(All scores are for the PC version, and given at the time of the game's release, not in the present.) Ah yes, Final Fantasy VIII (PC) -- I remember it well. I had just come off the awe-inspiring experience that is FF7 for the first time -- my first Final Fantasy game (I have since played the entire series). Naturally, I was expecting something of a similar nature in FF8. The demo seemed very promising, with its crisp (especially compared to FF7) field graphics and astounding CGI cutscenes. So I was quite excited when I got the real thing. The game didn't disappoint in giving a great first impression. The opening CGI and music, as well as the seamless transitions from field graphics into CGI slightly later in Balamb Garden, were shockingly well done. I was immediately placed into the atmosphere of the Garden (a boarding school for young fighters trying to make it into SeeD, an elite military group), with its sunny gardens, its many fascinating inhabitants and interesting facilities. Immediately one learns of Squall, the game's hero with a bad attitude, Quistis (his instructor who apparently has the hots for him), and Seifer (an unruly dude that clearly has a score to settle with Squall). Soon enough, one meets Rinoa through a breathtaking CGI. Rinoa is obviously going to be a Squall love interest, but her intentions are mysterious. Eventually, Squall and friends make it into SeeD (which is in the middle of a war between the various nations) and are given the dangerous mission of assassinating Edea, an apparently evil sorceress. In the meantime, your party starts getting inexplicable (playable) dreams featuring Laguna, who's some kind of journalist/soldier wannabe. Sound intriguing? Oh, it is. This is where everything goes downhill. The game's first disc (of 4) starts of very promisingly and is, generally, able to keep up the quality throughout, even as it raises more questions than it answers (just like in many Final Fantasy games). But, after this, starting with one cheesy revelation concerning Edea and your party members (you'll see what I mean), the story takes a rapid plunge into something decidedly un-FF-like. You will start wandering from one contrived plot point to another, eventually negating any kind of emotional involvement you placed into the story in the first place. The game becomes a random hunt of sorceresses through time. Much of the earlier intrigue is abandoned (for instance, the Quistis and Seifer relationships). Laguna's relationship with Squall is eventually revealed, though very artificially. The only bright spot is the Squall-Rinoa love story, which I found pretty damn touching. But that's about it. This is still Final Fantasy, and it's got a good reasonable story at heart, but it's just not that great. A 7 maybe. I will TILT this game by (8), however, due to to the strong first disc and high production values. GAMEPLAY (6): While the story is "good" at best, it's important that the gameplay itself is fun so that moving through that story doesn't feel like a chore. I'm sad to say that this game was the weakest, in terms of gameplay, of all the FF games I've played. It seems Square tried to be unconventional with the battle system and other ideas -- admirable -- and simply failed to give you something fun -- unfortunate. Everything about the gameplay was very unorthodox. For one, you do gain experience and level up, BUT THE MONSTERS level up with you! It's an interesting idea, but it leads to (1) the question "Why level up?" (perhaps that was the idea?), and (2) some serious imbalance issues. Allow me to explain (2). You see, there is a Junction system, which lets you draw quantities of spells (e.g., Fire, Ultima, Curaga) into your party and then attach them to your stats. For instance, attach 99 Ultimas to your HPs, and you will have 9999 HP, even if you are level 10 or something like that. So while it's interesting FF8 doesn't force you to find lots of boring battles, it's also interesting that it PUNISHES YOU for levelling up! You see, since monsters stats (including HP) will always be constant relative to yours, add in junctioned spells, and you can steroid yourself up beyond this. Which means, if you have a lower level, and steroid yourself up then the monsters will still have low HP while your attack, etc., will be really high. But if you have a high level, your attack, etc., will be no higher than otherwise (due to the junctioning maxing everything out), while your monsters will be considerably stronger. It makes no sense. Now, to get spells you draw them at draw points, but all the good stuff is on bosses, which compels one to keep losing the battle until you got 99 of the spell you want from the boss -- lame. Hilariously, you don't get money from any monster -- you get PAID at certain time intervals, no matter where you are. The higher your SeeD rank, the more you get paid. How do you rise in rank? :-) You take a written true/false test on the FF8 battle system. So if you just find out all the right answers, you can be a rich man before fighting a SINGLE BATTLE. Interesting, but WTF? More stuff: You get summon monsters (GFs) that you usually beat to adopt. It's very cool how they can learn abilities to help you during battle. What's not cool is that you're supposed to BOOST their attacks by hitting a button at the right time. That is just really, really lame in an RPG. And the final kick in the groin: Squall's main limit breaks (special abilities that appear only when a character is near death, i.e., yellow HP) are so powerful, that the key to winning the harder battles at the end is to keep him near death so that he can repeatedly deal huge damage. Why, Square? Why?! GRAPHICS (7): This was a surprising score. The CGI is quite amazing -- although not particularly frequent -- a 10, and the field graphics are quite pretty, with nice adult character models (9). But, for some reason, now the battle graphics are of low quality. The spells and magic look wonderful, as usual, but the character models are really horribly aliased. This is especially annoying for Rinoa. She's breathtakingly beautiful in the CGI, but in battle she's got a too-sharp nose and otherwise very polygonal-looking body. Something like that might look OK on a PlayStation, but with high-res PC graphics it looks really bad. The background graphics during battle are also really bad by FF standards. Namely, some textures stand out unfavorably. The same is true of the map graphics. It's sad to see this game improved so much on FF7 in terms of field graphics and CGI, but lost so much in battle and on the 3D world map. SOUND (8): The opening and closing themes are great. The in-game music is solid Square-quality, though not that memorable. The sound effects are OK, as usual. VALUE (10): This, like in most FF games, is really great. It's a very long game (30-60 hours?), and there is a multitude of things to do. There are supermonsters that are very hard to beat (you don't have to beat them), and many side quests and secrets. All of these present just the right amount of challenge: A dedicated gamer will be able to find the clues and items necessary to do them. Since the story is a bit convoluted, you might want to play through the game twice or thrice, and each time you can accomplish something new.
Wow...where to begin? Final Fantasy VIII was the much anticipated follow-up to the god that was Final Fantasy VII. I had loved VII so much that I went around playing all the old ones in anticipation for VIII's arrival... Read Full Review
I seriously couldn't thing of anything or anyway to put down this game except for one little, minor, not really problematic issue, and this is the fact that the enemies and bosses level up as you do. I really don't know... Read Full Review
