Final Fantasy 8 Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Love of Gaming blog. Not long after finishing Final Fantasy 7 I dived straight in to Final Fantasy 8, I was eager to create another ABC guide with my eyes next on Final Fantasy 9. 
Final Fantasy 8 was and still is, an incredibly divisive game. There are those that champion it for it's distinctive identity and decided shift from previous games. Then on the other side of the fence, people dislike it for all it's intent and being. It's the proverbial black sheep, if you will. 
Rather than string you along, I will tell you here and now that I straddle between the two lines, there are some impressive and unique elements to Final Fantasy 8, but there is an incredible amount of self indulgence and not entirely thought out designs that mar what could've been a damn near perfect experience. And so, I would like to begin my review with the story, plot and characters. 

STORY

The story is the heart of a JRPG, it's the combustion process inside an engine that moves the piston (the player) downwards, and then with reciprocation we come back for more, over and over, churning onward. Without a good story, a JRPG can be a hollow experience. Playing a game that can average 30+ hours must have a captivating hook to keep you engaged, so the question I ask myself is; does Final Fantasy 8 have a good story? My resounding answer is, yes. It does have a good story, but no matter how great a story may be, much like a joke, it's how you tell it. 
Final Fantasy 8 is ultimately a love story force fed into an interesting, mystical end of world impending plot. The pivotal character is Squall, a Mercenary who is contracted out to a small resistance group led by a young woman called Rinoa. The two instantly clash, Squall is cold, methodical and introspective, opposing Rinoa's warm, spontaneous and social manner. Of course, the tension between them is supposed to be sexually charged, but the dialogue struggles to convey that and they feel more like two people that have zero common ground that all of a sudden, realise they're in love.

Moving the plot along and creating the dramatic set pieces for the cast of Final Fantasy 8 is the Galbadian military and their enigmatic leader Edea, the Sorceress. 
Galbadia is a nearby, aggressive nation that is gradually occupying it's neighboring regions. Ultimately all of their actions are to assist Edea in asserting herself into political power and finding a young woman called Ellone. Edea believes Ellone to have special powers and will go through anyone and anything to find her. 
Edea and furthermore, the lore of the Sorceress is the most interesting subject of Final Fantasy 8. Talking about lore, I like the world building in this game. It's very organic, you don't have to read an annex about terminology and locations, it's not convoluted or incomprehensible like later entries. Things are kept simple, but interesting.

Along with Squall and Rinoa, is Zell, Selphie, Irvine and Quistis. The only other characters to get any real development in the story is Irvine and Selphie, the secondary romance. Only their's is a more charming and natural attraction but sadly gets a minimal amount of exposure in contrast to Squall and Rinoa's. 

As for Zell and Quistis, they're almost forgettable. They seem to be here to round out the playable group. They both play their parts during the first disc, but afterwards they get very little dialogue space and no further character development. Which is a damn shame, Quistis spends most of the first part of the game lusting after Squall, who in return shows little to no affection. Quistis is understandably hurt, there's a lot of interaction between student and instructor in the opening chapters, but as soon as Rinoa comes onto the scene Quistis backs right off and we never hear of her feelings furthermore. It could've been interesting like the Cloud, Tifa and Aeris love triangle, but nothing stands in the way of Squall and Rinoa's burning love.

The secondary cast of Final Fantasy 8 are the most interesting characters, I find the six playable characters very one dimensional and lacking any convincing development. Supporting cast like Seifer are ill treated, considering he is supposed to be Squall's rival and sides with the Sorceress. There isn't enough friction between them. Seifer's motives are subtle and deep, he had such potential for exciting dialogue and interaction but we don't see it. He doesn't even get a half decent part in disc three and is reduced to a plot mechanic, pushing the game into it's final act. He is followed diligently by his comrades Rajin and Fujin, but the game makes no effort to explain or help us understand why this trio are so inextricably linked. They are a trio, just because.

