset is just asking "Why can't things just be straight forward and simple? Why is being an adult so complicated and stupid." until at some point he realizes that you have to let go and have faith in yourself, and fight for what you believe in even if a little blindly. Things may not go the way you expected, but there's some thread of fate that will line up everything in the end even if it's not perfect. There's some truth in that about life, that not everyone truly knows what they're doing and are winging it essentially. Whenever Squall is promoted to a higher leadership position, the inner conflict about this intensifies throughout the story in a very progressive way.
The Squall is Dead theory is dumb because it just ignores what the story is actually about in favor of some nonsense "yo dude what if like, this reality isn't real" which can be applied to just about any interpretation of a fictional work the moment a character goes unconscious. I think a lot of things in FF8 are somewhat poorly paced in terms of exposition, but in terms of what the game is about, the character study of Squall, the world and the theatrics, it actually ends up being the better RPG stories that still holds up.
whenever someone mentions FF8 i am full on LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT FF8
also a direct quote from the game from the orphanage scene that is actually in line with some of the above stuff:
Irvine: "Squall, you listening? So like...this is what I wanted to say. Let's
see... Oh yeah. I understand what Rinoa's saying. I understand, but
still I'm gonna fight. I want to stay true to everything I've stood
for. I'm sure it's the same for everyone. That's why I thought it'd be
best if everyone knew we would have to face Matron. You've all heard
this before. How life has infinite possibilities. I don't believe that
one bit. There weren't many paths for me to choose. Sometimes, there
would only be one. From the limited possibilities I faced, the choices
I made have brought me this far. That's why I value the path I chose...
I want to hold true to the path that HAD to be taken. I know our
opponent is Matron, whom we all love very much. We might lose something
very important on account of the GF. But I don't mind. It's not like I
drifted here on the tides of fate. I'm here because I chose to be
here. And more importantly... We all grew up together. But due to
various circumstances, we were all separated. As a kid, you couldn't
really go out on your own... There were no other paths to take... All I
did was just cry. But...But...somehow, we're together again. Just like
old times, though a lot's changed. We're not kids anymore... We're
strong enough to take care of ourselves. Make our own decisions...
We're confronting a big one right now. Do we fight Matron or not......?
I say we fight...Shoot for a common goal... Hey, at least it'll keep us
together a little longer."
Zell: "...Yeah. Let's do it. We can't run from her for the rest of our lives."
Selphie: "It's just such a bummer... I can't believe we have to fight Matron."
Quistis: "I know... But Zell's right. We can't run from her forever."
see... Oh yeah. I understand what Rinoa's saying. I understand, but
still I'm gonna fight. I want to stay true to everything I've stood
for. I'm sure it's the same for everyone. That's why I thought it'd be
best if everyone knew we would have to face Matron. You've all heard
this before. How life has infinite possibilities. I don't believe that
one bit. There weren't many paths for me to choose. Sometimes, there
would only be one. From the limited possibilities I faced, the choices
I made have brought me this far. That's why I value the path I chose...
I want to hold true to the path that HAD to be taken. I know our
opponent is Matron, whom we all love very much. We might lose something
very important on account of the GF. But I don't mind. It's not like I
drifted here on the tides of fate. I'm here because I chose to be
here. And more importantly... We all grew up together. But due to
various circumstances, we were all separated. As a kid, you couldn't
really go out on your own... There were no other paths to take... All I
did was just cry. But...But...somehow, we're together again. Just like
old times, though a lot's changed. We're not kids anymore... We're
strong enough to take care of ourselves. Make our own decisions...
We're confronting a big one right now. Do we fight Matron or not......?
I say we fight...Shoot for a common goal... Hey, at least it'll keep us
together a little longer."
Zell: "...Yeah. Let's do it. We can't run from her for the rest of our lives."
Selphie: "It's just such a bummer... I can't believe we have to fight Matron."
Quistis: "I know... But Zell's right. We can't run from her forever."
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