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Editorial Review
SquareSoft has always had a sure-fire hit when releasing any of their Final Fantasy titles, and Final Fantasy VIII should be no exception. The basis of a good RPG (role-playing game) has always been the story; spectacular graphics are secondary. Final Fantasy VIII's involved and interesting story line is filled with great twists, well-developed characters, suspense, and romance. As an added bonus, the graphics are beautiful. Everything--from the low-lit jazz club to the steam-filled railroad tunnels--is gorgeous and perfectly sets the mood and tone of a scene.
The game mechanics are standard fare for an RPG: acquisition of items and spells, turn-based combat, experience points earned in combat allowing advances in levels. From exploration to battles to dialogue, Final Fantasy VIII has it all. However, Final Fantasy VIII falls to that great weakness of RPGs: random battles. While necessary for advancing in levels, the battles occur with such frequency that they can grow annoying, making for a tedious game experience.
The epic storyline spans four discs--over 40 hours of gameplay--and is based around a mercenary cadet who finds himself caught up with an underground rebel faction. He winds up in a plot to assassinate the sorceress who has just seized power from the president.
You could complain of limited replay value, but this gripe is of no consequence: the game is such a satisfying experience, it doesn't require replay. Final Fantasy VIII is easily worth both the hype and the wait. You can't buy a much better game. --John Cocking
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GameSpot Review
I've been a Final Fantasy fan ever since the day the Nintendo Power strategy guide first arrived in my mailbox. Poring over the pages, I just knew that I had to play this game, to live in this other world. Heroes and villains, magic and mystery, epic quests and noble causes were all waiting to unfurl before my eyes. And ever since I vanquished Chaos, I've been hooked. Each of the English games has been analyzed, replayed, and studied as if it were a sacred text - and I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge the Final Fantasy series as the primary impetus behind my Japanese studies.
But after the seventh game, my seemingly limitless faith in the series began to falter. Final Fantasy VII was an excellent title, to be sure; but with a Final Fantasy game, "excellent" is never good enough. Some sections seemed like they were straight out of a Hollywood summer blockbuster: flashy, impressive, but ultimately unsatisfying. It was with some trepidation that I awaited Final Fantasy VIII's release: Would it be a return to the series' roots or a further digression into flash and brashness? In the end, any qualms I had were for naught; Square has finally understood how to use the power of the CD properly. Fear not. Final Fantasy VIII is a masterpiece.
The core of any Final Fantasy game has always been its story, and Final Fantasy VIII's story is the best the series - and likely the genre - has ever seen. With Final Fantasy VII, Square showed that it had mastered the epic; with VIII, it shows that it has mastered the personal. The characters and their relationships are all extremely believable and complex; moreover, the core romance holds up even under the most pessimistic scrutiny. The decision to eschew a cast of dozens and focus on a central cast of six major characters appears to have been a wise one. The characters don't seem like base archetypes or generic "heroes," but like actual people.
Squall Leonheart is a student at Garden, the world's foremost military academy. His classmates are a motley bunch: the brash but good-natured Zell Dincht; the brash but ill-natured Seifer Almasy; the childlike Selphie Tilmitt; the precocious Quistis Trepe; and the personable Rinoa Heartilly. After a successful training mission, Squall, Selphie, and Zell are all inducted into the elite combat-unit-for-hire, SeeD. Their first mission: assisting a rebel organization in the capture of Galbadian president Deling, who is set to announce a new alliance that will bring Galbadia glory and triumph over its opponents. This alliance is not with any faction or nation, but with a powerful sorceress named Edea.
