Final Fantasy VIII


Gun-WHATTA?!?

What follows are two things:
1. My retro review of Final Fantasy VIII (as of 9/27/02)
2. My article I wrote in defense of FF8

For the eighth successful run of Square's flagship RPG series, they decided to run with a new theme: LOVE. While awfully vague on how this whole theme would affect the game, we soon learned that this love spanned 2 generations and is something the story continually tested. The romantic leads for FF8 are Squall Leonheart (Scarred gunblade toting fella) and Rinoa Heartilly (potential sorceress and user of the STUPIDEST weapon I've ever seen). This was easily one of the more eccentric games in the series thus far when concerned with weapons and limit (or Aura) attacks. The biggest impact was that super deformity was gone (IE: characters remain short squat w/ large heads when seen in the field or in CG) and the in-game characters looked more like they were out of Parasite Eve in that they looked far more like real people. The lends a strong "adult" feel to the game as well as adding a much needed dose of realism. Of course, it does push the line with the school/orphanage that trains kids to become mercenaries...
But in the end, can a quiet, lonely jerk and a childish, simpering twit save the world?!? And more importantly does anyone care? READ ON!!!

Why it sucks: Romance? Psh. That garbage in your grocer's checkout lines would easily be more romantic. As unmasculine as it may seem, I LIKE a good romance. The keyword being "good", of course. This however only begins to even smell like a love story way way wayyyyyy near the end of the entire game! It's almost as if they were all of a sudden IN LOVE. And while on the topic of this "story", the aforementioned "grocery romances" are superior as well. At least they don't make just pathetic use of a "psychic time travel" gimmick with some evil russian woman from the future out to destroy/take over (she can't decide) the world. Fairly lame plot aside, the dialogue can be the most awful thing in the game >_< Zell and Selphie simply NEED the sit down and shut up!!! Zell constantly punches the floor because he frustrated and Selphie is bouncing around like a little kid and talks like one too. I mean... come on... "Booyaka?"
The drastic change of pace from the last game which involved a lot of magic-powered machines that look like they're from the Steam Powered Era is a tad much. You go from a sleek propeller driven airship to a wicked spaceships and space stations?! Wrap your head around THAT!!! Also Laguna gets WAYYY too little screen time. You follow he and his comrades up until he falls in love with Raine and then, bada bing, he's the president of Esthar! Laguna's fight music is far more preferable compared to the normal music you'll hear during Squall's fights.
An amusing side note, when reports started coming in about the game's theme being "love" we also learned that the two main characters were going to be Laguna Loire and Squall Leonhart, so naturally a guy-on-guy affair was imagined and eventually Square put that to rest, but unfortunately they passed up on what could have been an novel idea or two. As opposed to simply Flashing back to Laguna, we could have a whole different game or at least a game with two different perspectives like the resident Evil series having different discs with different games suing the same engine, etc., but square instead chose to have Squall and his friends take occasional trips in Laguna, Ward and Kiros' minds in the past, this was another story oddity regarding Ellone, the mysterious woman who squalls looks up to as his sister (but he can't remember her clearly due to side effects caused by his GF junctions... right >_<). Ellone uses her weird psychic/time powers to take Squall and company in the past to give them perspective the events unfolding before them and for Squall, a clue to the identity of his parents. Next on the bad list is ENCOUNTER RATES!!!! I mean, my god, they happen SO often in FF8 that they actually interrupt my thoughts!!! >_< Thanks goodness for Diablos' Enc-Half and Enc-None, but still... that's crazy. Especially around Esthar near the end of the game.
Nothing else sprouts to mind except more of the bad dialogue and the fact that Squall is a total dick and Rinoa is a bratty little twit who has NO FRICKIN' IDEA what she stupidly got herself into. Since I like neither of the romantic leads, I will gleefully say they were made for eachother. Yay.

What Rules: Wow. I mean, WOW! A game THIS good doesn't come often and few out there really put you to the test like this. If you're not confident of you mettle or have next to no patience I wouldn't recommend this. This is a fairly hardcore game and as such sits in higher or lower regard with different circles.
The junction system allows for special abilities, percentage increases, customized stats. All of which drastically change the playing field. In terms of strategic fun, this was a neat little addition to the game and was incredibly useful provided you figured out what did what when junctioned and stole/drew a substantial amount of it.
If you let the whole future witch thing slide, the story isn't too bad despite the obnoxious characters. The CG and music accompanying the game is just incredible, the cinemas pop up A LOT and some when you least expect it many of which leave you at the edge of your seat!
Considering I've got the bulk of the pros alreadly listed below I'll just jump ahead. ^_^

Overall: FF8 is an epic adventure about growing up, twits, friends, love, twits, monsters and some absurd witch from the future... who has a bizarre accent put into her speech where she talks as if she worked at midway. Would you like some kream in your koffee, kutie? Anyway, the game is long and hard... the first time around. It's a great game with a lot to do, a lot to find and some decent neat additions to the combat.

