I have to argue that FF8's storyline is no less stupid and contrived than FF7R's. Don't know why they couldn't leave FF7s story alone and just make it look a little better, maybe add a few cute side areas(and not filler bullshit like taking 30 mins to move cranes..wtf?) I feel like 7R's grand plan is to give us a way to save Aerith....which is so far beyond the fucking point of what fans would want....ugh!
@@lanmandragoran8337 Their ego is too great. Instead of respecting the work of Hironobu Sakaguchi, which quit Square after Final Fantasy 10, they wanted to replace his legacy with silly anime tropes.
Ellone wasn't actually anybody's sister. she's technically Squall's adopted sister (because she's Laguna's adopted daughter) but that's it. everyone else just calls her "sis" because she was like a sister to them, but it's not literal.
Not even technically Squall’s adoptive sister, but ACTUALLY Squall’s adoptive sister. Ellone being adopted by Raine makes her Raine’s daughter, and via marriage Laguna’s daughter and Squall’s sister. But yeah she doesn’t have any familial relationship to anyone else in the story other than being close with them and being seen as family.
Damn man, those were the days. As weird and convoluted VIII was, I'd give anything to go back to the magic I felt as a young boy when booting this one. The Lunatic Pandora is still engraved in my brain to this day somehow.
Yup yup - I got a playstation 1 and Final Fantasy 8 along with it for Christmas 1999- and this ending still kills me 24 years later - seeing Laguna as an older man, and then revert to a younger man and propose to Raine, and then go back to an older man makes me want to be a better husband to my wife.
It's explained badly, but the radio thing is due to Adel's tomb corrupting all satellite signals. If you look closely at TV screens before Deling's address (the bigger, the easier), you can see that they say BRINGMEBACK and IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETME. That right there? That's something that could have been really cool to explore. Like, just imagine if one day, every radio and TV was broadcasting the insane ramblings of some superbeing. FF8 set up a lot of neat balls, and promptly dropped all of them.
The GF brain demons thing is actually set up in the first few minutes of the game, but you have to actually use your school terminal and look up news to find out. This also unlocks Quetzalcoatl and Shiva early. As for how they all end up together again, that was Edea too. She was responsible for the entire Garden/SeeD system, and did it specifically because of the time loop this game established. FF8 isn't as bad as people say, but it does make some bad writing mistakes that are exclusive to games. There ARE some explanations in the game for weird things, but they're all hidden in obscure quests, out of the way side content, or your computer terminal in the classroom that you NEVER NEED TO ACCESS EVER. The writing of the game makes this assumption that the player knows this information and dumps plot points and weird cultural things and terms on the player that seem to be pulled from the writer's asses half the time. It's the same problem with FF13, but not nearly as bad. FF13 drops you in-media-res in a fantasy/sci-fi world with zero explanation and tosses weird terms and cultural mores at you in the first hour that made zero logical sense unless you spent 45 minutes reading the game's log and dictionary as soon as you got control.
I guess you are right though I checked my terminal regularly because it had information on it and you are hinted that it updates because Selphie tells you through her interest in the festival that the information is on there.... it's subtle, but people often forget that tidbit of information. The only few things I found a real hole is the monsters dropping from the moon, and the fact Irvine gives absolutely no hint that he knows anything....for example the sniper scene didn't hint at it, and even though he knew the prison scene he tries to only rescue Rinoa, and shows no interest to rescue his fellow orphans though he claims to have a connection to Selphie.... They could have dropped some subtle hints there instead of just dropping it out of the sky...
@@jondoe8014 The moon monsters thing is actually set up pretty early. You know those magazines like Occult Fan you keep finding? They have information about the Moon Monsters. There's also details about how the south-eastern continent was ruined by a Lunar Cry and the machine that caused it (the Lunatic Pandora) is being excavated by Esthar soldiers in the second Laguna flashback, that's why the dungeon is turned on its side in the past. Esthar didn't invent the Lunar Cry, it's a natural event that happens every several thousand years when too many monsters are on the moon, and it's usually a devastating continental extinction-level event. The Centra people developed the Lunatic Pandora for some reason, and when they used it, it destroyed the entire southern continent.
@@Null_Experis I get that much I'm speaking more on the mechanics of it to make it not so ridiculous to a logical brain though that is really just a minor detail considering it's a fantasy game. I just can't wrap my head around monsters dropping from the moon.
@@jondoe8014 According to the FF8 Ultimania, it's a natural occurrence of gravity. When a large enough mass of monsters congregates on the moon and it becomes massive enough to pull them to the planet's surface on a close pass-by. The Lunatic Pandora just induces it artificially through gravity manipulation.
While FF8 has a special place in my heart, there's no denying that the story has a lot of issues. I have played FF8 so many times, and even then I do notice things that I haven't noticed before. One thing over the years that I have noticed is, if you come from an anime background, specially watching slice of life, isekais, sci-fi fantasy animes, this game will not look that weird, you can actually see that it is structured almost like your average anime. For those who might have doubts, watch an anime called Qualidea Code, it will sort of remind you of FF8 (not quite, but have some similarities). It does have contrived things, that mostly shows, and if you put attention, you notice that some of the issues in FF8 are also present in Kingdom Hearts (all games), Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which curiously share a lot of the same people involvement (Kitase, Nomura and Hashimoto, with a sparke of Motomu Toriyama). When someone asks me if FF8 is good, I always answer with "It's ok, it's not perfect, it has its moments, but the first time you play it, you're not going to like it" and curiously, I have known lots of people who actually don't like the game the first time they play it, but start to like it the second time they do. Now that you have played all FFs from 1 to 8, playing FF9 will really be a good experience for you, you'll get a lot of references in that game, it is a return to more traditional Final Fantasies...tough, I'm not sure how will you react to the story, it has its ups and downs. I'm not particularly fond of FF9 overall story, but I do really like the story of some characters.
I dont come from an anime background , and have always loved FF8. I still feel like 7 gets a lot more credit than it deserves, "angsty teen commits identity fraud" just doesn't hit the same.
have seen a few anime/manga plot summaries on youtube, enough to recognize some of the cliches, and yep, some of them reminded me of FF8. The Secret Area, the Garden Festival, even the Discipline Committee, all make a lot more sense in light of the Trope boxes I now recognize they're ticking.
The whole radio thing was because they were being blocked by Adel's prison. There is an optional FMV that shows how the Ragnarok ended up lost in space; two ships were used as rockets to carry Adel's cell into space, they were had no crew so they just drifted there.
About the ring. I think it's more a very young teenager thing, like when you are 14 and you fancy a guy and you are too shy to ask for something that belongs to him and so you ask a friend to ask for that thing instead... but you are very embarassed, and you say 'pleas don't tell him it's for meeee' xD I don't know, that remind me of that feeling, very young and childish crush.
Triple Triad is hands down the best thing about FF8. I always loved grinding before the Ifrit Cave to get all the refining abilities I can and play TF out of triple triad so I have dope ass cards to turn into dope ass magic to junction. Getting to the level of being able to beat the spider mech at the satellite tower is next level.
Fun fact, FFVIII was the first and only FF of the first 9 that Sakaguchi had nothing to do with and he let Kitase/Nojima/Nomura have fully free reigns on. And, in an interview, he later expressed regret at giving them that once he saw the final product lol.
@@vanilla7981 Somewhat hard to break down: 1. The fact that he wasn't involved with FFVIII much at all is iterated in numerous places, but most of these are translated Famitsu pieces, though you can find them fairly readily by looking up interviews pertaining to FFVIII, FFIX and The Spirits Within. Sakaguchi was working on IX and TSW during FFVIII's production and so could not partake actively in its production. If you want sources for this, I'm not sure if the URLs will go through in the comments, but I'm willing to share them through other means if you want them. 2. As for his feelings on VIII, they've been expressed in an EDGE magazine release from years back(I have scans though), and in his conversations with Kitase over at Famitsu when they did their retrospective playthrough of FFVI. It's not a very drastic statement, to be fair, and was partly made in good-faith jest. He wasn't saying he thinks FFVIII is bad or anything, but rather that he felt the trio might have gone a bit too far in places he wouldn't have. For example, he was not a fan of them stepping away from deformed character designs nor the idea of making it a kind of high-school drama centered around young characters.
From the opening game, it feels different. the quality of the game experience that is given are less fun. Try compare with opening of FF VII Is impossible.
@@9rey90r1 It's structured very different from Sakaguchi-lead titles for sure. Every game he has control over tends to send players into battle by the first 5 minutes top. This is reflected in all his titles as far as I know, even after he quit SE.
@@hian that's right. because during the opening game on Lost Oddysey(another Sakaguchi game) the gameplay immediately starts instead of a long tutorial.... I miss that game.
I used to HATE FF8’s battle system so much. But after learning it and finding out how broken you can be early on if done properly I grew to love it, became one of my most fave battle systems ever
junction is amazing. the only sad part is how it kinda makes magic casting a bad choice. but summoning is so op for 90% of the game that you never really have to use magic for anything.
KH isn’t contrived though, it’s complex for sure, there’s lots of layers, but it’s not convoluted. If you follow everything, it remains consistent with its own internal logic which is a pretty magnificent feat. FF8 is just contrivance after contrivance with little meaning or cohesive theming in my opinion 🤷🏻♂️
@@ItsLazBoi The definition of convoluted is "Extremely complex and difficult to follow" Even if you play all the games you can still get lost, a *lot* of people do. Some don't, but that doesn't mean it isn't convoluted at all. Some people have to go over it multiple times, or have it explained to them by someone well versed in the lore. I've watched many people play Kingdom Hearts, correctly, and still get lost and confused. I can understand someone getting lost in FF8, but I myself understood it at seventeen. *Shrug* But I wouldn't say that just because you don't understand something makes it bad, may just not be your cup of tea. But trash talking it throws all conversation in lines of decency out the window.
Well... having in mind that in the process and development in the beginning of FF7, they gave the idea of playing in different periods of time with Father and Son, and the addition of time-travel. Is possible that they have taken some themes and things.
This game simultaneously has the most lazy plot point (EvErYoNe HaS AmNeSiA) and one of the most subtle plot points with Squall’s parents that I actually didn’t even put the pieces together until I’d played the game multiple times.
I suggest playing the OG at some point. My biggest gripe with remaster was no vibration. OG when you used Squalls gun blade the controller vibrates, all the GFs had their own vibration, cut scenes had vibration. So many situations had vibration that immersed you. Like when you’re running from the robot in dollet the controller would vibrate when he was chasing you.
I always took the whole ring thing as, she just started liking him and was embarrassed about it. So she got Zell to get it for him. Even when I played this when it first came out, that seemed pretty obvious. Still a super contrived story though. It either needed to be more streamlined or made longer to properly utilized the things they did establish.
