FFVIII review

**Freya** · 09-12-2009, 12:44 PM

So, I wanted to post it in the Writer's Corner but I couldn't. After asking Meier Link what to do, I decided to post it here. Mods, feel free to move it if it's still at the wrong place. x3"

I beat FFVIII a week ago and here's my (long) review. :3
I hope it won't offend anyone - that is not my intention. If you really want to read it, be aware that I think FFVIII is the worst FF I've played so far!
(You can write me a VM anytime if you want to discuss with me or tell me things I missed in the game :3)

Story
Well, how to start? First off: I didn't really like the story. At the beginning I thought it would be about some military stuff, like having to do missions and such. But then it rapidly changed, when they first mentioned the witches. I wasn't really surprised by that and it didn't interest me either, but it was more than I'd expected. (But I expect that from an FF game.)
Plus, it didn't go the way I wanted it to. Without spoilers now: I didn't expect many things to happen, I expected some characters to react otherwise and I really didn't want Squall to like Rinoa. (That's not a spoiler, isn't it?)
I can't really explain why I disliked the story that much, but I think the surroundings were annoying me. So let's skip the story and go to...

the Setting
By far, it was the first FF to have that kind of futuristic setting. (I'd say XII was also quite futuristic.) At the beginning I didn't feel like being in a fantasy world, I had the feeling of being at a military school, in the middle of a... yeah, futuristic world. I think there's no other word to describe it.
As for the world itself: Unsatisfying. I didn't like the fact that there were places I couldn't reach first. Also, it was pretty annoying to just have the Garden to fly to the places. You had to watch where you were flying all the time, you couldn't pass mountains or even bridges... ah well.
The one place I liked was at that tower where you got Odin. That was a nice place to be, although it was deserted and all. It was somehow one of the only places which looked like a fantasy world. There was also Laguna's village (I forgot the name, sorry), which looked like an FF village, but nothing more.
Esthar was the worst place of all. I didn't like the city at all. Might sound strange, as I liked Archadis (in FFXII), but Esthar was... ugly. If cities can be ugly, it was totally ugly. The means of transportation weren't comfortable at all, plus you couldn't use them when you entered the city for the second (second?) time. As for the surrounding places... ah well, Tear's Point was the best of them, but the rest was just not good-looking.
Which leads to something I really really detested: the Space. Why did they have to go THERE? I also didn't like the Moon in FFIV, so I wasn't surprised that I didn't like the idea of floating in Space, either. When I had to rescue Rinoa... I can't say that I wanted her to die (I knew it'd be Game Over if I let her die), but I hated it. I needed some time to finally rescue her, and that wasn't fun at all. But there were some things I didn't like (and needed too long for).
All in all, it was OKAY, but space was definitely too much for me.

