Final Fantasy 8 - everyone was waiting. And when it finally arrived.. some were disappointed. Others were not. Everyone has their own opinion and thoughts, but what it comes down to is one of the more controversial Final Fantasy games. Some believe that Square is losing it, others say they're simply making their games more serious. But, in my opinion Square was going for something new.. and they wanted to see how their followers would react. I personally loved the game from beginning to end. Gone is the Materia and MP magic system, the characters resemble real people (to a certain extent) and the 'fun' has been zapped out.
Final Fantasy fans may be upset or joyful.. either because they feel the Final Fantasy series is straying too far away from its roots or they wanted something new. This Final Fantasy's them is love, and it executes rather well. People say Square took out the 'fun' because of the absence of enough mini-games and little extras (such as the golden saucer and chocobo breeding/racing) that provided a break for those who were tired of leveling up.
The graphics are great, the characters actually look like people now! Although they still have some unrealistic features, I liked the anime kind of style that they had for the characters in FF7. Going on, the FMVs are stunning. The best there is around - trust me, the intro alone will make you weak in the knees. The GFs (which I’ll get onto later) look great, especially Leviathan and Cactuar : ). Now everything seems to be more detailed, with the monsters, characters and even buildings. However, the chocobos look somewhat different, and there are no moogles (at least none that I can recall) in here whatsoever! :(
Final Fantasy 8 has some of the greatest music so far in the series, in fact right now I'm listening to an orchestrated version of Julia's ''Eye on Me'' It really is a great song. FF8 definitely does not have the best music in the series, but it can still hold it's own when compared to the music of FF5, FF7 or FF6. Sometimes you'll find a track or two to become extremely annoying and repetitive, but just think.. you'll live, right? There are some tracks that you'll remember, such as 'Eyes on Me' or “Liberi Fatali,” but a few tracks of FF8's music just didn't have the same feel as previous Final Fantasy games.
