Final Fantasy 8 - A critical reevaluation

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I stumbled across this on kotaku today, I thought I should share it with everyone here:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/70336-remembering-the-orphan-final-fantasy-viii/


It is a nice article written by someone called Jack Patrick Rodgers, and it explores some of the deeper meanings and metaphors of the game.
(um, it does contain spoilers :wink:)

A couple of excerpts from the article:

By contrast, Final Fantasy VIII knew exactly what it was trying to be: a coming-of-age story built on the metaphor that growing up is a long, dangerous journey.  What’s even more interesting than the game’s attempts at plausible character development and thematic depth is the fact that it’s part of a larger trend.  Final Fantasy VIII was released only two years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on television and the first Harry Potter novel was published in England.  What all three works have in common is their use of fantasy as a rich, multi-layered allegory for adolescent pain.  Their success paved the way for other genre crossbreeds like Pan’s Labyrinth (childhood fears as nightmarish creatures), Battle Royale (high-school rivalries as ultraviolence), and Veronica Mars (high-school backstabbing as film noir), but while Buffy and Harry Potter have been frequently championed, Final Fantasy VIII has been mostly forgotten.
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and

The game’s other shortcoming is harder to dismiss: the English translation is passable at best, terribly awkward at worst.  Given the sheer volume of text in a 50-hour storyline, it’s probably too much to hope for something that feels more literary (like Alexander O. Smith’s superb translation for Vagrant Story in 2000), but some conversations border on nonsensical.  When a character suddenly starts laughing even when nothing funny is happening, it’s clear that some of the details are getting lost in translation.  The dialogue still makes it possible to follow the plot, but it’s difficult not to wonder if the original Japanese script had a little life or poetry to it.
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The latter suggests that perhaps the Japanese script needs to be visited too  :lol:
I wonder just how many of the older Final Fantays have butchered translations? FF6 was another IIRC


I wont claim that i love this game above all the other FF's, but I dont believe it deserves the hate which often receives.

For Rinoa's sake atleast, I will spread the word:
  Final Fantasy 8 is really not as shallow as it may seem!  :-D
 
8 is my 3rd favourite FF after 7 and 10 but the music score is my fave :)
 
Squall is still a whiny bitch that makes you wish you could play Lagunas entire storyline instead.

That said, FF8 was not a bad game but it doesn't quite measure up to FF7 in terms of (re)playability and popularity.
FF7 has the golden saucer, an entire area filled with good (and some not so good) minigames.
Combine that with the possible complexity of materia setups and weapon/armor/accessory choices and you'll still have a lot of new things to discover after your first few playthroughs.
FF8 has the card game which is brilliant, addictive and simple. But other than that, I haven't found many things that were interesting enough to pursue in a replay.
 
"their use of fantasy as a rich, multi-layered allegory for adolescent pain."

I read that as "emo". And it's true. Squall is quite emo. So emo that he decided to change his name for Kingdom Hearts. Not because he thought Leon would be a cooler name, or easier to remember. He was emo, and had emo reasons for doing it, because he associated the name Squall with his emo memories.

This is not to say that I don't like FF8. I simply don't like Squall.
 
wow, and I thought people might have hated Rinoa the most :-P
It was interesting to note the article only mentioned Rinoa a few times, as though she was nothing but a side-character.
The entire plot revolved around Squall primarily and the changes he underwent as he progressed through the game
.
I liked Squall's design very much, but I agree that his personality came out a little too emo.
I suppose it was this, combined with the annoying battle-system which caused the game to be disliked and considered sub-par by many.

FF7 was recently made available on PSN, I wonder if FF8 will too?
 
I thought squalls story was great,. He is a sociopath....he doesnt want to get hurt again liek when his "sis" ellone was forced away so he rejects people and slowly he changes that stance with the help of Rinoa.

I thought it was a clever love story showing a character evolve and give life a chance.
 
Wow that was a great read!

FF8 is very closely my favourite. 7 being #1 of course.
8's story touched my heart. Was in tears at the end (was only young!)
 
Personally, i thought it was to mushy myself. and there were times i thought squall was being to much of a pansy. But maybe all of this would be fixed with a proper translation? Or is he still a pansy? Who knows.

Magic system sucked in that game though, Use magic, get weaker? WTF?
 
haha I loved the magic....the idea that different spells could make your stats stronger but the more of them you had the better you were and drawing from enemies.

ff8 can be called many things but lzy isnt one of them.  A lot of work went into divising new ideas :)
 
That really was an interesting read.

