Seifer-Just a plot advancing device?

Anybody else sorely disappointed with Seifer as a character? Personally, I think the game could have been much more interesting if they had gone deeper into stuff like:
1. Seifer's relationship with Rinoa
2. His rivalry with Squall
3. His multiple motivations for becoming the sorceress' knight
It seems to me that these ideas are introduced in Disc 1 and then pretty much forgotten about for the rest of the game. For the duration of disc 1, they make Seifer out to be an interesting and wildly complex character with all these conflicting ideas, emotions, and dreams. I felt for the guy when he never made it as a SeeD. I felt for him when Squall stole his woman. I felt for him when Edea used all this frustration to manipulate him. And I thought one of the greatest parts of the game was when all this erupted into Squall and Seifer's mano-a-mano battle atop the sorceress' float, which instantly reminded me of the duel in the opening cutscene. But after disc 1 ends, Seifer's character seems to get blotted out by all the other stuff. He becomes a plot device, a tool simply used to find the Lunatic Pandora, hand Rinoa over to Adel, and fight the party a couple of times. Seifer was one of the key characters to FF8, and the game lost a good bit of its appeal for me when he ceased to matter. Just curious about what everybody else thinks.

He's a badass with cool moves and great friends,and that's good enough.

Seifer is my fav charecter because unlike other FF villians, they didn't go so deep into his angst ridden past. He was a badass. Plain and simple.

Meh, he's alright. I don't really think he's really a plot device (we didn't make the story, things like that can't ever be obvious enough), but who knows. I got a surreal ending, I can't complain.

I think his background was more effective for being subtile. Since he's not the focus of the game they handled it just fine. :D

I always thought he was a nice enough character he playes is part great a puppet controlled by the sorceress who leaves in pursuit of a dream that´s good enough for me.Plus i like fighting him although is pretty easy to defeat.

We know as much about the characters as squall does, and frankly, I don't think squall cares anymore about seifer than to find out what he does know :p

I think Square was originally intending to bring out the love story more, which is why seifer is on all the promotional images, but they were pressed for time or whatever.

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Originally Posted by rubah

I think Square was originally intending to bring out the love story more, which is why seifer is on all the promotional images, but they were pressed for time or whatever.

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I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. I could never understand why Square would make him out to be one of the central characters, develop him early in the game, and then leave him alone. But the mushy Squall/Rinoa stuff trumps Seifer, I suppose.

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if they had gone deeper into stuff like:
1. Seifer's relationship with Rinoa
2. His rivalry with Squall
3. His multiple motivations for becoming the sorceress' knight

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They did!

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Originally Posted by MJN SEIFER

They did!

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I know they did. But barely. They mention the stuff a couple times and then:

1. Rinoa complains about Seifer being possibly dead and then practically forgets who he was.
2. Squall completely loses his drive to overcome Seifer.
3. Seifer just kind of gets brainwashed and all of his previous motivations no longer apply.

All I'm saying is I expected a little more.

square did as good a job as they needed to do on seifer. considering he wasnt massively important they did just fine.

I thought Seifer was an alright character and fitted well into the story. No can't see much problem with his being there

Seifer serves as Squall's rival, and someone who dreams of being the sorceress' knight. He went through some character developments and achieved his goal, that's good enough. I wouldn't call him the "plot advancing device", Rinoa fits that role more.

Actually, I agree with you, Kain_Highwind. I would have been a bit more please by improving the three points that you stated, however, I still enjoyed the game a lot, and it's one of my favorites.

If the story had included more detail and background/story on Seifer, it would have made the game a bit more enjoyable, and I think the overall mood would carry more inspiration and energy.

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Originally Posted by Kain_Highwind

1. Rinoa complains about Seifer being possibly dead and then practically forgets who he was

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I totally agree with you here.