The point about the game beeing too easy for it's fighting system wasn't really a thing when the game came out. We were kids and there was no internet. When I played it back then, I had to figure out everything by myself and I was happy to beat the game and it was a challenge really not only late game. I loved the game even if 7 and 9 are more dear to me for reasons. The story of 8 isn't my favorite but it's good enough to enjoy a few playthroughs. Imo the hate for the game now is just an internet thing, it's not a masterpiece but it is a good game with interesting mechanics.
You're spot on with players not really understanding just how broken the game was at the time it was released. My first playthrough wasn't that challenging, I figured out how to abuse limit breaks pretty quickly, but I didn't ever reach a point where I was able to trivialize every boss. Junctioning allows for plenty of experimentation when you go in blind, which is part of why I considered it my favorite game for a while. I hadn't seen anything else like it. But yes, the hatred the game has received over time is overblown. There's a lot to love here, especially in terms of how unique it remains to this day.
The internet existed. Most everyone went to Gamefaqs for info. People used the school library to print pages of strategy guides off there lol. I 100% remember the forums being ablaze with everyone disliking the gameplay and especially the story. It is not a new thing. VIII has been hated on since the beginning and it is not a new thing. That's why Square ran back to classic FF with FF9, "The Crystal Comes Back".
Exactly. Easy to talk about how it easy it is in the internet era. In 1998 most people didnt know how to use junctions. It was like playing a "no junction" challenge all the way lol
Why would you criticize Selphie being chosen to lead the second team over Quistis or Irvine? Quistis demonstrates her incompetence in the Galbadia mission by abandoning her post to APOLOGIZE to someone and Irvine withheld mission critical information and choked as a result. Selphie is the only left; her or Zell I suppose.
You know, when you put it that way, you can justify her as being the best of the worst. Plus Selphie wanted to just blow up Deling's train instead of going through the switcheroo mission, which would've been a much better plan.
@@RushHourWeekend It's rather surprising that she winds up as possibly the most competent member of the team after Squall. Then again, give the girl credit: she runs her own website and organizes the Garden's Festival Committee or whatever it is. So...
Zell failed opsec he told the galbadian president who they were and almost had them blown up. I thought these kids were trained since birth didn’t know they were this incompetent. Selfie ironically seems to be the only one out of the group that didn’t fuck up.
@@MrRed424 Zell was a fresh recruit so I'll give him a little leeway for slipping up like that. Quisits was an instructor and there is no indication Irvine was a rookie. And yeah, Selphie is kind of a surprise but like I said she does run that website and organize school functions so she has it together.
FF8 is my first final fantasy game, and rightly or wrongly is my favourite of them all. But it is annoying how some really small tweaks could have made the game much better: 1. The sorceress 'charm' magic could have been better established and been a real credible threat. The GF's memory-loss could have been a necessary side-effect of junctioning in order to resist the charm magic. This would make the Ifrit cave mission make a lot of sense too because you can't be a real SeeD unless you have a GF to junction to. This would also heighten the notion that SeeD's are the only ones who can take down the sorceress. 2. The impact of memory loss should have been demonstrated on more occasions other than just the orphanage twist. This would really highlight the 'soldier' aspect of the party, where their humanity is partially stripped from them due to the GF side-effects they need to endure in order to be an effective SeeD. 3. Irvine should have been GF-free during the assassination mission, and he should have been a legitimately skilled sniper with a number of successful assassinations under his belt. Edea being the main target should have been considered classified information, so that Irvine doesn't know the target is Edea until the moment he has to take the shot. This would explain why he can't take pull the trigger in the moment, then Squall (with memory loss) takes the shot in his place without any emotion, but misses, since he is not a trained sniper. 4. Seifer should just...be developed as an actual character instead of nothing. 5. Rinoa, whos role in the game is mainly to bring Squall out of his shell, should have led to Squall choosing to quit being a SeeD at the end of the game and never functioning a GF ever again. You could even have a Bourne Ultimatum thing going on where Squall volunteered to be a SeeD because he wanted to loss his memories due to his childhood trauma. Him accepting that trauma and moving beyond it with Rinoa going forward would have been cathartic. 6. Adel definitely should have been the final boss, and a more reasonable/interesting team-up with Laguna would have been an awesome way to bring their two stories together in taking her down as the final boss. Adel should have been controlling Edea in the earlier parts of the game, and once released, Adel should have enacted at least one catastrophic wave of violence which would really cement her as a serious threat that needs to be taken down. Think Majin Buu from DBZ. 7. Limit breaks should trigger probabilistically based on crisis level as they do in the game, but this should only trigger once per ATB fill rather than triggering upon selection of the character. 8. I could think of a lot more changes but these small tweaks stand out as being really tiny changes that massively improve the game.
Somebody get this man a job at Square Enix! I get the impression that FF8 overextended itself in development. There was supposed to be a lot more integration between Squall's story in the main timeline and Laguna's in the past but they had to cut it, leading to the published game feeling pretty disjointed. I think if they had to cut out crucial parts of how Laguna's story intertwined with Squall's then it's pretty safe to assume that all the things which aren't as central to the main FF8 plot probably also got stripped or were only halfway realized as well.
I like it up to 6. Time travel is a huge concept and Adel, although calamitous, is not versed in any time travel powers. Adel is interesting and formidable, more-so than Ultimecia but the story would need refactoring, otherwise we flesh out Ultimecia a bit more.
53:00 Irvine didn't avoid Junctioning, Junctioning is common practice only in Balamb Garden. Selphie also didn't use GFs back in Trabia... until she reveals that she actually did Junction... ...with a GF she found Randomly inside a... Monster (how did she draw it if she didn't have GFs?)...and thens she lost that GF... for some reason..., also, why this world has shops spread in all cities selling items that are only useful for Guardian Forces if only one select group of Elite Forces really uses these? and Ironically, Irvine and Selphie are the ones who make most sense forgetting their childhood friends, considering they didn't spend the last 10 years living on the same school. Galbadia Garden is mostly controlled by Galbadia itself, only Balamb really has SeeDs, and this is why Edea couldn't just ask Galbadia Garden what SeeD really is about(which also makes 0 sense) Trabia and Galbadia Garden mostly sending Cadets for their graduations so they can operate as mercenary forces in Balamb Garden. Also, Irvine never became a SeeD, despite being military trained like the rest of the crew. (also, Quistis became SeeD at 15 years old, imagine spending a mint on the best Elite Forces money can afford and they send you a 15 years old girl .)
The gardens were originally arks from the destroyed centra continent where the orphanage is. Cid did not install the transport ability to the gardens, they were already the structures they are and cid just bought them and added on.
While that certainly makes more sense than someone installing the flight module in secret, it's still unbelievable that nobody knew about the garden's flight capability. Especially since it all it took to get it moving was Squall touching a button. Not like he needed sort of magic key to get it moving.
@@RushHourWeekend I forgot the exact number of years but I think Esther scientist, the same one that made the Elone junction machine, said that the lunar cry happened a thousand years ago and that was the event destroyed the centra continent. So they have been mostly sitting for about a thousand years with no one really using them for anything until Cid. If nobody was using them for that long the general public would probably. CID knew something was there to possibly help, he just probably didn’t expect the garden to start flying so it wasn’t completely forgotten.
