Rating: 
Summary: A Title Hyped To Success On Playstation: PC Pathetic
Review: Without the technical problems present in the PC version this game is probably an average 3 star game at best. Before I anger the loyal fan base I'll explain the problems with the PC version. The most glaring problem with the PC version is the midi music. There is nothing like listening to the shrieking, butchered, Balamb Garden theme, at 425 rms watts + 120 rms powered sub in pro logic on a home stereo system.(Yamaha RXV-795a) The music on the PC version is almost unbearable. I have a Soundblaster Live Sound Card and I'm sure that wasn't the problem. Using Microsoft Synthesizer is a terrible mistake in this day of wavetable synthesis, soundfount midi and xg midi.(Using midi at all is baffling. CDs have been around since 1985 and DVDs with space for the extra audio and data have been around since 1997) That is unexcusable and that was only the start of my trouble with the PC version. The graphics might have been acceptable, especially those sweet cut scenes but the FF8 graphics engine would not cooperate with my 3d Prophet SDR GeForce 256 based graphics card. The horizontal lines across the screen made playing with any kind of hardware acceleration impossible. Software mode is a slide show on my 650 mhz Athlon. I must say that the sound effects were fantastic though. So technically you have a game with great looking movies, great sound effects, horrible midi music, and a GeForce specific horizontal line defect. Even without the horizontal lines the backgrounds are 320*240 stretched to 640*480 resulting in a less than pleasing grains. As in Final Fantasy 7 the graphics were not re-rendered and the result is resolution locked in at 640*480. This game technically is worse than the playstation version in both graphics and sound. It boils down to whole bunch of money for a boatload of trouble.(Incuding the cost of a PC plus the cost of the game) The game itself is mired with tons of gameplay flaws. Like FF7 this sequel has emotion but what you have to do to get to the point when you get to actually experience that can be at times tedious. The weapons are too weak and the Guardian Forces are too powerful. I found myself entirely giving up on weapons and using Guardian Forces constantly. In a game in which you try to evoke human emotions through human interaction why are you making the players resort to using non-human entities over and over and over and over again. Square Soft wrote a story and left out the game. I am a big proponent of have a great and entertaining story in a video game but the gameplay has to be at least bearable. It's not interesting to watch the same animation for literally hours. I only made it to disk two and stopped playing the playstation version.(In hopes the PC version would be improved in some way) I returned the PC version to whence it came from after an attempt to solve the GeForce defect. This game is Playstation Passable with some patience but is PC Pathetic. Don't even bother buying it. Wait for Final Fantasy 9 or the feature film due out in 2001. Square seems to be good at the video. Their games show that.(Perhaps, to a fault)
Rating: 
Summary: Bummer
Review: Pros- Good graphics, 1st diskCons- Poor sappy story line, poor music, watching the GF summon sequence for the 1,000,000,000 TIME, Poor charicter development, too easy 2nd 3rd and 4th disk. I've played squaresoft games for a good 8 years enjoying their wonderful games such as FF 1, 2(4), 5, 3(6), 7, tactics(the irony of tactis is that it isn't very tactical, but thats another story), Chrono Trigger, ect. So i was expecting great things out of FF8. After watching the opening scene i was hooked, at least i thought, When i started summoning the GF's i was delighed at the graphics. But about half way through the 1st disk i relised that I HAD TO FIND MY OWN WEAPONS! At this i was very suprised, this puts the emphsis on useing magic and GFs to beat your enemy. Well this seemed all good untill about 1/2 way through the second disk when i had to watch ifrit and shiva for the umteenthmillion time. On top of the repition of battle scens, story line tends to center around one very simple concept. Get Riona, loose Riona, Find Riona, Save Riona, Loose Riona et cetra, et cetra. Poor charaicter developmentn other than Riona(who is more ditzy than anything) leaves you with a feeling of, emptyness. And finally the game is soooooooooo, easy. I beat the game in 3 weeks only playing on friday nights and saturdays. Leveling up is almost pointless since the enemies are always somewhere around your level, any vet. of RPGs shouldn't have a problem with maybe 85% of the enemies faced. The hardest part of the game is finding the white ship! Overall the game lacks in many departments and it seems square just gave up on many aspects of the story to give the game good graphics. The game would be decent if square never put out the 2nd 3rd and 4th disks
Rating: 
Summary: A great RPG, but... a good Final Fantasy
Review: Okay, now before I start, this game is on my top five list for best games ever, though only ranked number three on my top Final Fantasy list. That said, I'd like to continue about I bought Final Fantasy VIII the day after it came out- September 10th. I was so excited! I unwraped the packaging and got right to playing it. Though as I played it, I noticed that it seemed a bit... off. Well, less of off and more of just different. I've always been a fan of Final Fantasy, and I am still an advocate of FF8. But still there were some problems that I've found with it. The entire Disc 1 seemed extremely tedious- overall, I don't think that Disc 1 contributed as much to the story line as the first two hours of Disc 3. Actually, I began to loose interest half way through Disc 1, and nearly stopped playing it. But I continued, and realized what a wonderful game this was. It started to get really good at the end of Disc 1. The story line is worthy of shakespear indeed, but not quite as deep as FF7. In FF7, the depth of the story line ran to the core, which questioned the very existance of a character. In FF8, it's simply just stuff that happens. You're not really second guessing yourself about the story line. Though that is not a bad thing, just a different thing. All of the characters were wonderful, though Zell got on my nerves at times. Though the only bad thing I can thing I can say about the characters is ULTIMECIA. Here is one kink in the story line that you'd wish never happened. You see, in FF8, you never know who the bad guy is. First you hate Seifer's guts, but then you realize he's just a pawn of Edea. Then you start hating her guts. But then she turns out the be good, and it's really an evil sorcerous from the future controling the sorcerouses of the past. Huh? I think that this twist in the plot was not only unnessesary, but it took away something from the game. There was no deep evil character who had such a reason to be evil, you almost understood him/her. No, it's just some weirdo that you just met who you could care less about. Not cool, Zeus. Not cool. And finally, I think that there could have been more development of the Time-compressed world. Though I'm pretty put off by the fact that FOR SOME REASON you can't visit any towns, I think that making the final disc not have the option to do anything other than train your party/fight Ultimicia was a HUGE mistake on Square's part. Oh, and a great ending sequence. I think I broke a tear for some reason during it... But other than a few problems with the villians, the first and the last disc, and the basic story telling style, this is a great game. I suggest it for any video game/final fantasy fan, though I suggest that a new comer to Final Fantasy/RPGs should play either FF6 or FF7 before playing this game. You have to be 'broken in' to Final Fantasy before playing this game.
