1999, (Runoff) Game of the Year

[Jumpin]

Spike0503 said:

What a year! Packed full with classics. But for me? I gotta go with Final Fantasy VIII. I get why people often look down on it and why it's not as highly regarded as VII but for me, it's one of the greatest games I've ever played. The characters, the scale of the story, the world that you get to explore from top to bottom. Everything, I fell in love with everything.

I got to play Metal Gear Solid after this one so VIII was the first time I truly loved a videogame. As a kid, it was (and remains) a magical experience that can't be replicated. Oh and did I mention the music? Best damn OST in any game I've ever played. It covers so many types of mood from battles to romance, to creepy, lonely, peaceful, majestic, etc etc.

The thing about Final Fantasy is there are two different series with two fairly different appeals.

Group A: FF1-3, MQ, 5, and 9 have flawless “Mary Sue” type characters. Group B began with FF4, exploring more rounded characters and more intricate storytelling—FF6-8 and Tactics expanded on that. FFX and onward followed the trends of group B, but because of the voice acting have a different sort of feeling to the previous games. I also think the “Group C” games (such as FF13) have stifled ambition because of the production costs—but that’s another discussion. While the characters in group A have literary traumas, they never seem to manifest as a character flaw the way they do in the Group B games.

For example, Vivi is a clear version of the replicants from Blade Runner. He had the same wound as the replicants, being manufactured with a limited lifespan. The difference is it didn’t manifest as character flaws as it did with the replicants of Blade Runner. Vivi just kind of carried on, and it was like “that’s unfair” and that was that. In Blade Runner, the replicants suffered existential crises, which led to anguish, misery, desperation, and rage. It led to the rebellion against the creators in the Tyrrell corporation.

The audiences are different too; although there’s probably a bit of a spectrum. Some audiences expect flawless characters and prefer clear-cut "good guys vs. bad guys" narratives—black and white. They don’t enjoy well-rounded characters unless other elements outshine the character flaws. Others prefer more complex characters who have flaws and strengths which drive story and conflict. Outside of Final Fantasy, I’d say a rough example of this would be the two versions of The Office. Mary Sue/Group A fans will like Jim Halpert, but at the other end there are those who will be more interested in Tim Canterbury’s story. I’d guess people are probably somewhere in the middle.

To clarify, I’m not saying that ensembles of Mary Sue characters (like in the group A FF games) are bad—just a different way of creating characters for a game. One of my favourite games, Skies of Arcadia, has a cast of Mary Sue characters. They fit the game because the focus of the game isn’t the character stories, but the exploration of the world. It’s a joy seeing their reactions and amazement to discovering it. 

Just an observation: the people who “hate” FF8 by far the most are also the most negative people in these threads. Same behaviour as in other threads where they’ll bring up something they claim to hate, yet can’t stop discussing. A bit of a rot on these threads dating back to at least 1991. They seem to struggle with seeing things beyond black and white and also express their opinions as though they’re objective facts. Maybe they’re emotionally stunted? Maybe they’re just angry, negative people? But they also happen to all be gushing fans of FF9.