@@DanielClark-ot8kjI think that's a prior lunar cry. The most recent one, which lead to the destruction of the Centra civilization that existed on the southern continent, happened about 80 years ago (with some other source in-game stating that it occurred around 100 years ago I think.) The gardens were the only parts of the centra civilization to survive intact, aside from the people who escaped on them.
also, the way the game presents the Centra civilization, makes it seems it was destroyed ages ago, but the event that ended Centra happened merely 80-100 years before the game starts.
FF8 has a comfy atmosphere. I think it is worth it to replay with various challenge runs or mods. You might discover new appreciation for certain mechanics or spells when they aren't being spoiled and overshadowed by how broken the game is. There are some interesting mods that really change how FF8 plays, forcing you to learn actual strategy, which might be a unique experience for you. I know the last time I played FF8, long ago, I did my own challenge run where I assigned specific GF's to each character whom would then never use any others. It meant each character was weaker, but also more unique, and with fewer junction slots using magic in combat was more viable.
The story isn't really a mess, it just isn't spoonfed to the player like almost every other game. It's more like Dark Souls where you have to go out of your way to put the pieces together. Does this make it bad? Maybe, since probably 98% of people won't really experience it as the writers probably intended, but to me it's absolutely fantastic and allows for a much deeper story than is usually possible for a typical jrpg.
I will always feel cheated how we didnt get the whole back story of Laguna w/c is in the original story plan , he was supposed to share the lead character alongside Squall . The past and present perspective 😢. I wana explore how he met Raine and his other adventure as a writer/ soldier . ❤
I think an FF8 prequel would've made much more sense than an FF7 prequel. Crisis Core feels so unnecessary. With FF8, there's already an established villain that needed more development (Adel) and there's a reason to embark on an adventure: Laguna wants to write stories about his travels. Plus Laguna and co are a fun bunch to hang around with. Would've been much more interesting than Crisis Core, but alas.
by most* reasonable metrics. this disaster has a great OST and looked state of the art in it's time. I also appreciate the junction system for being the best example of overdesigned systems a game design nerd could ever wish for.
I still think the prerendered backgrounds and FMVs look beautiful. I loved this era of environmental design with prerendered backgrounds. Exploration never gets boring when almost every screen is a work of art. Plus you've got a killer soundtrack to keep you humming along.
The thing about Squall's reluctance to make friends is - the kid is a war orphan, he already has plenty of reasons to have trust issues. It doesn't need to be some magical thing. Or it could relate to the time travel shenanigans instead. I will say, however, that Trabia and Galbadia gardens didn't use GFs and therefore Irvine and Selphie shouldn't share these memory issues - the fig leaf Selphie gives about finding a GF somewhere in the wild always bothered me. What the hell ever happened to that GF, then?
40:58 Your teenage girl team is in full uniform; nothing would seem weird about that unless the Galbadian military doesn't allow women to be soldiers......
I mean technically the girls *are* military soldiers, so it's not impossible for them to be there, but I still think it's funny to see teenage girls running around the only place on the planet capable of launching ICBMs, smacking random buttons to shut off the power, redirecting some missiles, and activating a self-destruct bomb. All in the span of around 30 minutes.
Why would that be a problem ? You want women to go out and get blasted in a horde of bullets with newfound trauma ? Tryna make something look misogynistic for no reason.
Zell has the best Limit Break in the game. You can cycle it to easily beat any opponent in the game. While in Duel, you could check for overkills by using Meteor Strike, so you don't waste too much time.
Zell is by far the strongest character (if we're not counting Selphie's 'The End'), but his limit animations take much longer than both Squall and Irvine's. Because Squall and Irvine can already take out most bosses with just a single limit break, and Irvine can hit multiple enemies at once, I don't really get much use out of Zell. He's absolutely insane, but that strength isn't really needed in this game.
You know what, I had to look this up, and you're absolutely right. I can't believe I never figured this out after all these years. Still wish it was just a yes/no prompt, but it's super sweet to learn that they're skippable.
The first time I played this, I was 11 years old. This game was tough, i didnt understand the mechanics. I thought it was some kind of monster battle simulator being my only exposure to RPGs was pokemon. Skipped the tutorials obviously 😂 So what did I do? Level up to 100 and spam GFs, got stuck on most major bosses. Adel for months. Finally beat her. It was glorious. Only to be shortlived as the strategy or rather lack of made Grievers Shockwave Pulsar impossible to withstand. Didnt actually beat the game until I discovered the ASCII no level up guides years later. The mechanics made sense to me now so I went back and mercilessly broke the game that gave me so much trouble. Its honestly fun to play it that way. Sure you trivialize the difficulty but the presentation and sheer amount of items and collectibles has led to me discovering something new everytime I play it. I'm 33 now. 🤙
I remember when I first played the game I found a geocities guide to help me craft everyone's best weapons, and there were super helpful ASCII maps for confusing dungeons like the Deling City sewers. Definitely a tricky game to get into the series with when you're a kid, but it's nice to see how many people still enjoy this game decades later.
Personally, I really like 8. I think that all of the usual gripes against it boils down to either personal preference or self inflicted. "the story sucks" - personal preference "the junction system is broken" - self inflicted "the leveling system is dumb" - personal preference AND self inflicted I could go on.
I think the best way to sum up FF8 is "The Rule of cool". To me it seems like they set out to make amazing visuals and the rest is secondary. I think the best way to play FF8 is treat it like you would an action movie rather than think about it too hard.
I'm a lot more understanding of Headmaster Cid. Basically Edea told him about broad story beats that are going to happen in the future. He knows those events have to happen. He knows Squall has to be in charge of the Garden. So when Squall says (I'm paraphrasing) "hey why me, I don't want this" Cid basically replies "Just figure it out for chrissakes I don't even really understand this shit".
Yeah, Cid is really just going along with the madness surrounding him, but I still think it's absurd that he never told Squall "hey man, you traveled through time and told my wife about Gardens and Seeds, so you better get moving."
Right, it seems like an easy conversation to put off though. I can’t see Squall even entertaining that possibility until Rinoa falls unconscious. The risk of sounding like a crazy old man probably is why Cid kept his cards close to his chest.
The dislikes don’t bother me. For me, the discussion in the comments is the entire reason why I enjoy making videos, and after seeing how the Hollow Knight fanbase reacted to that video, I determined there wasn’t going to be room for any productive discussions, so I set it to private.
@@RushHourWeekend awww. It kinda sucks that you didnt get a good discussion with fans. Anyways, I wanna see a topic about good movement and flow of combat, in the future.
Bwahahaha, in the first few minutes, i already love you. I was a huge fan of Chameleon Twist as well back in the day. As far as FFVIII goes, i absolutely adore the game. Sure, the story and characters in VI and X are better. The combat isn't super deep. And i know i am in the vast minority that actually loves the draw system. Yet, if someone held a gun to my head, i would probably still say VIII is my favorite Final Fantasy game. The characters and story or so special to me. The cast is smaller than most FFs so they each get a chance to shine. Zell is easily in my top 3 all time FF characters. Though it wasn't carried out the best, i am still a sucker for a good love story and ultimately, i do really dig the romance between Squall and Rinoa. Their moments together are some of the most magical in gaming. The action film asthetic on display here is awesome and draws me in. The music is absolutely incredible, especially the gorgeous piano theme that plays in caves. But even if all of that sucked, VIII would still be incredible for Triple Triad alone. Not only is it THE best mini game in video game history, it actually is useful within the larger game too. Turning cards into items was genius idea. I lost hundreds of hours to Triple Triad alone. I rarely spend that amount of time on several games put together.
