Raining on Squall’s parade

Final Fantasy VIII works magic at the sorceress’ shindig

FORMAT PS4 / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV SQUARE ENIX / RELEASED 2019 / SCORE 8/10

Where Final Fantasy VII wowed with its (for the time) impressive CG cutscenes,

Final Fantasy VIII went further. Armed with more realistically proportioned character models, in several important portions of the game controllable gameplay was spliced together with CG video in the background, making you feel like you were actually playing inside those cutscenes. Even in the PS4 remaster of the 1999 original they still have a wow factor.

The sorceress’ parade is the first time this kicks into high gear.

In this unforgettable sequence that comes early in the game, Squall and the rest of his SeeD mercenary group have been hired to take out Galbadia’s new ally, an evil sorceress. They plan to stall the planned celebratory parade and use a sniper to assassinate her from a distance.

The party is thrown into chaos as she immediately kills the president and usurps him as leader. What follows is a tense series of events as you feel the plan beginning to spiral out of control. One half of the party moves beneath the parade in the sewers, with the camera literally panning between them and the other half, who are in the thick of the parade, sneaking past the neon-cloaked, futuristic dancers. So much is happening.

You really feel like you’re in the midst of a chaotic crowd, and it’s amazing that PS1 could pull the scene off, even when you’re aware of how it was done. You begin to feel like Squall and co. might really be in over their heads, and it’s largely communicated by the action itself as you feel in control of what previously would have been straightforward cutscenes.