Final Fantasy VIII

The Good
Final Fantasy 8 is one of those games you are amazed with from beginning to end. No matter what comes, you are simply stunned.

Final Fantasy 8 opens with a beautiful cinematic and a full orchestra playing in the backround. You introduced to the main hero Squall Leonhart (which is kind of ironic because one of his special attacks is called Lionheart) and his rival Seifer Almasy. They look like they are about to kill each other, but they are only training. As it turns out, Squall gets injured in the fight, and he is admitted the doctor in his college for mercenaries-in-training. Squall is approached by his instructor Quistis. It turns out Squall was supposed to take his final exam to become a member of SeeD (Yes SeeD is spelled like that). You are introduced to Balamb Garden and all of its facilities. The music in the backround is all nice and calm and it makes you enjoy what you need to do. Soon after that, you head off to pass your exam and guess what? You get to fight a big monster to pass! Colleges are getting so complicated these days....

Anyway, soon after you become a SeeD, you are introduced to a cast of characters for a mission, but you uncover a darker, more powerful force. It's no laughing matter and our hero doesn't care! This is one of the things that actually amazes me. No matter what the situation is, Squall doesn't care. He just cares about what he is told to do. He sometimes gets into hilarious confrontations with people and the comedy usually works. Squall is always in a situation that he really never asked for. That's what makes this game so fun.

The game has 4 discs in it and it is one long adventure. It takes you to places you never expected to be at all. A thing that amazes me is how the game is pretty hard. You get into fights and you may need to run or you will die. The enemies are all interesting and they are very exotic. You may even get to fight enemies so they will become your allies. Very cool.

The game has a system called the "Junction System" where you can equip magic. This is a first into the Final Fantasy world where MP is not used to do Magic. I found this helpful and much easier. This is also probably the only Final Fantasy game where you don't equip armor. It makes it so there are less problems. Along the way on your adventures, you may encounter and pick up forces called GF's (Guardian Forces). They help alot because you can summon them and they do a great deal of damage. There are many GF's to collect, but you have to look hard for most of them.

Final Fantasy 8 is a really great game for someone who never played Final Fantasy before. Sadly, for those who HAVE played Final Fantasy before Final Fantasy 8, they will have some problems with this one.

The Bad
After I played Final Fantasy 8, I went out and played Final Fantasy 7 and noticed the differences between the two. As I mentioned above, Final Fantasy 8 eliminates the armor equipping and the MP usage. They have been used in all of Final Fantasy. They just took it out so suddenly.

Final Fantasy 8 was just a little too dramatic. It had a romantic story going for it, but they pushed it waaaaaay over the edge. You like it at the beginning, but the next thing you know, the girl learns a strange secret about herself, and she flies off into space.

Which brings me to my next point, Final Fantasy 8 drives you to so many locations for small battles its absolutely strange. At some point in the game, you actually go off into space. Why? I don't remember. This game is so long and confusing I don't have time to recollect everything I saw in the game. In fact, the romance story is just a bit too romantic for a Final Fantasy game.

This is just one of the things I hate about the game. Some of the enemies are so powerful its ludicrous. One enemy in particular, he is sooo strong he is stronger than the last boss! It is absolutely insane. You actually need special items to actually combat this monster.

This may sound stupid after how I just ranted about the difficulty, but the ending boss was actually easy. If you strengthen up one character and do their special attack over and over, you can actually kill the last enemy.

The Bottom Line
Final Fantasy 8 is just an ok game. It is not for Final Fantasy hardcore people.