Final Fantasy VIII General Discussion

[leadmyskeptic]

I intended to do more and just ended up devoting my energy to other things. I don't currently have any plans to translate what's left from that book (the character profiles), but never say never.

Well, I understand it's a lot of work, and obviously 8 is not exactly a hot cultural potato at the moment so...but I'll keep my fingers crossed! Maybe I should paypal you some money for inspiration ; )

And...okay, I get that Adel was possessed during the initiation of time compression, but the whole Adel's "reign of terror" thing referred to in the game...was that actually Adel being Adel or just another possession? Cos as I understand it, she, unlike the other potential witches, was evil herself rather than just a benevolent vessel.

Sicarius: Sounds about right, on the whole, and you're right about the villain being treated very differently. Glad you dug the main cast though. And the Draw system was considered by many at the time to be a game-killer; it's still one of the most disliked battle systems...I just consider it an annoyance rather than a game-breaker, but that's still a shame to say about one of the main systems of a game

 

[Lex]

Scoundrel graffiti found on random wall

 

[ForceStealer]

Poor, misled youths.

 

[Cthulhu]

Poor, misled youths.

user was banned for this post.

 

[Kuja9001]

And...okay, I get that Adel was possessed during the initiation of time compression, but the whole Adel's "reign of terror" thing referred to in the game...was that actually Adel being Adel or just another possession? Cos as I understand it, she, unlike the other potential witches, was evil herself rather than just a benevolent vessel.

I believe it was all her. Ultimecia wouldn't have had "time" to do anything else since Time Compression was used immediately after the battle.

Also I read somewhere that when a witch uses too power they start to mutate soo apparently she used her power a lot.

 

[Lex]

Adel is creepy as fuck all round tbh. The way the narrative handles her makes her even creepier. She has three lines of dialogue in one of Laguna's flashbacks and that's it, even though she's alluded to and mentioned an absolute shitload in the last third of the game.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Aha! Okay, Which-Sorceress-Was-Responsible-When Crisis resolved, thanks guys. Adel IS creepy as fuck. Especially the whole, in addition to the minimal 3 lines of dialogue you mentioned above, the creepy, punctuation-less ramblings she transmits through the Timber TV Station: "IAMALIVEHERE........IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETABOUTME"

 

[Kuja9001]

Adel is the reason for the communication issues that plague the world.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favorite FF worlds because it really did feel like there was a bunch of other stuff going on in the world that didn't have anything to do with the "Main" conflict/storyline. It's simply "there" as Squall and Co. pass though the area.

Fisherman's Horizon, Shimi Village, monsters dropping off the moon, etc. There's all these things that can be checked out that don't have a lot to do with stopping Time Compression. I feel like if the game were to be made nowadays, a lot of the side content wouldn't have made it in.

 

[Kuja9001]

I feel that VIII is one of the few games that should've had prequels and side games.

A Laguna prequel has way more opportunities than a Jecht, Braska, and Auron title. So much blan space there so no need to pull a crisis core and screw up the important bits.

I read a great fanfic 8 yrs ago about the origins of the GFs and battle against Hyne.

I'd even like a game, anime, novella about Ultimecia or a witch during her time period.

 

[Clement Rage]

I believe it was all her. Ultimecia wouldn't have had "time" to do anything else since Time Compression was used immediately after the battle.

.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this. After the Adel battle? How would that prevent her from possessing Adel in her 'ruling Esthar' days?

Otherwise it's pretty coincidental that Adel was also a sorceress that took over a country to tear the world apart looking for Ellone.

 

[Kuja9001]

I believe it was all her. Ultimecia wouldn't have had "time" to do anything else since Time Compression was used immediately after the battle.

.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this. After the Adel battle? How would that prevent her from possessing Adel in her 'ruling Esthar' days?

Otherwise it's pretty coincidental that Adel was also a sorceress that took over a country to tear the world apart looking for Ellone.

After killing Adel, Ultimecia jumps into a younger Adel and time compression is immediately used so she wouldn't have had time to influence Adel in any major way.

