Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-10-07 09:37 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-10-07 09:37 am
Entry tags:
Right And Wrong Are Not What Separate Us And Our Enemies.
Just finished the first disc on my replay of Final Fantasy VIII! I just want to talk about this game at all times.
(Both Balamb and Galbadia Garden are joining forces with the general from the Galbadian Army. Why? ...No point in me thinking about it. SeeDs aren't meant to question why.)
Oh, Squall. He can only see himself as a tool; any misgivings or questions he might have don't matter.
When I first played this game, it was on a very dark screen and I couldn't see the rifle in the clocktower, so I didn't pick it up and nothing happened. Because I was thirteen, and because General Caraway had said we were to take the shot at 20.00, and because I had over nineteen hours of gameplay time, I assumed I was just supposed to wait until the gameplay clock hit twenty hours. It did not occur to me that 'make the player wait for half an hour' would be terrible game design, and I was very confused when it didn't work.
Caraway: So, who's going to lead this operation?
(everyone looks expectantly at Squall)
(long pause while Squall unsuccessfully wills everyone to stop looking at him)
Squall: I will.
It's cute that Squall thinks (Sorry, Zell) before naming Quistis as the leader of the gateway team. Squall's not great at reading people and often fails to pick up on how others are feeling, but Zell overcomes Squall's weakness by being extremely easy to read.
I'm impressed by Rinoa's boldness in going in person to trick Edea into wearing the power suppressant bangle. I mean, it's not a great plan and she's ultimately just putting herself in danger, but I can't hold that against her. She's the one halfway normal seventeen-year-old in this cast of traumatised child soldiers and she just wants to prove herself.
Rinoa's possessed swaying is genuinely unsettling.
I love that the crowd don't pause in their cheering for a moment as Edea insults them, threatens them and murders the president in front of them. They know what they like.
I also love that you can run straight up to the podium over the cheering crowd. We're the best at stealth missions.
General Caraway was all 'oh, we can't make a ruckus before the parade, they might cancel it', but Edea literally just killed the president in public and she's still getting a parade in her honour.
I like that Squall pushes out all personal thought until they've saved Rinoa and made it to their post in the clocktower, and only then takes a moment to think, (Seifer... So he's alive.)
(If I were to face the sorceress directly... would I have to go through Seifer? ...That's the way it goes as a SeeD. You can't choose your enemies...) And then he says, 'I may end up killing Seifer,' as bluntly as that.
Fading out on Squall's facepalm after Irvine says 'I can't do it' is the most hilarious possible ending to that very tense scene. It's terrible for everyone; Irvine's in turmoil, and, if Irvine can't make the shot, Squall will have to fight Seifer. But it's also very funny.
I also love that, when the scene comes back to them, Squall yells 'Irvine Kinneas!!' at him like he's a misbehaving child or pet, rather than a sniper who's refusing to shoot.
Final Fantasy VIII has never really been a story about saving the world. It's a story about Squall, how he develops, how he learns to connect to people. The events of the plot can feel a bit all over the place in later discs, and the villain's motives are unclear. But, at the heart of it all, the thread of Squall's development remains, and the story holds together a lot better once you realise that that's the story.
That said, the bit where you go to space for medical care is still pretty weird.
(Both Balamb and Galbadia Garden are joining forces with the general from the Galbadian Army. Why? ...No point in me thinking about it. SeeDs aren't meant to question why.)
Oh, Squall. He can only see himself as a tool; any misgivings or questions he might have don't matter.
When I first played this game, it was on a very dark screen and I couldn't see the rifle in the clocktower, so I didn't pick it up and nothing happened. Because I was thirteen, and because General Caraway had said we were to take the shot at 20.00, and because I had over nineteen hours of gameplay time, I assumed I was just supposed to wait until the gameplay clock hit twenty hours. It did not occur to me that 'make the player wait for half an hour' would be terrible game design, and I was very confused when it didn't work.
Caraway: So, who's going to lead this operation?
(everyone looks expectantly at Squall)
(long pause while Squall unsuccessfully wills everyone to stop looking at him)
Squall: I will.
It's cute that Squall thinks (Sorry, Zell) before naming Quistis as the leader of the gateway team. Squall's not great at reading people and often fails to pick up on how others are feeling, but Zell overcomes Squall's weakness by being extremely easy to read.
I'm impressed by Rinoa's boldness in going in person to trick Edea into wearing the power suppressant bangle. I mean, it's not a great plan and she's ultimately just putting herself in danger, but I can't hold that against her. She's the one halfway normal seventeen-year-old in this cast of traumatised child soldiers and she just wants to prove herself.
Rinoa's possessed swaying is genuinely unsettling.
I love that the crowd don't pause in their cheering for a moment as Edea insults them, threatens them and murders the president in front of them. They know what they like.
I also love that you can run straight up to the podium over the cheering crowd. We're the best at stealth missions.
General Caraway was all 'oh, we can't make a ruckus before the parade, they might cancel it', but Edea literally just killed the president in public and she's still getting a parade in her honour.
I like that Squall pushes out all personal thought until they've saved Rinoa and made it to their post in the clocktower, and only then takes a moment to think, (Seifer... So he's alive.)
(If I were to face the sorceress directly... would I have to go through Seifer? ...That's the way it goes as a SeeD. You can't choose your enemies...) And then he says, 'I may end up killing Seifer,' as bluntly as that.
Fading out on Squall's facepalm after Irvine says 'I can't do it' is the most hilarious possible ending to that very tense scene. It's terrible for everyone; Irvine's in turmoil, and, if Irvine can't make the shot, Squall will have to fight Seifer. But it's also very funny.
I also love that, when the scene comes back to them, Squall yells 'Irvine Kinneas!!' at him like he's a misbehaving child or pet, rather than a sniper who's refusing to shoot.
Final Fantasy VIII has never really been a story about saving the world. It's a story about Squall, how he develops, how he learns to connect to people. The events of the plot can feel a bit all over the place in later discs, and the villain's motives are unclear. But, at the heart of it all, the thread of Squall's development remains, and the story holds together a lot better once you realise that that's the story.
That said, the bit where you go to space for medical care is still pretty weird.