Final fantasy is clearly one of, if not the biggest JRPG franchises of all time. With 15 mainline games and a bunch of spin-off games. With several great games there are two that I found people claim as the greatest: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. I will admit that in my opinion there is a far greater amount of people claiming for FFVII to be superior over FFVIII, the latter does have a very passionate group. This is the game I have found that people either love it or hate it, it has a very diverse fan group.
Playing Kingdom Hearts was my introduction to several of the final fantasy characters, but the two that stood out were Cloud and Leon. These two characters were the main protagonists for FFVII and FFVIII respectively. Prior to FFVIII remastered I had beaten FFVII and I will admit I was dubious at how much I would enjoy the game considering how much I’m used to the PS4 graphics; however, I am glad I stuck with it as it was a masterpiece. Following this game, all the positive comments I heard about FFVIII and how much I loved Leon in Kingdom Hearts I was excited to play the remastered version of FFVIII. However, very early on I found out why this community is so divisive and this is the story of how I nearly dropped this game.
My biggest problem with Final Fantasy VIII was with how they explained the complicated battle system. Right when you get into the game, the battle system is explained to you. However, the game throws so much information at you that I got so overwhelmed that I didn’t properly understand how to play the game. Not every person will experience the game like I did, but I am simply explaining my experience. I spent nearly half of the game struggling with the combat and not understanding why. I figured I was simply under leveled, but I found out that the game matches enemies to the average level of your party, so grinding was not an option. It wasn’t until I found out on a reddit post how the battle system worked that I realized how much of the game I was playing wrong.
The battle system for FFVIII follows something called a junction system. I am going to do my best to explain this system so hopefully others will not go through the same process. First off you assign guardian forces or GFs to each character. These GFs allow you to use magic, items and summon the GFs themselves. Without assigning a guardian force the character can only attack. In addition, the guardian force also allows you to assign spells to your stats. This is where everything gets a little tricky. Unlike normal JRPGs in FFVIII you do not learn spells instead when facing opponents, you must select the “Draw” command. This allows you to steal whichever spell you select. For example, let’s say you were facing a fireball enemy, you would select draw and then select fire and a message would come up saying “Squall drew 6 fires”. Now that you have draw the spell you would then assign the spell to a stat. Not all spells affect stats the same however, for example fire will have a more significant increase on attack over cure, while cure will have a more significant increase on life over fire. Thankfully you don’t need to think too long and hard about this due to the fact that there is a “auto” function in the junction system that will assign the best spells to your stats that you own. It does get a little trickier however, if you have 9 fire assigned to your attack it will do significantly more damage the more fire you have, therefore it is ideal to draw the max amount (100) of a spell you plan on using. This may seem like common sense, but it is something that I did not feel was explained properly. Finally, if you have 100 fire assigned to your attack and you use a fire spell in combat it will drop your fire in your inventory down to 99 and therefore decreasing your attack power. It is essential to understand the junction system or else you will struggle mightily with the game.
This is where the triple speed for the remastered version came super clutch. I cannot imagine sitting there for hours just drawing spells, the triple speed made this go by very fast. I have mixed opinions on the junction system, on the one hand once you understand the combat it can be very fun and it is a very unique way to use the summons. On the other hand, the junction system takes you out of the flow of the game when you are just selecting draw to get 100 of each spell for all 3 characters in your party, in addition to the fact that you essentially can’t use any of those spells due to the fact that it decreases your stats. All in all, it was a very interesting experience, but I would say as a whole the junction system misses the point.
I have mentioned that the remastered version of FFVIII had triple speed, but it also had the option to negate encounters and max out HP. The reducing encounters does actually help a lot, I felt like encounters were so often and they probably did that due to the draw system incase you needed spells. However, at times it got incredibly annoying and I made use of the feature.
One aspect of the game that a lot of people find very enjoyable about the game is the mini game called triple triad. This is a card game that can enable you to get better spells instead of using the draw method. I am going to admit this was another example of the game supplying too much information at once as I had no idea how to play it. I played triple triad only a handful amount of times, but I had no idea how it worked. A large amount of the community enjoys triple triad and sites it as the best part of the game so you may as well.
One thing that is important to note is that this game is not a full remaster or remake like Final Fantasy VII Remake. This game very much still feels like a PS1 game. The character models do look a little bit better, but the backgrounds still look like wallpaper. I was able to accept it as a PS1 game so it didn’t bother me too much, but it may for some people.
Now the final thing I want to bring up is the story. Final Fantasy is known for being able to write tremendous stories and for the most part this is no exception. The story gets pretty crazy, but in true JRPG fashion Final Fantasy VIII does a great job of making it flow to the point where you don’t really have too many concerns. The only main downside I had with the story was the dream scenes. Every once in a while, you will be transported into a dream controlling a different party. This all flows well into the story, but it really takes you out of the main story and I found myself rushing to finish it. This aside the story is a joy. Several villains are introduced and the selection of characters each bring a certain quality to the group. However, the stars of the story are Squall and Rinoa. I will admit I have not played FFX yet (the game most people say has the best romance), but so far this is the best love story I have seen in a Final Fantasy game. Squall is quiet and moody while Rinoa is outgoing and affectionate. The two are polar opposites, but I think that’s why they work so well together. As the story progresses you see Rinoa bring more personality out of Squall and it is truly a joy to watch it all unfold.
PROS
- Romance between two characters
- Story flows pretty well
- Fun once you understand combat system
- Triple Speed
- Triple Triad
- Limit Encounters
- Interesting use of the Summons
CONS
- Information is overwhelming
- Draw System
- Flashback moments
- Difficult if you don’t understand Junction system
- Graphics
CONSENSUS
All in all, I am glad I played this game to experience it. However, struggling to figure out the system made me seriously consider dropping it. It is a clever and unique battle system, but I do not feel like it will translate well in todays age. If they ever were to do a full remake like Final Fantasy VII, in my opinion they should completely overhaul the system. The story and romance between the two characters make me very glad I played it, despite my concerns with the battle system.
RATING
7/10: GOOD
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