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Final Fantasy VIII Review (continued)
More User Submitted Final Fantasy VIII Reviews
Date: 2008-07-25
An Excellent RPG
STORY-
You play as Squall Leonhart, who is part of an elite military faction known as SeeD. SeeD members work for those who they are contracted to in order to collect funds. Squall is attempting to pass his SeeD exam with careful guidance from his instructor Quistis Trepe. He meets several other students along the way, some of which are Zell Dincht (a lively martial artist) and Selphie Tilmitt (a cheerful nunchaku-wielding girl). Squall's ultimate rival, Seifer Almasy, accompanies them on the exam as well. After passing, Squall is assigned to work with a rebel group whose leader is Rinoa Heartilly, a beautiful and bright young woman. What starts as an average mission turns into a complicated and tangled web of love and deceit as Squall begins to question his values and the values of SeeD.
BATTLE SYSTEM-
As with previous Final Fantasy titles, fights are turn-based. Random encounters will occur as you walk around the world map. Each character on screen will be allowed a move every few seconds (including your enemies) making for fast-paced and enjoyable battles. During these battles, allies can choose from several different options. The basic function is Attack, which allows you to strike the opponent to inflict damage. Another option is Magic, which enables you to cast either offensive or curative spells. Draw is a somewhat unique feature. In Final Fantasy VIII, magic spells are not gained through leveling up or any other such process. Magic can be `drawn' from enemies and stocked like items. The number of spells you have will decrease by 1 with each use. GF is also a useful command. FFVIII features GFs, or Guardian Forces, which can be summoned at any time in battle. They deal massive (usually elemental) damage to enemies and carry their own health bars. GFs level up through gaining AP at the end of a battle, and new abilities can be attached to your characters through the junctioning of GFs. The allies in your party each have their own unique abilities and weapons that can be upgraded and changed throughout the course of the game. The job system from previous games is virtually nonexistent, but each character has their own attributes which make up for the absence of the class system. After battle, characters will gain a certain amount of experience that allows them to gain levels. The battle system hasn't been changed enough to be unfamiliar to older players, but allows new FF fans to pick the system up easily. After a while, battles will become a test of strategy rather than pure strength, and even grinding is fairly enjoyable with enough varied options.
GAMEPLAY-
To be honest, there isn't much gameplay outside of the constant battles. While Squall is wandering around the world map, he will be periodically attacked by various monsters, making for slow progress while traveling on foot. In towns and dungeons, you may move from one area to another simply by reaching the end of the screen. Whenever this occurs, however, the screen must slowly fade out and then in again, which may annoy more impatient players. Another thing which bothered me while walking around cities was the complete absence of any map screen. I found this irritating to deal with, especially when exploring more expansive locales such as Deling City. The towns, however, only serve as rest stops before larger and more epic fights. FFVIII is basically a string of encounters laced together with a giant world map to traverse and a rich plot to unravel. There are many vehicles that can be acquired or rented to make your way across said map, including cars, trains, boats, and the ever-present airship. As with many other Final Fantasy titles, jumping is nonexistent unless you are so prompted to do so. Despite the fact that the world map lacks much in the way of sightseeing, it does its job of providing the player with the feeling that they are traveling through a land larger than expected. I don't have any qualms with the controls, as they are basically limited to rotating the analog stick and pressing `x'. As with almost every other Final Fantasy game, there are a number of sidequests to complete as well as a strangely addictive card game by the name of Triple Triad. There are an amazing amount of regional rules to consider when playing, ranging from reasonable to extremely frustrating (such as the ridiculous `random' rule). The gameplay satisfies and the cutscenes are, to say the least, beautiful. It's good, old-fashioned RPG excellence.
VISUALS, CHARACTERS and CHARM-
Those of you who are used to being spoiled by more recent RPGs such as Kingdom Hearts or Persona 3 won't find much eye candy here. The cutscenes, as mentioned before, are obviously impressive, but the rest of the game fails to deliver. In-game graphics are decidedly less detailed. As this was Square's first adventurous leap into character models that looked realistic, I'm willing to forgive a few of their more obvious flaws. To be honest, the characters are just...ugly. I can find no other word to describe them. From a distance, they're indistinct blobs, and when viewed up close, they don't appear to have much detail on their clothing or their faces. I can accept this to a certain extent, but I've noticed that the backgrounds themselves are usually much more appealing than Squall himself. The settings appear to be well designed and the environments are interesting. Yet, there's something distinctly wrong with piloting a mass of pixels around landscapes which, quite frankly, make me feel as though they deserve something better. On the other hand, character dialogue is well-written and there is significant development of Squall's personality throughout the game, as well as changes in character relationships.
OVERALL-
I'll admit, I have a soft spot for Final Fantasy VIII, since it happened to be the first one of the series I've picked up. Since then I've played a multitude of RPGs, each with their own merits and flaws. But when all is said and done, the simplicity and familiarity of FFVIII gets me every time. If you enjoy beautiful cutscenes, well-characterized party members and expansive world maps, pick this one up.
Date: 2008-07-11
A Final Fantasy That Tries Too Hard
When Final Fantasy VII debuted in 1997 it was hailed as the greatest of great RPGs. When Final Fantasy VIII came around in 1999, it had so much to live up to. So much hype that the bar was set too high, even for Final Fantasy VIII to hit. Almost ten years later, it's a little easier to look at Final Fantasy VIII with fondness. In part because that bar it had to reach is no longer there. The hype has settled. We can now look at Final Fantasy VIII for what it is. It's a great game to be sure, but it still has some problems it has to address.
