Final Fantasy 8
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Out of the shadows of Final Fantasy 7, one of the greatest
RPGs of all time came it's sequel everyone knew was
coming... Final Fantasy 8! Well FF8 is not a true sequel
to FF7 because I'm pretty sure most of us know by this time
that Square never makes a true sequel in their FF series.
Well anyway this game was hyped and speculated about months
before even the Japanese release. As hanger oners to the
series couldn't wait to get their grubby paws on the next
feast of the Fantasy. While many turned in disgust as they
played it for the first time stumbled through it confused
and lost. While others looked at in a different light saw it
as a great RPG.
Final Fantasy 8 to me was a very interesting RPG. It
doesn't hold the candle to the great Final Fantasy 7 or V
has but it is still one of the best games I ever played.
Even though it sort of dragged you through the first 2 CD's
of boredom and story building, eventually the game gets
good. Eventually you seem to get more interested in the tall
realistic characters the futuristic backgrounds with all the
fancy rooms filled with s. This game made many of
the Fantasy fans stomachs turn because as you can see the
Fantasy just wasn't there any more. While FF7 showed us a
step into the world of the future while still holding on to
the past it wasn't that far advanced yet. This one thrust
right into a futuristic world with robots large cities and
Jetson looking military academies.
I for one took it as a breath of fresh air from your usual
dungeon castles dragons and princesses. Considering I came
into this adventure with a completely open mind, and not one
clouded by rumors and what I heard from my other colleagues.
This game really took me in, and I eventually started to
like what was going on I liked the story I like the fact
that the characters were life like. Even though I have been
a fan of the series since the original and I'm a fantasy or
medieval fan this seemed different. There were still hints
of the past left in the game but not enough to satisfy the
hardcore medieval crowd.
Final Fantasy VIII was heralded as Square's biggest mistake,
but I didn't feel that way at all. I felt that this game was
a new awakening a sign of the future a sign of things to
come. A sign that RPGs aren't just old geezers princesses
with strange powers and friendly dragons. That they now
wanted to explore the outer reaches of our minds as they
explored new futuristic horizons. The majority of RPGs are
played in the neo futuristic roll this one just gave us
futuristic. How I hated to see the typecast new world where
machines weren't abandon people living in huts and use
swords to fight beasts. This one showed us just future where
people used guns where machines were present around us, how
the world will be.
Despite that this game did what it was suppose to do. It
told us a story an unforgettable adventure of 7 young
adults, how they met. How the story unfolds this one was
made for speculation. This will definitely a game you will
play again to fully grasp the story and that's what I like.
I like my mind being left over I love to speculate and try
to figure out what was around me. I like the fact that some
parts of the game were left to user interpretation and that
it wasn't all cut and dry for you that you had to use your
mind to figure out what was going to happen next.
Story 9. 0/10
Well the story was great but it isn't the best story ever
told not by a long shot. But it is up there it just was
lacking in certain places to make it a perfect story. The
basic idea is this you are Squall Leonhart you are a SeeD
Cadet trying to make sense of the world. Once you are a SeeD
your life changes forever and certain events happen later
and all the characters get together and then the story gets
better from there. Well I'm sorry about the bad explanation
but I couldn't give away many details without spoiling it
for you. Here are some of the interesting folks Squall meets
on his mystical journey!
Zell Dincht: Zell is a SeeD Cadet and he wants to be friends
with Squall. Zell looks cool and is pretty cool, but he has
a quick temper and will fight anyone anywhere. Zell is
similar to the Sabin character from FF6 because Zell's limit
break 'Duel' is a lot like Sabin's Blitz.
Quistis Trepe: She is a 18 year old Instructor at the
Garden. Because she is young many don't take her seriously.
She is very smart but tries to break her studious role
around her friends. She uses a whip as her weapon and blue
magic.
Rinoa Heartilly: Rinoa is a young girl from Timber. She is
involved with a secret group that is trying to win her
countries freedom. She is the main female character of the
game. She uses her dog Angelo like Shadow used his Dog
interceptor in FF6.