I think the reason the guys end up together again is because after cid made the garden he brought all the orphans with him since Edea wasn't in the orphanage anymore. Also you calling Squall an incel got a chuckle out of me 😂. I agree that ffviii isnt great in hindsight but my god i love socially inept Squall and Laguna so much 😭
So happy you continued the main series. I was checking by chance after a long time if you ever did FF8 or 9, and I see I'm lucky since it's been just 12 days. For the record that thing some of your viewers mentioned about not liking FFVIII if didn't like Crisis Core is weird: I disliked Crisis Core, but I liked FF8 (though less than FF6/7/9). Anyway, I think you'll like FF9. EDIT: the radio antenna in the beginning actually has an utility in the story (though very trivial): it was so that the Galbadian president could broadcast to the entire world. I think they explain it shortly after the mission, or during the time in Timber.
There was a very old copypasta about how the main 4 devs of FFVIII came up up with the plot while being locked in an office over a long weekend and there was a gas leak in the vents. It eventually boiled down to; Nojima: "Kitase...what about...T I M E C O M P R E S S I O N" Kitase: "Yeah dude"
This was one of my favorite games when it came out and I was in middle school. Watching you react to some of the looser plot devices has me cracking the hell up. I didn't question it when I was twelve, but some of these plot beats really are silly 😂 I'm sure some of it is weak localization, but, oh man. You reacting to the ring thing and all of the possession silliness is pure comedy.
Honestly I will never EVER agree with anyone that says this one's story is convoluted or doesn't make sense. It's incredibly straightforward, surprisingly so with how time travel shenanigans are involved. Honestly a super underrated game, better story than the majority of mainline entries. Junction system is the one thing I think needs an overhaul but it still has a lot of cool things you can do to break the game. Leveling also needs a tweak.
Personally my fav because it was the first of the series i really dive in and explore every inch of it. Perfect card game that i could play for HOURS. Yes it had weird menu/junction system but if you understand it its the most easy and broken of all. Great story but halfway it get bad thats because they was hurry to finish it in only 1 year
To me, the way they delivered the backstory of the plot with Irvine in a way that barely tried to make sense in of itself is what kills it. For instance, it makes sense that kids in an orphanage run by a married couple would be eventually put into a military youth program that was created by said couple. But the script paints it as some sort of fateful "coincidence". Even when the plot can make sense, they don't let it make sense. The GF drawback was an asspull that could have easily been rectified if there were similar drawbacks introduced earlier, hinting at it. Doing so in strategic places would also make the selective forgetfulness easier to understand. But the big problem for me with this game was Squall having to suffer his band of idiots and be gaslit into an awful romance. Squall was a victim of weaponized incompetence by his headmaster, and absolute stupidity on the parts of his party. Between that, the Quistis apology attempt, Squall's Ring debacle, and most things to do with Rinoa, this FF is one of the few where the plot points upset me, and where the fundamental message regarding the protagonist's feelings I actively disagree with. His turn into his "feelings" for Rinoa, whom as an introverted quiet person myself I really came to dislike, was where even kid-me just stopped playing. It wasn't gradual, it wasn't sensible, it had no merit, and it just didn't hit.
jeez your analysis makes sense but even that is giving this trainwreck of a game too much credit. I still can't believe this piece of garbage was the F/u to 7. This was the first game I ever quite playing (96 hours in on disc 4) because I just stopped caring
Final fantasy 8 is one I have a bunch of mixed feelings on. It's very confusing in the menus, and the plot takes a dive halfway through. Still once you get your head through the complicated junction system it's actually pretty fun to use / break. Also some of my favorite set pieces are in this game that are still fun to play through to this day. I just wish they didn't kneecap the explorability of the world just before the end and make some really questionable story choices about the relationship between all of the characters. That said, we have 3 banger FF games in a row coming up in my opinion.
disagree and some of your criticism made no sense. why didn't the ship run out of gas? it wasn't flying, it was floating in space. anyway, this is fantasy. you just wanted to attack just to attack and your continual tirades became a turn off. you look for a boogeyman you'll find one in any fantasy movie or game. that's your privilege but it got me annoyed so will stop watching your vids.@@ItsLazBoi
lmfao NO dude. THis whole game is crap. And if you were going to go for the best first 10 hours you would do Disc 1 of FF9 or the first 10 hours of FF4. Check your crazy plase
@@brucebc6518 FF8 is one of the shittiest jrpgs every made lmfao and your butthurt whining about him spitting truth would be amusing if it weren't so depressing for its reflection on humanity. ALSO you do realize that spaceships need fuel right??? fuck lmfao that comment reveals how dumb you have to be to like this game
@@brucebc6518think you took this too seriously. Spoken like a true fanboy. I love FF8, but I’m aware it has its problems and know it’s not for everyone. I played this game when I was really young, 14 two years after it had come out. I loved the story then, but now as a 36 year old adult, replaying it and seeing how contrived the story is, I understand why a lot of people didn’t like it. I still really enjoy this game personally and love the junction system, but I’m not gonna be upset if someone doesn’t have the same sentiment.
Dude James completely understand your take on this game. The issues with the story is that almost all of the information that builds out the world to create more of an understanding is literally behind the “information section” in the menu. And it’s really a shame that instead of letting the gamer actually play and experience either actions or dialogue explaining and expanding things out, that instead they put it all behind a text wall that almost every 1st time gamer doing a blind play through will miss because nobody wants to read about things that aren’t happening or will be shown in the game. And that’s not even taking into consideration the Japanese culture implications on how they deal with relationships and how they handle romance. You’d have to already understand Japanese culture already for the love story to seem natural and not just weird and random. Reading in the information section would establish that the world was basically torn apart by war thanks to Sorceress Adel and Esthar leading many children to be orphaned and that there aren’t many thriving cities anymore. There is an explanation on magic, GFs, and the sorceress and how they’re all connected and where they come from. It explains the blocking of radio waves due to sorceress Adel’s tomb. AND then on top of that, you have to pick up and go to all these optional places to really get ALL of the information. It’s like you only actually play half a game with how much is just there in text and having to read all of the stuff that makes the world feel fleshed out, full, and the story make sense. That said, FF8 is still my favorite FF game. And if all of the stuff that was in game behind text was actually apart of gameplay, I think FF8 would make a really fantastic remake. Anyway, sorry for text wall. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
FF8 isn't my favourite (that will probably always be XIV, even after I finish all the FF games) but it definitely is up there as one of my favourites so far
I definitely think that with a lot of polish and clean up this could be a great game. Clean up such as making the key parts of lore actually integrated into the game instead of text logs. Having more human conversations and actions and less exposition to make the characters and their development more fleshed out. In exchange you could cut the things that go nowhere and were just in there to make everyone connected (which I think is always a bad idea since it is not only contrived but also makes the world feel smaller). Most of Laguna's bits are less world building and more character building that isn't really necessary for the plot to function and doesn't really fit in thematically. We didn't need to play him but eh. The orphanage scenes outside of Squall's background could also go. It's not like there is much other back story for any of the rest of the team anyway and it isn't very plot relevant. In fact it doesn't really even give anyone character development except for Edea way too late for us to even care about her because she's not a character for the rest of the game going forward. You could also cut down or re purpose some of the stuff in Timber. Still introduce Rinoa but get some stuff in about the Lunar Cry or GF memory issues if you absolutely want to keep that. There's an information density loss when translating from Japanese to English. But I do find it hard to believe that normal Japanese relationships are supposed to have the woman persistently pursuing in the face of clear rejection. That part seems more like the "Just need a good woman to fix this guy's emotional issues" trope. I do see a lot of attempted inner monolog based development of Squall actually pondering his "make it on my own" strategy. But his arc seemed a bit disjointed and rushed along with everything else at the end of the game. The pacing would be something else I would clean up.
1:06:27 I disagree here: it's very common in fantasy stories that the characters have more or less the same culture as the guy who's writing the story, and the same kind of social interactions. You just don't realize it when it's GoT and its very American characters. A Japanese game is bound to reflect how Japanese people think. It's the same with historical movies: the characters never really reflect the time period depicted, but "us". A medieval movie made in the 80s will reflect how people were in the 80s more than how they were during medieval times, probably because otherwise we wouldn't understand most of the social interactions (and because it would be very difficult). Regarding fantasy worlds, it's very rare that someone creates a whole original culture. Even LotR, despite how Tokien tried to create totally different cultures, reflects in some ways, through its characters, England during the early 20th century (the books, not the adaptations, for example Ring of Power totally has characters that think like 2023 Americans). In a nutshell, it's very common for imaginary worlds to remain very close to the culture of the guy that created it. Especially in terms of dialogues.
That still doesn't solve the problem of Squall not being the one to share it with her and thus it coming off as creepy stalker behavior instead of sentimental value. In fact I think it makes it worse. If Rinna just wanted a cool keepsake to remind her of Squall it's a little silly of her not to ask him directly but teenagers and what not. But with rings sharing being something that is sentimental she's secretly having Zell make a sign that says "Squall asked me to be his girlfriend" so everyone will look and think they are in a relationship. Squall didn't consent to it. If se respected him she could have just had a pair of matching rings of her own made not based off of his and given him one. At best it comes off as "hey I died my hair the same color as you. Or bought the same clothes." Which can be sweet in a teenage way but then again neither of those involve taking something under false pretenses.
I want to say that I quite enjoyed watching your reactions to FF8. FF8 was my second FF game (after 7), and it holds a ... complex place in my heart. Or, to put it another way, FF8 reminds me of the box of my childhood Legos I dug out of the basement recently. It's a huge mess, it smells of mildew, but if you dig a bit, there's some great stuff in there.
