Revisiting Final Fantasy VIII (FF8)

Saturday, 26th August 2023

Until now, it had been a very long time since I last played Final Fantasy VIII (FF8). Last couple weeks I played the Remaster on Switch and finished it. FF8 has some flaws, but I remember enjoying the game a lot in the past. Years later, how did a casual playthrough go? Read on to find out…

I should mention this isn't a “traditional review”. This is just my final thoughts on FF8 and the things I want to talk about. You may find it a bit arbitrary. xD

Enemy Level Scaling Madness

To start with I'd like to complain about FF8's obvious major flaw: the enemies level up as you do, except they get much stronger than you do. In my first ever playthrough (years ago) of this game, this really bit me. I spent a few hours levelling up and, I guess because I didn't really know what I was doing, the enemies started wiping the floor with me and I ended up rage quitting the game for a while haha. I did subsequently return to it and finish it in a new playthrough however (although that was also a long time ago).

Anyway, due to the memory of the rage quit playthrough, I gave my “approach” to THIS Switch playthrough some consideration before I started. I decided to go with a somewhat casual approach. I wouldn't go out of my way to increase my level, but I wouldn't avoid battles or otherwise try to force my level low either. I should say I did take the time to draw and then junction 100 of any new spell as I progressed through the game however.

I actually wondered if the game was even possible to complete in this manner, or if I would hit some kind of wall.

Well, I finished it, so I guess yes! And while I wouldn't say the game was a cakewalk, none of the enemies or bosses really gave me tooooo much trouble either. This makes me think you could probably play even more casually than I did, and that it's not necessary to draw 100 of every spell. Although you are going to have to use the junction system to some degree, I could tell for certain without junctioning at all you are definitely going to have a hard time.

However, the game did remind me why I think the enemy-scaling system sucks. There was a point about a quarter into the game where one of my characters levelled up, and all the sudden the very same random encounters suddenly became noticeably harder. Enemies that were harmless before started using status effects. IIRC, one of them even used an instant death attack they'd never used before! And this made me think… what is the *point* in levelling up at all? If you don't level up, you can still junction and become very powerful, but if you do level up it's the same except the enemies are stronger. So there's no positive to levelling up. This seems wrong to me. In an RPG, levelling up should never be a bad thing.

Triple Triad

Okay, now bear with me. I like Triple Triad itself a lot. But when I'm playing the game I just want to… play the game. I don't want to have to stop every time I encounter an NPC to play 10 games of Triple Triad just in case they have a rare card I might miss. And then there's the whole shenanigans of spreading different rules to different regions. I just really couldn't be bothered with it.

Once again I wondered if this was going to mess up my playthrough. Could I reach the end without caring about it? Well yes, I did so there.

I think I'd be more happy with Triple Triad if I knew I could do it at any point in the game and not permanently miss out on any of its cards or rewards. That may very well be the case, I'm not sure. But anyways thinking about it put me off.

Exploration

While this was a casual playthrough, I did take the time to explore, including when I gained the ability to fly around the world map each time.

I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the time I didn't really find much useful items, but I did enjoy exploring just for picking up more story and seeing the many daft things a lot of the NPC's did. I seem to recall a talking cat at some point... and no one can argue with that.

FF8 is Exciting

Alright, I think I'm done complaining now, the rest is all positive!

Story Clarification

I must admit, I did get confused at times. So here's a quick clarification of a few points:

