 IMPRESSIONS To me, Final Fantasy VIII, was a very worthwhile experience. Although this game seems to be even further departure than Final Fantasy VII, from the medieval folklore and legend of earlier incarnations in the series, it was still a legendary RPG with so many elements to make playing the game memorable. The quality of this game really impressed me, and the level of detail paid in both the environments and video was astounding. Just looking at the credit roll of hundreds of names who contributed to it's creation at the end of the game shows why this game is so monumental. I enjoyed the storyline and really gained a strong connection with and identification of the characters. Triple Triad was fun and unique. It was integrated into the game nicely. I missed having to use chocobos as much as VII, but that was okay because they were still there. As always with any game, I saw that room for improvement, where I would have done something better or expanded upon a particular event or set of circumstances such as Laguna's involvement with the overall story and Ultimecia's motivation behind compressing time. In past Final Fantasy's we got a feel of evil from a character like Kefka, or Sephiroth, and saw what deeds made them evil, as well as what aspects of their personalities portrayed this notion. We don't really know much about Ultimecia, and really don't ever see her until the final battle. Sorceress Edea and Adel have more history and background information than Ultimecia, and this leads the player to wonder just what Ulimecia's purpose in the game truly is. The only assumption about her motivations for compressing time and denying existance we can infer is - because she just wanted to destroy everything. It just seems too superficial. In Final Fantasy VI we grew a hatred for Kefka because he did evil deeds like poisoning the water, conspiring with Emperor Geshtal to deceive your party, killing General Leo, and entrapping the Espers in Magicite. Sephiroth killed Aeris and numerous other people in FF7 and we learned the details of his connection with Jenova and grew to dislike him. We know that Ultimecia was manipulating sorceresses though time achive time compression, but we no nothing of what was to be gained for her by doing this. Ultimate Power, is an okay assumption I guess, but what would drive her to lust for this. What was Ultimecia's past? Why did she build that castle near Edea's ancient orphanage? What was the significance of SeeD through time, and what effect did future SeeD have on her? These questions remain in Final Fantasy VIII, and may never be fully answered without going beyond the domain of what the game tells us. Most of the exterior plot seems to take a back seat to the core focus on the growth of love between Squall and Rinoa including Squall's coming to terms with the latent pain of abandonment he experienced in childhood. From early in the game we find out that Ellone, Laguna's adopted daugher and who Squall called "Sis," has been causing Squall and the people who accompany him to relive the memories of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. Laguna eventually leaves the Galbadian Military and settles into the town of Winhill. This is where he meats Raine and her daughter Ellone. He gets married to Raine, but she is killed and dies. He eventually fulfills his dream of pursuing journalism and finds himself in Esthar where he must rescue Ellone from Doc Odine and Adel. He aids the resistance against Adel in entrapping Sorceress Adel and ending the Sorceress War. He is made president of Esthar, and eventually runs into Squall, (I believe Squall is his son, but I'm not entirely positive) in the future. Oddly enough, Laguna, Ward, and Kiros were receiving the thoughts and experiences of Squall and his friends in future from the past because of Ellone. It seems there is another more prominant temporal paradox in Final Fantasy VIII located at the point in time where Matron Edea is possessed by Sorceress Ultimecia and learns from Squall about the existance of SeeD and Garden. This occurance at the end of the game defies the notion that for there to be Garden and SeeD it must come from Cid and Edea in the past, but if it didn't come from Cid and Edea in the first place but rather Squall whose appearance in that point in time is a product of these occuances, then he would not be able to be there since in the past Garden and SeeD were never meant to be until Squall said something. Confused yet? It's a paradox but it gets worse. But if SeeD and Garden where entirely Cid's creation then Squall telling Edea about these future events would have no consequence since Cid is the the catylist for these events taking place, and Edea just appeared upon the scene. But what about Edea's White SeeD? Paradox again? Besides this wouldn't Squall remember seeing himself in the past, or did the junctioning of Guardian Forces erase his memory? Would Squall only remember seeing himself coincidentally at the moment in which he encountered himself in the future which is actually his past? Perhaps all of the sudden the memory pops in at that precise moment at which the two Squalls coincidentally occupy the same place in Time. Perhaps all this can be explained with "Time Compression" where the rules could be bent in favor of whoever controls the domain of events that transpire i.e. Ultimecia. Essentially, with Ulitimecia being in the past, perceivable present, and future, simultaneously the only way to avoid paradox is to compress Time into a single movable point or temporal mobius strip where all events play out under the control of a catylistic force while enclosed withing a set domain, but then again couldn't such a scenario be undone by the very act of creating the mobius? I've thought long about "Time Kompression" and just found myself wandering in mental circles, coming back to an unsolvable problem. Perhaps, like Zelda 64, the events of the end of the game have left more questions than answers. It reminds me very much so of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where there were three Captain Jean Luc Picards in three diffenent Time periods and Q was making him aware of a rupture in Anti-Time that occurred in the future by Picard's doing, that would destroy the very existance of human beings at the beginnings of cellular evolution on planet Earth. Didn't humans create the rupture in the first place? So to create the rupture and destroy life on earth in the past would cause the rupture not to happen in the future because humans wouldn't be there to cause it to happen. If the rupture didn't happen then humans would not be destroyed, but humans made the rupture in the first place didn't they? Same paradoxical principle as were seening FF8 here. Essentially the resultant of this meddling with time in the Final Fantasy VIII and Star Trek scenarios would seem to be a big "Game Over" culminating in a complete breakdown of the physical laws of the universe and a cancellation of the Big Bang. As I replay the game, I plan to pick up on more details to add in exposing or subduing the background plot conundrum of Final Fantasy VIII. So, what did you think? It's your turn to discuss everything Final Fantasy VIII, and describe your overall impressions of the game. What did you like or dislike? What feeling did you receive while experience this game? Feel free to describe details and use specific events. Send Your Impressions Here!
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