Final Fantasy VIII is a very divided subject upon gamers; some love it�s complexity, some hate the level of depth they consider pointless, and yet some just hate FF games because they�re retarded.
I am in the first category. With my love of customization, the "junction" system was like all of my little freaky habits wrapped into a little ball of awesome. The junction system, which makes up the core of FFVIII�s battle system, is the main subject of talk in-between fans and haters of the game. The junction system controls your strength, HP, vitality, agility, magic strength and defense, and if I forgot something, throw it in. It even controls resistance to status changes and elemental attacks. But I will acknowledge that you really don�t want to spend that much time and effort customizing virtual people in a virtual game, because a game is supposed to be fun, not an obsession.
As for the story, which really doesn�t pull together until the 3rd disc, it has many twists and turns, and though I didn�t understand it all, it was pretty good. I can�t really say much about it, but trust me it�s cool, and it was worth the 118 hours I sunk into it. Just don�t listen to haters saying there is no story, because there is, even if you can�t understand it. But I will agree that as far as endings go, it has a pretty heavily melodramatic ending, which really disappointed me, though others seem to like it.
The characters are regular for a Final Fantasy game; moody main character, hyperactive chick, quasi-hyperactive muscle guy, rebel chick that�s still fairly prissy, and the lady�s man. But together, they all really flesh out as people. I wouldn�t be surprised to meet somebody like Squall or Riona, becasue they're so realistically portrayed. I found them to have the most depth of any FF character set, and I liked them the most.
I�ll just put the music and graphics in the same paragraph. Music was passable, with nothing that was truly memorable except for a song that occurs when you�re with Squall and Riona on a spaceship hurtling towards the Earth, which seems to be their last moment together. As for graphics, the CG wowed me, though I was unprepared and a little biased (this being my first FF experience). It is truly up there with the greatest CG graphics for the PS1, though FFIX was slightly better. Character models during gameplay were terrible, but the backgrounds were okay.
All in all, I think you should check it out, but in case you hate it, don�t blame me, it�s just my little opinion, struggling in a world of hatred. It�s a good game, on-par with other FF�s, though it has some flaws which may be insignificant to some, yet glaring to others. So the game�s following will remain divided, to fill message boards forever. |
