FF8 True Cast

[countlieberkuhn]

I particularly enjoyed this edition of True Cast, since you got it right down to a tee in my books, as well as showing a couple of characters from angles I hadn't thought about, like Irvine actually being whipped by Selphie. Now you mention it, it is kinda true

FF8 gets a lot of flak for having a story that starts off strong before meandering into strangeness, deus ex machinas (ragnarok ship), and also because of the junctioning system, which makes magic all but worthless except to improve your stats. But on the other hand, it has got some brilliant characters who really come across as believable.

I'll always be singing the praises of Laguna + co, who are responsible for some of the coolest parts of this game. They're loveable, badass, and their battle music is SO much cooler than the regular battle music. They work well as a plot device, they give the story more depth, and as you say, they give Ellone real context, rather than being thrown in merely as a plot device.

My only gripe is that Quistis starts off so well, then the moment she confesses her love for Squall, that's it. She was a cool character, almost like the goodly version of Jihl, in that she's clever, ever-prepared, and knows how to kick some ass. Confessing to love Squall so early on seems out of place, and pretty much eradicates all tension the characters may have had between them right away. Even if Quistis ended up becoming part of a love triangle with Squall and Rinoa, at least she'd have had a little more development, and would have had something to do with the plot beyond the SeeD test.

Irvine isn't so bad. He's a plot device first and foremost as the group's sniper, but at least he does have some relevance later on, as the guy who helps them all remember the orphanage. Plus, even though he doesn't contribute too much by himself, he helps develop Selphie's character a bit, and normally has fun comments to say on a situation.

[Bob]

Yeah, I make Irvine sound like a waste, but he's not a waste, he's just not very important and could've been an NPC almost. He tags along as a sniper, but doesn't snipe her (see what I did there? snipe 'er? sniper? eh? eh? c'mon). He helps in the prison, but wouldn't have if Rinoa didn't drag his ass back. And for the orphanage, somebody else would've remembered at some point. And besides that, he's Selphie's puppy. That's about it.

[Fleck]

From a pure plot perspective, I like Laguna. For pretty much all the reasons you guys list. But I've always been annoyed by Laguna's sections from a gaming perspective. I hate having to swap around my junctions (even though it's just a couple of button presses, I still hate it), and there aren't any good places to level up in most of Laguna's sections, since he's never near an inn and always has a long-ass dungeon to explore. And does anyone else besides me HATE Winhill? "Run to the end of town and back. You did it!" Laguna seems to be JUST for plot, and his combat sections seem kind of shoehorned in.

[Bob]

I've never really cared about junctioning Laguna's crew except in the section (I think just one) where you don't get to pick who junctions to whom, so Laguna just becomes Squall, Zell Ward, and Selphie Kiros. So it always worked just fine for me. One thing I'll discuss that I hate in my upcoming revised review is the auto-junction because whenever I adjust my abilities even a tiny bit, it insists on rearranging all my carefully picked magics. Because yes, I LOVE when they junction Lightning to my attack right before going to a dungeon where enemies absorb Lightning. Yay!

And yes, I hate Winhill, too. I like most of Laguna's stuff, and I like the plot, but that could've really been a combat-less section. Would've had the same impact, minus the annoying.

[agent0042]

That's what Enc-None is for, Bob.


Anyway, I generally agree with your assessment, though after a certain point, most characters other than Squall and Rinoa mostly stop developing. You could have mentioned that.

[Bob]

Well like I said in my Final Remarks, I could have done that, but that does happen in most games. FF7 becomes the Cloud and Tifa story, FF9 becomes the Zidane and Garnet story, yadda yadda. Squall and Rinoa take over earlier than most, but I still think Zell and Selphie stay in the game for a long time. Especially Zell, who's still taking command of the team while Squall is playing spaceman.

And yeah, I know that's what Enc-None is for, but a game shouldn't require it. My ultimate game of FF8 I played almost the whole thing with Enc-None. I got to the end of the game around level...I dunno, 12 maybe? Then I took Cactuar (All Bonus abilities) and Bahamut (4x Passive Ability slots) to the Island Closest to Hell and got to Level 100 while using all those tasty HP Bonus, STR Bonus, etc. exclusively.