Hey peoples! Last month I took part in the awesome GB Community Endurance run and during the event I ran through FF8 as quickly as I could. The experience has gotten me thinking about FF8 in some new ways and it has led me to think about playing games a little differently as well. So I figured I would write a little bit about my experience. This blog post isn’t going to be about the tips and minutia involved with speed running FF8 in particular (I’ve already done a few videos on speed running tips and the archive of the stream is up on my Youtube and Hitbox channels), but rather it is going to be about how speed running this game changed how I perceive games in general. Believe it or not I still had something to learn from a 15 year old game that I’ve beaten about 10 times.

First off, I learned that running from a battle in a JRPG is a big time saver and that there is no boogie man that punishes you for your cowardice! In most JRPGs and role playing games in general I feel compelled to defeat every enemy possible with the expectation that the money, exp, and items that you get from battle will be necessary at some point. Battles seem so fast when they go well and it feels like progress every time you win. As a result, I always looked at battles as an opportunity for progress and reward, rather than as an unnecessary time sink. I would think, “Well I’m in a battle anyway so I might as well win.” It turns out that FF8 and a bunch of other games can be beaten pretty easily without engaging with the grind, so long as you know what you’re doing. That extra stuff you get from random battles is often extraneous as long as you make smart use of the bare necessities that the game gives you by default. Therefore, I’ve learned that cutting out all of those little attack and magic animations can add up to hours of time saved with little to no impact on your ability to finish the game. I would argue that skipping battles entirely can lead to a lesser experience overall if the battles are well designed, but in most cases you can safely skip the 10^th goblin battle in a dungeon without missing much.

I also learned that turning off random encounters is freaking amazing in story based games. In FF8 there is an ability that lets you turn off ALL RANDOM ENCOUNTERS (except in a few select optional areas) and that ability can come online as soon as halfway through disc 1. This is a bit of a corollary to my point on running away, but the option to not even see a random battle screen for hours is incredible. It is incredibly liberating to just focus on the story and exploration after years of worrying about whether doubling back in a dungeon for an item is worth the 3-5 extra encounters that come with it. Honestly, my FF8-minus-the-fat experience was so positive that I think all games with a strong narrative draw should have an option to turn off the combat padding. Most games (especially story focused games) come with a few key battles or moments that are worth experiencing surrounded by padding and repetition, and experiencing FF8 with only the boss battles was much more fun than fighting the generic grunts over and over. I would love to see a game admit that fact and allow you to cut out the fat. Maybe the story only option should only be unlocked by beating the game first or maybe that option should be unlocked midway through the game; but, goodness do I want to try Mass Effect 2 without shooting my way through the endless hallways all over again. I guess I want a kind of boss rush mode for modern games.

Another revelation I had was that using all of your items in an RPG makes the game way easier and more fun. Who knew! I used to be an item hoarder, but no more. I used to listen to the voice in my head that said, “You might need that elixir later,” but from now on I’m telling that voice to shut up. Game designers give you powerful consumable items for a reason and hoarding those items for as long as possible usually results in a more frustrating experience than liberally using items when you need them. I’m at the point in my life where I have limited gaming time and I really don’t need to hit myself with extra psychological barriers to finishing a game as quickly as possible.

Speed running FF8 gave me a newfound appreciation for the flexibility and utility of FF8’s controversial Junction System. I always liked how the junction system allowed you to break the game and completely customize your characters, but I never fully appreciated how the game’s scaling enemies also keep the game fun regardless of your level. The scaled enemies in FF8 are really well done and they keep the difficulty of the game about the same regardless of how much grinding you do. That is a potentially huge innovation, doubly so if it were included in a game that has a more balanced combat system overall. In FF8 Ruby Dragons are always scary and Bite Bugs are never threatening, regardless of where and when you encounter each enemy. By making the enemy type matter, instead of the enemy level, FF8 avoids the incongruity of a game like Destiny where a level 10 grunt suddenly wipes you because you’re level 8 while a level 1 grunt with the same model, AI, and name dies in one hit. Also since FF8 enemies gain abilities as they gain levels as well as health and strength they present different challenges as the game progresses, rather than the same challenge with a bigger health bar.

My speed run taught me a bunch about FF8, but more than that it taught me that the way I define the parameters of how I play a game is a game in and of itself. By setting up my own playstyles and codes of gaming honor I fundamentally change the way I experience a given game. Finding a new way to play an old game transformed FF8 in a way I never expected and it gave me even more appreciation for its weird quirks.