Final Fantasy VIII Game Review
I have not played this game in a long time. Mostly, because my PS2 is so freaking old. It has problems loading up the world map. It kinda hard to win this game if you cannot get out of Ballad Garden. In any case, I bought this game after playing it over the top at my cousin's house. The first time I played it I did really bad. I had to start a whole new file to defeat Ultimecia. I was in freaking level 100 and that crazy witch kept beating me up. It is almost impossible to defect Ultimecia without Holy Wars. I remember that in my first file, I got as far as her Final Form. You remember, My Name is Ultimecia , Time Shall Compress, All existence Denied. My Squall did not survive her second attack.
At that point, I threw that file out the window. I started a new one from scratch. Now that I come to think about it, I think that was not my first File. Now, I remember! I had to start a new file because of Adel. I was in Lunatic Pandora and all the monster gave you 1 of EXP. I sorta saved right before the battle. Thus, the only way to advance was to defeat Adel. My guys where to weak to defeat this He/She witch. You know, I had a hard time believing that Adel was a chick. Seriously, dude, she was such a dude. She did not use a T-shirt because she had the pectorals of a guy on steroids. She was one strangely designed FF character. I remember one time, we put on reckless rush to try to slay the beast. Little did I know, that Reckless Rush berserk could not tell the difference between Adel and Rinoa. Oh, well... The battle across time was pretty cool.
From all the Final Fantasy games I played, this one felt the longest. Storyline wise, a lot of things happened in this game. I like the going back in time thing. Laguna's fight song was 5 star worthy. My favorite part was the movie shooting. If I remember correctly, he was filming a movie about a princess or something. It turns out that the fake Ruby Dragon was a real Ruby Dragon. I remember that fight because it was my first game over. It was such a pain. Every bite of that thing emptied out half my HP bar. To make matters worse I could not fry him with magic or anything.
However, the thing that humored me the most where the GFs. This game had the most varied summoned monsters. In no other Final Fantasy game have I seen, Quetzacoalt, Doomtrain, Siren, The Brothers, Diablos, Pandemona or Eden. I have see the Tonberry King and the Jumbo Cactuar as bad guys. There was also the weirdness with Odin and Gilgamesh. For a few files I did not use either. For some stupid reason I kept overlooking Odin's ruins. I do remember getting Odin in the 4th CD. That was when I left Ultimecia's castle for the first time. It was so hard to maneuver through the forest. It was such a pain to find the Ragnarok airship. I needed to get to the Chocobo forest. However, the only portal to it was in the Malvoro forest. In all the FF games, those Malvoro have always killed me, regardless of the level.
You know, the speech of Ultimecia Possessed Edea was also one piece of work. Her costume was wonderful. Now that I think about it, this is one of the few FF games where the final boss is a woman. Its interesting that she is considered to be the hardest FF final boss ever made. Considering what you need to slay her it is not surprising that they say so. I liked also the variety of monsters and magic. The junction system was really something else. It was ,at first, kinda hard to figure out. It took me even longer to discover the purpose of the +1 abilities. For this reason, making the best of the levels was such a pain. Eventually, I settled into using Squall to train the GF. The side effect was that the first character was the weakest and the last one was the strongest.
I never liked the Zell character. I always Kamikaze him against Ultimecia. That was the fastest way to get rid of the first form of Ultimecia. The reddit people tell me that Zell has the strongest Limit Break. However, I never had the patience to get all the clicks correctly. You know, this is one of the few games where the card inner game is of importance. You need to Laguna character card to get the Holy Wars. Without them...
The scenery of this game is pretty decent. The world map is obviously an eyesore. However, within the areas the place looks pretty cool. The best designed area is the castle of Ultimecia. You can literary get lost in that big place. My favorite room is the one with the paintings. I remember that the big painting's name was faded. When you guess it right, a monster jumps you. That is a pretty standard scenario in a Final Fantasy game. Part of the trails of the last castle, is defeating the monsters that seal your powers. To be honest, I only remember the end clearly.
I spent most of the game in Disk 4. Plus, in my opinion the ending was the most memorable. Time compression is really such a pain. Its interesting how the game went in full circle. The music was simply sublime. I like best the Possession song. You remember, it was the one that played when Rinoa freed Adel in out of space. Another song that was charming was the organ music from Ultimecia's castle. I think we had to play a song to unlock an area. I think that was pretty cool. The Eyes on Me song was a real pain. I liked better the joke version. It was the one that seriously killed the mood in the Squall x Rinoa date.
However, the most creative thing I saw in the game was the Lunar Cry. In this Final Fantasy world, the monsters come from the Moon. Lunatic Pandora draws the monsters to earth when it is in a key location. I forgot what that place was called. I do remember that I did find Doomtrain in that place. Other than that, we have the Island Closes to Heaven and the Island Closes to Hell. Both places are filled with hidden Draw spots and super killer monsters. I think that is everything worth mentioning. There is a lot more to say of the game. However, I will get back to that on another blog. I suppose I should give a spoiler alert for anyone that has yet to play the game. As for me, I am just basing this review on my gaming experience. Final Fantasy VIII, is truly a 5 star worthy game. You know, I never noticed the little guy underneath Ultimecia.
