Summary: Final thoughts on Final Fantasy VIII.
…I’ve been sitting here at my computer for about twenty minutes, not typing much. Not because I don’t have much to say, but because the amount of thoughts in these final posts can feel a bit overwhelming. How do I sum up around 65 hours of gameplay in a few posts?
So with that in mind, keep in mind that these aren’t massive, comprehensive, well-articulated conclusions. Just some parting thoughts about different elements of the game.
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Protagonists
Squall: I HATED him at first. He annoyed me. He came off as cold, unfeeling, and simply an egotistical asshole. I took pleasure in mocking him in my notes, saying things like how he was a worse character than a random Caterchipillar outside Balamb.
Then… I kept playing. And I learned more about him. I learned his backstory, the reason he closed down, the pain he experienced. I SAW HIM TRY! This is so RARE! I feel like fiction with a hero who starts out as closed off as Squall often uses other characters to drag the character into a developmental without action, desire, or impetus from the character.
It added so much that Squall reflected frequently on his personality, on how he treated others. He was aware that this wasn’t necessarily where he wanted to be in his relationships, but rather it was the safe corner that his past and circumstance had backed him into. AND HE FUCKING TRIED TO CHANGE.
Yes, his team helped. Absolutely! But I feel like it’s more a matter of “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” than just his team doing the change for him. He was aware, reflective, took initiative, and (slowly, so slowly; painfully, so painfully; reluctantly, so reluctantly) grew. Even the romance with Rinoa was more a supplement and byproduct of his desire for change than the driving force itself.
One of my favorite arcs in the series.
Rinoa: A complex mixture of assertiveness, playfulness, power, and rebellion. So cool to learn about her various transitions from Galbadian military daughter to rebel leader to nascent sorceress. I liked her romance with Squall and they were a great match for each other, but she went far beyond “the Rosa-esque love interest.” Hero of her own story.
Still… I’ll be curious if anyone else felt this way, but I just wish we had more of her. I wanted to see her backstory more in action. I wanted a questline just about her dealing with this, and delving more into her origins with the Forest Owls. I wanted more more MORE Rinoa.
Quistis: Same: I wanted more. Seeing her hit on Squall early on rubbed me the wrong way, but she reflected on this and changed and thanks GOD we didn’t get a love triangle. More interesting was her conflict as a genius SeeD who struggled for respect in her profession as an instructor. And it felt like they kind of dropped that tantalizing storyline quickly, unless I missed something major.
Zell: A goofball with a strong core of sincerity and loyalty. I don’t know if I ship him with Gilgamesh, but I don’t not ship it. At the least I think they’d have a blast traveling the world together and fighting evil.
Irvine: Not nearly as annoying as I feared he’d be. Still not wild about his suave-lady’s-man thing, but he was given traits beyond that (honest warmth, self-doubt, the occasional outburst of dorkitude).
Selphie: Different than I thought. At first, I expected her to just be a silly and excitable comic relief. Slapstick even. Enjoyed seeing the more brutal parts of this skilled and deadly SeeD emerge without fundamentally altering her friendly, excited, and open nature.
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A Few Side Characters
-Edea: Sorceress Edea. Matron Edea. Holy crap, this character arc. THIS ARC! Did not expect. The story’s slow reveal of the nature of sorceresses, the history of Esthar and Galbadia, and the ultimate reveal of Edea as the sorceress/matron possessed made her arc so damn satisfying. <3
Sorceress Edea art by TulioMinaki.
-Fujin (and Raijin): Fujin’s speech to Seifer stands out as one of the game’s highlights. She started as this growly, capslocked brute. A more intelligent and benevolent Crabbe and Goyle to Seifer’s Malfoy. One word comic relief. We started to see her (and Raijin’s) desire to support Seifer butt up against their awareness of what Seifer was doing, and it all culminated in that speech. Sleeper favorite character.
-Xu: Sad I didn’t get more of her. She was so badass her few shining moments.
-Laguna: Delightful. Squall in the mirror universe. Added such a sweetness and light and joy to the story, such a strange change of pace. I didn’t quite understand what happened with him the baby and the orphanage, but I don’t think it was conscious abandonment.
Hee! President Loire. Still brings a smile.
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Antagonists
Ultimecia: Mixed thoughts here. Her art and her final battle were phenomenal, if a tad on the long side. Loved seeing her in Edea’s body taking power in Galbadia. Her story was a bit weakened though by my confusion around what her exact goals with “time compression” were, and how it would be different from just destroying the world. Never really got a sense in game of her motivations or who she was.
And yet… strange as it sounds, this wasn’t always a negative. A balanced villain, evil yet with clear motivations and drives, is perfect. Kefka is the gold standard for me. But in the absence of that kind of rarely-given sharp understanding and empathy with a still villainous villain, I prefer someone like Ultimecia by far over someone like Genesis from Crisis Core who just kind of confused me.
