Thoughts on Final Fantasy VIII

After putting it down almost four years ago due to getting lost, confused and unsure of where to go next (that’s what happens when you don’t play a game for several months and then forget most of its story), I have finished what just might be the most under appreciated Final Fantasy to ever hit a gaming console.  Everything about Final Fantasy VIII just screams "I deserve attention too, please, please love me," and you totally should. 

FFVIII‘s leading man, Squall, is a quiet, seemingly introverted guy who throughout the course of the game grows into a pretty decent and likable person.  I say "seemingly" introverted because he only appears to be a dark, brooding misanthrope: His inner dialog is revealed to you throughout the game, allowing you an inside look into the guy and why he is the way he is.  See, after losing his "sis" while growing up in an orphanage, he decides to stop trying to love or rely on people, because in the end all that does is make you weak, and when you lose those people whom you’ve grown close to, you’ll be lost as well… so it’s better to just shut out the world, be alone and avoid the heartache.  That’s part of life though: accepting the bad parts, learning from our hardships and growing stronger because we’ve overcome them.  By the end of the game, however, he does come around a bit due to one very special character: Rinoa.

The love story in FFVIII — which from what I understand a lot of people didn’t like — is surprisingly good.  Rinoa isn’t a damsel in distress like in most other games (which usually gives us nerdy folk a reason to feel tough and manly), though she does lean on Squall when she needs to, and at the same time tries to make him open up.  Sadly, the idiot never really does anything with her advances for half the game due to his "trust/loss" issue.  I kept screaming "dammit you fool, kiss her!" in my flawless upper-class British accent, but he just wouldn’t listen to me.  Luckily, during a certain point in the game this changes, culminating in a very beautiful scene among the stars with very little dialog, sound, or… much of anything, really.  All you have to do is catch her.  It’s pretty romantic.  I’d also say that, even with everything else that goes on in the game, FFVIII, at its core, is a story about two people who love each other and their journey to understand that.

I already went into great detail concerning FFVIII’s  Junction system in another blog entry on 1UP, so I’ll keep it short and simply say that I’ve fallen in love with it.  Being a fan of true realism in games (too many titles strive for it but have terribly unrealistic characters or things that stand out, like invisible walls), the fact that using magic can make me weaker is welcomed with open arms.  It just makes sense: I use powerful spells that I have Junctioned to my stats, and my stats go down as I whittle away my supply of magic.  It’s such an amazing trade-off: power now but weakness later because of it.

Your enemies also level up alongside you.  For example, want to complete the game at a low level? That’s fine; the game will throw lower-level enemies at you.  This way, everyone can explore and experience the game at their own pace without feeling penalized for not spending 100+ hours with it.  More games need to do this: customize the user experience so that everyone, regardless of how much time they have to play games, can enjoy it.

There’s also no grinding because of these aspects.  Yes, you heard me: no grinding.  It’s a pet peeve of mine, grinding, even though I love it as a kid (I guess as you grow up monotonous tasks take center stage in your real life, so it’s not much fun to continue doing them in the virtual world).  Sure, you have to go around and Draw spells from your enemies to build up a good magic supply, which could be seen as a form of grinding, but it never feels that way.

Also, I say this whenever I talk about RPGs, but still… random battles need to go away, the sooner the better.  It’s not very fair to judge a game this old on something that used to be standered, but still, future reference for developers!

The game has also aged well, graphically,  in the "ooh, all these simple polygons and sprites are so cute" kind of way, instead of the "how in the hell did I ever find this ugly thing ‘totally radical’?" kind of way.  Do people still say radical?  Anyway, it looks really nice, and the nostalgia factor of running around an overworld with tiny little towns and such still gets to me somehow.  However, I did run into this glitch where if I were to cast certain spells or summon certain GFs, the graphics would go kinda crazy and the colors would get washed out.  The text also wouldn’t show up, so you can imagine my distress when fighting the most powerful enemy in the game — Omega Weapon — and I suddenly couldn’t read what spell I was casting.  Did anyone else ever have this problem?  Hopefully not!

It also has a wonderful soundtrack, with songs like this, this and this for your listening pleasure (that last one is a stunner, though I am admittedly a fan of chanting choirs).  It’s quite possibly the best, or at least one of the most memorable, soundtracks in the series, landing right at the point where videogame soundtracks were becoming more sophisticated yet also managed to get stuck in your head like they did back in the 8-bit days.  I know, I know, my constant praise of this game is probably getting tiresome, but I really do think it’s amazing!

Final Fantasy VIII does so many things right — and hardly anything wrong — yet it still finds itself in the shadow of its older, spiky-haired, overcompensating-sword-swingin’ brethren all too often.  Do yourself and good games a favor, and give this misunderstood gem a second chance.