Final Fantasy VIII

Absolutely horrible game. I can’t think of anything about it to recommend playing it. Not even as a so bad it’s good affair. Horrible and broken storyline on par with something on MST3K, boring characters, boring protagonist who is a royal emo dick for most of the game, crappy soap opera theatrics, dull aesthetic, idiotic gameplay mechanics that are worthless and entirely tedious and add to how insufferable this abortion of a game is, mediocre soundtrack bar a few tracks, ugly enemy design, boring dialogue, nauseating romance aspect, trash side quests. Being between good entries doesn’t automatically make 8 good by default.

I'm one of those people who thinks Final Fantasy 7 is comfortably the best entry in the series, and for a while, Final Fantasy 8 captures a similar magic in its compelling, evocative fantasy world scored with Nobuo Uematsu's music. If you overlook the somewhat confounding combat/RPG mechanics, for my money the first disc and a half is about as good as Final Fantasy ever got. But there's a distinct point where the game's narrative starts to turn into complete and utter nonsense and it never really recovers. The baroque, lengthy, and unskippable summon animations are a bit much as well.

Final Fantasy's mainline entries always seemed to provide a source of valuable JRPG ideas, to the point where even their failed experiments were at least compelling on paper. Final Fantasy VIII was one of several testaments to the latter scenario. This work deviates from its brethren greatly, boasting an oddly relaxed atmosphere with modern environment designs and a subdued - but just as memorable soundtrack. Its battle mechanics followed suit, employing SMRPG's timed attacks and marked by a fixation on summons. What underwhelms is the overarching Junction system, which strangely evoked the creative but misused ideas from their NES trilogy. Foregoing traditional level-dependent stat growth, it relied on absorbing spells from enemies and assigning them to stats instead, but the repetition required spoils what is arguably their most fascinating approach to RPG systems yet. Junctions were almost Star Ocean-like in that aspect, namely regarding the latter's skills mechanic; a potentially rewarding goal in theory but diluted by the amount of necessary grind. The characters are generic and the story is a confusing mess, but the harrowing end sequence almost makes up for it.

Ah ff8... Truly the 'Yeezus' of Final Fantasy. And much like Yeezus, people still cant decide whether its insanely genius, or simply insane.

Much like Yeezus, this game was a sequel to an incredibly commercially and critically succesfull work, both being among the most iconic pieces of art in their genre to ever be released. And much like Yeezus, the artist told their fans to go fuck themselves and released an expiremental work that divided fans and critics alike, and is still controversial years later.

FF8 is a very weird game in many ways, its gameplay is weird, its story is weird, its world is weird, and even many of the cutscenes are weird- with the second to last one looking like it fits more in a Death Grips video then a Final Fantasy game. Let's get into the weirdness.

Gameplay-

Following the universal acclaim and-dare i say- perfection(!) of the Materia System of 7, they decided to make the ballsy move to completely ball it up and throw it in the trash for a system completely new and foreign to the series and, honestly, the genre. There are still not many games- if there are any- that play quite like FF8. And to that i say thank god because the gameplay here is absolutely fucking horrendous. In most JRPGs you defeat enemies, gain levels, and use those levels in skill points. Not in FF8. Here you are punished for defeating enemies, as enemies scale with your current level, though to a higher degree then you, meaning you are paradoxically actually stronger-relative to your opponents- when you are weaker, which is fucking stupid. Gone is a "MP" system, instead you acquire spells by equipping the "Draw" ability. Which- for some reason- is mapped in the menu as a core Ability for each of your party members, meaning if you want to draw something out of battle you must unequip your ability to use items, spells, or GFs, which is mindbendingly fucking stupid. Ill be honest, i did not understand the Junction System. Despite spending most of the first 2 hours(!) vomiting tutorials at me, the game did an exceptionally poor job explaining it, so i mostly told the Junction system to fuck off, assuming the game wouldnt require me to go out of my way to use it, and i could play the game using my wits and basic abilites, which worked until i was softlocked at the third-to-last battle of the game, leaving me unable to progress. Fucking fantastic. I do like the additions of GFs, however, but every other change is for the worse, leaving FF8 to be one of the least satisfying jrpgs i have ever played, gameplay wise.