I'd like to see a project dedicated to retranslating Final Fantasy 8 the same way as we're doing with 7 right now. I can't help but feel some things might have gotten lost in translation, y'know?

It took me about 3 playthroughs to realise Laguna was Squall's father. The only concrete proof you get is if you speak to Laguna on the airship near the end of the game, and even then its slightly obscure and theres no solid evidence.
 
I agree, FF8 was really very well-written, and conveyed a great story. Frankly, there is no such thing as "too emo". It did make Squall less easy to relate to for many people. But, in fact, that was a slight risk on Square's behalf (though not a huge one, considering Japanese youth culture at the time), and I applaud them for taking it in the name of conveying a true-to-vision story. But it didn't make Squall a bad character, at least not in the scope of FF8. Squall was certainly a believable and well-made character, and his half-hearted apathy was right on the mark for that kind of persona.

I've known people who fit the bill as well - very introverted, allowing their own fear and past trauma to dictate their rational mind, and using a false sense of apathy toward the outside world to rationalize/justify it all. Those people may not be very likeable, but understanding what's at their core, beyond their emo exterior, and hidden (or perhaps even flaunted) trauma/weakness, is important in being able to tolerate and/or empathize with them.

Perhaps, that which causes us to dislike a character for its emo persona, is invoking a little bit of Squall in us in and of itself. ;)
 
I agree.  If they had made squall some dumbass vaan type character it would have annoyed me.  They chose to portray someone with mental issues and it was very well done.  I don't care if I liek a main character, as long as the story is good
 
I too feel that this game doesn't get the love it deserves.

To an extent, this is understandable; Square had been on quite a strong run that had culminated in them making the most successful game in its genre ever; it would have been very hard for 8 to have lived to to expectations.

Apart from the delightfully complicated storyline (no generic save the princess, kill the evil bad guy stuff here!), it's by far the most beautiful game of the series. I don't mean beautiful for it's time either; some of the character and level designs really are breathtaking.

And a lot of the hate for it is completely misplaced. Just as many of the things people say when complaining about FF7 translate to "I'm jealous of FF7's success", many of the criticisms of FF8 that one sees lying around the intertubes translate to "I don't know what's going on". A surprising number of people seem to have finished the game without learning how to use the junction system and without learning that there are ways to get spells other than by drawing them from enemies and make criticisms of the game based on the belief that you have to spend hours running around and drawing magic.

And it has the card game, a mini-game matched only by Chocobo racing and 10's monster arena with some of the catchiest music in the series!
 
Wait, you get get magic other then by drawing from enemies/draw points? o.o
 
Wait, you get get magic other then by drawing from enemies/draw points? o.o
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Actually you know it has been a long time since I played this game.  I am sure you could get more spells using the junctyion system to convert items to spells and so forth

yes you definately could....the GF's had abilities like that you could learn  That is how it was possible to make 99 (or was it 100) Curagas.  You had to have the item that could be easily turned into them.  It was very easy to get 99 near the start of the game.  A very simple but essential tool if you wanted to max your stats.

Curaga worked very well on the HP stat.
 
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the GF's had abilities like that you could learn  That is how it was possible to make 99 (or was it 100) Curagas.  You had to have the item that could be easily turned into them.  It was very easy to get 99 near the start of the game.  A very simple but essential tool if you wanted to max your stats.
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Yep, that's the kind of thing I was talking about.  :-P It's actually a pretty easy game (even by FF standards) if you use the GF ability system properly. A lot of people make criticisms of FF8 that suggest they didn't.
 
Althougn Omega Weapon and Ultimecias castle was difficult.  If you get rid of Holy wars , all invincibility and Quistsis' killer 1 hit move, then Omega Weapon was the daddy.  I do wish they would stop giving easy moves to stop hard bosses.

FF7:  Knights of round and Final attack+ revive, Cait Sith's The End

FF8: Holy wars, invincibility, Quistsis ultimate move

FF9:  The friends quest, atleast this was something you had to do though

FF10:  Zanmato made penance a 1 hit kill and was very likely in the European game.  However, most decent people wouldnt use that scummy attack

 :-D

offtopic but I intend to make Sephiroth and Emerald Weapon much more difficult than what they are at present by stopping these moves in their tracks.
 
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