
Final Fantasy 8 is an RPG by Squaresoft. In this game you play as Squall Lionhart, a young man in a military training school known as Balamb Garden. As you start your adventure you must explore this new enviroment and then graduate out onto your first special operatives mission. You are to protect the city of Dollet from a raid caused by God knows what. When you arrive you realize that something is strangely wrong. You work your way through the town to find a giant mechanical spider and about eight other intense battles waiting for you. This is only the beginning what erupts as the time passes is phenominal. You will work your way through forests, over mountains, across many cities, float through space, and ultimately stop time before this epic adventure comes to a finish. The battle system in this game is un-like all the other Final Fantasy's, and it is disputed weather or not it is for the better or worse. Personally I liked materia better, but what can be done. You collect spells from draw points located around the world. You might draw 20 blizaga spells, which in turns mean that you can cast the spell 20 times without running out. It takes time for the draw points to refill, so you can't sit there and draw spells over and over and over. Sometimes it is a pain that you can't find the spell you want, and the fact you can run out in the middle of battle pisses off almost everyone. Summons spells return in FF8, but they are called Guardian Forces. There are more of them then in FF7, but they have a life of themselves and can get killed, which to put it quite discretely, sucks. You can also attempt to boost the Guardian Forces power, which means they deal more damage, by pressing the square button repeatedly while the summon is being cast. This also sucks, and can give you one hell of a cramp in your thumb, then you lose the battle because your hand is permantly crippled and you can't even push the X button to attack. Overall though it doesn't hurt the game that much. This game packs well over fifty hours of gameplay, so sit down and be ready for a nice long trip into the world of Fantasy.
I gave this game EIGHT stars out of ten. It has a great battle system, but some elements of the story lack reasoning or backround. I do not feel however that this is enough to take away from the overall feel of the game. Sit back and enjoy the ride. |