Long story short: An introverted loner's fairytale... or hellish nightmare.

Final Fantasy 8 is a turn-based RPG from the PS1 era. Like any other FFs, you travel the world, fight monsters, earn XP & items and slowly unravel the story. Unlike its predecessors or successors, FF8 uses an awkward system called Junction which requires you to siphon (Draw) Magic out of enemies and then "attach" (Junction) these magic to your Stats via the Guardian Force, which are the "Summons" of this game. Since the monsters and bosses level up with you, you have to take extra time to Draw magic from multiple enemies while not over-grinding Experience.

FF8's story revolves around Squall, a student of Balamb Garden, a military school. This school trains special units called "Seeds" which are then dispatched as mercenaries around the world for anyone who's willing to pay. Seeds know how to junction Guardian Forces and Draw magic from enemies, giving them an edge over regular military soldier. After passing his graduation exam, Squall is promoted to Seed and is immediately dispatched to a highly unlikely task. He is tasked to help the "Forest Owls", a rebel resistance group, into liberating Timber, a city captured by the Galbadian Army. However... the Galbadian Army is currently controlled by a Sorceress, a powerful being that can control magic without Guardian Force or Drawing magic... How will a small group of freshly recruited Seeds pull this off?

On the graphic side, FF8 is a MASSIVE step up compared to FF7. The character models are lifelike and make FF7's Popeye-armed character feel like a joke. One feature Squaresoft mastered in FF8 is the seamless transitions from pre-rendered background to FMVs, the high quality animated movies of the game. They did it in FF7 but again, FF8 makes FF7 look like a pre-alpha school project. These amazing transitions were fully mastered in FF9 and the animation department went on to make Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. FF8 is where Squaresoft proved they had world-class talent.

In the sound department, I consider FF8 to be Nobuo Uematsu's magnum opus. Finally free from the limits of the SNES's sound chip, Uematsu ditched the cheesy MIDI soundboard from FF7 and went beast-mode. Proper orchestral pieces, soothing synth melodies and some baroque bops are sprinkled along this soundtrack. It's still my personal favorite FF soundtrack of all time, as well as the Piano Collection, which I still listen to from time to time.

https://youtu.be/XTqkHghsVX0?si=uAa2FzyO0wmlZm2p

(POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)
The rest of this review will be focusing on Squall and his story in this game. You see, Squall is a bonafide stoic, introvert loner. He doesn't talk much and he comes off as a cold ice cube. He often thinks too much instead of talking and his most often-used reply is "whatever". Unfortunately, Squall is an orphan who spent his childhood in an orphanage, raised alongside other orphans. He was deeply affectionate of his caretaker, a girl called Ellone. One day, Ellone left the orphanage and this gave Squall a massive depression. He would wait outside the orphanage in the rain, staring in the distance, waiting for her to come back, but she never did... and this is when Squall became a stoic, introvert loner.

"She abandonned me... I'm all alone now... I have to be strong and take care of myself... Who cares what the others want or think? Whatever..."

And so, from a very young age, Squall was sent to Balamb Garden in order to become a Seed, the highest ranking unit of the school. As the intro of the game shows, he was able to become one without much effort, simply because it's the only thing he focused on: his abilities, his strength and his mentality. He basically ignores everything around him and do as he's told. He didn't exactly have any other choice...

Squall is lucky because during the course of the game, he befriends the girl whom he's supposed to work for, Rinoa. In the beginning, they just dislike each other. Squall thinks Rinoa's a delusional hairhead and Rinoa thinks Squall's got his head up his own ass. Slowly but surely, they start liking each other. Rinoa's extraverted personality is what helps Squall break out of his introvert shell, which then reveals his most vulnerable side to her: his fear of being abandonned, of being alone.

I think the biggest lesson I learned from this game's story is that you can't let love pass you by. You only have one life and you should not live it all by yourself. No matter how much you're hurt or how lowly you think of yourself, you should not ignore the eyes that are looking at you.

As a teen, I used to think I was lot like Squall. However, unlike Squall, I never found my Rinoa and God knows how many Quistises I coldly ignored because I had my head up my own ass over my stupid problems. As a teen, FF8's story seemed like a fairytale, a dream come true. Now, as a +40 year middle aged man, the story hits me harder, makes me nostalgic of my halcyon school days where the future seemed unwritten. Now, when I think about FF8 or Squall, I just feel this ever-increasing melancholy creeping over me. It's like I'm inside the Time Compression's black void at the end of the game. With no one to anchor myself into, I'm just drifting away in darkness, walking in an endless desert, slowly losing myself. On a comical note, I'm basically the Editor of Timber Maniacs now. I'm the guy with the red cap, the guy which Squall says he never wants to become.

And this is why it's my favorite Final Fantasy. Not because of those dark theories about Rinoa being Ultimecia or Squall dying at the end of disk 2, it's about the absurd thruth about myself being laid bare and turned into a Disney-esque fairytale. A small glimpse of what could have been had I not been so into myself and my problems.

I recommend this game for old school RPG enthusiast and stoic introverted loners.