Seems like you got through the game quicker than expected… which makes me wonder how much of the side stuff you did? Cos there’s also some lore that might have been ironed out. The communications tower part was part of Galbadia’s plot to televise the Sorceress’s inauguration and the Presidential announcement that was subverted when Seifer stormed the TV station and tried to unalive the President in Timber and was kidnapped by Edea. All the “just so happens” stuff with the orphanage, and edea being Matron and Cid being her husband makes sense that the 6 kids you raised together would be the soldiers that you train to “defeat her” if you’re trying to bring her out of her possessed state, she knew Siefer was one of her kids- that’s why he wasn’t actually executed… Martine made that up to make sure that Squall’s group woul actually want revenge and try to kill Edea- which wasn’t Cid’s plan when he and Edea first built their Garden to stop Edea if she comes under Ultimecia’s control. When Edea shafts Squall with the ice spear you noticed there’s a look of recognition on Edea’s face, but she’s not in control of herself… she only gets freed from Ultimecia’s possession when Edea is so close to death that she jumps into Rinoa’s body- but Rinoa didn’t accept the powers consensually. Edea in the ending scene as Matron- willingly takes that L so that power won’t jump to Ellone and give Ultimecia control over time- But the sorceress Adel carrying Ultimecia’s will (by junctioning Rinoa onto her chest) may have inadvertently handed over the time power to Ultimecia anyway cos Ellone uses Time Compression to fold past present and future into one singularity so she can trap Ultimecia in the Past, but once Ultimecia is defeated time starts to re-expand (nobody to hold the time door open) and squall ends up on the wrong side of it- telling Matron it’s her destiny to make Garden and train SeeD to defeat the Sorceress. Then when Squall tries to find the future his friends are in he can’t, and ends up stuck on a rock and can’t even remember Rinoa’s face… which they tried to show with the visually glitching out memories. Squall doesn’t come back to the fiture cos he’s so focused on the past and can’t remember his friends cos he wasn’t all that focused on them.
The 2 mistakes that ruin people's opinion of this game is that half the story is in the desk console in garden no one ever goes back too organicly, and that the junction system removes items and the need to dungeon crawl for equipment but you don't understand how easy junctioning is until your 2nd or 3rd playthrough. I loved this story way more than 7 but I have to accept this is the most disliked of the series
your thoughts on FF8 were the same as mine.. the game itself is ok, but when held up vs other final fantasies it goes right to the bottom. just be happy you have FF9 and FF X next, great games..
9 isn't great, either. It's more about form than function. It suffers from the same crap final boss problem as 8, and a completely unintelligible plot that thinks it's far more clever than it is.
I actually love FF8, but you have to remember they're all moody teenagers who are just doing their job, not some people who've agreed to save the planet or what the fuck ever. They didn't volunteer for their world to be thrown into nonsense, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, pretty much all the way through. Also, long term memory problems of their childhood, I feel like the characters act exactly like moody teenagers being forced to do insane bullshit would. Selfish and annoyed, etc. but slowly grow into adulthood over the course of the game, and really get into the "whelp, nobody else is going to fix this bullshit, guess its up to me then" attitude for the last half of the game. You have to remember that Rinoa became a sorceress just because she was the closest available vessel to Edea at the time, so Ultemecia possessed her. She was just a bratty kid before that trying to piss off her dad. Squall just a loner with abandonment issues from losing his sister without explanation. I wish they'd have worked more on the storylines less main characters. Even Irvine, who you stay pissed at for being a coward...if you think back on it...he was shooting, for all intents and purposes...his mother...and he KNEW it. Nobody else did. But its revealed SO much later that you almost don't fucking connect it, and thats the only 2 plotpoints in the ENTIRE GAME that really involve him. It could've been better, but they put too much into cutscenes and not enough into storyline. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the cutscenes, but they could've gone a little harder on fleshing some story out. Got 7 and 8 and PS1 all at the same time when i was 11, didn't start playing 8 til i beat 7...and i mean every part of 7....so I didn't start 8 til I was 13 or so, battle system was fine as long as you play with the GFs a bit and figure out what everything means early, the rest of the entire game makes perfect sense. I just hate how many GFs i missed drawing my first couple playthroughs lmfao. Forgot to say: Orphange shit is...kinda stupid, I'm unclear what the point of having it happen that way was. Everything could've been normal without that.
@@thembill8246 FF9 final boss suffers from a lack of proper buildup and some emotional disconnect as a result. No one will argue that. But I think it’s thematically brilliant and ties in with the emotional core of the game and the series. It’s the pinnacle of these aspects and I feel like that emotional disconnect can be a little too strong for people to see past it and marvel at its poetic beauty. To each their own though
FF8 is my all time favorite final fantasy. Always the black sheep, always tons of hate from weirdos. There's plenty of flaws present in the game, but there's plenty of flaws in every game. The sound track and character cast are top tier, Squall is a total savage that ranks very highly on the list of FF characters that just gets shit done! And his and Rinoa's romance will always be my favorite as well.
My biggest gripe as someone who’s favorite game in FF8 is that the characters arcs aren’t meaningful enough and often short super short. Basically the development of each character is so small and so quick that the characters who aren’t Squall lose meaning.
I found the menu to be probably the easiest to manoeuvre apart from FF9. 8 is the easiest by far to OP your crew early though and the item menu is quite deep and well done IMO and I can do without magic anyway so the junction system doesn't give me much issue apart from the time it takes
You likely enjoyed my time with FF7 because it was honest and real enjoyment. I did not enjoy FF8, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend I did, this is still my honest experience with FF8. I think it sucks, lots of elements irked me and I voice those across the playthrough. I'm sure you have felt similarly about pieces of media that you personally do not like and have likely complained about those to friends, or at least just thought it to yourself, this really is no different, I just post it online for people to watch if they want. Please try to have some amount of understanding, my dislike for FF8 is not personal, I just think it's bad and try to voice that in a video that is literally based around my initial reactions to things, positive or negative.
4:25 To your point of playing these when you were younger. I was 10 when I first played FF7 (as well as never having played an RPG). I got all the way to Cosmo Canyon using just the buster sword as I didn’t realise those “weapons” I had collected needed to be equipped 😂😂. Looking back it’s not a bad achievement 😅
My FF experience was a strange journey. I played part 1 as a kid. Then played part 6 (which was labeled as part 3 in the US) and loved it. In college a roommate of mine had part VII and I loved that as well. Now here's where I had a huge let down. So I thought that there were 3 more games, because I had played part 3, then part 7. I didn't know part 3 was really the one before 7. So I was disappointed to find out that, no, there were no games between. But then part 8 came out, so I grabbed that immediately, and could not stand it. I didn't play part 9 until much later, and I remember really liking it, and thinking it was a good move to go back to a more traditional feel.
No I got it, I just didn’t include it in the video because I didn’t have much to say, it doesn’t really ultimately mean anything for the story or the characters it’s just a missable piece of dialogue.
At least now you understand why ff7 was so beloved for so many decades. No other ff really came close to the intricacies of ff7's multiple stories overlapping and weaving so well within eachother (at least compared to VIII). The later games are definitely still worth playing though.
I don't agree at all. FFVII is good but don't oversell it's story like that compared to the others. It's remembered more because it's the first major 3D one.
@@Ziggaton agreed ff7 is a simple well told story, ff8 is far more intricate and risky story prob why it is so polarising. For me if i had to choose an ff game, 8 is the one, its just more fun than the others, altho i think 7 is the slightly superior game overall.
@@wiseguy240Winston X is way better than 7. 7 is great but 10 is just that much better. There is not only story but the world building is far more intricate. Let's not forget the hidden GOAT of the series though, FF Tactics
I know the story of 8 was all over the place but a big portion of Laguna was taken out. Originally the game was supposed to be half squall and half Laguna. There was even a world map for Laguna and most of the Laguna section was finished but taken out later. Idr the exact reason for this but maybe to shorten the game? Regardless, a lot of stuff from the past and Adele was all for Laguna but sort of thrown in for squall after the fact. And lastly, they wanted to have a light tone setting, hence the school, since all FFs before this were dark. But they failed to take into account that Japan does things differently from a lot of places in the world. So Rinoas ring section and why she keeps going after squall even after he rejects her or doesn't open up is all common in Japan. I think they overlooked a lot of stuff and got too ambitious with the freedom and aimed too big and it just didn't stick the landing they hoped for. I still enjoy it for many reasons but it's not perfect.
The ring thing made sense to me, for some reason. Especially when Zell says "Oh." Was a clear indicator to me that she wanted a copy of his ring because she has feelings for him, and wanted to have it so she could feel close to him.
If they had decided to keep the Laguna sections that were plot relevant like things to do with Adel or even havr us playing as Ward for the prison thing it could have been much better. What they decided to keep was largely pointless. You can build character and backstop at the same time. Heck the segment in Winhill in Elonne's childhood was sweet and at least sets up why she would be doing what she is doing. But the Julia section and the quarry section were just long and largely pointless time sinks that could have been shortened. You could have started out in the bar and gone to the quarry and off the cliff all in one session, then had an entire session to do something more to set up all the crazy stuff at the end of the game.
Lmao. Regardless of how you felt about one of my favorites, I'm glad you had fun. Might not be a top tier story, but it's OST and gameplay be hittin. I'm so excited for you to make it to 10, it's regarded as one of the best in the series from alot of people, and is often the most suggested one for people to start at.
Because of how this game is basically a time loop, if Kitase wanted to tackle the “squall dies” theory (he said he wouldn’t tackle “Rinoa/Ultimecia” EVEN THO THERE IS SO MUCH THAT CAN BE USED HERE) it would be perfect if Disc 1 was remade the same, with Edea being the final boss of Disc 1, but after that would be the best opportunity to do WHATEVER HE WANTS WITH THE STORY
Look into the lore of Ultimecia actually being Rinoa, and the whole ring thing as well as the conversation where Rinoa tells Squall that he should be the one to kill her if she loses control will all make so much more sense and really should have been written into the story better... perhaps it was intended for a sequel that never happened???...
GFs feed on memories, making the users forget things. It's so bad, most of the party forgot they grew up in the same orphanage together. Even Squall, who had abandonment issues does not remember why he has abandonment issues. Which leads to the ending. All they had to do to get back to the present was remember. Squall got lost in time cuz he forgot both the flower garden he and Rhona promised to meet at AND forgot Rhona. He tried remembering all the times he's been with her but he couldn't remember even Rhona's face. Hence the space suit helmet's scattering. Squall imagined that in a desperate attempt to see Rhona's face but it's blacked out, blank like the rest of his memories of her. And so he is forever lost in time. Or he would have been, if it wasn't for Rhona remembering him and having the power to find him.
Fun fact Nomura always wanted Squall to have long hair, but Kitase wanted him to be model after one american actor at the time, so when Nomura started working on KH and he had full control he reused his old design for Squall with long hair in KH1. Yeah I kinda figured you were not gonna like this one. For me there is alot of charm, cool stuff, art and vibes in this game that I like, but like you said it's just rushes through stuff, mostly due to rushed development of FF8, but I can't help, but love it even with it's problems. I imagine you should like FF9. After 7 and 8 alot older fans were not too happy with modern day direction, and so for the last FF game on ps1 Kitase and the team went back to more high fantasy setting. It's a very beloved title and also the last FF game produced by Sakaguchi aside from 6,7, and 8 and the last game with Uematsu doing the full soundtrack for a FF game. Hope you like it.
Another great show. Looking forward to the next. It has been over 20 years since I played FF8 but I do remember liking it when I was 15. Couldn't tell you what I would think of it now. I'd have to play it over again. Your critiques are sound from what I saw. Looking forward to FF9.
