Final Fantasy VIII: Strange and Underappreciated, Part Three
By: Brandon R. Chinn
Tags: Art, Review, Articles, Opinion, Gaming

Final Fantasy VIII: Strange and Underappreciated, Part Three

Lost in Space

The adventurous joys in Final Fantasy VIII lie in its unexpected absurdities.

Outside of paramilitary for-hire child soldiers, time travel and ancient wars between sorceresses, gods and humans, Final Fantasy VIII throws its curve balls to the player in plot notes that ramp up the absurdity. Desperate to save Rinoa, Squall launches himself into space, where he believes Ellone might be able to Junction him into the past at the exact moment Ultimecia takes over Rinoa’s body. When they are finally reunited — Squall’s memories intact — Ellone apologizes to him. Nothing can be done, she says, though she thanks Squall for letting her use him to revisit the past.

They can’t change the past, but they can change themselves by seeing it.

Final Fantasy VIII momentarily transforms into a space opera, as Galbadia — now in full control of the Lunatic Pandora — enacts another Lunar Cry and summons hoards of chaotic monsters down from the moon. Swept up into this sea of screaming creatures is the frozen sorceress Adel, who plummets back toward the planet. Squall, in a final attempt to save a Rinoa who has been fully possessed, leaps out into the cold unknown of space.

Even though Ellone tells him nothing can be done about the past, Squall is damned to try. And it’s here that we see him fully realize himself as a hero; not because of some dereliction of duty, but because he feels the need to save someone he loves. It’s here that Squall gambles everything away — his life, his future — to save Rinoa. He finally feels the one necessity of any great action: love.

Rinoa, still holding Squall’s ring, begins to die alone in space.

The crux of Final Fantasy VIII is love, though it takes strange avenues to reach this point. Before the final battle against Ultimecia, before the party is sent through Time Compression, Laguna informs Squall that the only thing that will keep him sane in the mess of the unknown is love and friendship. As Squall catches Rinoa in space, holding her close, they drift away together into the abandoned spaceship, Ragnarok. Together and alone, Squall and Rinoa free the ship of its alien invaders and begin the long journey back to the planet.

Squall inputs the coordinates, the crew back in Esthar directs the Ragnarok, and he and Rinoa have nothing but the small space of a moment together. Knowing full well that she will be taken from him the moment they land, Squall is suddenly at a loss. It’s here that Rinoa both takes pity on him and comforts him. It’s here that for the first time in his life, Squall lets himself feel something for another person. Instead of burying his trauma in silence and duty, he lets himself be held by the person he cares about most in the world.

“Eyes On Me” plays as Squall and Rinoa comfort one another.

“I don’t want the future,” says Rinoa. “I want the present to stand still. I just want to stay here with you.”

Squall’s journey isn’t a descent into existentialism or the apex of some hero’s journey. It’s a story about a lonely, anguished teenager who spends his life hiding himself away. Sensitive to a fault, Squall would rather be alone for the rest of this life than take another chance at being hurt. After going to space and back, after nearly throwing away his life, Squall finally lets someone in. It’s at this moment of love and comfort that Squall becomes strong in a way he never could before. It’s at this moment of falling in love with a sorceress that Squall gains the strength to kill one.

As their cycles repeat, Squall determines that he can never allow himself and Rinoa to be apart, no matter what happens.

“Rinoa…… Even if you end up as the world’s enemy, I’ll… I’ll be your knight.”

Rinoa must be frozen like Adel to protect the world from Ultimecia.

Maybe I’m a Lion

Squall’s story is the backbone of Final Fantasy VIII, but far from the only one that matters. In conjunction with his own story we see that of Laguna Loire, a goofball member of the Galbadian military forces whose own adventure is experienced before Squall’s birth. Ellone — the girl that Squall saw as his only family growing up — has her own powers, the ability to Junction the consciousnesses of people she knows into the past in order to experience things that have already happened.

Ellone is convinced the past cannot be changed, despite trying again and again. As Squall relives key moments in Laguna’s life, we are shown the efforts of an AWOL soldier who wants nothing more than to be a world-traveling journalist. Throughout his efforts, he becomes his own kind of reluctant protagonist. Laguna and his friends not only stop Sorceress Adel, but become the new rulers of Esthar after it is freed from Adel’s tyranny. While Laguna exists in polar opposite of Squall’s indecisiveness, we see that his thoughtless actions result in an equal amount of mistakes.

The legacy of Hyne, and time compression, has messed up the world.

Laguna is Squall’s father. Neither of them seem to recognize this fact, but despite this, their tie is what creates change. After Laguna leaves Winhill, Raine discovers she is pregnant and has a child, and dies during childbirth. Laguna finds this out too late and is torn between saving Ellone and going back for Raine. After she passes, he is stuck in Esthar, and decides the only good that can come of it is taking charge. Laguna’s world travels also brought him in close contact with the woman that would become Rinoa’s mother — the woman who wrote “Eyes on Me.”

On the precipice of their final battle, Laguna tells Squall that only friendship and love can bring people together. Only friendship and love can change the future. Squall passes this off as corny nonsense, which nearly becomes his undoing. After they defeat Ultimecia, after Time Compression unravels, it is in this twisted empty space that Squall discovers that his attachments to others were the only thing that ever mattered. His friendships are beans to the past, present and future. His love for Rinoa is the only tether that can return him home, and reaching out for her, he’s brought back to a fixed point — the same place as the dying Sorceress Ultimecia.

It is here that the story comes full circle, and Squall — faced with a young Matron and a younger version of himself — tells his orphanage mother about Garden, about the SeeD, and the only way forward. Squall gifts Matron with the ideas that will form his very existence, locking himself into a loop of time that always begins with his loneliness, and ends with him smiling at Rinoa, surrounded by his friends.

Squall is faced with the bleak reality that his fight exists far into the future.

Waltz for the Moon

Final Fantasy VIII has all the trappings of a traditional Final Fantasy: evil empires, the power of friendship, resistance, and young people fighting for a just future. It takes the summary of all that came before and twists its narrative into something unique and different, an approach to time travel and cyclical storytelling that is monumental in the industry.

Though deeply criticized, Final Fantasy VIII deserves more. It’s a story of loss and love, a drift through fate that offers unique perspectives on trauma and loneliness not seen often enough in the genre. It’s a rich narrative of complex, interesting characters whose layered interactions with one another serve the story as a whole, creating a strange tapestry that’s worth revisiting again and again.

This game deserves a remake, it deserves more praise, but more than anything, it deserves love and respect as a unique and beautiful entry in this eclectic series of video games. Set aside fan criticisms and expectation and go into Final Fantasy VIII as if you’re launching yourself into the unknown of space and waiting for the game to catch you and hold you in its arms.