So, finished Final Fantasy 8 tonight, just under two years after I first started it (I'm totally serious), so I figured I may as well stuff my babbling about that and my now somewhat overdue babbling about Kingdom Hearts 2 into one post. FF8 first, then KH2.


FF8
-The Ultima Weapon/Bahamut side quest is totally FF8's version of the golden chocobo sidequest, in that it required ridiculous amounts of my time.
-The FF8 strategy guide (the print one, I mean) sucks when it comes to locations. Could have had everyone's ultimate weapons way faster if it listed where monsters actually appeared.
-Lion Heart is really sweet. More the limit break than the weapon, which was dissapointingly unattractive.
-The whole Raine/Laguna subplot was sweet in the other sense of the word, particularly the little bit with them in the ending FMV. Aw <3
-Speaking of the ending FMV, who ever directed the first few minutes of it needs to be shoot. You do not abuse filters like that.
-Griever was pretty awesome-looking, if rather unexplained.
-I think a pre-requisite for being a sorceress is having really frightening taste in clothing. Rinoa is easily the best-dressed, although Ultimecia was hot in a scary way.
-Fuujin is so, so much win. Both when she tells Seifer he's being an idiot and she's not putting up with it any more inside Lunatic Pandora, and in the final FMV when she pushes Raijin in when she sees Seifer's getting all pissy because Raijin caught a fish and he didn't.
-Self-fulfilling time paradoxes yaaaaay.
-It's far too much fun to add your own dialogue over FMVs.
-Rinoa and Squall's relationship was still so incredibly forced even at the end. Seriously, no build-up there at all.
-Actually, I had a theory regarding that (AKA Cocoa attempts to rationalize away Squall/Rinoa because it burns). We know Ultimecia at least can do some hardcore mental manipulation - see Seifer, for example. It could be argued that that sort of control is a power that all sorceresses have, and Rinoa is doing the same thing to Squall subconciously - she's afraid (which I totally don't blame her for), so without realizing she's doing it, she's getting Squall to be her protector. It would explain Squall's sudden personality change after the end of disc 2, when Rinoa gets her shiny new powers.


KH2
-It's funny how Goofy usually seems to be the one that's not the brightest crayon in the crayon box, but occasionally he comes out of nowhere and outshines Sora and Donald. Like when he's the only one who realizes that 'Ping' is actually a chick, or being the only one of the three who can work the computer.
-Ass-kicking!Mickey when he thinks Goofy is dead was awesome. Do not anger the mouse.
-Tifa amuses me. She's all 'Oh, don't mind me. *smashes stuff*' - yay Tifa.
-Seeing everybody fight in the great big Heartless battle in Hollow Bastion was so awesome. Especially Squall and Cloud, but all of it was awesome.
-Squall also totally has more chemistry with both Aerith and Yuffie than he did with Rinoa, which is sort of sad.
-Demyx in Hollow Bastion was hands-down the most annoying boss-battle in the game. Goddamn ten-second things.
-Atlantica was ridiculous, and not in the good way. Especially the last song. It's a musical battle, WTF.
-Axel was really really gay. Comparing his feelings for Roxas to Kairi's feelings for Sora? Yeah.
-Axel-death (or fading-away-into-nonexistance, whatever) = ;_;
-I totally called Namine being Kairi's Nobody. And I'm happy she and Roxas got some closure, although Axel totally needed some.
-People need to stop calling themselves Ansem. I was getting seriously confused near the end.
-I was happy to see that Kairi finally got to do some ass-kicking of her own, although it would have been cool to have her in your party.
-Riku's new outfit is so, so much better than than his KH1 one. And he's not as much of an ass! And he grew, it seems.
-The ending sequences was oh so much Riku/Sora fangirl fodder. Which I think confirms my opinion about KH having a canon OT3.
-The cutscenes during the credits - was it really necessary to hook everyone up, Square? Well, except Auron who just got closure, although I guess I could argue that he's going off to be with his dead boyfriend, and thus hooking up.