Final Fantasy VIII General Discussion

[Jason Tandro]

So... here's my latest entry. Finally about to begin the Garden Battle. Just had some exposition and Tonberry killing to do.

Journal 7: Last Of the Summer Whine

I know I've used that pun before but I don't care.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Had to dedicate a Journal just to the Garden Battle.

Final Fantasy VIII - Journal 8: 2 Gardens, 1 Cup

 

[Jason Tandro]

And here we are burning through the early parts of Disk 3, to get to the meat and where the game gets truly ball-shakingly fun, where we unlock all the fun toys of Esthar like Ragnarok and the later GFs. It gon git gud.

Final Fantasy VIII - Journal 9: Esthar Is Born

 

[Jason Tandro]

Journal 10: I Spent 15 Minutes Trying To Come Up With a Moon Pun

 

[Clement Rage]

It was roundabout this point that I began to sympathise with General Caraway's 'keep Rinoa locked in her room' policy. Falling off the Garden was just bad luck, but by this point the 'rescuing Rinoa' time is getting excessive.

May I continue to heckle, or should I merely rethink my life instead?

 

[Ite]

You got through SO MUCH CONTENT in that last journal, JT!

 

[Jason Tandro]

Journal 11: Harry Plotter And the Half-Baked Premise

I rip the Time Compression nonsense a new one, gripe about grinding and talk about the last bits of Disk 3 and beginning of Disk 4.

 

[Shademp]

I remember in my first playthrough I got Odin late, so he wasn't killed off by Seifer. It was a genuine surprise when in a subsequent playthrough I acquired Odin early and he got killed off...and what a silly death animation he gets!

Back then I must have relied more on Odin's random appearances, because I was very disappointed with how Gilgamesh wouldn't perform Zantetsuken each time. Plus I feel that Odin is way cooler than Gilgamesh. So I never liked the trade-off.

 

[Tetsujin]

^ I second all of this.

I haven't continued my playthrough since November.
Breath of the Wild is now occupying all my gaming time. D:

 

[Jason Tandro]

Finished my playthrough for the retrospective at long last.

Final Fantasy VIII - Journal 12: Castle Crashers

 

[Shademp]

Thank you for writing this adventure, Jason! I quite enjoyed it.

When you pointed out the regional difference of the red blood being changed to green in Ultimecia's Castle, I got motivated to look up FFVIII on TCRF.

Italian PAL version
Hardly a localization change, but the Italian translation differs from its PAL peers in that it's got an actual Scan message for the Dummy enemy, and it's nothing less than a note of frustration sneaked in by the translator himself! He apparently knew it wasn't going to show up.

Translation:

This translation is killin' me.
It is almost 2.00 in the morning.
I'm tired!!!!
I'm tired!!!!​

EDIT:

ダミー [damii] = Dummy
ゴメンネ [gomenne] = Sorry

 

[Jason Tandro]

Shademp:

Not only is that fascinating, but the video is funny as fuck to watch. Just play this song over top it:

 

[Ite]

JT thanks for the blog, man. It was a joy to read.

 

[Lex]

 

[Claymore]

This is doing the rounds at the moment:

https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-...e&tse_id=INF_48a568f03b0311e78b099bd9c6581d40

***IF*** they were to update VIII, it would be a full remake and not a remaster.

 

[Lex]

Yeah I saw that. I can't really see them doing VIII tbh, though it would be neat.

 

[Cthulhu]

I think it'll all be down to how popular the VII remake will be. If it gets AAA game sales, then hey, moneis.

 

[Lex]

Sure thing, I agree. In ten years, when all the "parts" are out

 

[ForceStealer]

Or Part I will do well, so they'll immediately stick Nomura on the 1st part of VIII to work on alongside Part II of VII and KH3 and nothing will ever come out ever.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Wow. This week in "Misleadingly Clickbaity Gaming Headlines" ...

 

[Ite]

I had a thought about Squall is Dead theory. What if Seifer killed a fellow student during training? The opening video is Squall's first hallucination in the giant DMT trip that is Final Fantasy VIII, perhaps a what-if exercise. What if... I didn't die? Well, he would eventually die by imaplement... starting another what-if exercise. As his mind slowly shuts down things get weirder and weirder...

 

[Jason Tandro]

I love Squall Is Dead Theory for the same reason I loved the Pitioss Revelations theory - it tells a great story and for the most part it feels like there is substantive reasoning put into its creation.

Like the Revelations theory though Squall Is Dead falls apart at the tiniest picking - unless we are meant to assume that all the relevant debunking information from the in-game tutorial menu and the lore from there is irrelevant and all part of the dying fantasy as well which this additional theory could suggest but as I've said before you could literally make that argument about every Final Fantasy:

Spoiler: Spoilers for the first minutes of like every game

FF2- They all die at the beginning when the soldiers attack them (you actually "die" in the fight)

FF3- Couple of spots could work but I'd like to think they die RUNNING THEIR AIRSHIP INTO THE GOD DAMNED BOULDER.

FF4- You could say Cecil (and Kain) die when they deliver the Bomb Ring to Mist.

FF5- Galuf and the Meteor or the ship crashing, take your pick.

FF6- Terra falling into the hole.

FF7- Cloud falling from the plate. (Flowers broke my fall my ass).

FF9- Prima Vista crash.

FFX- Sin attacking Zanarkand.

FFXII- Vaan's brother literally dies in the opening mission of the game.

FFXIII- The Pulse Fal'cie.

FFXIII-2 - The invading of New Bodhum might have done it.

Lightning Returns- Maybe the exception because this game proved Lightning just won't die.

Final Fantasy XIV- 1.0 literally ended with a massive world-destroying calamity.

Final Fantasy XV- You could go by the Brotherhood monster point.

Again I love Squall Is Dead because I feel it has a lot more to offer (and explain) than any other potential "X Is Dead" theory, but we must remember that some ideas work better as fanfiction than canon. I would def like to see your take on that though.

 

[ForceStealer]

As I've said before, I find the Rinoa being Ultimecia theory to be a lot more compelling (even if equally unable to stand up to scrutiny). It puts such an intriguingly dark twist on all the events, considerably moreso than "it was all a dream," imo. It also gives me sorely-needed interest in Rinoa.

 

[Jason Tandro]

R=U is a great story but I think the evidence is far less compelling that Squall Is Dead, which is why I think of it as a lesser theory.

But again, as a fanfiction, that would be incredible! Of course i'm still waiting for my Zell is his own Grandfather through time travel fanfiction...

 

[Ite]

I too prefer R=U for the same reasons as Force.

Were I to novelize FF8... I would do it in first-person present-tense, which is a style choice I usually ABHOR but I think it could work very well with this story. Since R=U is my headcanon, it would probably color the text in places too.

I finally found my old burned PC version, so while I haven't fixed my PS3 yet, my fiance Sarah and I are plowing through the first disc again, cause she's dying to find out what happens (we left off at FH and she knows that a "stupid twist" is coming.)

I used the Hyne save editor to give Quezacotl the Card ability right off the bat, but I think that's all I'll do (unless there's a way to abolish the Random rule without resetting 1000 times.) After my first handful of playthroughs, I think I've found my preferred way of tackling this game: CARDS. Make cards, get AP. Refine cards, get magic. Play cards, have fun. Draw the rare magic. Never run away. FINAL FANTASY VIII.