How did I miss this? FOR A MONTH?! I will rectify this now and watch including the VOD. I hope you get around to some spin-offs in the series as well. Tactics is a good one to do after the main series 👌
Maybe the story is not great but still, it is one of my favorite games just because I find it relaxing, just hanging out in places like Horizon, Winhill or Shumi Village and listening to its amazing OST 😍
I can't wait to see you get to FF15. Some people hate it, some people love it. I personally feel like it's an incomplete game, but I loved what we got in terms of gameplay and story, but there is much to be desired after you finish the story
FF8 was written by a 15yo kid who took a two months crash course in literature and created a story with the most edgy things he could think about. Nothing makes sense, the characters are stupid for no reason BUT the music is great.
This game is such a weird, at times unenjoyable game and the first FF game that got weird, got shitty and just didn't do a good job on so many things. I bet you'll love 9 though
Check the Rinoa=Ultimecia theory. Recently Kitase backtracked on debunking it, he acknowledged that it might have been an idea that Nojima had in mind when he wrote the story. It ties in many loose ends and motives - such as Griever, as well as the weird "coincidences" - it's all a time loop.
That still debunks it though lmao. "it might have been an idea he has in mind when writing" but it still wasn't in the final project and isn't supported by any actual evidence from the game. Also, it's all a time loop regardless; that was blatantly made clear by the story.
43:33 well technically he DIDNT say it outloud, that the reason for it being inside ( ), its to show that's what he was thinking about during the talk.
Sad thing about the older games is that they look terrible on modern monitors, they actually do still look gorgeous on CRT monitors which they were designed to run on.
you should play Final Fantasy Type 0,it's probably my favourite because of it's story, it's of course confusing because of the Mythos thingy. I had to youtube it and look for explanation. but the ending made me cry. It's fast phased battle system not typical FF turn-based, even though I love turned base, Type 0 combat system is enjoyable.
I love Final Fantasy to death. Been playing these games for almost 30 years now -- one of the best series ever for sure. But now, looking in retrospect... I believe there are just a few really good games. Maybe only VI, VII, IX and XVI... I'm maybe willing to include IV too. And yeah, I fucking love XVI.
I'll admit one thing. When VIII first came out, I loved it to a degree, but Rinoa started to annoy the crap out of me for some reason midway through disc 2. Then the internet started to become more accessible to more people, abd I started hanging on forums and saw that a lot of people hated this game, so I kinda jumped on the hate train too for a while. But the setting and the majority of the characters still piqued my interest. After a few years, I revisited this game, more mature than I was before, and saw this game with different eyes. Sure there are some glaring plot holes at times. They have nuggets of fantastic world building scattered around the story, like the whole thing about Adel's mind contaminating radio waves after being contained and sent to space, or the one about Guardian Forces affecting the memories of people they are junctioned with. They fumbled with some of these nuggets, dropped others, but some did flourish into some good bits of storytelling. Squall's journey from brooding loner to learning to trust others to becoming the leader that Balamb Garden's forces needed was great. Plus, the game gave us Triple Triad and that military-style soundtrack that is dear to my heart as an ex-drum corps kid. Rinoa still annoys the crap out of me, but I've developed more live for this game over all over the years. It's become one of the top five Final Fantasy games I've replayed the most. Final Fantasy VIII is a hot mess, but it's my emotional support hot mess.
Ive also just remembered “oh right were all orphans together”. Awful🤣 And the best bit “hey remember how monsters come from the moon and its every century and thats tomorrow?? Squall: What???”” Amazingly bad
To be fair, what could people realistically do if they had the same dream 🤔 after 3 times though, it'd be really concerning. The orphanage scene is unbelievably awful, I completely agree. Definitely brought this game's score drastically lower for me.
The irony of people like you shitting on this game, whining about bad writing like some English major elitist while simultaneously referencing Kingdom Hearts constantly and presumably enjoying that mess of a game is .. hilarious.
This game looks and sounds fantastic, but DAMN do I wish it didn't have the Junction system. It just confused the hell outta me and made me drop it around that Laguna bit near the beginning.
Just keep it simple. When using junction, the best value comes from magic that effects its stat. For example: Putting cure on hp will give the best return because cure is used to heal and return hp. Keep that in mind and don't give gfs with opposing elements to the same person, the gfs become jealous and their compatibility will be compromised. Also using the magic element of the equipped gf will cause it to bond quicker, like casting ice with Shiva equipped. Give it another try.
Wikipedia sums 8 up the best FF7: "Lauded as one of the greatest games of all time" FF8: "Well received by critics..." FF9: "Lauded as one of the greatest games of all time"
I remember the guy that got me into Final Fantasy, my babysitter put me on VIII after I'd played VII a few times, I would have been about nine. I remember him saying the plot is as if a 5 year old made up a story as it went along, I didn't think too much of it at the time. I have played it so many times (not in the last 7 - 8 years) and watching you play it is hysterical because this is ridiculous. I always loved FF8 for the Junction system though because I'm a micromanagement whore. This is fucking hilarious! It's 'The 4th Ward' but just an entire game of it. I can't stop laughing.
I just subscribed bc your play throughs are so good. I love this game, but totally understand people not liking it. The story is the weakest part of the game, but the junction system is amazing.
FFVIII is great for two things. The final dungeon being one of the coolest, most unique final dungeons I've ever played. Having to slowly get back all your abilities by offing increasingly difficult bosses (and oh yeah how about that Omega Weapon fight?). The 2nd: Triple Triad. It's amazing that they managed to wrap a halfway decent jrpg around this spectacular card game.
All these characters becoming seeds to fight the sorceress is not a coincidence that they grew up with each other at edeas orphanage, it's BECAUSE they grew up with each other at edeas orphanage.
Then don’t treat it as a super secret reveal, you can’t have both, that’s bad writing. It also contributed nothing to the plot other than to act as a super secret reveal, that’s it’s sole purpose.
@@ItsLazBoi I don't agree at all, it's incredibly straight forward and the game TELEGRAPHS that GFs make people forgot things as far back as the literal beginning of the game when it introduces GFs as a concept. It doesn't come at of nowhere. As for it "adding nothing" I completely disagree as well. It plays into the games theme of fate and how they were all fated to meet and they were all fated to fight Ulticima. They were all separated but came together again because of fate, it's also due to popular japanese tropes of childhood friends forgetting each other then having a fated meeting later in life. One thing I'll give you is that's dumb that Irvine just stands there and says nothing when all of his memories are intact. People like to pick on 8 but honestly it's a lot of nitpicking while the other games with plenty of worse stuff get a free pass.
You've summarized perfectly why I don't like ff8. Also, every character sucks here. No background story for 90% of them, not like in 7 and 9. My favorites are definitely 7, 9 and 10. Not sure why 10 is looked down upon, but can't wait to hear your thoughts.
FFVIII is one of the ones that got more backlash, and certainly the least popular of the three ps1 era Fial Fantasy games. Still it is my mum's favourite and the only one she'll ever play. Probally helped that we had the guide book (we had them for all the ps1 and most of the ps2 games, interestingly ffviii guide book isone of the ones we still have, due to being mum's my brother was never aloud to sell itwhen he sold his ps1 and games back in highschool) But still the game does explain it a bit, and once you do learn how the junction system works, FFVIII is actually fun to play, the story is still fun, I enjoyed how monsters you fight scaled with your level so you couldn't over or under level for something, and some of stuff you learn and unravel overtime adds some interesting things to think about. Plus this one is the one with Triple Triad, my fav mini-game from any of the titles, that alone is enough for it to be remembered fondly. It also has some of my favourite summon animations from the final fantasy games
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Looking forward to see you react to FFIX. It is my favorite Final Fantasy of all time.
I have to argue that FF8's storyline is no less stupid and contrived than FF7R's. Don't know why they couldn't leave FF7s story alone and just make it look a little better, maybe add a few cute side areas(and not filler bullshit like taking 30 mins to move cranes..wtf?) I feel like 7R's grand plan is to give us a way to save Aerith....which is so far beyond the fucking point of what fans would want....ugh!
@@lanmandragoran8337 Their ego is too great. Instead of respecting the work of Hironobu Sakaguchi, which quit Square after Final Fantasy 10, they wanted to replace his legacy with silly anime tropes.
thank god you didn't like it. This game's plot is an absolute piece of shit. Don't worry FFIX is much better
hello, i love your content, question, when do you plan to play Final Fantasy 9?
"you're all dumb" this is why you dont make teenagers special forces
Eyes on me: written by Rinoa's mother about Squall's father.
Ellone wasn't actually anybody's sister. she's technically Squall's adopted sister (because she's Laguna's adopted daughter) but that's it. everyone else just calls her "sis" because she was like a sister to them, but it's not literal.
Not even technically Squall’s adoptive sister, but ACTUALLY Squall’s adoptive sister. Ellone being adopted by Raine makes her Raine’s daughter, and via marriage Laguna’s daughter and Squall’s sister. But yeah she doesn’t have any familial relationship to anyone else in the story other than being close with them and being seen as family.
@@A_T88 yes, because matron, or as she is called in japanese, Mama-Sensei Edea was a mother figure to all the children she orphaned
Damn man, those were the days. As weird and convoluted VIII was, I'd give anything to go back to the magic I felt as a young boy when booting this one. The Lunatic Pandora is still engraved in my brain to this day somehow.
Yup yup - I got a playstation 1 and Final Fantasy 8 along with it for Christmas 1999- and this ending still kills me 24 years later - seeing Laguna as an older man, and then revert to a younger man and propose to Raine, and then go back to an older man makes me want to be a better husband to my wife.
It's explained badly, but the radio thing is due to Adel's tomb corrupting all satellite signals. If you look closely at TV screens before Deling's address (the bigger, the easier), you can see that they say BRINGMEBACK and IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETME.
That right there? That's something that could have been really cool to explore. Like, just imagine if one day, every radio and TV was broadcasting the insane ramblings of some superbeing. FF8 set up a lot of neat balls, and promptly dropped all of them.
this is my favourite game of all time you villain.
The GF brain demons thing is actually set up in the first few minutes of the game, but you have to actually use your school terminal and look up news to find out.
This also unlocks Quetzalcoatl and Shiva early. As for how they all end up together again, that was Edea too. She was responsible for the entire Garden/SeeD system, and did it specifically because of the time loop this game established.
FF8 isn't as bad as people say, but it does make some bad writing mistakes that are exclusive to games. There ARE some explanations in the game for weird things, but they're all hidden in obscure quests, out of the way side content, or your computer terminal in the classroom that you NEVER NEED TO ACCESS EVER.
