Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (Steam)
Dec. 31st, 2022 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWhile FF8 doesn’t get the full multi-game total rebuild treatment that FF7 did, it warranted a facelift and a new version release for Steam. It’s been quite a while since I played this and wanted to revisit it. And I apparently have a lot to say about it!
The graphics are noticeably enhanced, but inconsistently: The sprites are still jagged but a lot clearer than the originals. The FMV segments are noticeably improved; and they were already really good for the time. But there are still plenty of points, particularly in-system animation, where you know you’re playing a PS1 game.
Several “enhancements” come built in, the most important of them being a “triple speed” toggle that affects battles and map movement. There’s also a no encounters toggle and a “battle bonus” toggle; and the latter makes your limit break always available and your characters’ turns come up much more often. I find it hard to believe I played through this three full times (mostly during college) at normal speed. Including lots of grinding! (Though my most recent playthrough was in the fall of 2005, so no wonder I don’t actually remember a lot of the flow of the game!) I played the first five hours or so in 2020, and then lost track of the play-through. I started again when I realized that in addition to the basic enhancement toggles, there’s a full cheat menu that becomes available a little ways into the game, giving you things like max items, magic and GFs. (Though at the cost of turning off Achievements, but that’s fine.)
I liberally used the cheats for this playthrough to avoid needing to game the system or slavishly follow a walkthrough to find all the items. I also played less than a dozen games of Triple Triad. This game was the high water mark of “We expect you to buy the strategy guide,” because it’s just lousy with missables. The fact that the GFs—the most critical “equipment” by far—are almost all either attached to one-time-only bosses or hidden in obtuse sidequests is almost criminal. Like, FF5 is annoyingly bad about missable Blue Magic or songs, but you don’t need either of those to beat the game; it’s all completionist. If you make it to Disc 4 of this without doing the sidequests, plenty of things are gone forever and most of the rest require an obtuse trick of riding a Chocobo halfway around the world to retrieve your ship.
In each of my previous playthroughs, I did variations of the full system-breaking grind: You try to gain as little XP and as few levels as possible until the end of Disc 3, generally through the Enc-None ability and extensive use of the Card command. You spend battles carefully drawing 100 of any new spell for all three active characters so you can always have the best magic to junction, but you basically never cast spells from your stock. (And you get Mug so you can steal items to refine better magic and upgrade weapons.) Then, once you have all the GFs, you’ll be able to equip two characters with Abilityx4 and Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus and Spr Bonus. Kill the third character, and go to the Island Closest to Hell, where all enemies are max level and there are high-level magics available to draw. Junction Death to your status-attack and grind each pair of characters to Level 100, and along the way they’ll gain ~80 points in each stat. (This will take a few hours of running in circles, mind you.) Then you can tackle the final dungeon and boss with maxed-out characters. Is it worth it? In retrospect, probably not, but I didn’t have tappy phone games back then.
Plot stuff: I had in my head for years that the mystery woman Squall sees in the infirmary when he first wakes up was Rinoa, but it’s actually Ellone; something you’d never, ever catch on your first playthrough and I managed to miss despite at least three full playthroughs of the original version.
I had forgotten how much of the first act was setpieces and grinding; and how much of the plot is driven by immature superpowered teenagers making boneheaded decisions. The main characters of FF8 are fallible in ways that most FF protagonists aren’t—that is, they’re extremely capable with their plans and missions, but then will act on impulse in ways that either make everything much harder or just screw it up entirely. (Hey, maybe turning deeply-traumatized war orphans into child soldiers isn’t actually a great idea? Hmm.)
I’d also managed to forget how terrible some of these dungeons were: Space-filling designs with insanely repetitive architecture and only random battles to break up the monotony. The Galbadian sewer is bad enough (at least there’s a vague puzzle-like nature to navigating the six identical areas), but the prison is horrible: A dozen totally identical floors that you’re forced to run around over and over again. I’m reminded of Xenosaga by the fact that extensive time was spent on town setpieces which then get re-used as dungeons…and seem a lot bigger than the are because of how long it takes to cross each screen and the number of random battles during that time. Multiple towns in this have fast-travel methods (the buses in Galabadia or the transport tubes in Esthar) that basically just take you to the next screen.
