Takes time and given the dedication, the reward is great! Squall is almost me with a few exceptions!
My first final fantasy title in the series was final fantasy 6. Then i finished 4 and lastly 5. And i am yet to finish this one as well part 8 and 9 in the series.
GRAPHICS = Fine graphics has been the important part of the final fantasy series and this is no exception. When i first got the pc demo, i was shocked to see the graphics of the game, especially the summon animations. But i got the biggest shock by watching the dance in that demo. Thats due to the fact that until that demo, i never had seen any such fmv nor i had any console other 8 and 16 bit to play and the pc was fairly new to me. The graphics are great. Character portraits are done nicely and summon animations are great. The beautiful part here is the in-battle graphics, all the monsters are done well and all the skills are shown with tremendous high quality, an example is the Squall's limit breaks. Backgrounds are pre-rendered and the dungeaons are both beautiful and brings the environment alive. Overall the graphics are really good and almost as good as timeless.
SOUND = I am not completely impressed with the sound here. The fact that the battle theme feel quite repeated due the extreme amount of random battles and also the fact that most of the music is not of that standard as what most people would expect it to be. Like the graphics, the sound is also a very important part of the final fantasy series. The world map theme is ok, some background themes are fine, but nothing really above average. But due to the fact that the sound effects are done well and also some background music is great it just manages to be above average. Overall the sound is good but not that great, with the exceptions of a few good themes.
STORY = The fact is that the story is definetly boring and confusing for most of the time. The story is one of the most important part for any game (which came to my knowledge recently after playing some of final fantasy 9), and due to the boredom and confuse factor here it gets difficult to deal, but thankfully there is a romance factor which saves it from being bad. The boring dream sequences gets on my nerves as each time i am forced to play as laguna i feel more and more frustated, eventhough its an important part of the story it does not help it but rather makes it more boring. However there is nice romance between the hero and another character added to the story. And the fact that the characters are also somewhat well developed and they too carry their own part of emotions and the fact that the character development if done well saves and hels this story from being boring. However the hero is really unique in this game, and has been shown brilliantly though his emotions and the romance of his is quite touching. Due to the fact that the story is almost new from the typical rpg range it adds a little value to it. Until you get to disc 2 and disc 3 most of the time the story feels boring and confusing. Perhaps after finishing the game i will know better but as of now, due the fact (i use the word fact more) that i am almost like Squall (more mentally and less physically) makes the story look above average. Indeed its not bad. Overall i would like to add that its fine not great.
GAMEPLAY = I first tried it in 2005 or 2006, somehow i left the game after about two hours, due to the fact that i did not liked the draw system nor the fact that in this game enemies level up with you. Now as of 2007, after finally going through two discs, i am through pretty much all the basics of gameplay and its full mechanics. Its still a lot more advanced gameplay then that of what it was in previous titles. Its almost completely changes the gameplay. There is a junction system which will take quite a time to learn and then more time to adjust eventhough its easy, the use of this system is somewhat much more advanced. Eventhough i am in disc 3, i am still learning new facts. So it will take time to master it. You can get a GF (summon characters such as Siren) and then junction it in order to summon that GF in the battle. The battle system is somewhat loosen due to the fact that you can use the summoning repeatedly without the attack usage makes it somewhat summon only battle system where one can feel its a party of summoners. But due to long animations of GF which occurs everytime you summon them makes it boring really fast. But due to the fact that one can find it more easy to use a GF rather then fight makes it a very important factor. There will be many battles where one can find himself summoning GF more often rather then fighting with the attack option. The good point is that the GF also gets to level up with you, whether you use them or not, as long as they are junctioned. So summoning a GF of high level comes quite handy at any given battle and thus its usage is important. But the most important factor for GF is its use in junction system. Since GF has their own abilities to be learned, one can get stat ugrades via junctioning magic (which is to be drawn from enemies) in various stats such as of strength or vitality etc.. and one can also add elemental as well as various stat causing effects on their weapons via junctioning magic which does comes in quite handy. For e.g. i have GF shiva in Gotu(Squall), after the GF has been leveled up to some extent and having learned various abilities, i can junction magic to my stats, such as blizzara magic is junctioned in my strength stat, as well the magic protect is junctioned in my vitality stat, giving me quite some boost in those respected stats. And i also juntioned the magic death on the weapon of selphie (who ahs her own GF siren) which gives her a little chance to add death while hitting an enemy with the attack option. Now the options are quite open-minded meaning range is quite long, and there are lot of experiments to be done, making it a joyful system after some work done on the GF, thus the GF is the most vital part of thej gameplay and battle system.
The enemies would level up with you. Now this factor is not appreciated by me and perhaps most others due to the fact that i like upper hand on the enemies, this really gets quite annoying. Another major change in this games is that there is no longer a need to have armors and accessories. And the enemies no longer give/drop gil after they are defeated. Now this can get some time to adjust, but really its not that hard or confusing to deal with as it may sound since the money is given at regular times as per your performance. So there is almost no shortage of gil and you can easily max out the purchase of potions and stuff quite easily. However the weapons here gets a little more importance then usual since they are the only upgradable items in this game. Rather then buying new weapons, one has to get the necessary items to upgrade the weapons in order to get more strength. This too can get annoying but not that bad as one can think of it.
Overall the battle system as the mechanics of gameplay have changes and there are lots of things to do and also lots of exploration is needed to fully master it and thus it requires a lot of patients in learning it and once the dedication given its gonna reward you well. Gameplay is quite good but needs to get used to and it can get annoying at the start but its great.
Its a great game and since i am playing final fantasy 7 and final fantasy 9 as well, after the comparison so far i think that ff8 is he better of the three of them for the playstation. And i must admit my personal favor is more towards the game due to the fact that i am almost Squall (mentally more then physically), its natural i like the game more due to the hero.
On a /note this is my very second review so please bear with me for my mistakes and also note the fact that i am average at English so bear with my grammar as well. Thanks for reading.