Nojima Interview reveals some interesting tidbits about FFVIII

[Wolf Kanno]

Kazuhige Nojima (Scenario Writer for VII, VIII, X, and KHII) was interviewed in Famitsu recently and fans learned some interesting facts about FFVIII. For those who don't want to follow the link...

• Nojima used his bonus money from VII's success to buy a computer and checked out fan forums to see how much fans loved his work.
• Instead, he got called out for Aerith's death being a cheap shot against the players, which lead him to make sure nothing liked it happened in VIII
• They also criticized the games overuse of flashbacks, which is why they are more sparing in VIII.
• Originally, the first half of the game would have been just Laguna's story before time skipping to Squall's part.
• It even had a unique map for it, but was cut when Laguna's story was changed. Nojima says he has a hard time looking at certain staffers faces, whom I assume he's referring to the team that made the cut map.
• The whole male staff contributed to making Rinoa "cute" which apparently caught the ire of the female staff who criticized the way she walks in her miniskirt.
• Nojima admits that the male staff should have consulted the female staff members more concerning the love story aspect of the game.
• Nojima has come to feel VIII is fine as it is, but apparently had doubts until more recently.
• If he could add an extra episode to the plot, it would be about Laguna.

Thoughts?

[Fynn]

• The whole male staff contributed to making Rinoa "cute" which apparently caught the ire of the female staff who criticized the way she walks in her miniskirt.
• Nojima admits that the male staff should have consulted the female staff members more concerning the love story aspect of the game.

These two points. Hilarious. Sad. Not at all surprising.

Overall, though, I've always felt like the writing in VIII was an improvement over VII's, though I don't know how much of that was Nojima actually improving by taking feedback and how much was just the translation being much more competent. To me, VIII always felt like it got sillier and sillier as it went along but it kinda worked - even though that was most likely not intentional on Nojima's part. I'm also not surprised that Laguna was meant to have a larger role, though in the end I'm happy we got exactly the amount he got - it was that sweet spot of having enough of him to enjoy him, but not so much that we'd grow tired of him.

Still, kinda surprised there was no mention of Squall and how he was written to convey to us both his interior and exterior at once, which I feel was an icnredibly interesting choice to make, but perhaps that's just buried somewhere deeper in the interview and I'm just going by WK's list

[Wolf Kanno]

Still, kinda surprised there was no mention of Squall and how he was written to convey to us both his interior and exterior at once, which I feel was an incredibly interesting choice to make, but perhaps that's just buried somewhere deeper in the interview and I'm just going by WK's list

I believe he's mentioned that in earlier interviews, this one sounds like it was more of a retrospective behind the scenes kind of deal.

[Cell]

More Laguna would have been preferable, imo.

[Jiro]

Interesting to see the way that fan responses informed some of the choices. I'm glad that perceiving a backlash against Aerith's death didn't cause them to completely avoid putting characters out of action: the sequences with Rinoa in a coma are quite effective in showcasing Squall's emotional journey. I think the off-screen deaths are definitely more resonant because no player character deaths occur, too.

[Night Fury]

I'm really surprised to hear that Laguna would have featured more. I do really enjoy those segments because there is such a lovely tonal shift in the game where even the music is completely different.

Man, I really would have loved more Laguna....

[Vincent, Thunder God]

always thought laguna was lacking in terms of narrative cohesion so im actually not that suprised some stuff was cut. actually i think VIIs plot twists worked better, but VIII probably just bugged me because i couldnt get into the battle system. will have to try it again now that i mess around more with mechanics.