Current Events > Let's talk about Final Fantasy VIII (Spoilies)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just beat it for the second time, the first time I ever beat it was probably somewhere between 10-15 years ago. I played the steam version, after playing Final Fantasy VII.

Not as enjoyable as VII, but satisfied I finished it. Not a totally bad game but I'd never rank it as a top RPG for me. I don't think I beat OMEGA on my first playthrough, but did this time.

Good enough game that it kept me interested in playing gameplay wise, but character wise I don't really give a shit about any of them. Also, I thought I recalled the time compression somehow bringing Raine back to life with an FMV at the end of Raine and Laguna embracing, but I seemed to have recalled that wrong after all these years. Oops.
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Its plot kinda falls apart after disk 1, the characters that aren't Squall or Rinoa get absolutely no screen time, story arc, or importance, Seifer felt pretty underused for supposedly being Squall's rival, Laguna and co felt underused (apparently Laguna was supposed to be more of a secondary protagonist parallel to Squall but his role was reduced), the villain has no direct presence until the very end and her plan is kinda moronic as the only reason you can confront and defeat her is specifically because she initiated Time Compression and the game play has lots and lots of flaws. Though stat scaling was kinda funny in hindsight, as in around a decade or a half we'd have games like Oblivion.

It also had the somewhat unforgivable plot point that everyone but Rinoa grew up in the same orphange but forgot because of something that's only affected gameplay before that point (GFs).

Though on the bright side, the OST is great, I love the gorgeous highly-detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and city design, and I absolutely love the whole world design and the whole world is wonderfully mellow and beautiful and was interesting more or less completely modern (albeit a period piece of the late '90s). Plot had its highlights like the end of disk 1 sequence and Squall's bridge scene.

Absolutely some of my favorite world design in a video game to date, just to emphasize again.
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SolKarellen posted...

Its plot kinda falls apart after disk 1, the characters that aren't Squall or Rinoa get absolutely no screen time, story arc, or importance, Seifer felt pretty underused for supposedly being Squall's rival, Laguna and co felt underused (apparently Laguna was supposed to be more of a secondary protagonist parallel to Squall but his role was reduced), the villain has no direct presence until the very end and her plan is kinda moronic as the only reason you can confront and defeat her is specifically because she initiated Time Compression and the game play has lots and lots of flaws. Though stat scaling was kinda funny in hindsight, as in around a decade or a half we'd have games like Oblivion.

Though on the bright side, the OST is great, I love the gorgeous highly-detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and city design, and I absolutely love the whole world design and the whole world is wonderfully mellow and beautiful and was interesting more or less completely modern (albeit a period piece of the late '90s). Plot had its highlights like the end of disk 1 sequence and Squall's bridge scene.

Absolutely some of my favorite world design in a video game to date, just to emphasize again.

I agree the OST is great. The improvement from FFVII to FFVIII as far as graphics, characters models, etc was outstanding.

Spooking posted...

This was the first FF game where I loved all the NPCs and hated all the PCs. I felt they were all unlikeable. Everything else was fun and enjoyable.

Yeah, I'm not sure I really give a damn about any of them. They're all pretty bland.
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I hate that game so very much.

Except for Quistis and Triple Triad.

And the music, of course.
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It's definitely where Squaresoft showed themselves to be the king of production values in the 90's and early 2000's.
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btw I love Eyes on Me
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Anybody remember R=U?
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bump
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AlCalavicci posted...

btw I love Eyes on Me

That and Julia
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I just couldn't play that game. Such an unlikable cast, the Draw / Junction systems were fucking horrible, and scaled enemy leveling is never a good mechanic.

Easily the second worst pre-MMO title, with only #2 being worse. Haven't played anything past 10.
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SolKarellen posted...

Its plot kinda falls apart after disk 1, the characters that aren't Squall or Rinoa get absolutely no screen time, story arc, or importance, Seifer felt pretty underused for supposedly being Squall's rival, Laguna and co felt underused (apparently Laguna was supposed to be more of a secondary protagonist parallel to Squall but his role was reduced), the villain has no direct presence until the very end and her plan is kinda moronic as the only reason you can confront and defeat her is specifically because she initiated Time Compression and the game play has lots and lots of flaws. Though stat scaling was kinda funny in hindsight, as in around a decade or a half we'd have games like Oblivion.

It also had the somewhat unforgivable plot point that everyone but Rinoa grew up in the same orphange but forgot because of something that's only affected gameplay before that point (GFs).

Though on the bright side, the OST is great, I love the gorgeous highly-detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and city design, and I absolutely love the whole world design and the whole world is wonderfully mellow and beautiful and was interesting more or less completely modern (albeit a period piece of the late '90s). Plot had its highlights like the end of disk 1 sequence and Squall's bridge scene.

