Every town on the FF8 planet are different eras, Esthar looks like it's the future, and some other towns look like they are from the past.

Wherever Squall and Co are going, they are bascially time traveling to the future, they travel back to past if they go to older towns

Ellone can be able to travel them back to the past (different timeline).
Itīs not the towns.There are seven different eras on the world which are different regions.They are Esthar,Centra,Winhill,Galbadia,Trabia+Balamb,Mordred+Grandidi,FH+sea around.

Crazybayman,stay tune with me.I believe that now that I finally played Crono Cross I can organize better my ideas and show Squareīs intentions on FF8 better reflected on CC.
Let me start from zero.