The writing of the game makes this assumption that the player knows this information and dumps plot points and weird cultural things and terms on the player that seem to be pulled from the writer's asses half the time.
It's the same problem with FF13, but not nearly as bad. FF13 drops you in-media-res in a fantasy/sci-fi world with zero explanation and tosses weird terms and cultural mores at you in the first hour that made zero logical sense unless you spent 45 minutes reading the game's log and dictionary as soon as you got control.
I guess you are right though I checked my terminal regularly because it had information on it and you are hinted that it updates because Selphie tells you through her interest in the festival that the information is on there.... it's subtle, but people often forget that tidbit of information. The only few things I found a real hole is the monsters dropping from the moon, and the fact Irvine gives absolutely no hint that he knows anything....for example the sniper scene didn't hint at it, and even though he knew the prison scene he tries to only rescue Rinoa, and shows no interest to rescue his fellow orphans though he claims to have a connection to Selphie....
They could have dropped some subtle hints there instead of just dropping it out of the sky...
@@jondoe8014 The moon monsters thing is actually set up pretty early. You know those magazines like Occult Fan you keep finding? They have information about the Moon Monsters. There's also details about how the south-eastern continent was ruined by a Lunar Cry and the machine that caused it (the Lunatic Pandora) is being excavated by Esthar soldiers in the second Laguna flashback, that's why the dungeon is turned on its side in the past.
Esthar didn't invent the Lunar Cry, it's a natural event that happens every several thousand years when too many monsters are on the moon, and it's usually a devastating continental extinction-level event. The Centra people developed the Lunatic Pandora for some reason, and when they used it, it destroyed the entire southern continent.
@@Null_Experis
I get that much I'm speaking more on the mechanics of it to make it not so ridiculous to a logical brain though that is really just a minor detail considering it's a fantasy game. I just can't wrap my head around monsters dropping from the moon.
@@jondoe8014 According to the FF8 Ultimania, it's a natural occurrence of gravity. When a large enough mass of monsters congregates on the moon and it becomes massive enough to pull them to the planet's surface on a close pass-by. The Lunatic Pandora just induces it artificially through gravity manipulation.
@@Null_Experis
And where in the game did you learn that?
While FF8 has a special place in my heart, there's no denying that the story has a lot of issues. I have played FF8 so many times, and even then I do notice things that I haven't noticed before. One thing over the years that I have noticed is, if you come from an anime background, specially watching slice of life, isekais, sci-fi fantasy animes, this game will not look that weird, you can actually see that it is structured almost like your average anime. For those who might have doubts, watch an anime called Qualidea Code, it will sort of remind you of FF8 (not quite, but have some similarities). It does have contrived things, that mostly shows, and if you put attention, you notice that some of the issues in FF8 are also present in Kingdom Hearts (all games), Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which curiously share a lot of the same people involvement (Kitase, Nomura and Hashimoto, with a sparke of Motomu Toriyama). When someone asks me if FF8 is good, I always answer with "It's ok, it's not perfect, it has its moments, but the first time you play it, you're not going to like it" and curiously, I have known lots of people who actually don't like the game the first time they play it, but start to like it the second time they do.
Now that you have played all FFs from 1 to 8, playing FF9 will really be a good experience for you, you'll get a lot of references in that game, it is a return to more traditional Final Fantasies...tough, I'm not sure how will you react to the story, it has its ups and downs. I'm not particularly fond of FF9 overall story, but I do really like the story of some characters.
I dont come from an anime background , and have always loved FF8. I still feel like 7 gets a lot more credit than it deserves, "angsty teen commits identity fraud" just doesn't hit the same.
That's unfortunate.
There's no way I am replaying a 30+ hour game that I didn't like on the off chance that the second go will be more enjoyable.
have seen a few anime/manga plot summaries on youtube, enough to recognize some of the cliches, and yep, some of them reminded me of FF8. The Secret Area, the Garden Festival, even the Discipline Committee, all make a lot more sense in light of the Trope boxes I now recognize they're ticking.
The whole radio thing was because they were being blocked by Adel's prison. There is an optional FMV that shows how the Ragnarok ended up lost in space; two ships were used as rockets to carry Adel's cell into space, they were had no crew so they just drifted there.
Is it not four? I haven't played it in years... Also, I'M NOT HAVING ANYONE TALK ABOUT ME IN THE PAST TENSE! Obviously I can but nobody else.
About the ring. I think it's more a very young teenager thing, like when you are 14 and you fancy a guy and you are too shy to ask for something that belongs to him and so you ask a friend to ask for that thing instead... but you are very embarassed, and you say 'pleas don't tell him it's for meeee' xD I don't know, that remind me of that feeling, very young and childish crush.
Triple Triad is hands down the best thing about FF8. I always loved grinding before the Ifrit Cave to get all the refining abilities I can and play TF out of triple triad so I have dope ass cards to turn into dope ass magic to junction. Getting to the level of being able to beat the spider mech at the satellite tower is next level.
I've always said that FF8 is a card game trapped in an RPG lmao
Fun fact, FFVIII was the first and only FF of the first 9 that Sakaguchi had nothing to do with and he let Kitase/Nojima/Nomura have fully free reigns on. And, in an interview, he later expressed regret at giving them that once he saw the final product lol.
Source for this? I've never heard this before
@@vanilla7981
Somewhat hard to break down:
1. The fact that he wasn't involved with FFVIII much at all is iterated in numerous places, but most of these are translated Famitsu pieces, though you can find them fairly readily by looking up interviews pertaining to FFVIII, FFIX and The Spirits Within.
Sakaguchi was working on IX and TSW during FFVIII's production and so could not partake actively in its production. If you want sources for this, I'm not sure if the URLs will go through in the comments, but I'm willing to share them through other means if you want them.
2. As for his feelings on VIII, they've been expressed in an EDGE magazine release from years back(I have scans though), and in his conversations with Kitase over at Famitsu when they did their retrospective playthrough of FFVI.
It's not a very drastic statement, to be fair, and was partly made in good-faith jest. He wasn't saying he thinks FFVIII is bad or anything, but rather that he felt the trio might have gone a bit too far in places he wouldn't have.
For example, he was not a fan of them stepping away from deformed character designs nor the idea of making it a kind of high-school drama centered around young characters.
From the opening game, it feels different. the quality of the game experience that is given are less fun. Try compare with opening of FF VII Is impossible.
@@9rey90r1
It's structured very different from Sakaguchi-lead titles for sure.
Every game he has control over tends to send players into battle by the first 5 minutes top. This is reflected in all his titles as far as I know, even after he quit SE.
@@hian that's right. because during the opening game on Lost Oddysey(another Sakaguchi game) the gameplay immediately starts instead of a long tutorial.... I miss that game.
I used to HATE FF8’s battle system so much. But after learning it and finding out how broken you can be early on if done properly I grew to love it, became one of my most fave battle systems ever
junction is amazing. the only sad part is how it kinda makes magic casting a bad choice. but summoning is so op for 90% of the game that you never really have to use magic for anything.
No one who likes Kingdom Hearts can complain about a convoluted plot without being rather hypocritical.
I say this as a fan of Kingdom Hearts.
KH isn’t contrived though, it’s complex for sure, there’s lots of layers, but it’s not convoluted. If you follow everything, it remains consistent with its own internal logic which is a pretty magnificent feat. FF8 is just contrivance after contrivance with little meaning or cohesive theming in my opinion 🤷🏻♂️
@@ItsLazBoi The definition of convoluted is "Extremely complex and difficult to follow"
Even if you play all the games you can still get lost, a *lot* of people do. Some don't, but that doesn't mean it isn't convoluted at all.
Some people have to go over it multiple times, or have it explained to them by someone well versed in the lore.
I've watched many people play Kingdom Hearts, correctly, and still get lost and confused.
I can understand someone getting lost in FF8, but I myself understood it at seventeen. *Shrug*
But I wouldn't say that just because you don't understand something makes it bad, may just not be your cup of tea.
But trash talking it throws all conversation in lines of decency out the window.
Why do I get the feeling that this games story is an example on how FF7R is gonna go down?
Probably because you're a negative Nancy and/or a FF9 fan
You pretty much nailed it; Sephiroth’s new ‘reunion’ in Rebirth is literally time compression
They’re going to Ultimecia this situation.
Well... having in mind that in the process and development in the beginning of FF7, they gave the idea of playing in different periods of time with Father and Son, and the addition of time-travel.
Is possible that they have taken some themes and things.
This game simultaneously has the most lazy plot point (EvErYoNe HaS AmNeSiA) and one of the most subtle plot points with Squall’s parents that I actually didn’t even put the pieces together until I’d played the game multiple times.
I suggest playing the OG at some point. My biggest gripe with remaster was no vibration. OG when you used Squalls gun blade the controller vibrates, all the GFs had their own vibration, cut scenes had vibration. So many situations had vibration that immersed you. Like when you’re running from the robot in dollet the controller would vibrate when he was chasing you.
I always took the whole ring thing as, she just started liking him and was embarrassed about it. So she got Zell to get it for him. Even when I played this when it first came out, that seemed pretty obvious. Still a super contrived story though. It either needed to be more streamlined or made longer to properly utilized the things they did establish.
But during a full scale military battle 😂
@@andreseh87 Hey, they could die at any moment. Better then, than after they’re dead I suppose. Lol
"I'm an old man" "I was 18 so I wasn't young" "I'm too old for that"
You are a baby. A little child baby.
I think the reason the guys end up together again is because after cid made the garden he brought all the orphans with him since Edea wasn't in the orphanage anymore.
Also you calling Squall an incel got a chuckle out of me 😂.
I agree that ffviii isnt great in hindsight but my god i love socially inept Squall and Laguna so much 😭
So happy you continued the main series. I was checking by chance after a long time if you ever did FF8 or 9, and I see I'm lucky since it's been just 12 days.
For the record that thing some of your viewers mentioned about not liking FFVIII if didn't like Crisis Core is weird: I disliked Crisis Core, but I liked FF8 (though less than FF6/7/9). Anyway, I think you'll like FF9.
EDIT: the radio antenna in the beginning actually has an utility in the story (though very trivial): it was so that the Galbadian president could broadcast to the entire world. I think they explain it shortly after the mission, or during the time in Timber.
Can’t wait for the 9 playthrough. Story is one of the best for me.
Till this day I feel like FF8 feels like a damn acid trip from beginning to the end 😆
I agree. It was a bit confusing and the story just did not move me.
