/vr/ - Retro Games

A lot of the problems have been addressed in this thread, but I think one of the biggest ones has been glossed over.

The villain is never well-established. On the first disc, Edea is presented as a villain. It turns out that she's merely being possessed. On the third disc, Adel is presented as the villain. Surprise, it turns out she's being possessed too (although she was kind of a cunt anyway). Then, only near the end of the game are you told who the real villain is, and sent to go beat her. But who is Ultimecia? Why does she care so much about time compression? Why does she have a magical Castlevania floating at the end of time?

Of course, fan theories like Rinoa=Ultimecia come up because of this. It's the fans desperately searching for answers and explanations from a game that doesn't provide any. I think R=U makes the game more interesting if only because it turns a baseless final villain with no development and no motivation into a zany plot twist.

Moreover, most other characters in the game suffer from the same problems. Why is Squall so mopey all the time anyway? We've never seen any traumatic events that make him rely on only himself. Why is Seifer such a dick? Why does he have an obsession with getting Sorceress pussy? Why is Rinoa a sorceress at all and what bearing does it have on the storyline other than her getting kidnapped?

In summary, FF8 is a game that begs dozens of questions and never answers any of them. It also doesn't help that the magic system encourages not using spells.