PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

PLATFORM: Sony PlayStation, PC,  PlayStation Network

RELEASE DATE: 27th October 1999 (PSOne), 4th February 2010 (PSN)

RATING: 11+ (ELSPA: PSOne), 16 (PEGI: PSN)

DEVELOPER: Squaresoft (PSOne), Square-Enix (PSN)

PUBLISHER: Square Europe (PSOne), Square-Enix (PSN)

It’s been nearly eleven years since this masterpiece was released on the original Sony PlayStation. After many calls for Sony and Square-Enix to get it on the store, we’ve finally got a version compatible with our PS3s and PSPs. But, like I said, it’s been nearly eleven years since it was released; is this game still as good as it was last decade? All I can say is, yes.

Let me take you back a few months first. I’d just finished Final Fantasy XIII, and I kept thinking to myself “That was a good game, not the best Final Fantasy I’ve played but still a good attempt.”. I wrote a review on it complimenting its musical score and story (as well as the incredible graphics), and all was good and done. Now whizz forward to a few weeks ago, and I finally downloaded both Final Fantasy VIII and IX off of the store (I’d bought a new memory stick for my PSP you see). I was going to save them both for my holiday, but I succumbed to pressure and decided to play VIII anyway.

The incredible story is one of the highlights of Final Fantasy VIII

It’s when I started playing the game that I realised how short Final Fantasy XIII fell, the story on one hand is so much more epic and involving. You start off in a military academy (as Squall) after having a fight with your classmate, where you’re about to take a test to become a part of the elite fighting force, SeeD. You eventually pass the exam and you find yourself helping a small faction in another country. Of course, this being Final Fantasy, things escalate pretty dramatically, and you end up fighting to save the world from an evil sorceress from the future who wants to conquer the whole of time.

There’s a lot to do on the way though, and the fact that this game used to be on four discs helps to pace the story quite nicely (the story development is climactic at the end of each disc). You’ll travel around the world through almost every possible environment – deserts, forests, mountains, beaches, cities, villages, even space – where you’ll also acquire several means of transport including the inevitable chocobo and airship. And this is why there hasn’t been a PS3 remake of the game – there are way too many environments to render, it really would take a large development team several years to build all of the towns, voice all the characters, create the massive world map, and so much more. In my opinion, Square-Enix aren’t stupid; they know that remaking these would make a ton of money, but they also know that it’d take a humongous effort.

The ending of the game is in true Final Fantasy style, it adds a few more twists into the mix and explains the mystery surrounding the characters, whilst adding a few more plot devices which aren’t best explained if I’m honest. In a way, the final scenes make you interpret what is happening rather than making the developers tell you, if you search around the web hard enough I’m sure you’ll find some really good explanations of what is going on.

The FMVs provide the best bits of the story in a more presentable fashion

Final Fantasy VIII uses the Active Time Battle System (also used in Final Fantasy VI, VII and IX) which is where you wait a period of time for a bar to fill, and when the bar is full you select an action to carry out, this could be anything from using items, casting magic or summoning monsters (called GFs or Guardian Forces in this incarnation of Final Fantasy). There are no magic points as such in this game, but there is an ability called draw which allows you to take magic from any enemy. This magic can be cast straight away or stored for later use. Some enemies even hold new summons, which allow you to further develop your party.

Now, here’s the clever bit, all the magic you store can be used in the junction system. Basically, all of your stats (such as Strength, Magic, HP etc.) can have magic junctioned to them in order to raise them. Of course, junctioning 50 Cure spells to your HP will raise that stat a lot more than say using 50 Fire spells, so you have to search around a bit for the best combinations. On top of this, you can junction some magic to your weapon and armor, allowing you to resist certain ailments (such as Sleep) or even get the chance to cause ailments when you attack (such as Blind). The system is a lot more simple than it sounds, but the deeper you go the more complexity you’ll find.

One thing I have to mention is the music, Nobuo Uematsu really outdid himself here with a beautiful score composed of jazzy tracks, slow ballads, joyful jives and more, with most of the pieces containing some sort of underlying theme which you’ll notice more and more as you travel further through the game. In the later stages of the game, the music becomes much more atmospheric and even more brilliant. I’d forgotten how incredible this soundtrack is and constantly find myself humming various pieces of music from the game.

The backdrops for the game are mainly pre-rendered.

Graphics wise, do not expect the incredible visuals that FFXIII produced (remember this game is over a decade old). I found that playing on a large screen on the PS3 made them look even worse, but playing on a PSP screen looks a good deal better, it’s hard to believe that ten years ago these really were the best graphics you could get from a game this size. When you’re not on the world map, almost every background is pre-rendered which provides a break from the pixelated battle screens. The Full Motion Videos (FMVs) are really the highlight of the game, if you don’t know what an FMV is, it’s basically a pre-rendered cutscene which doesn’t use the in-game graphics. These tend to be used when the story hits critical moments and when the in-game graphics just won’t do to emphasise the important parts of the story.

To finish the story without completing any side quests or doing any power-levelling will take about thirty hours, but it really does depend on how you play. The levelling system used in the game is quite clever in that the higher your average party level is, the higher the levels of the enemies, this allows you to set your own pace for the game really, and I think it works really well. For completionists, whom will play the card game to death, make all of the weapons, find all of the summons and defeat all of the superbosses; I’d suggest you’d be kept entertained for a good fifty hours if not more.

A scene from the beginning of the game which later on holds a lot more meaning

Final Fantasy VIII is a game which has been, is, and forever will be one of the best I’ve played. The story is one of the greatest ever to be in a Final Fantasy game (and that’s saying something) and the characters, although a little shallow, are well developed with their own back story. The battle system is as complex as you want it to be, with more advanced options like the junction system not particularly necessary to beat the game (although it does make your job a lot easier).

The graphics can look pretty ugly on a big screen, but playing on your PSP will take the emphasis off of the jagged edges, besides who needs good graphics for such an incredible game anyway? The music is faultless and lovingly crafted by the musical genius that is Nobuo Uematsu, with every song, every chord, and every note capturing the emotion and atmosphere of the game. The story is lengthy and gripping, with a fair few side quests to conquer. It’s when you play the game again that you realise how modern games will never compare with the likes of these true classics. An absolute triumph in the history of videogaming, Final Fantasy VIII is as good if not better than it was in 1999. There’s only one word I can say to describe the game… Perfection.