Squall who?

by Freshmeat

I recently played Final Fantasy VIII. Now I know that this may be a tired subject, but I do have a point. I cannot believe the lack of character development in this game, even less than in seven. At least in seven we had Cloud and Sephiroth, and most importantly, the history of these characters. We saw Cloud grow up. What happened in eight? We met Laguna, a man who has at best a vague connection to the characters. Where did he come from? What's his relation to the character? Why would they appoint this doofus PRESIDENT? All the characters ended up in the same orphanage. Coincidence? It didn't even seem like they tried. Weren't there any other kids in the orphanage? The most important item that stood out in my mind: Where was the epic love story? There was more romance in seven trying to woo Aeris, no harm intended. There could've been at least a battle to win Rinoa back, not just waltzing into the high security prison and taking her out. A main point in this game was finding the elusive Ellone. Let's put her in space, no reason; we think it would be fun to go to space. After this massive trek, we see Ellone had mostly nothing at all to do with Rinoa because the dinky sorceress possesses her body. Squall should only minimal emotion towards Rinoa until she fell unconscious, and after she awakes he returns to this state. A big setback for me was the removal of a rival character. Seifer appeared, but is thrown away and presents absolutely no character delevopment. In seven we chase Sephiroth, have contact and have an idea of what he is thinking. Seifer is a mindless knight who attacks, but his origin with Squall as rivals could have become one of the great relationships in RPGs. I was dissapointed at how nowadays since Square has expanded the size of the games, they substitute character development for flashy graphics. Yes they were great. The ball room scene had more emotion in it than any other event in the game. But why leave the two alone? I thought the plot would follow the two as they began to learn about each other, but instead she dated Seifer. Come on now, make a decision. The last two cd's of both series contained little more than Check Out What I Can Do graphics. To me, a square represented great stories, not technological marvels. I think there was more character attachment in Final Fantasy Six. How did it happen? The characters split into groups and made sub quests. Each character (excluding the secret characters) had their spot in the lime light. Less characters and more focus. While on these subquests, the other characters are put on hold and the new ones come along at even intervals. I tried to development attachments to the new characters, but suddenly there are six characters, all available and none of them specified. Selphie would have been better left in Trabia to be blown up. I hope for Nine Square(cough cough...Sellout...cough) can move past wowing the kiddies with flashy colors and put some meaning to their final fantasy series.