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[stillnebraskadreaming]

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[robbyshin]

I love Final Fantasy VIII, warts and all

Now that I’m steadily approaching the “go into the future and kill the big bad” portion of Final Fantasy VIII on my most recent playthrough, I feel that I should put my thoughts out there into the aether.  

I used to think of FFVIII as a guilty pleasure game; “kind of flawed but I love it anyway leave me alone”. Not anymore though, it’s much more than that. In fact, it’s up there with my absolute favourites now.

So yeah, I’m going to ramble about FFVIII for a bit if you don’t mind.

(This is going to be a long one, and full of spoilers for FFVIII so yeah. Though the people who I expect to read any of this have already beaten FFVIII so it’s fine.)

The main sticking point of FFVIII for me (aside from the horrendous balancing of the Junction system which, yeah. Is still there) is the fact that Squall’s character turn comes mostly out of nowhere. He just suddenly cares about Rinoa at the beginning of Disc 3.

This isn’t true. It turns out that Squall has one of the best paced and well-developed character arcs in the entire series. He starts off as an ultra-introvert who always follows the rules and never makes a fuss, and steadily, due to the influences of everyone around him (mostly Cid and Rinoa) becomes a capable leader who genuinely cares.

In the early bits of the game, Squall constantly has responsibility thrust upon him by Cid. Not only does Cid constantly tell Squall how great he is, he constantly has responsibility thrust upon him. He’s tasked with leading his first SeeD mission, he’s trusted with pretty much single handedly liberating Timber, he’s pushed into figuring out Garden’s defenses when missiles are incoming, and once the Garden’s airborne he’s nominated as the base’s commander, completely against his will.

These events, along with his teammates relying on him and the influences of Rinoa, set him off on this road to realizing his full potential. Not just in combat, but as a more well-rounded person who cares about his friends.

As the game progresses, Squall starts to lose his cool and explode with emotions more and more. When the gang visit Galbadia Garden for the first time, he blows up when everyone’s reminiscing about Seifer’s life when everyone thinks he’s been executed. When the pressure is mounting and he’s trying to get Garden’s defenses online, he blows up again.  

It just comes completely to the surface at the beginning of Disc 3 when he becomes “emotional Squall who cares so much about Rinoa all of a sudden” It’s always been there, but below the surface.  

It’s not just Squalls development that’s well thought out, there’s the duality between him and Seifer. They’re pretty much always exact opposites of each other. At the beginning Squall is quiet and follows the rules, Seifer is loud and breaks the rules. Squall wants to be a diligent follower, Seifer wants to lead with force. But what happens after the events at Timber in Disc 1? Squall starts to become a leader, and Seifer becomes a follower of the Sorceress. It’s destined that they always remain opposites.

I just wish that they did more with Seifer’s character, he kind of just becomes “muhaha, I’m a recurring antagonist!” after the events of Disc 1.

While Squall is now my favourite Final Fantasy protagonist, it does kind of come at the cost of the rest of the game’s main cast. Rinoa is a bit under-developed but works well as a flirty foil for his character, even if she’s basically a plot device for the whole of Disc 3. Their relationship is really cute though, so I give her a pass.

Zell and Selphie get ‘enough’ to do in the story. Zell gets to liberate Balamb and act as the Sorceress’ guard, and Selphie gets the missile base and the Trabia stuff. They’re both present from right at the beginning of the game as well, which helps. You know who else is there right from the beginning who doesn’t fare so well? Sigh. I’ll talk about Quistis next (and also Irvine)

Quistis and Irvine are basically NPCs in this game, and it breaks my heart for the former, makes me shrug for the other. Quistis is there from the beginning to act as the player’s tutorial giving machine, and gets a promising arc on how she’s going to become a full-time SeeD rather than an instructor, so she can spread her wings and become her own person!

After this scene, she’s pushed into the background, and never given anything else to do. She even admits at the Orphanage Reunion scene that Rinoa basically replaced her as a character, which is a real shame. When the character in the game basically tells you that she’s unimportant to the story, you’ve got problems.  

Irvine is the ‘I’m a show-off but I’m actually a nervous wreck’ character of FFVIII. He shows up, hits on all the ladies and alienates himself from everyone except for Sephie (maybe?), but then when he has to do his job and shoot the Sorceress in the face, he can’t do it (except for he’s actually able to do it but the Sorceress is OP).  

This is the only character bit Irvine gets (outside of, “oh yeah I remember you guys at the Orphanage but didn’t say anything”, but that’s a horrible twist and shouldn’t have been in the game) but I don’t really care, because the ‘overconfident jock who’s actually putting up a façade’ role is filled pretty well by Seifer. Speaking of which...  

Seifer is criminally under-utilised in this game, and it’s not like the game isn’t trying. He shows up a lot and you fight him a bunch of times, and the duality between him and Squall is very clever. He just isn’t utilised in the ‘right’ way in my opinion. He should have had a more active role in the events of Disc 1, maybe aiding your party directly in the Timber mission before being corrupted nearer to the end of the disc.

We would have understood him a little more and got to know him in a more organic way. In actual FFVIII, he’s just Squall’s jerky rival who becomes the Sorceress’ puppet. There’s even a hint of a relationship between him and Rinoa that gets dropped pretty much immediately. That, and you never see him and Rinoa actually on screen together until pretty much the end of the game.  

Seifer should have also re-joined your party after time compression takes you to Ultimecia’s future. Give him an actual on-screen redemption rather than a small cameo in the ending cutscene. Oh, I guess he’s good again. Okay. That bit always seemed lazy to me, but maybe I’m misremembering. I’m only at the end of Disc 3 on my current playthrough, so maybe I’ll have something to add later.

TLDR; Final Fantasy VIII is fantastic as a character study of Squall, has a few likeable but underdeveloped characters (and Irvine), but is a bit ropey as a continuous narrative, and the actual level-up and junctioning mechanics are a complete mess. Despite this, I love it anyway, Squall is best protag.

Oh yeah, and Selphie’s best girl. Don’t @ me.

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.  

[stillnebraskadreaming]

tfw. stalking myself so i see what he sees

[stillnebraskadreaming]

what are you currently reading?

a whole bunch of books! northanger abbey by jane austen, i’m still in the openings of the king’s general by daphne du maurier, and i’m in and out of pliny’s natural history, an edition of the collected works of horace and a loeb classical library volume of aristophanes :) i have about seven piles of books in my room lmao

[stillnebraskadreaming]

hi blueberry what’s up ♥️

[stillnebraskadreaming]

trust me, a wise man wouldn’t say ‘i will live’ - tomorrow’s life is too late, live today!

non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere ‘vivam’: sera nimis est vita crastina: vive hodie.

— martial, 1.15.11-12

[stillnebraskadreaming]

im so sorry all of willoughby tucker i’ll always love you just has me reeling sobbing on the floor if i could wrap myself in something like a blanket it would be that album ♥️

[stillnebraskadreaming]

feeling sick ♥️ but p.g wodehouse exists so life is joyous ‼️