Ah, Final Fantasy VIII. The eighth entry in the Final Fantasy series continues to divide opinion, even with the impending release of a remaster that is slated to release in late 2019.
Final Fantasy VIII, or FF8, was not only notorious for its relatively disjointed time-travel-cum-love story, clunky “Junction” system among others, but there was also even one instance which immortalised the game in today’s meme culture.
Just to jog your memory, this particular scene is that of the ballroom dance scene, which saw the main character, Squall Leonhart, meet and flirt with his love interest, Rinoa Heartilly, to which the latter lauded him for his, ahem, dashing looks.
And as one will see in the image below, the graphics of 1998 didn’t really age well, much to our amusement, of course.
Yup. Dashing.
It looks as though Square Enix has noticed that, and has since announced that they have rectified 64-bit Squall with a properly-rendered and actually good-looking version of the Gunblade-wielding teen in the upcoming remaster.
Now, that’s a proper main protagonist. Thank goodness for technology, right?
First announced at E3 2019, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered no doubt will excite some fans (myself included, as it was my very first foray into the iconic JRPG franchise), when it releases later this year. Compared to the controversial episodic release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, the remaster of its awkward younger sibling looks tame.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Si Jia
