Post by angelzeromatt on Jun 29, 2008 11:09:34 GMT -5
Welcome to the Real World - Episode II
Name: Final Fantasy VIII
Console: Playstation
So, here we are. From the makers of the one thing where the number 7 didn't mean "holy" or "remotely good", came Final Fantasy VIII. You take the role of another so-called silent protagonist, but this time he really is silent. Silent, a*shole (if you make the a*shole choices), and also very much cold and antisocial. What's there not to like, huh? Basically, you do mercenary stuff for a while, get in over your head with a militaristic government and stumble on some kind of Sorceress plot to do... What exactly? I can't remember, but it's something bad because you need to stop her... By giving her what she wants...?
Story: 9/10
The shining star of VIII, its story was very well thought-out and the occasional swap from Squall to Laguna gave insight to the main character's unmanly father (oops). Along the way, you're fed with lines that occur only within Squall's head, which makes the most sense because of the kind of character he is, one who does lots of inward thinking instead of speaking aloud.
Character development as far as main characters go is well-done, but more development could have been done with the other controllable characters besides making them all from the same orphanage and such, but I can't complain. It was an interesting place to start them off, where they were kind of like the first SeeDs but not the very first (since they were originally all orphans Edea took in, to care for them).
The theme of the story, also, takes a drastic change from its predecessor that can go shoot itself. Going away from the whole obvious 'save the world' theme that's gotten quite old, they opted for starting with a sort of 'school time' theme in the beginning, then going to mercenary and missions with a paycheck coming in every so often as you play on. Then when you get into the third disc, I think, you finally find out, 'Crap. A Sorceress from the future wants to control the world by pinching time together into one place.' Okay, a weak desire in the first place, if I'm even remembering right, but the fact that they waited that long for Squall to finally think "Okay, now we have to do something that isn't ordered of us as mercenaries," is definitely a good thing.
The fact that they played with the idea of predestination gives it a plus, too. It's the idea that Edea only gets Sorceress powers by taking them from the Sorceress you beat at the end of the game when she falls into the past. While Squall asks her not to do it, Edea does it anyways to save her 'children' and thus the cycle continues. Confusing and yet... Oh, come on! I like it, at least!
On to the bigger part, the romance. There's a romance theme that comes in later on in the game when Squall is being annoyed by the presence of this girl Rinoa who's constantly around him, talking and whining and stuff. He eventually gets used to it, but when she goes comatose, he starts realizing he kinda liked the bint and decides he wants to wake her up. So he goes against orders (wth? Squall going against orders?) and tries to go it alone to help her, but ends up being followed by his orphan buddies and they help him out while he's like "What's the matter with you people?".
Gameplay: 7/10
Okay, the biggest hit comes here. Classic stand-in-line battles, but no rows now, still 3 people in the party. Junction and Draw system is very unique and well planned, but also can take a while if you're an OCD RPG player and try to get 100 of everything. Thankfully, you can just cast spells right out of an enemy, too. Like I said in the previous review, too, you end up at a point where everyone can be God-awful powerful when all of your Guardian Forces get to learning every ability they can.
Nonetheless, Guardian Forces growth and learning, Junctioning magic, no worries about MP, and the only equipment you have to worry about is the junk shop for weapons, which most of them look really cool, especially Lionheart.
Of course, you can go through the entire game with just the initial equipment, because the monster's power also depends on Squall's level. While sometimes that's like a kick in the bollocks, it's actually pretty ingenious since Squall levels up faster than your other characters, but that it doesn't mean the monsters are always easy to beat the crap out of. It also means you don't have to go to a specific spot on the map somewhere for the best level-up opportunities.
Sum up gameplay, it's good, but it could be better as far as difficulty and such. Plenty of times, it's a little too easy, and sometimes it's like you're trying to defeat God.
Music/Sound: 8/10
The music is, by far, the best of its time, trumping all of Final Fantasy VII's ghastly repetitious music with themes for every area that were unique and stuff (aside from one cave theme that deserved to be used another time because it didn't get much time in the first place). Sounds were a lot better than in VII, and the bloody fanfare was all on the right key, unlike VII! I don't know who said the music wasn't good, because they were obviously deaf!
