Slowly advancing my path of finishing all the Final Fantasy games that I missed (which is admittedly quite a lot), and the next one I've finished is naturally Final Fantasy VIII. After the somewhat disappointment of Final Fantasy VII (due to the hype people have been giving it, I thought it was going to be really good, but I felt the story was a mess), I wasn't expecting too much of VIII. It still has people's praises, but not as much as VI or VII. After a somewhat interesting and impressive intro, I started playing it and wasn't liking the characters at all. I didn't like the designs of Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie or Irvine, while Rinoa was okay. However, as the game progressed and I got more and more into the story, especially once the good stuff started, the characters grew onto me. The character development was done right, it was well paced, and you grew into them, to the point where I liked all of the characters, and cared for them, this was really surprising.
One of the best things about this game has to be the story, it kept me going right until the end. It wasn't the apocalypse type component, but it was the relationship between Squall and Rinoa (and I guess Irvine and Selphie?) that was amazing. It was just written and conveyed so well, and pretty much made up the bulk of the game (to the point where the logo is of Squall and Rinoa). I cannot express how great it was, it just worked for me. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it was mine, and it was this that elevated a mediocre game to a great one. That said, there was a distinct lack of openness here, not that previous Final Fantasy games had a lot of freedom, but it was very guided here. You were forced to do this and then that, and there were so many cut scenes. Understandable due to the story. Seifer never felt like a true antagonist to me, for most of the game, I still thought of him as a misguided ally-type of person...
The graphics were a step up from VII, and it was much easier to decipher what and where stuff was in the pre-rendered backgrounds. This was good news coz they got rid of the markers that showed where exits were. Honestly, the pre-rendered CG scenes (especially the ending) still stand up to the standards of today, which is saying something since the game came out in 1999. The death animations for monsters were a nice addition. I also liked the use of realistically proportioned characters in all scenes, it made a nice change, and the fact that your chosen party was represented and tagging along your main character was a nice touch.
There's a smaller amount of 'fulfilling' sidequests this time around, most are just long, pointless and doesn't add much to the story. It still burned at least six hours of my time doing all the sidequests that interested me though. The main side event here is the card game Triple Triad. It's simple, but fun, and it reached out to the part of me that wanted to collect all the monster cards.
I liked how the setting isn't the high tech, machine dominated, gritty futuristic world like VII (and to an extent, VI) was. I much prefer VIII's world, although there were still a lot of high tech machines, it wasn't totally dominated by them. I loved the idea of the floating Balamb Garden (that was really unexpected, but somehow felt really original), and the Ragnarok looked so cool. It just felt more fantasy to me, rather than science fiction. I want a world that's inspired, and different, not a futuristic version of our world.
All this and I haven't even talked about the battle system yet. It's feels familiar to the older systems, with the main difference being the Junction system, which takes a (long) while to understand. Although the idea of drawing spells from enemies and stocking it for later use is a good one, I hate the repetitiveness and tendency to spend a long while drawing the maximum amount of spells you need from a monster. Not to mention that you don't want to use your more powerful spells since you need them to power up the stats on your characters... The summons were some of the best I've ever seen. Just have to mention the gunblade here, I thought it was a lame idea and looked crap, but like many other elements from the game, it grew on me, and I really like the idea now.
The music of the game did what it was supposed to do, adding to the game, complementing and raising the game's atmosphere. There are some really good tracks here such as "Eyes on Me", "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" and "Waltz for the Moon". These were the music that created some truly memorable scenes, such as the Ragnarok scene, Parade scene and Ballroom scene (respectively). Particularly, Eyes on Me was amazing, Final Fantasy VIII had music that I would listen to even when not playing the game, it was that good.
I won't spoil too much but suffice to say, the ending was a bit weird. After all I've went through (roughly 60 hours by the time I got to the end, a lot more than I expected, I thought I would finish it in around 40 hours), I expected some heart wrenching or amazing spectacle. It wasn't bad, just a bit unexpected. The first part about Squall was the weird part, but then everything went uphill from there. I thought they were going to leave things vague, but the final scene after the credits made it up (and in a way, I liked how they left you in suspense and despair until then). I liked how when the credits were rolling, they had a 'camera recording' view, it made it a lot more personal and close. There is a sense of completeness and elegance here, with Laguna and Julia's romance being completed by Squall and Rinoa. I had always imagined Laguna as being sad and heartbroken, never healing, but knowing that he was truly happy with Raine was sweet. And then, I cannot help but smile at Seifer's scene, you can't hate him even after all he's done. It was these small aspects that created a truly memorable game. I was conflicted when I was near the end, one part of me wanted to finish the game to see how it ended, while the other part of me wanted it to go on for longer, coz I was having so much fun.
I think you may have noticed that I really liked this game, this game has raised it ranks in my mind, to be my favourite game (with Squall and Rinoa being my favourite characters). There are flaws, yes, but it does so many things right, that I can say it's a masterpiece, and it will be a game that I will play again and again. If Square Enix ever does a remake, I would honestly prefer a remake of VIII rather than VII.
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