My first playthrough was dominated by countless hours of Triple Triad. I experienced that same joy when I played The Witcher 3 for the first time. Funnily enough, when Gwent was balanced for the standalone version, I enjoyed it a lot less. Same for Triple Triad's inclusion in FF14. The reason why I loved these card minigames was because they were so broken; running around the world destroying everyone and stealing their cards was the best part. Not too interested in balanced version of these games. I'd rather play Magic the Gathering at that point.
FF8 timeline doesn't branch, it's all one singular circular timeline... the story literally spells it out, that the past can't be changed... And since Squall's present is Ultimecia's past, there's no way for her to change anything. This is all but stated
I've heard all these character names pronounced a hundred different ways. Same with Tidus in FFX (Tee-dus vs Tie-dus). Always fun to hear how other people say these names.
This was a pretty good video, I enjoyed it a lot. It makes me feel dumb by how you just dissassemble every story beat and really there are some things that just don't make sense. But I have come to realize this was the norm during this time. I was watching a playthrough of the first metal gear solid, and there were so many times when so many twists were so obvious from the begining, I couldn't believe we didn't notice it. Still, FF8 has this charm surrounding it, you just can't help but fall for it.
Absolutely. Replaying this game gave me a new perspective on storytelling in games, and how you can still have a ton of fun with a story that makes no sense. Metal Gear is another series where, if you accept the absurdity of it all, they can be a lot of fun. Some stories were never meant to be taken seriously.
Honestly with current sensibilities with game story and structure as well their current battle system I wish they made a remake of this rather than 7. Theme of fate they like to explore was already there and slower pace of story compared to sevens plot would have been natural fit for their syle. But I know, 7 is more marketable. I always felt this was an excellent game that was too broken. This could really be elevated in remaking.
I find it so crazy how this game has 4 discs yet the story feels so incredibly unfinished in many spots I said this a trilion times, but Squall should be the one saying "This is my story" instead of Tidus
So upfront I started with FF9 and that imo kinda ruined my tase for may of the other games, 10 didn't have the open multi-layered world for me, 8 was a lot of ideas that came out backwards. That said past the starting chapters it's alright, even the story (the smaller thing) do have charming moments. I'd honestly still go back to that rather than the grindy, current year narrative, bloated gargantuans we have now-a-days. Also I'm shocked to discovered Squall has an actual personality...I gained a bit of respect for this asshole.
FF9 is a weird one for me because I didn’t think much of it at first - thought it was just another run of the mill rpg - but looking at it nowadays, it’s like the quintessential Final Fantasy game. It didn’t try to be ambitious, it just wanted to be a goofy fantasy adventure, and it nailed that. That kind of fun was missing from the series for a long time afterwards, but Sakaguchi kept the spirit alive over at Mistwalker with Lost Odyssey and Fantasian. I think when fans of the PS1 era of Final Fantasy finally get a chance to play Fantasian later this year, they’re gonna love it.
Squall was done extremely dirty by the translation team. His meme line "whatever" is not what he says in Japanese in any of the 5 or 6 times he says it. It's baffling to me why they made that choice, because it makes him seem like an asshole when he isn't. For example when Quistis is pouring her heart out to him, telling him she's a failed instructor, he responds with "whatever.", like he just couldn't give less of a shit. In the original JP, he says what essentially translates to "not really" or "it's not like that". He's trying to make her feel better in his own somewhat awkward way.
I love this game and I hold fond memories when I first bought it back in 2000. I am going to disagree, my taste though, as for Uematsu's rock approach on music. Turns boring after a few moments. Back to the game, the plot is a bit heavy at times, yet the game is such a good experience when the character design is "humanized" and makes ir more enjoyable then FFVII.
You 'can' skip the tutorial though, sure you have to have it pop up first but after that you can cancel out of it, I did it all the time... Also, I love the fact the game can be as hard or as easy as I want it, it was really fun doing the no Junction Challenge!
the story actually makes a lot of sense if you bother to pay attention to it, and no i'm not gonna bother explaining here because that'd take way too long, but in the game if you read a lot of the lore stuff and such it explains a LOT, why are only women sorceresses, because that was hynes will and way to hide his power after being destroyed because he didn't want men to get it cuz the kind that beat him was a blood thirsty psycho, why don't the party members remember each other, because using GF make you forget stuff because a GF has to house itself in your mind specifically in the part of the brain for memory, the thing most people can't make sense of is the timee travel which to be fair, is somewhat poorly explained in the game and would make this comment five more paragraphs long before i could properly explain it, but at this point you can look up answers to the common confusions of this game elsewhere, on here, most peoples confusion is from purely lack of paying attention, or lack or digging through the lore, which is ironic since 90 percent of the lore of dark souls games are written in pieces on all the equipment, shame that fan base is much more dedicated than the final fantasy fanbase
You never see such critical view to FF7, which almost has as many issues. But a lot of die-hard fans don't care, like FF7 is the spoiled favourite child that gets gazillions of extra stuff but FF8 can't get a break, no matter how good boy it is. Most of the criticisms of FF8 have good answers, but as it always comes down to personal taste, many fans dismiss for mainly because FF8 is not FF7. Like Faramir versus Boromir, or Harry versus Dudley; it's not their fault that they're different. And I love FF8 because it's brave enough to be different. FF7 never gave me that excitement, whereas SNES generation FFs (mainly 6, but also 4 and 5) were far better in many senses. In general, 6, 8 and 9 were the best FFs ever to be made. And if there has the be a remake of any FF game, it must be 8; they have to complete this unfinished masterpiece by fleshing out the details in the story - that some haters couldn't follow - and adding the rest of the Laguna content this time.
I originally had a segment in this video that I cut out where I talked a bit more about Square’s PS1-era translations, specifically how FF7 and Xenogears suffer from - to be blunt - terrible English localizations. These are story-heavy games and the weak English dialogue make them much less enjoyable to replay, especially Xenogears, which has such a dry, sterile localization that really sucks the life out of the game. And I love Xenogears but its translation is a mess. Point is, when FF8 was localized, Square injected some joy and life back into the script, making it more reminiscent of Woolsey’s SNES output. It was one of Alexander O. Smith’s first projects (not as lead translator, however), who I consider to be one of the best translators in the industry. Even if I think the narrative itself is not that good, the dialogue and character interactions carry the game. Hard. FF8 definitely deserves credit for kickstarting the renaissance of incredible Square localizations like Vagrant Story and FF9.
@@RushHourWeekend I agree to that. Except for the "whatever" mistranslation which made Squall look like an asshole, the localisation is quite good. The games's only issue was that it was planned to be so big and ground-braking that they needed another full year to carve the story and gameplay to perfection.
I tried to stick mostly to Square's PS1 era, which has a lot of my favorite music, but I couldn't resist throwing in some extras. What kind of sucks is that random songs get copyright flagged. Forested Temple from FF7 and Vamo Alla Flamenco from FF9 both get flagged. Huge shame since Vamo Alla Flamenco is one of the best songs from FF9.
