Final Fantasy 8 is hilarious
I managed to get my hands on Final Fantasy 8 and in the process of playing it. In the gaming community FF8 has been considered one of the worst series, just slightly hovering above Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. One of the main complaints is the lead hero being a selfish, hypocritical asshole for about 90% of the game. One could liken him to the oft depressed and confused Shinji Ikari of Evangelion fame, but in a way that kinda makes me hate myself for being hypocritical for hating Evangelion, but loving FF8. So I'll just avoid making that correlation.
Even though FF8 encompasses some of the things that I hate the most about the direction the FF series has been going: 3 party members as opposed to 4-5; lack of armour equipping; jobless character classes; in ability to equip different weapons; it still comes together in a such a way that I like it.
I'm not going to lie, I love the characters, their personalities and the storyline. Comedy in the Final Fantasies has often been quite childish. Not because it pandered to children, but the fact that we were dealing with 8-bit and 16-bit graphics, there was little ability to convey comedy without having to go to extremes. FF4 itself had its moments, but the comedy wasn't subtle and more crazily stereotypical than anything else. Even FF7 relied more on stereotypes or outlandish characters say outlandish quotes.
FF8 isn't too far a step above, Arrested Development it is not, but the fact that it does try to advance the delivery impresses me to no end. The fact that everyone is so cheeful around Squall while he himself is as sour as vinegar already makes him hilarious. I find it interesting on how much introspective thinking he has; all the while trying to keep a cool, impartial exterior. It seems to me that every character has an aloofness except Squall.
If there was really any qualm I had with the game is the dependence of the use of Guardian Forces AKA summon monsters. It seems that with every boss battle I would have to use them all the time. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I imagine the use of them would decrease your SeeD rank (a rank that determines the amount of salary you have). Although I think a lot of that stems from my lack of leveling up my characters. Which leads me to the other problem, a LOT of enemy encounters. There are quite a few which I really can't believe happens so often.
But so far it's a great game. I don't know why so many people hate it so.
Even though FF8 encompasses some of the things that I hate the most about the direction the FF series has been going: 3 party members as opposed to 4-5; lack of armour equipping; jobless character classes; in ability to equip different weapons; it still comes together in a such a way that I like it.
I'm not going to lie, I love the characters, their personalities and the storyline. Comedy in the Final Fantasies has often been quite childish. Not because it pandered to children, but the fact that we were dealing with 8-bit and 16-bit graphics, there was little ability to convey comedy without having to go to extremes. FF4 itself had its moments, but the comedy wasn't subtle and more crazily stereotypical than anything else. Even FF7 relied more on stereotypes or outlandish characters say outlandish quotes.
FF8 isn't too far a step above, Arrested Development it is not, but the fact that it does try to advance the delivery impresses me to no end. The fact that everyone is so cheeful around Squall while he himself is as sour as vinegar already makes him hilarious. I find it interesting on how much introspective thinking he has; all the while trying to keep a cool, impartial exterior. It seems to me that every character has an aloofness except Squall.
If there was really any qualm I had with the game is the dependence of the use of Guardian Forces AKA summon monsters. It seems that with every boss battle I would have to use them all the time. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I imagine the use of them would decrease your SeeD rank (a rank that determines the amount of salary you have). Although I think a lot of that stems from my lack of leveling up my characters. Which leads me to the other problem, a LOT of enemy encounters. There are quite a few which I really can't believe happens so often.
But so far it's a great game. I don't know why so many people hate it so.
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