I Was Expecting A Lot Out Of This Game, Well, That's What I Got (4 CD's Worth), But There Are Enough Bad Things About It To Keep It From Becoming A Classic. When You Look At Final Fantasy 8, You Will See That Square Did Their Best To Push The System To It's Limits In Terms Of Showing Off What They Can Do In Terms Of Grapical Ability. It's Great To Look At, The Characters Are No Longer Super Deformed (Final Fantasy 7), And The Quality Of The Graphics And FMV Sequences Have Improved A Good Deal Over Final Fantasy 7.
Also, The Summon Moves (Now Called GFs), Are Much More Impressive And Fun To Watch, Well, At Least The First Fifteen Times You See It. Square Has Once Again Failed To Give You A Way To Skip Over The Summoning Sequence And Get Right On To The Damage. Eden, Even Though It Is The Most Powerful GF, Is The Worst One To Wait Through. Eden's Move Is Looooooonnnnngggg. So Long In Fact, That A Few Times I Was Considering That Maybe I Should Just Get Off My Lazy A$$ And Jog Around The House Or Something A Few Times While I Wait For It To End. But, Of Course, Then I Couldn't Boost It So It Wouldn't Be As Powerful (Boosting Means Pressing The Square Button To Increase The Damage That The GF Inflicts). Another Bad Part About The GFs Is That You Can Use Them An Infinite Amount Of Times During Battle. You Have A Timebar, And Once It Goes All The Way Down, You Summon The GF. But The Enemy Can Hurt The GF When The Timebar Is Still Up. Who Cares? If My GF Likes Me Enough So It Only Takes A Half Second To Cast It, Then It Will, More Than Likely, Never Get Hurt. Even If It Passes Out, I Can Still Revive It Or Just Use A Different GF! This Really Decreases The Difficulty Of The Game, As FF8 Has Been Called The Easiest Final Fantasy Ever!
Another Thing That I Hate Is That Your Enemies Level Up As You Level Up. Let Me Ask You This, What Is The Point Of Working Your Butt Off To Increase Your Level And Stats, If The Enemy Is Going To Be Just As Hard As It Was Before? Maybe Even Harder Since They Gain New And Better Moves As They Level Up.
As For The Limit Breaks, Your Limit Break Is Now Randomly Activated. The Lower Your Health, The More Likely You'll Get A Limit Break. What I Do Is I Always Keep Squall On The Brink Of Death, So I Can Use His Limit Break Every Turn, This Also Makes The Game Easier.
Also, The Magic System Has Changed For The Worse. Instead Of The Great Materia System From Final Fantasy 7, Square Decided To Make A System Of "Drawing" Magic From Enemies. Square Apparently Decided To Throw MP Out The Window And Come Up With A New System. So They've Come Up With This "Drawing System". What You Do Is You "Draw" Magic From Enemies For Later Use. So Instead Of MP, You Have A Limited Number Of Your Various Magical Spells. If You Run Out, You Can Just Draw More From An Enemy. What You Usually End Up Doing Is Drawing Magic Turn After Turn After Turn To Get A Lot Of Whatever Spell You Need. All That I Have To Say Is, Without The Pressure Of MP, And The Tedious Process Of Getting New Magic, It Makes FF8 That Much Easier And That Much Worse.
Another Con Is The Total Lack Of Secrets And Extra Things To Do After You Beat The Game. This Affects The Replay Value A Great Deal.
Even With All Of The Problems Of Final Fantasy 8, It Does Have Its Strong Points, Besides The Graphics, The Sound And Music In Final Fantasy 8 Is Excellent, One Song (Eyes On Me), Even Had Spoken Lyrics!
All Of The Graphics And Sound Would Be A Waste Though If There Wasn't At Least A Little Bit Of Gameplay To Back It Up. Don't Worry, There Is A Lot Of Good Gameplay And Fun To Be Had In Final Fantasy 8 The First Time Through, Even If It Is Easy.
Overall, Final Fantasy 8, Despite Its Weaknesses, Is Still Fun, But The Game Is Too Easy And Has Very Little Replay Value After You Beat The Game. (There Is A Card Game, But Not Even This Is Enough To Expand The Replay Value That Much). So Let Me Finish By Saying That Square Could Have Done A Lot Better Than This, But Overall, A Good, But Easy, RPG.
