You know what? Technically I didn’t even beat this game (didn’t make it to the end credits). BUT after getting to the like 6th and final grueling phase of that final boss fight and dying, I’m just going to say I beat the freaking game. I refuse to do that miserable slog again.

But I digress. I adore this game. I first played it at age ~12 or so when I got it at a used game store for my PS1. I was fresh into my anime-loving, bishounen-obsessed phase as a preteen and this game was everything I needed for that, LOL. Lo and behold though, I was god awful at video games! And to top that off I also had no idea about the scaling levels of bosses/enemies and so I would grind for literal hours. After probably 2 years of playing this game on and off, barely utilizing or understanding any mechanics (like stat junctioning AND triple triad which I think I fully ignored!), I made it to the end of the 3rd disc where I basically soft locked myself at one point or another at level 80 something. I was truly an anomaly.
A few years later, I learned you can break the everloving Christ out of every mechanic in this game and gave it a try on my first gen PS3. Well, my first gen PS3 subsequently bricked on me somewhere in the middle of disc 2. I remember having to completely tear the dead console apart because it had my at the time VERY rare copy of nier gestalt in it.
So that was kind of that for my experience with FF8 for a while. I had put so much time into it, I knew I had to wait a while for it to feel like less of a trudge and more of an actual experience. A few more years passed and I decided to finally play through ff7 in its entirety. I pulled that off and had a great and nostalgic time, and figured 8 should be next on the docket. I was already all-too familiar with the first act of this game by now, but it was so refreshing picking it up right after FF7 and seeing how insane the jump in presentation was. This is NOT a jab at FF7 by the way, just a moment of recognition for how hard they worked to improve every technical aspect of the series, just like FF7 did over FF6 and so forth. I feel like this is my biggest complement for and the most impressive part of the game. The environments are so fleshed out, the settings are so intriguing, the characters designs are so distinct. I'm kind of a nomura hater, I am not ashamed to say this! but I feel like ff8 utilizes his style so well and so colorfully. Ff8 feels like it takes a lot of mechanics of 7, and just adds to them. More hubs/towns, more detail, more sidequests, more stuff to do in general. It absolutely does not always mean these things are better, but it is distinctly unique.

I don't really want to go into it much, but i kind of love the story. a lot of people talk negatively about it, but the characters are for the most part extremely lovable so I kind of just feel like I'm on this goofy wild ride. It feels like one big epic adventure and my favorite kind of squenix story is one where it's just a group of people forming a conceivable bond and becoming closer on their adventure. And even though it's been disproven BY squenix I FULLY subscribe to the rinoa-ultimecia theory which you should not research if you don't want to be spoiled! i also just really appreciate squall's character development more than i thought i would. the sidequests add a lot to that. anyways, that's my feelings on the story.
Now, the gameplay. I despise random encounters. Which is kind of why I had so much more fun with FF8! because you are by no means obligated to fight like any enemy unless you want to! although it doesn't cut out the need for grinding, mind you. there's some convoluted 'crafting' mechanics in this game that will require it if you want to "break" the game, which i highly recommend. To put it simply, i love that you can break this game! it was so fun to strategize and plan, and optimize my stats. the junction system is weird but you can have a ton of fun with it because of all of this minmaxxing and meticulous planning and plotting. I spent so much time divising what skill i would make my GF learn at what time, and when would be best to grind them out so i dont get too much XP. You can make the game obscenely easy but still have fun with it. I really did not enjoy the difficulty spike in the last like 30 minutes of the game though, it felt like there was no strategy that you could utilize, and if you didn't painstakingly work for the strongest GFs in the game you wouldn't be able to win the final boss.
i really felt like all enjoyment for the game was sucked away in the final dungeon. it has a beautiful design, but after so many bosses and so many events and hours played, i just wanted the goddamn ending. instead, I got like 8+ more bosses with a handicap, and then a final boss with so many phases and so many batshit mechanics I didn't even care about what I had set out to do anymore. I had a lot of fun getting to this point and it all just disappeared by overstaying its welcome on freaking steroids. I love nonsensically hard JRPGs, I'm currently on my 2nd playthrough of SMT nocturne, but this final boss was just purely unenjoyable. So after dying after getting to the final phase, i closed down duckstation, opened up youtube, and watched the ending there. Maybe the satisfaction of actually winning would make jt
more impactful, but the ending was still captivating and bizarre nonetheless, and the last bit with the camcorder at school still made me cry and laugh and feel things!
IDK maybe I'll go back and "actually beat" the thing, but it won't be for a damn long time.

So yes i highly recommend this game, but be patient with it and take it all in. If you love the PS1 era or JRPGs in general it's extremely worth playing.

I am SO glad i was able to finally give this game a try. This is one of the best stories I’ve experienced in a video game thus far I think. The characters are all so compelling, and the story that unfolds is so easy to invest yourself in. I played on safe mode (I know what games I do and don’t like, and stealth horror is a genre I don’t enjoy), which did detract from the horror in a lot of situations, but I was definitely still on edge PLENTY while playing. The areas felt very organic and realistic, and unfolding the story through audio logs/black boxes/computer terminals was done in a way that made me keep scouring for clues and lore. This game is so worth trying out, I haven’t genuinely rooted for a character I’m playing in a game like this in a while, if ever! There’s definitely more that can be said about the story, etc but I don’t want to hop into spoiler territory.

They really knew what they were doing from the beginning with this series. The polish and attention to detail is honestly mind blowing for a PS1 game. I adore the style of “dungeons” in the first three silent hill games, so I was really excited after beating 2 and 3 to be able to get back into that gameplay. It certainly did not disappoint! Great atmosphere, great scares, fun puzzles, and none of them overstayed their welcome. The bosses are unnecessary but as I played on easy, I really didn’t have to put any thought or effort into beating them so I couldn’t complain. This game would honestly be perfect if not for the overworld being a pain to traverse at times. Running around aimlessly while like 6 enemies tail you can get kind of irritating, especially when you have to execute perfect hairpin turns/maneuvers under tank controls. That really is my only gripe though. The story is dripfed to you really effectively, the cast of characters all fulfill their purposes effectively, and I am such a sucker for the pre-rendered cutscenes (full kudos to Sato Takayoshi!). This is genuinely one of the best PS1 games I have played, and I’ve played a good deal of them. ABSOLUTELY worth playing alongside 2 and 3, I’m so glad I came back to this!