Why, oh why does this game get the good reviews that it does?
In all seriousness, that's what I keep asking myself. This is not a very good game. Sure it's not utterly horrible, but overal, it's not very good. Of course, I don't regret playing it. It was fun and exciting in spots, but hopeless and painfully boring in others.
Final Fantasy VIII feels like a bad episode in an otherwise good tv show. Sure it's a good show, the rest of it is anyway, so you are going to watch the episode, but the episode just feels like filler. That's what Final Fantasy VIII feels like, filler in this series. Of course I've only ever played VII and XII so I can't say much, both of those games were awesome.
This game just likes to give us more. More of everything. More pointless level grinding. More melodramatic romance. More boring and dull cutscences. More inexplicable deus ex machines. More more more. This game just keeps on giving doesn't it?
But you know what? That is not a good thing. Final Fantasy has long been known for its level grinding, but Final Fantasy VIII just takes that concept up to 11 by making you draw magic through it's needlessly complicated junctioning system. It took several hours just to figure out what the hell the junction system was, and when I finally did figure it out, I realized just how much drawing I would have to do. I've spent countless hours drawing while playing something fun like, Civilization, on my DS or even reading a book while waiting for the characters to have 100 magic.
Sure you can get magic in other ways, but it's still just pointless busy work, albeit a slightly less painful method of busy work. I wasn't doing the drawing until I realized that I had to just to stay competitive.
This draw and junction system is insane. You have to junction what's called GF's, basically summons, to characters and the GFs allow the characters to take actions. All the characters can do is attack without them. Each GF is unique and allows the player to junction magic to various stats increasing them. In a curious act of mercy, the game will junction the magic automatically by just saying what you want emphasised. Surprisingly, the junction system was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Once I got used to it, and finally figured out how the hell to use it, it was actually quite enjoyable.
Of course, the draw system was still as painful as ever. Not to mention counterintuitive. What do you do with all this magic that you have drawn? Do you use it? Of course not! That would be to obvious. You hardly ever use the magic because it is more useful as a stats buffer.
Another thing before we get to the plot. The card game. The card game seems tacked on, as if it were an afterthought. It is fun and addicting, though. I don't know what the developers were thinking when they added the ever so painful random rule, though. Once you visit Dollet, that rule will follow you around like the plauge and haunt your very nightmares. Unfortunately, once that random rule gets spread throughout the world, there's pretty much nothing you can do to get rid of it. You'll just have to live with it.
Ok, now to the plot and characters. The characters are all pretty much dull, melodramatic, self-centered, or unpleasent in some other way. Squall is a whiny emo kid, who does have a great Freudian excuss for it all, but just because we know why he acts like that, he still acts like that, and it is annoying as hell. Gotta love his all black outfit with the fur at the top, though. Anyway, Squall is about as interesting in his dialogue as a brown paper bag. There may be interesting things in the paper bag, but it's still a paper bag. He ends up being the leader of the Garden for some inexplicable reason, I never understood why. That moment was always weird to me, it was like Cid said "Here Squall, you be in charge!" and Squall was just like "...." and Cid took that for a yes. Squall's storyline struck me as just plain boring. He's not the greatest hero in the world, but at least we don't have Vaan as the protagonist. Really, I can't think of anyone else who would make a better protagonist, except Edea, but she's kinda the Big Bad for the first two discs so she can't be the protagonist, shame really.
In game Squall is a beast. He rocks the field, which is good because you can never take him out of your party. Not that I'd want to, he's a great fighter with the ability to get a critical hit every hit. Not bad. Oh, and his limit kicks ass. Shame I didn't figure out how to use it until midway through the second disc because the game never told me I had to have critical health. Oh game.
Anyway, Zell. Zell is much more interesting than Squall, but only because he's jumping around and attracting attention to himself all the time. He may be the most interesting character in the game, and that's saying something, considering I wasn't at all interested in him during the game. That's pretty much all we get from him. He doesn't get very much character development, except being addicted to hot dogs, for some reason. I don't know.
In game, Zell was always the leader of my second team. I never really used him, unless I had to because Quistis and Irvine were better, but whatever. His limit looks kinda cool but doesn't do very much.
Selphie, the game's resident lollita jail bait. And she's 18, supposedly. I don't know how Selphie ever passed the school's final exam since, you know, you have to fight a massive fire demon in a cave infested with monsters. How did she even survive? Anyway, Selphie is a mess. She's even more of a ditz than Zell, though for some reason she was allowed to lead the infiltration of the missile base. Why or why was Selphie allowed to lead the infiltration of the missile base? I'm still trying to work that out. Anyway, Selphie doesn't get much character development either, appart from being an annoying little girl.
