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The setting is such a mix of esoteric architecture and futuristic tech that it feels plucked out of time, familiar yet fantastic. Aside from their super move Limit Breaks, each party character is essentially interchangeable - you build your squad by picking who you like best, rather than weighing abilities and team composition. I used to be so into this and identify so much with it to play it is to see young me.īut Final Fantasy 8 is richly unique. I would have warned prospective players away with caveats like I was describing all the warts of my hometown, trying to keep people from seeing a place, a game, with flaws I projected on my younger self. I’ve rediscovered a game that’s as awkward and clunky as it is swift and lean, emotive and earnest, which has resonated with more lonely gamers than I expected. No matter which game I played first, I would have clung to the latter in my formative years. Cloud is a silent badass with a big sword Squall is prickly and lost in an endless introspective spiral. I’m not really fed up with the fierce loner too stubborn to let others in I was desperate not to revisit the character I identified with so much as a teenager. How did I stand this fumbling dolt?īut after riding with Squall for a dozen hours, my frustration thaws. Even the character interiority - Squall’s frustrated thoughts about teammates, his aggressively detached attitude - exasperates my older, wiser self. I picked up the junction system like I’d put it down yesterday, but subsequently spent hours stocking up on magic to top out my stats before continuing the story, an egregious break in game flow. My first few hours confirmed my suspicions, especially with the polarizing protagonist: Squall is a loner stubbornly closed off from his peers, who all try in vain to break him open - sometimes because they need him to just be a leader, dammit. And thanks to all the ribbing from FF7 fans, I’ve tired of defending the game’s truly weird story about anxious teens fighting sorceresses across a disconnected, steampunk-lite world. Before firing up the remaster, I would have sternly cautioned any newcomers away - the original game is opaque, with less-than-helpful tutorials leaving players to figure out the idiosyncratic junction and draw systems for themselves.