Final Fantasy viii is Squaresoft's 8th Final Fantasy installment. This game came out about a year and a half after Final Fantasy vii did.

STORYLINE

You play as Squall is a soldier who joined SeeD, a sort of special unit who is trained with advanced military fighting tactics. Squall is a student at Balamb Garden, the school for SeeD soldiers. The game revolves around Squall and Rinoa's relationship. Think of this game as sort of an action/romance type movie. This game is deep. 50 hours deep.
To sum up the storyline, Squall and his friends must stop an evil witch from destroying their world, and then they find out that the witch really is not that bad at all. She was just possessed by an evil sorceress whom they must stop. The game's characters also keep on fainting and assume the body of a character who they must find in order to get some clues on what is going on. The game's storyline is clearly the game's strongpoint, as with other Final Fantasy games.

GRAPHICS

Amazing graphics. From the opening intro to the game's ending, you will be surprised at the amount of detail Squaresoft gave into this game. Everything is superbly detailed and believable. The fixed camera angle is also great. It gives the game that movie-type feel.

SOUND

Great music. If you have the money, buy the 4 cd soundtrack at Ebay. Every single track fits the game perfectly. The sound effects are also great. You will notice this when you first hear Leviathan's summoning. The water pouring out of the waterfall is sounds realistic.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is standard turn based and the battle is purely randomized except for certain moments in the game.
Leveling up and drawing magic is also a first. You must draw magic from your oppoenents in the game and junction it with your character in order to make him/her more powerful.
One of the best parts of this game is seeking out summons. The summons look fantastic, but tends to get repetitive when you have used it for the 50th time.

OVERALL

Final Fantasy viii is truly a great game with a great storyline, soundtrack and gameplay. You can now buy this game as Playstation's greatest hits for less than 20 bucks. It's a bargain since this game contains 4 discs.

Recommended: Yes