There was a very old copypasta about how the main 4 devs of FFVIII came up up with the plot while being locked in an office over a long weekend and there was a gas leak in the vents. It eventually boiled down to;
Nojima: "Kitase...what about...T I M E C O M P R E S S I O N"
Kitase: "Yeah dude"
This was one of my favorite games when it came out and I was in middle school. Watching you react to some of the looser plot devices has me cracking the hell up. I didn't question it when I was twelve, but some of these plot beats really are silly 😂 I'm sure some of it is weak localization, but, oh man. You reacting to the ring thing and all of the possession silliness is pure comedy.
Honestly I will never EVER agree with anyone that says this one's story is convoluted or doesn't make sense. It's incredibly straightforward, surprisingly so with how time travel shenanigans are involved. Honestly a super underrated game, better story than the majority of mainline entries. Junction system is the one thing I think needs an overhaul but it still has a lot of cool things you can do to break the game. Leveling also needs a tweak.
It's not convoluted, or complicated. It's contrived, unbelievably silly and poorly written.
@@ItsLazBoi well said
Personally my fav because it was the first of the series i really dive in and explore every inch of it. Perfect card game that i could play for HOURS. Yes it had weird menu/junction system but if
you understand it its the most easy and broken of all. Great story but halfway it get bad thats because they was hurry to finish it in only 1 year
To me, the way they delivered the backstory of the plot with Irvine in a way that barely tried to make sense in of itself is what kills it. For instance, it makes sense that kids in an orphanage run by a married couple would be eventually put into a military youth program that was created by said couple. But the script paints it as some sort of fateful "coincidence". Even when the plot can make sense, they don't let it make sense. The GF drawback was an asspull that could have easily been rectified if there were similar drawbacks introduced earlier, hinting at it. Doing so in strategic places would also make the selective forgetfulness easier to understand.
But the big problem for me with this game was Squall having to suffer his band of idiots and be gaslit into an awful romance. Squall was a victim of weaponized incompetence by his headmaster, and absolute stupidity on the parts of his party. Between that, the Quistis apology attempt, Squall's Ring debacle, and most things to do with Rinoa, this FF is one of the few where the plot points upset me, and where the fundamental message regarding the protagonist's feelings I actively disagree with. His turn into his "feelings" for Rinoa, whom as an introverted quiet person myself I really came to dislike, was where even kid-me just stopped playing. It wasn't gradual, it wasn't sensible, it had no merit, and it just didn't hit.
It’s a dumb story with mid characters but interesting ideas and cool set pieces.
Squall gets a lot of flack when he was basically only adult in the room.
jeez your analysis makes sense but even that is giving this trainwreck of a game too much credit. I still can't believe this piece of garbage was the F/u to 7. This was the first game I ever quite playing (96 hours in on disc 4) because I just stopped caring
Final fantasy 8 is one I have a bunch of mixed feelings on. It's very confusing in the menus, and the plot takes a dive halfway through. Still once you get your head through the complicated junction system it's actually pretty fun to use / break. Also some of my favorite set pieces are in this game that are still fun to play through to this day. I just wish they didn't kneecap the explorability of the world just before the end and make some really questionable story choices about the relationship between all of the characters. That said, we have 3 banger FF games in a row coming up in my opinion.
the plot is amazing the whole way, the only issue is it was clearly rushed at the end
@@Deport_All_nonWhitescome on man. The plot is nonsense 😂
First time playing this when it first came out and the Junction system was hella confusing at first
OK now that we're all older, does Junction still confuse you? It's really simple: equip a magic to an attribute to boost it. The end.
I've long said the first disc is the best 10 hours of FF ever. And then it's a downward spiral from there.
Disc 1 was great, had a few minor issues, but overall, really really strong, it's crazy how they just completely dropped the ball
disagree and some of your criticism made no sense. why didn't the ship run out of gas? it wasn't flying, it was floating in space. anyway, this is fantasy. you just wanted to attack just to attack and your continual tirades became a turn off. you look for a boogeyman you'll find one in any fantasy movie or game. that's your privilege but it got me annoyed so will stop watching your vids.@@ItsLazBoi
lmfao NO dude. THis whole game is crap. And if you were going to go for the best first 10 hours you would do Disc 1 of FF9 or the first 10 hours of FF4. Check your crazy plase
@@brucebc6518 FF8 is one of the shittiest jrpgs every made lmfao and your butthurt whining about him spitting truth would be amusing if it weren't so depressing for its reflection on humanity.
ALSO you do realize that spaceships need fuel right??? fuck lmfao that comment reveals how dumb you have to be to like this game
@@brucebc6518think you took this too seriously. Spoken like a true fanboy. I love FF8, but I’m aware it has its problems and know it’s not for everyone. I played this game when I was really young, 14 two years after it had come out. I loved the story then, but now as a 36 year old adult, replaying it and seeing how contrived the story is, I understand why a lot of people didn’t like it. I still really enjoy this game personally and love the junction system, but I’m not gonna be upset if someone doesn’t have the same sentiment.
Dude James completely understand your take on this game. The issues with the story is that almost all of the information that builds out the world to create more of an understanding is literally behind the “information section” in the menu. And it’s really a shame that instead of letting the gamer actually play and experience either actions or dialogue explaining and expanding things out, that instead they put it all behind a text wall that almost every 1st time gamer doing a blind play through will miss because nobody wants to read about things that aren’t happening or will be shown in the game. And that’s not even taking into consideration the Japanese culture implications on how they deal with relationships and how they handle romance. You’d have to already understand Japanese culture already for the love story to seem natural and not just weird and random.
Reading in the information section would establish that the world was basically torn apart by war thanks to Sorceress Adel and Esthar leading many children to be orphaned and that there aren’t many thriving cities anymore. There is an explanation on magic, GFs, and the sorceress and how they’re all connected and where they come from. It explains the blocking of radio waves due to sorceress Adel’s tomb. AND then on top of that, you have to pick up and go to all these optional places to really get ALL of the information. It’s like you only actually play half a game with how much is just there in text and having to read all of the stuff that makes the world feel fleshed out, full, and the story make sense.
That said, FF8 is still my favorite FF game. And if all of the stuff that was in game behind text was actually apart of gameplay, I think FF8 would make a really fantastic remake. Anyway, sorry for text wall. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
FF8 isn't my favourite (that will probably always be XIV, even after I finish all the FF games) but it definitely is up there as one of my favourites so far
I definitely think that with a lot of polish and clean up this could be a great game.
Clean up such as making the key parts of lore actually integrated into the game instead of text logs. Having more human conversations and actions and less exposition to make the characters and their development more fleshed out. In exchange you could cut the things that go nowhere and were just in there to make everyone connected (which I think is always a bad idea since it is not only contrived but also makes the world feel smaller). Most of Laguna's bits are less world building and more character building that isn't really necessary for the plot to function and doesn't really fit in thematically. We didn't need to play him but eh.
The orphanage scenes outside of Squall's background could also go. It's not like there is much other back story for any of the rest of the team anyway and it isn't very plot relevant. In fact it doesn't really even give anyone character development except for Edea way too late for us to even care about her because she's not a character for the rest of the game going forward. You could also cut down or re purpose some of the stuff in Timber. Still introduce Rinoa but get some stuff in about the Lunar Cry or GF memory issues if you absolutely want to keep that.
There's an information density loss when translating from Japanese to English. But I do find it hard to believe that normal Japanese relationships are supposed to have the woman persistently pursuing in the face of clear rejection. That part seems more like the "Just need a good woman to fix this guy's emotional issues" trope. I do see a lot of attempted inner monolog based development of Squall actually pondering his "make it on my own" strategy. But his arc seemed a bit disjointed and rushed along with everything else at the end of the game.
The pacing would be something else I would clean up.
"Can we just find baby Ultemecia and gut her?"
Should I tell him?
1:06:27 I disagree here: it's very common in fantasy stories that the characters have more or less the same culture as the guy who's writing the story, and the same kind of social interactions. You just don't realize it when it's GoT and its very American characters. A Japanese game is bound to reflect how Japanese people think.
It's the same with historical movies: the characters never really reflect the time period depicted, but "us". A medieval movie made in the 80s will reflect how people were in the 80s more than how they were during medieval times, probably because otherwise we wouldn't understand most of the social interactions (and because it would be very difficult). Regarding fantasy worlds, it's very rare that someone creates a whole original culture. Even LotR, despite how Tokien tried to create totally different cultures, reflects in some ways, through its characters, England during the early 20th century (the books, not the adaptations, for example Ring of Power totally has characters that think like 2023 Americans).
In a nutshell, it's very common for imaginary worlds to remain very close to the culture of the guy that created it. Especially in terms of dialogues.
That still doesn't solve the problem of Squall not being the one to share it with her and thus it coming off as creepy stalker behavior instead of sentimental value.
In fact I think it makes it worse. If Rinna just wanted a cool keepsake to remind her of Squall it's a little silly of her not to ask him directly but teenagers and what not. But with rings sharing being something that is sentimental she's secretly having Zell make a sign that says "Squall asked me to be his girlfriend" so everyone will look and think they are in a relationship.
Squall didn't consent to it. If se respected him she could have just had a pair of matching rings of her own made not based off of his and given him one.
At best it comes off as "hey I died my hair the same color as you. Or bought the same clothes." Which can be sweet in a teenage way but then again neither of those involve taking something under false pretenses.
What did you think of the general look and style of the game it's probably my favourite but I agree not my favourite FF story
I want to say that I quite enjoyed watching your reactions to FF8.
FF8 was my second FF game (after 7), and it holds a ... complex place in my heart.
Or, to put it another way, FF8 reminds me of the box of my childhood Legos I dug out of the basement recently. It's a huge mess, it smells of mildew, but if you dig a bit, there's some great stuff in there.
Seems like you got through the game quicker than expected… which makes me wonder how much of the side stuff you did?
Cos there’s also some lore that might have been ironed out.
The communications tower part was part of Galbadia’s plot to televise the Sorceress’s inauguration and the Presidential announcement that was subverted when Seifer stormed the TV station and tried to unalive the President in Timber and was kidnapped by Edea.
All the “just so happens” stuff with the orphanage, and edea being Matron and Cid being her husband makes sense that the 6 kids you raised together would be the soldiers that you train to “defeat her” if you’re trying to bring her out of her possessed state, she knew Siefer was one of her kids- that’s why he wasn’t actually executed… Martine made that up to make sure that Squall’s group woul actually want revenge and try to kill Edea- which wasn’t Cid’s plan when he and Edea first built their Garden to stop Edea if she comes under Ultimecia’s control.
When Edea shafts Squall with the ice spear you noticed there’s a look of recognition on Edea’s face, but she’s not in control of herself… she only gets freed from Ultimecia’s possession when Edea is so close to death that she jumps into Rinoa’s body- but Rinoa didn’t accept the powers consensually.
