Final Fantasy VIII Exposed!- September 26th, 1999 - Andrew Vestal
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Ficht nicht mit dem Raketemensch. Don't say I didn't warn you.
WARNING: This column is full of FINAL FANTASY VIII SPOILERS. If you haven't beaten the game, don't read it. Don't even think about reading it. You've read too far already! Go beat the game, slowpoke! If you read the column anyways you will be mocked publically and derisively. You have been warned.
It's me, AV, and I'm filling in for AK today. Everyone wrote in with their thoughts on Final Fantasy VIII: the game, the story, the ending. This would be perfect, except that AK just started Disc 2. So as the resident FF8 completer who drew the short straw, it's up to me to fill in for him today. So, let the questions, comments, concerns, and unsightly warts and molehills begin!
| You gotta have character |
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Maybe it's just me... but I didn't think the character development in FFVIII
was incredibly great. I thought it was kinda lame. Don't get me wrong, the
game absolutely rocks, but the characters aren't as likable as some other
characters in RPGs.
-Cham
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Most people find Final Fantasy VIII's characters to be some of the most well-drawn, well-developed party members they've ever met in an RPG. A smaller yet vocal minority finds them to be bland caricatures and completely uninteresting. Which side you fall on is up to you. Most people can agree, however, that Final Fantasy VIII's character designs beat "idealistic 14-year-old adventurer" boy six ways to Sunday.
| Picking nits |
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Booya AK!
Having finished FFVIII just last night, I thought I'd give my opinion. I for one really enjoyed it, and the ending was so stunning that I actually cried. Instead of focusing on all the great stuff in it (because you KNOW how much there is), I'm just going to focus on it's extremely minor flaws.
My biggest disappointment had to do with the villains. I really felt they were underdeveloped. I mean, when you lean of Ultimecia, what do you know? She's an evil sorceress, and she wants to achieve time compression. So? Why? Gag we need motivation!
Seifer was developed a lot better, but later on I felt he wasn't used to his fullest potential. It was hard to tell if he was acting under his own power, or under the influence (heh) of Ultimecia. Why does it matter? I wanted to see how Seifer's "romantic dream" worked out. Would he become totally obsessed with it? Apparently not. He just wants to help Ultimecia for some unknown reason.
All that said, it WAS a great game. It ranks right up there with IV and VI as my favorite FFs. Too bad we didn't get to see Laguna telling Squall that "something"...
-Sugoi, who despite appearances is deeply in love with ff8
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FFVIII isn't perfect, but it's a damned better RPG than most games out there -- that's my take on it, at least. I will agree that Ultimecia is a rather underdeveloped villain. Personally, that didn't bother me too much -- after the psycho-Freudian melodramas of Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears, it was fun to find someone who's evil just 'cause she's evil, ya know? And I thought that the development of the game's other major "villain" -- Edea -- more than made up for Ultimecia's skimpiness. A little more explanation of the time compression would have helped, however. I mean, we never even quite understand why she wants to achieve it. What's so great about time being compressed?
(Aside: Nich Maragos just offered the following theory: Ultimecia was trying to compress time in order to return to the beginning of the world, when the great Sorceress Hyne begat all life and sorceresses on the planet. By compressing time, Ultimecia could bring herself to absorb the powers of the Great Hyne. I myself postulate that Ultimecia came from a dying future and wanted to compress time to rejuvenate her world -- and to make her empire easier to rule. Better just all space than all space and time.)
As for Seifer, I thought he was a pathetic character. Pathetic in the sense of "deserving pathos," that is; he's a fascinating mess of contradictions, simultaneously so fiery and so weak. His "romantic dream" was to be a knight; to be a defender of any ideal, right or wrong. Seifer didn't want to live his life as a mercenary-for-hire. He needed someone to protect, something to defend, some outlet for his intense chivalrous tendencies. That's why he sided with Edea, becoming a "Sorceress' Knight," and why he later serves Ultimecia. It's his way to escape from the world that won't let him fulfill his "romantic dream."
But sniggling inconsistencies aside, it is a great game, eh?
| Beggars can't be choosers |
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I insist you buy me FF8 so that I may partake in todays discussion.
~Ian P.
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Your copy of Fatal Fury 8 is on its way.
| Not everyone likes it... |
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Let me start off by saying that I consider myself to, at the very least, be an intense fan of the Final Fantasy series. Been there since the beginning, owning every soundtrack arranged album, complete work, and memorial album, it's safe to say that my bias would lean towards a positive note. And it is! I found FFVIII to be an exhilerating game, graphically, musically, and with little attentions to detail that held me captive until the end.
But there are some things I don't like.
