Final Fantasy VII is getting a PC rerelease

I love FFVIII, always have and always will. It's story is so misunderstood and shrouded with mystery that it's kept people talking about it for all these years, and I think even now people still don't truely understand it. I like that it's central plot revolves around a love story and is not just about some bad ass hero going out there, slaying dragons and saving the world. There's a deeper meaning behind it, a message that is to be understood, something that even masterpieces like FFVII couldn't achieve. There's no changing people's minds about it, you either love it or you hate it, but for me it is so much more, it's quite literally one of my favourites games of all time.

 

It's funny how some people still think video game plots are deep.

 

That is, hands down, the dumbest comment i've ever seen. I'm going to have to assume you're 12 and play CoD religiously.

 

Or he's Roger Ebert in disguise...

 

You must have not seen very many comments in your life before. Most games have horrible and shallow stories and the "epic" ones, are usually just drawn out, silly and convoluted.

 

Exactly. You really think there's some kind of complex subtext to a Final Fantasy game? Come on. Most of the people who think this shit is deep or meaningful are the 12-year-olds that another comment mentioned.

 

I don't want this to turn into an 'are games art?' debate, but I will say with complete honesty that I have never played a game that, once completing it, made me think "Whoa, that shit was deep. My perception of the world and my surroundings have forever been changed, and it's all thanks to this game."

Every game I've played that tries to be overly deep and intelligent comes off seeming pretentious and sometimes even unintentionally hilarious. Gamers even try to inject elements in the story that weren't originally supposed to be there in an attempt to make a game seem like a thought provoking work of art when it's actually a poorly written piece of crap, such as the Squall is Dead theory, or more recently, the Indoctrination Theory for Mass Effect 3.

Can games be deep and thought provoking? Sure they can, but so can the back of a cereal box or the incoherent ramblings of a bum standing in front of Walgreens. Telling a story doesn't automatically mean it's deep, original, or even good. Just like with movies, many try and many fail.

 

I've played many games, sat through their stories and came out at the other end not even remembering the game I've played or ever once having the earge to sit through it again. Final Fantasy VIII is not one of them. If a story makes you want to return, relive its moments and analyse every intricacy in order to learn more about it, then the story has succeeded in capturing the minds of the readers. Of course it's all down to your own interpretation, but a story is only as deep as you are willing to look. If you do not care for the story then you will never explore its layers and never try to understand its deeper meanings. And you can call it poor writing if you wish, that's understandable, but at the end of the day it's the imagination that is important not the imediate quality of the writing. Sometimes things come to life and manifest even if the writer does not intend it to be so, that's one thing I can attribute to a success in fantasy writing.

 

I think i did post it here first.

Yers it makes FFVIII story epic and sad; being the last escape in a dieing man's mind, trying to catch and fullfill all he could have done and whised if he wasn't dieing.

the whole "compression of time" concept it's a way to condense eternity in an instant; exactly what you would wish if you were about to exhale your last breath.

hope i managed to explain it well, english is not my language....

before reading that page i valued FF8 5/10 after i valued it 8/10

 

I like the how at the end of the text even the writer admits that believing in the Squall's Dead theory is just reading too much into bad writing.

 

If you can't get passed the barrier set by the writers hand and start searching your own imagination, then you'll never appreciate FFVIII for what it really is.

 

The fact it's cause enough for debate means it's deep enough to have merit, whether it made an impact on you or you felt it was completely shallow, if it moves you enough to defend your perception on it then it's done it's job.

 

Dude, you're talking about FINAL FANTASY VIII here. Not Ulysses by Joyce. It's easy to see that the parts where the writer imagines there's evidence for the theory are just plot holes or really bad dialog.

 

FFVIII was a very great game and still is nowadays.
The game was a story lover and a quite complicated.

 

And that is the be all and end all? My point is that if you encounter plot holes or sloppy writing and hit a mental brick wall that prevents you from taking enjoyment from it then you'll never see the storys qualities for what they are. There's more to a story than being spoon fed every piece of information, there's feelings, emotions, philosophical ideas, the writer does not have to convey a perfect message in words for your imagination to run wild and start filling in the blanks. Whether the writers intended it to be full of holes or not, that's what FFVIII is about, it's a paradox that's supposed to leave you asking questions, not having all the answers. If you can't get over inconsistencies and don't enjoy this aspect to a story then that's fine, FFVIII is not for you.

 

That's a good thing. We don't want another MGS4 plot, some questions are not meant to be answered.

 

I can't think of many (if any) games that are deep per se, but the short story dreams in Lost Odyssey were pretty f'ing brilliant and were about the deepest I've seen VG writing. Then again, they were written by a famous Japanese writer. A shame the character Kaim never reflected anything from them.

Outside of that, I think PDSaga's plot was constructed extremely well.

 

Saying FFVIII is only good when following the Squall is Dead (or any other) theory is like saying a certain movie is only funny if you smoke a lot of marijuana. If being high is what it takes to make the movie funny, then the movie is not funny. If the Squall is Dead theory is what it takes for the story to be coherent or good, then the story is not coherent or good. I'll admit the theory is definitely an interesting read, but it's only a fan's attempt to make the story in FFVIII seem better than it actually is.

Hey I know, what if Celes from FFVI actually succeeded in committing suicide in the second half of the game, and the remaining story is actually a "what if" scenario going on in Celes' mind while she lives the last few seconds of her life. Wait no, what if Terra actually died in the beginning of FFVI when she fell through the trap door while trying to escape? Think about it, why would strange creatures called moogles appear out of nowhere and attempt to help her? It's because that's a dream/hallucination she's having before dying due to the trauma her brain suffered when she landed, and the entirety of the story is actually a fantasy she created in her mind.

Oh wait, I don't have to rely on BS theories for FFVI to be enjoyable. That's because FFVI is a good game with a coherent plot.

I don't mean this as a shot against FFVIII. It's not my favorite FF, but it's not my least favorite either; I'd probably rank it somewhere in the middle. But come on people, there's a reason FFVIII is considered by many to be the downfall of the series. The game isn't some philosophical piece of art that tries to convey messages about love, life, and death. The game is just an example of bad writing, and it's not my fault if I don't feel like filling plot-holes and doing square's work for them. There's a difference between subtlety and "What the fuck just happened? Why did absolutely none of that make any sense?"

 

Yeah, pretty sure that FFVII started the "what the fuck just happened" era of FF games...

 

Why are they releasing this only for PC? I should think they'd make more money selling it on XBLA and PSN. I've attempted to play it before, but I found it incredibly boring from the very beginning. I've never really liked any of the FF games. I got through a decent portion of FFX, but I got bored of that as well. I'm not really a big fan of RPGs in general, unless you consider games like Zelda or Shenmue to be RPGs.