The destruction of Zanarkand in Ultimate Fantasy X, the Bombing Mission in Ultimate Fantasy VII, the Magitek mechs stomping by the snows in direction of Narshe, Ultimate Fantasy XVI‘s Game of Thrones-ian slaughter. The beloved gaming sequence 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 at this time—doesn’t open with the bombast one may sometimes count on of a Ultimate Fantasy nowadays. 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 an alternative, 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 unimaginable distinction that Ultimate Fantasy has develop into recognized for: the highschool emotions of making 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 true and the fantastical, it’s quiet. There’s no actual driving impetus for FFVIII‘s opening aside from that Squall and his classmates are making ready for his or her finals as SeeD college students, a nebulous final take a look at that, at the same time as you rapidly study that SeeD is not any extraordinary 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 by the lens of not Warriors of Gentle 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 making ready for kicks in an hour or two into the sport: their last examination is to interrupt the siege of a close-by unbiased Duchy, Dollet, going through an invasion by the overwhelming may of the Galbadian military.
The whole lot begins turning on a dime within the legendary pre-rendered cutscene that begins taking part in when Squall, his mentor and teacher Quistis, cocky newcomer Zell, and, after all, his rival Seifer start piling onto the gunboat that may take them to Dollet’s seashores. Set to what stays considered 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 lined in bandoliers and toting assault rifles, are being torn aside just for the SeeD gunboats to return smashing onto the beachhead, as college students at school uniforms start charging up the shore and in direction of their last take a look at, and doubtlessly their deaths.
All of the sudden, 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 last examination. The whole lot the participant does as Squall and his occasion makes their means as much as try 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 last 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 recreation as much as that time? What Squall and his pals 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 pals 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 wished to say concerning the franchise, even past its sci-fantasy modernist aesthetic taking a fair additional step away from the sequence’ traditions than its predecessor did. Loads of Ultimate Fantasies earlier than this put younger folks into the meat grinder of conflict, however few managed to seize the futility of the commercial advanced behind warfare fairly so succinctly as Ultimate Fantasy VIII did in that killer opening twist.
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