Characters-

FF8's characters, much like everything else about it, are similarly controversial and hotly debated. Main character Squall is borderline iconic, though not as much as Cloud, though for every 3 fans of Squall, there are 2 people who want to do things to him that would make Ted Bundy blush, and i cant blame them. For the first good half- or maybe longer- of the game, Squall is an absolutely insufferable borderline autist (and i mean that in the literal social disability sense, not youtube comment insult sense) antisocial pompous brooding unfriendly full-of-himself jackass that thinks hes too cool to have emotions. While he goes through a fantastic arc and improves himself over the game, first impressions are important and Squall leaves a horrible one. The rest of the cast is shockingly forgettable, and none of them besides Squall and kind-of-Rinoa( the main girl- will talk about her later) go through anything resembling an arc. Selphie is a ambigiously happy-go-lucky bubbly girl who likes trains and her home country/garden. Thats kind of it. Zell is an ambigiously happy-go-lucky subpar shonen protagonist who loves fighting and speaks his mind, is hotblooded but means well, etc. Thats kind of it. Quistis is a 'Milf' character despite being the same age as everyone else. Shes the 'mature' one, with glasses! Wow! Stunning. Irvine is the only other one other then the main pairing where it seems like they gave a shit, and even then his character has 0 progression. Hes a horndog with a heart of gold who means well, but his penis and goober-brain get in his way more often then not. Even the antagonists are remarkably poor- Edea and Seifer are incredibly overhyped early in the game and end up being boring, lame, and borderline pointless, and Ultimecia is not even a character. She has 3 lines of dialogue and then you fight her. Whoopee. That leaves Rinoa- the main girl, and the most ignored FinalFantasy girl probably ever. Theres just nothing to her, they did a great job writing a realistic teenage girl but thats all she is. She doesent have any flair, shes just pubescent and relatively normal. Shes not strong like Tifa, not cute like Aerith, doesent go through an arc like Dagger, isnt 'innocent' like Yuna, shes just kind of there. Shes 'kind of' tough (leading a revolutionary group), 'kind of' spoiled (saying things like 'Meany!' and overrelying on Squall for companionship, much to his chagrin that eventually turns into appreciation), shes 'kind of' a lot of things but nothing defines her, leading to a mass case of fan apathy surrounding her. Which is a shame because of the best scenes in FF history (Yes- the entirety of FF!) are absolutely heartmeltingly adorable scenes between her and Squall that i absolutely love (though they express their feelings extremely late into the game- leaving the player feeling unsatisfied and wanting more) At the end of the day shes like a great bowl of oatmeal. You wont remember it, but you definitely enjoyed eating it... though you would have enjoyed something more substantial more.

Story-
FF8's story is another weird one, very layered and complicated. I wont reveal much here or talk about it much sicne i feel its best experienced knowing little, but i thought the story was satisfying, albeit a bit rushed with the whole Dream-World aspect, and i didnt give a shit about Laguna or his arc at all. There were also many dropped plotpoints- Laguna's original crush and the weird 'Garden Rebellion' that is never brought up again- for example, leading the story to feel a bit more messy then im used to with Final Fantasy. The ending cutscene was notably horrible, leaving me unsatisfied and playing with comically unsutiable high-octane music that contrasted badly with the serene epilogue that was playing



Overall this is a good, albeit very frustrating, game. I wish they gave Rinoa and Squall's relationship more time to breathe and didnt implement the absolutely terrible Junction system, but oh well. Id still recommend picking this up for 25-30 bucks. Its strangeness makes it a different, unique, experience if anything.

high 5 or low 6 out of ten

I replayed the time several weeks ago and since that was the very first game I was really involved with, I think I had to jot something down, so...
-The game is more well-written than I expected at first. Even if the characters are a bit too cliché and the romantic story has always been kind of bothersome to me, the rest of the plot was bold and nearly nailed everything they could manage. Yes, there are plot holes, but less than I would expect to, and the story is more emotionally-driven (and carefully done in that regard) than what is usually told to.
-The battle system is worse than I imagined; in fact, it's the worst part of the game to me except a few several boss battle. Once you have the best magic in store, the game is too easy to the point the most difficult bosses seems like way above shoulders the rest of the game. To me, that's really bad thinking there, and the reason why part of the game got more boring in the third CD at some times.
-The thing that got really good, though, are the minigames. Not even FF7 had a thing like the card games, and once you know the rules and everything it's really fun. Like plaaying hours and hours games of cards -while FF7 had quantity, FF8 had the quality, and I think that only the blitzball in FF10 has been close to that.

For the rest, I could say they could have gone a bit further in its approach regarding the story, but it's difficult to balance it out -even though Square Enix has done it several times-, but I got a better impression with this game throughout the years, and I think it's the only FF (with FFXIII) that really did that of all the saga.

