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Oooooh, just saw this at the Lost forum. A Lost game? How have I never heard of this??

#81.
Final Fantasy VIII (PlayStation)


Yep, another Final Fantasy game that did not even crack the top 80. A lot of people agree that after the awesomeness of Final Fantasy 7, FF8 was a bit of a letdown. I will admit, it is my second least favorite of all the newer Final Fantasy games. While it doesn't necessarily stack up to the better titles in the FF series, by itself it is still a good enough game. Over the years I have decided to put away my irrational hate for the game and have learned to like it.

The graphics changed from the cartoony look in FF7 to a more realistic look. The music is as solid as ever, as expected of all the Sqaresoft titles. The cutscenes are stellar. The world of the game is amazing and well designed. The gameplay and storyline is where this one falls a bit short from the others. Let's start with the storyline. I don't remember too much about it, even though I have played through this game at least three times. It has something to do with this evil Sorceress trying to take over the world. I think she tries to summon a bunch of fiends from the moon or something. I remember the fact that a lot of the characters grew up together on an orphanage, but did not realize they knew each other until later on in life. The fact that I don't remember a whole lot of the story should tell you a bit about the quality of it.

Now the gameplay.... First off, I am not a huge fan of the whole draw system. I like the more traditional spell system found in other games. Drawing seemed a bit tedious and not thought out enough. Wasn't a fan. The combat itself is turn based like the other FF games. It was easy enough to follow. Nothing too new or exciting about it. The bosses were big and darn tough to beat. I recall this being one of the harder FFs. I like a challenge, but damn, a lot of the enemies took forever to beat, or were so hard they recquired multiple tries. Even after repeated leveling up. Also, it's a really long game, takes a while to beat. But some of the length of it seems kind of drawn out or forced.

But still, despite all of the flaws, this is still a Final Fantasy game, and it puts a lot of other RPGs to shame. If you give it a chance, once you start playing it will be really hard to put down. Squaresoft just has a way of drawing you into their cleverly designed worlds and hanging on to you until you complete their game. It may not be close to the best that Square has to offer, but if you look at it on its own and don't compare it with the other FF games, it stands by itself as a solid title.