I just watched a music video clip of cutscenes from FFVIII on youtube and am rather surprise to realise that I actually like FFVIII more than VII, even given the advanced graphics and unsurpassing texture quality and realisticism, VIII, for that moment seemed a lot more likeable than what VII is what it is now. I find Squall's and Rinoa's facial expressions a lot more expressive. Despair and sorrow just pierce through your heart when Squall called out to what seemed like an illusion of the back profile of Rinoa, when he slumped down in fatigue and hopelessness on a dry cracked ground wishing he could see her and watched a white feather descend from the sky. Relief when Rinoa watched Squall in her arms come to seemed like liberation from a thousand woes. You can't help but move along with them in their emotions. I don't know if its correct to say this but, maybe the camera angles and sequence of shots or selection of scenes just made me think VIII was just artistically beautiful. It was just a beautiful quiet story told of its characters and how they reacted in the ever changing series of events and twist in plot. There seemed to be minimal distractions from flashy scenes with cool gadgets and mecha or fantastic stunts. Just space for the appreciation of character development and interaction.

Even a video clip of X, which I happened to chance upon again on youtube made me think the old FFs all had some kind of nostagical something that the current projects lack.