It’s funny cause I was playing this game for the first time when your video released. My review of FF8 ? I give it a 7/10. I loved the cast of characters, story, romance, plot twists, and especially the setting and theme of the game with a sci-fi and fantasy mix. Just hated the junctioning system. That’s the only thing I hate.
What if I told you the story is not nonsense at all? 🤔 There is a story set within Final Fantasy 8 that delves into the intriguing tale of the Great Hyne and the succession of a witch's love. It stands out as one of the most captivating love stories in the Final Fantasy universe. Despite its depth and complexity, it often goes overlooked in online discussions, with only a rare few truly understanding its nuances. It's annoying to see how this game is often misrepresented on TH-cam, with very few content creators grasping its true essence, leaving much of its brilliance unexplored. I recommend starting off with the true meaning behind the intro of the game "Liberi Fatali"
In doing research for this video, I read up on Hyne. There's are two NPCs in the game that delve into this character by basically explaining the same story: he created mankind, went to war with them, gave them half of his body promising it contained his power but in reality it didn't, he hid his true power inside women, and was never seen again. Then the scenario writer (Nojima) expanded on this backstory a bit in the Ultimania, released after the game launched - this isn't information that can be found within the game, it needs to be read from a Japanese-exclusive supplementary book. Try telling a kid in the '90s about how deep this character is when all he has is what's presented in the game. That aside, this backstory doesn't really affect any character's motivations, so I'm not upset that this character isn't developed well. It explains where the sorceresses came from, but that's just world building. The love story between Squall and Rinoa is the highlight of the narrative, and it has nothing to do with Hyne. I truly believe the scenario writer was too ambitious with this project, trying to incorporate time travel and working out how the succession of sorceresses affects the power struggle, and forgot to properly develop the primary villains: Seifer, Adel, and Ultimecia. This would be a much tighter storyline if Ultimecia was left on the cutting-room-floor and Adel was developed as the main antagonist.
I replayed the sht out of this game. Found a new way of breaking it every time. My favourite is immediately getting diabolos and enemy 0% before leaving the garden :'D
53:40 "explains why Irvine is infatuated with Selphie" "why Quistis has conflicting feelings with Squall" ironic how the same event is used to explain both Irvine attraction to Selphie and Quistis mistaking her sisterly love for Squall with romantic attraction(i call BS on that, Quistis statement was 100% an admission of defeat, she knew she had 0 chance once Rinoa arrived and decided to seal her feelings by stating them as fraternal). how does that work, wouldn't that make Irvine see Selphie as a little sister also?
The best part of Final Fantasy VIII was just how insanely nuts everything was, it threw together so many unique locations, towns and dungeons that do not connect together whatsoever but it has a bit of everything in regards to aesthetic settings. Ultimately though I am not a fan of it myself but I did play it and enjoy it as a kid but I don't enjoy it now, so this is kinda to me what Snowboard kids was to you, a childhood game that I will never return to, my tastes have evolved and I know what I like now better than I did before.
I love the series to death, but I don't really have much I'd like to talk about in those games aside from maybe Xenoblade X. X is by far my favorite, and I was considering talking about it some day.
It’s one of my favorite tracks in a soundtrack filled with awesome music. Nothing wrong with casual porno funk; it’s an underappreciated genre. That’s not even a joke.
I kinda agree with both. The overall story and gameplay has great potential, but horrible execution. OST is absolutely a banger, characters are pretty good. Gameplay that can be broken so easily due to card and item mods etc may be fun to do sometimes, is ridiculous. Story has so many weird twists and turns with absolutely no foreshadowing (orphans bit for example), and the time travel and Laguna stuff was just executed badly to me. If they remade it like VII, I would definitely want them to fix that story at the very least.
Ff8 was atleast kind of entertaining dispite not making much sense most of the time. Played through ff9 and was pretty bored the whole way through. Also the paratrooper guy is the real final boss.
FF8 is not the best story and some convuluted mess. but i still love this game for its relatability on characters grounded people even though is not fully flesh out as absurd narrative on the story, theyre like real people dealing issues like trauma, insecurities, immaturity, friendship despite the differences to overcome problems. but its still much relatable than FF9 medieval settings and fantasy focused genre. and polygonal models of FF7, also its replayability and flexibility of junction systems as compare to FF7 of FF9 traditional and linear game mechanics to get through the games battle mechanics as concerned. thats why FF8 is weird but beautiful game for those us who understands its flaws and not whine on the game and compare it to the other FF titles. its been a black sheep of the franchise makes its enjoyable to play and loved rather than being too hyped on other titles like FF7 that has remakes and look what theyve done. butchering and destroyed what the good story of FF7 by the changing the story on FF7R. it become more convuluted as FF8 story as it seems. FF8 is not for people that whines and complains all the time. we love this game despite its weirdness and flaws.
@wmen48 Nope. Alucard first appeared in print in 1996 ahead of the 1997 release of Helsing. FF7 released 4 months after that. The timeline doesn't map onto that statement. Other than sleeping in a coffin, and looking younger than he is, Vincent embodies no other vampirisms. Not even his transformations, because none of them are animals associated with vampire transformation like bats, wolves, or rats. Vincent doesn't live on blood, is totally fine in sunlight, has no stated weaknesses to garlic or wooden stakes. Furthermore, the game SHOWS you how he becomes like that. Hojo is a scientist. Is the conceit Hojo used mad science to make a vampire? Was it morbin' time? EDIT: vampires have fangs too, right? Pretty sure Vincent doesn't have fangs.
You're absolutely right, but everything about his design (sans the fangs) screams vampire so I always view him as one. He's more a vampire than Yuffie is a ninja, at least in terms of visual design.
The point about the game beeing too easy for it's fighting system wasn't really a thing when the game came out. We were kids and there was no internet. When I played it back then, I had to figure out everything by myself and I was happy to beat the game and it was a challenge really not only late game. I loved the game even if 7 and 9 are more dear to me for reasons. The story of 8 isn't my favorite but it's good enough to enjoy a few playthroughs.
Imo the hate for the game now is just an internet thing, it's not a masterpiece but it is a good game with interesting mechanics.
You're spot on with players not really understanding just how broken the game was at the time it was released. My first playthrough wasn't that challenging, I figured out how to abuse limit breaks pretty quickly, but I didn't ever reach a point where I was able to trivialize every boss. Junctioning allows for plenty of experimentation when you go in blind, which is part of why I considered it my favorite game for a while. I hadn't seen anything else like it.
But yes, the hatred the game has received over time is overblown. There's a lot to love here, especially in terms of how unique it remains to this day.
The internet existed. Most everyone went to Gamefaqs for info. People used the school library to print pages of strategy guides off there lol. I 100% remember the forums being ablaze with everyone disliking the gameplay and especially the story. It is not a new thing. VIII has been hated on since the beginning and it is not a new thing. That's why Square ran back to classic FF with FF9, "The Crystal Comes Back".
Exactly. Easy to talk about how it easy it is in the internet era. In 1998 most people didnt know how to use junctions. It was like playing a "no junction" challenge all the way lol
Like, yeah. You can get a Lionheart on Disc1 but no new player will know how the fuck to do that.
Why would you criticize Selphie being chosen to lead the second team over Quistis or Irvine? Quistis demonstrates her incompetence in the Galbadia mission by abandoning her post to APOLOGIZE to someone and Irvine withheld mission critical information and choked as a result. Selphie is the only left; her or Zell I suppose.
