Final Fantasy VIII Developer: Squaresoft Publisher: Eidos Interactive (In Europe) Category: : 3D RPG System Req: PII 266, 64Mb Ram, 600Mb free HD space, 4mb Graphic card, Win95/98, Might look like: Final Fantasy VII Date posted: 1 May 2000 Written By: Peter - This game was tested on PII 350, 128mb Ram, Nvidia TNT2, Win98 - A little Introduction Somewhere in the huge world of final fantasy we find Garden,a strange-shaped building that serves as a school for soldiers. It's a private facility for young people.If they don't pass the graduation exam during the ages of 15 to 19,they will be expelled from Garden. A much harder goal than passing the gradation exam is to become a member of SeeD. SeeD is a special force of elite soldiers. Squall,the main persone of this FF episode is hoping to become of the squad. At a glance,this world is peacefull. But in the closet it hides many small problems,carrying a situation where war can break through at any time. The Garden was created in such a world. A private school of soldiers created to quiet down the disputes,located all around the world,but not working under any country. By sending the soldiers of the Garden around the world, the seeds of world war were being destroyed and the military powers,balanced. At first glance,this world was peaceful. Until the legendary witch awoke from the long silence. When Squall is inducted into SeeD, the elite mercenary force of Garden attends a dinner party for the new recruits, during which he meets Rinoa. Although they do not reveal their identies at the party, Squall encounters Rinoa later, and discovers she is the leader of the Forest Owls,a rebel organisation fighting against the nation of Galbaldia. The Forest Owls are not very effective in their battles against Galbardia,despite being assissted by SeeD. All the members of Forest Owls appear to have a little concern about the consequences of their actions ... The Manual The game comes with a manual of 40 pages explaining al the basic things you need the know. Card game, characters, gameplay, credits, Installation and so on ... the basics. On the last 2 pages you'll find some advertisements of FF 8 figures. The manual of FF8 is pretty good done. Excuse me, 500MB? Correct, however you can choose between two installation options. The first one will install the game on approximately 300MB. The second option will install the game with additional game data on approximately 500MB. I suggest to install the game with the additional game data to let you play the game more smoothly. The Characters Unlike the unproportional goofy looking characters in FFVII, the characters in Final Fantasy VIII are proportional themselves and to their enviorments. I made al little introduction to all the characters. Squall Leonhart Squall Leonhart is a 17-year-old with a large scare on his forehead.He is expressionless and unfriendly--essentially a lone wolf. He cares not for himself, and shows no concern for anything else. In a way, he is sort of a loner. Personallity-wise, he is very close to Cloud. His weapon the GunBlade is very powerful. He is 5'10" in height Zell Dincht Not much is known about him, but he looks like a street fighter. That is probally why he uses the Fist Gauntlets. He's also very funny during lots of scenes in the game. He may be a friend of Squall. He is 5'6" in height. Seifer Almasy This guy's name is Seifer Almasy. He is Squall's rival. He is an experienced fighter, who loves to win. Uses a broad sword.He is 6'1" and wears a white cape. Rinoa Heartilly This is Rinoa Heartilly. She was formerly known as Lenore, but her name has changed since. Some of the older pics may say Lenore. She uses a Yuffie-like weapon called a Ring Blade or Bladed Shield. Confirmed by the FF8 Logo, she is Squal's love interest. She's also 5'4". Laguna Loire Laguna Loire is a very expressive 27-year-old optimist, with a strong sence of justice and charity. He is popular and trusted by his companions, the exact opposite of Squall. Originally a soldier, he is now a journalist who fights for justice. He uses a Boomerang as a weapon and is 5'11".    The most important part, Gameplay Gameplay in FFVIII is definitely not average. Words such as, "addicting" and "rewarding" come to mind. You acquire magic, Guardian Forces, and items to customize characters to your liking with a system called Junctioning. Magic Points seen in the other FF games are gone. Instead, magic must be drawn from monsters and stored like items. You junction spells to certain statistics(Hit Points, Vitality, etc) to increase your effectiveness in battles. The more you draw and junction, the stronger your character gets. Guardian Forces, similar to Summons in FFVII, can be used two ways. Unleash their power in a single attack(in beautiful, but too long summon sequences), or acquire their abilities. (Ie: Teach Diablos "Enc-Half," and equip the ability to get less random monster encounters, which is a blessing with this game's encounter rate). You won't find any armor in chests, or any chests for that matter. Magic in essence becomes your armor, and chests come in the form of randomly-placed Draw Points, where you can get free magic(without getting beat up). Hardcore RPG players will be challenged by the Junction system. People with less of a mania for stat crunching might be put off by it. I'm somewhere in the middle, and it took me at least ten hours before I started to fully understand and appreciate it. If you're of the casual gamers, don't give up so easily. You'll be sacrificing the worth of your purchase. This is a game to tend carefully and lovingly. Love your Junction abilities! Hug your Guardian Forces, but don't let them out to play too much! Seriously, those Guardian Forces may be cool and powerful at first, but once you get past Disc 1, you might find that Shiva and Quezacotl aren't as fit as they used to be. Junctioning properly will make Guardian Force summons almost totally unnecessary. Limit Breaks make an appearance again. Unique and powerful special attacks become available when your HP becomes dangerously low. Because of this, you won't be seeing them much, unless you're _really_ bad(or I've heard of a trick/glitch where you can use them in every turn). That is unfortunate, because with Zell's head-bashing martial arts, or Irvine's gun-toting antics, they are quite cool. Each has only one weapon for the entire game, but you can upgrade them with items received from battles. You can become quit powerful by upgrading and learning more Limit Breaks, even more-so than the Guardian Force summons.    Sidequests include a card game, Triple Triad. It can be played with many people throughout the world. You can pretty much ask anyone. Rules vary with each area of the world, lending to almost unlimited replay value(depending on your patience). A few people have rare cards that can be refined into needed items to get weapon upgrades and magic. Monsters can also be occasionally turned into cards once your Guardian Force learns the ability. Yes, there's always a Chocobo. Did you need to ask? While the Chocobo's role in this game is diminished, you can have a little extra fun with it. If you own an imported Pocketstation, rare items can be found in certain parts of the world with Chocobos. Like Triple Triad, it's by no means a necessity to finish the game successfully. I myself don't own a Pocketstation, so I can't comment on its worth. Other aspects of the gameplay retain the basic, reliable feel of most other Final Fantasy games. You talk a lot, find clues, discover new ways of traveling, traverse dangerous caves and forests. Playable characters come and go, major plot twists abound, you know the deal. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9-200/0 "rip your own stuff"