Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

I am loving the story in this game. Like I felt with FFVI, there’s a real urgency and roller coaster ride type of feeling that makes me have to force myself to stop playing. The presentation feels way ahead of its time in how it stitches together cutscenes and gameplay for some really exciting and occasionally stunning moments. I am already pretty attached to the main cast, really caring about if something happens to them.

The gameplay systems are complex, with lots of menu time planning out the character’s progression, but I really enjoy building up the Guardian Forces and seeing how I can distribute magic to level my character. It’s a very novel experience. I am finding myself making use of the Remaster’s various assists like 3x speed, no encounters, and unlimited ATB gauge to get through some of the combat grind, and while I do feel I’m losing some depth on the gameplay side, it really is a godsend to move at my own pace through the adventure.

Really curious where it goes from here as it really seems like the game is about to open up based on something I just got access to early in Disc 2...

Finished disks 1 and 2 and honestly this game fucks so hard lol.

What's apparent as you go deeper into the game is that FF8 is far more cinematically-oriented than FF7 in its choices of camera angles, story pacing and it's mixture of FMV's and actual gameplay. Near the end of Disk 2 when the Galbadian soldiers burst through the glass window at Balamb and shifts immediately into gameplay I audibly said "holy shit." And this wasn't a major story moment, it was awe at the technical imagination on display. Like FF7, it also continues to instill a variety of gameplay elements to keep things engaging, such as being carried into the air on a flying robot and having to do button presses to kick the soldier off and defend yourself.

What I will also say is that FF8 might do a better job of creating engaging and emotionally worthwhile group dynamics better than FF7. Doing away with a rhythm of "move to a town, learn about a character, move to the next town and learn about this character, etc," the game instead introduces basically all the protagonists quite early on and none of them have hugely complicated back stories to sift through, allowing and greater focus on presenting the dynamics of their friendship and allowing Squall to still take center-stage as protagonist without taking away from the depth of the other characters. And I genuinely love Squall as a protagonist; crybaby gamers on YouTube love to whine about him as being an asshole when, like, the entire game is about him overcoming that and learning to trust and love his friends. It's an excellent coming of age story as this all happens over the course of him taking on more responsibility throughout the narrative, so it all happens organically. That we can see his full thought-process also helps and frankly I think he might be one of my favorite characters in a video game.

Gameplay-wise I've got Squall with all the strength-boosting abilities and stats assigned that push his strength to over 130, so he basically destroys bosses and enemies within only a few turns. I got the Tonberry GF and I got Odin which is turning up for me a decent amount in random encounters which is always satisfying to watch. Eventually I'll have to draw the siren and leviathan summons because I missed them throughout other parts of the game; when I do a second playthrough I wanna make sure I try and do a perfect game, do everything, get everything, etc. I only recently realized that the amount of a spell you have increases the strength of it when junctioned, so I'll have to continually snag the Ultima draw-point in Shumi Village to boost some stats. Firaga is a wonderful junction when you get 100 of them.

All in all, while some of the story elements are all bit bizarre, I'm loving the hell out of this game and I'm excited to power through to the end.

Finally understand Triple Triad and been getting lots of great cards; following some RNG manipulation guides and it's so far working, though I might have to finagle with it further as I get into the game. Probably gonna do the Queen of Cards quest later on.

The narrative is becoming more engaging but it's becoming clearer just how strange this game's tone is - compared to FF7's clear tonal shifts in which comedy, drama and its more off-beat elements blended together pretty much seamlessly (one of the reasons it's in my Top 10), FF8 from the get-go exists in this weird affectual space where sincerity collides with its more grandiose elements and still tries to be distant in a way (similar to Squall's affect). Demonstrably, the world map theme isn't like previous ones in that, again with FF7, the world map theme demonstrates a clear tone for the narrative and reflects its emotional peaks and valleys. Here, the world map theme is mysterious and spacey, at first listen almost entirely antithetical to serving the clearly larger scale conflict set-up from the very beginning. And it's a conflict that, at this point in the game, feels almost inconsequential! You feel at a distance from the whole Galbadian occupation, understanding it purely through how it effects Riona. This could be reflective of the fact that Squall and his teammates are all mercenaries but it's strange how the central conflict is being set up. Overall though it vibes really well?? Just having a good time so far. Squall, Zell and Selphie are cool, hoping Riona becomes a bit more interesting and I'm wondering how they're gonna develop the romance between her and Squall.

Other things: beat Diablo, using the card-magic skill to get higher end stuff and Squall's doing a pretty decent amount of damage just with the gunblade alone. Looking to get the half-encounter rate skill and put it to good use.

Began the game and getting hoplessly stuck at trying to win Triple Triad.

Right out the gate, and this is a very minor quibble, I don't like how long it takes to load between screens when Final Fantasy 7 was able to do it very very quickly; it made the pace snappier. I dont know if this is due to hardware limitations or what but whatever.

Don't really understand why idiots like Spoony and whoever else say the gameplay is too complex. It really isn't, there's just a lot to take in but the basic systems boil down to using magic to upgrade abilities and stats and that's pretty much it.

Squall so far isn't super compelling as a protagonist but I really like how in the midst of dialogue sequences we can see what he's thinking, which lends a nice sense of interiority to the game's atmosphere.

I am really enjoying Final Fantasy 8 this time around. Poor teenage me did not understand this game at all.

I should get to the actual Lunatic Pandora sequence tonight, which is where I've traditionally gotten stuck in the past. I don't expect I'll get past it tonight, but I'll be close to finally progressing in this game, after more than 10 years.

My 5th or 6th play of FFVIII, and my first in quite a few years. (And without speeding through the game).

I really don't like how easy this game is if you don't limit yourself (the Junction system, spamming Limit Breaks, etc break this game BAD if you're not careful). And the story really does go off the deep end after Disc 2.

Still, my first FF and jRPG, and it's not really THAT bad. It's better than XIII or XV for sure.