September 9, 1999 will mark both the 25th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast, and of Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy VIII launching in North America.
Sporting a Metacritic score of 9.0, Final Fantasy VIII is the lowest rated PlayStation 1 Final Fantasy game. The fact that a game with a 9.0 rating is the lowest scoring game of the PS1 FF era, is a testament to the quality of the titles during the series’ golden age. All that said, when the conversation of which games are ‘the best Final Fantasy games ever’ comes into play, games like Final Fantasy VI, VII, and IX dominate the discussion.
Save for a few fans of the 1999 title, Final Fantasy VIII is usually omitted from said Mount Rushmore debates. I use to have a love hate relationship with the game until Final Fantasy XIII made me appreciate it for what it truly was.
A Lot of Critics Might Have Been Blinded by the Game’s Visual Flair
Square Enix (Squaresoft at the time) made huge leaps in tech and rendering capabilities between Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Final Fantasy VIII was a much more impressive visual spectacle than Final Fantasy VII had been. Realistic looking characters came to life in CG scenes that were worthy of Hollywood cinema at the time.
The in game polygonal models where nothing to write home about, but for the time, and the PlayStation’s hardware capabilities, these models looked leaps and bounds better than the super blocky squatty characters that Final Fantasy VII had used when players traversed that game’s environments.
Many critics were likely blinded by the audio visual spectacle that was the game, and forgave some of the silly time compression – and weak love story – components of the storyline. I remember Electronic Gaming Monthly handing down 9.5 scores across the board for the title. It was an impressive Final Fantasy title, and I guess such scores could be easily justified.
At the time, however, it was my least favorite Final Fantasy. Due to the aforementioned less than stellar storyline, and the game’s unique Gameplay quirks.
Perhaps I Was Too Harsh on a Great Game
Keep in mind, Final Fantasy VI, and VII are generally regarded as having the greatest stories and most memorable cast of characters in the series. It was a tough act to follow for Final Fantasy VIII. That said, time and age, have given me a new perspective on the game. Yes, I cannot say FFVIII’s story is great. In my opinion, it isn’t. I still feel that blaming GF’s for the characters’ amnesia was a lazy way to deal with that tried and true JRPG plot troupe, and having Squall disliking Rinoa until he didn’t – dozens of hours into the game – was incredibly silly of the game’s writers.
Despite FFVIII’s love story being the central focus of the title, I felt that other games did a better job at connecting me to their two love birds.
Still, how do you improve upon Final Fantasy VI, and Final Fantasy VII’s storytelling brilliance? Very few JRPGs have managed to enter the realm of discussion with those two titles. Final Fantasy VIII missed the mark, but so has every other Final Fantasy game (except FFIX) since.
All that said, Squall can be a complex character if you want to look deep into his psyche. A lot of my complaints about the game’s love story missing certain beats here are purely subjective. Many critics loved it. In fact, I will admit that the actual translation and written lines of dialogue were better than anything Squaresoft had published before it.
Maybe, I was just a jaded JRPG gamer, and held the game to unrealistic expectations coming off Final Fantasy VII.
Perhaps the one thing that I disliked the most was the game’s Junction System, and the fact that bosses leveled up with your party. At the time, I played the game very stupidly, and managed to get to Ultimecia’s last stretch of boss battles without a properly developed cast (despite having played the game for over 70 hours).
This was likely an oversight on the part of unwise 14 year old me. I played Final Fantasy VIII like I had played every FF before it, despite the game having unique systems and different strategies (such as trading cards for certain powerful items). But the ordeal made the last stretch of boss battles (you couldn’t save in between battles) a hellish one. It took me multiple tries and an entire school day (which I skipped) to finally beat the game.
Looking back on FFVIII, and having played through it recently, I would have to say that I was a bit too harsh on it in terms of crapping on the Junction System. Yes, the system wasn’t as intuitive as the Materia and Esper systems present in the previous entries of the series, but I can see why Squaresoft would have wanted to ‘innovate’ within the genre at that time. The company was thriving, and Final Fantasy was at the pinnacle of the genre, and video games as a whole.
Square had set the visual and storytelling standards by which all other JRPGs would be judged with FFVII, why not do the same gameplay wise with FFVIII?
Unlike Final Fantasy XIII, which I felt was a true disaster born of the desire to make money. Final Fantasy VIII was a bit of convoluted mess made with true passion for game design by the development team. Even if I still hold the belief that the Junction system was inferior to previous Final Fantasy gameplay mainstay, I can understand why this was done.
If it makes FFVIII fans feel better, the game has the most entertaining and consequential card battling and trading mini game in the series.
Final Fantasy VIII Has a Certain Style of Visual Flair That Remains Iconic to this Day
The game’s teen soap opera vibes, and its elaborate character designs remain unique to the title to this day. Weapons like Squall’s gun blade remain iconic looking, and the game did provide some of the best tunes that series has produced in nearly 4 decades of existence.
The Junction system which I once hated with a passion might make Final Fantasy VIII one of the most playable games in the series today. Simply, it is so different from the other games that this “uniqueness” alone makes it worth a play for younger gamers curious of the series golden age entries.
I think the game’s blend of classic and sci-fi futuristic architecture remains unmatched. The game features an ageless art style which is accompanied by a tremendous musical score that will continue to wow audiences today. Obviously, it remains a 32-bit title in remastered form, but with the proper mindset one can appreciate that despite my rants a quarter century ago about the game, it is a better Final Fantasy game than anything that has come out of Square Enix in the last 2 decades.
In fact, writing about Final Fantasy VIII here brought back some nostalgic memories of how hyped I was about the game. I read every single magazine clipping I could find in order to find out details about the game as I anxiously awaited for Squaresoft to finally launch the game on the US.
I haven’t been hyped about Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy X, but alongside FFVII, and FFIX, Final Fantasy VIII is likely the most hyped I have ever been for a Final Fantasy game.
It is important to note that Final Fantasy VIII while not quite as monumentally successful, as Final Fantasy VII had commercially been, the game sold extremely well in its time, and it is the fourth best selling Final Fantasy of all time (10 million units sold). More importantly, it was one of Sony’s premier titles in a year where Sega launched the Dreamcast hardware.
Final Fantasy VIII was one of the titles Sony hoped would keep its flock content until the launch of the PlayStation 2 the following year. Given how history played out, I would say that Final Fantasy VIII was successful in belping the PlayStation platform achieve that goal.
All of my complaints about the game are truly of a subjective nature. Who knows? If you haven’t yet, give FFVIII a try. Maybe you will find the game to be your favorite Final Fantasy game ever.
Agree with the author? Couldn’t disagree more and are frothing at the mouth to tell him? Leave a comment here, on Facebook or send an email and make sure to follow Never Ending Realm on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!