Edea in the ending scene as Matron- willingly takes that L so that power won’t jump to Ellone and give Ultimecia control over time-
But the sorceress Adel carrying Ultimecia’s will (by junctioning Rinoa onto her chest) may have inadvertently handed over the time power to Ultimecia anyway cos Ellone uses Time Compression to fold past present and future into one singularity so she can trap Ultimecia in the Past, but once Ultimecia is defeated time starts to re-expand (nobody to hold the time door open) and squall ends up on the wrong side of it- telling Matron it’s her destiny to make Garden and train SeeD to defeat the Sorceress.
Then when Squall tries to find the future his friends are in he can’t, and ends up stuck on a rock and can’t even remember Rinoa’s face… which they tried to show with the visually glitching out memories.
Squall doesn’t come back to the fiture cos he’s so focused on the past and can’t remember his friends cos he wasn’t all that focused on them.
The 2 mistakes that ruin people's opinion of this game is that half the story is in the desk console in garden no one ever goes back too organicly, and that the junction system removes items and the need to dungeon crawl for equipment but you don't understand how easy junctioning is until your 2nd or 3rd playthrough. I loved this story way more than 7 but I have to accept this is the most disliked of the series
your thoughts on FF8 were the same as mine.. the game itself is ok, but when held up vs other final fantasies it goes right to the bottom. just be happy you have FF9 and FF X next, great games..
9 isn't great, either. It's more about form than function. It suffers from the same crap final boss problem as 8, and a completely unintelligible plot that thinks it's far more clever than it is.
I actually love FF8, but you have to remember they're all moody teenagers who are just doing their job, not some people who've agreed to save the planet or what the fuck ever. They didn't volunteer for their world to be thrown into nonsense, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, pretty much all the way through. Also, long term memory problems of their childhood, I feel like the characters act exactly like moody teenagers being forced to do insane bullshit would. Selfish and annoyed, etc. but slowly grow into adulthood over the course of the game, and really get into the "whelp, nobody else is going to fix this bullshit, guess its up to me then" attitude for the last half of the game. You have to remember that Rinoa became a sorceress just because she was the closest available vessel to Edea at the time, so Ultemecia possessed her. She was just a bratty kid before that trying to piss off her dad. Squall just a loner with abandonment issues from losing his sister without explanation. I wish they'd have worked more on the storylines less main characters. Even Irvine, who you stay pissed at for being a coward...if you think back on it...he was shooting, for all intents and purposes...his mother...and he KNEW it. Nobody else did. But its revealed SO much later that you almost don't fucking connect it, and thats the only 2 plotpoints in the ENTIRE GAME that really involve him. It could've been better, but they put too much into cutscenes and not enough into storyline. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the cutscenes, but they could've gone a little harder on fleshing some story out. Got 7 and 8 and PS1 all at the same time when i was 11, didn't start playing 8 til i beat 7...and i mean every part of 7....so I didn't start 8 til I was 13 or so, battle system was fine as long as you play with the GFs a bit and figure out what everything means early, the rest of the entire game makes perfect sense. I just hate how many GFs i missed drawing my first couple playthroughs lmfao.
Forgot to say: Orphange shit is...kinda stupid, I'm unclear what the point of having it happen that way was. Everything could've been normal without that.
@@thembill8246 FF9 final boss suffers from a lack of proper buildup and some emotional disconnect as a result. No one will argue that. But I think it’s thematically brilliant and ties in with the emotional core of the game and the series. It’s the pinnacle of these aspects and I feel like that emotional disconnect can be a little too strong for people to see past it and marvel at its poetic beauty. To each their own though
FF8 is my all time favorite final fantasy. Always the black sheep, always tons of hate from weirdos. There's plenty of flaws present in the game, but there's plenty of flaws in every game. The sound track and character cast are top tier, Squall is a total savage that ranks very highly on the list of FF characters that just gets shit done! And his and Rinoa's romance will always be my favorite as well.
the hate isn't from weirdos it's from anyone with common sense
@@StewNWT thx for solidifying his point I guess.
@@PencilsandPaper if you barge into the comments saying everybody who doesn't like something is a weirdo, expect some pushback
@@PencilsandPaper😂 Facts.
My biggest gripe as someone who’s favorite game in FF8 is that the characters arcs aren’t meaningful enough and often short super short. Basically the development of each character is so small and so quick that the characters who aren’t Squall lose meaning.
Bro junction is just an equip menu why does everyone act like it's so complicated
I found the menu to be probably the easiest to manoeuvre apart from FF9. 8 is the easiest by far to OP your crew early though and the item menu is quite deep and well done IMO and I can do without magic anyway so the junction system doesn't give me much issue apart from the time it takes
I love squall, squall is like SAVAGE in the dialogue! LOL
enjoyed the OG FF7 playthrough, the constant moaning about plot in this one was unbearable though.
You likely enjoyed my time with FF7 because it was honest and real enjoyment. I did not enjoy FF8, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend I did, this is still my honest experience with FF8. I think it sucks, lots of elements irked me and I voice those across the playthrough. I'm sure you have felt similarly about pieces of media that you personally do not like and have likely complained about those to friends, or at least just thought it to yourself, this really is no different, I just post it online for people to watch if they want. Please try to have some amount of understanding, my dislike for FF8 is not personal, I just think it's bad and try to voice that in a video that is literally based around my initial reactions to things, positive or negative.
4:25 To your point of playing these when you were younger. I was 10 when I first played FF7 (as well as never having played an RPG). I got all the way to Cosmo Canyon using just the buster sword as I didn’t realise those “weapons” I had collected needed to be equipped 😂😂. Looking back it’s not a bad achievement 😅
Aw man! I love this card game.
The JRPG mini game attached to it is pretty alright too, I guess.
I cant wait for your FFIX video!
My FF experience was a strange journey. I played part 1 as a kid. Then played part 6 (which was labeled as part 3 in the US) and loved it. In college a roommate of mine had part VII and I loved that as well. Now here's where I had a huge let down.
So I thought that there were 3 more games, because I had played part 3, then part 7. I didn't know part 3 was really the one before 7. So I was disappointed to find out that, no, there were no games between. But then part 8 came out, so I grabbed that immediately, and could not stand it.
I didn't play part 9 until much later, and I remember really liking it, and thinking it was a good move to go back to a more traditional feel.
On the plus side, now you get to play Final Fantasy IX, one of the legitimately best games in the franchise that is loved by both fans and critics.
🤣🤣🤣
23:17 why? Cause she had no leadership qualities. It is literally stated when she and squall were talking about being a failed instructor lol
Seems like he totally missed that Laguna is Squalls father, and Ellone is legitimately his half- sister.
No I got it, I just didn’t include it in the video because I didn’t have much to say, it doesn’t really ultimately mean anything for the story or the characters it’s just a missable piece of dialogue.
At least now you understand why ff7 was so beloved for so many decades. No other ff really came close to the intricacies of ff7's multiple stories overlapping and weaving so well within eachother (at least compared to VIII). The later games are definitely still worth playing though.
I don't agree at all. FFVII is good but don't oversell it's story like that compared to the others. It's remembered more because it's the first major 3D one.
X is arguably as good if not better
@@Ziggaton agreed ff7 is a simple well told story, ff8 is far more intricate and risky story prob why it is so polarising. For me if i had to choose an ff game, 8 is the one, its just more fun than the others, altho i think 7 is the slightly superior game overall.
@@wiseguy240Winston X is way better than 7. 7 is great but 10 is just that much better. There is not only story but the world building is far more intricate.
Let's not forget the hidden GOAT of the series though, FF Tactics
@@Trollamollex No way... X is the most overrated one. VII has a more epic story, better characters plus way more charm. Also no boring Blitzball.
This is so good, new sub :-)
I know the story of 8 was all over the place but a big portion of Laguna was taken out. Originally the game was supposed to be half squall and half Laguna. There was even a world map for Laguna and most of the Laguna section was finished but taken out later. Idr the exact reason for this but maybe to shorten the game? Regardless, a lot of stuff from the past and Adele was all for Laguna but sort of thrown in for squall after the fact. And lastly, they wanted to have a light tone setting, hence the school, since all FFs before this were dark. But they failed to take into account that Japan does things differently from a lot of places in the world. So Rinoas ring section and why she keeps going after squall even after he rejects her or doesn't open up is all common in Japan. I think they overlooked a lot of stuff and got too ambitious with the freedom and aimed too big and it just didn't stick the landing they hoped for. I still enjoy it for many reasons but it's not perfect.
The ring thing made sense to me, for some reason. Especially when Zell says "Oh."
Was a clear indicator to me that she wanted a copy of his ring because she has feelings for him, and wanted to have it so she could feel close to him.
If they had decided to keep the Laguna sections that were plot relevant like things to do with Adel or even havr us playing as Ward for the prison thing it could have been much better. What they decided to keep was largely pointless. You can build character and backstop at the same time. Heck the segment in Winhill in Elonne's childhood was sweet and at least sets up why she would be doing what she is doing. But the Julia section and the quarry section were just long and largely pointless time sinks that could have been shortened. You could have started out in the bar and gone to the quarry and off the cliff all in one session, then had an entire session to do something more to set up all the crazy stuff at the end of the game.
Lmao. Regardless of how you felt about one of my favorites, I'm glad you had fun. Might not be a top tier story, but it's OST and gameplay be hittin. I'm so excited for you to make it to 10, it's regarded as one of the best in the series from alot of people, and is often the most suggested one for people to start at.
Because of how this game is basically a time loop, if Kitase wanted to tackle the “squall dies” theory (he said he wouldn’t tackle “Rinoa/Ultimecia” EVEN THO THERE IS SO MUCH THAT CAN BE USED HERE) it would be perfect if Disc 1 was remade the same, with Edea being the final boss of Disc 1, but after that would be the best opportunity to do WHATEVER HE WANTS WITH THE STORY
signal boosting the heck outta this one 📈
Look into the lore of Ultimecia actually being Rinoa, and the whole ring thing as well as the conversation where Rinoa tells Squall that he should be the one to kill her if she loses control will all make so much more sense and really should have been written into the story better... perhaps it was intended for a sequel that never happened???...
Yeah that would’ve been incredible of Ultimicia was canonically Rinoa. That would’ve been awesome.
all the hints are there actually.@@andreseh87
This is probably my favorite OST of the series but my least favorite of 6-12
GFs feed on memories, making the users forget things. It's so bad, most of the party forgot they grew up in the same orphanage together. Even Squall, who had abandonment issues does not remember why he has abandonment issues. Which leads to the ending.
All they had to do to get back to the present was remember. Squall got lost in time cuz he forgot both the flower garden he and Rhona promised to meet at AND forgot Rhona. He tried remembering all the times he's been with her but he couldn't remember even Rhona's face. Hence the space suit helmet's scattering. Squall imagined that in a desperate attempt to see Rhona's face but it's blacked out, blank like the rest of his memories of her. And so he is forever lost in time.