Presentation: 9/10
Motion capture!!! VIII used motion capture very well, and the intro sequence, a battle between rivals, was absolutely eye-poppingly awesome. The constant bombardment of realistic settings alongside characters who actually are to-scale people and not SD gives VIII a big bonus. Also, the cutscenes are all with motion capture and all look so bloody real, you'd think they weren't CG! Though a downside for realistic settings is if they don't have a button that lets you see where doors are and such, but more often than not, you don't need it for VIII. Only in crappy games like VII that can't handle making things obvious. The screen is very rarely cluttered with scenery, and you're allowed quite a lot of freedom to move around. Catch? Your party members are at your heels. After a while, in towns and such, you get bored of your party members following the exact path you walk out (I admit, I've often run in circles and then random direction just to see them run around in as many circles as me before following after). Aesthetically pleasing, aside from the following, Presentation gets a good, solid rating.
Overall: 9/10
An example of a good RPG, the story and characters are quite immersible and the main character grows a lot as you go through the story. However, the main factor of whether you'll love or hate this game is if you can stomach the Draw system enough to get used to it and use it properly rather than OCD to death and lose the fun of the game. If you want a break from typical RPGs, try grabbing for this one. Even if it's easy to play most of the time, that means you have more time for the good story they lay out for you.
Why, oh why, this game got so stepped on and not promoted as well as VII is beyond me. You can't pull the 'revolutionary' crap because VIII is the first to do REAL motion capture and make it look real. Perhaps people didn't like Squall's personality. Then again, there are so many Squall impersonators that are so popular all of a sudden, why is there no love for the original, the God of protagonists?
So the biggest make or break part of the game is if you can bother using your brain for this game instead of having everything explained to you from the very beginning and taking the easy way out. Final Fantasy VIII is not for the lazy gamer, which is a funny thing to say because most gamers play games because they are lazy. Anyways, wake up your brain if you want to try VIII. If you don't, you'll miss one of the best games ever made.
Name: Final Fantasy VIII
Console: Playstation
So, here we are. From the makers of the one thing where the number 7 didn't mean "holy" or "remotely good", came Final Fantasy VIII. You take the role of another so-called silent protagonist, but this time he really is silent. Silent, a*shole (if you make the a*shole choices), and also very much cold and antisocial. What's there not to like, huh? Basically, you do mercenary stuff for a while, get in over your head with a militaristic government and stumble on some kind of Sorceress plot to do... What exactly? I can't remember, but it's something bad because you need to stop her... By giving her what she wants...?
Story: 9/10
The shining star of VIII, its story was very well thought-out and the occasional swap from Squall to Laguna gave insight to the main character's unmanly father (oops). Along the way, you're fed with lines that occur only within Squall's head, which makes the most sense because of the kind of character he is, one who does lots of inward thinking instead of speaking aloud.
Character development as far as main characters go is well-done, but more development could have been done with the other controllable characters besides making them all from the same orphanage and such, but I can't complain. It was an interesting place to start them off, where they were kind of like the first SeeDs but not the very first (since they were originally all orphans Edea took in, to care for them).
The theme of the story, also, takes a drastic change from its predecessor that can go shoot itself. Going away from the whole obvious 'save the world' theme that's gotten quite old, they opted for starting with a sort of 'school time' theme in the beginning, then going to mercenary and missions with a paycheck coming in every so often as you play on. Then when you get into the third disc, I think, you finally find out, 'Crap. A Sorceress from the future wants to control the world by pinching time together into one place.' Okay, a weak desire in the first place, if I'm even remembering right, but the fact that they waited that long for Squall to finally think "Okay, now we have to do something that isn't ordered of us as mercenaries," is definitely a good thing.
The fact that they played with the idea of predestination gives it a plus, too. It's the idea that Edea only gets Sorceress powers by taking them from the Sorceress you beat at the end of the game when she falls into the past. While Squall asks her not to do it, Edea does it anyways to save her 'children' and thus the cycle continues. Confusing and yet... Oh, come on! I like it, at least!