You know, when you put it that way, you can justify her as being the best of the worst. Plus Selphie wanted to just blow up Deling's train instead of going through the switcheroo mission, which would've been a much better plan.
@@RushHourWeekend It's rather surprising that she winds up as possibly the most competent member of the team after Squall. Then again, give the girl credit: she runs her own website and organizes the Garden's Festival Committee or whatever it is. So...
Zell failed opsec he told the galbadian president who they were and almost had them blown up. I thought these kids were trained since birth didn’t know they were this incompetent. Selfie ironically seems to be the only one out of the group that didn’t fuck up.
@@MrRed424 Zell was a fresh recruit so I'll give him a little leeway for slipping up like that. Quisits was an instructor and there is no indication Irvine was a rookie.
And yeah, Selphie is kind of a surprise but like I said she does run that website and organize school functions so she has it together.
@@Raycloud Fair point I’ll give you that
I don't care what other says about Final fantasy 8... Final fantasy 8 will always be my favorite.
FF8 is my first final fantasy game, and rightly or wrongly is my favourite of them all. But it is annoying how some really small tweaks could have made the game much better:
1. The sorceress 'charm' magic could have been better established and been a real credible threat. The GF's memory-loss could have been a necessary side-effect of junctioning in order to resist the charm magic. This would make the Ifrit cave mission make a lot of sense too because you can't be a real SeeD unless you have a GF to junction to. This would also heighten the notion that SeeD's are the only ones who can take down the sorceress.
2. The impact of memory loss should have been demonstrated on more occasions other than just the orphanage twist. This would really highlight the 'soldier' aspect of the party, where their humanity is partially stripped from them due to the GF side-effects they need to endure in order to be an effective SeeD.
3. Irvine should have been GF-free during the assassination mission, and he should have been a legitimately skilled sniper with a number of successful assassinations under his belt. Edea being the main target should have been considered classified information, so that Irvine doesn't know the target is Edea until the moment he has to take the shot. This would explain why he can't take pull the trigger in the moment, then Squall (with memory loss) takes the shot in his place without any emotion, but misses, since he is not a trained sniper.
4. Seifer should just...be developed as an actual character instead of nothing.
5. Rinoa, whos role in the game is mainly to bring Squall out of his shell, should have led to Squall choosing to quit being a SeeD at the end of the game and never functioning a GF ever again. You could even have a Bourne Ultimatum thing going on where Squall volunteered to be a SeeD because he wanted to loss his memories due to his childhood trauma. Him accepting that trauma and moving beyond it with Rinoa going forward would have been cathartic.
6. Adel definitely should have been the final boss, and a more reasonable/interesting team-up with Laguna would have been an awesome way to bring their two stories together in taking her down as the final boss. Adel should have been controlling Edea in the earlier parts of the game, and once released, Adel should have enacted at least one catastrophic wave of violence which would really cement her as a serious threat that needs to be taken down. Think Majin Buu from DBZ.
7. Limit breaks should trigger probabilistically based on crisis level as they do in the game, but this should only trigger once per ATB fill rather than triggering upon selection of the character.
8. I could think of a lot more changes but these small tweaks stand out as being really tiny changes that massively improve the game.
Somebody get this man a job at Square Enix!
I get the impression that FF8 overextended itself in development. There was supposed to be a lot more integration between Squall's story in the main timeline and Laguna's in the past but they had to cut it, leading to the published game feeling pretty disjointed.
I think if they had to cut out crucial parts of how Laguna's story intertwined with Squall's then it's pretty safe to assume that all the things which aren't as central to the main FF8 plot probably also got stripped or were only halfway realized as well.
I like it up to 6. Time travel is a huge concept and Adel, although calamitous, is not versed in any time travel powers. Adel is interesting and formidable, more-so than Ultimecia but the story would need refactoring, otherwise we flesh out Ultimecia a bit more.
53:00 Irvine didn't avoid Junctioning, Junctioning is common practice only in Balamb Garden. Selphie also didn't use GFs back in Trabia... until she reveals that she actually did Junction... ...with a GF she found Randomly inside a... Monster (how did she draw it if she didn't have GFs?)...and thens she lost that GF... for some reason..., also, why this world has shops spread in all cities selling items that are only useful for Guardian Forces if only one select group of Elite Forces really uses these?
and Ironically, Irvine and Selphie are the ones who make most sense forgetting their childhood friends, considering they didn't spend the last 10 years living on the same school.
Galbadia Garden is mostly controlled by Galbadia itself, only Balamb really has SeeDs, and this is why Edea couldn't just ask Galbadia Garden what SeeD really is about(which also makes 0 sense) Trabia and Galbadia Garden mostly sending Cadets for their graduations so they can operate as mercenary forces in Balamb Garden.
Also, Irvine never became a SeeD, despite being military trained like the rest of the crew.
(also, Quistis became SeeD at 15 years old, imagine spending a mint on the best Elite Forces money can afford and they send you a 15 years old girl .)
The gardens were originally arks from the destroyed centra continent where the orphanage is. Cid did not install the transport ability to the gardens, they were already the structures they are and cid just bought them and added on.
While that certainly makes more sense than someone installing the flight module in secret, it's still unbelievable that nobody knew about the garden's flight capability. Especially since it all it took to get it moving was Squall touching a button. Not like he needed sort of magic key to get it moving.
@@RushHourWeekend I forgot the exact number of years but I think Esther scientist, the same one that made the Elone junction machine, said that the lunar cry happened a thousand years ago and that was the event destroyed the centra continent. So they have been mostly sitting for about a thousand years with no one really using them for anything until Cid. If nobody was using them for that long the general public would probably. CID knew something was there to possibly help, he just probably didn’t expect the garden to start flying so it wasn’t completely forgotten.
@@DanielClark-ot8kjI think that's a prior lunar cry.
The most recent one, which lead to the destruction of the Centra civilization that existed on the southern continent, happened about 80 years ago (with some other source in-game stating that it occurred around 100 years ago I think.)
The gardens were the only parts of the centra civilization to survive intact, aside from the people who escaped on them.
also, the way the game presents the Centra civilization, makes it seems it was destroyed ages ago, but the event that ended Centra happened merely 80-100 years before the game starts.
FF8 has a comfy atmosphere. I think it is worth it to replay with various challenge runs or mods. You might discover new appreciation for certain mechanics or spells when they aren't being spoiled and overshadowed by how broken the game is. There are some interesting mods that really change how FF8 plays, forcing you to learn actual strategy, which might be a unique experience for you.
I know the last time I played FF8, long ago, I did my own challenge run where I assigned specific GF's to each character whom would then never use any others. It meant each character was weaker, but also more unique, and with fewer junction slots using magic in combat was more viable.
The story isn't really a mess, it just isn't spoonfed to the player like almost every other game. It's more like Dark Souls where you have to go out of your way to put the pieces together. Does this make it bad? Maybe, since probably 98% of people won't really experience it as the writers probably intended, but to me it's absolutely fantastic and allows for a much deeper story than is usually possible for a typical jrpg.
You can't rename the other four characters because of the kiddy nicknames they have in the flashbacks.
I did not know that!
