Beta464
9 reviews liked by Beta464
The best Souls game of 2022.
Not gonna write a long ass review because I played this one over a long period of time but damn this was a great game. The combat is really fun and the music is really good. The plot does a lot of cool things with FF1's story and I'm glad I played that game before this. PC port is ass though like goddamn every other soul burst slowed the game down. Get this only on console or a strong PC. Its a shame what memers have done to this game's reputation but if you like action games or action rpgs at all you NEED to play this
My first ever Final Fantasy game is still worth playing through on a new platform.
I admit that initially I was going into this game with the expectations FF7 had set beforehand, but this game is much more enjoyed when mentally divorced from its predecessor. It's easy as hell to break but it was enjoyable as hell most of the way through. My only big criticisms are slow opening hours and some endgame boss design being. Not very fun, but these ultimately don't do much to lessen my enjoyment of this game
I'm gonna start with my history of this game so this might a long-ish review.
My older brother had this game and I watched him play it (which I realize now was a huuuuge chunk of the game) and it really didn't catch my interest much. I tried it myself back then and got through like 10 hours of the game at best, then tried his file where he was like 90% through the game and I couldn't beat the boss he was on because I didn't know how the game's Junction system worked and at the time the only Final Fantasy games I had played was Mystic quest, FF2 (SNES), and FF3 (SNES). I think I had watched him play FF7 bits and pieces, but didn't play it myself. So for years I've gone past FF8 and gone through games pre-FF8 and kinda ignored this game not because i knew it was different than the others or too hard for me, I honestly didn't like the "modern world, less fantasy" vibe the game was giving off. As years passed, I've played every FF mainline game from FF1 to FF15 except FF8, FF10, FF10-2, and FF12. And so here's my thoughts on FF8.
Let's get the graphics out the way, this game looks really good, despite it being a remaster, I remember the original still having a unique look to it that was impressive back then and the remaster just ups that, I can't help but get a Parasite Eve vibe from this game possibly because of the oddly rendered backgrounds, so it's like seeing a low poly or PNG background against a decent quality 3D model, it's not bad at all, it's vexing a bit and gives you a "this game is old, but doesn't feel old" vibe if that makes sense. To me, this game looks really good to play and nothing about it's looks bothered me, even the cutscenes that weren't redone they were just upscaled a bit and cleaned up so it didn't look like it had static.
The music of the game is absolutely amazing, I would say it has the best music of the PS1 era of FF games bar none, it reminds of Secret of Mana back when the music of the village or area set the tone to the point when you hear it you INSTANTLY think of the background or the moment.
The gameplay is where I see the sour points come in at for people. The way I see it is this is FF2 (not FF4) all over again...it is a Final Fantasy game with a new system that you have to sit and understand how it works and can't just power level your way through the game and I feel it gets under people's skin who are used to the prior games.
The way the battle system works now, is your get GFs (Guardian forces basically Summons) who you level up and they allow you to slot magic into your stats that raise/adjust your stats, unlike most games you have to "Draw" magic from enemies and thoughts how you get your magic to put in your GFs and get your stats, it's still grinding like killing enemies in the old game, it's just slightly different, of course this is a very simplified explanation of it missing some of the small details, but you get the idea. Also, to go along with it, there's no armor, and your weapon get enhanced by finding monster parts and items and getting them made at a shop, so it's no longer just buy weapons and go. So yeah the gameplay is different as far as combat, everything else is typical Final Fantasy flair, talk to NPCs, side quests, learn about the world yada yada.
Oh, it does have a decent card game, I'll admit I didn't play much of it because I played the other card games on FF9, FF11, and FF14 so much that I couldn't stomach doing it here, but it is a good card game and you can turn enemies into cards to build your deck along with finding them after fights or quests and such.
Phew okay, now the story...I'm not gonna spoil anything here at all, but I will explain that this game does the story right. I love when a game has a narrative, but it's only explained as the main character learns it, you never really know what goes on until Squall (you aka the main character) learns what's going on around him, so it keeps the mystery going and keeps the story going at a very good pace. The characters are actually pretty decent, the one character that annoyed me from the start grew on me after a while, but they are pretty good character, not too in depth, but definitely not all are one note, though some characters do kinda skirt that line.
After all that I gotta say I loved this game, it's definitely a really good game and I won't forget how off the wall it went at times and a few moments hit hard, would say it was my favorite...ehh no, top 5? If I made a list it would likely be either 5 or 6, it's not better than my favorites, but it blew the decent to pretty good ones out the water.