On to the bigger part, the romance. There's a romance theme that comes in later on in the game when Squall is being annoyed by the presence of this girl Rinoa who's constantly around him, talking and whining and stuff. He eventually gets used to it, but when she goes comatose, he starts realizing he kinda liked the bint and decides he wants to wake her up. So he goes against orders (wth? Squall going against orders?) and tries to go it alone to help her, but ends up being followed by his orphan buddies and they help him out while he's like "What's the matter with you people?".
Gameplay: 7/10
Okay, the biggest hit comes here. Classic stand-in-line battles, but no rows now, still 3 people in the party. Junction and Draw system is very unique and well planned, but also can take a while if you're an OCD RPG player and try to get 100 of everything. Thankfully, you can just cast spells right out of an enemy, too. Like I said in the previous review, too, you end up at a point where everyone can be God-awful powerful when all of your Guardian Forces get to learning every ability they can.
Nonetheless, Guardian Forces growth and learning, Junctioning magic, no worries about MP, and the only equipment you have to worry about is the junk shop for weapons, which most of them look really cool, especially Lionheart.
Of course, you can go through the entire game with just the initial equipment, because the monster's power also depends on Squall's level. While sometimes that's like a kick in the bollocks, it's actually pretty ingenious since Squall levels up faster than your other characters, but that it doesn't mean the monsters are always easy to beat the crap out of. It also means you don't have to go to a specific spot on the map somewhere for the best level-up opportunities.
Sum up gameplay, it's good, but it could be better as far as difficulty and such. Plenty of times, it's a little too easy, and sometimes it's like you're trying to defeat God.
Music/Sound: 8/10
The music is, by far, the best of its time, trumping all of Final Fantasy VII's ghastly repetitious music with themes for every area that were unique and stuff (aside from one cave theme that deserved to be used another time because it didn't get much time in the first place). Sounds were a lot better than in VII, and the bloody fanfare was all on the right key, unlike VII! I don't know who said the music wasn't good, because they were obviously deaf!
Presentation: 9/10
Motion capture!!! VIII used motion capture very well, and the intro sequence, a battle between rivals, was absolutely eye-poppingly awesome. The constant bombardment of realistic settings alongside characters who actually are to-scale people and not SD gives VIII a big bonus. Also, the cutscenes are all with motion capture and all look so bloody real, you'd think they weren't CG! Though a downside for realistic settings is if they don't have a button that lets you see where doors are and such, but more often than not, you don't need it for VIII. Only in crappy games like VII that can't handle making things obvious. The screen is very rarely cluttered with scenery, and you're allowed quite a lot of freedom to move around. Catch? Your party members are at your heels. After a while, in towns and such, you get bored of your party members following the exact path you walk out (I admit, I've often run in circles and then random direction just to see them run around in as many circles as me before following after). Aesthetically pleasing, aside from the following, Presentation gets a good, solid rating.
Overall: 9/10
An example of a good RPG, the story and characters are quite immersible and the main character grows a lot as you go through the story. However, the main factor of whether you'll love or hate this game is if you can stomach the Draw system enough to get used to it and use it properly rather than OCD to death and lose the fun of the game. If you want a break from typical RPGs, try grabbing for this one. Even if it's easy to play most of the time, that means you have more time for the good story they lay out for you.
Why, oh why, this game got so stepped on and not promoted as well as VII is beyond me. You can't pull the 'revolutionary' crap because VIII is the first to do REAL motion capture and make it look real. Perhaps people didn't like Squall's personality. Then again, there are so many Squall impersonators that are so popular all of a sudden, why is there no love for the original, the God of protagonists?
So the biggest make or break part of the game is if you can bother using your brain for this game instead of having everything explained to you from the very beginning and taking the easy way out. Final Fantasy VIII is not for the lazy gamer, which is a funny thing to say because most gamers play games because they are lazy. Anyways, wake up your brain if you want to try VIII. If you don't, you'll miss one of the best games ever made.