10/10

PS: Don't let love pass you by!
https://youtu.be/1VNI0PylgV8?si=GbXMtatYEbiHI7ce

So I had some complaints about this game in my head as I was playing through, even at the lowest point of enjoyment I was going to still recommend it but with some caveats about how the draw system adds a very unsatisfying grind and how the main villain is "weirdly underdeveloped".

After finishing it and seeing the ending wrap-up sequences, spending a few hours reflecting on all the plot pieces that fell into place.. it's *so* well written i'm actually left with chills and my complaints are pretty much all blown away. It's also a very sad realization of what the story actually is.

*MAJOR SPOILERS* so please don't click unless you've finished or otherwise don't care.
Ultimecia is a memory degraded, morally degenerated Rinoa stuck in a causal loop and alone in the far future. Her motivation is the obliteration of time in order to end her suffering (although she might not be conscious of the why). Squall's "victory" ends with Ultimecia anchoring back to the orphanage with him before dying and passing her power on to Edea and is actually just a continuation of the loop and Rinoa's endless suffering.


Ultimecia is actually the most fully realized villian in the series. She's the best of girl, and the saddest of girl.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *MORE MIND BLOWING SPOILERS BELOW* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Edit: Let me destroy all distractors forever. This is aimed at the 1st person who responsed but will apply to many other doubters. It's too long for the comments so i'll put it here

@Vagrant It's a theory in the same way the story of the 3 little pigs theoretically has pigs in it.

So 1st I want to bring up "Death Of The Author". Once you put a piece of art out into the world what you intended as an artist is irrelevant, the context is derived from within the piece of work not from without. This is why if you read the Hobbit and then later read an interview from Tolkien where he states "Actually Sam and Frodo are the bad guys" the only thing that changes is the knowledge that Tolkien is somehow so wildly inept he created the exact opposite of what he wanted.

2nd I did discover that somehow people *didn't* think Rinoa is Ultimecia afterwards and was flummoxed and looked into this a bit. Nojima said "No" but retracted it and said that his two co-writers may have intended this, although I refer you back to "Death Of The Author" in any case.

Lastly let's go over some of the story:

• So the causality loop is either Ultimecia > Edea > Rinoa > ??? > Ultimecia which adds unseen narrative assumptions or a fully explored and self-contained Ultimecia (Rinoa) > Edea > Rinoa (Ultimecia).
  
• GFs causing memory loss is emphasized as a major plot twist. Without Rinoa > Ultimecia this would be a contrivance strictly for the purpose of tying the main characters together as childhood friends, which has very little pay off (and notably Rinoa is the only person who was not used in this aspect). When you add the memory loss being used to justify Rinoa > Ultimecia the GF memory loss plot point suddenly pays off massively and justifies its inclusion.
  
• Ultimecia uses and even merges with a GF named Griever. A ring you name earlier in the game for the sole purpose of gifting to Rinoa which she then keeps. Again i'm aware of the claimed Japanese translation but the story I experienced was English.
  
• Rinoa has an angel motif. Her limit break includes growing magical angel wings and her (blue) dress has a graphic of white angel wings on her back. Ultimecia has black angel wings and her (red) dress is a direct design contrast, one dress is open at the bottom and the other open at the top. Both Ultimecia and Rinoa even have very similar faces. It can not be any clearer that they're reverse images of each other.
  
• While we're on the topic Ultimecia's red dress incorporates a feather fringe much like Squall's jacket. In Trabia Garden's graveyard there are jackets placed over many of the graves, if you talk to one student he talks about how he used to give his jacket to his (dead) girlfriend to wear when she was cold. Not my strongest point but I do think it's cool so im bringing it up.
  
• The stated way to survive time compression is to focus on your loved ones and friends. Ultimecia appears back with Squall before dying, why did this happen if she's not Rinoa? There's no justification for this otherwise.
  
• Ultimecia appears to be alone in her time period. Her stated goal is to erase all time so there's nothing left. This is the motivation of a depressive trying to end the cycle they're trapped in, not a power monger.
  
• Inside Ultimecia’s Castle the main painting in the art room puzzle appears to be a sad version of the orphanage's flower field where Squall and Rinoa promised to meet if she ever got lost.
  
• Without Rinoa > Ultimecia than Ultimecia becomes the least developed villain in the entire series; so much so I don't think a professional would ever have opted for such weak characterization and interactions. With Rinoa > Ultimecia she becomes one of the most developed villains in all of gaming.

Like man, there is no other reading of this game. This is the most logical and narratively sound version, it's the best written and most weighted version of the story. It's the version that avoids repeated instances of "Then this happened for no reason" and doesn't use supposed meta knowledge to interpret.

Now go to my profile and give me an award for having enriched the game for you.

This game is confusing, oddly paced and the story is as complex as it is confusing.

It hasn't aged well and I am very much looking at it through the rose tinted nostalgia goggles but I will be damned if I don't still love the combat, the characters, the card game and the completely broken junction system.

There is tonnes of hidden content and secrets so I recommend getting a spoiler free guide to hand as you immerse yourself in the world of giant battling cities, child soldiers, paradoxical time compression and at it's hard a coming of age love story.