My first and biggest gripe is all the praise "the deep and wonderful character development" is receiving. Granted, you have to have a few more braincells than a dog's toenail to figure out that Laguna and Raine get it on to make Squall, leaving Julia with General Caraway to make Rinoa and get a cute little "fated" joining, but that's where the interesting nature of the development ceases. FFVIII has such an interesting and diverse cast of characters (cute girl ripped straight from an anime (Selphie), hot-bodied, whip-toting instructor (Quistis), even a cool cowboy sniper (Irvine)), you'd think they'd each have equally interesting and diverse pasts, a la FFVI, where everyone had a story behind them. It almost seems like that was the intention for FFVIII, then someone decided there wasn't time, soooo they just threw them all in an orphanage where they all grew up together with completely identical pasts, but miraculously turned out utterly different and in separate places of the world, never remembering their childhoods together until the plot says the time is right. THAT'S NOT GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! That's a single formula past to explain 90% of the game's main characters. And when they blamed the memory loss on the Junction system, I just about crapped my pants. How corny can you get! It's a good thing that previous magic-sorting systems in the FF series didn't induce memory loss. It'd certainly ruin things if Edgar FORGOT that Sabin was his brother!
Next is the plot itself. The events themselves flow well enough, but it was as though someone forgot to think of a purpose for it all. Once they had discovered Edea's true identity, they needed a NEW villain! I'm glad they identified her before the final battle, as in FFIV, but then they gave her no purpose! "Oh, she's trying to control the past to perform time compression!" What the heck? Why? What is she going to gain from it? I figured we'd learn that much after going through an absolutely hokey chain of events to CAUSE the time compression (It's good Dr. Odine already knows all this stuff). But they don't! You arrive at Ultimecia, grand and evil, and except for an annoying lisp, she shows no uniqueness whatsoever and no grand motivation for wanting to unleash the time compression or slaughter your group, except that you plopped on her doorway. There's no explanation as to why they jaunt off into outer space, except to send Adel back to earth and fuel the Time Compression Adventure to come. It almost feels like the planned the plot in reverse. "We want to cause time compression, so we need Ellone here, Adel back on earth, Rinoa over here, and to get that we need them to go to outer space, and to get them to do that, we need Galbadia to get ahold of Lunatic Pandora, and to get them to do that, we need Edea to have taken over their country (then suddenly disappearing, leaving them without a leader? Whoops!), and in order to do that... etc etc.
Finally, little gripes that everyone has about games. FFVIII seemed somewhat sparce on original music, that didn't rely on previous themes to make it a success. I'm not dissing it, but you could easily cut a number of less effective ones. The chocobo capturing game is a complete waste of time... whatever happened to running around a cute field and catching one of your desired color?
FFVIII does have it's fair share of extra secrets, some hard to find, some easy. However they give you no time to explore the world and GET those secrets at the end, unless you happen to know that going through the time compression prevents you from ever accessing certain places again. As a letter yesterday mentioned, it just begs for a strategy guide, and there's no way you're going to find every little thing without one!
Despite how this letter sounds, I did enjoy FFVIII, but I truly think Square needs to stop wallowing in their own visual goodness and make sure to get everything else done as flawlessly as the graphics.
Nathan Mallory
jenova@home.com
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And here we have the other side of the arguement. While I agree with your first two points, neither bothers me to the extent they did you. The Trabia Garden sequence does seem hammy and heavy-handed, true, but by the end of the game I felt that it had been put in perspective. The game's flaw is in presenting you with too much non-foreshadowed information all at once, without giving you time to catch your breath. Until you understand the relationship between Cid, Edea, Ultimecia, and the orphanage -- not to mention Squall, Ellone, Laguna, and SeeD -- seeing your entire party say, "hey, I remember too!" is rather disconcerting. I was also able to accept the GF causes memory loss explanation, especially given Cid's stern warnings to avoid anti-GF propaganda, Selphie's diary foreshadowing memory loss since she started using GFs, other Gardens not using GFs despite their sheer technical superiority, etc.
Ultimecia, as discussed earlier, lacks sufficient motivation or development. Even so, however, I didn't feel the plot was "planned in reverse." I think it was certainly planned holistically, insomuch as later parts helped to explain earlier sequences, but I never felt as if the game was just stringing me along without purpose.
As for the strategy guide? Well, I agree that some of the game's secrets are rather obscure -- I doubt anyone will find Doomtrain, Tonberry, or all the best weapons without a strategy guide. But the game certainly offers enough main quest and enough "possible" secrets to keep most gamers satisfied. If you need a strategy guide, I recommend the excellent guide in this month's Expert Gamer magazine, written by a dashingly handsome GIA staffer.
| It can't Raine all the time |
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It's Laguna's sister who just happened to adopt Ellone, correct? Also...
Rinoa's childhood relation to the story is that she's Julia's daughter, whom
fell in love with Laguna to never see him again, and he in turn is related
to the story through Ellone (assuming the above is correct), and later because
Seifer's girlfriend. So, she is the only main character that isn't closely
related in the story till right before the story starts, or did I miss
something? One last thing, why the hell did Ellone have Squall and company
dream of Laguna and later control them, was it just for backstory or did it
in some way relate to the whole sorceress back in time thing?
Oswauld.
