Final Fantasy VIII for Dummies
Written: Jun 02 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Junctioning system is fun to play around with. Ending is awesome. Rinoa is cute.
Cons: Squall takes his sweet old time coming out. Drawing magic is tempting but tedious.
The Bottom Line: Final Fantasy VIII is one of the true shining moments of the series. Make that 4 1/2 stars.
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| flamepillar's Full Review: Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation 1 |
Of all the games in the Final Fantasy catalogue, VIII is the one which leads to the most debate. People either love this game or they hate it. I could try to talk about why. But you know what Yoda says, "There is no why."
The thing about VIII is that no two people play it exactly the same way. Players will have to learn a system called the Junction System; it is initially very complicated, but becomes almost too easy when mastered. Depending on how well you learn the Junction System, FF8 can be a very hard or a very easy game to play.
WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY?
You are in control of Squall Lionheart. One of the most introverted and downright annoying protagonists ever to lead a Final Fantasy pack, Squall has his reasons. Or should I say, his reason.
At the start, you witness a complicated but stunning FMV sequence in which you catch a glimpse of the female lead, Rinoa Heartilly. But the basis of the sequence is around Squall swordfighting with the school bully, Seifer, who leaves Squall infirmary-bound with a scar on his face.
Squall's secretly smitten instructor, Quistis Trepe, comes to check on him, and throughout the beginning of the game we discover that they are part of a school called Balamb Garden, and they are training on a mercenary force called SeeD.
A few other students, including the typical "funny guy" Zell and the quirky tomboy Selphie, join in the force as their missions become more world-related. Later, you are joined with a flirty cowboy type called Irvine who, aside from the husky exterior, turns out to be the most normal person in the group.
Better not to go much deeper with the story, but suffice it to say that if you have loved ones in the Army, the first disc (out of four) will probably strike a chord with you. Later, you are faced with some rather unbelievable coincidences and a battle plan involving something to do with "time compression". If it goes over your head, don't worry; I think it's supposed to.
GRAPHICS, ATMOSPHERE, MUSIC, POLYGONS AND ALL THAT
Compared to more recent titles such as FFX, it's pretty grainy. The framerate, even on the FMV sequences, is nowhere near as fast as nowadays. The characters look a little thin in battles and conversations. Sometimes the faces look awkwardly funny as they approach the screen. Because of the variety of camera angles, you'll often enter a room and not know where you are on the screen if you are far away. But overall, you can at least tell what's going on.
The atmosphere is a bit on the futuristic side around the branches of the Garden, and even in the towns you sense that you're not playing in medieval times. There are television broadcasts, you can rent cars, cities float, and one city in particular is so packed, it's like something out of "Back To The Future 2". All in all, the graphics are spectacular, even if they aren't always "true" to the expectations of a typical FF adventure.
The music is mostly pleasant; the Balamb Garden sequence is soothing to the max, the Dollet sequence is upbeat and lively, and the music in Timber (my personal favorite) is chiming and unsettling. They messed up one of the chords in the fanfare after you win a battle, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
PLAYING FOR 12 HOURS A DAY
Well, just once. If you've ever played FF, the controls are pretty self-explanatory. Walk around with the control stick, use the X to input your commands. The default setting has you using O to bring up the main menu, which takes a little getting used to, but you can change it to whatever you like.
The key to maximizing the effectiveness of your attacks lies in the Junction System, and so now I guess I get to explain that one to ya! Might as well freshen up the coffee. Honestly, if you're not interested in this, feel free to skip it. There's no reason anyone should have to read this if they're never going to play the game or if they want to figure it out on their own.
THE JUNCTION SYSTEM
Junctioning starts out simple enough -- along the way, you will be picking up several GF's (Guardian Forces). Each one comes equipped with some abilities ready for you to use, but the only abilities a character can use in battle and otherwise are the abilities learned by the GF he/she has equipped (or junctioned). These abilities include any other battle command besides ATTACK, and you have to set those commands in the menu. Right away, you choose three commands out of four options: DRAW, GF, ITEM or MAGIC.
The GF command simply summons the GF to attack the monsters and often results in an instant win. The ITEM command is for using items in battle, as per usual. Same with MAGIC. It's the DRAW command where things get complicated.
Because rather than using Magic Points, you collect magic spells by the number by DRAWing them from monsters. So you can collect Fire spells and Blizzard spells, up to 100 of any kind of spell. Early on, you gain the ability to "refine" spells from otherwise useless items, so you don't have to sit and draw them from monsters for 15 minutes at a time.
