What was your first impression of the ladies?

Mister Goober

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Recall the time when you first played this game. What were your first impressions of Quistis, Rinoa, and Selphie in their intros?

For me, naturally, I was stunned by Quistis's beauty. Even though nowadays I am far more attracted to Rinoa, I only really started liking her more than Quistis in the later parts of the game.

Technically, you first meet Selphie in Balamb Garden, but I don't consider that to count because she was pixelated. So for her intro in Dollet, I felt nothing, really... Selphie never really stood out to me.

Quistis made a LASTING impression to me, while the two other girls had a relatively weak entry into my brain. Of course, in the end, I grew to like Rinoa more...

What about you?
 
The girls in FFVIII really did nothing for me, which was quite disappointing, because as a female myself, it IS nice to have a character you can relate to on that level.

Quistis' introduction didn't do a whole lot for me, I thought she was quite unprofessional (even though that was the point), but I think out of all three of them, I felt sympathy for her the most at some point.

Rinoa... Striked (and still to this day) me as very bratty, didn't really care for the intro where she was just looking for someone else to begin with.

And Selphie... Gosh, what can I say... These three girls being the "main" female cast is super annoying, just like Selphie. :lew:

Never was a fan of the ladies in FF8. Not every game can have good female characters, I guess. Never related to any of them.

I'm not sure who I'd say my favourite is out of the three. I'd probably go with Rinoa, Quistis and then Selphie, but not really because I "like" Rinoa.

Also not meant to be negative, just don't care for them 😆
 
I haven't thought about this in a while, but I guess all three of the playable women made an impression on me back then. I wouldn't say they are favourites of mine now, but I still don't dislike them.

Quistis had my attention ever since she looked disgusted with Squall in the infirmary, and I really loved the early parts of the game which make full use of her and her weird situation being an instructor at such a young age. And when she used the ship's machine gun on the mechanical spider at Dollet, that was truly badass. I would have loved a teacher like that! :thehead:

Rinoa was mysterious at first, and I liked that. The ballroom scene is one of the most memorable scenes in the entire franchise. The choreography (using an early form of motion capture) was pretty great for its time. After that, while I didn't really think much of it at the time, she's a bit of an abuser. Not only does she fire her beloved dog out of her crossbow, but she is forever kicking people down the stairs, pushing people off ledges, hitting people, etc. And those are her friends and loved ones! She has some issues, clearly.
I still like her though.

And Selphie was a lot of fun, I thought. Carefree and with a big heart. I didn't really register her when you bump into her in the hallway, but when she stumbles down the rocks at Dollet in a cgi cutscene, that's the moment I realised she was a proper character and I liked her from then on. I thought the nunchucks were really cool. At the time I first played the game I don't think I had ever heard of this style of weapon, so I was fascinated by them.

I think they all bring something different to the game, but I would argue that, bar Rinoa, they don't really reach their full potential. There's so much more that could have been done with them. In the end, instead of allowing the player to explore individual backstories and to tie that with the present, they all share their backstory with the convenient orphanage twist.

None of them are good enough to beat FFVII's Tifa for me though. :argor:
 
I played this game when I was really, really young & didn't really understand or grasp the actual characters in a way older me did. Aesthetically I loved Rinoa because young-brain me stupidly thought that Rinoa and Garnet (FFIX) looked the same somehow, so I just instantly vibed with her. Quistis had that 'mature' look to her, and honestly I've always kinda disliked Selphie, both aesthetically and personality-wise.

Playing this game when I was older was really like playing it with fresh eyes I think. Aside from not remembering the entire plot (because I was a babi & didn't really know what was going on) I really didn't remember the actual characters & their personalities either. I realized that... I kinda didn't like any of them either. :wacky:

I had this ingrained like towards Rinoa from younger me, so I think to a degree I really do like Rinoa, but only when she wasn't being so... I don't know, young? Rinoa gave me so much second-hand embarrassment, where I think if we had an older and slightly more mature Rinoa I'd definitely like her character more. I do still like her design though. So I don't know.

First impression of Quistis as an adult-ier me made me realize this person was not the embodiment of mature. I'm not sure who I had more second-hand embarrassment from because Quistis had just as many cringe-inducing lines than Rinoa did. I'm sure Quistis has more redeeming qualities, but those are just my first-impressions honestly. Her design didn't really do much for me & I really liked her more in her uniform.

I disliked Selphie's shorthair, how it flips. I dislike Selphie's personality, as it's too bubbly. I dislike her obliviousness, as it's not really realistic or charming in any way. And I dislike Selphie for Irvine, as I think the match is unbalanced in a real-world any setting. :wacky: She's probably one of my least favorite FF characters. I'm sorry!
 
