Final Fantasy VIII: The Altimate Rewrite

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

As the title suggests, The Altimate Rewrite by Albert is a retelling of Final Fantasy VIII through a combination of text and edited game screenshots. The work is notable primarily for its Broad Strokes approach to the source material: unlike a standard Novelization or Let's Play, it makes extensive alterations to setting, backstory, characterization, and plotline, with a large amount of original material worked in.

Fan response is strongly divided. Those who like it embrace the many changes as improvements on the original game; those who dislike it find it too removed from the original to the point of being Final Fantasy VIII In Name Only.

In the end, the ones who came out on top were the story's detractors. On May 11th, 2012, with less than 5% of the story to go, the author suddenly stopped updating and completely fell off the radar, leaving the story without an ending.


Tropes used in Final Fantasy VIII: The Altimate Rewrite include:
  • Batman Gambit
  • Chessmaster: Cid, to the point where even people who know what he's up to, like Martine and Laguna, are appalled at how good he is at it.
  • Groundhog Day Loop: In place of the Stable Time Loop of the original. Ultimecia remembers every iteration, and Cid/Odine find out through Thay's diary. So far, they're about 200,000 times through the loop, to the point where Cid's given up on breaking it, and is merely attempting to make each pass through as bearable as possible.
  • Hey, You: The source of the name "Thay."
  • Mildly Military: Heavily averted.
  • Mind Screw: Your brain will be tied into knots.
  • No Ending: A close contender for the Most Heinous Example in all of fiction everywhere. Abandoning a video game retelling with only the Bonus Boss and Final Boss left to fight? Who does that??
  • Schedule Slip: When Albert lost his saves, he decided to grind back up to max stats. This has caused no small delay in between entries.
  • Scrapbook Story: The rewrite is told out through Thay's officer diary (with a few entries from the rest of the party). It ends up becoming far more relevant after The Reveal, where we learn that Cid is using past versions of the diary to predict how the latest time around the time loop will go.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: Thay and Rinoa.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Mostly averted between Thay and Rinoa. They do have a major falling out on the Ragnarok, however, when Rinoa is not flattered by Thay's willingness to forsake the world just for them.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: The story has been subject to countless pages worth of speculation on the real identity of Ultimecia and just what the heck is going on. Fans periodically PM Albert with their guesses, to which he is fairly responsive. The content of these private exchanges has largely been kept secret, and the mystery hasn't been spoiled yet.
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