Final Fantasy 8

Rating:
Summary: A Good Series goes Swirling Down the Can
Review: After the genius of FF6 (FF3 in America) and the brilliance and intrigue of FF7, this is EASILY the series' biggest letdown. Final Fantasy6 and 7 were succesful for many reasons, one of which was intriguing storyline and likeable characters, both of which the game fails at. After playing it for only a few minutes, you'll probably think or wish (as I did) the following: "The characters will all HAVE to become more likeable by the end". HA! They don't, and eventually I started hoping they'd all get in a fiery plane crash (or airship crash, whatever). Plus, there is virtually no need for money seeing as you armor etc. never goes beyond the clothes on your back. These factors and an ending that was apparantly slapped together by some programmers who were and just wanted to end this crap make this game the worst FF to date, though FF9 seems quite competitive in that category.

Rating:
Summary: Goodbye real life...
Review: Two words - damn amazing.

The story is great. Everything you would expect from a Square game and more. Character development is well-done (even though Squall is a bit of a prat), and it's hard not to become attached to them while playing.

The GF's (new to FFVIII) are incredibly well-animated, and will leave you feeling good about spending all that money on your graphics card. :)

Squaresoft have perfected the art of FMV, as far as I can see. FFVIII features seemless blending of FMV into game sequences, and even supports layered polygon characters over the top of the movie during the game. Very impressive.

RPG's aren't famed for their replay value, but FFVIII has bags of it. Tons of sub-quests will keep you busy, and the ever-changing plot takes on a few new meanings every time you play.

There are one or two slight niggles I found with the game. Like I mentioned above, the GF's look pretty damn nice. But trust me - you'll be grinding your teeth when you're forced to watch Shiva do her thing for the millionth time. Couldn't there have been a "skip animation" option or something?

And then there's the music. Some tracks (like the intro track and the title song "Eyes On Me") are well written and enjoyable. Others (such as the world map music) make you want to turn your speakers off. Not quite up to Square standards, IMHO.

Finally, there's the baddie. Oh, I'll grant that there's nothing *wrong* her as such. It's just that she seems a little *boring* after the great fruitcake that Sephiroth was in FFVII. :)

Final verdict? Yeah, it has a few problems with it. But you really should buy it, 'cause you can't live without it.

Rating:
Summary: I still cannot BELIEVE how AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL FF8 is....
Review: There is no way I can describe this game perfectly because it was SO awesome and well conceived that I would never be able to think of the words....This game is superior because of it's beautiful FMV's(Full Motion Video), mind-blowing storyline, and this game just makes u love it so much because it TRUELY does grab you and make u want to express your feelings towards the game...The characters just make your emotions soar and you will want to be happy, sad, mad, or whatever happens at that time...in a good way....The graphics have been toned down a little compared to the PSX but that in no way would make me rate this game lower than all 5 stars...PLEASE get this game....because u will want to play once u get your hands on it....and u may never want to stop playin...this is the best game I have EVER played(FF7 is my second best game played)....it is brillant and please do yourself a favor....and get this game.....Let the story begin...

Rating:
Summary: ea is heII
Review: 1.) WHY THIS GAME IS INFERIOR TO PSX VER.

ok, not that i liked the psx version, but i played it, and this verison is far worse. The backgrounds, characters, items, menus, all look like a poverished 3rd world country version of the original. Id bet my life that ea did this to save money : they take the playstation's game, copy it verbatim, and created an illworking limited use playstation emulator. Thats why the graphics are soo bad. id bet my life

2.) why it is a stupid game to begin with a.) control, its obvious squaresoft tryed to create something more like a playable movie than the last ff. the controls and playability are even worse on the computer, and even worse still since ea took about 5 minutes to think the buttons through, and one more thing: CAN I PLEASE GET A MANUAL??!?!?! how the heII am i sposed to know what to do?

3.) ma beef wit EA

there is no email adress to be found on their webpage. i found it unbelievable too but you can go therir know and check. but dont just type ea.com that would be too easy! and dont call them its like 7 dollers a second go look in a rare manual you might have gotten in one game, and see how much it costs. when i finnally got a hold of them online ([e-mail] or something), they washed their hands of responsability and informed me the problem was with drivers. boycot all ea games.

Rating:
Summary: Sets the standard
Review: Folks either love or hate this game, me.. I love it. I don't own a playstation so this was my only chance at playing this game which I'd been champing at the bit for since its release onto the PSX. Then it finally came out.

Every Final Fantasy game is different. They all take place in practically different worlds with different characters (except for a few recurring minor ones) but thet all have the same themes -- love, hope, destiny, and destruction. FFVIII follows the path of Squall, a young trainee trying to join SeeD, an elite mercenary fighting force.

The magic system is a bit difficult to master at first, but they help you as much as possible along the way and if it ever gets confusing you can always let the computer manage it for you. Spells no longer cost 'mana', and instead you simply draw a limited supply of them from points on the map or from monsters. New weapons are no longer purchased, but instead existing ones are upgrated with items you earn after battles or by stealing them from monsters.

My first impressions were that the polygon models looked a bit odd, and the characters were all very stereotyped. Squall was the grumpy quiet type, Zell was a hothead, Rinoa was the vunerable chick, Quistis was the bookworm, Irvine was the sentementalist, and Selphie was the ditz. But as I played through I found that the game only made me think that on the outside. These characters had desires, they had dreams, loves, and hidden secrets that made them what they were.

The game drew me in like a moth to a bulb. I wanted to find out what was going to happen next! I wanted my heros to win! I scrabbled along the numerous sub-quests and attacked every new plot thread that showed up.

