We did not accidentally write the wrong name in the title: the roman number for eight. It’s surprising to hear that the American film industry contacts the Japanese publisher for Final Fantasy VIII.

Final Fantasy VIII came out a long time ago: the PS1 original was released in Japan in February 1999, in North America in September and Europe in October, followed by the port in early 2000. Since then, a remastered version was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in September 2019, and even iOS and Android got Squall’s adventure in March this year…

“I think it’s fair to say that Final Fantasy VIII had an impact on the future of the Final Fantasy series. Not necessarily mechanically – the gameplay of the Final Fantasy games changes with each entry – but certainly, the realistic proportions and designs of characters set a visual direction for the series. This is unrelated to development, but I also liked how Final Fantasy VIII appeared briefly in Charlie’s Angels, starring Cameron Diaz. We often receive such Easter egg requests from Hollywood for Final Fantasy VIII – it seems to be a favourite amongst young filmmakers for some reason!” Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy VIII’s director, wrote on the PlayStation Blog.

He also said that despite being happy how Final Fantasy VIII turned out, he didn’t like how the characters had no voice acting while the sound effects and music “were reaching film-like levels of quality.” (On one hand, voice acting would have required extra work, because dubbing is not an easy task, and it would have had to be done in at least two languages [Japanese, English], which would have increased the size of the already several CD games…)

We’d be curious to know who has tried to include the game in their films…

Source: PSL