The game also has a weird tendency to make you wait around for events—like, hey, wander this area until you hit a plot trigger (Galbadia Garden or Laguna’s time in Winhill) or just stand around in a room talking to people until plot randomly happens (any train ride, many plot-dependent rooms, the prison cell, etc).
The story gives you deep insight into the thoughts of the taciturn teenage protagonist and explores the nature of the past and memory and what we give up as we move forward. The fact that the main characters are literally trading their memories of the past for the power to move forward while the antagonist is driven entirely by her memories and desire to regain the past was lost on me when I first played this.
(The reveal that GFs destroy their users’ memories retroactively makes the tutorial sequence at the beginning make more sense than pretty much any other: “Do you remember how to use your weapon?” is probably a standard SeeD mission prep question!)
The constant putting Squall in charge doesn’t make much sense (besides him being the main character, of course) until the last scene with Edea in the past: She realizes who he is and learns (from him!) that he’ll be the one leading the mission to defeat Ultimecia. She shares that information with Cid, who then knows there’s a time-loop/destiny to maintain when Edea takes power in Galbadia, so he pushes Squall into command.
Oh, and I think it was my third play-through that I finally caught on that Laguna was Squall’s father (which is obvious but neither character ever puts it together): Laguna got Raine pregnant before he went to Esthar to rescue Ellone, but didn’t realize that and sent Ellone home without him so he could help overthrow Adel. When Raine died, Squall and Ellone were sent to Edea’s orphanage together. Ellone is probably the only character who actually realizes this fact.
And having it fresh in my mind, I remain very enamored with the “Rinoa is Ultimecia” theory. Square has officially poo-pooed it, mind you, and maintain that Ultimecia is a “space flea from nowhere” with no connection to the core cast except as an antagonist. That said…it actually makes a huge amount of sense and makes a number of the themes and foreshadowing work better. The gist is that sometime in the future, Squall dies and Rinoa goes mad with grief, seeking to use the Junction Machine Ellone to revisit her past, and compress time into a single point so that she can never lose anyone again. But using GFs (like Griever, who she unleashes in the final battle) destroy your memories, so in the process of gaining the power to manipulate time she forgets the actual reason she wants to do it. Rinoa is the only remaining Sorceress at the end of the game (where there had always been at least two previously). Ultimecia wields Griever, which is modeled on the ring Squall gives Rinoa. When Ultimecia is defeated, she goes through time to Edea’s orphanage, specifically the place that Squall told Rinoa she could always find him. Squall offers to be Rinoa’s Knight; and Ultimecia recruits Seifer, the only other gunblade-wielder, to be her Knight. Rinoa specifically comments (as they land the Ragnarok) that she wants the present to stand still so she can be with Squall; and also comments that it would be okay if Squall killed her if she went evil. And it depends how you interpret the final trippy sequence, but it sure looks to me like Rinoa used her Sorceress power to break time and reality and get Squall back from where he got himself lost after the Time Compression. If she’ll unleash her power that way once, why not again?
(This also gives an actual backstory and motivation to Ultimecia, and turns the entire game into a time-loop, which Final Fantasy games are admittedly fond of. Ellone notes several times that you can’t change the past; what you did or didn’t do is always what happened. So Ultimecia’s actions were always destiny and part of the loop.)
On the other hand, I’m entertained by the Squall Is Dead theory, but don’t pay it much heed. Final Fantasy games are weird and often ridiculous--the very first one had a space station!--and I think there are decent explanations for most of what they call out.
Overall: This was an adventurous game; both ground-breaking and very much a product of its time. The character development system is like nothing seen before or since; it’s incredibly breakable but interesting at the same time. The dungeons are gorgeous and inventive and often frustrating and boringly repetitive. The scenery is gorgeous and I spent five minutes wandering the orphanage flashback because I couldn’t figure out that the path to the beach was a place you could actually walk to…which was a common problem. It’s a game that desperately needs “where to go next” arrows; and the fast-forward button massively improves the modern play experience. I love what it inspired and don’t think I’ll ever play it “honestly” again.
