Apparently today marks 20 years since the Japanese release of Final Fantasy VIII, an RPG with a mixed reception in the community but one that I absolutely adore.
Let’s go back to the mid to late 90’s. RPG’s were big. Really big. The genre which had been a bit more of a niche in the 16 bit era had grown to explode in the 32 bit era, thanks in major part to Final Fantasy VII, a game which Sony heavily pushed as an example of the kinds of incredible game that the PlayStation could provide – dozens of hours of high quality game play with an incredible cinematic story. In 1997, with that games release I feel RPG’s became a dominant force in American gaming.
For many, this was their first entry into a genre which they otherwise may never have looked into, and while Role Playing Games aren’t for everyone, it would seem for many this stuck – Final Fantasy VII set the general standard for both new players and those familiar with the genre!
Move to 1999, and Final Fantasy VIII was on the horizon, and it looked good. Damn good. From what we could see in gaming magazines and then the demo disc which was released (a heavily sought after disc at the time) showed us a more futuristic, modern world, which well contrasted with the more medieval setting that most RPG’s had — Even Final Fantasy VII, once you left the central city, had a world which was very much of this style, but with steampunk elements thrown in.
Then we learned of how the game would function, and the new “system” in this game — the Junction System. Every Final Fantasy has had a way to adjust just how each character functions in battle – from changing job classes which changed their abilities in games like Final Fantasy V, or the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII, there’s always a way to tweak characters or a different character you can swap to with abilities you may need in an upcoming area.
Well, the Junction system was similar to the Materia system — instead of equipping magical crystals which gave the characters different abilities and affected their stats, here you took an actual supply of magic spells and put them against the statistics of the character… which means when you use magic you grew slightly weaker! How did you get this magic? Well, you pulled it from enemies in combat. Yeah, it sounds odd, because it is. Hell, the way you did this was to attach summons (known here as Guardian Forces), classic to the Final Fantasy series, to the character directly!
Yes, Final Fantasy VIII is a strange game, and explaining the Junction System would take its own article. Suffice it to say it’s complicated, but once you figure it out, I found it to be incredibly fun and versatile.
No, really, I do. The biggest complaint most people have about game play is actually my favorite aspect of the game! Sure, “drawing” magic from enemies can be boring, but once you’ve stocked up things go smoothly. Hell, you don’t have to stock pile, it’s just natural when gaming to try to max out stats where you can.
People often criticize the plot, and while I agree it’s a little rough to get going, by the end it all makes sense. The story, without spoiling it, follows a “this is your destiny” trope, and early on explains an element which seems to be the most common plot annoyance for many.
Beyond that, yes, there are some elements of the characters which could annoy many — Squall is, for all intents and purposes, an “Emo Kid” but it kind of works honestly. People can be like that — I should know, that’s about how I was back when the game was released (and in some ways, even now. I much prefer not to be bothered) so I could relate some to the character, if only in the “leave me alone” attitude. Some people are just like that.
The last few things to briefly touch on are the sound and visuals of the game. Final Fantasy VIII still looks great to me. Yes, the nature of PlayStation graphics creates some funny moments at time (like the “most handsome man here” scene and Squall looking like a potato) but beyond those moments, things look good – the pre-rendered backgrounds are solid, the cinematics in the game look superb (and consistent, unlike the strange changing art styles that FF7 had throughout) and combat looks great! Visually I genuinely enjoy the game. As always though, the game shows its age, sure, but you have to take things in context for when they were made. Otherwise, everything is terrible by comparison to the future.
As for the sound, well, it’s right on par with Final Fantasy VII – Indeed, you can play songs from either game and most people would never notice a difference between them. As always, it’s superb work from Nobuo Uematsu. Some tracks are better than others of course, but I can say for certain the tracks that matter — especially the “final battle” tracks, are awesome and well fitting for the conflict presented.
Really, I could go on and on about the game, but that would turn things into a review, and I’m not going that far with this — not now, maybe in September when the game hits 20 in the US.
I just genuinely loved the game. It’s hard to explain all the details as to why without really doing a true review, but yeah, it’s just a game I loved.
Thanks for reading. More to come, as always.
Oh, and one more thing, if you know what the PocketStation is, this game supported it with a Chocobo minigame! I recently got one, so soon once I get back to playing Final Fantasy VIII I’ll finally get a chance to experience this minigame firsthand! Awesome.
I never did play Final Fantasy 8, its one that I do plan on playing eventually though. As for the pocketstation I do know about it but never seen one irl, I remember the japanese version of one of the old Yu-Gi-Oh games could use it for something but I can’t remember atm.