The Romance Final Fantasy
If someone wanted a romance type RPG, this would be the game for it. It started out slow and awkward but things started to play out. I got to point out one thing though that the manual is misleading in a way. It gives a perceive notion that the game will be about two men. More specifically about Laguna and Squall. Not true. Take a good look at the image that is part of the Final Fantasy VIII title. Whoever did the design of the manual and such should've did a better job. (I really wish that Laguna would've had more gameplay time.)
As for the story, it's really about the relationship between Squall and Rinoa. As in any relationships, there are going to be turbulent times, and if a relationship could survive that, they could survive anything. We'll, if you haven't played this I won't spoil you to the details. Subsequently, the Final Fantasy successors of VIII tried to play upon the romance theme such as X, but it wasn't as good. Of course the focus of the plot was different though interesting as usual. Back to the review, love isn't love unless there's ups and downs and surely there will be ups and downs.
Now a lot of people complained about the Junction system, but I just don't understand how people have such a hard time understanding it. Truthfully, I love. It is by far the best system that I have seen. The system is reminds me of Final Fantasy 6 Esper junctioning or equipping though much more advance. The Junctioning system, if used correctly, will render the characters practically immune to any status ailments, bolster certain stats to even maxing out one or a few out, and also how you could add status ailments to your attacks. A good test of how well you've done could be to challenge Malboros. Malboros are the only monster that I hate and disdain in that game.
The musical score of Final Fantasy 8 is beautiful. Nobou Uematsu did a fine job. Also, Faye Wong's rendition of "Eye's on Me" is so spectacular. Fits in extremely well, and beautifully describes Julia's admiration and love for Laguna.
Visuals. Not that's an odd one. The in-game FMV's are just wonderfully done. Very very well done. Something that, then, Square could only have done. The Dollet landing was something that I always marvel at. Another memorable scene is during the intensive battle between Galbadia and Balamb Gardens SeeDs and students in the background as Squall and party rushes through the scene. They basically keep pushing the artistic bar on video games. For its time, Final Fantasy VIII's graphics were very good. It was a good design choice also in my opinion. Due to Final Fantasy VIII's theme of love, the type of graphics fit in well because the game had more of a mature tone to it.
In summary, the game heavily deals with the relationship between Squall and Rinoa from an unusual first encounter, rough start, fun fill quirks and a lot of adventure. Could an emo ever mature and fall in love? As far as overall gameplay is concerned, I wasn't too happy about it being overly easy. By far, this is the easiest Final Fantasy game I have ever played. Highly disappointed at how the strength of a monster was tied to the character's level. Though I suppose that could be a good thing and bad thing. A good thing since you meet that T-Rex-like monster early on in the game. (The T-Rex in Final Fantasy 6 were dreadfuls. Dinosaurs and magic. Bad combination. Maybe that's why the dinosaurs were wiped out. They wiped each other out with their brutish strength and magic.)
Anyway, since the game is a romance game, I suppose the story was the main concern of the game. Guardian Force (GF) summons are very long due to being able to "boost" GF strength. Very good implementation though Square should've added a skip button if the players didn't want to "boost" the GF strength. The most interesting fact of this game was how closely everyone was tied to with each other. In real life, it's said that people are just 6 degrees apart. I wonder how many degrees separate the characters in Final Fantasy 8. One of the more interesting fact concerns the relationships of Squall's father and Rinoa's mother. I'll keep that a secret if you haven't figured it out yet.
My recommendation: Looking from an RPG with an epic love theme, Final Fantasy VIII does a very good job at it. If you're not, it's still a very good game to play.