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Honestly, folks, the dialogue of this game was horrendous for me. Horrendous when compared to English-made RPGs, of course, but we all have to keep in mind that the real dialogue is forever lost in translation. I've always dreamed of being part of the team that remakes this game, and one of my ideas is to rewrite ALOT of stuff. Many lines are just weird. And I don't think it's the fault of anyone. They were all lost in translation.

The thing I value more is physical attractiveness. In that, Rinoa and Quistis really really shine, even against next-gen characters save for FF7 remake with an insanely beautiful Aerith.
 
A lot of problems with the characters for me falls down to how little focus there is to explore them - Final Fantasy VIII's character development is all on Squalls shoulders and while he is one of my favourite characters in the franchise as a whole, the rest of the party certainly suffers for this.

Quistis
Quistis makes a remarkable first impression with that CGI introduction - FF8's FMV's were 2nd to none at the time, so it was very striking. I also flet she worked well as authority figure for the Balamb/Dollet portion of the game. But ass soon as Squall and co' become SEED Quistis has nothing else substantial to do for the rest of the game. At best you could say she leads the party on the Deling City mission but that doesn't add much to her character. There is the awful orphanage scene too but the less said about that the better.You compare to FF7 where each character has a backstory and motive, there's no real event's after Dollet to where she has any relevance at all - I would have personally made her presence in the Garden Battle more prominent but sadly nothing happened.

Selphie
The bubbly one. Selphie can be a bit too ditzy for her own good. It makes a nice contrast sure but sometimes it can be too anyone and hard to take her serious in moments where we need too - I say that but then there's barely any moment to where we need to take her seriously. There is the events surrounding Trabia Garden but nothing really comes of it. While a terrible event I don't think the game highlights the struggle enough, there's a graveyard site but the horror and grief of the event just isn't put forward to say how I felt with Sin wiping out Kilika in X.

Rinoa
I like Rinoa's story. She isn''t involved in the whole orphanage scene, and has stable back story. I found how she's caught up in the Timber/Deling City missions interesting as with her later story points involved with with the Sorceressess. But I think once again beyond Disc1, she doesn't seem to have much motivation or really involved in whats going on until the moment at the end of disc 2 when she becomes a victim. I also found her to be a bit whiny too if I am honest but did enjoy the way she helped Squall open up more overall - I jsut don't think I found her as interesting as other main leads like in IX, X or even XIII.
 
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i felt Rinoa was a character that was trying to be both Tifa and Aerith at the same time.
the other characters i really didn't care, but they were clearly following the tropes of the 90s anime girls.
 
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i felt Rinoa was a character that was trying to be both Tifa and Aerith at the same time.
the other characters i really didn't care, but they were clearly following the tropes of the 90s anime girls.

This is an interesting way of categorising Rinoa. In some ways I can agree. Not so much on the aggression/abusive side though as neither Tifa or Aerith really go down that route. Well, unless we consider Wall Market Aerith in the Remake... But that was self-defence.

But there are some scenes and some tropes which can be shared by these characters. From cosmic imagery, shooting stars and promises to rare inherited magical talent coveted by villains.
 
This is an interesting way of categorising Rinoa. In some ways I can agree. Not so much on the aggression/abusive side though as neither Tifa or Aerith really go down that route. Well, unless we consider Wall Market Aerith in the Remake... But that was self-defence.

But there are some scenes and some tropes which can be shared by these characters. From cosmic imagery, shooting stars and promises to rare inherited magical talent coveted by villains.
mostly in personality.. not in backstory. i do feel she becomes her own character a little later on, but the relationship between her and Squall feels like a combination of Cloud/Aerith and Cloud/Tifa.
 
Definitely Rinoa is my all time favorite probably because of FF8 having the first more realistic looking charters...but I think mostly it's because of the love story between Squall/Rinoa...first impressions before even playing the game for the first time just based off her look I think her look is the best of the series too because of her arm sweaters and angel wings design with matching long sleeveless sweater with dark hair really gives her a unique look...

Then add that look to the original graduation ball scene and developing love story all the way to the ending really nailed it for me...the lack of good dialog didn't bother me at all because for me even without reading any of the dialog the music and the film scenes alone were enough to get the story across especially the overall love story...and anything not spelled out by the dialog can be imagined however people want since the film scenes act out the most important facts needed to enjoy the story anyways...

So, for first impression without playing yet Rinoa has the best look and then as the game progresses everything about her gets reinforced even more positively for me...I do like all the rest of the girls too none of them annoyed me like they did to other players probably because I treated the game more like a comic book or something that didn't require much dialog anyways...
 
I was stuned by the beauty of quistis at beginning, selphy so-so and rinoa thru the love story with squall very adorable
Quistis is still my favorite as instructor, but i didnt need her glasses really
 
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