Final Fantasy VIII

Playtime: 67.1 Hours

This is probably the most unique Final Fantasy games I have played.

Now, I'm not saying it's a really good game. I think it's a good game, and a good Final Fantasy game. When I play a Final Fantasy game, the thing I want most is a good story, and FF8 delivers a good story.

Honestly, I really enjoyed the story of this game. If I had a list of all the games I have played and rank them by story, it would definitely land in the top 25. But despite how much I love it, there are so much aspects of it that make no sense!

There's an entire storyline where you play as a different party to the main party. In fact, the main party dreams about these events all at once. These are events that happened around 20 years ago, and while it explains why this happens, there is nothing Squall and party can do to help change the past. It explains key events, definitely, but it just feels so weird to do it this way.

Another aspect is memories. The party of this game are forgetting a lot of their memories about their childhood. But this is something that comes out of no where near the end of the game, and really feels like it was tagged along there for shock value.

A lot of things are unexplained in the story. That works for better or worse depending on the situation. There are a lot of whacky things that happen in this story, like the main party going to space for like an hour or so. But there is a lot of great story moments as well.

When it comes to characters, the main character, Squall, feels a lot like a husk. You are a stand-off~ish guy and even though a lot of girls are throwing themselves at him, he's just like "whatever." and brushes it off. He just feels like he is going through the motions and that other people in the story are much more important. However, there are some brilliant characters like Quistis, Irvine and Seifer. I also really liked Sorceress Edea for a lot of the game, but my opinion of her changed as the game approached its climax.

When I got to the ending, and the final cutscene started playing, I was shocked. I was genuinely stunned by what I saw. I was thrown for a loop and amazed that was how the story ended. Now, the interpretation of the ending that I thought happened, is honestly one of the most debated topics in Final Fantasy, but it's not something I want to spoil, I just definitely recommend playing it and seeing for yourself.

So, as a Final Fantasy game, this one hits. It has a great story, music, and even a fantastic card game. That being said, I did get the odd crash when I was playing Triple Triad, I'd say there was about a 5% chance my game would try play Triple Triad. That's only because there is a lot of grinding for cards if you are trying to beat this game at Squall's initial level.

You see, in terms of gameplay, this game has a very unique system, called the Junction system. It means most of your powers is not based on the character, but by the Guardian Forces they use (which are basically summons characters can use.) It means you can beat the entire game without levelling up, and because of the level-based scaling this game has, it makes the game easier because of it. However, this is probably the most confusing part of FF8, something that won't be an issue if you use a guide but if you are going into it blind, please give it some research.

The music is again, spectacular. My favorite track is probably 'Boogie or Shuffle', which is a good thing because the song plays whenever you are playing Triple Triad, which probably took up a good few hours out of my playthrough.

Overall, this is good game. Great, but flaws story. The combat system is something you are NOT going to understand, so please look into it before trying out the game. Music is fantastic as well and I really enjoyed exploring the world Final Fantasy 8 has to offer.

It's a good game, but it probably shouldn't be your first Final Fantasy. Nevertheless, I recommend you give it a try.