Final Fantasy VIII

aka: FF8, FFVIII, Finalnaja Fantazija 8, Zui Zhong Huanxiang 8
Moby ID: 1149
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Description official descriptions

Squall Leonhart is a young man in training to become of member of SeeD - a mercenary organization and the goal of all young students in Balamb Garden. Squall is not a particularly friendly guy and has troubles with his fellow students and teachers. On the eve of his graduation hostilities break out between the city-states of Galbadia and Dollet. As their final test, Squall and three other students are sent on a mission to assist in the fight against Galbadia. In the process they discover that there are other characters pulling strings from behind the stage, and eventually uncover a mystery that involves two decades of secrets hidden both from the world and from themselves.

Final Fantasy VIII is set in a "retro" environment reminiscent in some ways of the 1960's, with a few sci-fi and plenty of supernatural elements mixed in. The basic system resembles those of its predecessors: the player navigates a party of characters over a world map, accessing various locations and fighting randomly appearing enemies in turn-based combat of the series' trademark ATB (active time battle) variety. However, character development system has been re-designed.

Player-controlled characters in the game have no defined character classes. They can be customized by equipping magic spells, which can be "drawn" from enemies in battles. When used in combat, spells act like expendable items; there are no MP (magic points) in the game. When equipped, they act like armor, raising or lowering character parameters, including resistances to various kinds of magic (elemental, status-changing, etc.).

Monster summons (called Guardian Forces in the game) play a very important role in the customization process. They can be "junctioned" to to the characters, acquire ability points (AP) earned from battles along with experience, learn and "teach" characters new abilities, and can also be summoned in battles. Each character can also execute unique powerful attacks or support actions when his or her hit points are low. Many of these attacks require the player to press specific buttons at the right moment to increase their power.

New weapons are constructed by collecting materials and bringing them to a blacksmith. The player does not acquire money from random enemies, but instead receives paychecks over time based on the player character's SeeD rank. This rank increases when the characters defeat enemies in battles without summoning Guardian Forces; when the player takes SeeD tests within the game; or, occasionally, when the player chooses a correspondent action or decision for the protagonist during some of the missions. Payments are regular and are calculated by the amount of steps the characters make.

Visually, the game resembles its predecessor, featuring 3D graphics for battles and world map exploration, and pre-rendered backgrounds for individual locations. The game's 3D character models are realistically proportioned (as opposed to the "super-deformed" character graphics of the previous game), and the influence of anime art is less noticeable.

Like the previous installment, Final Fantasy VIII features several mini-games, the most prominent of which is the card game Triple Triad. Cards can be won in matches or acquired through side quests or by transforming enemy monsters. Many characters in the game can be challenged to a game of Triple Triad, so it is always possible to take a break from saving the world to play cards with the locals.

Spellings

  • Финальная Фантазия 8 - Russian spelling
  • ファイナルファンタジーVIII - Japanese spelling
  • 太空戰士 8 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 最终幻想8 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation version)

113 People (107 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Director
Music
Main Programmer
Battle System Designer
Character Design / Battle Visual Director
Art Director
Scenario Writer
Image Ilustration
Movie Director
Movie Character Director
Character Modeling Director
Real-Time Polygon Director
Battle Effect Director
Motion Director
Card Game Director / Battle Camera Director
Lead Field Designer
Event Script Programmer
Battle Programmer
Event Director
Map Director
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 68 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 345 ratings with 26 reviews)

My review of FF8

The Good
Final Fanstasy 8 is one of the games I enjoyed the most. First of all I wanna congratulate the producers for the amazing graphics they were able to create, the GFs are beautiful and the CG scenes are astonishing. Moreover the design of the characters (in the battle or in the field) are much, much better than in the FF7, which had those ridiculous tiny characters, even in some of the CG scenes. The fact that you can link magic to your status is a really good idea and the GF system is also great, you create a relation between each character and the GF, for example in my game Shiva is always junctioned to Rinoa, Ifrit is always junctioned to Squall and Quezacotl with Zell, for some reason I feel comfortable.

