| Title | Final Fantasy VIII |
| Year | 1999 |
| System | PlayStation |
| Developer | Square |
| Publisher | Square |
.jpg)
Final Fantasy VIII is a game I had never played before and I had very little knowledge about it. Despite being released during the "golden era" for Square, it seems to be less popular than the games released before and after it. With that context, I was very excited to play this mystery of a game.
Unfortunately, I felt this game started off on the wrong foot immediately. The opening FMV is a confusing blur that blends a prologue scene (the duel) with previews of FMVs from later in the game (everything else). The game itself then begins with little up-front explanation of what is going on or anyone's motivations. Sometimes this works, but in this case I found myself losing interest in the game very early on. (Who is Galbadia? Are they "evil"? Should I even care?)
Things continue to be only loosely explained as the game progresses. Some plot lines are just dropped without resolution and many plot twists felt absurd. I could rant at length about this, but instead I'll just quickly list the main things that bothered me: Seifer, Squall's impalement, NORG, Squall leading Balamb Garden, everyone's forgotten memories, and Squall's abrupt infatuation with Rinoa. As a whole, the plot just felt disorganized and incohesive. However, that being said, I did actually enjoy the Laguna subplot.
Final Fantasy VIII has several experimental character mechanics. Instead of MP or spell charges, spells are a consumable item in a character's inventory. However, these consumables are not simply bought, they must be either "drawn" (stolen) from monsters in combat or later they can be acquired in a primitive crafting system. In place of conventional equipment, these consumables are "junctioned" (equipped) to character's stats. The junction is more effective if you have a larger quantity of the spell, which discourages actually casting them. While interesting in concept, this made combat extremely tedious to me: if the enemy has a new spell, then I spend 10-15 minutes drawing it until the party is maxed out, otherwise everyone just uses "Attack".
Most enemies in this game are leveled to match your party level. Overall, this did not seem to have much an impact on my playthrough, but the final boss(es) were notably challenging. (Though maybe that's because I tend to overlevel by completing everything.) Since there's not much incentive to level up and combat is tedious, I got heavy use out of "Enc-None" ability to disable random battles.
Sadly, the Triple Triad minigame is probably what I enjoyed most about this game. This card game can be played with most NPCs, so it's always available. There are a variety of rules that can be in effect, and I still don't understand what some of them do! However, it also allows you to break the game early since you can craft certain cards into powerful magic (which can then be junctioned!). I generally tried to avoid acquiring magic early this way to preserve some challenge.
6/10
After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. I was thoroughly disappointed with this game and may have dropped it if I wasn't committed to playing the entire series. The plot is a mess, but I'd probably prefer playing this again over Final Fantasy II.
More Enjoyed
- . . .
- Final Fantasy IV (SNES)
- Final Fantasy III (NES)
- Final Fantasy VIII (PSX)
- Final Fantasy II (NES)
- Final Fantasy (NES)
Less Enjoyed