Selphie: Selphie is a transfer student from another Garden.
She is new there and doesn't have many friends. Selphie is
the same age as everyone but she seems less mature because
she is too hyper. Selphie uses the nunchakus as her weapon
and has cool magic limit breaks that no one else can use.
Irvin Kinneas: Irvin is also a student from another Garden.
Irvin is sly cool and quite a ladies man. Irvin uses his
shotgun as his weapon and is one of the best characters in
the game. Irvin uses his shotgun with special bullets as his
limit break.
Seifer Almassy: Seifer is Squall's lifelong rival. Seifer,
Seifer also uses the same weapon as Squall, which is the
Gunblade. Seifer and Squall have been fighting their entire
young lives.
Well these are the games main characters and a short piece
on each one. These character all come together and the story
will focus in on each one. Naturally the majority of the
story will be dedicated to Squall, but the other character
get their bit parts as well.
Overall the story was good but it could of used some work. I
think that the game had the slowest story building rate of
all the final fantasy. Each one took a while to get
interesting but this one takes a real long time. But there
are small things still interesting about them that makes you
want to keep playing it. This one posses that even though
the story is kind of slow in the early going you will want
to keep playing it to find out what happens to the
characters where they will go and what they will do. Things
are constantly happening and you have to stay on your toes
to really get with this game. Bottom line is the story is
nice but it needed more action and interest in the early going.
Visuals 10/10
Wow! The graphics were the entire game! At the time RPG
graphics couldn't hold a candle to these! Of course now we
have amazingly seen better than what we seen here. But back
then these graphics were streamline and some of the best
ever. It's hard to believe an RPG could have looked this
good, characters backgrounds enemy. EVERYTHING! It's all
great and some of the best effects and small details seen
when this came out. Everyone drooled over these graphics
because they were so detailed so life like, people didn't
think RPG's could have great graphics but after seeing this
there opinion has changed. Well these great graphics were
sort of a double edged sword because well they just didn't
please anybody and since I'm old school great graphics on an
RPG are just not everything.
Character graphics looked great as well. All the characters
controllable and townsfolk were tall and lifelike.
Everything looked very realistic, and I have to say this
game didn't have many character repeats. Other RPGs had a
lot of repeats of townsfolk or used the same ones over and
over this one kept that to a minimum. Well the only ones you
notice were repeats were the soldiers but they are suppose
to look the same. The regular characters you used had a lot
of detail they were large you can see all their facial
features very clearly. Townfolk weren't as detailed but they
were leaps and bounds over what was seen before this, and
the townsfolk still looked decent.
Then you had the enemy graphics. Now these are far out like
the rest of the monsters in this series and seen in other
RPGs. Large funny looking monster but to actually look at
them you can see that a lot of detail was put in them as
well. They didn't short us on bad enemy graphics. Boss
graphics were to die for they were large and done with a lot
of skill. They were just as colorful and awkward as enemies
from past FF's but these had much more detail. Some how the
characters actually look better than they did during the
normal game modes. They were even more detailed larger and
just looked better. I like when they move and they show all
the detail when a character cast a spell on an enemy. All of
this looks excellent.
Then there is the game's background. This game had some
beautiful backgrounds highly detailed rooms highly detailed
hotels, with little nick-nacks on the walls in the more
rural ones. The people houses looked warm and chouse and
they all had their own look to them. Everyone was individual
this game also did which I like was the resident Evil style
camera changes. I like how every room the y would give you a
special optimum view from the camera it looked almost
television style where some times you would get the
characters from a top view some times you would get them
from the side. You also got the scaling in the game, which
is always nice, where the characters would be really close
then they would be far away.
