Final Fantasy VIII
Written: Jul 06 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful graphics and sound. Complex and involving junctioning system. Breathtaking story and characters.
Cons: Junctioning system too complex! Battles are a bit simple. Story sometimes confusing. Pros outweigh cons!
The Bottom Line: Buy without hesitation. Hundreds of hours of enjoyment and memories. It's flawed... but still perfect in it's own little way.
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| chrispyduck04's Full Review: Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation 1 |
After finally finishing the legendary Final Fantasy 7 and spying this beauty in the shops I ordered my parents to buy it for my birthday (I was only about 11). I came straight home to play and boy was I not disappointed. But boy was I surprised. I love this game to bits but to be honest, now at the age of 18, I'm miffed at the fact that I actually managed to complete it at that age. In fact it has to be said that it is only now that I can fully appreciate this game.
But let's not get into that quite yet. This is my first ever review on a game so bear with me if I dont do a very good job. I've been reading through some of the other reviews and those who say it's a rubbish game compared to the others of the series are not right in the head. It's not bad, it's just different.
Ok let's start with the good points then! As you'd come to expect from every Final Fantasy games the graphics are quite simply revolutionary. The prerendered backgrounds are full of detail and movement and you'll never come across a boring area of the game (graphically speaking). The special effects such as spells are again amazing but you've not seen anything until you see some of the FMV scenes... They are simply breathtaking. In fact the end sequence is probably one of the most beautiful scenes ever seen in a game, and ranks high on my favourites list. I would say that the only slight problem with the game graphics are the characters themselves. They're wonderfully designed and detailed but during the in-game graphics are rather pixelated and so much of this detail is lost.
Now where would a Final Fantasy be without our wonderful composer Nobuo Uematsu (apologies if I spelt that wrong!). He has composed an almost perfect soundtrack for this game. The tracks always compliment the scene and mood and are well written with dramatic tunes and soft melodies. As many of you will know and perhaps smile with agreement, again the game succeeds in having us humm along to all of the regular tunes as we play without even realising it. We all know them thoroughly and even 7 years later I can sing along to nearly every one. The only downfall to the soundtrack is that occasionally some of the music does grate on your nerves but this is very rare and eventually you forget that feeling after the song has played for long enough :)
Probably the most controversial point of this specific final fantasy is the gameplay. Namely the battles and junctioning system. It's just so amazingly different to any other battle system seen in the series. It's quite the double edged sword but I think that as long as you sit down and read the tutorials and play the game properly it never takes anything away from the game. Now where to start... Final Fantasy VIII has the most complex junction system that has ever been seen, I'm not even joking. So perhaps I should explain GFs and the junction system before going any further. So basically throughout the game you gather beasts known as GFs (Guardian Forces) or to those who haven't played FFVIII that would be Eidolons, Espers, Aeons, Summons etc etc etc. In most games you equip a Summon and then you can call it in battle, end of... Not so in this game... GFs are the core of the battle system. Without equipping a GF the only thing your character is good for is a simple attack on the enemy, and let me tell you, that won't do much good for you here... When you first aquire a GF there are very little abilities that it has learned. On the GF menu there is a huge list of abilities that they can learn from gathering AP from battles. Some of these abilities let you refine magic from items, some allow you to junction more things... You need to junction a GF to allow you to junction other abilities that the GF knows, such as 'magic' or 'GF'. This brings me onto magic.... We're all used to the typical MP system. You have a magic spell which costs MP to use, therefore when you run out of MP you can no longer use it. In Final Fantasy 8 however MP no longer makes an appearance. You gather magic by 'drawing' it from enemies and various draw points around the world, up to 100 of each. So when you run out, you need to draw more. That's pretty easy I hear you say? Well yes, it might be but what do we use the magic for? Not just for fighting! This is where my previous point becomes apparent... You know the one where I mentioned that I'm shocked to have completed it at the age of 11. The magic junctioning system is such a major role in battles, and it so very complex that I've never fully grasped it. I hadn't got a clue when I was 11, and only now have I begun to understand and use it to my advantage in the game. After you've drawn magic from an enemy and stocked it away you can junction the magic to your stats. Through the entire game every one of your stats such as strength and magic attack remains abyssmally low... If you don't junction magic then you'll reach the end of the game with a little over 1,500 health and doing about 400-500 damage. Trust me, you'll get frustrated as to how long battle are taking you because you're just not powerful enough... When you junction a certain magic to a stat however it may raise it by quite a bit! Junctioning 100 Regen spells onto your HP stat increases is by about 4000! See what a difference it makes?? I suppose I should really review the battle now instead of just explaining them...
I have to be honest, the actual battles aren't the best that Final Fantasy has to offer. They're a bit boring.... There's not much to them. Take FFX for example, you can switch and change characters, cast spells, use special abilities and work tactfully. The battles are dumbed down in Final Fantasy 8. There aren't specific character abilities for example. Sure you can have a GF learn an ability for use in battle but that's one ability... It doesn't lead to much variety. Battles usually consist of attacking and using GFs. Why not magic you say? Purely because all of the magic you want to use you will have junctioned and so by using it you're reducing the amount you're holiding and therefore the amount junctioned. So effectively by using the magic you've equipped you're weakening your characters. Another problem that I've found with this method of gaining magic is that often you only get 2 or 3 of each spell for a single 'draw' so you'll end up in a battle for hours and hours to get 100 of them for all of your characters. It's worth it in the end when you see the damage you're inflicting jump from 300 to 2500. Despite all this, the huge array of magic and GFs available lead to a battle system which is just varied enough to keep the masses happy. It's just way way way to complex for anybody under about the age of 16 to comprehend.
Other than the battles I will say that Square got the gameplay just right. There's a balanced mix of different activities to keep you occupied and entertained between the main storyline. The only flaw that I can see is the fact that during the game you're often forced to use certain characters and not others. Every Final Fantasy gamer will say that they fall in love with certain characters and dislike or are indifferent to others. This leads to characters being used more frequently than others. In my particular Final Fantasy 8 experience I found that I never use Selphie unless I don't have a choice. The result was that by the end of the game she was still level 11. This presented another problem at the end of the game when I was forced to use her once more. I was not amused...
Ok so the story in my opinion is the best one around in Final Fantasy. Again it's as complex as the battles and sometimes it gets a bit confusing but it's just so involving! The characters develop from mere shells of a personality to something much more beautiful. 'Whatever' develops into 'I love you' in this fantastic story. There are so many dives and twists, just as you think you've figured it out you're plunged into something completely different. The story never stops giving and of course there are times that infuriate you but there are more that you'll never ever forget. You can't help but to feel so deeply for all of the characters, even if you don't like them. Cry with them, get frustrated for them, get annoyed at them, feel sad for them, it's all there. I can't even begin to explain the storyline and the relationships between characters, you'll have to try for yourself. Just let me say that you'll love every minute of it.
There's a lot lot more that I could go on about for this game but you really need to discover it yourself. I'd definately say go for this game, it's got so much to give and it's around for such little money now. You'd be a fool not to. I know that I have critisised many points of the game and so you may be wondering why I'm still giving it five stars. It's simply because it's a flawed game, but with all of it's quirks and upsides it redeems itself. It's given me many many hundreds of hours of enjoyment over the years and some of my best memories sitting at the TV with my old friends for a long gaming session. I'd never give this game up for the world. If only I could talk to the production team and let them know the effect they've had on my life, corny I know, but it's very true.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
chrispyduck04
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Reviews written: 1
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