Final Fantasy VIII is the sequel of Final Fantasy VII. FFVIII came out in 1999 and is for PS1 or PS2, whatever the case may be. There's probably a PC version but don't quote me on that. It's an RPG for those of you who don't already know.

It's rated T for Teen because of some animated violence, mild language, and suggestive themes. I'll review on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is sad and 10 is excellent.

Story: 10

Ok, so maybe the story is as good as FFVII's. Whatever. Anyway, like its predecessor, the story is amazing, moving, and inspiring. It starts like this: The main character, Squall, is a student in a special forces institute where he is trying to achieve the highest position of the elite military team: seeD. He does so really early on though, and then he has to travel around the world completing missions, then finding the real meaning of seeD, rediscover his past, deal with his inexplicable dreams, etc., etc.

Graphics: 10

Whoa! Are you sure this is the PS1? This game's FMVs are like GCN graphics. The characters look exceptionally real and the graphics were a huge improvement over FFVII's, which were really good too.

Sound: 9

Hm? I don't see any improvement here over its predecessor, which is perfectly fine with me.

Battle System: 7

Ok, this battle system was original, but I didn't like it that much. Weapons are useless in this game, they do a pathetic amount of damage compared to GFs. GF (Guardian Force) are like the summoned monsters of the
previous FFs, but the difference is that in this game the GF's role is extremely vital. If you don't use GF you lose. Simple as that. The more you use GF, the faster you can summon it, and you don't even waste magic or anything summoning them. So, when you think of the damage the GF causes, that you can summon it without losing anything, and that you actually gain from using it, you simply ditch the weapons. Also, you can't cast magic, use items, or anything if you don't have a GF junctioned (more info on juntioning later). You can only use physical attacks without a GF. If weapons were going to be useless, then why put them in the game?

Anyway, you don't have the standard magic system here anymore. What you do to gain different types of magic is that you use a command called draw to drain magic from enemies. When you do, you get a set amount of that magic, for example, five Cures. When you use up those five Cures, you don't have Cure anymore, and you have to draw from an enemy again. I prefer the old system of magic. Oh yeah, the limit breaks return.

Characters: 8

Another great selection of characters. As always the enemies are super cool and very interesting.

Difficulty: 8

Very difficult, not impossibly difficult but the bosses are very hard. This game has a unique feature that the enemies are as strong or as weak as your current level is. So, if you level up a lot in one place, the enemies also get progressively tougher to reflect your character's level. Is that good or bad? You decide. Moreover, sometimes you forget that your characters aren't junctioned to a GF because of something or other, and then you lose the battle because of that.

Items: 10

Wow, there are TONS of items. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but you should be able to handle it. I hope.

Junction System: 5

Erg, I do not like this system. Here's how it works, and I didn't fully understand it until now. Yes, I beat the game long ago without understanding the junction system. You choose a GF that you wish to junction to a character. When you junction the GF, depending on the GF's abilities, you get the capability of using the draw command, magic, items, etc. Also, the GF and the magic you have determine your stats like HP, strength, etc. You can junction different types of magic to improve your stats, for example, if you junction the magic Thundaga (very strong magic) to your HP, you will have much more HP than if you junctioned it with, say, Cure (weakest type of curative magic). But what stats you can junction to magic is determined by the abilities that the GF has learned. If it hasn't learned the ability to junction magic to HP, then you can't do it. Aside from that, you can junction magic to elemental defense, elemental attack, etc.

Secrets: 10

Immense amount of secrets, there are countless rewarding sidequests, secret GFs, etc.

Controls: 9

I don't know if I should include this category for RPGs. Oh well, you won't have trouble with the controls in battle, and probably not much trouble on the field either.

Length: 10

Yep, this is one long game. Four disks long. I don't know, but each cd's individual length didn't quite seem as lengthy as FFVII's, probably because the awesome FMVs took too much space.

Replayability: 6

Although you won't want to play it again for a long time, once you forget most of it and you don't have anything to do or you must use something to keep you busy while you wait for another game, this is a great
game to replay.

Fun Factor!: 10

This game has many more features than its predecessor. It's a whole lot of fun.

Overall: 8 ½

A great game that is worthy of being my third favorite game. It improved a lot over it's predecessor, but tried to incorporate original ideas that didn't turn out extremely well.

Recommendation: Buy this game if you are an RPG fan, rent it if you're not. Even if you are used to the normal battle system, this game is good in everything else, so give it a try.

Want to review a game yourself? Email me!
Go back to Lemmy's Reviews.
Go back to my main page.