Final Fantasy VIII
1999
- role-playing (rpg)
- adventure
- card & board game
- fantasy
- science fiction
- open world
- single player
The story
Final Fantasy VIII is the eighth main installment in the Final Fantasy series. The gameplay makes a departure from many series standards. While it still uses the Active Time Battle system, it deviates from the series' traditional means of boosting a character's power via leveling, although levels are not completely abandoned as they were in Final Fantasy II. In addition, it does not have a Magic Point-based system for spell-casting. Instead, magic is collected, drawn, and created from items, and is used to power up the characters via the junction system.
What it’s like
Pre-rendered painted backdrops and sweeping CG cutscenes give this game a glossy, dreamlike surface, with rain on military concrete, sodium-lit corridors, and the washed-out sepia of a desert flashback that feels like a faded photograph. Uematsu's score moves from brooding synth-orchestra to a wistful ballad that lingers after the credits. The pace is unhurried: long stretches of exploring a school campus, shuffling cards in a tavern minigame, and fiddling with menus to build your party's magic, punctuated by turn-based battles that sometimes turn violent, with blood-tinged cinematics and characters who die. The emotional register is melancholic and romantic, with a teenage soldier slowly learning to trust and open up to the people around him, and a mood of quiet loneliness rather than dread. It suits a rainy weekend, a late-night playthrough, or a nostalgic revisit. It is for players who want a moody, character-driven story with a dreamy soundtrack and a lot of optional, absorbing side-play.
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