Ultimecia art by aldousmassie, posted by djinn87.
I’ve compared the game to FFV at times, and that carries over with the villain. She reminds me in motivation of Exdeath. With INFINITELY cooler design, style, aesthetics, and personality. I just kind of have a thing for sorceresses. Something about crafty and evil female magic-users, witches, and sorceresses, just is right in my wheelhouse.
Adel: Despite a lack of dialogue, her presence loomed over most of the game in the present and the past. Matchless character design.
Seifer: A jerkface who I first hated, then pitied, then began to root for at the very end. Strongly reminded me of one of my favorite (i.e. most fascinating) fictional characters: Harold Lauder in The Stand.
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Story
I have to put my feelings on the story in the context of where I am in my series playthrough. I’m just coming off of FFVII, and Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. An intricately plotted network of lore and characters and relationships and backstory across the franchise.
So I may be more receptive to the relative directness of FFVIII’s story than some. An evil sorceress from the future starts a time loop of a rise to/fall from power as some SeeDs that she helped inspire fight to stop her. Perfect! It’s all I need.
FFVIII is easily one of my favorite FF games. The story isn’t the core reason why it’s on that list (the character development, the hyper-imaginative world-building/design, and the humor put it there), but I still enjoy it as a framework and setting for those core elements.
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Gameplay
Limit breaks: Still a pretty new mechanic that I’m getting used to. These weren’t in FFI-VI in a meaningful way, so just have VII to compare it to. I liked the consistency and clarity of getting the limit breaks. More mixed on how you only got to use them with low health.
From a roleplay perspective, it makes sense. The worse shape you’re in, the more you’re pushed to your limit. And yet, I didn’t love the idea of having to game it so that your party would be at low life for more power. Maybe fine, but felt unnatural.
Reminded me a bit of the FFII leveling system, where the more you got hit the more your stamina points would go up. Makes sense if you play it straight, but it encouraged you to hit yourself for an advantage. I don’t like the game incentivizing me to stay at low life.
GFs: My favorite use of espers/summons/etc. in the series. This was the first time where I could consistently use them as a solid part of my repertoire in regular combat without feeling like I was blowing half my mana pool. Much more accessible and integrated into combat.
Junctions: YES! Loved the flexibility this affords from fight to fight. I didn’t take great advantage of it here, and trying to do better is one of the main appeals to replaying. Every problem has a solution, and that solution usually lies in junctioning. Even with the excruciatingly difficult final battle against Ultimecia, the biggest adjustment (aside from opening up limit breaks, *bonks self*) was bolstering my spirit junctions to survive Shockwave Pulsar, Great Attractor, and Apocalypse.
Draw: The problem was getting to the junctions.
Look. Draw isn’t a bad system. It has a natural appeal, and turns most magic in to a kind of blue magic, which is awesome. Drawing GFs was neat too!
I disliked though how it slowed combat and encouraged you to lengthen the fights just to draw more. The goal of combat should be to win, not to stall, and this incentivized stalling. FFII faced a similar problem.
If I were redesigning the Draw system, I think the big change I’d make would be to increase the maximum magic that you can draw from 9 max to somewhere in the 20-25 range per draw. Could go a long way to eliminating some of the tedium imo.
Scaling: Loved this for the most part. Having to grind up to take on a new boss has never been fun for me and scaling avoids it.
In theory.
It sounds like staying at low levels makes the game easier, which just to me means that the scaling needs some tinkering. I also hated watching Squall race ahead in levels because he had to be in pretty much every party. Perhaps evening out the experience gain across all characters could’ve mitigated this.
I hope they keep scaling and build on it rather than ditching it altogether. I’m not optimistic that this happened. We’ll see in FFIX and beyond.
Triple Triad: An awesome mini-game. Tons of depth in both collecting awesome cards and playing the game itself. I just wish I had more control over the rulesets, some of which were the opposite of fun.
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Music
So consistent, so strong! BY FAR one of the best in the series. I’ve only had a chance to re-listen to pieces of the soundtrack so I’m sure there are certain tracks I’m forgetting. Some personal favorites include:
-Liberi Fatali
-Starting Up
-Shuffle or Boogie
-SUCCESSION OF WITCHESSSSS!
-The Castle
-Eyes on Me
I didn’t like this at first, but boy howdy has it ever grown on me. On repeat today.
-All three parts of the final boss music: The Legendary Beast, Maybe I’m a Lion (lolol that name), and ESPECIALLY The Extreme. The Extreme is mindblowing. This whole medley may be my favorite in the series, a half step above the series of music for Kefka. I appreciate the subtler tone of the Ultimecia music. Or probably tied with it, depending on my mood. Doesn’t really matter that much. Both are top notch.
