| Farsala said: Now into the top 3! #3 Final Fantasy VIII Be aware of spoilers. You have been warned. Out of my top 5 games, I played this game the least, but I did play it first. One might even say it was the game that got me into gaming, while before it was a fun side activity, this game made me think of myself as a gamer. I only replayed this game 1 or 2 times in the past 25 years, so it will be more difficult for me to remember the finer details. I will say though even after playing it 3 times through, the game is still amazing. As a person, I rarely replay or rewatch or redo anything. I think only the top 30 of my all time favorite games warrant full replays, but even some of them, I have never replayed. Squall and Seifer start the game out with an epic bloody sword fight. The scars a constant reminder throughout the entire game, with a consistent rivalry. Never again is there a game that captures the spirit of rivalry as with these two. The first main mission you have with him in your party, he is egging Squall on to be the stronger mercenary. But Squall at this point in the story is very hesitant and reserved. He reluctantly takes on the challenge and is chosen as leader. In the end Seifer abandons the team to follow his own dream. It kind of feels like Squall envies him at this point, but since Squall stayed one, he is promoted and now has to lead of the main missions of Balamb. Meeting Seifer again and it is clear he has fallen under the sway of the sorceress and quite plainly declares his superiority over Squall. At this point you have to fight him and even though Odin comes to help he is beaten by Seifer with his own move reversed into him, in one of the most epic moments of gaming. When this happened, I thought for sure Odin would one shot him like he had done many times before to the trash monsters. But Squall has to prove his superiority on his own merit. Odin only came at the start of battle to one shot everything, so now another Guardian Force appears from the void left by Odin. He, contrary to Odin, comes when he pleases. Continuing the fight with Seifer has yet another epic moment. Gilgamesh has arrived, and he won't lose to a lowly human like Seifer and defeats him in one blow. He thought Seifer might have been Bartz, which is an interesting crossover from FFV. FF is a game series with their own enclosed stories, so a throwback in an important story moment is interesting. Moments and storylines like these make this game special. Nobody expected a Guardian Force to interact so closely with a Story boss. On top of that who would have expected something that one shots everything to lose like Odin did? A lot of these Guardian Forces aren't even required to acquire in order to advance the story, so getting them feels impactful gameplay and story wise in this game. Especially since this game links all of your extra junctions and abilities for your party to the GFs themselves. With the defeat of Seifer, it feels like Squall's main purpose has been fulfilled. But Squall is a complicated character with significant development throughout the game. He meets this girl called Rinoa at a party. She happens to be a rebel leader of a small force. Compared to Squall she seems so outgoing and aggressive. But Squall could feel a special connection. She was just the person Squall needed to develop into a leader, a man, and a great person. In fact when she gets launched into space, Squall knew he couldn't live without her. He would sacrifice everything to save her. When saving her, a beautiful song is played "Eyes on Me" by Faye Wong. A perfect song to match the situation on top of an already perfect soundtrack thus far. Side note is I watched a movie with Faye Wong starring in it called Chunking express and she was amazing. Going to post this half now in case I lose it, because I gotta go. To be Continued... |
Okay part 2.
#3 Final Fantasy VIII
Be aware of spoilers. You have been warned.
All I have gushed about so far is the amazing storyline, but now the combat deserves some merit too. For someone who has no idea how it works, it would make for a solid and challenging playthrough. It is a very unique system where you have to junction abilities to stats and magic. It becomes closer to the job system than the traditional JRPG where everybody can do a little bit of everything. Except in this game, everybody can do everything, you just get the choice in doing so, they just can't always do it because of the link to the Guardian Forces. For example leveling up a GF that can use steal or a GF that is combat oriented or magic oriented. Then you can put those special GFs on anybody. At fist just doing whatever and not farming up any magics can lead to a decent story challenge as most first playthroughs might do. Beating the final boss is always difficult, but with efficient junctions, magic and item usage, it is doable even without farming. Somehow as a kid, without a strategy guide or the Internet, I managed to also get all of the secret GFs in a normal playthrough. I must have noticed how many empty spaces were on the GF screen and just had to figure out how to get them. I felt that all of that counts for intuitive gameplay for a first playthrough. But then I got older and replayed the games, upon 2nd and 3rd playthroughs I realized many things. So these extra playthroughs can be just as special. Now with expert knowledge of the junction system and a desire to beat the game efficiently, one can easily take advantage of the farming and make most fights completely trivial. By grinding key magics, and keeping your level low, each fight is done in seconds. Your power is based on junctions but the enemy power is based on your level. Junctioning powerful magic to the best matching attribute will give you a great stat boost. With this one can simply enjoy the story in full again and be satisfied with mastery over a game that once beat you down over and over again. Another way to grind is through cards. And well these cards are obtained through the best minigame in Final Fantasy, Triple Triad. This minigame was so good that they ported it to FFXIV to be the main minigame for the MMO as well. Starting from the bottom with pathetic cards and working your way up is so addictiing. The strategy put into placing your cards in order to maximize your offensive and defensive potential is just immaculate. You can card your enemies in battle as well instead of getting loot.
Getting money is also an entirely different system, where you get money based on your rank, and only over time. Your rank can be improved quite easily, especially in the 2nd playthrough by doing well with the early missions. Otherwise you have to take the tests that teach you about the game in Balamb. Speaking of Balamb, other story aspects I forgot to mention earlier that were awesome include the battle of Galbadia. IE the battle of the gardens, or in other words gigantic flying cities with militarized students fighting for their lives. Other aspects include unlocking the airship Ragnarok, or dealing with time compression, a very complicated but unique plot point. This game came shortly after FFVII, but also shortly before FFIX, 2 great games in the FF series. But it has such a unique take on the FF series that it definitely finds it's place in my top 3 games of all time, and I think it warrants a try from any RPG fan.
Well I guess I was wrong and still wrote a ton about this game, same as the others. Even distant memories flow into my brain as I think about this game again. I hope to play it again soon, and once again experience the story of Squall, Laguna, Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Rinoa, Quistis, and all of the others.
