The eternal saga of Final Fantasy VIII continues
OK, it's not technically eternal.
Righto, with E3 done and dusted normal service can well and truly be resumed! Which means it's time for me to go ahead and do some video promotion. If you've subscribed to the channel then you may have already seen this video already when it was released Monday, but it's here now if you're just following along on Retronauts -- the third part of my lengthy Final Fantasy VIII review. Go check it out below:
What can you expect in this part, then? Well, there's a big examination of the whole orphanage scene that people love so much -- I just went through the events of it in Part 2, but here it gets analysed and we see just where it goes wrong. Naturally this includes a big diatribe on why Irvine is just so bloody awful as a character, because...god, why would you be so eager to leave your supposed childhood friends locked in a prison? What an arsehole. This part does have some solid moments mind you, including the epic, disc finishing Battle of the Gardens -- the one where two flying ships go at it, rocket bikes fly around everywhere, and Rinoa manages to get sidelined again while everyone shouts at Squall to help her even though they're the ones who screwed up.
Mind you, I'm still rather enjoying the game at this stage -- for all of its quite unabashed silliness, there's plenty of quality material in this part, such as more fun times with Laguna and company! We visit a technological paradise! And there are plenty more good character moments with Squall, who is still a pretty decent character for my money. Outside of that, we get another big twist as the identity of our game's true villain is revealed, and everyone in the party who isn't named Squall or Rinoa gets to do...well, sod all frankly. Seriously, most of our party have barely anything to do now that the orphanage's happened.
There's all of this and more in a bumper 45+ minute long episode, as the game gradually starts to reach its closing stages...mind you, there are still two parts of this review to go. The fourth part of the series will feature a considerable amount of analysis (and even the return of gameplay as monsters FINALLY catch up with us!) but it will also feature a part of the game that's arguably even more infamous than the orphanage, and is the part where even die hard defenders of the game usually admit that any logic to the story of the game goes away to die. Look for that on Monday! And enjoy the video, why don'tcha?
