Squall's Dead

[Tranquil]

Squall's Dead - a theory of what really happens in Final Fantasy VIII (http://squallsdead.com/)
Mind is semi-blown, still reading though.

[Sylvie]

Old as tit. It's not true, though. This is the kind of tit that surfaces when a game has an absolutely horrid, vague, and juvenile storyline though. The sad truth is that FFVIII's story was one of the worst in the series. If you ask me, it was the worst.

EDIT: it should be noted how hilarious the Information center is on the main menu. The game gives you all of these unexplained terms and concepts, and then you find the information option and you think, "hey, maybe it can all be described!" and then you realize that all the terms and concepts are like 3-line articles that, more often than not, end with "Nothing else is known" or "It is a mystery to everyone".

[chionos]

This is the kind of tit that surfaces when a game has an absolutely horrid, vague, and juvenile storyline though. The sad truth is that FFVIII's story was one of the worst in the series. If you ask me, it was the worst.

That sums it up pretty good. Squall's a terrible character.

[charliepanayi]

I prefer the Paul is Dead theory.

And the usual FFVIII bashing so I'll just say my usual - I loved the story.

[Sylvie]

I think one of the worst parts was when I had to watch Rinoa and Squall float around in fucking outer space for like 20 minutes, and she's put in a place where there is no reasonable way to survive (even for a Final Fantasy plot) and then the magical benevolent life force of Squall's bleeding heart gives her oxygen in the abyss.

And then there's the orphanage plot twist.

And then there's the stupid half-assedly pieced together time travel concept.

I loved playing this game, but it seems it sacrificed story for gameplay.

[TheAbominatrix]

Oh christ, the orphanage plot twist was the WORST. I was trying so hard to enjoy the game and get into the story, hoping that all would soon be made clear... then they tried to unload that on me. "So... you all knew each other as children. And then you forgot. But now you are all together!"

VIII is pretty much awful, which is a shame because the game play itself was decently fun. The draw system was tedious but not horrible, considering this was the time when a lot of RPGs were trying to branch out a bit on the menu based combat.

Now I find myself sitting here, trying to think of something else nice to say about this game.

Uh... card game? Yeah, the card game was fun!

...

>.<

[Hollycat]

Oh christ, the orphanage plot twist was the WORST. I was trying so hard to enjoy the game and get into the story, hoping that all would soon be made clear... then they tried to unload that on me. "So... you all knew each other as children. And then you forgot. But now you are all together!"

VIII is pretty much awful, which is a shame because the game play itself was decently fun. The draw system was tedious but not horrible, considering this was the time when a lot of RPGs were trying to branch out a bit on the menu based combat.

Now I find myself sitting here, trying to think of something else nice to say about this game.

Uh... card game? Yeah, the card game was fun!

...

>.<

This whole thing.
The cutscenes were nice.
I like Rinoa.
I accept Squall.

For all I care they can send all the other characters to the moon and leave them there.

[TheAbominatrix]

:D I'm the opposite. I though Rinoa was the worst character ever.

Though I agree, the cutscenes were nice. It was that lovely time where the quality of cut scenes was steadily improving and use was increasing, but still before the time when the games just became one big ass cutscene.

[Hollycat]

A grand time it was.

I would like to add Seifer to my list of being awesome. At some points he was well developed and he had an interesting view of the world. At some point he just became blah, but before that he was actually a great character.

I also enjoyed most of the monster designs and the concept of weapon synthesization (I can't spell it) although it was poorly used and didn't show up again till kingdom hearts.

[MJN SEIFER]

Oh christ, the orphanage plot twist was the WORST. I was trying so hard to enjoy the game and get into the story, hoping that all would soon be made clear... then they tried to unload that on me. "So... you all knew each other as children. And then you forgot. But now you are all together!" Sadly a lot of people hated the orphanage thing, but I loved it. I like the idea of characters having a bond before they become friends, and while they attributed the memory loss to a magic phenomenon (the GFs), but to be honest such a thing can happen in real life without reason, we forget various chapters of our lives, but when confronted with them again years later they suddenly resurface and we wonder how we could have possibly forgotten them. While we see the things that remind us of the forgotten memory (in this case being reunited with the faces from our past) we may feel that somehow we are supposed to feel something around them, but until the lost memory is recovered we have no idea what the feeling is, but then we realize it's nostalgia.

I really love how they foreshadowed it, they did it so a casual gamer wouldn't notice the first time around, but when the game is played again we see signs that these characters have met before. They don't ram it down our throats by having Irvine say things like "Hey, haven't I seen you before?" because it would be really cheesy then. They let us find out the twist then replay the game, and see how he acts around them; first he acts like he's expecting them to recognise him, then he becomes subdued, assuming them not to be his friends, just people with the same names, however, when he sees Edea he starts to suspect them again, and waits until he can say it, it's hard for him to put it into words, but he gets there when the moment is right. It's a lot better writing than people give it credit for, I respect your opinion though, but I've always had a spot for uncovered memory stories, especially now for a kind of silly reason.