Those pre-rendered backgrounds behind him, though? Those are a different story. You only need to look at the transformation between Squall's original, puffy-cheeked appearance and his new, pretty anime body above to see how much they've improved. I understand now why Square Enix largely focused on the game's battle scenes and FMV sequences in that initial Remastered trailer, because holy moly it's a bit of a shock when you actually clap eyes on the rest of it.
What's wrong with those SeeD students? And those backgrounds? And oh sweet Guardian Forces WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SQUALL'S FACE?
Good thing, then, that today marks the release of Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, a spruced-up, PC-friendly version that finally does it justi- wait. The music isn't right, the controls are fiddly it's aged horribly. The 2013 PC release is, let's face it, a bit of a fudge. It is, however, one of the more trying Final Fantasy games to get running properly on PC. It's getting on a bit (20 years, in fact) but its tale of time-travelling witches, lovestruck teens, cannonball dogs and bonkers floating military schools is still, for me, one of the best things to come out of this never-ending series.
Whenever someone asks me what my favourite Final Fantasy game is, the answer is always Final Fantasy VIII.
