Hot off the heels of my last thread, here's the Final Fantasy VIII thread. Any existing fans don't need a reminder I'm sure, but FF8 is sort of the Black Sheep of the PS1 FF classics, yet it is my favorite. There is something about having an entirely humanoid party with edgy/angsty main character that feels so deliciously 90's to me and allows me to empathize with their struggle moreso than say...Vincent from FF7 or Quina from FF9.
The game was one of the first I played on my PS1, my neighbor was 7 years older than me and he loaned his copy to me when he finished it. This was around the time I was getting into Pokemon full-swing (I caught on about 1 year late), so I had just realized that RPGs exist. The game entered my life at a time when I was ready to be amazed by something; I was malleable at the time. I had seen FF7 and FF Tactics, but I didn't realize they had any connection at that time. I played and replayed Disc 1 of FF8 over and over, trying to learn as much as I could to progress through the more difficult challenges later on (I only half understood the Junction system). Keep in mind that at this time I lived out in Kansas. If you imagine Nowhere, Kansas from Courage the Cowardly Dog...it was like that. I was an only child as well so that meant pleeeeenty of PS1 time. I got the completion of Disc 1 down to a science.
Years and years later here I am still re-playing it every few years. Sometimes with a new friend who has never experienced it before and currently with my wife. She's playing through it in Japanese and reading it to me, it's interesting to see just how much the translation to English changed each character's personality. There are the classic trivia bits like "Selphie has a country accent in Japanese" or "in the Japanese version, the hot dogs are bread"....but I mean more nuanced stuff than that. The characters speak to each other more respectfully in the Japanese version from what I gather, whereas the English localization has them ragging on one-another like a sitcom cast.
Lastly, we come to collectibles. I won't sit you down and list off the things I bought and act like I'm some cool guy. I'll just list what's out there in general terms as an "fyi" kind of thing. If you want to know more, ask!
Bandai Figurines - These are hella cool and a lot larger than you'd expect. They made figures of the main cast, plus Edea. Sadly no Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Ellone, etc. They also have a Guardian Force series and a Monster series (monsters like Forbidden and the Iron Giant). Some of these contain parts of thee Ragnarok ship, so if you buy a certain series of figures, then you can put together the complete ship!
FF8 Desktop Accessories - Software disc from 1999 or so containing a LAN version of Triple Triad, an e-mail client, and an icon/cursor pack. Just ordered this last week so I can't say if it works well on an English machine or if any of it is remotely compatible with Win 10, but I'll report back on that.
Cards - Lots and lots of Triple Triad cards you could get at stores back in the day. I think E B Games had them in the USA, not certain about elsewhere.
PocketStation - While not exclusively an FF8-related accessory, this nifty little doodad was like a memory card and Tamagotchi rolled into one. If you are familiar with VMUs for the Dreamcast, it's the same thing but for the PS1. It was only released in Japan just like the Desktop Accessory disc, but it actually works just fine with the English version of the game. Plugging in a Pocketstation will unlock Chocobo World, a simple virtual pet game in English! Despite the add-on not being released here.
Coke toppers - There were marketing deals with Coke for FF8/9/10 in which the characters appeared on these little plastic toppers, sold on/with coke bottles in Japan. You can still find them at thrift shops in Japan which is where I get them, and there are quite a few. They are on eBay as well, with full sets ranging from $250-300+ for ALL of them from all 3 games.
Hopefully there is a kindred soul out there who has some feels for FF8 and can chat on the subject. Let me know!
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