My older brother had this game and I watched him play it (which I realize now was a huuuuge chunk of the game) and it really didn't catch my interest much. I tried it myself back then and got through like 10 hours of the game at best, then tried his file where he was like 90% through the game and I couldn't beat the boss he was on because I didn't know how the game's Junction system worked and at the time the only Final Fantasy games I had played was Mystic quest, FF2 (SNES), and FF3 (SNES). I think I had watched him play FF7 bits and pieces, but didn't play it myself. So for years I've gone past FF8 and gone through games pre-FF8 and kinda ignored this game not because i knew it was different than the others or too hard for me, I honestly didn't like the "modern world, less fantasy" vibe the game was giving off. As years passed, I've played every FF mainline game from FF1 to FF15 except FF8, FF10, FF10-2, and FF12. And so here's my thoughts on FF8.
Let's get the graphics out the way, this game looks really good, despite it being a remaster, I remember the original still having a unique look to it that was impressive back then and the remaster just ups that, I can't help but get a Parasite Eve vibe from this game possibly because of the oddly rendered backgrounds, so it's like seeing a low poly or PNG background against a decent quality 3D model, it's not bad at all, it's vexing a bit and gives you a "this game is old, but doesn't feel old" vibe if that makes sense. To me, this game looks really good to play and nothing about it's looks bothered me, even the cutscenes that weren't redone they were just upscaled a bit and cleaned up so it didn't look like it had static.
The music of the game is absolutely amazing, I would say it has the best music of the PS1 era of FF games bar none, it reminds of Secret of Mana back when the music of the village or area set the tone to the point when you hear it you INSTANTLY think of the background or the moment.
The gameplay is where I see the sour points come in at for people. The way I see it is this is FF2 (not FF4) all over again...it is a Final Fantasy game with a new system that you have to sit and understand how it works and can't just power level your way through the game and I feel it gets under people's skin who are used to the prior games.
The way the battle system works now, is your get GFs (Guardian forces basically Summons) who you level up and they allow you to slot magic into your stats that raise/adjust your stats, unlike most games you have to "Draw" magic from enemies and thoughts how you get your magic to put in your GFs and get your stats, it's still grinding like killing enemies in the old game, it's just slightly different, of course this is a very simplified explanation of it missing some of the small details, but you get the idea. Also, to go along with it, there's no armor, and your weapon get enhanced by finding monster parts and items and getting them made at a shop, so it's no longer just buy weapons and go. So yeah the gameplay is different as far as combat, everything else is typical Final Fantasy flair, talk to NPCs, side quests, learn about the world yada yada.
Oh, it does have a decent card game, I'll admit I didn't play much of it because I played the other card games on FF9, FF11, and FF14 so much that I couldn't stomach doing it here, but it is a good card game and you can turn enemies into cards to build your deck along with finding them after fights or quests and such.
Phew okay, now the story...I'm not gonna spoil anything here at all, but I will explain that this game does the story right. I love when a game has a narrative, but it's only explained as the main character learns it, you never really know what goes on until Squall (you aka the main character) learns what's going on around him, so it keeps the mystery going and keeps the story going at a very good pace. The characters are actually pretty decent, the one character that annoyed me from the start grew on me after a while, but they are pretty good character, not too in depth, but definitely not all are one note, though some characters do kinda skirt that line.
After all that I gotta say I loved this game, it's definitely a really good game and I won't forget how off the wall it went at times and a few moments hit hard, would say it was my favorite...ehh no, top 5? If I made a list it would likely be either 5 or 6, it's not better than my favorites, but it blew the decent to pretty good ones out the water.
Very unique, my favourite FF from the ps1 era. The gunblade is almost as iconic as cloud's sword.
For what it is, it is a pretty unique experience. The mechanics aren't executed perfectly and it can be easily broken (especially with the speed-up), but I respect it for what did it.
The biggest thing though, I really enjoyed the characters and story it had. Squall was a much more entertaining protagonist than I was expecting it to be.
Fun game. Not really something for newcomers to FF though.
The biggest thing though, I really enjoyed the characters and story it had. Squall was a much more entertaining protagonist than I was expecting it to be.
Fun game. Not really something for newcomers to FF though.
This is probably my favorite Final Fantasy game, if only because pressing a button to make the gunblade do more damage was way more fun that it should have been.
The first Final Fantasy game I completely finished the story of! The music is nostalgic, the characters are fun, and the story is well done for its time. The gameplay is sometimes funky cause it is an older game, but I loved it enough to finish, so that is worth something!