25 Years On, Ultimate Fantasy VIII’s Actual Opening Stays Unimaginable

The destruction of Zanarkand in Ultimate Fantasy X, the Bombing Mission in Ultimate Fantasy VII, the Magitek mechs stomping via the snows in direction of Narshe, Ultimate Fantasy XVI‘s Game of Thrones-ian slaughter. The beloved gaming collection is thought for some truly wild set pieces to hook you into an dozens upon dozens of hours of journey. However one nonetheless hits, even when it takes a second so that you can truly get it: Ultimate Fantasy VIII‘s touchdown at Dollet.

FFVIII—which launched on the unique PlayStation within the U.S. 25 years in the past immediately—doesn’t open with the bombast one would possibly usually count on of a Ultimate Fantasy lately. Positive, the opening cutscene climaxes in twinned teen mercenaries Squall and Seifer dueling it out in sword coaching, however the precise opening of the sport is in stark distinction to its predecessor FFVII‘s shocking act of ecoterrorism. No, as a substitute, FFVIII opens quietly as Squall, nursing a now-characteristic gash throughout his face, readjusts to life in his magical, high-tech floating college, Balamb Backyard. It’s an unbelievable distinction that Ultimate Fantasy has develop into identified for: the highschool emotions of getting ready for exams, however the exams contain flinging a sword with a revolver deal with round or leaping into the close by volcanic caverns to discover ways to efficiently tame after which summon a large, furry god.

However even in that blend of the actual and the fantastical, it’s quiet. There’s no actual driving impetus for FFVIII‘s opening aside from that Squall and his classmates are getting ready for his or her finals as SeeD college students, a nebulous final take a look at that, whilst you shortly be taught that SeeD isn’t any strange college physique however a global mercenary group, and Balamb its base of operations. It’s the traditions of Ultimate Fantasy—martial fight, magic, summoning large beings of unfathomable energy—distanced and extrapolated via the lens of not Warriors of Mild or revolutionaries and rebels, however a highschool drama. That’s, till the fact of what Squall and the remainder of Balamb’s college students are getting ready for kicks in an hour or two into the sport: their remaining examination is to interrupt the siege of a close-by impartial Duchy, Dollet, going through an invasion by the overwhelming would possibly of the Galbadian military.

The whole lot begins turning on a dime within the legendary pre-rendered cutscene that begins enjoying when Squall, his mentor and teacher Quistis, cocky newcomer Zell, and, in fact, his rival Seifer start piling onto the gunboat that can take them to Dollet’s seashores. Set to what stays certainly one of Nobuo Uematsu’s finest works in the franchise, “The Touchdown,” Squall pokes his head out of the highest of the boat because it races throughout the ocean, overlaying a tactical diagram on an image of Dollet… solely to decrease the photograph discover the very same picture of Dollet in actual life, solely now it’s doused in flame and explosions. Dollet’s personal forces, military-looking figures coated in bandoliers and toting assault rifles, are being torn aside just for the SeeD gunboats to return smashing onto the beachhead, as college students in class uniforms start charging up the shore and in direction of their remaining take a look at, and probably their deaths.

Immediately, the extrapolation that outlined Ultimate Fantasy VIII‘s opening turns into inverse. You’re not sitting in lecture rooms and roaming college hallways discussing the idea of martial coaching or navy technique, you’re thrust into the center of warfare the place killing the enemy is actually value factors in your remaining examination. The whole lot the participant does as Squall and his occasion makes their approach as much as attempt to safe Dollet’s comms relay—the tactical supply of Galbadia’s invasion within the first place—is being scored in the background by the sport as a part of that remaining take a look at. Are you killing sufficient troopers? Are you following the appropriate orders, are you staying on mission? Do you withdraw from Dollet in time, as you’re being chased again from the relay tower by a hulking, mechanical spider-tank, not like something you’ve confronted within the sport as much as that time? What Squall and his associates have been coaching for turns into actual within the fires of Dollet, and with it, and in some methods Ultimate Fantasy‘s extrapolated fantasy begins to evaporate earlier than their eyes.

No matter rating on the take a look at, Squall and (most) of his associates go away Dollet as full-fledged members of SeeD (the rating determines your preliminary wage, one other little biting commentary). However gamers go away it with a starker understanding of what Ultimate Fantasy VIII needed to say in regards to the franchise, even past its sci-fantasy modernist aesthetic taking an excellent additional step away from the collection’ traditions than its predecessor did. Loads of Ultimate Fantasies earlier than this put younger folks into the meat grinder of struggle, however few managed to seize the futility of the economic advanced behind warfare fairly so succinctly as Ultimate Fantasy VIII did in that killer opening twist.

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