Product Description

This instalment of the best-selling final fantasy series incorporates the theme of love into an RPG storyline of epic proportions. The Final Fantasy VIII world comes to life in a dazzling display of digital artistry as life-like characters and seamlessly integrated CG animation are enhanced with Dolby Surround Sound technology. With Analog Controller (DUAL SHOCK) and PocketStation compatibility. END

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3297 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-10-29
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
SquareSoft has always had a sure-fire hit when releasing any of their Final Fantasy titles, and Final Fantasy VIII should be no exception. The basis of a good RPG (role-playing game) has always been the story; spectacular graphics are secondary. Final Fantasy VIII's involved and interesting storyline is filled with great twists, well-developed characters, suspense, and romance. As an added bonus, the graphics are beautiful. Everything--from the low-lit jazz club to the steam-filled railroad tunnels--is gorgeous and perfectly sets the mood and tone of a scene.

The game mechanics are standard fare for an RPG: acquisition of items and spells, turn-based combat, experience points earned in combat allowing advances in levels. From exploration to battles to dialogue, Final Fantasy VIII has it all. However, Final Fantasy VIII falls to that great weakness of RPGs: random battles. While necessary for advancing in levels, the battles occur with such frequency that they can grow annoying, making for a tedious game experience.

The epic storyline spans four discs--over 40 hours of gameplay--and is based around a mercenary cadet who finds himself caught up with an underground rebel faction. He winds up in a plot to assassinate the sorceress who has just seized power from the president.

You could complain of limited replay value, but this gripe is of no consequence: the game is such a satisfying experience, it doesn't require replay. Final Fantasy VIII is easily worth both the hype and the wait. You can't buy a much better game. --John Cocking

Pros:
• A story to beat all stories
• Characters worth caring about
• Hey--it's from SquareSoft
• Stunning animations

Cons:
• Too many random battles
• Combat is, as always, turn-based and offers minimal excitement
• Weak souls might give up after two or three discs of play

Customer Reviews

near perfection!
First of all, oh my god what a game this is! About 6 years ago it was the game that got me into rpg's and I've never looked back since.

Many people will tell you that 8 isn't as good as 7 or 6, siting the more futuristic setting and battle system as there reasons, I have to say I think this is rubbish, I have bought this game 4 times to date, I currently have two copies, a platinum edition to play, and an original to keep pristine!

The storyline is excellent, watching as Squall turns from a bit of a git to a compassionate and emotional individual is a journey in itself, and you'll find yourself really caring about most of the characters in the game, even Seifer comes across as a confused and lost individual, though he is the main villain for the first few discs.

This is the main strength of the game, it's storyline and character development are the best I've experienced in any final fantasy, and I've played 8 of them! The combat system is also sturdy and runs in the vein of other playstation final fantasy games with a few exceptions, which are where the few flaws of the game are apparent.

Rather than having magic points, your characters draw spells from points scattered around the world and from enemies in battle. This soon becomes tedious as fights with easy enemies tend to degenerate into drawing magic from them for half an hour before killing them. Your weopons and stats don't get much better as you gain levels, instead magic is junctioned to various stats to increase them. This is a good idea, but means that you very rarely, if ever, use magic, as any spent spells drop your stats. This system is badly flawed, Square I think understood this and has dropped it in ff games since then.

However, despite these flaws, the game remains an epic story and entertaining for it's 70 hour lifetime, which is a crtedit to it, as the magic system would have spoilt a lesser game. And yes it is a bit easy, but Omega Weapon on the final disc is a fight thats harder than anything I have experienced on any other game, so there aqre fights to challenge even experienced rpg'ers.

So all in all, buy it and enjoy it, in my opinion this is the peek of the series from a storyline point of view, so be warned, once you start, you won't be putting this down.

Still one of the greats! (warning for ps3)
Im not really good at reviews so this was more just a warning to buyers of this game, the ORIGINAL (picture disc) version of FFVIII does NOT work on PS3, i was gutted to find this out after waiting so long to play it again but other than that (Sony need to rectify this soon) this game cant get much better, only thing that i could criticise would be the graphics but wahat is to be expected from such an old title in todays market.
If u want great gameplay, great story, great action and a great RPG then this is definately the game for you.

Great story, awsome characters, and flawless gameplay
If you thought that ff7 could not be matched you were wrong it has. Squaresoft has out done themselves this time. The game id harder than ff7and much longer,ther is none of that cheap counter attacking 20x's with comet and KOTR or endless combos my sister could use to beat the game, no you are limited to 3x magic using triple or 1 you hear me 1 counter attack. this game blows them all away its untouchable!