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Final Fantasy 8 System: Playstation Date: 1999 This game took the Final Fantasy series in to new realms of realism with it full size characters and attention to detail. Graphics: This game Graphics are great. The amazingly detail characters along with great looking spells and bosses make this game a pleasure for the eyes. But the artistic originally seen in 7 is lagging in this game mostly do to the realism the game strives for, I mean just look at the fmv! SCORE: 9.5 Music: The FF music curve that peak at 6 then when down a bit for 7 has now took a nose drive for 8. Final Fantasy 8's music is not even up to FF4 standard and that game was made in 1990! Even though the music in this game is not bad (it fairly good) it’s just not up to FF standards. There are far too many filer tracks, and tracks that seem to drag on and on and on... you get the picture. But there are a few gems too. SCORE: 7 Story: The great story of the FF6 and 7 are a thing of the past in this game. While the main character seems like a worse version of Cloud, the other characters are all "Yufies" (terrible FF7 character). All of them are annoying and just make you what to let them die. The main villain in this game is just bad. The sense of adventure and exploration in the non-side quest parts of the game is just not there due to the nature of the story and the jobs the characters are involved in. There are still neat little side stories and subplots to be seen like past Final Fantasy’s. SCORE: 6.5 Gameplay: While Final Fantasy 8's music and story are far weaker than 7's, it's game play is just as good. If there were weapons and armor I think it would top 7's. Sadly in the quest for innovation Square has abandon the standard weapons and armor system use in virtually all RPGs before. Instead characters just have the same basic weapon the entire game, which can be upgraded. This hurts the sense of adventure because there is less to look forward to when going to a new town because all towns have the same upgrade shop. But other than that glaring flaw there is the "Junction System" which allow for lots of customizing and gaining abilities which is quite cool. SCORE: 9+ Innovation: In Square's quest for innovation they have abandon the weapon/armor standard of past RPGs. I guess it was inevitable because 7 only had weapon/armor and accessories. Other than that the only big break though is the realism the game presents. SCORE: 7 Replay: This game is more fun to replay because you can just skip all the boring dialogue by pressing the buttons really fast! As in Final Fantasy's 6 and 7 this game had many side quest and building up possibilities. SCORE: 9 Overall: Another great game in the Final Fantasy series even if flawed. SCORE: 9+ |
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