A Fan Has Turned Part of Final Fantasy VIII Into a One-Hour AI Movie
Final Fantasy VIII still hasn't received the full remake treatment that some other PlayStation classics have enjoyed, so one fan decided to take matters into their own hands... with AI.
FusionVerse Production has put together a roughly one-hour movie based on the early part of Final Fantasy VIII. It follows Squall from Balamb Garden and the SeeD exam through the events in Dollet, his first meeting with Rinoa, the famous ballroom dance, the mission to Timber and Laguna's first dream.
Want to see it for yourself? You can watch the full fan-made movie on YouTube:
▶ Watch Final Fantasy VIII – The Movie (1 HOUR)
Final Fantasy VIII gets an AI makeover
This isn't simply an attempt to make the original game look a little sharper. FusionVerse has recreated the scenes with AI-generated visuals, new renders, enhanced audio and recreated music, turning them into something closer to a modern animated movie.
According to the creator, hundreds of individual AI-generated clips were made for the project before being edited together. The idea is to keep the characters, atmosphere and story as close to the original as possible while giving everything a much more modern look.
That's quite a change from the game that originally came out on the PlayStation in 1999. Final Fantasy VIII looked impressive at the time, especially during its cinematic sequences, but the limits of the hardware are obviously much easier to see today.
Square Enix did eventually release Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, which gave the game another visual upgrade, including improved character models. This fan project takes things considerably further by rebuilding the scenes rather than simply touching up the original graphics.
It has its rough edges
It's still very much a fan project, though, and there are some rough edges. The AI voices can sound a little unnatural in places, while the visual quality isn't always completely consistent from one scene to the next.
That's not exactly surprising when you're dealing with hundreds of separately generated clips. Some shots look great, while others make it pretty obvious that you're watching an AI-generated production.
Even so, it's fun to see familiar characters and locations from Final Fantasy VIII presented this way. Squall, Rinoa and Balamb Garden all look very different when they're recreated with a modern cinematic style.
FusionVerse also makes it clear that this is an unofficial fan project and has no affiliation with Square Enix.
More chapters are on the way
The one-hour movie isn't the end of the project either. FusionVerse says that more chapters are currently being made, with the story continuing beyond what is included in this release.
So while this obviously isn't the official Final Fantasy VIII remake that some fans would love to see, it's an interesting fan project nonetheless. And if you ever wondered what Squall's adventure might look like as a modern AI-generated movie, there's now a full hour of it to watch.
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Webmastahhh is the creator of Mastanet, a gaming and technology website where he shares news, reviews, guides and personal insights about games, hardware, software and the future of digital entertainment.
