Final Fantasy VIII (8)

PSX

Squaresoft - 1999

Alright True Believers. Guess who I am. FINAL FANTAYS SUXS!!1!!! sQUALL IS A ANOYING JERK AND THE AMEG IS TAERRIBLE!!!!11!11 WHOEVERLI KES IT SHOULDBE SHOTT!!!1! iF YOU DONT THINK THIS YOU ARE A LoOSER!!!!!!

Alright. Enough people bashing. Now let's go on and bash FF8, but this time, with good reason. Hmm, how to start. Final Fantasy VIII (8) was probably my least favorite game of the series so far. No, I didn't say it was bad. I said it was my least favorite. Well, besides Mystic Quest, but that's a different matter. Do you wish to hear my reasons for this comment? No? Well, I'll tell you anyways. But first, I'll explain why other people didn't like it, in case you've been under a rock, and didn't know.

Final Fantasy 8 probably had the most innovation of any of the FFs. Ff1-3 were basically the same game again, 4 was very innovative for it had actual characters preset with classes, and a strong plot. 5 was basically 4 with a job system. (Not that that is a bad thing.) 6 was heaven-sent, with great characters, preset jobs per character, and a memorable story that everyone knows, (probably due to the fact that it was one of the few rpgs in a rpg craved America). 7 was great for it brought the greatness of 6 into 3-D and due to plugs on MTV it created a "Must-Have" for American audiences who had never thought thrice about rpgs before. Now, the problem with 8, and why everyone and their mother supposedly "hated it," was due to the fact that most of the people who bought 8, then talked about it everywhere, had only 7 to compare to it. Now, in the Playstation world of videogames, due in large part to Capcom and Konami, sequels are the same game with a few inhancements. So the American Playstation crowd was ready for Cloud and the gang to come back, have a few new Materia spells, and resurrect Aeris. But Square, on the other hand, tried some new ideas. Sure they weren't going to bring back the same cast, they never have, but the American Audience was largely based upon people who had only played 7. So they didn't know this. So when Square said, "New Characters," people first had to accept this. Then Square said, "Modern/Fantasy setting." People also had to accept this. Most of the fans who just began with 7 didn't care too much about that, 7 had a Steampunk/Akira setting that worked rather well. But the hardcore fans didn't like this. They noticed the trend of the FFs to go more modern, from 6 being fully steampunk, to 7, now 8 being very modern. They wanted their Fantasies in a medeival setting, like always. So basically, Square lost a lot of support from both sides with these announcements.

But this wasn't going to scare off people from playing the game. Square showed off some more pretty graphics on MTV for the fans, amazing graphics that weren't rivalled anywhere, and people flocked to get the game. Square promised a Cid, Moogles and Chocobos, which held the hardcore fans as well. So now all Square had to do was find a plot and characters.

Here's where I think they had their first downfall. For plot they went and basically found a well-written book. Now, in my opinion, book plots, while great to read, don't translate very well into videogames. Videogames, and rpgs in particular, involve countless hours fighting so that you can master everything. By this time, the player usually forgets exactly what they are doing. Also, 8 didn't really have the same "unite and save the world from the villian" plot. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that, while there was opposing lands fighting, there was never a major villian. First you thought it was that Witch, Edea, but she turns out to be your boss' wife. Then you think it is that other land, whatchamacallit. But it turns out your father runs that land. Then you go to the moon for some reason, find another witch, then fight it, then a random witch appears to fight as the final boss. Terrible plot right there.

But the beauty of the game was that it wasn't about a major plot of villian taking over the world, like 7 was. It was a plot about one man's inability to control emotions, and a woman's help to make him feel human again. Sure, as you played the game, you thought Squall was extremely cool at first, then as he opened up to Rinoa you thought him a wuss. But that was the real quality the game had, it created a character you were supposed tp relate to, then cast him in a crazy adventure, with bizarre flashbacks to confuse the player, and let the player watch as he slowly, very slowly, developed true human feelings. The major problem with this was, 1, that Square didn't inform people about this, so no one was ready for it, as they played the game looking for a cool villian like Sephiroth. 2. Squall was really hard to relate to. Sure, you basically saw the story from his eyes, but you never got enough interior speech, or anything to really help you feel for him.