The graphics are noticeably enhanced, but inconsistently: The sprites are still jagged but a lot clearer than the originals. The FMV segments are noticeably improved; and they were already really good for the time. But there are still plenty of points, particularly in-system animation, where you know you’re playing a PS1 game.
Several “enhancements” come built in, the most important of them being a “triple speed” toggle that affects battles and map movement. There’s also a no encounters toggle and a “battle bonus” toggle; and the latter makes your limit break always available and your characters’ turns come up much more often. I find it hard to believe I played through this three full times (mostly during college) at normal speed. Including lots of grinding! (Though my most recent playthrough was in the fall of 2005, so no wonder I don’t actually remember a lot of the flow of the game!) I played the first five hours or so in 2020, and then lost track of the play-through. I started again when I realized that in addition to the basic enhancement toggles, there’s a full cheat menu that becomes available a little ways into the game, giving you things like max items, magic and GFs. (Though at the cost of turning off Achievements, but that’s fine.)
I liberally used the cheats for this playthrough to avoid needing to game the system or slavishly follow a walkthrough to find all the items. I also played less than a dozen games of Triple Triad. This game was the high water mark of “We expect you to buy the strategy guide,” because it’s just lousy with missables. The fact that the GFs—the most critical “equipment” by far—are almost all either attached to one-time-only bosses or hidden in obtuse sidequests is almost criminal. Like, FF5 is annoyingly bad about missable Blue Magic or songs, but you don’t need either of those to beat the game; it’s all completionist. If you make it to Disc 4 of this without doing the sidequests, plenty of things are gone forever and most of the rest require an obtuse trick of riding a Chocobo halfway around the world to retrieve your ship.
In each of my previous playthroughs, I did variations of the full system-breaking grind: You try to gain as little XP and as few levels as possible until the end of Disc 3, generally through the Enc-None ability and extensive use of the Card command. You spend battles carefully drawing 100 of any new spell for all three active characters so you can always have the best magic to junction, but you basically never cast spells from your stock. (And you get Mug so you can steal items to refine better magic and upgrade weapons.) Then, once you have all the GFs, you’ll be able to equip two characters with Abilityx4 and Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus and Spr Bonus. Kill the third character, and go to the Island Closest to Hell, where all enemies are max level and there are high-level magics available to draw. Junction Death to your status-attack and grind each pair of characters to Level 100, and along the way they’ll gain ~80 points in each stat. (This will take a few hours of running in circles, mind you.) Then you can tackle the final dungeon and boss with maxed-out characters. Is it worth it? In retrospect, probably not, but I didn’t have tappy phone games back then.
Plot stuff: I had in my head for years that the mystery woman Squall sees in the infirmary when he first wakes up was Rinoa, but it’s actually Ellone; something you’d never, ever catch on your first playthrough and I managed to miss despite at least three full playthroughs of the original version.
I had forgotten how much of the first act was setpieces and grinding; and how much of the plot is driven by immature superpowered teenagers making boneheaded decisions. The main characters of FF8 are fallible in ways that most FF protagonists aren’t—that is, they’re extremely capable with their plans and missions, but then will act on impulse in ways that either make everything much harder or just screw it up entirely. (Hey, maybe turning deeply-traumatized war orphans into child soldiers isn’t actually a great idea? Hmm.)
I’d also managed to forget how terrible some of these dungeons were: Space-filling designs with insanely repetitive architecture and only random battles to break up the monotony. The Galbadian sewer is bad enough (at least there’s a vague puzzle-like nature to navigating the six identical areas), but the prison is horrible: A dozen totally identical floors that you’re forced to run around over and over again. I’m reminded of Xenosaga by the fact that extensive time was spent on town setpieces which then get re-used as dungeons…and seem a lot bigger than the are because of how long it takes to cross each screen and the number of random battles during that time. Multiple towns in this have fast-travel methods (the buses in Galabadia or the transport tubes in Esthar) that basically just take you to the next screen.
