Wazzy Amazing thread, I was awaiting it eagerly and it was definitely worth the wait (as befitting the best FF game :D haha). I'll be starting the anniversary playthrough later today and hopefully I can round a few people up into joining us.
It's really warmed my heart seeing so many positive responses in this thread so far. One of my favorite things to observe in this industry is the gradual vindication of FFVIII as time passes, and I feel like every year there are more and more people who approach it with an open mind and end up loving it, instead of just writing it off immediately due to a troubled reputation that it really doesn't deserve. Like all experimental and highly ambitious works, it's not something that will land for everyone; but it's absolutely one of the most unique and fascinating games ever made, with one of the best love stories in the medium, so people really owe it to themselves to give it a shot. It's a remarkably coherent game given how many moving parts there are, and a lot of that fantastic theming and sense of direction only becomes apparent if you really dig into it and get invested in the story it sets out to tell. In that respect it's truly a game that gets better and better the more time you spend with it and the more you think about it.
I also think that FFVIII should be celebrated as one of the most bold and courageous games ever released when you look at it in the proper context. Squaresoft had just released the monstrously successful commercial juggernaut of FFVII; by all means, the formula for success was established, and they could've just doubled down on it for their next FF. Instead, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, they threw virtually the entire book out and rewrote that template from the ground up into a game that not only was remarkably dissimilar from FFVII, but was dissimilar from virtually any other JRPG. Taken together, pretty much every element in FFVIII - from the art direction, to the setting itself, to the Junction system, to the fascinating plot - was a hard repudiation of "phoning it in" or "keeping it safe," and was instead boldly and confidently experimental and unique. How often do we have developers land a titanic commercial success, only to make the next numbered entry in the series an ambitious marvel anchored by avant garde game design and a stunningly original vision that has absolutely nothing to do with the mega-hit that came before it? It just doesn't happen, because no developers are like Squaresoft in their prime. This game is the greatest legacy of that company before they merged into Square Enix; pure artistry, pure ambition, pure pushing the envelope, rules and expectations be damned. God, what an amazing game.
It's really warmed my heart seeing so many positive responses in this thread so far. One of my favorite things to observe in this industry is the gradual vindication of FFVIII as time passes, and I feel like every year there are more and more people who approach it with an open mind and end up loving it, instead of just writing it off immediately due to a troubled reputation that it really doesn't deserve. Like all experimental and highly ambitious works, it's not something that will land for everyone; but it's absolutely one of the most unique and fascinating games ever made, with one of the best love stories in the medium, so people really owe it to themselves to give it a shot. It's a remarkably coherent game given how many moving parts there are, and a lot of that fantastic theming and sense of direction only becomes apparent if you really dig into it and get invested in the story it sets out to tell. In that respect it's truly a game that gets better and better the more time you spend with it and the more you think about it.
I also think that FFVIII should be celebrated as one of the most bold and courageous games ever released when you look at it in the proper context. Squaresoft had just released the monstrously successful commercial juggernaut of FFVII; by all means, the formula for success was established, and they could've just doubled down on it for their next FF. Instead, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, they threw virtually the entire book out and rewrote that template from the ground up into a game that not only was remarkably dissimilar from FFVII, but was dissimilar from virtually any other JRPG. Taken together, pretty much every element in FFVIII - from the art direction, to the setting itself, to the Junction system, to the fascinating plot - was a hard repudiation of "phoning it in" or "keeping it safe," and was instead boldly and confidently experimental and unique. How often do we have developers land a titanic commercial success, only to make the next numbered entry in the series an ambitious marvel anchored by avant garde game design and a stunningly original vision that has absolutely nothing to do with the mega-hit that came before it? It just doesn't happen, because no developers are like Squaresoft in their prime. This game is the greatest legacy of that company before they merged into Square Enix; pure artistry, pure ambition, pure pushing the envelope, rules and expectations be damned. God, what an amazing game.