The really fun part comes when you get to start junctioning the magic to your stats. Sometimes, one of your GF's will learn an ability like "STR-J" or "VIT-J". What this means is that when you equip that GF to a character, that character will then be able to attach the magic he/she has collected to his STR (strength) and his VIT (vitality). The possibilities are almost endless there. Naturally, as you'll find out, it makes certain stats go up by more if you attach spells that are appropriate to that stat (Cure spells on VIT, Attack spells on STR).
What's surprising is that sometimes you get an unexpected effect. It might seem effective to attach your Haste spells to your Speed (LOADS of fun when you get to junction to speed), but Haste is hard to find. Instead, try attaching Slow to it; the effect is almost the same. Later, you will start to collect more unpredictable spells like Triple (cast 3 times in one turn), Quake and Regen, which make for some interesting experiments in junctioning.
As if it couldn't get any more complicated, though, you also will eventually start to junction toward your status and elemental attack/defense. If you have 100 Blind spells and you put them on Status Defense, that character will never go blind. Likewise, if you put it on Status Attack, that character makes some enemies blind when he hits them. Then you have spells like Esuna, which heals all status ailments. If you put Esuna on Status Defense, it causes all status ailments to fail against you 20% of the time. Which is fundamentally better than 100% protection against a single status ailment.
It's pretty much the same with the elements -- as your Fire, Blizzard, etc. spells get stronger, they become more effective at diminishing Fire, Blizzard, etc. attacks against your character when junctioned to their Elemental Defense. Later, you will be able to junction multiple spells to Elemental Defense (as well as Status Defense) for a cumulative effect. If you were to put 100 Protect spells in there, that would reduce fire, ice and lightning by 20%. If you were to put 100 Protect and 100 Firagas, then you'd get the same effect, but Fire spells would heal you. Play around with it long enough and it's actually possible to have a character get healed by any one of the 8 elements.
What you have to remember though, is you can't just junction these spells on any stat you want -- you have to have a GF with that ability (Str-J, Elem-Def-J, etc.) equipped in order to attach magic to them. Since different GF's learn different abilities, you'll often find (even later in the game) that there will always be one "gap", one character that can't junction to his Strength or something. It happens, you just have to live with it.
However, should you decide to go around casting these spells while they are junctioned to your stats, your stats would decrease as the number of spells decreased. Which is why I, for one, almost never cast a magic spell throughout the entire game.
There's no better way to pile up on magic than to Refine -- you'll find that Refining is an essential part of the game. Early on, when you learn to refine Life spells, you can buy tents at the shop and refine each one into 10 Curaga spells. Then junction 100 Curagas to your HP, voila, you're invincible. OK, not really.
OH BUT THERE'S MORE
It starts to get complicated when you have six characters, all of them with varying numbers of the same spells (since you're not necessarily gonna feel like DRAWing all the way to 100 of every single new spell you come across). Fortunately, you can go into any individual character's magic inventory and trade off with other characters. You can also automatically transfer all of a character's junctions onto another character, and it will automatically send the magic and GF's needed for those junctions over to that character. As a result though, you'll never remember who has what!
So essentially, what you end up doing is equipping three characters with everything (since three is all you can use in battle anyway) and then switching the Junctions whenever you take control of different characters. That is, IF you remember to switch them! If you don't, it's fine, you just have to fight with pretty much the same stats you started the game with. Only a few minor weapon upgrades (and a sporadic "STR UP" item) can increase a character's attacking power otherwise, but to even get those, you not only need certain necessary items (screws, cockatrice pinions, etc.) but you also have to find the monthly Weapons Magazines around the world to even know the weapons exist so that you can upgrade to them!
Some of the command abilities learned by GF's can get interesting. Ifrit's MAD RUSH command casts Berserk, Haste and Protect on your party, so you won't be able to control them, but they will be well-protected and will attack quite effectively. Just a few hours ago, I unwittingly used this command against the final boss' 3rd form, not knowing that I'd be stuck with it all the way to the final form. Then I ended up winning anyway, spending about 3/4 of the time fighting the final form with 1 HP because she was too stupid to use any other spell besides the one that knocks you down to 1 HP. How bout them apples.
EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END
FF8 can get a bit tedious and frustrating at times, particularly when you forget to prepare for an important battle and haven't saved it in a half hour. But I suppose that's the case with all FF games.
As usual, there are a lot of sidequests and extra GF's to find as you progress through the game; they are well worth seeking out. Sometimes, all you have to do is draw them from a boss character, so don't forget to check 'em out, lest you miss an important one!
There is a card game called Triple Triad that makes for a fun diversion if you are into collecting rare cards. Some of the cards can be refined into very useful items which can then be refined into very useful spells. Just another way to play around with getting insanely powerful spells earlier than you "should".
The thing that stands out to me the most about FF8 is its ending. It's very abstract, but it's brilliant. That's all I can say.
If I told you any more, my fingers would fall off.
Recommended:
Yes
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