Pacing would have been fine, if it were not for all the self indulgent, self serving dialogue. Squall himself makes up most of the text with his own inner monologues. And it's hammy writing, the sort of thing that occurs when someone in their thirties is trying to emulate the thought process of a emo-like 17 year old. Whiny, self absorbed and self pitying. Some of Squall's thoughts go on for a very long time, and once he realises he is love with Rinoa, the groan inducing dialogue ramps itself up. For a teenager, it must read like poetry. But for a man in his thirties, it's tripe. 
Back to pacing, there are a great deal of set pieces that take you all over the world. The game is more restrictive than say, Final Fantasy 7 that sees you explore every continent in the first disc. I like that Final Fantasy 8 keeps it's cards close to it's chest and gradually introduces to the different parts of the world. In particular, the locales you visit in disc three are exciting, original and organic. I like it when a game keeps it's themes consistent throughout, subverting expectations can be tantalising, but everything must be comprehensible and this game does that well.

Overall, the plot is interesting but the cast is weak. Shallow development and an obsession with teen romance undermines a story about a cataclysmic event, that could see the end of the known world and possible universe. It's not nearly as memorable as Sephiroth's plan for ascension but that's what happens when the focus is off and the characters are forgettable. Final Fantasy 8 struggles to make me care about Squall and co and that ultimately detracts from the whole experience of the game.

 GAMEPLAY

Final Fantasy 8 is the last Final Fantasy for a short while that enforces no class restrictions. More so that it's predecessor, each character is a virtual blank slate. Leveling up plays a smaller role in character prowess, instead your level primarily effects the levels of the enemies you'll fight. In order to improve character statistics and make them stronger you'll have to obtain magic and "junction" that magic to a stat, like strength or magic. In order to junction magic to stats you need to have junctioned a GF, or Guardian Force (previously known as summonings). You also need the GF to have learned the ability that allows you to junction the magic. Sounds complicated? It's not, on the face of it, it may seem so but it actually works very well. 
It's a big improvement into total party customisation, but like it's predecessor, you're not rewarded for assembling three unique fighters. Adaptability and flexibility is king. 

I mentioned previously that you had to junction magic to your stats, in order to obtain magic you have to "draw" it from your enemies. Each spell can be stocked up to 100 times, affording 100 uses. A spell will improve a stat incrementally as you increase your stock of it, up to 100. Also, different spells are better suited to different stats. A simple example is HP; you'll receive a bigger boost to your HP total if you junction Cure to it, than you would if you junction Thunder to it. Conversely, Thunder is better junctioned to your Magic stat than cure. 
Naturally you can expect spells like Haste to give huge boosts to your Speed and Evasion stats. There's very little subtlety in the system, only a few nuances to take into account and that's a matter for the late to end game anyway. Overall it's a very natural and easily understood which spell to use for which stat.

Going back to Guardian Forces, you initially start the game with two, Shiva and Quetzalcoatl. It's not long before you find a third and then several more are obtainable during the events of Disc one. Then several more in Disc 2, with the last GF's obtainable during Disc 3 and even into Disc 4. So they're spread out evenly across the game which is a nice bit of pacing.

Each GF has a list of abilities to learn, the aforementioned junction abilities firstly. But they can also learn abilities such as stat boosts like HP+20%, refine abilities that allow you to obtain magic through item synthesis, unique skills for the party characters to use such as Darkside and Doom. Then lastly there are the GF stat boosts, SumMag+10% and GFHP+10%.
I mentioned the last two stats at the end because I'm about to tell you one of the biggest changes to Final Fantasy 8. No MP. As said, magic is now a per-use item of sorts, so having an MP resource is obsolete. Each GF can be summoned as often as one likes in battle, so to balance out their limitless use, GF's have a HP pool. 

When a player summons a GF in battle, a secondary bar appears over the players original turn bar. When this bar depletes the GF is summoned dealing large damage to the entire enemy group. (or bestowing a buff to the entire party). During this secondary gauge, the GF's HP pool is displayed over the characters. Any damage inflicted against that character drains the GF's HP. When that HP is reduced to zero, the GF is dead and can no longer be summoned until revived, outside of battle I might add.
In practise, GF's are not as useful as you would think. Whilst the damage they inflict in the beginning of the game is impressive, once you are able to junction some decent magic to your Magic or Strength stat, you can easily deal more damage per second, than you could with a GF. Throw in the buff Triple, that allows a character to cast a spell three times and the Guardian Forces are completely outmatched. 
Ultimately, in the end, the GFs are only useful for improving your characters. 

