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The Final Fantasy series is always a difficult grouping of games to accurately review, due in part to the fandom that makes it hard to separate "classical Final Fantasy" components from things that really need to be changed. That said, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII. It has a stronger and more intriguing storyline than the previous Final Fantasy games (in depth of expression via dialogue and CG), and the graphics took a step forward by opting for realistic models rather than the squat oversized head approach favored in many of the previous games. The story in particular stands out as one of the best on the video game medium -- the characters, plot, and pacing are all very solid. There is a heavy emphasis on character development and less of a rush to pour on the history; the game does an excellent job providing background information and character growth in a seemingly natural way. Graphically, the game was top-notch for its time, and holds up fairly well even to this day. Specifically, unlike in Final Fantasy VII the models hold up fairly well years later. It doesn't look great by any means, but by virtue of the design of the characters and less of an emphasized polygonal artistry (or maybe just a higher polygon count) it's still fairly easy on the eyes. Acoustically, the score is superb (though the recording quality could have been raised -- this could also be due to compression due to the limitations of fitting everything on several discs). Most of the problems with the game come into play with regards to gameplay elements. If you enjoy a challenging game ... this is not it. The difficulty of the game is close to nil, the leveling components are insanely worthless, the weapons and items system are amongst the weakest in the genre, the Junction system is a step backwards from the previous Materia system, and all in all, combat just isn't really all that fun. As you'll be spending a great deal of time fighting (*cough random encounters), you'll begin to really find the game tedious at intervals. Happily, if you're like me, the strength of the storyline and oddly fun (yet simplistic) card game will make this worth your while. It's a game that's immersive and interesting, packs a great storyline, and delivers a grand adventure. If you can overlook the less than stellar combat system, and several of the more obnoxious components of the overall experience, then you'll be able to enjoy one of the more tightly constructed Final Fantasy games created in recent years.Read full review
i bought this game because i remember playing it as a kid and loving it, but never being able to beat it. luckily thanks to this seller i found it cheap and in excellent condition. a few days ago i did finally beat it, after figuring out how to make the game very easy (junctions, aura spells limit breaks) i've gotta say even with today's ps3 and xbox360 games the graphics in this game still amaze me at times, especially at the end. the music is by the great Nobuo Uematsu, so it's just amazing. and i know i'll probably get called an ff7 fan-boy or whatever but i can't help but compare the two. the music was good in 8, but it just doesn't come close to how great 7's music was. i did like the music on disc 4 a lot though. also i didn't really like the new system they used in 8, junctioning, and mosters leveling up as you do. don't bother wasting your time leveling up to 99 for maximum damage and easy battles like in other final fantasys. the characters i feel could have been better, i actually think i would've enjoyed the game playing as seifer, the main character squall's rival more. also you get to play as a sorceress named edea at some point, which is great, but it's only for a limited time in the story. i think selphie is the most annoying final fantasy character ever, yes worse than cait sith from 7. still though, i had a great time playing through this game, good story, good music.Read full review
This was the first Final Fantasy I ever played. I was hooked on the game by playing the demo, covering the SeeD test portion of the game, and had to buy it as soon as it came out. This game has plenty of action to keep players interested as well as plenty of comic relief to ensure things don't get too heavy. At its heart FFVIII is a love story, which must be remembered if you are going to be able to follow some of the crazy twists in the plot line. This game also has some of the best visuals of any original PS game, in game as well as CG cutscenes. FFVIII has caught some flak for its draw magic system where individual spells need to be drawn out of the enemies that carry them where they can then be stored for later use or cast immediately, instead of each character learning a spell and using mp to cast it. This process can be tedious at times, but the junction system makes taking the time to gather 100 of each spell much more rewarding than just learning a spell and using mp to cast it. The Junction system allows each character to junction Guardian Forces (Summons) to the character and inturn gain special abilites, like junctioning magic to individual stats increasing there stregnth, the ability to steal, avoiding random battles, and other Final Fantasy staples like the Ribbon. Final Fantasy veterans may be turned off by this system but the Junction system really just replaces buying and equiping armor and accesories with special abilities. For any gamer that enjoys the RPG genre FFVIII, as well as every other Final Fantasy, is a must play. For those Final Fantasy vets that have thumbed their nose at FFVIII in the past should give it another try and enjoy the gameplay and story of this PSone classic.Read full review
At the time I purchased FFVIII, I already had Final Fantasy VII and IX. I am a big fan of the Role Play genre of video games, and have long been a fan of Squaresoft's hit series. Eight differs from the other Final Fantasies that I own (listed above) most notably in the character's visual design. The characters are very elongated. This must have proven rather popular for Final Fantasy because all of the 'episodes' following Nine have had the same, more realistic height of it's characters. Personally, I liked the cute, cartoon-like characters of Seven and Nine, but Eight does have it's merits. One of the things I have really enjoyed about the Final Fantasy universe, is that they never use the same mechanics for learning and using magic in each saga. The 'Draw' system of acquiring and using magic has not been very popular, and I must admit that especially in the beginning of the game, it is a pain in the butt to get your characters to a working level of magic. This requires many battles spent sustaining your enemy just so that you can get every last bit of whatever particular spell or spells that enemy has. The summons in this episode, I think were rather genius. The player has the option of naming each of the 'Guardian forces' acquired during game play. Currently, I have a theme going of short names beginning with the letter 's'. It is nice to have the control over what beneficial talent the GF's learn, and who they share that talent with, facilitating every status benefit of the characters. Of note Eight has the first appearance of the card game. While I like the more refined version presented in Nine, it is nice to see that evolution. It is difficult to a)keep all the additional rules straight, and b)make sure the rules you don't like don't spread, but having the challenge of collecting as many cards as possible is fun too. Even if you don't like playing the card game, there are advantages to collecting the cards. One of the abilities of one of the GF's is the card mod ability. This ability allows you to change cards into useful items. So the cards are worth collecting, especially the rare cards. Using the card mod ability with some of the rare cards is the easiest if not the only way to obtain a large amount of some of the rarest objects in the game. Over all, while there are some cumbersome parts of the game, it is definitely worth owning.Read full review
I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series. I have beaten Final Fantasy VI, FFVII, FFX, FFX-2, FF12, and FFVIII. I find Final Fantasy VIII and FFX-2 to be the two weakest links in the Final Fantasy series. Pros: Awesome graphics when you consider that it was done on the PS1 system. The cut scenes are beautiful. The sound quality and production are excellent. There is a lot of content here, 60+ hours. Cons: The story! It doesn't make much sense. Where FF7 had an amazing story, the story in FF8 is lacking. You never actually get any negative feel for the evil sorceress, the confrontation with her feels forced. The story has many many plot holes. In one scene Squall gets seemingly mortally injured by a shard tossed at him by the sorceress, in the next scene he is fine. Then, in another point in the game half of your team gets seemingly blown up at an enemy base. Then they arrive inside a giant robot which you first have to battle!!!!?? WHAT?! NEXT, FF8 gets rid of the whole concept of MP. There is no MP in the game. Each spell is treated like an item which you have to steal from enemies. Let say you ran out of Curaga spell; you have to go back and find the enemy who had the spell, then try to steal it. This is annoying. Bottom Line: FFVIII is pretty but it is the weakest link in the Final Fantasy Series, and is my least favorite along with FFX-2.Read full review
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