Long story short: An introvert 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