Rating: 
Summary: I've completed half this game and am bored with it!
Review: I loved FF7 and got really involved in the characters and plot. The magic was superb. I had great anticipation for FF8. The characters ar not as loveable and the story up until the point I stopped playing it was good but not as good as FF7. The story is too linear and The summons take too long. You may spend 30 minues fighting and 25 of that is watching summons! The interface is also very SNESy. The best part of this game for me was the cut scenes as these are the best EVER on the PC. I spent a good deal of time pkaying this game and was not rewarded enough. I cant help but think this game is over rated. Its good but its not THAT good. Long live Cloud!
Rating:
Summary: It Takes a while but the twisting plot keeps you playing!
Review: This game is one of the best games I have ever played. The plot, charaters, and graphics are simply stunning. The Battles are long and challenging but fun never-the-less. If your a RPG fan I strongly recomend this awsome game!
Rating:
Summary: AN AMAZING GAME!
Review: Final Fantasy VIII was the first ff game I purchased, and from beginning to end, I was in awe. Without a doubt, the movies were the greatest part. The GF's are great at first, but they simply suck after a while(especially Eden, whose animation takes like 3 MINUTES! ) I've beaten the game twice, the first time takes a while but the second time it's a breeze. I've played Final Fantasy VII and VI, but overall, FINAL FANTASY VIII ROCKS.
Rating: 
Summary: A Big Disapointment
Review: Squall is a member of an elite military group called Seed. Withhis companions he battles against a rival Seed group being lead by anevil Sorceress. In my opinion, Final Fantasy 7 was one the best games to ever reach our (or your) shores. The game play was excelent, the characters were amazing and the story line was so beautifull you could play for hours on end and not notice a minute go by. Why then did Square Soft take all that was good about the affore-mentioned classic and sacriffice it in the name of stunning graphics? The story, although excellent in itself, drags like a big rig being towed by a push bike. The characters, with the exceptions on Seifer and Rinoa, are cold and dull, and the new "junction system", although a good idea and of great use at times, can get very frustrating when you're changing your characters around. The games one advantage over its predesessors is the stunning quality of the graphics. But, even though the video sequences cannot be matched by any other game either in existence or in production, the in-game graphics lack any atmosphere at all. All in all, this is just another RPG.
Rating:
Summary: finally final fantasy has grown up
Review: this is hands down the best Final Fantasy yet. The plot is more complex and more mature than any of the other Fianl Fantasys. And the chacters are more realastic. The graplics will blow you away. This game is worth money.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Beautiful,...but boring....
Review: I unfortunately do not own a playstation. But I have become a new lover of RPG's especially Final Fantasy. My aaddiction started out with FF7. I look back now and realized how much FF7 sucked (on a PC platform). So I eagerly anticipated the release of the PC version of FF8. I was worried at first because FF7 conversion to the PC was so poorly done that I didn't want the same fate to befall FF8. Fortunately, Squaresoft took the time to totally redue 8 which was a good move. When I bought it I was so exhilirated. I popped it into my PC and began playing...the opening sequence is incredible to watch and the game starts out with an upbeat, especially with the war scene. The story was very intricated which is one of the many things I enjoy about the FF series. It contains a certain element that keeps you wanted to know more but don't totally understand whats happening at the same time. The draw system is a unique difference to past magic systems and I somewhat enjoyed it (although it contributed to its boredom b/c I would stock 100 cures and not find too much competition. When I reached Disc 2, I became bored...the story and action had spaced itself and was no longer frantic as it was in the first disc...I hve stopped playing and have actually started to plat FF3 loaned to me from a friend which is now my famvorite Final Fantasy currently. Word is out that FF9, FF10, and FF11 are due for the PS2 and FF12, FF13, FF14, and FF15 are due in the far future for believe it or not...the Playstation 3...
Rating:
Summary: I cant believe what's happening to Final Fantasy... DISGRACE
Review: I am a lover of rpgs, but when I bought this game, I couldnt help but to think that something went horribly wrong with square. The graphics were astounding, the beginning part of the game was totally fun. By the time I got to the end of the second disk I was bored, but I pushed on, hoping to see the ending. I have been on the 4th disk for 5 months now because of how extremely boring the game is. When I bought the Final Fantasy Anthology for my Playstation, and re-played FF6, I wondered how square was so good on the earlier FF's, but stunk on 8. This games music gets a C, but that's only because lagunas battle theme was cool. It makes you wonder what happened to nobuo uematsu when he wrote the music on this game. Just where is the "Fantasy" now? There is no fantasy. I may be mistaken, but Final Fantasy's prelude, the crystal theme, was never played once during this game, not even the begginning. This game is nothing but eye candy! Thank *god* FF9 will be returning to its roots!
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