Playstation - Final FAntasy VIII review

Final Fantasy VIII

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Graphics - 9.5 - In short, Final Fantasy 8 is noticably better looking then the presquel, Final Fantasy 7. This allowed Final Fantasy 8 to take "Best RPG of 1999" by Playstation Magazine and Gamespot. This game, in town, looks high definition because of his pre-rendered backgrounds. I like the still camera angle for prospective. Although the traveling aspect outside looks in low resolution, they can't much improve on Playstation. It's about as good as it got for PSX fans. The cut scenes, although not DVD quality, are in high resolution. As you can tell, Final Fantasy III, VIII, and X are the only Final Fantasy games that exsist in a high tech civilization. There are many enemies in this game and they all have different characteristics. Athough I can't explain why I like some of the characters, I can tell you that these characters are orginal,. Squaresoft has people hired to draw new designs 24/7, and these are some of their creations. Some of them dinosaurs, some of them plant creatures, some of them rapid animals, some of them high tech machines made to look like bosses. In total, there are 4 discs. The first disc is the longest of the four. You start out as an average fighter until Qualist asks you to become a SeeD member. This is where you work as missionaries and do jobs for various people. The first mission was a test. You must fight against a giant robot. The game continues when Squall hooks up with the Princess of Timber, Rinoa. She asks Squall and his team to get the President who turns out to be a boss in decise.

Control - 8.0 Excellent control. Move anywhere in the game and your character goes there too. Squaresoft has used their latest version of the dpad when traveling first used in Final Fantasy 7 and improved it in games like FF8, Chrono Cross, Xegogears and Legend of Mana, to name a few. The battle system, doesn't allow you to run away or retreat, which I don't like in Final Fantasy 8. You can't defend yourself in this game unless a party member knows magic sheilding, which is essential in beating this game.

Sound - 8.0 - above average soundtracks. The game repeats battle scene music over and over a lot. I really don't mind it at all. I think I also happened Chrono Cross too. Athough I particular like the music in the academy. The voice overs in the Full Motion Video are very good. Japanese port I heard was much better. Err, Japanese actors sounded much better in their language then we did in ours.

Fun Factor - 8.5 - Good game. I knew it was a good game, that's why. The games not easy.

Closing Comments - Final Fantasy 8 splits off of the Final Fantasy franchise even more then Final Fantasy 3 did. I hear that you either really not liked Final Fantasy 8 or liked it a lot. One reason that many people did not like Final Fantasy 8 was that it had a simpified battle system. Another could be that it was in a high tech world, not what most Squaresoft fans are use too. While it was great for novice RPG games, like me, it is very boring to the stradegist. This game did not disappoint, it was clear that it sold over a million copies in United States, and over 3 million in Japan. It is true that in some ways Squaresoft out did themselves again and have been doing that for over a decade. We don't notice anymore. One plus Squaresoft did was releasing this game for the PC. Although in many ways, you get what you pay for in the Playstation game, the PC version does allow the game to run in high resolution, which I think is kinda cool. I don't think that the PC version has as much precision like the Playstation version. (posed April 04, 2003)