8 Awesome Examples Of Outrageous Overkill In Gaming

3. Ultimecia€™s Great Attractor €“ Final Fantasy VIII

Ultimecia Final Fantasy games have always had a problem with realistic violence. Bear with me €“ I know you might call me out for trying to force realism upon a game with €˜fantasy€™ in the title, but hear me out. I don€™t necessarily mean outright realism, I mean consistency from what attacks do in game to what they do in cut-scenes. I can€™t be the only one who finds it weird when Aeris dies from being stabbed when she€™s taken all sorts of punishment to make it to that scene, can I? Of course, nowhere was this more apparent than in Final Fantasy VIII, and more specifically when you fight Ultimecia in the final boss battles. Now, I€™ve already covered how difficult a boss I think she is, but it€™s one of her attacks which really takes the whole thing over the line in overkill terms. Obviously, I€™m talking about the Great Attractor. For those of you who don€™t know, Ultimecia€™s Great Attractor attack saw her take planets out of their orbit and throw them at you, Goddamn. Planets. If you want something to describe overkill, a visual demonstration of this would surely suffice. The fun part is that it didn€™t necessarily kill you, as if somehow Squall and party were somehow badass enough to shake off literal worlds being thrown at them. It looks all the weirder when you take into account that at the start of the game Squall was scarred by Seifer€™s measly sword. But I€™m not here to nitpick (well, that€™s a lie), I€™m here to praise the sheer balls-out insanity of such an attack. Really, you€™ve just got to take your hat off to Square Enix €“ they sure as hell know what epic scale means.
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Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.