In Final Fantasy VIII, you play as Squall Leonhart who is a trainee mercenary. As part of his final exam at the school known as Balamb Garden, he is placed in a group with Zell, Selphie, and rival Seifer, and sent to defend Dollet from the forces of Galbadia. After this, all but Seifer graduate, and your party (along with former teacher Quistis) are sent to help a resistance faction assassinate the Sorceress who is using the Galbadian forces. There you meet Rinoa who is Squal's love interest.

The story contains the usual twists and turns you expect from an RPG, but is rather confusing since the story isn't really developed until midway through the game. The characters are pretty weak too, especially since Squall is reserved and protective of his feelings.

At certain points in the story, your party members pass out and have dreams about a man called Laguna who was a soldier/journalist in the Galbadian army. You don't get an explanation of how this ties into the plot until much later in the game, and even then it doesn't seem to be as relevant as it could have been.

The game's combat is like Final Fantasy VII where you attack when your guage is full; where it fills based on your character's speed. You have to be quick to select your moves since your enemies don't wait around for you.

There's some interesting but weird design decisions to the level up system. Enemies get stronger as your main character levels, and your attack and defensive stats are mainly based on your "Junctioned" magic. There are many powerful beasts (usually known as Summons, but in this game they are Guardian Forces GFs) to acquire. Assigning these GFs allows you to assign magic to certain stats and can be switched freely. Certain magic is better being junctioned to specific stats, so assigning a magic like Cure to HP will boost it more than assigning Fire. Junctioning a status effect like Sleep is a great choice for Status Attack, whereas the choice of magic to assign to Elemental Attack very much depends on the enemies you are facing. There are only a few weapons to acquire in the game, with no armour, so the only customisation you have is the Junction system.

In battle, you have the option to Draw magic from your enemies. Each enemy has 1 to 4 spells to take, and you can farm them; repeatedly drawing from the same enemy. The way this system works mean that you can abuse it early on if you know where to find the most beneficial magic.

Early on, you rely on your GF's to do the damage since they can do hundreds to thousands worth of damage compared to your double figured attacks. When you summon your GF's, a countdown begins before a 30 second scene plays out. While you wait, they even take damage if you are attacked in the meantime. The GF's attacks quickly become boring and it would be nice to speed up the scenes.

When you finish a battle, your character and GF's will receive experience to level up. GF's also receive AP which unlocks their abilities. Each GF has a different set of unlockable abilities, such as allowing your characters to Junction magic to different areas, increasing GF health, GF attack, increasing your characters stats, and more. You can assign multiple GF's to your characters, giving them access to a wide range of abilities and buffs.

The system puts a large emphasis on Drawing magic to have a wide range of spells, and a large stockpile of each. This means it is beneficial to spend some time repeatedly drawing from enemies then fleeing. Fleeing is beneficial because you won't gain experience; remember, enemies become stronger as you level up, so it's not so advantageous to grind out levels. Obtaining AP is beneficial though since that unlocks your GF abilities. There is a trick you can do which involves turning enemies into cards instead of killing them. This allows you to gain AP without XP.

When your health is really low, you can pull off special attacks called Limit Breaks. These attacks differ per character. Zell has to input commands, Irvine uses bullets from your inventory, Quistis can perform special attacks she has learnt from enemies.

Outside of battle, there are occasional moments where you need to press a button repeatedly, or time your button presses. One example is where you have to enter codes to disconnect train carriages while avoiding patrolling guards. These moments are very clunky and aren't fun.

You can challenge many of the characters to a game of cards, where the rules vary across the regions. I didn't really understand the other rules because there didn't seem to be an explanation of them. In the basic game, you have a 3 by 3 grid, and can place cards down in an empty slot. The cards of 4 numbers on them which are used to 'attack' in the respective directions. If your number is larger than the adjacent card, then the card's colour changes. At the end of the game, whoever has the most cards in their colour wins, and the winner gets to take one of the loser's cards to add to their collection. As previous mentioned, you can turn enemies into cards. You can also get an ability to turn cards into items. This means players may wish to invest time into the game to assist them.

I found the graphics to be very inconsistent. Some backgrounds looked decent whereas others were pixelated. This happened with the non-player characters too. If someone was a character you can talk to, then they would have a higher level of detail than the citizens that were there just to show the area was populated. The world map looks terrible and it's not that great to explore either. There's a lack of places to visit across the world, and you often spend long periods of time in one location. The cinematics still look pretty good, and this has been an area that Final Fantasy games have excelled in for a long time.

There are some really interesting ideas within Final Fantasy VIII, but the game is slow paced, full of shallow characters and set in a fairly bland world.