In game I never used her unless I had to. She was an absolute no going back last resort. Though Selphie did have her moments when I had her. Her limit was usefull for the full cure, though that was pretty much it.
Rinoa is the designated love interest and perhaps the most annoying character of the game. She was leading a resistance movement. A resistance movement! I expected her to be semi-interesting in this. But no, we aren't allowed to have semi-interesting characters in this game! Oh no no no. She ended up tagging along with the actual SeeD party just because of her quite inexplicable stalker crush on Squall. Squall just keeps shrugging her off but she just keeps coming at him. I really think he should have taken out a restraining order on her. And of course, she is a damsel in distress. We had to save her ass so many times, I just wanted her to fall off that cliff or get killed by that sorceress, anything so that she would get out of my party. Really Sephiroth, take Rinoa in Aerith's place. No one would miss her.
In game she isn't useful. Maybe she would be semi-useful as a mage, but I never stooped myself to use her in my party, unless I had to. And I had to so often due to the party splitting up, it was annoying. Her limit is probably the worst one as you have to collect magazines so that her dog can learn new tricks. Again, annoying. It is kind of funny to see her launching her dog from her arm like a gun, though.
Quistis is one of the few characters that would be interesting if she were given much character development. As it stands, she gets next to none. The main thing she does is try to get in Squall's pants all of the beginning and than just tag along afterward. She ends up saying that she feels like she is a mother to Squall instead of wanting to crack open his way to tight for him jeans. She probably would have been a better love interest than Rinoa, but no, we have to have a flat one dimensional girl to be the love interest.
Quistis is rather useful, actually, outside battle. She tends to be the mage and thief of my main party. Her limit is pretty cool, using magics from enemies, but it's not all that practical. She does have some good ones that attack all the enemies though.
Irvine. Irvine looks like he's going to be a cool character, but every time I think he's going to be cool, he ends up doing something annoying and stupid. He sets up a music concert with Selphie's music and leaves out a dirty magazine for Squall and Rinoa. What, does he think they're going to puruse it together? Seriously, Irvine would be cool, but he doesn't get much character development. He tries to keep the group together, but he's still just kind of there. It's almost like having a cardboard cut out for a party member for all the personality he has. We're told that he's good with ladies and that he gets together with Selphie, but I don't believe he's really good with ladies from the looks of his conversations with Selphie. Speaking of which, I found that relationship creepy. Irvine looks like he's in his mid twenties while Selphie looks like she's fourteen.
In game, Irvine is relatively useful. I keep him in my main party for attacking and backup mage purposes. He works pretty well in that capacity. His limit, just like Irvine himself, looks like it would be cool, but really isn't. It even requires the purchase of seperate bullet items. Annoying to say the least.
Laguna is one of the most annoying parts of this game, and that's saying something with all of the pointless and painful love scences. Seriously, Laguna's scences come out of nowhere and serve only to grind the main narative to a halt. I don't care that he is Squall's dad, his scences are boring. He himself is incredibaly stupid, even throwing his injured friends off a cliff at one point. Why? Who would be that idiotic?
And now the plot, now that I'm done talking about the characters. The plot is rather boring most of the time and decidely exciting at other times. Most of the plot is stolen by Rinoa shamelessly flirting with Squall while we are forced to press X over and over to advance through pointless and painful love scences. When the game gets interesting and exciting, however, is when we actually get to see some fighting and action. The end of Disc 2 is a perfect example, the battle of the two gardens. That was one of the most exciting parts of the game. Near the end of Disc 1 when Edea acts all badass and gives this awesome speech is also exciting and cool. By the way, is it just me, or was Edea cooler possessed by Ulticima than when she wasn't? I thought so.
Anyway, I thought the final Big Bad was a bit contrived. Her reason for her evil deeds was a bit odd and, again, unintuitive. The whole thing just felt lazy to me. They had a good thing going for them with Disc 1 and 2 with the whole Edea being an epic bad guy. They should have stuck with that. It seemed like they just kind of threw the ending together.
The game looks gorgeous. I actually really like this style of cell shading that was big on the Playstation back in the day. It sounds good too, the music is usually quite apropriate. The best thing about the music, though, was the boss music. That boss music was arguably the best thing in the entire game. Well that, and Edea in Discs 1 and 2.
All that being said, I didn't hate Final Fantasy VIII. I didn't like it as much as I loved Final Fantasy VII and XII, but it wasn't horrible. Still, it is the weakest of the Final Fantasy games that I've played. I definitely won't be picking this one up again. The problem here with this game is that the occasional cool and exciting moments and the occasional times of fun to be had are not enough to outweigh the massive amounts of pain. Painfully long and boring cutscences and painfully complicated junctioning. It's just painful in general.
Sorry about the long rant/review, congrats if you've read this far. You deserve a medal, a cookie, something.