Final Fantasy VIII is, first and foremost, a love story. It takes a moment to get going but when it does (about halfway through) it turns out to be good. Final Fantasy VIII is about Squall, a young member who attends the Balamb Garden Academy and is about to undertake a field exam for an elite group called SeeD. When he finally gets in his first mission to help a resistance group lead by a young woman named Rinoa. The adventure eventually leads to an epic good versus evil battle as Squall and his allies realize a sorceress is plotting world domination. For the most part the story is good, but even now it's hard not to notice how it skimps on certain things. Squall is a well developed character, but Final Fantasy VIII does little to develop its other characters. You come to like Squall and understand his angst, but you'll hardly come to understand the other characters quite as well.
Final Fantasy VIII also utilizes the ATB battle system which has been in place since Final Fantasy IV. The eighth installment in particular tries to differentiate itself from the rest of the series and succeeds. Very well. First there's Final Fantasy VIII's junction system. Rather than having the convential level up system, this game opts instead to have the enemies raise levels with you. It seems like this will make the game harder, but the junction system serves as a balance. First, there's drawing spells. In battle, characters can draw spells from the enemy. It's a tedious task and often gets boring, but you can use any spell you have to increase your statistics. But there's more than that. You can't junction spells to your stats unless you junction Guardian Forces (Final Fantasy VIII's summons) to a character.
Junctioning isn't just a gimmick, however. It's a necessity to getting through the game as your characters stats won't grow fast enough. Different spells also have a different impact on certain stats. More powerful spells will do a better job than their weaker counterparts. You can also junction to increase your defense against status ailments and even increase your elemental defense enough to absorb spells.
The Junction system is a great addition but it's overly complex. The big problem with it, however, is that the game never gives you an incentive to use one character over another aside from their limit breaks, which are very powerful attacks, but only useful if your HP falls into the yellow (or you cast a certain spell). Battling in Final Fantasy VIII can be fun, but the biggest problem is that it never encourages you to take advantage of it. You can draw spells, but depleting your stock of spells also depletes the stat its junctioned to. In short, if you want to keep most of your stats in tip top shape you'll want to refrain from using some of the game's more devastating spells (as they'll be used to junction). The junction system does work, however, in letting gamers challenge themselves. You can make the game as hard or as easy as you like.
There are also abilities that each GF carries that allow you to learn several abilities. Some can give you new commands in battle while others can also help increase your stats by a certain amount.
There's quite a bit more to Final Fantasy VIII's gameplay. There's also a card game called Triple Triad you can play. It's a simple game complete with complex rules. It's also incredibly addictive. There are a couple of other mini-games, but where Final Fantasy VIII really succeeds is it's unremarkable number of sidequests (though most of them become locked on the final disc). There's a ton of optional things to do here.
If anything did go against Final Fantasy VIII, it would be some of the things at the core of its gameplay. As mentioned earlier drawing is downright boring and long. There's little incentive to use magic and there's not much point to level grinding or any incentive to actually work for abilities either (why bother if enemies will level up with you?). The biggest problem is actually getting new weapons. In most RPGs weapons are found or bought in item shops or earned as rewards for defeating certain enemies. Final Fantasy VIII does away with all that and makes you scrounge for items to make weapons. At first it seems creative, but getting some of the more lucrative weapons becomes very taxing and repetitive. You might find yourself getting into several battles just to get one part for a weapon. It's helped a little by letting you change items and cards into tools, but some can only be obtained by defeating enemies. Getting new weapons and making characters more powerful should be a bit more fun than this. Final Fantasy VIII manages to turn it into a chore.
Graphically, however, Final Fantasy VIII is a milestone for the Playstation. While it's environments can be a little grainy, its character models are very beautiful and actually very human like. The game doesn't look smooth, however, and some of the art design doesn't look as good as other Final Fantasy games past or present. It's a visual looker, having some incredibly detailed towns and dungeons and even some incredible looking spell effects and limit breaks (as well as some top notch FMV sequences) but it doesn't always set the mood the way previous installments have. As much as some may not like to hear it: Final Fantasy VII was a greater visual achievement. Final Fantasy VIII is incredible to look at, but some of its visuals just look a bit sloppier.
Musically Final Fantasy VIII sounds good. It doesn't sound quite as good as Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy X, but the tracks that stand out are among the most recognizable in Final Fantasy history. Much of it has the love story soundtrack going for it. There's a lot of slow low key musical numbers. For some gamers this probably won't cut it. Especially when compared to the more lively and upbeat soundtracks of the other games.
Final Fantasy VIII isn't a bad game, but it's one that tries so hard to be different from the rest of the series and tries too hard to be better than its predecessor. The truth is, when a game gets labeled the greatest of greats, its probably better not to try and out do it, but to focus on what made it great in the first place and continue in that direction. Final Fantasy VIII is a good game. A great game, even, but its gameplay issues make quite a dent in the game as a whole. It's an amazing experience but with these issues, it keeps it from being the best experience it can be.
Date: 2008-06-28
Great Classic Fun RPG
The overall condition of this game was immaculate, the discs were pristine and the booklets were clean as a whistle. the only thing wrong with mine is the cover was cracked but no damage to the game whatsoever. i bought it used on a friday had it to me by a tuesday the following week.
Great Game for a Great Price
Date: 2008-06-28
FF8
Personally, one of the best story lines I've ever played. Battle system is easy to use and for the more in depth players, allows for massive character customization to the extent of damage dealing and their abilities used. Card game mini game is pretty fun for some quick time killing. At the time, some of the best graphics around. If you want a solid turn style RPG game, a must have.
Date: 2008-06-18
A perfect score for a perfect game
Not many games have ever made me as excited as the Final Fantasy series and FF8 is one of the best. Engaging stories, beautiful cutscenes, lovable characters.
Based in a modern-esque fantasy. The game has trains and airships, along with great beasts and magic. A wonderful tale and great surprises await this game.
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