Characters
First off: No offense to all fans of these characters, but somehow I didn't like them. I'll try to be as matter-of-factly as I can and not let my personal feeling take over too much. It's just my opinion and I'm sure I would've thought otherwise of them if I were... let's say five years younger.
Squall: Was like Cloud, but worse. In the beginning, I also liked him, because he was so silent and just wanted to fulfill his duties, without caring about others. He was quite cool that way, only doing what he had to do. Then... Rinoa came. And changed him. Let him think that friends are most important to him. Influenced him. CHANGED him. I can't say that friends aren't important to me, but an emo trying to have friends? It was destined to be bad. I didn't even see any developement - why did he like Rinoa, anyways? When did he begin to LOVE her? Somehow I missed this point, which would've been essential as to knowing why he did what he's done.
Buuut, he was quite a useful character in combat. There was no other chance than levelling him, so he was one of my strongest characters at the end. Yet, without any GF he'd have been quite useless most of the time.
Rinoa: I'd like to say "I just hate that brat", but I know that there are some Rinoa fans out there, so I'll explain why I disliked her. Firstly, she was annoying. She wanted Squall to like her, she FORCED him to like her. I didn't like her attitude, she was annoying and a brat. Squall made clear at the beginning that he just worked for her, he had no intention of liking her. At the end, he did, but well, I made clear that I didn't understand him... I can't understand how you can like someone like her at all. She's the kind of person I really dislike. Always wanting to be right, not able to think about something clearly before doing it, forcing her way to love, and much more. She is, by far, the number one of my hate list of FF characters.
As for combat.. I didn't level her at all, so she was always weak. And besides, I don't think she even was useful. I heard that Angelo was quite strong, but he didn't appear often and as I only used her when I needed to (and mostly didn't revive her when she died...), she was useless for me. I know it's my bad, but I think she wasn't that strong to begin with. She would've been a good healer, I suppose...
Quistis: Which leads to my actual healer - Quistis. At the end I only used her because of the healing abilities I gave her. She wasn't that strong, either. But as I levelled her, she was more useful than Rinoa.
As for her personality... I liked her, although she was a bit annoying at the beginning, when she, TOO, forced Squall to talk to her. But after a while she got quiet and just helped out, so it was nice. Besides, I liked her as a teacher. She didn't treat Squall as if he was her student, but like a... kid. Yeah, I think she treated him as if he was way younger than her. I had the feeling it was her way of showing him that she didn't want to be higher than her. Lastly... she was quite mature, that helped the whole group at some places.
Zell: At first I thought he was a bit... retarded, but then I realized that he was just a bit too active. All this jumping around all the time wasn't what I wanted to see - and at the beginning he reminded me of Wakka just because of this - but after a while he, too, became quite silent. (Thinking about it now... they all didn't say much at the end, it was all about SquallxRinoa at the end...) The thing about Zell is... he's the only one in FFVIII who fights with his fists instead of a weapon - yet he's the strongest of them all. I used him all the time, so he was my strongest character. In combat, he was twice as useful as Squall and three times as useful as Quistis. Definitely a good character, although lacking a bit of personality...
Selphie: Sometimes she really annoyed me. Like when she shouted stupid things. She always seemed to be happy, as if she did drugs. Like Zell, always jumping around, being happy, not using her brain... but the one thing I definitely liked about her was that she wanted to do the school party. I think she was really dedicated to it, I liked that. I remember that she was sad when they had to cancel it, and when nobody wanted to help. Plus, the "homepage" you could visit when using the computer was really nice. Although I kinda liked her, I didn't use her at all. She wasn't that weak, but... well, I think I just didn't like her weapon.
Irvine: When I first started the game (I didn't finish it, then), he was one of my favorite characters. After playing it through, I don't really like him anymore. He didn't have much to say in the game and most of the time he talked about girls or flirted with Selphie. That was quite annoying. I liked him two years ago, so there obviously was a change - I think I just don't like this kind of man anymore. Besides, how he didn't want to shoot Edea.. ah well, I could understand him perfectly, but he should've done it.
Somehow he reminded me of Vincent - I liked Vincent and I used him (FFVII was lacking good characters to use), but I don't really like guns. I don't think he was that useful in combat. Only when using a GF...
Seifer: Surprisingly my favorite character. He didn't lack personality, he was strong, useful... but lacking a brain. Somehow, he was the one I understood best. He followed his dreams - no matter what. He even went as far as going against his own school - just because he wanted to. I found that he had a strong personality. And I liked his subordinates. They sometimes beat the crap out of me, but they were fun, especially because they had a nice way of talking. I wouldn't have wanted to listen to them all the time, but I laughed much when Zell started to talk like them. Okay, back to Seifer now: He was the only one who didn't change rapidly in the middle of the game. He still went on the same path.
The only thing I didn't like about him... was the ending.

Spoiler:

When he and the other two were fishing... aaaah, okay. That wasn't fitting his character at all. I know he understood what Ultimecia was doing at the end and then stopped, but he deserved a better ending than being envious just because Rai-Jin caught a big fish...

Laguna, Kiros & Ward: Let's be honest on this one. Why did we need them? Why were they in the game? There were some things that were mentioned and then they just forgot about it. It was unsatisfying to see what had happened to them. And besides, I didn't like Laguna, as I didn't understand his humor at all. He laughed in so many scenes and I just didn't get WHY. He wasn't funny at all. And Kiros and Ward... were just two other characters of the game you didn't even find out much about. (Lacking character developement here...)