Absolutely some of my favorite world design in a video game to date, just to emphasize again.

i disagree about the plot falling apart after disk 1.
it falls apart after disk 2.
disk 2 is still a good disk despite it having the dumb plot twist towards its end.

but the plot doesnt really become a jumbled mess until the third disk.
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Triple Triad: The Game

I never got into triple triad, in either of my playthroughs.
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AlCalavicci posted...

I never got into triple triad, in either of my playthroughs.

Wtf

Time for a third playthrough

I liked the setup with the various Gardens and the way the world was fleshed out, but once the story went off the rails it just never redeemed itself. I've only beaten it once because I usually lose interest before I get to the end
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Darklit_Minuet posted...

AlCalavicci posted...

I never got into triple triad, in either of my playthroughs.

Wtf

Time for a third playthrough

Also, just stating my opinion. The story overall I personally think is fantastic. What I hated was the twist where they all grew up together. Sad part is, that is wholly integrated into how the story works as they were basically trained from birth to possibly take down Matron one day iirc . Now that I think about it, them forgetting via the GFs is probably the bigger complaint. Should've just known each other from the get go.
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I hated the orphanage plot twist.
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yusiko posted...

it falls apart after disk 2.
disk 2 is still a good disk despite it having the dumb plot twist towards its end.

i agree with you

the garden battle was legit pretty sweet and everything that led up to it had tension that was interesting. it even let me forget about the memory thing. and seifer-edea as a boss fight was great.

but anytime you are given a long term plot and then told to forget about it and check out this new plot, it's gonna seem lame as fuck.
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Terrible game. Not fun and a stupid story.
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Spoilers about Squall

http://squallsdead.com/
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DelianSK posted...

Spoilers about Squall

http://squallsdead.com/

that fan theory is as lame as the R=U one
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yusiko posted...

DelianSK posted...

Spoilers about Squall

http://squallsdead.com/

that fan theory is as lame as the R=U one

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FFVIII is pretty much the first rpg I played to completion, so even with all its flaws, it will always be one of my favourites.
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As a follow-up to FF7, about the only thing it did right was make the graphics a lot better
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I complain about Kingdom Hearts having stupid plot twists for the sake of plot twists and terrible writing that makes it obvious nobody went back for rewrites, but reading through this topic, I think maybe this stuff peeks its head out even during the Sakaguchi era.

AlCalavicci posted...

I agree the OST is great. The improvement from FFVII to FFVIII as far as graphics, characters models, etc was outstanding.

This. Everyone says FFVII's graphics are outdated now, but the reality is that they were outdated even back then. Mostly by Square themselves. There was a huge leap in graphics in FFVIII. I remember people commenting how the characters looked like they had actual human proportions and Squall's running animation actually looked like how an actual person would run.
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I love that game so much.

What you need to understand to appreciate it is that it's the sequel to FF7. If you try to remove that context, the game ranges from bad to just ok with some noteworthy good moments.

Obviously it's not a sequel in terms of continuity but it's what I would call a thematic sequel.

When FF7 became one of the best-reviewed and most loved games of all time, the only thing that would have made sense was for them to just make more of the same. Keep in mind that unlike in today's world, FF8 development didn't even begin until 7 was complete. In particular, during the localization process.

But they did anything but. Really, the game did pretend it was gonna be a good little sequel for one whole disc before the whole thing just collapses amd suddenly everything that we loved about 7 is completely stripped away. The story loses its mature facade, the rational progression of the story is completely discarded, and Squall actually seems to start losing maturity.

Instead, we get a trip through a looney tunes world where the military boarding school is secretly run by an alien who lives in the basement and Squall tosses off all his responsibilities pretty much just because he doesn't want them They were going to Esthar anyway, right? I mean, he's the guy to say so.

So if you take a minute to see what they did there, The game's major theme is rejecting roles placed on you by other people to do what you really want for yourself, and the game itself reflects this by rejecting the role that FF7 left for it.

And in the end what we see is that Squall is happy with the life he chose for himself, and the game is unashamed of how cheesy it comes across by being centered on a love story instead of whatever the player wanted.

It's a statement that has become more and more relevant in today's world of cookie cutter sequels and low-risk projects.
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yusiko posted...

SolKarellen posted...

Its plot kinda falls apart after disk 1, the characters that aren't Squall or Rinoa get absolutely no screen time, story arc, or importance, Seifer felt pretty underused for supposedly being Squall's rival, Laguna and co felt underused (apparently Laguna was supposed to be more of a secondary protagonist parallel to Squall but his role was reduced), the villain has no direct presence until the very end and her plan is kinda moronic as the only reason you can confront and defeat her is specifically because she initiated Time Compression and the game play has lots and lots of flaws. Though stat scaling was kinda funny in hindsight, as in around a decade or a half we'd have games like Oblivion.