The game did though have an amazing story, the Squall and Rinoa story. The problem was that this story didn't fit well into an rpg, so the makers threw in a lot of random missions, weird characters, (that thing below Garden.) and a final boss that I never really got why it was there. This would be a perfect world if only Square took the story of 8, and made Final Fantasy the Movie out of it, instead of the story they did use. Playing 8 as an rpg, you were forced to take breaks from playing, and every break made you less sympathetic towards Squall, for you forgot how to relate to him, and his constant "..." could never bring you back to him.

Still, I have not gotten to my personal reason for rating the game so low on my FF scale. Sure, there are the problems with plot, which I have mentioned above, but that's not the main reason. Here it is, full and clear. I do not like games where enemies level with you. I also don't like games with a time limit. I like to take things at my own pace, build up, and completely whoop arse of the enemies in the game. While 8 allows you to do this to some extent, it is much more tricky than the normal gain levels and get stronger than the enemy thing.

8 also contains a few more innovative items that I should account for. Everyone knows about the summons (Guardian Forces if you are picky), that any character can use. Their ability to learn spells it really cool. I think the best summon would be Diablos, due to the no-encounter rate. This allowed for a quick and easy game, with low levels and fun with the plot. What worries me is that no one really realized about the no-encounter thing. Everyone complains the enemies are too hard and all that junk. Dood, you don't ever have to fight enemies. What's hard about that? Just get your summons up levels, with fast calling rate, and bring them on bosses. Then when you can, get some of that Auto-Super whatchamacallit, and unleash Squall's super-dee-dooper special. You know the one. Another thing helpful was that during Squall's attack, you could push a button and he'd hit for more, accounting you push it at the right point. Originating from Mario rpg, this technique is very helpful to keep the person paying attention in an rpg battle. Unfortunately, I never really attacked, so this wasn't too helpful. The "no-magic" draw ability was definately cool. It made you actually find certain enemies, draw from them, and run. It was great that running was so easy to do, as well. I think that's about it. Now for the part people always skip to.

What liked: The story. There were problems with it, but if you paid enough attention, it was great.

What disliked: I hate games where enemies gain levels with you. FFTactics included. I also must say that the other characters in the game had absolutely no character development. It was as if they made Squall and Rinoa, then realized that rpgs need a cast of playable characters, so at the last minute had a great artist make up some cool designs, and wrote a half-arsed story with them all related somehow.

What to expect: Interesting story. Acceptable gameplay as long as you aren't looking for any other Final Fantasy.

What not to expect: Any other Final Fantasy.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It's truly innovative. It's basically a great love story, with a bad rpg put on top.

Ratings on:

Control: 8 - You moved around, you spun the camera, you chose your attack. Nothing special, nothing great. You could click the button for the gunblade, and you could hold select to bump up your summon power, but nothing crazy cool...

Graphics: 9 - Amazing for it's time. the battles look just awful now, due to the fact I'm used to 10, but at the time they were the best ever. Period. I'm still going to say that 9 had better graphics, they were a very different style, so some people liked them, and some didn't. Deal with it Ari. And the ending? Chock it down as prettiest graphics and greatest use of a homevideo camera ever.

Sound: 7 - Great soundtrack. Not as recognizable as 6 or 7, but some of the tracks were great. Eyes on Me is on my playlist right now.

Style: 8 - Tried a lot of new things. Some it failed at, some it succeeded. I think the only thing that was the same was Chocobos and the active time battle system. This made a lot of people angry, but that is what Square is all about doing.

1st hour: 10 - I watched the opening about 10 times straight.

5th hour: 8 - Ok, games fun and all, but I'm not too sure about this Squall fellow.

1st week: 7 - Off and on I'm able to relate to Squall, but homework, friends and other distractions bring me away from him, and man it's hard to make him open up again.

5th week: 8 - After spending a long, long time setting up my characters with junctions so they are pretty much perfect, I now can play the game in full. Hopefully I can catch the plot better this time.

#1 reason why I hate this game: I want to play again, for the plot, but I really don't want to work my characters up so that I can play the game thru and see the plot.

by Hawke