Fourty hours or so later I finally emerged viceorious... and I wanted to play it again!

Rating:
Summary: best game ever
Review: I finished the game for the first time three days ago, and I am starting the second time. This game is the best game I have ever played. You just want to win more GFs to enjoy the Graphics. No other game competes with the graphics of this game. It's true that this game is not very challenging, but it's the most fun to play. It took me about 50 hours to finish it the first time, but I missed some weapons. The secon time will take me at least 10 more hours.

Rating:
Summary: FINAL FANTASY VIII Rules!
Review: Welldone once again squaresoft for this great game.The graphics are so amazing and the CG videos are so hot you think its real. Wicked storyline and .....wait cant say no more you gotta get this game.

Rating:
Summary: Suffers from the basic sequel mediocrity
Review: The story line on this game is extremely boring and unimaginative. To top it off, they changed (for the worse) the best features of FFVII. For instance, magic has been completely redone, in a horrible, horrible way. The graphics ARE amazing though, so if all you want is eye candy, then this is the title for you!

Rating:
Summary: Tedious Gameplay
Review: If you like to spend hours equipping magic, Guardian Forces, and with that Junctioning System... this is your game.

The dependency on Guardian Forces is annoying. I'll admit they have stunning graphics but it doesn't make up for the fact that you always have to use them and there is no option to skip the long animation sequences; they are well done, as I said, but it becomes repetitive after watching Shiva coat everything in ice for the 2,348th time!

Another down-side is the high-res characters on the low-res, PSX backgrounds. It is superb watching Squall preform a limit break on a truly magnificent looking foe... but wait! There's a pixel the size of Texas blocking his way! Wait... that's supposed to be a rock.

The FMV's are fluid and life-like with special attention to detail such as the reflections on the dance floor. Animé style hair and faces give it that Final Fantasy touch that we know and love.

The Storyline, though linear, is deep and involving as all Final Fantasies are.

All in all, it is a game just barely fit to hold the Final Fantasy title. But, of course, that's only my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Akward Balance...
Review: When I first got this game I was sooooo happy! I saw the opening sequence...I fell in love! ...Then I saw the in game character graphics.

In Game Character Graphics: *cough* Um, they looked horrible. Bad coloration, texture, and facial expressions. In FF7 the in game characters may have been in 'chibi' form, but at least they looked sleek!

Speed: The game was sluggish as anything until I got a new 3D accelerator and 16MB Graphics Card. Without them, gameplay (particularly the world map) was unbearably slow. Even after getting everything 'upgraded' the game would get slow within an hour (as opposed to FF7's ability to hold strong for about 8 hours).

Music: My sound card handled the music perfectly, as it did for FF7. Maybe I'm special or something, but the *quality* of the sound was never a problem. But then, not everyone has techie psychos for fathers... If you already have great speakers and a wonderful sound card but the quality is still crappy, I have two words for you: 'Sub Woofer'. The actual score...was for about fifty percent of the time, boring. I liked the themes with the Latin in them, those were extremely nice. I liked 'Man with the Machine Gun', Laguna's fighting theme. But the rest of it I ended up turning my speakers down. Also, another note, I believe it was the theme played in the town 'Timber', listen to the first few notes. Then recall Aeris' (from FF7) theme. Now speed it up and change around the instruments, et viola! The Timber theme!

CG Sequences: The 'video' scenes were absolutely beautiful. The effects and camera angles were well chosen. I won't say much more on it, seeing as basically all of the other reviews here have told you enough.

Character Developement: Squall- Cold. Stays cold for most of the game. Then he decides he likes a certain girl. He then doesn't proceed to warm up, no, no, he turns into a confused idiot.

Rinoa- Cute, sweet, classic damsel in distress. Why did she have to be one of the characters they decided to really develope? One of the others (oh say Quistis) would have been better suited.

Quistis- Good premise. Probably has the best character design graphically. Utterly wooden.

Zell- Annoying.

Irvine- He had a good start. The egotistical ladies' man with a self esteem problem. Then after we discover this, it's dropped.

Selphie- Bratty.

Seifer- Do NOT get me started on him. 'Oooh, I'm class bully. Oooh, I've deffected over to the side of evil for some unexplained reason. Oooh, wait a sec, I've always wanted to be a sorceress' knight! Oooh, but wait, I didn't want to do this in the first place so I think that at the end of the third disk I'll hop off of my pedistal and be left 'unfinished'... Oooh, wait, they put me in the ending, I feel so resolved now!' Translation: I vote for sending Sephiroth after him...

Plot: Ah...oh, yes, between all of the pointless cut scenes and excessive random encounters there WAS a plot! My, I'd almost forgotten. Nice plot. In disks one and two it moves waaay too slowly. Then in 3 and 4 it moves waaay too quickly! Also, what's with that 'Lunar Cry' thing? We hear about it, we see it happen... And? And! That's it. We don't deal with it, we don't resolve it...it just happens. Jeez, to think that in FF7, the simple concept of a huge meteor coming and destroying the planet was much more intimidating and developed than the complex idea of a sorceress controlling another sorceress to wake up another sorceress so that she can summon a bunch of monsters off of the moon...is just frightening! (You know, my teachers have always told me I make run on sentances too often...you may want to read that one over again.)

Another Note: In the middle of disk two, after having abandoned my game and nearly completed another FF7 game, I discovered a marvelous thing called 'Game Hack' (insert evil grin). I maxed out everyone's stats (except for Rinoa's...call it revenge...) but kept their levels at 48. I finished the game in 27 hours. I normally don't like to cheat, I'd never do it to FF7, but this game really tried my patience!

Thank you and good day.