Let's Play Final Fantasy VIII Has Concluded

So last night I finally finished the long-running Let's Play of "Final Fantasy VIII" that I was hosting along with some FFWiki friends.  This was a project that began in early March, and now, half a year later, has concluded in an explosive baroque finale which I'll link right here.  Essentially that series devoured most of my creative energy, and almost immediately wiped out my interest for "All-Out Giant Monster Attack!", which I unfortunately left pretty unfinished after twenty-five reviews.  Maybe I'll return to it, but I have my doubts.  Anyway, "Final Fantasy VIII" being a long forty-hour title, this was a very very long Let's Play, running at something like twenty-on and a half hours.

This was a Let's Play that killed my old Vista operating system, forcing me to burn my laptop to the ground and start from scratch with a more modern system.  I limped the entire project together using a shitty video editing software called "Wondershare Video Editor", a program apparently designed to crash and freeze with a small accidental video editing function thrown in.  I think four or five episode recordings ended in total failure, with my computer melting down, forcing a re-record.  Then there was one time I forgot to hit record, and did not notice until an hour later.  But as Bob Ross is prone to say, there are no mistakes, only happy accidents, so the second attempts were almost always considerably funnier and more fruitful than the first.  But beyond all this, the Let's Play was really the first time I've ever taken a leadership role in anything, forcing me to deal with a veritable nightmare of scheduling conflicts, no-shows, and recording problems amongst a co-hosting team that was literally scattered around the globe on three continents, none of whom I've ever met in person.

I also must note this is probably the only Let's Play that features a running plotline, with Faceless Squall as a main villain.  Of course, I had no plan for this, and basically up every element and conversation on the fly, basically just talking to myself and using a pitch-changing tool to make the villain sound scary.  Luckily "Final Fantasy VIII" is a game that makes very little sense, and I'm pretty sure the director, Kitase, gave that story as much thought I did to the Let's Play's plotline.  In retrospect, this entire adventure was probably overly-indulgent and ultimately pointless, but its something that nobody has done before.  It certainly added a mountain of work onto an already massive project.

Anyway, if you love "Final Fantasy VIII", or hate it, I got a finished Let's Play now it.  And that's something most humans have never done.  So there is that.