Squaresoft destroys them all
Written: Jan 07 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Gameplay, storyline, graphics
Cons: Finishing and having to wait for the next release
|
|
|
| ColinP's Full Review: Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation 1 |
For Christmas in 1997, there was only one thing I wanted: a Sony Playstation. The reason I wanted it was so I could play a Playstation game that looked far and away greater than any home game I had seen: "Final Fantasy VII." From the day I got it, I played that game pretty well every time I had a free hour or two until I finished it in May of 98. Everything about the game outdistanced what I had seen or what I saw in later games: a great storyline, intelligent gameplay, challenging quests, and beautifully rendered full-motion animation.
Now Square has come out with "Final Fantasy VIII," and once again trounced the PSX world by demonstrating what can be done with the console as long as one is committed to putting in the time and not simply banging out something for a quick buck. You are hooked right from the intro, which shows two minutes of full motion animation demonstrating the incredibly rendering detail the PSX is capable of. You can see single hairs on peoples' heads, feathers floating and dancing, water washing on a shore, all looking almost like actual live action.
"Final Fantasy VIII" (FF8) tells the story of Squall, an 18-year-old student at Balamb Garden, a military academy. Squall is studying to become a member of SeeD, an elite mercenary unit that serves in battles all over the world. Squall keeps himself and his emotions tightly in check, and appears cold to those around him. He is very skilled in the military arts, and the first major event of the game is his SeeD exam.
The characters are rendered in a much more realistic fashion than "Final Fantasy VII," and you can see that a lot of what was first developed by Square in "Parasite Eve" went into FF8. The storyline is extremely sophisticated, displaying an emotional range that beats out many movies, much less video games. There is humor, sadness, love, anger, intrigue and fear. The full motion video is used a great deal, and is beautifully rendered in all instances.
Square is always looking for new ways to combine magic and combat, and in FF8 creates the Guardian Force system. Guardian Forces are powerful beings that ally themselves with the characters through the Junction system, granting them greater powers and abilities. Those used to the Materia and Summon systems from "Final Fantasy VII" will quite frankly have to unlearn everything that they learned in order to understand this new system, because it has very little in common with FF8.
There is no longer any tracking of magic points. Guardian Forces can be summoned at any time, and have the same powerful attacks as Summoned Creatures from FF7. Magic now has to be drawn, either from Draw Points at places in the world or from enemies. The advantages are that you don't find yourself caught out without magic points at a critical juncture, or afraid to use summons because of the magic points they use. The disadvantage is that sometimes you need the use of a spell but are unable to find any draw points in order to get it. Junctioning also allows magic to be junctioned to a characters statistics, raising hit points, strength and other powers, as well as to attacks and defenses, allowing attacks to have a magical impact as well as physical. Special abilities can also be junctioned.
FF8 also introduces a sub-game card Triple Triad, a card game that involves trumping other cards and winning cards from people you play with. These cards can then be changed into important items for use in the game. I would advise learning how to play Triple Triad early and then playing it often, because many important items can be created from cards.
The junctioning system and Triple Triad seem daunting at first, but I advise getting comfortable with them early so that you don't have to think about them later in the game. I would also advise spending a heck of a lot of time doing battles at the beginning of the game. This helps get you familiar with all aspects of FF8, and saves you from a lot of deaths and continues later in the game against bosses.
The only drawback I find in FF8 over FF7 is the change of the Limit Breaks. Limit Breaks are only available in FF8 when a character is reduced to a low level of hit points during combat. Thus, if you are a careful player like myself, always healing your characters, you don't get the opportunity to see Limit Breaks very often, and aren't familiar with how to manipulate them when they do come up. I preferred the Limit Break system in FF7, where you automatically got Limit Breaks based on how much damage you suffered over time, so you got them on a regular basis.
I am still in the process of playing the game, and it should keep me going for quite a while. I am reluctant to actually finish it, because that will mean having to wait until the release of the Playstation 2 and "Final Fantasy IX". Squaresoft is far and aware the best RPG developer for the Sony Playstation, and "Final Fantasy VIII" demonstrates all of the company's strengths: great storyline, complex and engrossing gameplay, challenging quests and beautiful full motion video.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ColinP
|
|
Member: Colin Principe
Location: Derry, NH
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 5 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.