Final Fantasy VIII

FF8 is the most different Final Fantasy title I've ever seen. Not that it's bad or anything, but i think this change made a lot of retro-ff6 gamers to fuss that this change disagreed with their taste. So, i guess that's why it didn't sell as much as 7. Here, i'll give you the run-down on all of the games features.

Story-7/10

FF8 is a love story. I think that a story should be a mixed of flavors, such as FF7 did to a degree. FF8 is based around Squall and Rinoa. here, you have the quiet-talking, chick-ignoring, lone-wolf kind of guy. Rinoa is the exact opposite. She's free-willed, honest. and open with her feelings. Now, all of you're girl gamers who likes love stories out there, if you don't have the game...Get it!! I think you'll like it.

The first disc is DA BOMB! it excercised the PlayStation and the human senses to a maximun degree. There's the full-blown opening cinema, which leaves you drooling for more. Though the FIRST disc, It is filled with story sequences which is actually fun to do. At the end of the disc, the twist made it look like a Hollywood movie. ...But, after the first disc, the game sank to the level of...well, lower than it should be. Just the basic go-here-and-fight this-boss-then-repeat. The story lacks compared to 7's. Though the ending's pretty nice though.

Graphics-9/10

In all of the FF's, the characters are SD, or Super-Deformed. But, Square thought that this time the atmosphere should be serious, so they made everything real- istic... Again, this might've made retro gamers uncomfortable. The realitic thing was another flaw. When some of the screens let you see the charaters up-close, you'd see that they almost look like zombies.^_^ Their eyes are just a little black dot, and have you ever seen anyone as pale as Rinoa?!

Minus what I said above, and the graphic limitations of the PSX, the rest is masterpeice. The cinemas surpasses 7, because Square now use real people wired with motion capturing thingys. That made their movements much more realistic. The battle graphic also surpassed 7. This time, monsters don't just turn red and disappear, they actually fall then die. The magic, GFs, and the characters' Limit sequences are absolutly stunning. This point might sway the vote of for or against for 8.

Music/Sounds-8.5/10

It's funny, how almost fun every video game has a song or a tune that you'll always remember as you recall the name. For Crash Warped, it's the main theme. For Marvel Vs. Capcom, it's Wolverine's theme. As for RPGs, they leave a deeper impression. For Chrono Trigger, it's Robo's theme. For FF7, it's One Winged Angel & Aeris's Theme. As for FF8, it's gotta be Eye On Me. I can't spoil the Story, so I'll just say it has something to do with the Main Love Couple, and the Dream-World Love-Couple. So, that's that.

The rest of the tunes aren't masterpiece, so I'll go back to Eye On Me. It's actually sang by someone. Faye Wang to be exact. She's and Asian pop singer. If you like J-pop, You'll want this song to be nominated for a Grammy or something. This song fits perfectly with the story of FF8.

Gameplay- (3-10)/10 (Depending on what you like)

This is the most confusing aspect of the game. You either love it, or hate it. Once again, this point pisses off all retro gamers. Guardian Forces, or Summons, are a source of survival. Without it, you'll die in less than one minute. And the summon sequences were cool when you first see them, but, they get extremely repetitive after 3 hours of it. FF8 abandoned the armor, acces., and other equipable things. The only thing you can equip is a weapon, which you can upgrade. Instead, FF8 uses a Junctioning system. When you equip a GF, they get APs after battles toward a new ability. If they get the required APs, they learn that abilities. The abilities are separated in to a couple categories. There's Command Abilities, like Mug, Recover. There's Character Abilities, like Auto-Potion, Auto-Reflect. There's GF Abilities, like Boost, GFHP+20%. And Lastly, Junction Abilities. When you enter battle, you'll be likely to have Four Commands: Attack, GF, Magic and Draw. The first three is pretty self-explanatory. The Draw option let's you "absorb" an enemy's spell. Each monster carries a set of spell. When you have some spells in stock, you can junction, or attach them to a particular stat. For example, if you have 100 Curagas, and you junction them to you HP stat, you MaxHP level will go from 1400 to about 6000. The more powerful the spell and more it relates to the stat it's being junctioned to, the more the stat will raise. For example, if you junction 100 Curagas to Strength, it's gonna raise about 50. If you Junction 100 Meteors or Ultimas, it's gonna likely go to 255.

The battle System hasn't changed very much. It's random encounters, so sometimes it might get frustrating. But, Thankfully, there are certain abilities you can learn to avoid that. ATB system is still there. FF8 also abandoned the MP System. Now, you can use to as much as you have. But when you use spells, it decreases the stat of whatever stat is being junctioned to. So, much of the times, you'll be using GFs or Limits. When a Character's HP is below 25%, you will have Limit Breaks availible. Each character's limit is quite different. For example, a character will have a Limit which requires you to press certain buttons in a sequence, while another is totally depended on luck. As for the GFs, They are like characters themselves, complete with levels and HP. when you use them, a blue bar starts to decrease in place of the ATB Guage. During this time, if that character is attacked, the GF takes the damage. When the guage goes to zero, you summon the GF. Theres also a "Emotion" Guage on the GFs, the more a GF likes a character, the faster the Summon Guage decreases. Hence then you summon them faster.

So, as you see above, you can totally customize all of your character to your pleasure. But, sometimes, things get so frustrating, you'll want to break you'll PlayStation in two pieces. It all depends on what you like.

Overall-8.5

As for me, FF8 has been very fun. But, for the whole RPG community, you get arguments from both sides. Some hates it, some love it. To sum it up in one sentence, "FF8 is more like an overbudget movie than an RPG."

By - QuikSilverZero

Favorite Character As For Personality Factor - Rinoa.(Damn, she's cute!!)

Coolest Character - Zell(...Well he is!!)

Favorite Character As For Battles - Squall(Lionheart, baby!)

Least Favorite Character As For Personality Factor - Irvine(Reminds me of that annoying person at school...)

Least Favorite Character As for Battles - Selphie(What the f*** does Slot do?!?!)

Most Powerful Attack - Lionheart(Omnislash wanna-be.)

Most Graphic Attack - Devour(^_^)

Most Powerful GF - Eden: Eternal Breath("What the hell is that thing coming out of your hole?")

Coolest GF - Diablos: Dark Messenger("Oh my gosh, all targets getting crushed by a big black ball of s***!!")

Next RPG - FFX baby!!