Yeah!
Written: Jan 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Visuals
Cons: ?
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| js1567's Full Review: Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation 1 |
You won"t find a better RPG on the PSX this year, or any other year. This game has a long, exciting quest with a lot of plot twists, great gameplay, and the finest graphics you"ll see this year on the PSX. This year"s crummy crop of RPGs pales in comparison to this masterpiece. As Square created the best RPG on the PSX in 1998 with Xenogears, it once again takes the crown of best RPG of the year, except this time, on all systems.
At first, the game seems unbalanced due to the strength of the Guardian Forces and it will seem like this for awhile. But in the latter stages of the game, most GF will not do great damage and they will die off from battle. So basically, the game is very easy at the start, and harder at the end, the way it should be. Drawing magic does take up time but so does everything else like building EXP in a console RPG so I won't complain much here. AD&D games like Baldur's Gate are quite fun even without the MP magic system; its not a necessity in a RPG. Neither is the lack of armor and accessories to boost up stats. I mean, what's the difference between equipping a Ribbon to make myself immune to poison when I can junction the poison spell to make myself immune? No difference whatsoever. In talking about earning EXP, you really won't need to do to much walking in circles on the world map to fight for EXP because the monsters in the game are going to be of an equal level to you, just like in FF Tactics. Sure, a Lev. 20 King Tomberry is much stronger than a Lev. 20 Red Bat but at least now you need not worry about having something to kill, there will always be some creature close to your level for you to kill for EXP, and when you get the right GF or upgrades, then you can go kill tougher creatures. The card game is a cool diversion and its quite useful because you need it to get items to upgrade your weapons and other things like that. And, the storyline, which is a must have for a RPG of this magnitude, is excellent, and probably will challenge FFVII for the crown of best story in a RPG with its interesting characters and high, action packed drama.
This game has the finest backgrounds you'll see on any game this year. The game is flawless in the way it moves the characters through a movie scene. The characters in the game are created well and are able to do a variety of things, whether it be spanking a kid on the butt or epicting some emotion. The personality that can be expressed through the animations of the characters is awesome. They were as well rendered as possible considering the limitations of the amount of space available for usage. The spells and GF still look the best, and the movies are of unmatched quality. The quality of the movies are so good that they would have been mistaken for a real movie. If only the FF movie would use this type of animation, now that would be a must see movie.
After completing the entire game and listening through all the tracks, I would have to say this game has some of the best music on the PSX, better than FFVII but not quite as good as Xenogears, which I think has the best soundtrack of any PSX game. FFVII just had too many corny songs, and none of them could even come close to pulling my heart strings. This game doesn't really pull you either, but at least it doesn't have any songs that you would just love to drown out. And, the Sound FX are better in this game. The sounds just explode off the screen, with all the sweet sounds of the ocean waves and the boisterous, noisy atmosphere of city life. Unparalleled realism in its sounds.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
js1567
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Member: R Shen
Location: San Francisco, California
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
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