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Raine, Laguna, and Ellone are NOT related to each other by blood. They form a "family unit" during Laguna's recuperation, but nothing official. However, it is later revealed that Raine and Laguna married before Laguna left for Esthar -- in other words, "Raine Loire" is Laguna's wife, not sister; Ellone is Laguna's adoptive daughter, not blood daughter. Rinoa is the daughter of Julia and General Caraway, but Julia died in a car crash just a few years after Rinoa's birth. And Rinoa was, at one point, Seifer's girlfriend.
Squall and co. postulate that Ellone sends them back in time because she's not happy with the present; in other words, she wants to somehow change or modify the past. Given her unhappiness, I'd wager she's trying (somehow) to keep Raine alive. In the end, however, she realizes that the past can't be changed.
| 10-year-old ...eww... |
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I played the whole freaking game, Laguna is 27 years says Squaresoft, and
Squall is 17.
Laguna did the wild thing when he was 10 years old? C'mon people think before
you can guess the plot.
Laguna Loire not Laguna Leonhart.
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To clarify: Laguna was 27 years old 17 years in the past. He is 44 in the "present" day.
| Squall, Cid Kramer never told you the truth about your father. |
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Sorry, but I just don't see how all you people can think that Laguna is
Squall's father. Actually, I can, but it involves totally missing a certain
part of the game's plot: Ellone is not actually Squall's sister!
In the scene where all the characters have a flashback to the orphanage,
we see that everyone, not just Squall, called Ellone "Sis." It was their
nickname for her, because she was like a big sister to them all.
If that's where the evidence is coming from, then that's why Laguna never
told Squall: because it's not true.
If there IS a scene in FFVIII that explicitly states Squall to be Laguna's
son, then I'll believe it (hey, I miss things, too.). I just didn't happen
to see anything that pointed in that direction. In fact, were it not for
the letters on Double Agent here, I would never have even considered the
idea that Laguna is Squall's father.
Later!
Chris
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Here are the major (and rather convincing) arguements that Laguna is Squall's father:
- Squall was born 17 years ago, at precisely the time Laguna was away at Esthar. If Raine died and Laguna was away, then Squall and Ellone would be alone -- and, consequently, placed in an orphanage.
- In the present day, Laguna has Squall's Triple Triad card.
- Laguna tells Squall that he "has something important to tell him" after Ultimecia is dealt with.
- Kiros comments how much Squall looks like his mother, then adds how fortunate it is he doesn't look like his father. Both Kiros and Ward laugh.
- They look alike, it adds a nice sense of conclusion to the story, and it answers the question of the connection between Laguna and Squall (which Square is always pushing when talking about the game).
| Three, three, three times the fun! |
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AK,
Sure, the card game is great. And the junction system is fun. And
the
graphics are beautiful. Sure, the CG is fine. But, there's one reason that
Final Fantasy 8 is the greatest RPG in recent memory: Quistis Trepe. Need
I
say more?
Mike Drucker
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You could also say "Rinoa Heartilly" and "Selphie Tilmitt." With a trio that good-looking, there's something for everybody. Mmmmm, Selphie...
And both last and least:
| Duh |
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Hey AK,
Is it too much trouble for Drew to put up a spoiler warning? Some of us aren't lucky enough to play FF8, and one of the letters was chock full of spoilers. I read the first two sentences before I got past it. Now I know about time compression and some girl named Ellone. At least I don't know who the last boss is... yet. I'll probably read it somewhere by next Wednesday. I would just ask that there be some warning so I could skip the letter.
Oh yeah,
In the movie Arlington Road, [nasty spoiler deleted].
In the movie The Sixth Sense, [even nastier spoiler deleted].
-Morpheus, the poor soul without FF8
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For those who missed yesterday's letters column, here's how it began:
WARNING: This column is a varitable gallery of Final Fantasy VIII spoilers. Nearly every letter in today's edition of Double Agent is a spoiler to some extent or another. They are not individually marked. If you wish to avoid spoilers as you have yet to purchase or play the game, just sit today out. Anyone foolish enough to read on and then proceed to fire a scathing hate letter my way will be subject to my special brand of derisive ridicule. You have been warned.
With that out of the way, let the fun begin.
Fairly obvious, if you ask me. But our friend Morpheus is not content to blame his own ignorance on a Double Agent author. Instead, he completely ruins two recent movies for the unwary recipient of the letter (fortunately, I had seen both already). For this spiteful ignorance above and beyond the call of duty, Morpheus is the proud, first ever recipient of this new Double Agent award:
Yes, Captain Obvious! Defender of ... all things obvious! I mean, obviously. Captain Obvious travels the world with his trusty Clue Ray, giving help to those who need it most. Morpheus, have a zap or three. It's on us. Us and ... CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! And next time, read before you flame.
Closing Comments
Well, AK took advantage of his "forced" time off to get ahead in Final Fantasy VIII. Hopefully he won't be pulling this last minute substitution stuff on me again. Back to Japanese for me, and back to Drew for tomorrow. Ciao.
-Andrew Vestal, Potsmaster General
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