I will always feel cheated how we didnt get the whole back story of Laguna w/c is in the original story plan , he was supposed to share the lead character alongside Squall . The past and present perspective 😢. I wana explore how he met Raine and his other adventure as a writer/ soldier . ❤
I think an FF8 prequel would've made much more sense than an FF7 prequel. Crisis Core feels so unnecessary. With FF8, there's already an established villain that needed more development (Adel) and there's a reason to embark on an adventure: Laguna wants to write stories about his travels. Plus Laguna and co are a fun bunch to hang around with. Would've been much more interesting than Crisis Core, but alas.
@@RushHourWeekend exactly! Would be fun experience how Laguna became president knowing how goofy he is 😅
by most* reasonable metrics. this disaster has a great OST and looked state of the art in it's time.
I also appreciate the junction system for being the best example of overdesigned systems a game design nerd could ever wish for.
I still think the prerendered backgrounds and FMVs look beautiful. I loved this era of environmental design with prerendered backgrounds. Exploration never gets boring when almost every screen is a work of art. Plus you've got a killer soundtrack to keep you humming along.
The thing about Squall's reluctance to make friends is - the kid is a war orphan, he already has plenty of reasons to have trust issues. It doesn't need to be some magical thing. Or it could relate to the time travel shenanigans instead.
I will say, however, that Trabia and Galbadia gardens didn't use GFs and therefore Irvine and Selphie shouldn't share these memory issues - the fig leaf Selphie gives about finding a GF somewhere in the wild always bothered me. What the hell ever happened to that GF, then?
40:58
Your teenage girl team is in full uniform; nothing would seem weird about that unless the Galbadian military doesn't allow women to be soldiers......
I mean technically the girls *are* military soldiers, so it's not impossible for them to be there, but I still think it's funny to see teenage girls running around the only place on the planet capable of launching ICBMs, smacking random buttons to shut off the power, redirecting some missiles, and activating a self-destruct bomb. All in the span of around 30 minutes.
Why would that be a problem ? You want women to go out and get blasted in a horde of bullets with newfound trauma ? Tryna make something look misogynistic for no reason.
Zell has the best Limit Break in the game. You can cycle it to easily beat any opponent in the game. While in Duel, you could check for overkills by using Meteor Strike, so you don't waste too much time.
Zell is by far the strongest character (if we're not counting Selphie's 'The End'), but his limit animations take much longer than both Squall and Irvine's. Because Squall and Irvine can already take out most bosses with just a single limit break, and Irvine can hit multiple enemies at once, I don't really get much use out of Zell. He's absolutely insane, but that strength isn't really needed in this game.
You CAN skip the junctioning tutorials I'm pretty sure. You have to either click cancel or select after they start I believe.
You know what, I had to look this up, and you're absolutely right. I can't believe I never figured this out after all these years. Still wish it was just a yes/no prompt, but it's super sweet to learn that they're skippable.
Speedrunner chiming in: yup you HOLD Cancel to skip tutorials, I use this in my Dollet Escape speedruns :)
@@Excel86j That's awesome. I checked out a speedrun, and sure enough, looks like you only need to watch the first text box before you can exit.
The first time I played this, I was 11 years old. This game was tough, i didnt understand the mechanics. I thought it was some kind of monster battle simulator being my only exposure to RPGs was pokemon. Skipped the tutorials obviously 😂
So what did I do? Level up to 100 and spam GFs, got stuck on most major bosses. Adel for months. Finally beat her. It was glorious. Only to be shortlived as the strategy or rather lack of made Grievers Shockwave Pulsar impossible to withstand. Didnt actually beat the game until I discovered the ASCII no level up guides years later. The mechanics made sense to me now so I went back and mercilessly broke the game that gave me so much trouble. Its honestly fun to play it that way. Sure you trivialize the difficulty but the presentation and sheer amount of items and collectibles has led to me discovering something new everytime I play it. I'm 33 now. 🤙
I remember when I first played the game I found a geocities guide to help me craft everyone's best weapons, and there were super helpful ASCII maps for confusing dungeons like the Deling City sewers. Definitely a tricky game to get into the series with when you're a kid, but it's nice to see how many people still enjoy this game decades later.
Personally, I really like 8. I think that all of the usual gripes against it boils down to either personal preference or self inflicted.
"the story sucks" - personal preference
"the junction system is broken" - self inflicted
"the leveling system is dumb" - personal preference AND self inflicted
I could go on.
I think the best way to sum up FF8 is "The Rule of cool". To me it seems like they set out to make amazing visuals and the rest is secondary. I think the best way to play FF8 is treat it like you would an action movie rather than think about it too hard.
I'm a lot more understanding of Headmaster Cid. Basically Edea told him about broad story beats that are going to happen in the future. He knows those events have to happen. He knows Squall has to be in charge of the Garden. So when Squall says (I'm paraphrasing) "hey why me, I don't want this" Cid basically replies "Just figure it out for chrissakes I don't even really understand this shit".
Yeah, Cid is really just going along with the madness surrounding him, but I still think it's absurd that he never told Squall "hey man, you traveled through time and told my wife about Gardens and Seeds, so you better get moving."
Right, it seems like an easy conversation to put off though. I can’t see Squall even entertaining that possibility until Rinoa falls unconscious. The risk of sounding like a crazy old man probably is why Cid kept his cards close to his chest.
What happened to your Hollow Knight video? You got a good discussion on that, did you get too much dislike spam?
The dislikes don’t bother me. For me, the discussion in the comments is the entire reason why I enjoy making videos, and after seeing how the Hollow Knight fanbase reacted to that video, I determined there wasn’t going to be room for any productive discussions, so I set it to private.
@@RushHourWeekend awww. It kinda sucks that you didnt get a good discussion with fans. Anyways, I wanna see a topic about good movement and flow of combat, in the future.
Ff8 is absolutley my fave. The stat customization is fantastic, the story is phenomenal and thought provoking, and the music is a masterpiece.
Bwahahaha, in the first few minutes, i already love you. I was a huge fan of Chameleon Twist as well back in the day.
As far as FFVIII goes, i absolutely adore the game. Sure, the story and characters in VI and X are better. The combat isn't super deep. And i know i am in the vast minority that actually loves the draw system. Yet, if someone held a gun to my head, i would probably still say VIII is my favorite Final Fantasy game.
The characters and story or so special to me. The cast is smaller than most FFs so they each get a chance to shine. Zell is easily in my top 3 all time FF characters. Though it wasn't carried out the best, i am still a sucker for a good love story and ultimately, i do really dig the romance between Squall and Rinoa. Their moments together are some of the most magical in gaming. The action film asthetic on display here is awesome and draws me in. The music is absolutely incredible, especially the gorgeous piano theme that plays in caves.
But even if all of that sucked, VIII would still be incredible for Triple Triad alone. Not only is it THE best mini game in video game history, it actually is useful within the larger game too. Turning cards into items was genius idea. I lost hundreds of hours to Triple Triad alone. I rarely spend that amount of time on several games put together.
My first playthrough was dominated by countless hours of Triple Triad. I experienced that same joy when I played The Witcher 3 for the first time. Funnily enough, when Gwent was balanced for the standalone version, I enjoyed it a lot less. Same for Triple Triad's inclusion in FF14. The reason why I loved these card minigames was because they were so broken; running around the world destroying everyone and stealing their cards was the best part. Not too interested in balanced version of these games. I'd rather play Magic the Gathering at that point.
