Final Fantasy VIII Reviews

About the Game:
Yes, my 2nd favorite Final Fantasy game, anyway lets get to the point, it all starts out by video, were Squall & Seifer are fighting and at the end of the fight they both cut each other in the face leaving scars. Squall finally wakes up at the doctors office, and his teacher Quistis comes in and brings him to class. Once in Class Seifer gets in shit, Squall has to do a mission, which is to defeat Ifrit (Demon of Fire), and pass his little test so he can join a group called SEED, which SEED's mission is to defeat Edea. Any way once beated Ifrit, he joins you and also you get back to the Garden (School, home, base, what ever) you talk to the boss (Cid) and he makes you join a group to do your final mission to become a SEED. One SEED, the game really heats up.

Graphs:
The graphs now are better then FF7 (Final Fantasy 7) and all human are like 3d and most of the monsters. The graphs on Odin & Bahamut are very well done, and they should have keeped the graphs like this for FF9, which I will talk about next time.

Music:
How can I say this, some songs now have words which Rinoa is singing which its awesome, I had to download some of the songs from these game because their just that damn good. Believe It!

Things I liked:
Odin, yes Odin, Odin is kick ass, once gotten he randomy appers in battle and kills all enemys with his greatest move in the game. It a KO wonder, nothing can stand in his path.
Squall is also awseome, even tho, he is really quiet and does not talk much but really is awesome. he is some awesome I bought his gunblade. Its true, I got his gunblade at my house, I love that sword.

Things I Hated:
Seifer is a ass, I will give you 3 reasons for him now, like I did to Sephiroth & Kefka.
1. He is a good guy that goes and backstabs ya, not like really stabbing like sephiroth but just go from good to bad. I would slap him down.
2. Everytime you beat the guy he will not give up, he is almost as bad as Sephiroth. Triple Slap him!
3. last but not least the main reason, its the last fight with Seifer and Odin shows up, you thing yay! Odin cut that ass hole down, but what do you see, you see Seifer cut Odin in half in one shot, what the @@#$... that pissed me off, even tho Gilgamesh does take over Odins place. Odin was @#$%$#$% awesome why did he have to die... Seifer I will never forgive you!

Things That I think show chance:
1: Odin show have not died, he should have been pushed back or something.
2: Seifer Should have Died after Gilgamesh killing him.
3: Zell Should have punched Seifer in the Face for calling him Chicken Wuss all the time.

Thanks for listening, see you next time on FF9 (Final Fantasy 9!)

I eagerly awaited this title. Seriously, after the bliss injection of VII this was all I imagined. I had a wanker mate who told me this game was the story of Cid Highwind returning from his 2nd journey into space, along for the ride was the feisty and barrel breasted hottie, Tifa Lockeart. If you look carefully in the epilogue FMV of Red XIII and his cubs running toward the ruins of Midgar, you can see their spaceship crash land in da background!!! The world was no longer as it was, all their old friends were dead and the three of our lasting heroes had to salvage the world from the remnants of Meteor Monsters which plagued the dwindling population of the planet.

I later found out that he was a compulsive liar. However, this story was a drastic improvement. Take a bit of teenage angst, ice cold manners, a medusa stare, a fantastic coat and marvelous weapon; now you have our hero. Squall Leonheart was a guy with problems but luckily he was chosen over the other ingrates to be the focus of this timeless classic. His individual view on the world which was literally being torn apart by war and the moon crying was a pragmatic and fresh look on the story. He won a place in my heart because even though he doesn’t give a monkeys about who/what people are, he ends up putting his very soul on the line to save them all from despair.

His comrades were a colourful bunch but all lacking in distinctiveness. All human and half of which were annoying. From a fantasy story I expect differences in the people that follow the hero, physically and personally. I felt robbed that the characters weren’t overly lovable. Quistis was fit, Irvine was cool but they were all 2D to me. Squall was the only one who had some depth, without him the story would have suffered. His life of loneliness and abandonment was a tragic event which brought him to his knees before he could rise up as a new man in the wake of his destroyed self.

The narrative is a bit up in the air. A lot of the time you are left to wander to find out where you have to go next. Without much restriction you can get lost quite easily which can be quite frustrating for a first playthrough. The concept of time plays a massive part in the story, flashbacks are common place aswell as distortion and parallels. Sometimes you just have to sit back and think.

The battle system was quite taxing too. It limited your use of magic because it would bring down your statistics; also drawing magic from every monster/boss you faced was grueling. It brought me to my knees when I tried to get a full set because of how poor some characters were at drawing. Junction was a new system which couldn’t have worked with any other title. Unlocking GF abilities was also a plus when refining and bolstering your item supplies. However, with a massive lacking of weapon upgrades you would achieve the best weapons for characters early on if you had the right items. So even refining 99 screws would render them useless early on. However, the little things helped me rise again!

Monsters being able to level up along with you provided an extra challenge. They would literally keep up with you as you progress so everywhere would be a hardy battle to get passed. The limits were essential throughout, without them you wouldn’t find the game simple. Squall’s Renzokuken plus finisher was enough of an endgame against any beast.

Another glorious thing about this game was the locales throughout the world. Esther alone is one of the greatest cityscapes I have ever seen. It was essentially a City Continent which blitzed your visuals! Considering the history of the city, it easily falls under the Dystopian descript. Places like Fisherman’s Horizen and the Garden’s were indeed memorable but they couldn’t compete with a continent!

Even though I see this as the weakest of the Playstation One generation, it is still galaxies more superior than the other games on this console. Final Fantasy VIII manages to mix sorcery and dystopia so well that it will make any grown man ball. Try it after FFVII.