Don't worry that the schoolyard trappings make Final Fantasy VIII seem like "Teen Beat RPG," though; these engaging characters experience some of the most epic, grandiose events imaginable. While the plot may begin at an academy, it eventually spans the entire globe - and beyond. The twists and turns the story takes will leave you reeling; at the end of disc four, you'll laugh at the misconceptions you had about the plot with which you first began. A great deal of credit for the story's attractiveness must go to the graphic design. The first Final Fantasy through the sixth featured super-deformed, or SD, heroes: squat body, huge head, saucer-plate eyes. Final Fantasy VII was a hodgepodge of conflicting graphical styles; the field models were SD, the battle models were non-SD, the FMV was mostly non-SD (with a few SD exceptions almost humorously juxtaposed). With Final Fantasy VIII, Square has taken the series fully non-SD, and it's all for the better. The more mature plots of recent titles seemed at odds with the quirky, cartoony look with which the series began. Involving, personal, and emotional stories are far more believable when they come from, well, people, not short, bizarrely shaped cartoon characters. While the SD style suits many games, it's not the best choice for every RPG - and it certainly isn't the best choice for Square's latest Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy VIII, the field models always match the battle models, which always match the FMV models. Always. This coherency of design is the game's greatest visual asset over its predecessors.
The graphics are absolutely breathtaking. The detail in the backgrounds is frighteningly meticulous, and almost all backgrounds contain some animated elements. Battle sequences are nicely textured, and the sheer number of battle environments is borderline obsessive. Most full-motion video sequences are well integrated with gameplay, eliminating jarring "cuts" to and from CG sequences. Words don't do the graphics justice; neither, for that matter, do stationary screenshots. The motion and animation are what set Final Fantasy VIII's graphics apart from the rest. Both the FMV and in-game graphics are extensively motion-captured, and the difference is stunning. Characters don't just move around the screen; they act. The dance sequence on the first disc is equal in every way to Final Fantasy VI's famous "opera house" sequence. Square has proven that it has the biggest, baddest graphic artists and sound composers in the known world. Now, size no longer matters; they're going to awe you with majesty. While the limitations of the PlayStation hardware rear their ugly head from time to time, the sheer artistry and detail of the movement, the models, and the textures are beyond reproach. The mind reels at the thought of what Square can do with the next generation of gaming machines.
The sound, while excellent, is perhaps the game's weakest point; the music doesn't match the perfection of Final Fantasies IV, V, and VI. Of course, almost no video game has ever equaled the aural bliss of Nobuo Uematsu's SNES trilogy - but the bar was set, and Final Fantasy VIII falls just short. Even so, Uematsu is still a certifiable genius, and the soundtrack is very good, with more "quality" songs than Final Fantasy VII's. Even Faye Wong's pop sensation "Eyes on Me" is surprisingly inoffensive. Sound effects are excellent during FMV sequences, but only average during battle and gameplay sequences. The promised "Dolby Surround Sound" is mostly unnoticeable. Voice acting would have added a great deal to the FMV sequences; the game sometimes feels like the most beautiful silent film ever made.
Battles take place in the traditional RPG "active time" system: Your characters and their opponents take turns unleashing fury (or defending furiously). Final Fantasy VIII introduces (in traditional Japanese RPG style) several new "systems" for you to learn and master: the draw system, the guardian force system, and the junction system. --Andrew Vestal
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.
Customer Reviews
Sickeningly underrated
As a girl obsessed with the likes of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time, I was completely unfamiliar with turn based RPGs. When I recieved Final Fantasy 7 and 8 for Christmas, I naturally tried 7 first. I was horrified when I saw that you were unable to run around in a free roaming enviornment hacking and slashing at your leisure. Waiting my turn to deliver one blow was not my idea of a good time. Disgusted, I removed the game and inserted FF8. I was floored by the opening cinema. When the game started, I was confused by all the new terms. SeeD? Balamb Gatrden? Junction system? What the hell? But something compelled me to push onward. I was instantly hooked on the characters, which to me are much more appealing than the lego characters of the previous Final Fantasy games.