FF8 timeline doesn't branch, it's all one singular circular timeline... the story literally spells it out, that the past can't be changed...
And since Squall's present is Ultimecia's past, there's no way for her to change anything. This is all but stated
The way he pronounces Adel made me think of Adol from Ys..
I've heard all these character names pronounced a hundred different ways. Same with Tidus in FFX (Tee-dus vs Tie-dus). Always fun to hear how other people say these names.
@@RushHourWeekend I always knew it as Ah-dell
This was a pretty good video, I enjoyed it a lot. It makes me feel dumb by how you just dissassemble every story beat and really there are some things that just don't make sense. But I have come to realize this was the norm during this time. I was watching a playthrough of the first metal gear solid, and there were so many times when so many twists were so obvious from the begining, I couldn't believe we didn't notice it. Still, FF8 has this charm surrounding it, you just can't help but fall for it.
Absolutely. Replaying this game gave me a new perspective on storytelling in games, and how you can still have a ton of fun with a story that makes no sense. Metal Gear is another series where, if you accept the absurdity of it all, they can be a lot of fun. Some stories were never meant to be taken seriously.
Honestly with current sensibilities with game story and structure as well their current battle system I wish they made a remake of this rather than 7. Theme of fate they like to explore was already there and slower pace of story compared to sevens plot would have been natural fit for their syle. But I know, 7 is more marketable.
I always felt this was an excellent game that was too broken. This could really be elevated in remaking.
I find it so crazy how this game has 4 discs yet the story feels so incredibly unfinished in many spots
I said this a trilion times, but Squall should be the one saying "This is my story" instead of Tidus
So upfront I started with FF9 and that imo kinda ruined my tase for may of the other games, 10 didn't have the open multi-layered world for me, 8 was a lot of ideas that came out backwards.
That said past the starting chapters it's alright, even the story (the smaller thing) do have charming moments. I'd honestly still go back to that rather than the grindy, current year narrative, bloated gargantuans we have now-a-days.
Also I'm shocked to discovered Squall has an actual personality...I gained a bit of respect for this asshole.
FF9 is a weird one for me because I didn’t think much of it at first - thought it was just another run of the mill rpg - but looking at it nowadays, it’s like the quintessential Final Fantasy game. It didn’t try to be ambitious, it just wanted to be a goofy fantasy adventure, and it nailed that. That kind of fun was missing from the series for a long time afterwards, but Sakaguchi kept the spirit alive over at Mistwalker with Lost Odyssey and Fantasian. I think when fans of the PS1 era of Final Fantasy finally get a chance to play Fantasian later this year, they’re gonna love it.
Squall was done extremely dirty by the translation team. His meme line "whatever" is not what he says in Japanese in any of the 5 or 6 times he says it. It's baffling to me why they made that choice, because it makes him seem like an asshole when he isn't.
For example when Quistis is pouring her heart out to him, telling him she's a failed instructor, he responds with "whatever.", like he just couldn't give less of a shit. In the original JP, he says what essentially translates to "not really" or "it's not like that". He's trying to make her feel better in his own somewhat awkward way.
I love this game and I hold fond memories when I first bought it back in 2000.
I am going to disagree, my taste though, as for Uematsu's rock approach on music. Turns boring after a few moments.
Back to the game, the plot is a bit heavy at times, yet the game is such a good experience when the character design is "humanized" and makes ir more enjoyable then FFVII.
Great video man I love your content
You 'can' skip the tutorial though, sure you have to have it pop up first but after that you can cancel out of it, I did it all the time...
Also, I love the fact the game can be as hard or as easy as I want it, it was really fun doing the no Junction Challenge!
the story actually makes a lot of sense if you bother to pay attention to it, and no i'm not gonna bother explaining here because that'd take way too long, but in the game if you read a lot of the lore stuff and such it explains a LOT, why are only women sorceresses, because that was hynes will and way to hide his power after being destroyed because he didn't want men to get it cuz the kind that beat him was a blood thirsty psycho, why don't the party members remember each other, because using GF make you forget stuff because a GF has to house itself in your mind specifically in the part of the brain for memory, the thing most people can't make sense of is the timee travel which to be fair, is somewhat poorly explained in the game and would make this comment five more paragraphs long before i could properly explain it, but at this point you can look up answers to the common confusions of this game elsewhere, on here, most peoples confusion is from purely lack of paying attention, or lack or digging through the lore, which is ironic since 90 percent of the lore of dark souls games are written in pieces on all the equipment, shame that fan base is much more dedicated than the final fantasy fanbase
Don’t forget that you can’t use the Ragnarok in disc 4 without a chocobo.
You never see such critical view to FF7, which almost has as many issues. But a lot of die-hard fans don't care, like FF7 is the spoiled favourite child that gets gazillions of extra stuff but FF8 can't get a break, no matter how good boy it is. Most of the criticisms of FF8 have good answers, but as it always comes down to personal taste, many fans dismiss for mainly because FF8 is not FF7. Like Faramir versus Boromir, or Harry versus Dudley; it's not their fault that they're different. And I love FF8 because it's brave enough to be different. FF7 never gave me that excitement, whereas SNES generation FFs (mainly 6, but also 4 and 5) were far better in many senses. In general, 6, 8 and 9 were the best FFs ever to be made. And if there has the be a remake of any FF game, it must be 8; they have to complete this unfinished masterpiece by fleshing out the details in the story - that some haters couldn't follow - and adding the rest of the Laguna content this time.
I originally had a segment in this video that I cut out where I talked a bit more about Square’s PS1-era translations, specifically how FF7 and Xenogears suffer from - to be blunt - terrible English localizations. These are story-heavy games and the weak English dialogue make them much less enjoyable to replay, especially Xenogears, which has such a dry, sterile localization that really sucks the life out of the game. And I love Xenogears but its translation is a mess.
Point is, when FF8 was localized, Square injected some joy and life back into the script, making it more reminiscent of Woolsey’s SNES output. It was one of Alexander O. Smith’s first projects (not as lead translator, however), who I consider to be one of the best translators in the industry. Even if I think the narrative itself is not that good, the dialogue and character interactions carry the game. Hard. FF8 definitely deserves credit for kickstarting the renaissance of incredible Square localizations like Vagrant Story and FF9.
@@RushHourWeekend I agree to that. Except for the "whatever" mistranslation which made Squall look like an asshole, the localisation is quite good. The games's only issue was that it was planned to be so big and ground-braking that they needed another full year to carve the story and gameplay to perfection.
Loved your use of BGM from multiple different final fantasies :3
I tried to stick mostly to Square's PS1 era, which has a lot of my favorite music, but I couldn't resist throwing in some extras. What kind of sucks is that random songs get copyright flagged. Forested Temple from FF7 and Vamo Alla Flamenco from FF9 both get flagged. Huge shame since Vamo Alla Flamenco is one of the best songs from FF9.
Such unrealistic game. The characters never even go to the toilet.
It’s funny cause I was playing this game for the first time when your video released. My review of FF8 ? I give it a 7/10. I loved the cast of characters, story, romance, plot twists, and especially the setting and theme of the game with a sci-fi and fantasy mix. Just hated the junctioning system. That’s the only thing I hate.
