THE ENDGAME: Final Dungeons of the Final Fantasy Series Part VIII

Final Fantasy VIII: Ultimecia’s Castle

The villainous sorceress that has really only been alluded to and seeks to wipe everything out of existence is your target. But she lives in the future, how will you get to her? Well she’s kind enough to facilitate that for you by compressing time into a singular point. So…stop her?

Of all the dungeons this probably has the least buildup as you don’t even know where you’re going when you arrive there. The anticipation is all established very soon before going there with a sweet scene depicting the initial Time Compression. It’s a spooky scene that really makes you think about what would actually happen if this occurred while simultaneously forcing you to take note of the power of your enemy.

Yet, I admit I was a little disappointed upon my first arrival . This, more than all the others except maybe the Rift, called for a bizarre locale with each area residing in a different time period and maybe certain area existing in “fast forward” or slowed time. But, no, its just a medieval castle. Which is admittedly a change of scenery from the game its in, but still…

The stopped clocks are a cool touch though.

Its a frustrating dungeon too. This is intentional though, its truly a maze. Locked doors, precarious bridges, and swinging pendulums all stand in your way. There’s even a legitimate puzzle or two required to progress. As for combat difficulty, if you’re like me and despised Draw, the boss gauntlet can be pretty punishing. If you spent any time actually accumulating spells they’re pretty average bosses. And, well, random encounters are kind of a non-issue, aren’t they? Like FF6, Ultimecia’s Castle returns to requiring the use of the entire cast, having learned from FF7’s halfhearted attempt. This doesn’t really make it any tougher however because the six characters in this game are little more than receptacles for you to shuffle stats around in.

But enough picking on FF8, this is actually a pretty cool dungeon. It hearkens back to Final Fantasy III in that the final boss is very easily accessible from the beginning but will be incredibly difficult if you do not do some things to increase your chances of success first.

You see, despite being unable to spell, Ultimecia’s one smart cookie and joins Sephiroth as the only villains who thought it might actually be a good idea to put some defense mechanisms into their lairs apart from the cannon fodder that happens to reside there. All who enter her castle lost all of their powers save hitting stuff with their pointy sticks. So upon entering you lose your abilities to cast magic, summon GFs, use Limit Breaks, use command abilities, use items, raise fallen party members, or even save! (For whatever reason junction still works.)

So if you want to stand a chance against the sorceress you’re going to want to unseal these abilities. But how could you release these arcane seals when you can’t even cast magic yourself? Well this is a video game and so you solve it the same way you solve everything else – killing things! Yes, this dungeon’s eight-monster boss gauntlet (not including the bastard that is Omega Weapon) still lacks V and VI’s story relevence, but they must be offed to get your skills back. There is some pretty good variety to them too, from mainstays like a dragon and an Iron Giant, to some goofy looking (Sphinxaur) and cool looking (Gargantua) creatures. It was also a very clever idea and a lot of fun. Its an interesting diversion besides looting (which there actually is not a whole lot of) and forcing you to use some strategy while simultaneously providing a reason for the boss gauntlet. Additional strategy is needed in that you choose the order in which abilities become unsealed, so which is the most important to you?

I can totally hold my breath until I break the next seal.*

Obviously it does not represent as huge a leap in graphics in IV and VII, but its still a very pretty dungeon with scenery that looks very…out of place, which I believe is what they were going for, and very cool looking. The maze of rooms with different keys and floodgates and some tricky puzzles culminating in that suspenseful spiral staircase just ooze atmosphere. The music is very haunting, no inspiring themes here folks, but it is still a great song that fits the scenery. The music to get you pumped up comes in the final boss fights.

Next time is the return of the kryst-, er, crystalline final dungeon!

*The pokemon image belongs to www.vgcats.com