Going back to the Draw mechanic, it's an evil necessity. Other than through item synthesis, Drawing magic is the only way to obtain a full stock of a spell. How many copies of a spell you can draw at once is determined by your Magic stat, you can even fail to draw a spell if your stat is too low. However, you're capped at drawing only 9 copies of a spell at a time, which is really disappointing. This means to fully stock up on one spell, you have to use the Draw command ten times! Needless to say, it's incredibly time consuming and laborious. Most spells you'll want to fully stock for at least three characters, for no other reason than for junctioning spells to stats. 
Fortunately some spells are incredibly easy to stock up on, given a few instances where the game gives you lots of a item you can refine. For instance, defeating the Diablos GF in disc one affords you his card, which you can synthesis into another item you can synthesis for twenty copies of the Demi spell. You'll obtain a hundred of this item, meaning you need never ever draw Demi to restock. It's also a very potent stat boosting spell.

I've talked in great detail about the key mechanics of the combat and stat boosting system, ultimately Final Fantasy 8 is another ATB game. It does play a lot different to it's predecessor, in some good ways. For instance, status effects are in play far more often and most enemies and bosses have several vulnerabilities. It's great to see them make an effort to change things up, however in practise, it's not a deal breaker in battle. You do find yourself casting Esuna often, especially in the endgame. 
Interestingly, Dispel is also a common use spell on both sides. I only ever used the Debarrier spell in Final Fantasy 7, but in Final Fantasy 8, Dispel is a necessity. Many bosses, especially near the end of the game bestow buffs on themselves frequently, like Triple and Regen. If you failed to debuff them you'd be in for some big trouble. 
  
The limit break system makes an immediate return, however this time there is no gradual charge. Instead, when characters HP falls into critical levels they can begin to spam their Limits for as long as they remain in a critical state. The balance being that a single strike will remove that character. Sadly, it's a design rife to abuse. Later into the game you can obtain a very rare spell called Aura that grants the same buff but irrespective of HP, for a short while. 
Limits are by far the most damaging attacks in the entire game. Oddly though, it's character sensitive. Zell, Squall and Irvine all have combo style Limits. With strong magic junctioned to the Strength stat, each of these characters can do a ridiculous amount of damage to a single adversary. 
For example, Zell's limit requires the player to input button combos. Each entry adds to the combo. A timer appears that lasts from anywhere between four and twelve seconds. The quickest inputs I was able to do was .4 of a second. If Zell is able to land each blow at 1000 HP damage, and you can input each command in .4 seconds of a twelve second timer, that's thirty blows. 30,000 HP damage is massive. Even if you're using Triple and your spells can do 9999 damage each (the cap), you're still just short of the mark. Plus, it's much more difficult to get your spells dealing this sort of damage, it's much easier to increase your Strength and let rip with even stronger blows.

Compared to the aforementioned trio, Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa don't stand a chance in the terms of DPS and since Limits are the only thing that separates the characters mechanically, not having a party of Squall, Zell and Irvine isn't just preference, it's detrimental to your overall DPS. 
There are lots of little forms of abuse in Final Fantasy 8. It's very easy to take advantage of lucrative AP spots to farm very early on and just make yourself ungodly invincible. Granted, it'll be at your own detriment of enjoyment, if you're looking for challenge.
The freedom of the Junction is perhaps it's own downfall, in granting the player such unlimited options has only served to make it more difficult to balance the game. Once you enter a certain part of disc 3, the game almost throws out balancing, digs it's heels into the ground and firmly asserts that if you have failed to properly junction your party you will be defeated over and over. The difficulty curve is lacking for the most part, only right at the end will you find yourself up against any real threat. 

