Review

I've been a Final Fantasy fan ever since the day the Nintendo Power strategy guide first arrived in my mailbox. Poring over the pages, I just knew that I had to play this game, to live in this other world. Heroes and villains, magic and mystery, epic quests and noble causes were all waiting to unfurl before my eyes. And ever since I vanquished Chaos, I've been hooked. Each of the English games has been analyzed, replayed, and studied as if it were a sacred text - and I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge the Final Fantasy series as the primary impetus behind my Japanese studies.

But after the seventh game, my seemingly limitless faith in the series began to falter. Final Fantasy VII was an excellent title, to be sure; but with a Final Fantasy game, "excellent" is never good enough. Some sections seemed like they were straight out of a Hollywood summer blockbuster: flashy, impressive, but ultimately unsatisfying. It was with some trepidation that I awaited Final Fantasy VIII's release: Would it be a return to the series' roots or a further digression into flash and brashness? In the end, any qualms I had were for naught; Square has finally understood how to use the power of the CD properly. Fear not. Final Fantasy VIII is a masterpiece.

The core of any Final Fantasy game has always been its story, and Final Fantasy VIII's story is the best the series - and likely the genre - has ever seen. With Final Fantasy VII, Square showed that it had mastered the epic; with VIII, it shows that it has mastered the personal. The characters and their relationships are all extremely believable and complex; moreover, the core romance holds up even under the most pessimistic scrutiny. The decision to eschew a cast of dozens and focus on a central cast of six major characters appears to have been a wise one. The characters don't seem like base archetypes or generic "heroes," but like actual people.

Squall Leonheart is a student at Garden, the world's foremost military academy. His classmates are a motley bunch: the brash but good-natured Zell Dincht; the brash but ill-natured Seifer Almasy; the childlike Selphie Tilmitt; the precocious Quistis Trepe; and the personable Rinoa Heartilly. After a successful training mission, Squall, Selphie, and Zell are all inducted into the elite combat-unit-for-hire, SeeD. Their first mission: assisting a rebel organization in the capture of Galbadian president Deling, who is set to announce a new alliance that will bring Galbadia glory and triumph over its opponents. This alliance is not with any faction or nation, but with a powerful sorceress named Edea.

Don't worry that the schoolyard trappings make Final Fantasy VIII seem like "Teen Beat RPG," though; these engaging characters experience some of the most epic, grandiose events imaginable. While the plot may begin at an academy, it eventually spans the entire globe - and beyond. The twists and turns the story takes will leave you reeling; at the end of disc four, you'll laugh at the misconceptions you had about the plot with which you first began. A great deal of credit for the story's attractiveness must go to the graphic design. The first Final Fantasy through the sixth featured super-deformed, or SD, heroes: squat body, huge head, saucer-plate eyes. Final Fantasy VII was a hodgepodge of conflicting graphical styles; the field models were SD, the battle models were non-SD, the FMV was mostly non-SD (with a few SD exceptions almost humorously juxtaposed). With Final Fantasy VIII, Square has taken the series fully non-SD, and it's all for the better. The more mature plots of recent titles seemed at odds with the quirky, cartoony look with which the series began. Involving, personal, and emotional stories are far more believable when they come from, well, people, not short, bizarrely shaped cartoon characters. While the SD style suits many games, it's not the best choice for every RPG - and it certainly isn't the best choice for Square's latest Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy VIII, the field models always match the battle models, which always match the FMV models. Always. This coherency of design is the game's greatest visual asset over its predecessors.

The graphics are absolutely breathtaking. The detail in the backgrounds is frighteningly meticulous, and almost all backgrounds contain some animated elements. Battle sequences are nicely textured, and the sheer number of battle environments is borderline obsessive. Most full-motion video sequences are well integrated with gameplay, eliminating jarring "cuts" to and from CG sequences. Words don't do the graphics justice; neither, for that matter, do stationary screenshots. The motion and animation are what set Final Fantasy VIII's graphics apart from the rest. Both the FMV and in-game graphics are extensively motion-captured, and the difference is stunning. Characters don't just move around the screen; they act. The dance sequence on the first disc is equal in every way to Final Fantasy VI's famous "opera house" sequence. Square has proven that it has the biggest, baddest graphic artists and sound composers in the known world. Now, size no longer matters; they're going to awe you with majesty. While the limitations of the PlayStation hardware rear their ugly head from time to time, the sheer artistry and detail of the movement, the models, and the textures are beyond reproach. The mind reels at the thought of what Square can do with the next generation of gaming machines.

The sound, while excellent, is perhaps the game's weakest point; the music doesn't match the perfection of Final Fantasies IV, V, and VI. Of course, almost no video game has ever equaled the aural bliss of Nobuo Uematsu's SNES trilogy - but the bar was set, and Final Fantasy VIII falls just short. Even so, Uematsu is still a certifiable genius, and the soundtrack is very good, with more "quality" songs than Final Fantasy VII's. Even Faye Wong's pop sensation "Eyes on Me" is surprisingly inoffensive. Sound effects are excellent during FMV sequences, but only average during battle and gameplay sequences. The promised "Dolby Surround Sound" is mostly unnoticeable. Voice acting would have added a great deal to the FMV sequences; the game sometimes feels like the most beautiful silent film ever made.

Battles take place in the traditional RPG "active time" system: Your characters and their opponents take turns unleashing fury (or defending furiously). Final Fantasy VIII introduces (in traditional Japanese RPG style) several new "systems" for you to learn and master: the draw system, the guardian force system, and the junction system. --Andrew Vestal
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