What if I told you the story is not nonsense at all? 🤔
There is a story set within Final Fantasy 8 that delves into the intriguing tale of the Great Hyne and the succession of a witch's love. It stands out as one of the most captivating love stories in the Final Fantasy universe. Despite its depth and complexity, it often goes overlooked in online discussions, with only a rare few truly understanding its nuances. It's annoying to see how this game is often misrepresented on TH-cam, with very few content creators grasping its true essence, leaving much of its brilliance unexplored.
I recommend starting off with the true meaning behind the intro of the game "Liberi Fatali"
In doing research for this video, I read up on Hyne. There's are two NPCs in the game that delve into this character by basically explaining the same story: he created mankind, went to war with them, gave them half of his body promising it contained his power but in reality it didn't, he hid his true power inside women, and was never seen again. Then the scenario writer (Nojima) expanded on this backstory a bit in the Ultimania, released after the game launched - this isn't information that can be found within the game, it needs to be read from a Japanese-exclusive supplementary book. Try telling a kid in the '90s about how deep this character is when all he has is what's presented in the game.
That aside, this backstory doesn't really affect any character's motivations, so I'm not upset that this character isn't developed well. It explains where the sorceresses came from, but that's just world building. The love story between Squall and Rinoa is the highlight of the narrative, and it has nothing to do with Hyne. I truly believe the scenario writer was too ambitious with this project, trying to incorporate time travel and working out how the succession of sorceresses affects the power struggle, and forgot to properly develop the primary villains: Seifer, Adel, and Ultimecia. This would be a much tighter storyline if Ultimecia was left on the cutting-room-floor and Adel was developed as the main antagonist.
I replayed the sht out of this game. Found a new way of breaking it every time. My favourite is immediately getting diabolos and enemy 0% before leaving the garden :'D
53:40 "explains why Irvine is infatuated with Selphie"
"why Quistis has conflicting feelings with Squall"
ironic how the same event is used to explain both Irvine attraction to Selphie and Quistis mistaking her sisterly love for Squall with romantic attraction(i call BS on that, Quistis statement was 100% an admission of defeat, she knew she had 0 chance once Rinoa arrived and decided to seal her feelings by stating them as fraternal).
how does that work, wouldn't that make Irvine see Selphie as a little sister also?
No, because Irvine didn't relate to her that way as a kid, he stated.
The best part of Final Fantasy VIII was just how insanely nuts everything was, it threw together so many unique locations, towns and dungeons that do not connect together whatsoever but it has a bit of everything in regards to aesthetic settings.
Ultimately though I am not a fan of it myself but I did play it and enjoy it as a kid but I don't enjoy it now, so this is kinda to me what Snowboard kids was to you, a childhood game that I will never return to, my tastes have evolved and I know what I like now better than I did before.
I think the best part of the PS1 era of Final Fantasies was how much variety was crammed into these games. Definitely makes them a joy to revisit.
@@RushHourWeekend Yeah that's a big reason why the series is so popular to begin with, it has a bit of everything for everyone.
"The customization options are more shallow than the game lets on"
Huh... Just like FF7...
Kind of random, but you indirectly helped me make a decision today while I perused your videos. So thanks for that o7
You should analyze Xenoblade series.
I love the series to death, but I don't really have much I'd like to talk about in those games aside from maybe Xenoblade X. X is by far my favorite, and I was considering talking about it some day.
Actually it was rebunked by the same guy who debunked it.
Def do a video like this for 7/9. This was great?
Didn’t mean the ? lol seriously great video highly informative!
Nice references to Steely Dan when naming those characters 😁👍🏼
Hell yeah. The Royal Scam and Aja are in my top 10 favorite albums.
@@RushHourWeekend
That run of albums from Royal Scam > Aja > Gaucho really are something else
You can skip all the tuturials jusr hit circle on D-pad.
nostalgia
55:55 ff12 (best final fantasy prove me wrong) *cough cough* back to video
rush hour is baéck with another banger
The missile base music is peak though.
It’s one of my favorite tracks in a soundtrack filled with awesome music. Nothing wrong with casual porno funk; it’s an underappreciated genre. That’s not even a joke.
I love this game, everyone who hates this game is trippin.
I kinda agree with both. The overall story and gameplay has great potential, but horrible execution.
OST is absolutely a banger, characters are pretty good. Gameplay that can be broken so easily due to card and item mods etc may be fun to do sometimes, is ridiculous.
Story has so many weird twists and turns with absolutely no foreshadowing (orphans bit for example), and the time travel and Laguna stuff was just executed badly to me.
If they remade it like VII, I would definitely want them to fix that story at the very least.
Nice video
orbs, not crystals.
lol Sonny and Cher!
nice vid bro
57:00 (ish) how dare you say such a thing about Chrono Trigger sir?! GOOD DAY.
Hey, I said time travel is incorporated well in Chrono Trigger! Seriously, Chrono Trigger probably has the best-paced story I've ever seen in an RPG.
@@RushHourWeekend I was talking about the 'light hearted' nature of the game you spoke of, that game is all about saving the world from destruction.
Ff8 was atleast kind of entertaining dispite not making much sense most of the time. Played through ff9 and was pretty bored the whole way through. Also the paratrooper guy is the real final boss.
drag Nojima
FF8 is not the best story and some convuluted mess. but i still love this game for its relatability on characters grounded people even though is not fully flesh out as absurd narrative on the story, theyre like real people dealing issues like trauma, insecurities, immaturity, friendship despite the differences to overcome problems. but its still much relatable than FF9 medieval settings and fantasy focused genre. and polygonal models of FF7, also its replayability and flexibility of junction systems as compare to FF7 of FF9 traditional and linear game mechanics to get through the games battle mechanics as concerned. thats why FF8 is weird but beautiful game for those us who understands its flaws and not whine on the game and compare it to the other FF titles. its been a black sheep of the franchise makes its enjoyable to play and loved rather than being too hyped on other titles like FF7 that has remakes and look what theyve done. butchering and destroyed what the good story of FF7 by the changing the story on FF7R. it become more convuluted as FF8 story as it seems. FF8 is not for people that whines and complains all the time. we love this game despite its weirdness and flaws.
Rant much.
Man you got some weird back and forth takes. Just make up your mind. Do you like the game or not
Vincent isn't a vampire.
In function he kinda is. Helsing was based on him which is a famous vampire.
@wmen48 Nope. Alucard first appeared in print in 1996 ahead of the 1997 release of Helsing. FF7 released 4 months after that. The timeline doesn't map onto that statement.
Other than sleeping in a coffin, and looking younger than he is, Vincent embodies no other vampirisms. Not even his transformations, because none of them are animals associated with vampire transformation like bats, wolves, or rats. Vincent doesn't live on blood, is totally fine in sunlight, has no stated weaknesses to garlic or wooden stakes.
Furthermore, the game SHOWS you how he becomes like that. Hojo is a scientist. Is the conceit Hojo used mad science to make a vampire? Was it morbin' time?
EDIT: vampires have fangs too, right? Pretty sure Vincent doesn't have fangs.
Hold up. I just checked. Cait Sith has fangs AND a cape AND has a familiar with bat wings. Think he might be a vampire?
You're absolutely right, but everything about his design (sans the fangs) screams vampire so I always view him as one. He's more a vampire than Yuffie is a ninja, at least in terms of visual design.