Or he would have been, if it wasn't for Rhona remembering him and having the power to find him.
Favourite game of all time.
Same
Fun fact Nomura always wanted Squall to have long hair, but Kitase wanted him to be model after one american actor at the time, so when Nomura started working on KH and he had full control he reused his old design for Squall with long hair in KH1.
Yeah I kinda figured you were not gonna like this one. For me there is alot of charm, cool stuff, art and vibes in this game that I like, but like you said it's just rushes through stuff, mostly due to rushed development of FF8, but I can't help, but love it even with it's problems.
I imagine you should like FF9. After 7 and 8 alot older fans were not too happy with modern day direction, and so for the last FF game on ps1 Kitase and the team went back to more high fantasy setting. It's a very beloved title and also the last FF game produced by Sakaguchi aside from 6,7, and 8 and the last game with Uematsu doing the full soundtrack for a FF game. Hope you like it.
Squall was modelled off River Phoenix iirc
Some of the story beats are not told but shown but because some of the story beats are told people tend to ignore the ones that are shown.
Another great show. Looking forward to the next. It has been over 20 years since I played FF8 but I do remember liking it when I was 15. Couldn't tell you what I would think of it now. I'd have to play it over again. Your critiques are sound from what I saw. Looking forward to FF9.
How did I miss this? FOR A MONTH?! I will rectify this now and watch including the VOD. I hope you get around to some spin-offs in the series as well. Tactics is a good one to do after the main series 👌
Edea, Raijin and Fujin were originally designs for FF7 but they couldn't find a way to actually fit them in the game and so they were reused for FF8
Maybe the story is not great but still, it is one of my favorite games just because I find it relaxing, just hanging out in places like Horizon, Winhill or Shumi Village and listening to its amazing OST 😍
I can't wait to see you get to FF15. Some people hate it, some people love it. I personally feel like it's an incomplete game, but I loved what we got in terms of gameplay and story, but there is much to be desired after you finish the story
I enjoyed FF15 but the gameplay was just to hold square and spam potions and the plot was barely finished
FF8 was written by a 15yo kid who took a two months crash course in literature and created a story with the most edgy things he could think about. Nothing makes sense, the characters are stupid for no reason BUT the music is great.
Hahaha this comment got me, pretty accurate
This game is such a weird, at times unenjoyable game and the first FF game that got weird, got shitty and just didn't do a good job on so many things. I bet you'll love 9 though
Check the Rinoa=Ultimecia theory. Recently Kitase backtracked on debunking it, he acknowledged that it might have been an idea that Nojima had in mind when he wrote the story. It ties in many loose ends and motives - such as Griever, as well as the weird "coincidences" - it's all a time loop.
That still debunks it though lmao. "it might have been an idea he has in mind when writing" but it still wasn't in the final project and isn't supported by any actual evidence from the game.
Also, it's all a time loop regardless; that was blatantly made clear by the story.
43:33 well technically he DIDNT say it outloud, that the reason for it being inside ( ), its to show that's what he was thinking about during the talk.
Sad thing about the older games is that they look terrible on modern monitors, they actually do still look gorgeous on CRT monitors which they were designed to run on.
the only offense i take as a ff8 fan is that there is no eyes on me scene in this video. thanks for playing though! glad you finished it :)
you should play Final Fantasy Type 0,it's probably my favourite because of it's story, it's of course confusing because of the Mythos thingy. I had to youtube it and look for explanation. but the ending made me cry.
It's fast phased battle system not typical FF turn-based, even though I love turned base, Type 0 combat system is enjoyable.
People who dislike FF 8 are also terrorists...while i am joking of course FF 8 is my #1 game in the series.
people who like FF8 are retarded
I love Final Fantasy to death. Been playing these games for almost 30 years now -- one of the best series ever for sure.
But now, looking in retrospect... I believe there are just a few really good games. Maybe only VI, VII, IX and XVI... I'm maybe willing to include IV too. And yeah, I fucking love XVI.
Let’s go! Such an iconic ending!
I'll admit one thing. When VIII first came out, I loved it to a degree, but Rinoa started to annoy the crap out of me for some reason midway through disc 2. Then the internet started to become more accessible to more people, abd I started hanging on forums and saw that a lot of people hated this game, so I kinda jumped on the hate train too for a while.
But the setting and the majority of the characters still piqued my interest. After a few years, I revisited this game, more mature than I was before, and saw this game with different eyes. Sure there are some glaring plot holes at times. They have nuggets of fantastic world building scattered around the story, like the whole thing about Adel's mind contaminating radio waves after being contained and sent to space, or the one about Guardian Forces affecting the memories of people they are junctioned with. They fumbled with some of these nuggets, dropped others, but some did flourish into some good bits of storytelling. Squall's journey from brooding loner to learning to trust others to becoming the leader that Balamb Garden's forces needed was great.
Plus, the game gave us Triple Triad and that military-style soundtrack that is dear to my heart as an ex-drum corps kid. Rinoa still annoys the crap out of me, but I've developed more live for this game over all over the years. It's become one of the top five Final Fantasy games I've replayed the most.
Final Fantasy VIII is a hot mess, but it's my emotional support hot mess.
Thank fuck we’re finally getting to 9 let’s goooooo
“That was weird……. Anyway….” Is my least favorite thing about this game.
Ive also just remembered “oh right were all orphans together”.
Awful🤣
And the best bit “hey remember how monsters come from the moon and its every century and thats tomorrow?? Squall: What???””
Amazingly bad
To be fair, what could people realistically do if they had the same dream 🤔 after 3 times though, it'd be really concerning.
The orphanage scene is unbelievably awful, I completely agree. Definitely brought this game's score drastically lower for me.
48:16 "Laguna's period." Man, I haven't laughed that hard in a while 😂😂😂
The irony of people like you shitting on this game, whining about bad writing like some English major elitist while simultaneously referencing Kingdom Hearts constantly and presumably enjoying that mess of a game is .. hilarious.
So, I’m in the minority, but I really love this game and love the Junction System so much.
Now THIS was my childhood. I've never ever played any other FF though 😂😂😂
One lesson I’ll say is Rinoa is possibly the best asset for any team setup. She can make the whole team invincible
Guess it makes up for her personality.
This game looks and sounds fantastic, but DAMN do I wish it didn't have the Junction system. It just confused the hell outta me and made me drop it around that Laguna bit near the beginning.
Just keep it simple. When using junction, the best value comes from magic that effects its stat. For example: Putting cure on hp will give the best return because cure is used to heal and return hp. Keep that in mind and don't give gfs with opposing elements to the same person, the gfs become jealous and their compatibility will be compromised. Also using the magic element of the equipped gf will cause it to bond quicker, like casting ice with Shiva equipped. Give it another try.
Wikipedia sums 8 up the best
FF7: "Lauded as one of the greatest games of all time"
FF8: "Well received by critics..."
FF9: "Lauded as one of the greatest games of all time"
I remember the guy that got me into Final Fantasy, my babysitter put me on VIII after I'd played VII a few times, I would have been about nine. I remember him saying the plot is as if a 5 year old made up a story as it went along, I didn't think too much of it at the time. I have played it so many times (not in the last 7 - 8 years) and watching you play it is hysterical because this is ridiculous. I always loved FF8 for the Junction system though because I'm a micromanagement whore. This is fucking hilarious! It's 'The 4th Ward' but just an entire game of it. I can't stop laughing.
Whenever Nomura is in charge of a story. Expect it to be contrived, not make any sense, and be overly complicated to not actually portray anything.
I just subscribed bc your play throughs are so good. I love this game, but totally understand people not liking it. The story is the weakest part of the game, but the junction system is amazing.
This one’s lower on my list of ff games I love. But still on there. It kinda looses the plot 2/3 through but still good 😂. Amazing music though
49:30 Because those are the oldest memories.
FFVIII is great for two things. The final dungeon being one of the coolest, most unique final dungeons I've ever played. Having to slowly get back all your abilities by offing increasingly difficult bosses (and oh yeah how about that Omega Weapon fight?). The 2nd: Triple Triad. It's amazing that they managed to wrap a halfway decent jrpg around this spectacular card game.
All these characters becoming seeds to fight the sorceress is not a coincidence that they grew up with each other at edeas orphanage, it's BECAUSE they grew up with each other at edeas orphanage.
Then don’t treat it as a super secret reveal, you can’t have both, that’s bad writing. It also contributed nothing to the plot other than to act as a super secret reveal, that’s it’s sole purpose.
@@ItsLazBoi I don't agree at all, it's incredibly straight forward and the game TELEGRAPHS that GFs make people forgot things as far back as the literal beginning of the game when it introduces GFs as a concept. It doesn't come at of nowhere. As for it "adding nothing" I completely disagree as well. It plays into the games theme of fate and how they were all fated to meet and they were all fated to fight Ulticima. They were all separated but came together again because of fate, it's also due to popular japanese tropes of childhood friends forgetting each other then having a fated meeting later in life. One thing I'll give you is that's dumb that Irvine just stands there and says nothing when all of his memories are intact. People like to pick on 8 but honestly it's a lot of nitpicking while the other games with plenty of worse stuff get a free pass.
You've summarized perfectly why I don't like ff8. Also, every character sucks here. No background story for 90% of them, not like in 7 and 9. My favorites are definitely 7, 9 and 10. Not sure why 10 is looked down upon, but can't wait to hear your thoughts.
has there ever been a jrpg character more forgettable than Irvine? yeesh
36:21 anyone else picture Strong Bad and Homestar Runner?
Fake delling fight is a lot easier if you heal him or use life on him. He is undead so it damages him
FFVIII is one of the ones that got more backlash, and certainly the least popular of the three ps1 era Fial Fantasy games.
Still it is my mum's favourite and the only one she'll ever play. Probally helped that we had the guide book (we had them for all the ps1 and most of the ps2 games, interestingly ffviii guide book isone of the ones we still have, due to being mum's my brother was never aloud to sell itwhen he sold his ps1 and games back in highschool)
But still the game does explain it a bit, and once you do learn how the junction system works, FFVIII is actually fun to play, the story is still fun, I enjoyed how monsters you fight scaled with your level so you couldn't over or under level for something, and some of stuff you learn and unravel overtime adds some interesting things to think about.
Plus this one is the one with Triple Triad, my fav mini-game from any of the titles, that alone is enough for it to be remembered fondly. It also has some of my favourite summon animations from the final fantasy games
'Tetsuya Nomura... NO NOT AGAIN'
My sentiments EXACTLY. God I can't stand him