 

[Clement Rage]

I believe it was all her. Ultimecia wouldn't have had "time" to do anything else since Time Compression was used immediately after the battle.

.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this. After the Adel battle? How would that prevent her from possessing Adel in her 'ruling Esthar' days?

Otherwise it's pretty coincidental that Adel was also a sorceress that took over a country to tear the world apart looking for Ellone.

After killing Adel, Ultimecia jumps into a younger Adel and time compression is immediately used so she wouldn't have had time to influence Adel in any major way.

Not then, although having time to do things is pretty flexible in a time travel story. I was thinking if Adel's reign of terror was an earlier attempt by Ulti to use her Ellone machine. From what we know, their methods were fairly similar-take over a country, tear the world apart looking for Ellone, and so on.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Remember that Ultimecia needed Ellone in the first place because she couldn't reach far enough back in time (with just the Junction Machine she was using in her era) to cast Time Compression. On the one occasion she went back to Adel's younger days, she cast the spell.

What's most likely is that Ulti briefly possessing Adel when she was younger is what led to the younger Adel learning of Ellone in the "first" place (recall that Edea and Rinoa both understood Ulti's intentions after being possessed by her). Yet another temporal causality loop, like Squall indirectly giving Edea the idea for SeeD and Garden.

 

[Ite]

FFVIII and Prizoner of Azkaban are as far as I can tell the only really satisfying static time travel stories. Weird because one is an interactive medium, and the other keeps shouting about how much free will matters.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Great explanations guys, ya'll have really given me a lot more clarity on a story I didn't understand at all (the first time I played it upon release), then understood the key points (a few playthroughs later), then thought I pretty much had down (past few years)...now I finally put a 'polish' on it : ) Like who was controlling who when, the fact that Irvine 'chokes' because he knows it's their Matron, etc etc...I love a good 'causal loop' in a sci-fi story, and now I realize 8 is chock full of 'em

 

[Clement Rage]

Re: Static time travel, Legacy of Kain is one of the best (not quite impossible to change time, admittedly, but it is really, really, really hard.)

 

[Lex]

So this is pretty cool, I didn't know this (I'm sure a bunch of you will have). Originally Rinoa was present as a member of SeeD (or at least, on the Dollet mission) and there are CG assets that weren't actually properly removed in the final game:

Look at Selphie's shadow:

And Rinoa's on the SeeD vessel:

And here's an early CG shot:

I'd love to see the original video if it exists somewhere.

 

[Miscreant]

I think Rinoa being part of the Dollet mission was just to feature the heroine in the PS1 demo wasn't it? I might be wrong though.

 

[Claymore]

This rings a bell, I think the individual who researched this posted here somewhere (or at the very least, someone linked to the work) but I can't seem to remember where this was. There was detailed research and notes as to the evidence being presented that Rinoa was meant to be included in the Dollet mission in an earlier version of the story.

 

[ForceStealer]

She was definitely there in the PS1 demo. I don't know whether she was originally planned to be there or not.

 

[Tetsujin]

I'd love to see the original video if it exists somewhere.

 

[Ite]

Reminds me of the Ff7 demo where Aeris was on that first bombing mission with the leviathan materia.

 

[ForceStealer]

^Huh, I only had a demo on PC, which was just Cloud in the Battle Square. He had the Hades summon though, which kinda blew my mind.

 

[ultima espio]

So this is pretty cool, I didn't know this (I'm sure a bunch of you will have). Originally Rinoa was present as a member of SeeD (or at least, on the Dollet mission) and there are CG assets that weren't actually properly removed in the final game:

I'd love to see the original video if it exists somewhere.

Here's a little something nobody noticed, remember in the demo for FF8 Rinoa was in the party during the raid on Dollet, and she appeared in the FMV at the end? Well it turns out she's still there in the final version, they didn't remove her properly.

If you watch this from 21 minutes in, at 0.25 speed you can just see her faintly behind Selphie. You can see a part of her shadow as well. You can see it clearer here:

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15894.msg223426#msg223426

Demo version for comparison:

You even thanked me for it