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"A new type of hero."

Written By: H. Adams

Final Fantasy VIII has introduced gamers to a new types of characters. These characters are realistic and have the ability to pull gamers into their story. the main character, Squall, is one of the most complex video game characters I have ever seen. There are so many facets to his personality... he's certainly not one of those charcters that you can judge by their surface appearance or attitude. The story revolves around the changes in Squall's world and how they affect him as a person. This is one of the first games to tackle the issues and psyche of a main character like this. Truly, a great story.

"Great!!!!"

Written By: Brandon Hendricks

I use to have this game a long time ago, twice to be exact, and both times i have loved this game. People say that it has no story line and is nothing like FFVII, well duh the people who made it knew that. I will say this i have enjoyed this game enough to buy it twice, and i love it so much that i am about to buy it for the third time. FFVII is an ok game i am not going to lie RPG games are my utmost favorite but when it comes to the final fantasy series Final Fantasy 8 is by far the best. The graphics far exceed what i was expecting for a regular playstation. People don't like it because you have a lot that you have to do in the game, but if you sit down and actually start to play the game you will not want to stop trust me.

"Awsome history back"

Written By: RPG_fan_tracer

This is a game I've been looking to complete my collection for FF in playstationn. So far it didn't failed to be entretaining and captive as the others have been. It is a must.

"Great game"

Written By: Jon

Over 9 years old, this game is still great. The story, graphics, and gameplay are even better the FF 7 and FF 9. It is a long and exciting game that any fan of rpg's will love.

"Great game, but Rinoa makes me cry."

Written By: L. A. Hash

I still remember the day that I first popped FFVIII into my PSX. I had just gotten the system for Christmas, and I had never played another Final Fantasy game before at the time. Needless to say, I was swept away by the sheer magnitude of this game and instantly became a FF fangirl from that point onward. I loved the game back then, with the exception of some very obvious things that I found incredibly annoying. Now that I have played through FFVIII again, almost a decade later, I can say that I don't enjoy the game nearly as much anymore, but I still think it was a solid installment in the FF series. Perhaps finally getting my hands on the rest of the Final Fantasies set my expectations a little higher. Anyway, here is my review.

Story (7/10): You know what? I liked FF8's story. I liked the serious, realistic atmosphere which was such a deviation from past FF's. To me, it seemed like an interesting change. I loved Sorceress Edea, and enjoyed how the plot developed...for the most part. However, and I say this as an author of fiction, the love story between Squall and Rinoa was HORRIBLY done. My hatred of Rinoa's character aside, it seemed like the game designers didn't even care about realistic character development. Play through the game again, and you will see what I mean. Squall makes little advancement in his character in the first couple disks, yet in the third, he suddenly becomes incredibly gushy over Rinoa. Grr. The poor character development just slaps me in the face every time I play this game. I do understand that this is a video game, but I am one of the few who enjoys playing RPGs for their interesting storylines, and this just insults me.

Characters (4/10): In FF8, you have your typical cast of characters. However, unlike most other FF games, I wasn't able to connect with the characters as much. There were only a few which I really liked. I probably enjoyed Zell's character the most for reasons which I'm sure fans of this game can easily identify with. I actually really liked Selphie as well. I thought she was a hilarious take on the whole "hyperactive girl" role. Squall was...all right. Now, I can't say I was a huge fan of Irvine. But most importantly...RINOA. I know that there are a lot of Rinoa fans out there, but I'm not one of them. In my opinion, she's a helpless princess-type character and is a horrible love interest for Squall. How many times did we save this girl throughout the course of the game? And, most annoyingly, she acts like a royal brat and is overly clingy to Squall. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of the guys I've met can't stand clingy girlfriends. Most of her dialogue makes me want to claw my eyes out. Just...no. Square, please never put a female lead like this in a game again. Terra and Aeris are good examples of female leads who should never be mentioned in the same breath as Rinoa out of respect for their well-designed characters and stories. And here ends my rant, for it could go on forever.

Graphics (7/10): I'm being lenient here, taking into consideration that it was a PSX game. The backgrounds were well-detailed, and the cinematics were gorgeous. I would have liked to see some more attention to detail on the character models, however. I never managed to fall in love with them as I did with the cheesy, blocky characters from FF7. Polygon Cloud was just too cute.

Gameplay (7/10): Not the greatest of the Final Fantasies. I liked being able to customize my characters' stats by junctioning magic, and on my first playthrough, I thought that the whole drawing system was kind of neat. Having played through it again, I now realize how tedious it is to sit in battle drawing magic for 5 minutes just so you can improve your characters' stats. I still love the customization, just not the drawing. GF summons are cool for the first few hours of the game, but eventually you realize how much they slow the game down and it gets to be a bit of a drag. Unfortunately, especially with bosses, you have to sit there boosting your GFs' attacks with the square button, so it's not as if they could just stick a "short summon animation" option in there or something. My aching thumb could say some more about that whole method of powering up abilities, but I'll save it. I did like the whole trigger system for normal attacks, and I thought the pacing between random battles was pretty good (but then again, I just finished FFX).

Music (10/10): Uematsu shines for us once again. The soundtrack is rich with brilliant songs, many of which you'll remember long after you've completed the game. I frequently find myself looking FF8 music up on Youtube to leave as background music while I work on other things. This element may be why I enjoyed this game so much.

Miscellaneous/Extras (9/10): One of the things I enjoy most about FF8 is the sidequests. That may sound stupid, but it's true. There are so many different things to do once you get the Ragnarok on disk 3. Also, unlike many other reviewers here, I liked the card game. I found it addictive and fun, although the Random rule in some areas annoyed me.

Overall: 7.33/10 - This game had great potential, but it fell short in very important ways. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good RPG with some creative twists, but be warned...it's missing some things. Like a good heroine, for instance.