Finally played through Final Fantasy VIII on the Switch and with this I've played through Final Fantasy I through X. Another of those I got back in the day so I also have them on PSOne disc as well, but I couldn't finish it. The furthest I got was fighting Cerberus in the Galbadia Garden. My biggest problem was not understanding the leveling system of this game. Me being a bit of grinder completely failed to get that the enemies and bosses scaled with the characters level. So I grinded away causing my own downfall. What I should have done, as I used more of here, was running away and turn every enemy to a card. Enabling me to save on exp, get cards to turn into items and magic, and still level up the GF needed. Cause when you understand the system... it's rather fun junction magic and get your GF to level up to get better abilities to put you ahead of the leveling curve of the monsters.
The story on the other hand, parts I like, but it doesn't all make sense. Ground story is that you play as Squall, a mercenary in training that wakes up after a match with his arch-nemesis Seifer which left both with a cut across the face. It's graduation day so together with Instructor Quistis he heads out to get Ifrit, the Guardian Force (GF). Together with Zell and Seifer they head out to help a small city from being overtaken by Galbadian forces. After some troubles that leads to a communcation tower the order to withdraw is delivered by a exchange student from Trabia gardem, Selphie. Seifer leaves the group to get to the escape ships on their own, which pretty much disqualifies Seifer from becoming a SeeD while the others become it. At the graduation dance Squall dance with this mysterious girl with dark hair and then is taken out by Quistis that announces she has been demoted due to the failures of her students.
Next day Squall, Selphie and Zell is sent to Timber to aid a resistance group fighting of the occupation of Galbadia. Before arriving they are put to sleep and experience a part where they are three galbadian soldiers fighting their way out of a forest and then travelling to Delling City to look at this singer Julia, which Leguna, the leader of the group, has fallen for. A short date later they are sent out again, but Squall and the others awake. In Timber they meet the Forrest Owls, lead by the mysterious girl from the party, Rinoa. The plan is to kidnap the President of Galbadia, Delling. After executing the plan it turned out it was a decoy and instead Delling arrived to the TV-station to send a message with the now working Communication Tower. Turns out he is gonna announce a peace diplomat in the sorceress Edea, but Seifer runs in taking Delling hostage. The others try to save him, but Edea turns up takes Seifer away. Procedure is to get to nearest garden, that is Galbadia where they pick up Irvine and a mission to assassinate Edea in Delling City. After some running around the city with planning the assassination and the man leading it is the general of the Galbadian army and Rinoas father. It goes awry in many ways, but Squall has reached the Sorceress and... gets an icicle showed through the shoulder ending disc 1.
It's a strong start. Pretty good characters and the mystery of the Laguna sequences are nice (and his battle theme is the best). I've have a small problem with the high school setting of the Garden and that all main characters are 17-18 years old. Probably why Laguna is much more fun as well since he is a bit older together with Kiros and Ward. Most fun here is also the game theory that Squall actually dies here and the rest of the game is he slowing dying and imagining a better ending. The biggest claim to that theory is that from disc 2 and onward the story goes all bonkers with first an escape from a max security prison, splitting the team where one team tries to stop rockets being launched on Balamb Garden and Squall heads for Balamb to warn everyone. But there is a civil war between the student where a creature named NORG is looking for the headmaster to throw to Edea since his failed assassination forced the attack. And to avoid the missiles coming they get the Garden flying out into the sea. Where they crash into some Fisherman colony and are reunited with the other team that survived the base exploding. They go to Trabia Garden where they found out that all main characters (beside Rinoa) grew up on the same orphanage and Edea was the caretaker of that orphanage together with Balamb Garden headmaster Cid. Really? Which they forgot due to using GF as it apparently alters their memories? REALLY!?!
Gets worse, you attack Galbadia Garden that also flies now and enter it to fight sorceress Edea... and I couldn't get past Cerberus last time, but with an average of level 15, this is easy. Fight Seifer and Edea and... Rinoa falls into a coma as she is taken over by Sorceress Ultimecia that comes from the future to search for a girl named Ellone that appeared through the game and can send peoples conscious back in time, which is the cause of the Laguna episodes. You get to Eshtar, the hidden country that Galbadia fought against 17 years ago against sorceress Adel and are sent to space where Ellone is together with the president of Esthar, Laguna. Possessed Rinoa releases the trapped sorceress Adel and as she is slowly dying in space Squall jumps after her and finds the spaceship Ragnarok. With it the team boards a flying cube that concentrates some sort of moon beam that destroyed a civilisation 100 years ago. You defeat Seifer... again and then Adel that have been possessed by Ultimecia. Rinoa is possessed again and is sent back in time by Ellone and then taken back causing Ultimecia to achieve "time compression" so that the past, present and future converge and you end up at Ultimecia's Castle where you battle out the monsters and then finish of the 4-5 forms of Ultimecia to achieve victory. Credits roll, every ones happy and Squall and Rinoa ends up together.
I skipped a lot, like the central love story between Squall and Rinoa and I give it credit, it's nice at times, like the space sequence, but some parts just feels weird since the action the player takes doesn't always match how the story wants it to go. And everyone else doesn't matter really. Especially when it turns out non can remember anything before joining SeeD. Squall's inner monologuing goes on my nerves at times since he is a really bratty teenager at times. Zell I can at least tolerate, Selphie is just weird... and Quistis clearly going after her male student have a bit of problematic undertones, but then again she's hot and the same age (what is it with japanese and promoting young inexperienced people to positions of authorithy... one would think it was like Sweden). Irvine perving on Selphie and Quistis is also troublesome, even more so when he clearly remembers them from the orphanage. I just don't like Irvine. You also get to play as Edea, but as tip... don't give her any special spells since when she goes they go to which I sadly experienced.
So I gotta say I liked the game. CD 1 totally fine, 2nd as well with the escape, garden civil war and the fight against gardens. CD 3 had the space station and after that the game slows down trying to grind for magic and items to junction and upgrade weapons and get GF:s. Instead of me falling back on grinding levels I should just have run around on the Islands Closest to Hell and Heaven to get the magic I needed. I liked the junction system when I got it, the music is fantastic as usual and the remastered graphics looks a hell lot better than the original. And another thing with the remaster, speeding it up with 3x makes it playable. Normal game is SLOW, everything takes forever, speeding it up makes it enjoyable. Just be sure to have a finger on it during boss battles, especially the last on so that you don't lose one of the main three characters you use to fight Ultimecia.
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