Tigranes
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2009
- Messages
- 10,350
Rinoa was the fucking worst, yes. I generally don't really give a shit about romance in games and I'd be happier without any, but I want characters to be reasonable, balanced creatures to hold up the narrative. It doesn't matter if they're weak women or stronk women or whatever, as long as they are written in a way that makes sense.
At the very least, Tifa's "long suffering childhood friend with insecurities needs you to tell her it's ok" crap was mitigated by her having her own character and story & some degree of activeness, and Dagger also doesn't wallow in self-pity for too long and is generally a competent character that tries to find her own solutions to her problems. Rinoa and the FF8 cast in general have a much stronger tendency to be entirely dependent on Squall/Player, becoming thinner thematic foils, which is reinforced by the fact that everything in the story ultimately revolves around Squall and his secrets and functions as a mirror to him (Laguna, the blonde rival guy with the identical gunblade, etc).
At the core of it, though, the game is built in a way so similar to 7 and 9, that if you enjoyed them you're going to enjoy this one, just with an inferior system & story.
At the very least, Tifa's "long suffering childhood friend with insecurities needs you to tell her it's ok" crap was mitigated by her having her own character and story & some degree of activeness, and Dagger also doesn't wallow in self-pity for too long and is generally a competent character that tries to find her own solutions to her problems. Rinoa and the FF8 cast in general have a much stronger tendency to be entirely dependent on Squall/Player, becoming thinner thematic foils, which is reinforced by the fact that everything in the story ultimately revolves around Squall and his secrets and functions as a mirror to him (Laguna, the blonde rival guy with the identical gunblade, etc).
At the core of it, though, the game is built in a way so similar to 7 and 9, that if you enjoyed them you're going to enjoy this one, just with an inferior system & story.