You play as the quiet lone wolf, 17 year old Squall Leonheart, a member of a group of mercenaries for hire known as SeeD. SeeDs reside in academys known as Gardens. When an evil sorceress gains the trust of President Deling and the people of Galbadia, Squall along with fellow SeeDs the perky Selphie Tilmitt, the loudmouthed Zell Dincht, the ladies' man Irvine, and the recently fired 18 year old instructer Quistis Trepe set out to assasinate her. Along the way, the lively and beautiful Rinoa Heartilly, a member of a resistance faction known as The Forest Owls teams up with them. Along the way, she struggles to bring down Squall's icy exterior and help him voice his feelings. The plot soon throws many curveballs, eventually bringing forth issues such as romance, possesion, time compression, prison abuse and escape, and traveling into the future.
I will admit that this game is extremely ambitious and has its flaws. The very different reviews serve to prove one thing: it depends wholly on the person whether or not you'll enjoy this game. Some people enjoy the game enough to get by its flaws and appreciate its differences, while others simply don't have the time or patience for it. It depends on your personality. Before buying, you must understand that:
-This is a love story
-The junction system (attatching magic to stats such as strength and HP to raise or lower the stat depending on magic type and quantity) takes a long time to understand and get fully confortable with. No other FF has had a system like this, and you may not like it
-You need to play through FOUR discs and have the time to put in upwards of 70 hours in order to get through everything the game has to offer. Patience is important.
While I am an impatient person who gets put to sleep by other RPGs, I enjoyed Final Fantasy 8 a lot. The characters meant something to me because they were realistic looking and typical teens rather than lego people with absent mouths. This is the black sheep of the series, and not everyone will appreciate it. In my case, it will always remain a favorite. For its time, no game was more gorgeous looking and emotional, and no final battle was as long and intense. The stunning ending clocks in at around a half hour. But some people aren't bothered by the long frequent GF summons, and some are extremely bothered by them. I can understand it. As I said, it all depends what kind of person you are.
A Classic
Final Fantasy VIII, the second installment of the Final Fantasy series on the Playstation is a game with outstanding graphics,an original storyline,great character design,and more. You are Squall Leonhart, a SeeD of the Balamb Garden Military Academy.SeeD is a codename for Balambs elite mercenary soliders. Balamb was created in order to train soliders to battle against an evil sorceress trapped in the future. Squall and his comrades go on a mission once they become SeeDs and then the little problem they were sent to solve turns big.They get caught up in a mess and the time has come to fight the evil sorceress from the future. There are many twists in the game and many side quests which makes the game more interesting.Personally, I love the Real-Time graphics done by Akira Fujii, who also worked on Final Fantasy IX. The music is great and it will capture the player in battle sequences. Theres much to say about this game, but I cant give everything away. This game is definetly worth a buy.
Longest Running Non-Series
It's eye opening to turn back the clock and play the old Final Fantasy games in the light of the remarkable production values of FF X. Each game in the series set a standard for console and computer games that has changed the way today's player sees the RPG genre.
I originally played FF8 in the PC version, so I was interested in how the PS2 version would compare. Even with a my leaky memory, my impression is that the PS2 version is a bit solider graphically. And, of course, the use of a game controller makes everything seem smoother, even if it really isn't.
FF8 follows in the classic Final Fantasy mode - a team of characters headed by a serious minded leader, with a bunch of slightly wacky, but dedicated companions, take on an evil that seems to keep getting stronger and more capable with each advance of the plot. No villain ever really seems to die, the keep coming back in new and deadlier forms. And then there are the Guardian Forces, who provide all kinds of spectacle for the battles.
This time it is Squall, his fellow SeeDs, and the beautiful Rinoa. The story starts as a revolution, and then the characters discover that events are really being manipulated by a series of sorceresses who want to destroy the world so that they can rule it unchecked (I know that doesn't make any sense). All of this on a giant world make full of monsters convenient for leveling up.
And leveling up is certainly what a Final Fantasy game is about. Various side quests and challenges are provided so that reaching the levels needed to kill the final bosses doesn't become tedious, and an incredibly complex character building system makes sure that everyone's playing experience is different.
FF8 set a standard that is still higher than some games being written for the PS2 today, and managed to accomplish that on a more primitive platform. Graphics and character design are amazing, the plot complex, and the action satisfying. Proving that the best isn't always the newest and the loudest.
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