Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2021-04-03 01:55 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2021-04-03 01:55 pm
Entry tags:
I Saved My Soul To A Memory Card.
Riona's Head: Hey, you should get back to one of the games you've started but never finished. Tales of the Abyss? Tales of Berseria? Spirit of Justice? Steins;Gate? Lucid9?
Riona's Heart: Hey, how long has it been since you last played Final Fantasy VIII?
I told myself a few years back that I couldn't possibly justify ever playing Final Fantasy VIII again. I'd played it so much that I almost knew it by heart. I don't need to replay this game; it's written into me. But the Persona series, with its combination of attending school and fighting monsters, left me thinking about Balamb Garden, and somehow I've found myself back here.
(I'm playing the original, ported without changes to PS3, rather than the remaster. I was excited for the remaster when I first heard about it, but then I learnt it had blurred the backgrounds and reduced Squall's range of movement to eight directions, so I decided against getting it. It's just not Final Fantasy VIII if you can't run around in smooth circles and watch your teammates follow you in perfect step. I'm glad a version exists on more modern consoles, though, so new players can still discover this beautiful catastrophe of a game.)
The fight between Squall and Seifer in the opening cutscene is still rad as hell, over two decades later. Pretty incredible stuff for 1999 3D animation in a videogame, even considering that it's an FMV.
Look at all of Squall's movements! I love him. The realistically proportioned models in Final Fantasy VIII allow for more human, subtle body language than the ones in the original Final Fantasy VII, which had to rely on large gestures, although we're not yet at the point of being able to see facial expressions outside FMVs.
Considering that Final Fantasy VII came out on the same hardware, two years earlier, Final Fantasy VIII is a remarkable graphical upgrade. Square had obviously learnt a lot from their early efforts at 3D modelling and animation.
Balamb Garden! This place feels so familiar. It's good to be home.
Love that this late-nineties game includes an in-game school intranet forum that ends up being shut down because the pupils just use it for arguments and talking about how hot the teachers are. Truly ahead of its time.
The way background NPCs move around, and sometimes appear in a particular area and sometimes don't, is a really cool touch that helps the world feel more alive. I don't remember seeing anything like it before I played this game. In the other games I'd played, characters were either programmed to be in an area or they weren't; there wasn't this element of chance.
This was also the first game I played in which you could overhear conversations NPCs were having amongst themselves, without actually being involved in the conversation. Again, a nice little touch that makes the world feel more real. People aren't just standing around, waiting to talk to you; they've got their own lives going on!
Still can't believe I got lost straight out of the gate on my first playthrough, spent four literal hours wandering Balamb before I found the Fire Cavern, and somehow still stuck with this game. I'm impressed both by thirteen-year-old Riona's patience and by her lack of observational skills.
It's hard to express how much this game means to me. I'm glad it exists.
Riona's Heart: Hey, how long has it been since you last played Final Fantasy VIII?
I told myself a few years back that I couldn't possibly justify ever playing Final Fantasy VIII again. I'd played it so much that I almost knew it by heart. I don't need to replay this game; it's written into me. But the Persona series, with its combination of attending school and fighting monsters, left me thinking about Balamb Garden, and somehow I've found myself back here.
(I'm playing the original, ported without changes to PS3, rather than the remaster. I was excited for the remaster when I first heard about it, but then I learnt it had blurred the backgrounds and reduced Squall's range of movement to eight directions, so I decided against getting it. It's just not Final Fantasy VIII if you can't run around in smooth circles and watch your teammates follow you in perfect step. I'm glad a version exists on more modern consoles, though, so new players can still discover this beautiful catastrophe of a game.)
The fight between Squall and Seifer in the opening cutscene is still rad as hell, over two decades later. Pretty incredible stuff for 1999 3D animation in a videogame, even considering that it's an FMV.
Look at all of Squall's movements! I love him. The realistically proportioned models in Final Fantasy VIII allow for more human, subtle body language than the ones in the original Final Fantasy VII, which had to rely on large gestures, although we're not yet at the point of being able to see facial expressions outside FMVs.
Considering that Final Fantasy VII came out on the same hardware, two years earlier, Final Fantasy VIII is a remarkable graphical upgrade. Square had obviously learnt a lot from their early efforts at 3D modelling and animation.
Balamb Garden! This place feels so familiar. It's good to be home.
Love that this late-nineties game includes an in-game school intranet forum that ends up being shut down because the pupils just use it for arguments and talking about how hot the teachers are. Truly ahead of its time.
The way background NPCs move around, and sometimes appear in a particular area and sometimes don't, is a really cool touch that helps the world feel more alive. I don't remember seeing anything like it before I played this game. In the other games I'd played, characters were either programmed to be in an area or they weren't; there wasn't this element of chance.
This was also the first game I played in which you could overhear conversations NPCs were having amongst themselves, without actually being involved in the conversation. Again, a nice little touch that makes the world feel more real. People aren't just standing around, waiting to talk to you; they've got their own lives going on!
Still can't believe I got lost straight out of the gate on my first playthrough, spent four literal hours wandering Balamb before I found the Fire Cavern, and somehow still stuck with this game. I'm impressed both by thirteen-year-old Riona's patience and by her lack of observational skills.
It's hard to express how much this game means to me. I'm glad it exists.
no subject
Agreed! Things like his hair and his jawline are never entirely right. Looking at screenshots of the remastered version feels like looking at an admittedly dedicated Squall cosplayer.