Rinoa is not Ultimecia. This has been debunked by the devs.
Squall is not dead. This has been debunked by the devs.
Squall's parents are Raine and Laguna. Raine is the woman Laguna spent time with in Winhill.
Rinoa's parents are Julia and General Caraway. Julia is the piano woman. Laguna did not end up in a real relationship with Julia due to him being called away on a mission. Julia's relationship with Caraway happened after the piano/hotel scenes.
Ellone is not Squall's actual sister. Raine is not Ellone's mom. Raine took Ellone in after Ellone's parents were killed by Esthar soldiers.
There is only ONE timeline in FF8, and it is a happy ending. At the end of the game, when Ultimecia, Squall and Edea are together in the orphanage due to time compression, Ultimecia transfers her POWERS to Edea, but not her personality or memories. If she had, Ulti-Edea would have memories of everything that happened in the game and would fully recognise and remember Squall as the one who defeated her, which clearly isn't the case.
After the game ends and much time goes by Ultimecia still appears in the future as we know she does from the game, still sends her consciousness back and everything happens as we see it. But the idea is that Squall and co are the ones who defeat her, thus saving the future as well as their own time. I hope that makes sense lol, and be sure to tell me if I've gotten it wrong. 😀
I'm not sure why Sorceress Adel looks like a giant dude when none of the other sorceresses's did. Although Ultimecia does have tranformation that resembles it slightly... maybe Adel just wanted to remain permanently in her Super Saiyan state. I actually think Adel's character and story could have done with a bit more. Like when Ultimecia takes her over the game just sorta does it, we don't see any battle of wills between the two evil and powerful sorceresses. Might have been interesting.

New Features in the Remaster

Square Enix seems kinda arbitrary on its choice of “Boosts” or “Bonus Features” whenever they re-release an older FF. This time there are three:

Speed x3 - Speed up the game by three. This is useful as heck, especially when drawing 100 spells or when the characters are moving around slowly (which happens a lot). Had no qualms with using this since it's just a time saver and doesn't give you any tactical advantage.

No Encounters - Disable random encounters. Basically a shortcut for the GF No-Encounter ability. Another time saver. Could argue it's cheating if you haven't unlocked No-Encounter yet, but meh, it's not like it makes you any stronger. So I say there's nothing wrong with using it.

Batte Assist - During battle, restore your HP to full, enable your limit breaks and makes it so your ATB gauges are all full. I never used this one, felt like it was cheating. But it might come in handy if you're just really stuck and want to progress.

Things I Wish I'd Knew

If you're just playing through casually, here's a few things you might like to know:

You can defeat the mech that chases you in Dollet. Just spam Thunder on it in the SECOND or afterward encounter and it will eventually die. Although, you'll prolly wanna junction your best spell to Magic so you do decent damage...

You should probably research and write down when and where to get all the optional GFs before a playthrough and keep an eye on it while playing.

The point of no return is when you fly into the Lunatic Pandora with the Ragnarok after receiving the order from Laguna. So if you have other stuff you'd like to, e.g. optional GFs, farming magic, etc, DON'T fly into the Lunatic Pandora once you get that order from Laguna.

It's perfectly fine just to have three characters who actually have all the stocked magic and junctions, and to just switch those around rather than trying to stock all the magic on all of the characters. (This might cause you issues if you're going for a max stats/perfect game idk).

I definitely missed a few magazines, cards and probably other permanent missables throughout the journey despite exploring a fair amount. If you care about 100%ing your game (I don't), you should definitely research that stuff beforehand. You can buy most of the magazines later in the game, and before the point of no return, at Esthar, but not all I believe.

The enemies' level is in almost all cases based on the average of your current party.

If you're trying to get Doomtrain GF, and unable to junction adequete defenses against Marlboro, you can just Mug and run the Malboro tentacles. Be sure to save frequently, and stock up on Tents lol.

The Music is Awesome

The soundtrack to FF8 is incredible. Although I already knew that because I've been regularly listening to it on YouTube since forever.

Conclusion

Well frankly I had an excellent time revisiting FF8. Despite its flaws it still holds up years later, and you can certainly play through it without worrying tooooo much about the mechanics and have a good time. I think perhaps if you're a really casual player it wouldn't be for you. If you don't pay any attention at all to the mechanics you're gonna have a very hard time at some point in the game.

The story, characters and music are all excellent and it's a darn good RPG I'm glad I replayed.

Although, it's been a while since I replayed FF7. Maybe it's time...

Oh, and one more thing, if you don't like this blog entry, click here for my reaction to that.