Special thanks to Noybusiness for posting the tracks as they came up in this playthrough.
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Art/Graphics
Never in the FF series has a game’s art had as massive an impact as FFVIII’s art. It’s not a matter of having great graphics. They help, but they’re tangential. The graphics create a world beyond what I’d imagined. A weird, beautiful, ornate world. Bright, rich colors, intense amounts of detail and imagination. So full of life! This is true for both the world and the characters that inhabit it.
It’s true for places like the gothic masterpiece of Ultimecia Castle, but that’s perhaps not what’ll stick with me. What’ll stick with me is the crystalline Balamb Garden. The city of Esthar like something out of a 1960’s futuristic pop art piece.
The beauty of Adel’s prison or the rich reds of the Lunar Cry. The turquoise within the Pandora. Those flying mechs zipping around the Galbadia Garden.
Where the hell do I even begin with the character design? Sorceress Edea’s costuming. The little touches, like the massive black hair whipping behind her or that sundial piece on her shoulders. The rich purples and blacks of her make-up and dress. Ultimecia’s final form (by FAR my favorite final form in the FF series).
ADEL ADEL ADEL ADEL HER WHOLE DESIGN SO MUCH
Sorceress Adel, by chop-stuff.
Oh right, I’ve just touched on villains. Quistis, her gear and her whip! RINOA, with that awesome long blue sweater thing (I don’t know fashion terms, so any clarification is appreciated) with angel wings and pinwheel. Selphie’s yellow dress with brown boots and fucking nunchucks that somehow go perfectly. Zell… no. Zell was too ridiculous lol. But even Irvine was kind of awesomely designed!
Special shout-out to the Estharian soldier uniforms.
Perhaps the best praise I can give to the art for the characters is that it was intensely difficult to write up comments about them without just focusing on their aesthetic design. Iconic and unique across the board. A+ world building.
(except zell’s clothing lol, wtf captain nineties)
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Length
-The played time on my log is about 62 hours. This isn’t counting about 6+ hours of Ultimecia wipes, so say 68-70 hours. By far the longest I’ve spent on an FF game. To give some points of comparison, FFVII was about 35 hours. This frigging DOUBLED that! (Which surprised me. I would’ve thought it was about the same time.)
Another point of comparison: FFIV: The After Years. 52 hours for that game. It had its moments, but it really felt dragging and repetitive. FFVIII never felt that way. Says a lot.
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Replayability
This is a tough one for me to answer. It has tremendous replayability for me right now. My blind play had me miss a lot of side quests and GFs. But that’s not what would draw me (hee, sorry) back to FFVIII. What would draw me back for my next replay is making better use of the characters. Junctioning differently, drawing differently, and embracing the variety of limit breaks each party member presents.
So why is it tough to answer? Because I don’t know how much variety it offers beyond that second playthrough. It may be a ton, it may little. It feels like there are fewer paths on replay than something like FFV. (Although that’s not really a fair standard.)
Yeah, so probably a good amount of replayability though not sure exactly how much. I know I’ll personally come back to this sooner rather than later.
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A Brief Ranking of the Main FF Games I’ve Played It’s Just One Small Opinion Please Don’t Kill Me
1.FFVI
2.FFVIII – Yes! Taking the number two spot from FFV.
3.FFV
4.[TIE] FFVII and FFIV. I like the FFIV story more and FFVII gameplay more.
6.FFIII
7.FFII
8.FFI
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Final Thoughts
I was a bit nervous coming into this game. I’d heard constantly of the legendary FFVII. Not the details, but certainly the reverence and respect. Just watching a few of the reaction videos to the FF7 remake announcement and gameplay trailer show the impact that game had on so many.
I get the sense that if instead of that trailer they had shown an updated remake of the FFVIII intro, and images of Edea and Seifer vs. Squall and Rinoa’s wings had flashed across the screen, people would’ve just been a bit confused. I hadn’t heard bad things about FFVIII – I hadn’t heard ANY things!
So what a delightful surprise. This game’s tone and palette felt like a spiritual successor to FFV in many ways. It had an exuberance and rich joy that made me so excited to log on each session and see not just the next step in the story, but the next visual wonder around the corner, the next step in a character’s development, the next bit of strange humor, the next curious puzzle to solve or stymie. There’s a sweetness, a bright and exuberant optimism that I adore.
This was a treat and an adventure. Thank you all for accompanying me along the way!
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Next time: trying out Chocobo World. Dunno for how long. Maybe I’ll get sucked in for 20 hours, maybe 30 minutes. No idea; we’ll see. Then onto FFIX.