The Bad
Unfortunately some vital points makes this game be off the '10 best of all times' list: -Being able to get the Ragnarok only at the middle of the third cd is ridiculous, until then you have to drive that slow and huge thing, which is not attractive at all. -Using magic is worthless, the gf and limits damage much more. The magic is useful to increase defense or attack against a specified element. -There's a huge level gap between Squall and the other members for he is never out of the party, this is a critic I already had when I played FF7, you must be able to form the party the way you want, leaving behind this boring 'main character thing'. -Not so many characters to play with. In FF7 we had something like 10 or 9 different characters to choose in order to form a party.

The Bottom Line
To the readers,

I've read and heard a lot of bad critics about FF8 not being as good as the others so here comes my opinion: FF8 is a game for people older than the ones that played FF7, the storyline is as good as the one in FF7, the sounds are ok and the graphics are much better. I don't know which one to choose between FF7 and FF8 but I think I would prefer to do what I'm doing...Playing both!

Windows · by Pablo Motta (1) · 2008

One of the best RPGs of the PlayStation. Everyone has their own opinion, but most (not all) who hate this game are just over-the-top!

The Good
Almost everything was great. The graphics are CRAP - YES CRAP! Happy now Final Fantasy 8 haters? But, consider this; Final Fantasy 8 had the best graphics at the time on the PlayStation, especially compared with other RPG titles what had blocks for limbs (Final Fantasy 7) and is thus CRAP, but super FANTASTIC compared to other titles of the time. The music was fantastic. Simply fantastic. And i've got real proof of that - the game's theme tune "Eyes On Me" is currently the second-best ever video-game music released in Japan to date! (source: Wikipedia). The plot is extensive, with great back-story, history, plot and character development. The card game is possibly the best mini game on the for the early PlayStation, and the Full motion movies were just lovely. Even if you don't like the game, you just have to admit the movie quality was awesome, especially for PlayStation 1 titles. However, the PC graphics for this game are very ugly, and repetitive of play and stay away - stick with the original PlayStation version! In my opinion, the music (which I just adore) and plot are the highlights of this game.

The Bad
Of course, hardly anyone liked the new Junction system, which was just plain stupid and hard to understand, even with help of the tutorial. The "chocobo world" minigame was included in the game, but no way to access it due to the Pocket Station device never being released out of Japan, and the over-world graphics. In Final Fantasy 7, towns looked smooth and sleak, but Final Fantasy 8 has locations that look like weird-looking lego blocks when viewed from the map. This is quite ironic, considering that Final Fantasy 7 was the one that, despite having detailed towns, had "block" limbs - whilst Final Fantasy had detailed limbs, but now "block" towns.

The Bottom Line
In a sense, Final Fantasy 8 is like marmalade - either you love it forever, or hate it. Simple. Due to the low availability of this game today, you've simply missed the opportunity to decide if the answer was "hate" or "love". No doubt most people hate Final Fantasy 8, but it's just misunderstood (listen to me, I'm acting like if this game was a person!) and terribly under-rated. If you have the opportunity to play, have a go, but don't bother running around hoping to find it in stores. If you're in the mood for a RPG, you're probably better off with Final Fantasy 10 (rated game of the year once for the PlayStation 2, and hardly any haters for that game!) or the upcoming Final Fantasy 12 (one of the legendary few considered "perfect" by the Famitsu magazine).

PlayStation · by Reborn_Demon (127) · 2006

Like any true work of art...It only gets better with age.

The Good
First off...anyone who watches the intro to this game will be hooked.

The combination of the groundbreaking (for 1999) cgi effects and Nobuo Uematsu's intense score creates a cinematic experience that was unmatched in it's day. Even today, with 6 years of hardware and software evolution, few games can match the passion, excitement and mystery inherent in the INTRO of this game.

When the game actually begins, you are thrust into the role of Squall Lionhart, one of the most complex characters ever to appear in a video game. Squall is training to become a mercenary at an elite academy, and the story is centered on him and the group of soldiers that he leads. Squall is a pretty deep guy, with the type of complex personality that is more common in novels than in video games. On the surface he is a pretty uncaring dude, but as the game progresses you find out that most of his affect is due to a pretty crummy childhood (i.e. the boy has some abandonment issues to say the least.)

