Final Fantasy VIII is not my favorite Final Fantasy game but it is one of the best ones out there. Some qualities of the
You play as Squall Leonhart, a member of SeeD, a special unit of the Balamb Garden Military academy. Squall is the lone wolf of the group, making him appear selfish to some people. Don’t worry; this changes as the story progresses. Squall is our gunblade expert…or the sword user of the game because we all know that the main character in a FF game must have a sword of some sort. The game starts off with Squall training to be a SeeD, think of it as a soldier. Along the way you will meet different characters like Quistis, Zell, Seifer, and Selphie.
There are a lot of things different in Final Fantasy that can’t be found in previous installments in the series. Take the battle system called the Junction system. It’s a little confusing at first but you’ll get use to it. For the junction system to work, you need to “junction” your character with a Guardian Force, the summons in the game. Once you equip yourself with a GF, your character can equip themselves with certain abilities. One thing to remember, your GF plays out like a regular character, meaning that the GF can level up and learn abilities. The abilities your GFs can learn are ones that will either enhance their abilities or enhance the ability of the character equipped with the GF. Like I said before, your GF can learn different abilities. They can learn Junction abilities (HP-J, Str-J, etc.), Command abilities (Magic, GF, etc), Character abilities (Mug, Str+ 20%, Cover, etc), Party abilities (Alert, Move-Find, etc.), GF abilities (SumMag+20%, GFHP+20%, etc.), and Menu abilities (Haggle, F Mag-RF, etc.). Different GF have different abilities to learn.
Another feature in this game is the Draw ability. Through using the Draw abilities, this always you to “draw” magic from Draw point and enemies. Drawing magic from enemies is how you will learn most of your magic. Not only that, most of the good summons are acquired when you draw from a boss, so use that draw ability constantly! You can easily miss a GF like this.
Like in other Final Fantasy games, you can buy items, potions, soft, etc. However, unlike in previous games, if you want a new weapon, you must synthesis it. You can’t just buy or find a new weapon, you must make it! You need different items, which can be obtain from shops or stolen from monsters.
I must take a moment and talk about the card mini game in Final Fantasy VIII. It’s one of the most addictive mini games ever! At some points in the game, you’ll find yourself playing the card game more than the actual game. And that’s not a bad thing because it turns out that you can turn your cards into useful items and sometimes you can only get a certain item when you refine your cards!
Overall, Final Fantasy VIII is a great game. The graphics are much better than Final Fantasy VII. The music is great but not as awesome as Final Fantasy VII’s music was. Sound is great. Gameplay is excellent just like any other Final Fantasy game. Replay value is excellent as well seeing how you can get addicted to the card game and play several other mini games and optional bosses. Final Fantasy VIII is one FF game that took me a long time to complete. I give it a 9.7 because it was an overall great game but it just didn’t have that special quality that Final Fantasy VII hand to get the 10.