<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Since the post is buried pretty deep I started my own thread. I'll name some pretty gaping character/plot holes in FF8:
1. The entire Orphanage thing borderlines on comical. You've a bunch of guys who just conveniently 'forgot' they used to all live together and Edea was the Matron. While I thought the Tribia scene in the basketball court was one of the best in the game, it takes more than just a suspension of belief to believe that all these people who are supposed to be best friends and essentially a family just 'forgot' about each other. If their GF addiction was that bad, you'd think they'll forget what they're supposed to do at random intervals.
2. Squall going from 'I hate you all and I hate myself' to suddenly following in love with Rinoa to the point where he can't leave her. Maybe it's just that I absolutely despise Rinoa, but I really don't see any kind of smooth transition from Squall being a total jerk to everyone to suddenly realize he can't live without her on the space ship. Oh yeah, it also doesn't help that you can just not choose Rinoa in your party so you could never see her around except for the parts where the game forces you to.
3. Squall "I don't talk to people" Leonheart becoming the leader of Balomb Garden. Last time I checked, people skills matter too when you're in charge of an organization. The assault on Galbadia Garden is a very pathetic attempt to make Squall look like a good leader. If I was one of the SeeD on Balomb, I think I will feel less motivated to defeat Galbadia after the dry speech Squall gives, assuming I even care about someone who was obviously too cool to talk to mere peons and treats everyone like a jerk. Obviously this is supposed to show how he's a natural born leader based on his heritage, but it just doesn't work out that way. Squall lacks the skills to be a leader. He might be very good at leading a commando squad of doom of 3 people but he's not good at controlling an entire organization, like the Garden.
4. Edea's whole 'she's-a-good-person-possessed-by-someone-we-never-heard-of' deal is just poor development in general. Posssession is a very cheap copout. On that subject, Ultimecia is a pathetic villian, certainly worthy to be along the lines of Zeromus and Necron as the most poorly developed Final Fantasy villians ever. There is nothing wrong with supreme evil being bent on destroying all that is good but having the said supreme evil being pop up at the last second to explain everything that's happened is just bad.
If I have to judge a game on the playable characters, FF8 would be just downright medicore if not pathetic. Squall's role basically assume he has super charisma and people skills, since he is the son of the super charismatic Laguna Loire, but this is simply not true. He is portrayed as a jerk to all those around him and none of the magic that Laguna weaves with his intelligence and charisma is at all visible in Squall. Rinoa is basically completely stupid, coming up with braindead plans that even Selphie would disapprove. While this doesn't impact her romance with Squall (which isn't handled very smoothly either) it doesn't make her likeable. While the other supporting cast (Irvine, Selphie, Zell, and Quistis) aren't bad, they're not much to write home about. Their best scene is by the basketball court scene in Tribia but this is undermined by a ridiculous premise that these best friends all just happen to forget due to GF addiction.
Mind you, FF8 has some of the best developed nonplayable characters. Laguna is probably the only character in RPG I know of that truly comes across as a charismatic leader. Seifer's friendship with Raijin/Fujin, especially the final battle against Seifer, is very well done. Still, it can't completely make up for the main characters being horrible. I play FF8 as much as any other FF game (3 times, which is a lot for me) but I find myself playing for the story of everyone else but the main characters.</div>
1. The entire Orphanage thing borderlines on comical. You've a bunch of guys who just conveniently 'forgot' they used to all live together and Edea was the Matron. While I thought the Tribia scene in the basketball court was one of the best in the game, it takes more than just a suspension of belief to believe that all these people who are supposed to be best friends and essentially a family just 'forgot' about each other. If their GF addiction was that bad, you'd think they'll forget what they're supposed to do at random intervals.
2. Squall going from 'I hate you all and I hate myself' to suddenly following in love with Rinoa to the point where he can't leave her. Maybe it's just that I absolutely despise Rinoa, but I really don't see any kind of smooth transition from Squall being a total jerk to everyone to suddenly realize he can't live without her on the space ship. Oh yeah, it also doesn't help that you can just not choose Rinoa in your party so you could never see her around except for the parts where the game forces you to.
3. Squall "I don't talk to people" Leonheart becoming the leader of Balomb Garden. Last time I checked, people skills matter too when you're in charge of an organization. The assault on Galbadia Garden is a very pathetic attempt to make Squall look like a good leader. If I was one of the SeeD on Balomb, I think I will feel less motivated to defeat Galbadia after the dry speech Squall gives, assuming I even care about someone who was obviously too cool to talk to mere peons and treats everyone like a jerk. Obviously this is supposed to show how he's a natural born leader based on his heritage, but it just doesn't work out that way. Squall lacks the skills to be a leader. He might be very good at leading a commando squad of doom of 3 people but he's not good at controlling an entire organization, like the Garden.
4. Edea's whole 'she's-a-good-person-possessed-by-someone-we-never-heard-of' deal is just poor development in general. Posssession is a very cheap copout. On that subject, Ultimecia is a pathetic villian, certainly worthy to be along the lines of Zeromus and Necron as the most poorly developed Final Fantasy villians ever. There is nothing wrong with supreme evil being bent on destroying all that is good but having the said supreme evil being pop up at the last second to explain everything that's happened is just bad.
If I have to judge a game on the playable characters, FF8 would be just downright medicore if not pathetic. Squall's role basically assume he has super charisma and people skills, since he is the son of the super charismatic Laguna Loire, but this is simply not true. He is portrayed as a jerk to all those around him and none of the magic that Laguna weaves with his intelligence and charisma is at all visible in Squall. Rinoa is basically completely stupid, coming up with braindead plans that even Selphie would disapprove. While this doesn't impact her romance with Squall (which isn't handled very smoothly either) it doesn't make her likeable. While the other supporting cast (Irvine, Selphie, Zell, and Quistis) aren't bad, they're not much to write home about. Their best scene is by the basketball court scene in Tribia but this is undermined by a ridiculous premise that these best friends all just happen to forget due to GF addiction.
Mind you, FF8 has some of the best developed nonplayable characters. Laguna is probably the only character in RPG I know of that truly comes across as a charismatic leader. Seifer's friendship with Raijin/Fujin, especially the final battle against Seifer, is very well done. Still, it can't completely make up for the main characters being horrible. I play FF8 as much as any other FF game (3 times, which is a lot for me) but I find myself playing for the story of everyone else but the main characters.</div>