Then this game had stunning FMV's . The Full Motion Video
found here was just spectacular. There was a plentiful
helping of wonderful FMV's everywhere you went, and they all
were done spectacular. I like how all the characters looked
during the FMV's they were so detailed and it showed a lot
of skill from Square because of the animation and everything
happening. I liked watching all the FMV's at least twice in
this game. Because they were just that good but I can't say
the same for the Summon animations. The summonses in this
game were beautiful. We finally see our favorite
summons come to life and blast away unworthy enemies.
Although after 3 or 4 times of watching these lengthy summon
animations you tend to get quite bored with them. That was
my main beef here.
Overall this game had the goods when it came to graphics.
These are by far some of the best graphics I ever seen on a
playstation game up to that point. I was amazed with
everything a lot of hard work was put into this game to make
this game an eye popper. Stunning FMV large characters
beautifully done towns, it was just a potpourri of colors
and beautiful graphics blended in so seamlessly. I was very
impressed with everything the Summons the enemies the boss
enemy, the battle scenes, the magic spells the size of the
characters. Everything was done perfectly and without much
effort at all. Even though you can tell a one minute FMV had
a lot of effort put into it and took a lot of time it just
amazed you to look at it. Overall I was very impressed with
the graphics on this game.
Audio 10/10
The music on this game was also done outstandingly. Nearly
every town and place you visited in the game well with the
exception of the world map had a different tune. Every piece
of music found in this game was a blast to listen to. The
music perfectly interpreted each area of the game and it
just fit with what was going on. The music not only sounded
great it was just there, it was indescribable with words of
the feeling that the music gave me while playing the game. I
could listen to the music of this game for a long time
without any problem. Every place had its on music and it was
all done so perfect and effortlessly you really had to
think. I also like all the remix tunes that this game had.
You heard songs that we redone from all the previous Final Fantasy.
Although I consider some of these classics and think they
shouldn't be tampered with you will still like what you get.
Like one of the main town themes from FF5 was found here and
the old winning fanfare was also found here. Other bits of
music like when you rode the chocobo while you were
battling, and the boss themes were all done wonderfully.
Even though the graphics were a main draw of this game I
really liked the music as well. The music really helped the
graphics here, and even though many people didn't realize it
this game had some of the best music of all the Final
Fantasy's . Basically the music was a blast and went
perfectly well with the graphics.
The sound effects in the game were done very well. I
especially like the sword clashing sounds found in the very
beginning of the game with the opening FMV. This game had a
wide variety of sounds going on all the time and a sound for
almost everything like doors opening to explosions. The
sounds really helped the music and they weren't really
drowned out by them. Although the music was so good you
really couldn't hear the sound because it almost overlapped
them but I feel as though they should have been more
prominent. If there is one problem I have with this games
music is the fact that the sound effects just weren't loud
enough. The small ones that were there just weren't very
audible over the music. But the louder ones like explosions
were done right. Overall this game had great music and sound.
Game Play 10/10
This game is for one player only. The magic system used was
the Guardian Force System. Their nickname 'GF' was used
for magic. This is reminiscent of FF6, the object was to
'junction' to a GF. By junctioning yourself to a GF you
can summon that GF into battle, and the GF gave you an
ability. The GF learned its ability through Ability Points.
Like always you gained AP after winning a battle, when you
gained a new ability you give the GF a new ability to learn.
Remember the GF learned the ability so whoever junction
themselves to the GF would get that ability. The abilities
were all different some were commands like Card, or steal.
Some of the abilities increased a character power like
Strength 20% or HP 20%.
Now when it came to actual Magic you used spells still but
they weren't based on MP. You drew your spells from Draw
points or through using the Draw command in a fight. When
you drew spells using them would waste one. But basic spells
could always be replenished. You can use draw to draw GF's
from some of the bosses that you fought so you should always
have a character 'drawing' from an enemy just incase it
has new spells. This had its ups and down main thing was you
would get 100 spells and never use them because your stats
would go down. The up was if you got a lot of spells it
would make your character so strong that leveling up
wouldn't be necessary.