In fact the characterization inherent in this game is actually, for me, one of the best features of this game. Unlike FF-7 (or 5, or 3, or 1...what is it with these odd numbered FF games....) the characters in this game have real motivations, fears, etc. they are not interchangeable cardboard cut-outs. To put it simply, each character in the game has a reason to be the way they are, and the game delves into each character's psyche enough to make them all three dimensional characters. This is truly a character driven game, which is a bit of a departure from games like FF-7.

Another great feature of this game is the Junction system. This tends to be a "love it or leave it" feature of the game, and as a veteran of EVERY Final Fantasy game (except XI) I would have to say it lives up the expectations of fans of the series. The system if flexible, and powerful, without ever being too munchkin-y. It also tends to be the type of system that is really re-playable, since you can drastically alter stat progression and power levels for your characters when you know how to really use the system. Granted, some people will not like the junction system at first glance (I have a buddy who's a FF fanatic who WILL NOT play this game because of it) but I assure that when you spend some time with it you will find that it is one of the most flexible systems within the FF family of games.

Another feature that I really like is the fact that money is not as important in this game as in most RPGs, and monsters don't drop gil when they die. Money is normally only gained through your paycheck from SEED (the mercenary company your team works for.) Personally I feel that this adds a bit of needed realism to the standard RPG formula, I know that complaining about realism in a game populated with man-eating, magic-using monsters is kinda silly, but it's one of those RPG-isms that tends to bug me. (I mean where do these monsters get all their cash....stealing lunch money from school kids?) Instead, money is only used for things that tend to be "extras", like healing items, and car rentals.

Another great feature of this game is the Triple Triad card game. Your character can play this game against NPCs and build up a collection of rare cards that can be modded into rare items. If you delve into Triple Triad, you will find yourself ahead of the curve quite often in this game, as you will have access to spells and weapons that you would normally have to wait to get.

In closing I would have to say, this is a BIG game, bigger than FF-7. That being said though, it tends to be a bit more quaint than 7 in it's general scale, most of the conflict early in the game revolves around inter-city disputes, as opposed to the constant "save the world" vibe of 7. This scale helps center the story on the characters, as opposed to the world, which makes it all the more identifiable.

The Bad
I'm a pretty big fan of this game, so it's fairly hard for me to find points to criticize, but here goes.

I would have to say that the complexities of the junction system is something that took more than one play through to really learn. As this is about a 40 hour game, playing through once just to learn the ins and outs of the junction system is an investment of time that some people just will not make. While I like the system, I would have to say that more documentation on it from Square would have been nice. Granted, now you can just grab a FAQ and learn it, but still, a couple of extra pages in the manual or a better tutorial would have been nice.

Another feature that I do not really like it the in-game tutorial system. On your first playthrough it's essential, as it explains processes that are not examined in the game manual. On your second and subsequent playthroughs it can be a bit of a time waster, I really think it would have been nice it Square would give you the option of turning the tutorials off.

I guess the last thing I will mention is that, on my first playthrough, the lack of armor and the weapon modification system kinda bothered me. Granted once I learned the system better (i.e. your Strength stat determines how much damage you do with physical attacks; Vitality reduces physical damage like armor) I never had a problem again, but it's worth mentioning.

The Bottom Line
An essential part of the Final Fantasy series of games. If you haven't played it you should.

PlayStation · by Edward Beezy (27) · 2005

[ View all 26 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Game with downloadable sounds soundbank MerlynKing Oct 24, 2016
A question-spoilers! GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) Apr 24, 2011
OMG!!! TEH DEVIL!!! The Fabulous King (1332) Jul 24, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PS1 version of Final Famtasy VIII appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

  • During production of the game, there were plans to originally call the Rinoa character "Lenore".
  • Parasite Eve was the 'testing ground' for the cinematic graphics used in FFVIII.

Innovations

As of 2013, Final Fantasy VIII is the first and the only Final Fantasy game where the playable characters don't equip any armor.

Music

The music in this game was originally composed and recorded as Dolby Digital 5.1, then "dumbed down" to normal stereo for the actual release. The original DD 5.1 score was rumored to be the one to be used in a PlayStation 2 re-release.

