Characters

The characters of Final Fanstasy 8 are only suprising in their unoriginality. All characters which join your party, with the exception of Rinoa, are members of the group SeeD. The fact that they originate from different gardens does not detract from their homogeniousness. In fact in makes some of them more lame, as if that was possible. Let's examine their faults character by charater.

Selpie --> As the game progressed I became sure that Selphie would have some ultirior motives, or at least do something special. The fact that she came from Trabia garden does not make her any different than the others. Also as we find out later, she has absoulutley nothing to do with any of the "plot." Selphie's job in this game--> Tag along.

Quistis--> First of all, what kind of name is that. This character is Squall's deadbeat instructor who is demoted to have the displeasure of working with him. As such she should have a higher status than Squall, having taught him to do what he is doing, but she finds herself taking orders from him. Quistis does not have a role in grand scheme of things.

Zell--> Zell, as a character, has some appeal. But only because he likes martial arts and isn't as stupidly serios as some of the others. However, what is the background behind Zell? He is a SeeD, Hmmm that sounds familar. Zell also has absoulutley nothing to do with the "plot." Plus did anyone ever say anything about that giant mark on half of his face?

Irvine--> The sharpshooter version of a SeeD. At first appears different because of his poor cowboy impersonation. Irvine makes vain attempts to give himself off
as a ladies man, although this can be charming if done correctly, Irvine just comes off as pathetic. Irvine, like most characters has nothing to do with the game, but is rather just some guy you picked up along the way, with an obscenely powerful limit break, capable of destroying most bosses in one foul swoop (with aid of the AP ammo.)

Lagona--> Though some mystical dreamworld (provided by some mystical girlfriend's niece) this character is seen though Squall. And despite the fact that Squall is apparantly "watching" this character, you do the battling. Confusing me as to what ROLE you are PLAYING. The game simply never explains why. But later we have the opertunity to meet Lagona in his new position, from journalist to president of Esthar.

Rinoa--> NOT A SEED. Though from time to time she pretends to be one. Rinoa is far to free with her emotions, thus making her unrealstic, unapealling, and repulsive. This is espiecally strange coming from the Japanese, who are very closed about their emotions. Rinoa brings to mind a frequently occuring phenomenon in Role Playing Games. The token female, often present soley for the purpose that their needs to be a female in the game, BUT ff8 already is burdened by two. Usually, as in ff8, these characters are weak, and not usefull.
Let me take this brief opertunity to make light of Rinoa's fashion sense. What is with that blue thing? The tale end of it is always trailing on the ground, think how dirty that gets. And then it's just plain ugly.

Squall--> At the very core of the crap that is FF8 is Squall Leonheart. A student preparing with most of the other characters to be a SeeD. He suffers from acute thinking to much. The game actually lets you watch Squall's loser thoughts, which really should be your thoughts because in theory you PLAY the ROLE of Squall. In this sense the player is downgraded to a mere audience member. After failing his only two missionies he is placed in charge of the Garden. And though he complains about it, in his thoughts, he never tries to turn it down. When Rinoa is injured Squall's attention is diverted entirely from matters such as world destruction and back to his bedridden loser lady love.