An amazing game accompanied by a few flaws...
Final Fantasy 8 is brought by Square, who were responsible for the well known Final Fantasy 7. This is a very delightful game, filled with many amazing FMV cutscenes and a unique style of gameplay that may not adjust well for everyone.
The game is set in a futuristic era, and starts of at a school that introduces the basics of gameplay and all. Soon after the journey starts into a very compelling and heart warming story that's sure to leave you affected even after putting the game down.
However, the game's non traditional leveling up system may be quite the turn off for some, since the main battle system involves junctioning. This removes the traditional MP based magic and focuses on drawing and stocking up on magic from different enemies. It doesn't stop there however, since magic can be junctioned to stats, such as HP or Attack power. This leaves room for many options, but not many players may see it fit to explore all the aspects.
The music, while enjoyable at times, is very repetitive and may leave you frustrated at lack of other interesting tunes.
The graphics are a huge improvement from the previous installment, and while many jaggies may emerge, the environments and characters are still interesting enough to look at. As mentioned before, there are a number of cutscenes that look lovely, even without the much needed dialogue in some aspects.
All in all while Final Fantasy 8 diverged from a few of the staples of rpg and final fantasy, it offers something very interesting instead, and if you have the patience for it, you just might see what's so great about this installment of the Final Fantasy series.