Final Fantasy VIII
An RPG masterpiece

A superb game that REALLY did not deserve the heat it got from many gamers. Admittedly, FF8 did blow the minds of gamers with the drastic difference of gameplay. Most of the basics were still intact, but some new things were added:


Elementals (AKA Espers, summon monsters, etc.) either discovered, defeated or persuaded in joining your party as something resembling an accessory which raises defense against certain properties, determines what is increased after a level up for the character, allows certain abilities to be used (magic, summon, item, steal, etc.) during battle and can be summoned by the character to which it is equipped. This was somewhat strange because for the first time in the FF series armor was not purchased at all, instead the GF acted as the source of practically all of each character’s power. This power is the JUNCTION SYSTEM… but well get to that later, constant summoning of the GF causes it to grow affectionate towards that character making it “rush” to their aid when summoned. Summoning leaves a character vulnerable until the summon meter depletes entirely making for some interesting challenges in combat. Plus the GF is vulnerable along with the character summoning, thus if the character is attacked then both suffer damage. To avoid this, simply summon like crazy in an area where you can level up… but unlike the previous FFs this has consequences…


Probably the MOST complicated thing about the game. Also the biggest whinefest for those who simply got too frustrated and gave up which caused them to brand it a “bad game”. Junctions allows you to take magic spells, which are counted not by Magic Points as before, but by amounts. As in “Squall has 9 Thundaga” or “Irvine has 2 apocalypse”, but to acquire spells, one must steal them from enemies. The easiest way to gain & drain was to encounter as many enemies as you could and draining them dry, once the enemy has no more dispose of them gain experience and then move on to the next encounter until filling you slots of each spell. Upon gaining so much (or all you can carry, or perhaps all you care to steal because of time constraints or lack of patience.) or any spells for that matter, you can junction spells to certain characteristics of each character which increases their strength according to what was junctioned. This is where it gets kinda complicated, in order to effectively junction one must take into consideration the types of elements the enemies of that area use (Fire, wind, etc.). Once this knowledge is attained, you should move their attack elements to you defense and the opposite of those elements to the attack characteristics of your character. For instance; If you’re facing fire element enemies, equip fire elements to your defense and ice to your attack. What you’re able to junction to, depends entirely upon the level of your GF, its level determines what characteristic changes are open to it. And as its level increases; its range of extra skills and strength of the junction effects increase as well. My preference is to junction 50 to 100 ULTIMAs to Squall’s strength… this causes him to basically kill about anything in one hit. Yay! Junctioning this to his defense would have a similar effect.


Alas, the weapon shops are closed. You are forced to pick up the junk you come across, find a magazine for each month (to get one you hafta travel back in time!!!), then visit a junk shop and select the weapon you desire. This requires much exploring to find the parts to make the best weapons (this is worth it just so ya know.


The enemies are now on the same playing field as you, so leveling all the way to 100 (yes, it goes to 100) means that the next ugly red dragon that turns the corner will be at the same level as you. And lemme tell ya, a level 100 red dragon is one mean %$@&! But it has to be done, I like this as it made the game even more challenging and made every accomplishment feel more worthwhile.


Aura attacks can be seen as limit Breaks gone wild. Each character has a selection of actions that can be done when in Aura mode. Except Squall, his are totally random and of the 4; Lionheart is the most impressive and powerful attack in the game. Different characters need to meet different requirements to attain these attack: Irvine simply needs different bullets, Rinoa’s changes as the game progresses, Zell learns from magazines, Quistis learns from different items. The remaining characters are a different story. Aura inducing items make it convenient especially when in a serious bind.


A very deep and involving card game that allows you to gain the rarest items and find the games deepest secrets.

OVERALL
Like I said, it’s a difficult game. So if you’re not up to it go home :P It’s time consuming, it’s frustrating, it’s LONG, it’s somewhat complicated. Is this a bad thing? This is one of the finest RPGs I’ve ever played and having gone through it nine times already, I’m proof it’s possible. The graphics are superb and the music accompanying the incredible visuals are absolutely breathtaking! It’s a true credit to the FF series and one of my favorite games. Although personally I feel the story was kinda weak in many parts... especially when they bring lame ol' time travel into the mix. Ugh.

While taking things from the old almost completely out of the picture, Square very nearly killed some of the worldwide legion of fans of its flagship RPG series. In retrospect, it strayed so much from the basics making feel almost like a completely different type of game, nothing of what was expected from final fantasy unlike the previous 7 games which built added features, abilities, and such to an already tried and true formula. FF8 blew the lid off of what everyone had expected, jumped to an almost completely science fiction-esque feel as opposed to the FANTASY theme we were so used to and held a far more “adult” feel with no super deformity/chibi characters in the slightest and the most realistic CG and character designs ever to come out of the FF series; it simply was too much change for some people when the junction system was thrown into the picture turning them off like a shattered spotlight. It might have been wise to make it a “Final Fantasy Adventure" rather than the eighth successor to this longstanding series in order to save those who were obviously not ready to move onto another level nor go with the flow. The harsh criticism it received from players totally overwhelmed by FF8 created the inspiration for the most successful yet, FF9 a mix of new with the old in a perfect package. While 8 in itself is an outstanding game, worthy of far better credit (it’s one of the hottest selling video games of all bloody time!). It did go pretty far in changing the entire formula creating a totally new a fresh feel for the game, but it does feel somewhat alien as far as the FF series goes. An awesome game with a different feel, other than that I have no problems with it. Tekyu REALLY likes the spaceship ^_^

Feel differently? Agree completely? Email me
tekyu@hotmail.com