For a few years now I have stated out of all the games in the main franchise, this one has been one of the worst for me. I couldn't really figure out why, I find the first two disks to be overall enjoyable, so I know it isn't the GF system that they use, or the drawing of magic that drags the game on sometimes, It has to be something else for me... Then it clicked while going to another game that I actually like. Chrono Trigger. Both games have some "time traveling" element in it, although in Chrono Trigger it is the main focus, versus FFVIII where it was focused on, but wasn't like you personally were traveling through time... well sorta weren't...just going into other peoples heads...sorta... But here is the problem with some things like FFVIII and other media that does time traveling... for FFVIII the events must have happened already, for Squall went back through the time compression and saw the point that Edea became a sorceress, and you basically get this infinite loop, which makes playing the game technically events that already occurred and anything you do useless.
How do I know these events already happened? While for one in order for there to be Gardens and SEEDS, the events must have occurred, for Squall has to plant that idea into Edea. Then both Cid and Edea knew what was going to happen, at least as far as stopping a sorceress, and knowing Edea was already a sorceress that changes everything. Then you have the fact that Ellone had Squall and gang go into the past to go into the thoughts of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, which is confirmed when you meet them as Squall and they talk about "the faries" (aka your voices talking to them.)
This to me is the worst and laziest type of time travel, because then you basically a) claim the world is on an infinite loop and b) claim that your events already occurred and you are stuck on that path. Which is all but confirmed around disk 3 and disk 4 when it all comes into play. This is what drove me mad, because Square did a great time travel game in Chrono Trigger, where the group actually could change events and you could see that play out in side missions and the endings, so why did they have to take this crazy loopy way out in Final Fantasy VIII?
Then there is one more bit of things that bugs me about VIII which comes into play late in disk 2 or 3 (forget when) and that is the whole Memory loss thing. This to me is a very bad cop out to a story line that was actually half way decent up to this point. Why couldn't you just have them all already know about their past? Did the need to make them forget everything have to be added? And if the GFs really take away long term memory, why would anyone even allow them to be used? Wouldn't parents be mad that people they send to school suddenly can forget who raised them? This again was a very bad lazy plot point with the time traveling loop that with a little more thought could have easily been avoided and been able to make a good story. Instead we get this mess of two disks that after you beat the game one time makes you realize that your characters already did everything so they weren't changing history or saving the world really, they were just doing what they did so many times before because time would be going in circles.
How do I know these events already happened? While for one in order for there to be Gardens and SEEDS, the events must have occurred, for Squall has to plant that idea into Edea. Then both Cid and Edea knew what was going to happen, at least as far as stopping a sorceress, and knowing Edea was already a sorceress that changes everything. Then you have the fact that Ellone had Squall and gang go into the past to go into the thoughts of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, which is confirmed when you meet them as Squall and they talk about "the faries" (aka your voices talking to them.)
This to me is the worst and laziest type of time travel, because then you basically a) claim the world is on an infinite loop and b) claim that your events already occurred and you are stuck on that path. Which is all but confirmed around disk 3 and disk 4 when it all comes into play. This is what drove me mad, because Square did a great time travel game in Chrono Trigger, where the group actually could change events and you could see that play out in side missions and the endings, so why did they have to take this crazy loopy way out in Final Fantasy VIII?
Then there is one more bit of things that bugs me about VIII which comes into play late in disk 2 or 3 (forget when) and that is the whole Memory loss thing. This to me is a very bad cop out to a story line that was actually half way decent up to this point. Why couldn't you just have them all already know about their past? Did the need to make them forget everything have to be added? And if the GFs really take away long term memory, why would anyone even allow them to be used? Wouldn't parents be mad that people they send to school suddenly can forget who raised them? This again was a very bad lazy plot point with the time traveling loop that with a little more thought could have easily been avoided and been able to make a good story. Instead we get this mess of two disks that after you beat the game one time makes you realize that your characters already did everything so they weren't changing history or saving the world really, they were just doing what they did so many times before because time would be going in circles.