This game also had a very fun side quest. It was a card game
called Triple Triad. This game was highly addictive and
everywhere you went you wanted to play it. Lots of times
when I got good I would always want to play it instead of
continuing with my quest. So in a way this game was sort of
too much o a distraction from actual playing. Then there was
also something new about his game that other RPG's didin't
do. You were a SeeD and SeeD's got salaries so every so many
steps you would gain gil. Which is never a bad thing the bad
thing was in exchange for this enemy never dropped any cash.
Even though getting a salery was different it wasn't as good
as just bashing enemies for cash.
Then another thing was this game didn't have armor or
helmets like other RPG's and you couldn't buy weapons either
so there weren't any weapon shops. There were junk shops and
if you had enough enemies refuse you could forge a new
weapon out of it. You would find weapon magazines to see
what you need to get the newest weapons. Weapons in a way
taught you things depending on your weapon you could learn a
new limit break for Squall. Only Squall had this other
character learned their limit breaks through magazines, and
other things. Like Rinoa would read a pet magazine and she
would get a new limit break and Zell would have to read a
new fighting magazine to get a limit break. This was very
unique idea the only downside is if you never seen the
magazine then you wouldn't learn it.
Well everything in the game play was very different from
anything we have seen in the past. The only thing remained
the same was the basic idea of battle which was attacking.
But in my opinion that got overshadowed by the cheapness of
magic. What fun it was to draw magic nad throw it back at
the enemy or just to summon your guardian forces since you
could summon as much as you want to blast away enemies. They
counter that sort of gaining 100 levels wasn't a good thing
in this game because when you get stronger enemies got
stronger. So those enemies around the garden were in the
90's when you got to level 100, so you had to control how
often you gained levels. And since if you had the best magic
equipped and a high level you could blow through just about
anything the game was just too easy. The difficulty was
medium and this game required one block of memory.
Overall 9 out of 10
Well it was a great RPG but the story lacked too much to
give it a perfect score. Some may argue that the graphics
carried it but I beg the differ. This is an RPG were talking
about here not a flashy fighting game even though this RPG
has been should realize this is the new wave RPG's I don't
want to give up yet. If a company that built it's success on
great story telling blew it because they wanted to make an
overhyped flashy no story game then it's there fault. Ever
since RPG's went to breath taking they stopped telling
stories it's all about big monsters huge explosions and
suggestively drawn female characters. It's no longer about
the unlikely hero only armed with wits and a sword meeting
other rebels slaying dragons and saving the world from
forecoming doom.
That's why I play RPG's . That's why I played them all my
life and ever since I got the original Dragon Warrior I was
hooked on anything RPG. I'm not saying that this is a bad
game I just saying if it would have concentrated more on
making the story more interesting I would of loved it. The
best RPG's are the ones without the great graphics and the
annoying midi tunes. They might not look good and they don't
appeal to the mass majority of gamers but us RPG loyalist
love them. We love to be drawn into a great story and
interesting game play. For some reason I just didn't feel at
home with the characters in this game where as in other
games the characters just left an inburn memory. Other RPG's
had me wishing that some how I was in the story and some how
I effected, or that I was in the story.
It was suppose to be a reality escaper and sadly this one
doesn't have me escaping reality. This one didn't draw me as
other RPG of the past has. But that was just my personal
feeling I do however applaud this game as well. It has
brought the mainstream into RPG's it has helped make it the
popular if not one of the most popular formats of gaming. It
has broken the shell of 'RPGs are for geeks', and showed
that RPGs can look good as well. When you think about every
other genre has gone to 3D and flash well why not RPG. Well
it has, and I wouldn't mind it as much as RPG's combined
graphics with great story telling. This was the first of a
few steps into the right direction for RPGs, it will take a
while but one day we will be there.
Well do I feel you should get this game? By all means get
this game, it is very good game despite what people say. If
you never played an RPG and this is your first then
definitely get it because that is who this game is, it's for
beginners. It will take some getting use to for causal RPG
consumer because this game is very different than normal
RPG's. Because of all uniqueness involved. Bottomline is I
approve this game.
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