Villains
I'll skip Seifer know and I'll skip all the others because here comes what made the game special for me: Ultimecia
Firstly: I didn't break all the seals, I didn't want to and I haven't found the two remaining bosses. But I didn't need the last two, so it was no problem to fight Ultimecia. The first form. It was no problem to fight Griever. And Ultimecia with Griever. But... the fourth form was overkill. I can't express how I hated it... It was by far the hardest villain in all FFs I've played. I've played many now, and normally when you level your characters properly the final boss is no problem. But not in FFVIII. I needed HOURS to beat her at the end.
The problem was that I couldn't use GFs anymore at the end, they just died (not because they were strong... they just vanished, saying that they couldn't help you anymore or so..?) and that my characters were too weak - too weak to survive Hell's Jugdement. I only had Quistis as a healer, no Megaelixir or something like that... so at the end, I only had two characters left (as I only levelled three of them at all) and I had real problems beating her.
I failed beating her about... three times before actually beating her. And I think it was because of luck more than because of strength.
As for her personality... did she have some? Without going into deeper details, I believe in the time loop theory (Locke4God made a thread about it), so I believe that Ultimecia is also Rinoa. I can't say I disliked Ultimecia, but I didn't have the chance to really know her. It wasn't clear at the beginning that she was the final boss. (I thought it would be Edea... or Adell.) So at the end she just... popped into the picture and said "here I am, I'm the evil mastermind!" but I didn't understand her. So she isn't my favorite villain. But the strongest, hands down.

Gameplay
I liked the whole system of FFVIII. I drew many many spells from many many monsters at the end of the game, just because I knew it would come in handy someday. It was quite easy to get 100 for each spell and for each character, so the game's become easy in the end.
Also, I liked the fact that the monsters also levelled up. So I could beat them easily and get much exp just because I had three characters I didn't level at all. I didn't think the game was harder because of that, though I've heard that a lot.
As for the things you had to do... I didn't like the time limits. I really hated them. When I wanted to get Odin, for example. I think I tried two or three times, then I got him. Time was up way too soon mostly. Also, the missions in which you had a time limit were annoying. Especially the one on the train when you first had to help Rinoa out. I sucked at that.
Much worse was when you had to play a song for Squall. I think I didn't play the right song, and I don't want to know what it was at all. I even think I didn't understand the mission at all. When I first played the game I just chose instruments I liked. In my recent playthrough, I listened to all the instruments and then chose them. But it was wrong, after all.
Yet, worst of the worst was... fighting the dragon with Laguna. I wanted to smash Laguna with my controller back then. It was so ANNOYING. I needed to hit that damn dragon about ten times and he just had to hit me three times to kill me off. I needed... about thirty trys to finally be able to get further, must've been half an hour of my life wasted on that dragon... Btw. this was the scene in which I really began to hate Laguna for being so weak. I know he's not at fault - I am - but it really pissed me off. After beating the dragon I saved my game and didn't play for hours. I was just mad.
The thing about FFVIII is... it didn't feel like Final Fantasy. Sounds stupid, I know, so I'll explain again: Every FF has this "FF-Feeling" about it. Like the fantasy worlds, or the characters. There's always something that tells me that I play FF. But FFVIII didn't have it at all. It was lacking the atmosphere of an FF. Which leads to the next point...

Music
...the background music. I can't believe that it was from the same person who'd made the bgm of FFVI, FFIX and FFX. I wouldn't dare to say it was bad, but it wasn't good, either. It wasn't really inbetween, it was rather bad. There was NOT A SINGLE song I liked. The bgm on the world map was a disappointment. I liked many bgms of the world map so far, but FFVIII lacked the feeling and the real melody.
The themes - if they even exsisted - weren't good. Let's put it like that: I didn't have the feeling I had, for example, in FFX, when there was music in the background and I knew which person was about to appear. Did it have a theme? Oh dear, I have to research that.
Eyes On Me... was a nice song, but after disc3 of my game freezed every time during that song I couldn't listen to it anymore... Especially when I finally got further (by using disc3 of a friend). I just wanted to skip the whole scene. Yet, I liked the story of the song. It was probably the song I liked most in the game.

