"Laguna, Laguna!" Squall: "But I look nothing like Laguna."
Written: May 16 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Decent graphics. Interesting storyline.
Cons: Junction System!!!
The Bottom Line: You'll never realise how much you love MP until you play this game!
|
|
|
| hhgbh's Full Review: Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation 1 |
Final Fantasy 8. Out of all the final fantasy games, I am sorry to say that this is my least favorite. It's not the storyline - I found it interesting albeit a little confusing. It's not the characters - though I must say the character development is a tad weak. It's the gameplay or, to be more precise, the damn junction system!
Okay, let's do this in order. I'll start with the story. You start off the game as Squall. He's a member of SeeD, a mercenary unit that can be hired for support during times of war. (Most of which are only in their teens!) Right now, Squall is still in training at one of
SeeD's 'Gardens', that's kind of like a school where they learn fighting and mission skills.
Before the actual start of the game, you see this pretty cool cut-scene where Squall is having a 'training' match against his classmate and rival, Seifer. The two boys fight each other with gunblades (swords with guns attached to them, in case you didn't figure that out from the name)and manage to give each other matching scars. Anyway, after apparently losing that little scuffle, Squall wakes up in the infirmary, where he is greeted by his instructor, Quistis.
The first mission of the game introduces what is to be a key concept in both the gameplay and story. In order to pass a test, Squall has to aqquire his own Gaurdian Force, or GF. (That's this game's name for summoning demon.) The GF in question is Ifrit, who unfortunately is not the most co-operative of demons and will only join Squall if he beats him in a fight. (And you thought your school exams were tough!)
Of course, there's a lot more to the story than that. The plot involves a fight against an evil sorceress and Squall and his collegues having someone else's flashbacks! But this is a good a time as any to explain the junction system, and why the guy who thought it up had better pray I never meet him on the street!
Okay, your characters level up normally via battle experiance and equipment, but if you want to get them to serious levels, you have to use the junction system. This is where the GF's come in. The GF's not only allow you to summon them, but raise certain stats in your characters. What's wrong with that, you say? What's wrong is that the game uses your magic to raise your stats, meaning if you have a spell attached to, say your HP, every time you use that spell you lower your HP.
And while we're on the subject of magic, there is no MP in the game. Also, your characters can't learn magic spells. If you want to use them, you'll have to draw them either out of draw points or out of enemies. This means you waste time during battle getting maybe 5 sleep spells and, should you actually get some decent spells, once you've used them up, you'll have to draw again before you can use them. Hopefully you'll understand now why I hate the junction system. But the game does have it's good points.
There are parts of the gameplay that don't involve turn-based fighting, like sneaking on a train to capture a corrupted president, while avoiding the guards or duking it out, knock your block off style, with a bad guy on an out of control floating... thing.
The characters are likable and have differing personalities, but, except for Squall and Rinoa, there isn't really much in the way of character development. There's a side story involving a guy named Laguna that actually has better character development than the one involving the six main characters. Squall, Rinoa and Laguna seem to be the only ones that are actually important to the story. The others are really just there to fill out the party.
Graphic-wise, this game isn't half bad. The in-game graphics aren't as blocky as FF7, though they do look a bit grainy at times. The cut-scenes are brilliantly animated. The scene I liked in particular was when Squall and Rinoa first meet and Squall gets dragged onto the dance floor.
The game has a pretty decent soundtrack, though nothing that really stood out for me.
Overall, I'm afraid I have to give this game a 2/5. The storyline is interesting and the graphics are quite decent. But it's overall lack of character development and, in my opinion, badly designed gameplay mean this is one game I can't recommend. Of course, there's always a chance that you'll enjoy it much more than I did, but I found it to be too much work and not enough reward.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hhgbh
|
|
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.