It also had the somewhat unforgivable plot point that everyone but Rinoa grew up in the same orphange but forgot because of something that's only affected gameplay before that point (GFs).

Though on the bright side, the OST is great, I love the gorgeous highly-detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and city design, and I absolutely love the whole world design and the whole world is wonderfully mellow and beautiful and was interesting more or less completely modern (albeit a period piece of the late '90s). Plot had its highlights like the end of disk 1 sequence and Squall's bridge scene.

Absolutely some of my favorite world design in a video game to date, just to emphasize again.

i disagree about the plot falling apart after disk 1.
it falls apart after disk 2.
disk 2 is still a good disk despite it having the dumb plot twist towards its end.

but the plot doesnt really become a jumbled mess until the third disk.

Y'know, you're right. I forgot about stuff like Battle of the Gardens. It's just been a while since I've done a full playthrough.

Still, my most scathing remark is how all the party members except for the couple are absolutely unimportant in any way and don't get a character arc at all. Xenogears had the same problem, but at least every character had a fleshed-out recruitment arc.

It's really a shame after 6 and 7 had a personal arc for every character. 7 had good shit like Barrett fighting Dyne and admitting all the "for the planet" stuff was an excuse to get back at Shinra and Red XII learning that his father wasn't a coward and his petrified form starts crying when he hears Seto proudly say his name (Is it weird how emotional I get at this scene as an adult? It's much, much more emotional than Aeris' death to me.) 6 had Locke trying to revive his girlfriend, Cyan's family dying, everything about Shadow...
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I really liked 8. 7 to me is the bottom of the barrel..but the one thing in 8 I didn't really get was the relation between realtime and all that happens with Laguna. Been years since I've played, I just can't think of anything that ties Laguna to Squall. I kind of felt like they were supposed to be the same person but different realities?
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It's a good card game.
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FaytlessHearts posted...

I really liked 8. 7 to me is the bottom of the barrel..but the one thing in 8 I didn't really get was the relation between realtime and all that happens with Laguna. Been years since I've played, I just can't think of anything that ties Laguna to Squall. I kind of felt like they were supposed to be the same person but different realities?

you really didnt understand the connection between laguna and squall?
laguna is squalls father. the laguna sections of the game are visions of the past
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SolKarellen posted...

Y'know, you're right. I forgot about stuff like Battle of the Gardens. It's just been a while since I've done a full playthrough.

Still, my most scathing remark is how all the party members except for the couple are absolutely unimportant in any way and don't get a character arc at all. Xenogears had the same problem, but at least every character had a fleshed-out recruitment arc.

It's really a shame after 6 and 7 had a personal arc for every character. 7 had good shit like Barrett fighting Dyne and admitting all the "for the planet" stuff was an excuse to get back at Shinra and Red XII learning that his father wasn't a coward and his petrified form starts crying when he hears Seto proudly say his name (Is it weird how emotional I get at this scene as an adult? It's much, much more emotional than Aeris' death to me.) 6 had Locke trying to revive his girlfriend, Cyan's family dying, everything about Shadow.

there is a bit of character development for everyone but yeah that is a major flaw in ff8.
selphie is probably the most developed out of all of supporting party members but a lot of people missed that because all her development is discovered by reading her diary entries which are optional and missable
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I spent the entirety of the game making Squall sandbag every flirt scene with Rinoa only for him to fall in love with the idiot anyway. She was literally the worst FF love interest ever lmao
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Ving_Rhames posted...

I spent the entirety of the game making Squall sandbag every flirt scene with Rinoa only for him to fall in love with the idiot anyway. She was literally the worst FF love interest ever lmao

she was still better than irvine
man i hate irvine
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I agree with most that has been said, so I will talk about the topic that isn't being brought up, The Love Story

The Squall X Rinoa relationship literally ruins a big part of the game. I mean I have my own problems with Rinoa, but when the story shifts to Rinoa's importance and Squall wanting to protect her, It just ruins the vibe.

Like Why would Rinoa need protecting in a world where you can Junction GFs? She can literally be a strong a Squall and as high Vitality wise as Zell. Cause it romantic.

Why does Squall fall for Rinoa? I can kinda understand the whole "melting the ice" around Squall thing, but as many people in this thread have pointed out, this comes out of no-where. Even FF7 had a little bit of wiggle room between Cloud---Tifa----Aeris, but in FF8 Squall just does it, and your underdeveloped teammates don't care, even Quists who seems to actually give a damn about Squall and has you know, a real reason to like him with history to back it up, ends up just being like, "urp it must be Faith."

