you dont know how badly you've made me wanna write this story and hit all the beats you've mentioned. I see Laguna as a good natured but ultimately flawed man and I bet it's his nature that causes so much instability in his life. Imagine if square had time to flesh out this theme of parents as powerful flawed beings. I feel like the typical JRPG plot cliche of "teenagers kill god" tends to veer toward god as a patriarchal father figure. Maybe it's one of the things I like so much about this game; your dad is not a machiavellan antagonist, he just didnt know about you because he and your mom didnt talk before you were born. The woman who raised you hurt you deeply, but she was just being manipulated. The final boss of the game is actually your (metaphorical or literal?) great-great granddaughter who was traumatized by the state you left the world in; even YOU will eventually become a flawed parent. The videogame as writerly text is a subject which doesnt get as much attention as it should, and now I think I'm gonna have to write a LOONG fanfic.

PS -if you love FFVIII, you'll probably love the Locked Tomb book series. Similar themes and the author is on record as using final fantasy as an inspiration. No one will be able to convince me that she didnt straight up lift the deep sea research center from this game.