Final Fantasy VIII

The time has come when all your training pays off. Your lifetime goal has been to become a SeeD. You’re almost there, just a few more tests and you’ll be in! You are the best the SeeDs have seen, and with your skills you’re destined to go far. You want to do your utmost to excel above the others. To prove all of your critics wrong. Your are Squall, hero of “Final Fantasy 8”. This new addition to the famous RPG series has yet again proven Squaresoft’s ability to create strong sequels to its earlier products. Though FF8 is just another extension of the original game, each one brings with it new challenges, and new story lines. This eighth iteration lives up to the name with a tremendous variety of gameplay, and advanced battles and tactics.

Final Fantasy 8 begins in one of the world’s “Gardens”. These large floating cities are the main training ground for all of SeeD, an elite mercenary force destined to fight the Sorceress if she appears (or so you are told). You’re at the end of your years of training, and just about to become one of the greatest SeeDs in history. The world as you know it is at war with itself. The Galbadian army is attacking everything it can, in an attempt to take control. They hold many countries under their boot, and rule with an iron fist. Being a mercenary organization, SeeDs are sent all around the world completing contracts for whomever wishes to pay. But above all these things, you’re out to prove your worth and superiority over your archrival Seifer. Your life will conjoin with some of the most pivotal moments in your world’s history. Or you could end up just another slain mercenary. Which will it be?

Throughout the game you will find many people willing to help your cause, and lend their strength to your fight. In the beginning, you have your instructor Quintis as you complete your training. Though she is a very emotional person, she has good strength, and is needed at such a young stage in your character’s development. Next Zell comes into the picture. He is a feisty person, who excels at martial arts for his attacks. Though a little on the odd side he has great strength and is a very beneficial part of any combat team. As time goes on several others arrive on the scene, but you’ll have to play to see :-)

Now the game itself. As I said before FF8 has incredible gameplay that just draws the user in. Battle sequences are done in a real-time turn-based method, where each character has a certain wait time before an order can be given to them. Then once it has been done, you have to wait again before you can give another. The ability to customize your fighting styles, and the commands each character has available to them is crucial to survival in the FF8 world. When a character receives a large amount of damage, they are given the special ability of “Limit Breaks”, in which special attack moves requiring the proper sequence of key entries results in much larger amounts of damage being inflicted on the target. These special moves are specific to each character, and increase the depth and variety the game already has in abundance. To top all of this off, mythical powers know as Guardian Forces (GF) are “Junctioned” to the characters to allow them to use magic and to tap the power of the GF itself. These additional powers greatly enhance the combat ability of the characters. GFs themselves have their own separate experience system apart from that of the characters. These allow GFs to learn new additions to help the characters.

The game itself is very challenging, and requires several attempts to determine what you need to do to advance the plot line. Sometimes the user’s choice of speech options can affect the outcome of a situation. Other times, your actions will incite a response from others, either negative or positive. This allows for many possible outcomes to a variety of situations, and thus you may end up with a different experience no matter how many times the game is played. Each person will play with their own style, and will therefore have the possibility of experiencing the game from their own unique perspective. There was one problem with FF8, however: it does not appear Square made any efforts to adapt the game to the more powerful PC environment.

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