Someone said earlier in the thread about how strong this game started off, and the themes do come across as more mature, however they never go there with this game. Quistis never does anything extreme even though she care about Squall. Squall never wonders, that if Seifer didn't becomes Edea's Knight, would Rinoa still like him? I mean Squall carries Rinoa on his back, and jumps out into space to rescue her, What does Rinoa ever do for Squall?

TLDR: Its criminal the way the game show one type of tone in the beginning, and then wildly shifts... It's like, hey do you like this cool quiet character named Squall, who doesn't say a lot, and acts really mature? You do, Well you're gonna love his romantic interest who is the EXACT OPPOSITE.

Sorry
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the romance could have been really good
it was blooming just fine in the first two disks

but he goes from "i know she likes me and everyone wants us to be together but im not really interested" in the second disk

to 5 minutes later at the start of the third disk "oh my god my beloved rinoa i cannot live without you!"


they kinda skipped like ten steps in their relationship
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It's a "He didn't know how much he would miss her until she was gone [comatose]," sort of thing, I believe.
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yusiko posted...

Ving_Rhames posted...

I spent the entirety of the game making Squall sandbag every flirt scene with Rinoa only for him to fall in love with the idiot anyway. She was literally the worst FF love interest ever lmao

she was still better than irvine
man i hate irvine

Why do you hate irvine so much?
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That will always be my favorite Final Fantasy game.They hit the nail on the head, imo.
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yusiko posted...

the romance could have been really good
it was blooming just fine in the first two disks

but he goes from "i know she likes me and everyone wants us to be together but im not really interested" in the second disk

to 5 minutes later at the start of the third disk "oh my god my beloved rinoa i cannot live without you!"


they kinda skipped like ten steps in their relationship

I did come off as very unnatural and uncomfortable imo

SolKarellen posted...

It's a "He didn't know how much he would miss her until she was gone [comatose]," sort of thing, I believe.

Meh, they failed on the execution.
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KYOJIROKAGENUMA posted...

Like Why would Rinoa need protecting in a world where you can Junction GFs? She can literally be a strong a Squall and as high Vitality wise as Zell. Cause it romantic.

Big part of this is the whole sorceress thing. When the plot shifted to "protect Rinoa", it was partly because Ultimecia could control her at any time, and partly because a sorceress without a knight goes mad like Ultimecia did.

AlCalavicci posted...

yusiko posted...

Ving_Rhames posted...

I spent the entirety of the game making Squall sandbag every flirt scene with Rinoa only for him to fall in love with the idiot anyway. She was literally the worst FF love interest ever lmao

she was still better than irvine
man i hate irvine

Why do you hate irvine so much?

he just annoys me
plus i dont like his hair
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I'm replaying it now for the first time in over a decade. I'm at the beginning of Disc 2. Question though does the difficulty pick up at all during the game for those who play Triple Triad?

I'm actually kinda hating how easy the boss fights are right now with good spell junctions I think I might be ruining my playthrough. I'm not normally a do challenges kind of guy but Ultimate Steve is making this too damn easy.
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The biggest hint for triple triad is not to spread the random rule. That creates big problems. I also strongly recommend doing the CC Card Group side quest as soon as its available. I discovered that at the end of the game you can refine player and gf cards for items and the CC Members will have them for you to win again. At one point I had figured out the best possible combination for stat junctions, status defenses, and elemental defenses. Needless to say, I crushed Omega Weapon.
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Remember when Quistis had lines back in Disc 1 and almost none after?
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Pitbuller_26 posted...

Remember when Quistis had lines back in Disc 1 and almost none after?

I gave her lines by equipping Devour on her.
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King Rial posted...

I hate that game so very much.

Except for Quistis and Triple Triad.

And the music, of course.

This guy completely gets it.
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Still, my most scathing remark is how all the party members except for the couple are absolutely unimportant in any way and don't get a character arc at all. Xenogears had the same problem, but at least every character had a fleshed-out recruitment arc.

Also in Xenogears, it's less of a problem. Fei, Elly, Citan, Bart and Emeralda all had decent story arcs, even though Emeralda's is kinda short by virtue of being a last-second addition to the party. Though you do still have Rico, Maria, Billy and Chuchu but that's less than half the party instead of two thirds of it.
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Withos

Lusec

Fithos

VINOSEC
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Withos

Lusec

Fithos

VINOSEC

It's "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinose." It's an anagram of "succession of witches" with the letters of the word "love" thrown in for some reason.

And you know, I just noticed that unless I don't know how to spell "succession" it's actually a "c" short.
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