Ah ff8... Truly the 'Yeezus' of Final Fantasy. And much like Yeezus, people still cant decide whether its insanely genius, or simply insane.
Much like Yeezus, this game was a sequel to an incredibly commercially and critically succesfull work, both being among the most iconic pieces of art in their genre to ever be released. And much like Yeezus, the artist told their fans to go fuck themselves and released an expiremental work that divided fans and critics alike, and is still controversial years later.
FF8 is a very weird game in many ways, its gameplay is weird, its story is weird, its world is weird, and even many of the cutscenes are weird- with the second to last one looking like it fits more in a Death Grips video then a Final Fantasy game. Let's get into the weirdness.
Gameplay-
Following the universal acclaim and-dare i say- perfection(!) of the Materia System of 7, they decided to make the ballsy move to completely ball it up and throw it in the trash for a system completely new and foreign to the series and, honestly, the genre. There are still not many games- if there are any- that play quite like FF8. And to that i say thank god because the gameplay here is absolutely fucking horrendous. In most JRPGs you defeat enemies, gain levels, and use those levels in skill points. Not in FF8. Here you are punished for defeating enemies, as enemies scale with your current level, though to a higher degree then you, meaning you are paradoxically actually stronger-relative to your opponents- when you are weaker, which is fucking stupid. Gone is a "MP" system, instead you acquire spells by equipping the "Draw" ability. Which- for some reason- is mapped in the menu as a core Ability for each of your party members, meaning if you want to draw something out of battle you must unequip your ability to use items, spells, or GFs, which is mindbendingly fucking stupid. Ill be honest, i did not understand the Junction System. Despite spending most of the first 2 hours(!) vomiting tutorials at me, the game did an exceptionally poor job explaining it, so i mostly told the Junction system to fuck off, assuming the game wouldnt require me to go out of my way to use it, and i could play the game using my wits and basic abilites, which worked until i was softlocked at the third-to-last battle of the game, leaving me unable to progress. Fucking fantastic. I do like the additions of GFs, however, but every other change is for the worse, leaving FF8 to be one of the least satisfying jrpgs i have ever played, gameplay wise.
Characters-
FF8's characters, much like everything else about it, are similarly controversial and hotly debated. Main character Squall is borderline iconic, though not as much as Cloud, though for every 3 fans of Squall, there are 2 people who want to do things to him that would make Ted Bundy blush, and i cant blame them. For the first good half- or maybe longer- of the game, Squall is an absolutely insufferable borderline autist (and i mean that in the literal social disability sense, not youtube comment insult sense) antisocial pompous brooding unfriendly full-of-himself jackass that thinks hes too cool to have emotions. While he goes through a fantastic arc and improves himself over the game, first impressions are important and Squall leaves a horrible one. The rest of the cast is shockingly forgettable, and none of them besides Squall and kind-of-Rinoa( the main girl- will talk about her later) go through anything resembling an arc. Selphie is a ambigiously happy-go-lucky bubbly girl who likes trains and her home country/garden. Thats kind of it. Zell is an ambigiously happy-go-lucky subpar shonen protagonist who loves fighting and speaks his mind, is hotblooded but means well, etc. Thats kind of it. Quistis is a 'Milf' character despite being the same age as everyone else. Shes the 'mature' one, with glasses! Wow! Stunning. Irvine is the only other one other then the main pairing where it seems like they gave a shit, and even then his character has 0 progression. Hes a horndog with a heart of gold who means well, but his penis and goober-brain get in his way more often then not. Even the antagonists are remarkably poor- Edea and Seifer are incredibly overhyped early in the game and end up being boring, lame, and borderline pointless, and Ultimecia is not even a character. She has 3 lines of dialogue and then you fight her. Whoopee. That leaves Rinoa- the main girl, and the most ignored FinalFantasy girl probably ever. Theres just nothing to her, they did a great job writing a realistic teenage girl but thats all she is. She doesent have any flair, shes just pubescent and relatively normal. Shes not strong like Tifa, not cute like Aerith, doesent go through an arc like Dagger, isnt 'innocent' like Yuna, shes just kind of there. Shes 'kind of' tough (leading a revolutionary group), 'kind of' spoiled (saying things like 'Meany!' and overrelying on Squall for companionship, much to his chagrin that eventually turns into appreciation), shes 'kind of' a lot of things but nothing defines her, leading to a mass case of fan apathy surrounding her. Which is a shame because of the best scenes in FF history (Yes- the entirety of FF!) are absolutely heartmeltingly adorable scenes between her and Squall that i absolutely love (though they express their feelings extremely late into the game- leaving the player feeling unsatisfied and wanting more) At the end of the day shes like a great bowl of oatmeal. You wont remember it, but you definitely enjoyed eating it... though you would have enjoyed something more substantial more.
Story- FF8's story is another weird one, very layered and complicated. I wont reveal much here or talk about it much sicne i feel its best experienced knowing little, but i thought the story was satisfying, albeit a bit rushed with the whole Dream-World aspect, and i didnt give a shit about Laguna or his arc at all. There were also many dropped plotpoints- Laguna's original crush and the weird 'Garden Rebellion' that is never brought up again- for example, leading the story to feel a bit more messy then im used to with Final Fantasy. The ending cutscene was notably horrible, leaving me unsatisfied and playing with comically unsutiable high-octane music that contrasted badly with the serene epilogue that was playing
Overall this is a good, albeit very frustrating, game. I wish they gave Rinoa and Squall's relationship more time to breathe and didnt implement the absolutely terrible Junction system, but oh well. Id still recommend picking this up for 25-30 bucks. Its strangeness makes it a different, unique, experience if anything.
high 5 or low 6 out of ten
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I have like three PS1 copies of this game, IIRC because I kept getting broken second hand copies and I never bothered to get rid of the ones that didn't work.
I think there are set pieces in the game that are neat after, but the game can not decide at all where the story is going and feel like at least three or four different stories mashed together. And that's not even getting into the game play.