For those who don’t know, next year is the 20th
anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy VIII and, just like with the hopes
of a remaster of Xenogears, fans of this series is hoping for a remaster to
come out on next-gen systems, much in the way that Final Fantasy VII, Final
Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII have.
Final Fantasy XIII is
a rather unique game in the franchises’ history due to the heavy focus on the
love story between the main protagonist Squall, and Rinoa, debatably the most
important female protagonist in the game.
The game tackles themes about love, time travel, multiple dimensions,
and the manipulation of the past to change the present. There are also hints of memory manipulation
within the main story and over all there, are heavy Sci-Fi elements that help
to build and flush the Final Fantasy VIII world out, creating a rich universe
that I personally think would be interesting to explore further.
The graphics during the gameplay portions of the game suffer
by today’s standards considering the game uses 3D character models on a 2D pre-rendered
background as did its predecessor and successor. By the standards of 1999, though, graphically
this game was a powerhouse considering it was on the PSX and by incorporating
CGI cut scenes that DO stand up to today’s standards into the game, Squaresoft
(now SquareEnix) set an incredibly high standard for its competitors to meet. Performance wise, the game excels, with only a
few moments of slowdown and stuttering in a couple of scenes where Squaresoft
was experimenting with incorporation their CGI cut scenes into the standard
gameplay portions of the game.
The musical score, just as it has been in all Final Fantasy
titles, is absolutely beautiful and is integral in pulling the player into the
story and the events that are happening at that time. The score is so memorable that, after having
played the game once, most people can picture their time in the game that
corresponds with the piece that they are listening and still feel the same
emotions as what they felt the first time around.
Gameplay in Final Fantasy VIII is, as has been the standard
of the series, tight and well thought out with the exception being the
combat. Combat is, in my opinion, the
dark stain on this particular title. The
standard combat is perfectly fine in the way that is works, the issue comes in
when you get your Guardian Forces, or GFs if you will, because once you get
them (one in particular) leveled up a little bit, it is possible to go the rest
of the game with minimal amounts of combat.
Because of this (and the fact that the enemies scale to your character’s
levels) I was able to progress to the end of the game and defeat the final boss
while maintaining a level around 20, which is incredibly low, by just
repeatedly summoning my GFs into battle, making sure my characters were never
in too much danger. One of the places
that the gameplay does shine though, is in the Junction System. This system allows the player to junction
magic to the characters’ stats, providing all kind of benefits, which makes for
some really interesting combinations.
(The scores take the standards of the games at the time of
release into consideration as opposed to today’s standards)
Graphics – 10
Performance – 8
Sound – 10
Gameplay – 7
Story – 10
Replayability – 10
Total – 9.2
out of 10
- Arylin Michelle
No comments:
Post a Comment