All in all
... it wasn't the best FF I've ever played, but I wouldn't dare to say it was bad. Yet, for me it was the weakest of the series. I liked the classical storylines more, but I enjoyed fighting.
But I know... I'll probably never play it again. It wasn't that much fun, I'd rather replay another FF...

**vicks and wedge** · 06-15-2010, 06:10 AM

all in all this game is just not that fun,,i am trudging through it just to say i completed cause its the only one 1-10 i havent completed...i am verry dissapointed that i am playing final fantasy and i am bored and have to drag myself to it ahhhhhhh my god why do i need to hit a cokatrice with like 10 firagas to kill it. why did rinoa float in space for like ten minutes of gameplay!! Zell sucks, selphie is in a yellow dress the guy with the gun is a wuss and is so gay i never use him so i dont know his name. rinoa is fine squall is dressed so gay and acts like a such a teenager and i would hate him but he got a sword...now quistis is cool i even named my kitty after her..i dont really know if i hate this game that much it just gets me mad to have a final fantasy game i never completed and cant stand playing it i feel robbed...btw music is cool

**Angel of Iniquity** · 10-09-2010, 09:45 PM

Okay, I'm just gunna through this out there but...
1. you sucked at the game...o.o
2. You didn't want to review the game, you wanted to bash the game...o.o
3. Ultimecia was controlling edea so yes, she did have personality.
4. Even people who despised the game LOVES the music, it's actually one of the best.
5. Your right about it not feeling like a ff though, no dungeons, not allot of color.
6. Don't like accessing every place at the beginning of the game... you sound petulant with that remark...o.o
7. Again, most people who hate the game, praise the game for it's story.

If 55% of the population thought it was true(about the music and story) than is it a fact? Or just a well known opinion

Sorry about my ignorance, it just seems like you are bashing this game. Opinions are opinions but forced opinions or pressed opinions don't fare well, again sorry.

**the_savior21** · 01-28-2011, 08:05 AM

ya i agree if it took you that long to fight ultimecia you truely suuuuuuuuucked at the game... did you fight omega or ultima weapon they were both way harder... did you ever go to the island of heaven or hell... did you ever play cards and then mod good cards to learn new abilities and get items probably not the music was amazing matched only i think by FFX and the story was way better then most others actually all others that i have played other then maybe IX and X but i think you just sucked at the game and you didnt want to admit it and would rather blame it on the game

**FF9isthebest** · 03-17-2011, 10:11 PM

Actually to all the FF8 haters, I must say I thought so at first to, but that's because I didn't understand it. When it comes to mastering the game you quickly realize that this games system is more complex and cryptic than any other FF, its quite possibly the hardest FF also, because lets face it with the proper combination the weapons in FF7 are *****s and Ozma from FF9 is an even bigger *****.

**Locke4God** · 03-23-2011, 11:31 AM

Yeah, this game was terrifically complex in terms of it's battle system and even the many theories that have come out regarding the true meaning of the actions behind some of the characters.

The Junction system should be beloved for anybody who loves customization, because if you do, then it was undoubtedly the must customizable of all FF systems.

The world was lively, upbeat, and expansive.

The triple triad game was an amuzing distraction that you could play for fun or play for completion. It required some skill for sure, and would actually be a fun real life game imo.

The characters I would say are thin, because by in large they do all possess the exact same story, so if you love one, you kinda love them all. There isn't really any diversity of any kind there, but that being said, the story they do share is compelling.

And I felt the battles at large, and especially the fights with Weapon and Ultimacia were more fun than any in the entire series. They were challenging, required strategy, and the atmosphere created around them was intense and engaging.

Overall I rank FF8 as my 2nd favorite game based on the many factors you attribute to these titles, and I have posted more detailed breakdowns for each game under the General FF section, under Final Fantasy Rankings (Main Series)