The game also has a weird tendency to make you wait around for events—like, hey, wander this area until you hit a plot trigger (Galbadia Garden or Laguna’s time in Winhill) or just stand around in a room talking to people until plot randomly happens (any train ride, many plot-dependent rooms, the prison cell, etc).
The story gives you deep insight into the thoughts of the taciturn teenage protagonist and explores the nature of the past and memory and what we give up as we move forward. The fact that the main characters are literally trading their memories of the past for the power to move forward while the antagonist is driven entirely by her memories and desire to regain the past was lost on me when I first played this.
(The reveal that GFs destroy their users’ memories retroactively makes the tutorial sequence at the beginning make more sense than pretty much any other: “Do you remember how to use your weapon?” is probably a standard SeeD mission prep question!)
The constant putting Squall in charge doesn’t make much sense (besides him being the main character, of course) until the last scene with Edea in the past: She realizes who he is and learns (from him!) that he’ll be the one leading the mission to defeat Ultimecia. She shares that information with Cid, who then knows there’s a time-loop/destiny to maintain when Edea takes power in Galbadia, so he pushes Squall into command.
Oh, and I think it was my third play-through that I finally caught on that Laguna was Squall’s father (which is obvious but neither character ever puts it together): Laguna got Raine pregnant before he went to Esthar to rescue Ellone, but didn’t realize that and sent Ellone home without him so he could help overthrow Adel. When Raine died, Squall and Ellone were sent to Edea’s orphanage together. Ellone is probably the only character who actually realizes this fact.
And having it fresh in my mind, I remain very enamored with the “Rinoa is Ultimecia” theory. Square has officially poo-pooed it, mind you, and maintain that Ultimecia is a “space flea from nowhere” with no connection to the core cast except as an antagonist. That said…it actually makes a huge amount of sense and makes a number of the themes and foreshadowing work better. The gist is that sometime in the future, Squall dies and Rinoa goes mad with grief, seeking to use the Junction Machine Ellone to revisit her past, and compress time into a single point so that she can never lose anyone again. But using GFs (like Griever, who she unleashes in the final battle) destroy your memories, so in the process of gaining the power to manipulate time she forgets the actual reason she wants to do it. Rinoa is the only remaining Sorceress at the end of the game (where there had always been at least two previously). Ultimecia wields Griever, which is modeled on the ring Squall gives Rinoa. When Ultimecia is defeated, she goes through time to Edea’s orphanage, specifically the place that Squall told Rinoa she could always find him. Squall offers to be Rinoa’s Knight; and Ultimecia recruits Seifer, the only other gunblade-wielder, to be her Knight. Rinoa specifically comments (as they land the Ragnarok) that she wants the present to stand still so she can be with Squall; and also comments that it would be okay if Squall killed her if she went evil. And it depends how you interpret the final trippy sequence, but it sure looks to me like Rinoa used her Sorceress power to break time and reality and get Squall back from where he got himself lost after the Time Compression. If she’ll unleash her power that way once, why not again?
(This also gives an actual backstory and motivation to Ultimecia, and turns the entire game into a time-loop, which Final Fantasy games are admittedly fond of. Ellone notes several times that you can’t change the past; what you did or didn’t do is always what happened. So Ultimecia’s actions were always destiny and part of the loop.)
On the other hand, I’m entertained by the Squall Is Dead theory, but don’t pay it much heed. Final Fantasy games are weird and often ridiculous--the very first one had a space station!--and I think there are decent explanations for most of what they call out.
Overall: This was an adventurous game; both ground-breaking and very much a product of its time. The character development system is like nothing seen before or since; it’s incredibly breakable but interesting at the same time. The dungeons are gorgeous and inventive and often frustrating and boringly repetitive. The scenery is gorgeous and I spent five minutes wandering the orphanage flashback because I couldn’t figure out that the path to the beach was a place you could actually walk to…which was a common problem. It’s a game that desperately needs “where to go next” arrows; and the fast-forward button massively improves the modern play experience. I love what it inspired and don’t think I’ll ever play it “honestly” again.