GRAPHICS

The polygon models of Final Fantasy 8 far surpass that of Final Fantasy 7. That is undeniable. There is a lot more detail in the models, they look far less deformed and the animations less stiff. That extra level of detail makes Final Fantasy 8 easy on the eyes and visually enjoyable. The pre-rendered environments lack some of the charisma of the previous entry. Some locations can actually feel a little bland. Detail wise, Final Fantasy 8 has more animated pieces in the environments that add to the visual splendor. 
It carries on the tradition of bizarre enemy designs, some of the creatures are really odd against the robots, soldiers and dragons you'll atypically fight. 
The cast look good, great designs and there is more identity in the NPCs, even between towns. I was especially impressed with this extra level of detail which no doubt increased the work for the design team. 
Final Fantasy 8 looks good still, that's undeniable. Save for some resolution quirks that can stretch the pre-rendered sections, it's still a visual treat. Some of my favourite locations in this game include the city Estha, the Fire Cavern and the final dungeon, which is absolutely stunning. Without spoiling things it really upsets the aesthetics of the game, but in a completely great and amazing way. Subverting your expectations and pulling the rug from right out under your feet.

I also like the revamped user interface, the menu is clean and neutral with a grey background. The blue, whilst classic, was always a little in your face, and so I really got on with this UI. 
For the battle system they went for a minimalist theme, you literally see current HP and the ATB gauge. The only other element on the screen is the menu bar that appears once an ATB gauge has filled. Some people may not like it and prefer seeing their total HP, but you do get used to it and you get to know your max HP values just by being in the menus, junctioning magic to stats, so having that information on the screen in front of you all the time isn't really that important. It's a shame to lose the barrier bar, now all you get is a pop up at the top of the screen letting you known when your timed buffs have worn off. Does mean you have to really pay attention, not seeing it could wind up costing you a game over if you miss that "shell has faded" warning, only to then be struck with a powerful magic attack that wipes you out.
Overall, a nice clean user interface that personally, I find refreshing.

SOUND

I'm going to have to say, not my favourite complete soundtrack to a Final Fantasy game, some of the tracks are forgettable, like certain towns or atmospheric tracks. The boss music Force Your Way is an absolute classic though, it's heart pumping adrenaline, pulsing in your ears and gets you worked up and focused in the heat of battle. Such a great track and it's timelessness is proven by the plethora of remixes this track has had since the game's release.
Other memorable tracks to note is the theme from the intro, Vivos Luna Sic, I believe it is called but I'm probably wrong. I also really like the Dollet attack theme, Lunatic Pandora, Man with the Machine Gun and lastly, but oh so not least is the track to the final dungeon. It's amazing, as is the final dungeon and is very original to a Final Fantasy game. It's a piece of music, really, rather than a track. It evolves as it plays on, changing itself through the entirety of it's run time, which I think is about eight or nine minutes. Pretty long for a piece of music in a videogame.
The sound quality of Final Fantasy does surpass FF7, the quality of the sound effects is better. The tracks sound less midi-like, not to be disrespectful to the previous title. You can clearly hear the improvements in this game, less synthesised sounds and a greater variety of instruments used in each piece of music is a pleasant upgrade.

OVERALL

Final Fantasy 8 is never going to be my favourite of the series. The story is held back by a teen inspired, melodramatic love story that's yawn inducing, it bogs down gameplay with repetitive mechanics. It's a shame because the visual and audible improvements belong to a far more refined game. 
There were lots of moments in Final Fantasy 8, especially towards the end where I really felt my endurance tested to continue to play. There is far too much dialogue to get through, I reckon there is twice as much text in Final Fantasy 8 than there is seven, or hell, even nine! Nothing pulls me out of an immersive experience like reading a 17 year old's self pitying thoughts, complete with bed withering. 

I like the junction system, it's a shame it's never been used since in any shape or form and I like the method of powering up using the Summonings, it gave them an additional dimension than just power houses. It also gave us the brilliant Double and Triple spells that I feel are a better way to balance "all" magic, giving the player extra tools for DPS is always a great thing. 
It's worth playing it through to the end, if anything just to see and experience that amazing final dungeon that is so different to any Final Fantasy game that has come before. To give you a little clue about it, it's reminiscent of a haunted house that you have to explore. There is back tracking but it's so worth it. Truly an enjoyable location. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this review and hope my opinions haven't upset or offended anyone. I like to think of myself as a generally unbiased person with an objective mentality when it comes to appraising video games, but I could be blinded to my own faults.

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