Quote Originally Posted by Goldenboko View Post
Quote Originally Posted by MJN SEIFER View Post
Everyone says that there a no hints to the orphanage scene, but there are - so this could be one of them.
This is such an irrelevant hint that it doesn't hit you until long after that fact, usually one or two playthrough's later.

A good plot twist needs progression, you should be confused as hell at some point before the twist, not after it. The Metal Gear Solid Series pretty clearly shows how to make excellent plot twists that aren't lame or ill-contrived like the orphanage twist is. Plot twists in MGS help shape where the plot is headed and make sense of previously confusing situations such as Metal Gear Solid 1you being the carrier of the FoxDie Virus, which triggered heart attacks in both the DARPA Chief and ArmsTech president. That twist takes past events, two completely unrelated, confusing heart attacks, and connects them, REMOVING holes from the plot and making the game MAKE SENSE. The Orphanage twist is a bad attempt at giving each character backstory, instead of, you know, actually giving them backstory.
That's the whole point Goldenboko! It would have been too easy to say, have the characters say things like "Oh, wait have I seen you before?/No, I don't think so..." and then at the orphanage "Wow! so i really DID see you before!", but FFVIII didn't, they did something far more clever.

They designed foreshadowing so subtle you don't even know it is forehsadowing, until you've completed the game, then you replay the game and you see it "Oh, so THAT'S why Irvine wouldn't shoot Edea!" "Oh, so THAT'S how Squall knew Edea's name", "Oh so THAT'S how Irvive, could second guess Selphie's reactions". It is a brilliant form of foreshadowing because it looks weird when you first play it, but makes perfect sense when you see it again - it is exactly like Cloud's flashback in FFVII when you first see Cloud's version, you except it as reality, but when you see the truth you put all the pieces together, and on your next playtrhough it's basically "Ok, that didn't happen, that didn't happen, that DID happen, that SORT OF HAPPENED".

Also, no offence, but your MGS example further helps prove my point. I'm sure when you first play this game, you are meant to beleive that those are just run-of-the-mill heart attacks, that just happend to kill these guys, right? When I saw the orphanage scene, so many things I had wondered about the FFVIII world made perfect sense.