The Never Ending Sequels (Final Fantasy VIII (PS))

Member Name: LastLine

Product:	Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
Date:	22/06/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic story, new gameplay elements, graphical superbness

Disadvantages: Very indepth, not easy for casual gamers

Final Fantasy VIII (or 8 for the rest of us!) The sequel that isn't actually a sequel.

I think it's important to note at this stage that although most of the Final Fantasy games are numerically ordered that they don't form direct sequels in the way that you might expect such as the Halo series, instead each games creates it's own story in it's own world.

*Characters*
The characters vary in each iteration of the game with the heroes being reinvented for each telling.

-Squall-
Squall the hero of this particular game (although his name can be changed) is a troubled young man who is a trainee in one of the 'Garden' military academy's where young want to be's train to become SeeD's (what a SeeD is other than an elite mercenary is not actually revealed. He arms himself with a gunblade, a sword based weapon with a revolver style weapon included that if used correctly by it's wielder can simultaneously slice the opponent and shoot them at the same time. Squall can potentially have a number of love interests throughout the game, but ultimately your 'true' love ends up being Rinoa.

-Rinoa-
Rinoa is somewhat pivotal to the story as a whole so I shan't say too much on her character as it would give a large amount of the plot away but suffice to say that she is very much the heart of the group and is not a part of the Garden and is instead met by the party as the story progresses.

-Quintis-
Quintis is an instructor at the academy who somehow also appears to be a potential love interest for our young hero, she takes him out on his first mission to acquire his 'Guardian Force' and eventually ends up joining his merry band as he journey's across the world.

-Irvine-
Irvine is the team's sharpshooter, always carrying a rifle on him just in case, he comes from a different Garden to Squall and provides a love interest to Selphie.

-Selphie-
Selphie is one of your core group, starting out at Balamb garden along with Squall and Zell, she's a bit of a joker.

-Zell-
Zell is another member of the original trio and is a martial artist by trade and a bit of a hothead at times.

Of course the game has a number of other characters including the villains of the piece which include but are not limited to members of the Garden military forces.

*Gameplay differences*
The game makes some stark differences to older Final Fantasy games. The first is visual,and that is so much as to say that the game uses characters of realistic proportions rather than being cartoon/characature shaped people. Whilst this may seem minimal to most it does make the game see, dare I say it, more realistic.

The game also does away with the old 'summons' system from Final Fantasy VII and introduces the Guardian Force system. The Guardian Force system includes many of your old favourite summon characters such as Shiva and Ifrit but instead makes them a fundamental part of your characters make up. These GF's are bonded to your character (although can be switched between characters) and help provide you with your combat abilities, providing a kind of 'second soul' to your heroes. They can still be summoned to attack the enemy if you wish but this works in a slightly different way again, being summoned to attack as characters in place of your party and eventually being able to perform an attack to previous summons when the chance arises.

Magic also turns away from a MP based system and instead moves to a 'Draw' system whereby you can draw from 'draw points' around the planet. For example drawing at a point may give you '5 firaga' which allows you to cast Firaga five times, after which you will have to find more Firaga. This has benefits and disadvantages but it's worth pointing out that it allows you to prepare more for boss battles and saves having to throw MP restoring items over your team every five minutes.

Limit breaks are now based upon your current health level, with you having a chance of being able to execute your Limit Break (a devestating special move) each turn that your health is under 33% as opposed to the amount of damage you've cumulatively taken, this means that theoretically you can keep your health low and use your Limit Break every turn.

There's also a collectible card game called Triple Triad within the game, this can be taken seriously and played as a massive part of the game, allowing you to collect items and weapons that you would otherwise not have access to, or can be simply done if you want to kill time for a few minutes. This game can also be enhanced by using the 'Card' command in battle which strangely allows you to turn your opponents into cards to use in the Triple Triad game....makes sense right?

*Graphics*
As stated previously the graphics are more realistic than in previous games due to proportions of characters, but it's also fair to point out that both in battle graphics and FMV videos are incredibly sharp given the game is now ten years old.
The world is also incredibly detailed and possesses some highly detailed scenes and settings and it's easy to see why it came on four CD's, something that in the day was quite extraordinary. The mix of science fiction and fantasy that is somewhat of a Final Fantasy tradition is remarkably well done and you find yourself looking at high tech pieces of equipment that you actually don't notice until they're pointed out at you, taking Squall's Gunblade as a prime but not exclusive example.

*Audio*
As with most Final Fantasy games until recently the game does not feature voices for it's characters, partly I suspect due to the wish to allow you to name your characters, but also quite likely due to a capacity size issue of CD's at the time.
The music scores within the game are however nothing short of superb, although they're very traditionally Final Fantasy including several traditional scores reworked they also include some new pieces such as 'Liberi Fatali' which really help set the scene for the story and still give me great pleasure to listen to even today, they're just that good!

The game eventually went Platinum (as have, I believe all PS1 and PS2 Final Fantasy games...) showing it's international success, and although not generally taken as one of the best Final Fantasy games is personally my favourite of the whole lot, and the one I will be playing for years to come I'm sure. If you're a fan of RPG games then pick it up, or alternatively wait to see if it comes for download on the Playstation 3 at some point as Final Fantasy VII has done recently meaning it can be picked up for £7.99 as a download rather than £50 as an ebay purchase, of course that's not to say such a thing will ever actually happen, so if you want a copy don't worry, it'll be money well spent, and remember, you can go out now and get a subpar RPG for £34.99 new, or spend £50 for a high quality one that will give you hours and hours of enjoyment - and remember, the PS3 can still play PS1 games so any Playstation console will let you enjoy this classic from a decade past.

Summary: THE Final Fantasy game, a must own.