Ratings

When it was first released as a demo, it was rated M for strong language but was later toned down to a T rating.

References

  • Some names of the Guardian Forces (monsters you can summon in Final Fantasy VIII) are taken from mythologies of different nations. Quetzalcoatl is one of the main gods in the mythology of Central America's Indians; Shiva is God in Hinduism (he appears as a feminine incarnation in the game, although he is normally regarded as male); Diabolos is Greek for "devil"; Cerberus is a three-headed dog which guards the gates of Hades in Greek mythology; Siren is a beautiful and dangerous demi-goddess, also from the Greek mythology; Leviathan is Hebrew for "whale", this word is used to describe the sea monster that swallowed the prophet Jonas in Old Testament.
  • The game's most poweful GF is called Eden. This is actually the name of the paradise, "Garden of Eden" (Hebrew "Gan Eden"), from where Adam and Eve were expelled, according to the first book of Moses from the Old Testament. Why is the most powerful GF a garden? Because the universities where the heroes of the game study and train are called gardens. It is logical the most powerful garden is also the most powerful weapon.
  • In Esthar there is a shop called Cloud's Shop, a reference to Final Fantasy VII.
  • You can spot UFOs during battles in four areas of the world. The sightings are used in the 'Pupu card' sidequest, and can only be seen from the second disk onwards.

References to the game

  • In the 2004 Olympics, one of the American synchronized swimming teams chose to use a piece of music from Final Fantasy VIII as their background music . They used the song Liberi Fatali, the game's main theme
  • The game is featured in the movie Charlie's Angels. It's the game the two kids are playing in the scene where Drew Barrymore drops naked from Knox's house. Interestingly enough both kids seem to be playing it at the same time, apparently nobody figured to tell the production team that the game was single-player only.

Summonings

When the game came out, the #1 complaint everyone had was that there was no way of skipping the summoning animations - which were essential for making it through the early stages of the game. The creators claimed this was entirely intentional, and that it was somehow vital to the plot that the players be forced to sit through the same minute-long animations hundreds of times. They never changed it in FFVIII (even the later PC adaptation) but oddly, all subsequent Final Fantasy games with summonings include the option to shorten the animation...

Tech demo

The ballroom dance scene was used as the basis for a PlayStation 2 tech demo, showing that the PS2 was powerful enough to render the scene in real-time.

Version differences

  • The PC version includes a mini-game called Chocobo World. Previously, this was only available with the Japanese PSX version through the Dex Drive.
  • Seifer and Zell, two important characters of Final Fantasy VIII, were renamed to Cifer and Xell, respectively, in the German version, probably because the original names are common German family names and might have possibly offended their innocent bearers.
  • Disc 3 of the Windows version (US release) has a hidden audio track. It contains the song Eyes On Me, sung by Faye Wong. This song was released in Japan as a CD single and was part of the original soundtrack.

  • The original Playstation release included a Chocobo World minigame which required access to a PocketStation, a console that was only released in Japan. Gamers in other territories could only access that by importing a PocketStation from Japan. This was the only way to access some rare items in the game.

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Foxhack, j. jones, NightKid32, Rey Mysterio, Tiago Jacques, YID YANG, WizardX and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • FF-Fan
    A fansite that offers all kinds of information on the entire Final Fantasy franchise, including walkthroughs, game media, discussion boards and fan art.
  • FF8 Hints
    Final Fantasy VIII hints and solutions
  • Final Fantasy Extreme
    Site that contains movies, wallpaper, codes, guides, walkthroughs, and general information on the Final Fantasy series.
  • GameFaqs Files
    Comprehensive links to numerous Final Fantasy VIII files on GameFaqs
  • OC ReMix Game Profile
    Fan remixes of music from Final Fantasy VIII.
  • Wikipedia: Final Fantasy VIII
    Information about Final Fantasy VIII at Wikipedia

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1149
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Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matthew Bailey.

PSP, PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. PS Vita added by GTramp. PlayStation added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Silverblade, DarkDante, DreinIX, —-, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, Lain Crowley, Rik Hideto, FatherJack, 64er.

Game added March 26, 2000. Last modified March 18, 2024.