Final Fantasy VIII is the eighth main installment in the Final Fantasy series. The gameplay makes a departure from many series standards. While it still uses the Active Time Battle system, it deviates from the series' traditional means of boosting a character's power via leveling, although levels are not completely abandoned as they were in Final Fantasy II. In addition, it does not have a Magic Point-based system for spell-casting. Instead, magic is collected, drawn, and created from items, and is used to power up the characters via the junction system.
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What a weird and charming game this is.
I both understand how it could be someone's favorite final fantasy and another's worst.
It's really all over the place, but odly enough it worked for me. I appreciate the imagination, style and just vibe of the whole thing.
The soundtrack is instantly nostalgic, the visuals were surely a treat back on the old ps1 and the cast of characters endearing.
A memorable entry in the franchise for sure.
I both understand how it could be someone's favorite final fantasy and another's worst.
It's really all over the place, but odly enough it worked for me. I appreciate the imagination, style and just vibe of the whole thing.
The soundtrack is instantly nostalgic, the visuals were surely a treat back on the old ps1 and the cast of characters endearing.
A memorable entry in the franchise for sure.
A hodgepodge of systems that don't really complement each other and gaslight you into thinking they make a difference. When people say Final Fantasy is confusing, this is the game they're talking about.
This is a good game. It would be extremely easy to levy its many shortcomings against it in bullet-point fashion to make the case that it is not impressive or even bad; however, in the future i see myself looking back on this game quite fondly. This game fits right into that late 90s early 00s era of video games where creativity was at its peak and developers had to push the limited technology into their insane ideas. Not only that but the junction system--grindy as it can be--makes this by far the most enjoyable mainline final fantasy gameplay wise within the first 10 entries, potentially ever. Optimizing and toying around with that made playing for hours on end very easy, and it is no wonder this is the only final fantasy where I ended up level capping and actually killing the Biggest Baddest Dude There Is (Omega Weapon). On top of all that, when the story is good it hits really hard. Squall and Rinoa have such an endearing arc that doesn't interrupt the overall plot in any way whatsoever. The ending cutscene post final boss was downright amazing; I haven't been that impressed with visual mindfuckery since I'd seen Perfect Blue.
Playing FF8 really made me feel a bit sad that it was 7 that got the remake. Not trying to hate on FF7R but in my opinion, OG 7 was pretty close to perfect the way it was made back for the PS1, and the remake didn't really improve upon it in any way that it really needed for it to function (although it did kind of create a new identity for itself). I mentioned that 8 has its shortcomings--and believe me there are a handful and they are quite serious--but I think if some of it were addressed properly then Final Fantasy 8 could have really been spectacular and immortalized as a must-play classic JRPG.
Playing FF8 really made me feel a bit sad that it was 7 that got the remake. Not trying to hate on FF7R but in my opinion, OG 7 was pretty close to perfect the way it was made back for the PS1, and the remake didn't really improve upon it in any way that it really needed for it to function (although it did kind of create a new identity for itself). I mentioned that 8 has its shortcomings--and believe me there are a handful and they are quite serious--but I think if some of it were addressed properly then Final Fantasy 8 could have really been spectacular and immortalized as a must-play classic JRPG.
One of my favorite soundtracks in all of gaming, but I have yet to truly finish it
the first rpg turn base game that i really played,but stuck on disc 1 bcs i didnt have the second disk,but i completed it on remasterd version.
I don't even really know how to begin this one. The story was interesting during the first half until it threw it all away by disc 3. The Junction system was pretty strange at first but it's not really difficult thing to figure out. Drawing/Stocking magic sucks ass. The villain just... exists. The final fight was pretty cool though, but it also goes into how the combat feels more fun by the end when you've stocked all the magic you need. Overall though I did enjoy this game, but it's for sure something I wouldn't play again for a while.