Pyro Tempest's FFVIII Review

I really hope that none of you will take any offense to any of my following opinions because that was not my intention or desire. All opinions should be tolerated if not accepted so if you don't agree with mine then TOUGH! Just kidding!!! WARNING: There are spoilers ahead!

Content: 9.5/10.0

Wow, what to say about the content of this Final Fantasy. It was a truly great game! It was a great romance so- being a girl-I loved it. The characters were all very well developed and were not like the static characters of FF7. They were dynamic-or at least Squall was. He changed dramatically as the story progressed.

The plot is very dramatic too. Everything was action packed and there is more than merely one thread of plot floating around in there. There is so much mystery and uncertainty that you might just be surprised when you get to the end.

The characters were really good too. They were all fairly adequately developed but I will admit that some of the side characters won't be as developed as Squall, Rinoa, or some of the more secret side characters who I won't mention for now.

The intense character interaction also helped the plot along and made the characters seem so much more human even though they weren't....you get the idea.

Sound: 10.0/10.0

Nobuo Uematsu made wonderful music in this FF game. I loved all of the songs! They portrayed the exact atmosphere that was present in the scenes. I especially liked the lyrical Eyes on Me and the Landing. Wow-those were some great songs! I'd give it a higher rating, but I can't...oh well...

Graphics:9.0/10.0

Graphics....hmmm...how to rate it....I really liked the FMV's. They were sooo good!!! Especially the dance and beginning trailer scenes. Wow-it was like you were right there with the rest of the characters. That was the FMV graphics though. The battle graphics were really good too. The characters looked far more realistic then they had in the previous games. Their movements were also less robotic and more human. The only graphics that really got me were the regular graphics. The facial features were a bit too scrunched up in my opinion.. But everything else looked great. The characters had a very elegant and exotic look about them that greatly appealed to the eye.

(Webmistress' Note: Why'd you give it such a sad score if you only disliked the scrunched up faces?)

Battle:9.0/10.0

Ohh...that was my least favorite part of the game towards the beginning, but it got better as you get further on into the game. The only bad part that was present in the beginning is the desperate need to draw your magic from the enemies. In this Final Fantasy you can't just buy the magic you need. You have to find an enemy and then see what you want or need. Drawing during the battle is tedious too and makes the battles even more difficult. But once you have drawn all the magic you need then the battle is always fast paced and brutal. It never really gets easier even if you do level up a crap load. So this makes all of the battles long and hard. The only real plus side of the neccesity of drawing magic is the added bonus that you can cast magic through the enemy in order to help yourself heal and whatnot. That way you don't have to waste your own magic resources just to survive. The limits of each character are really good too! Squall's and Zell's can be vicious. Irvine's and Selphie's are too. And Rinoa has some amazing ones. AS for Quistis-her's is the only one that can go over 9,999 on one hit-she has blue magic. Everyone else can too but it takes more that one hit to do it. This does help the battles go by faster-thank goodness too because if you don't have enough patience you aren't going to get very far in the game.

Skill Factor: 9.0/10.0

This game was extremely tedious and hard. You had to constantly fight enemies that had hit points in the high hundred thousands or the millions. That is freaking high especially seeing as the most you can hit with a single non-limit break hit is 9999. Speaking of weapons-it could be hard to upgrade them because you have to find the weapon parts in order to even be able to buy the weapons. And to get an added limit break you have to buy the weapons. That's hard. Combine this with the fact that in order to really boost up your HP, vitality, and all that other shebang you have to junction the magic you draw using your GF skills to a character makes everything far more tedious. In other words- if you're not patient enough to handle this but you still want to see the plot unfold in this awesome tale of modern knights and seducting sorceresses then you might want to find a friend who can beat the game while you sit and watch!!!

(Webmistress' Note: You only said what was really difficult, but not anything that was easy. So why'd you give it a 9.0?)

Overall: 9.0/10.0

I loved this game!! It was so full of tearful romance and epic battles to defend the world's past and future. There are so many interesting plot loops mixed into all of this that you will learn something new each and everytime you play it.

A downside to it, though, is that you do actually have to have patience to play! If you don't have any then drawing will quickly bore you. If you can get past that and get the hang of the junctions then you will greatly enjoy the quick plot and dynamic characters.