Undoubtedly the greatest FF title to date.
The Bad: No voice-overs; The GF concept turns from awesome to frustrating; The Junction System demands alot of work; I like to name EVERY playable character in the early FF games....
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Ah, a child's mind has a difficult time grasping the significance of such a game. As an eleven year old, I hated FF8 immensely. I had just finished FF7, which was one of my absolute favorite games; I bought this, and I wondered what I was thinking. It was boring for a child to be involved in a game that focused too much on reality. The game started in a college-like area, and I pondered what significance it held. Regardless, I played through it; didn't beat it, and hated it. Now, as a nineteen year old, I can be honest. What quality is held within this game? Well, it IS quality. Story: While Final Fantasy 7 focused more on futuristic, evil empires, and absurdly powerful, yet pretty villains; Final Fantasy 8 is a much more realistic, down to earth game. The first thing that I must bring to the table is the characters. There are no men with spiky, gravity defying, blonde hair; there is no black guy with a gun grafted into his arm; there is no flower girl who can conveniently destroy robots by hitting them with a stick; this game has a cast of believable characters, that resemble real people. Squall, the loner with painful reasons for avoiding emotion, Zell and Seifer's complete contrast in both personality and 'passion' for eachother; Quistis's urge to have a relationship with her own student; Selphie's perky, clumsy nature; Irvine's desperate need to find a woman; all of these characters display true characteristics. The story starts in a college-like area called Balamb Garden, where Squall Leonheart has just recieved a nasty scar from his rival's (Seifer's) gun blade (A sword with a trigger). He's sent on a training mission (That's extremely dangerous for 'training') to become a 'SeeD'; Balamb Garden's military force. He teams up with Seifer and Zell, and later meet up with Selphie. Stuff happen's, Squall's a SeeD, he meets some girl named Rinoa, and struggles between his mission and (Much Later) his feelings. The story unfolds around a freat war, a sorcerous, and how almost every main character is deeply connected with the others. Gameplay: Incredible; it takes FF7 and builds upon it in every way possible. Rather than using MP, you draw magic from enemies. You have a certain number of Magics, rather than using up MP. Yes, there are no ethers in this game. This works much better once you learn how to Junction Properly. You need a Guardian Force (Basically a summon) to junction. You can get several GF's all over the world; some you must defeat, others must be drawn from bosses. Without GFs equip, a character can do nothing but attack. Once a GF is on, you can Junction. Even when you know exactly how it works, Juctioning things to your preference takes time. You can use magic to make your defense, attack, HP, and other things stronger, and you can also use it to add elemental effects to your weapons, along with defending against elements and status effects. You can also attack with status effects the same way. Weapons are not just bought, you need to remodel your current weapon; you need to find items neccessary, as well as the money required. Magazines are hidden all over the world to tell you what items to collect. Money making has changed, too. You get money at different parts of the game, and it works like a paycheck. The higher your SeeD level, the more you get paid. You can take incredibly difficult tests to raise your rank even higher. While this is much better, it's not very easy, either. Junctioning takes alot of time if you want to tweak every stat to your preference. Battles unfold like usual, but GFs play a role. You need to use your GF to gain skills. When a GF learns a skill, you can add it to the character for his/her benefit. There's also the matter of GF reliance in the beginning. Each GF has their own cool cutscene, but you can't skip it. This is cool for the first few times, but after you've summoned Ifrit 200 times, it becomes a hassel. These complaints mean nothing, as the gameplay is already second to none, I'm just adding what could have been.
Visuals; More realistic than FF7, but stale by today's standards. Cutscenes are incredible. Back in 1999, this was amazing. The world map is vibrant, villages are lively, and once again, the cutscenes... Amazing.
Sound: Classical FF tunes hampered by the lack of voice overs. Grandia did it! Come on, Square!
Value: Absolutely worthwhile if you spend enough time with it.
Tilt: Despite the fact that I like to name every character, this doesn't really hurt anything. I'm absolutely enthralled by this game, and I'm ashamed I never saw the potential 7 1/2 years ago.