Final Fantasy games have it pretty tough. They're often compared to other Final Fantasy games, which isn't an easy task for any game. A lot of fans, including me to some extent, found VIII a bit of a disappointment, but it's by no means a bad game. It's probably the most innovative of all the Final Fantasy games, and it's so different that it's likely going to take some getting used to.

Your adventure begins at the Garden, a special military school that trains SeeDs to keep peace throughout the world. Your main character is Squall Leonhart, a moody teenager and student at the Garden. As a SeeD, Squall and his friends are sent out on numerous missions and they become caught up in Sorceress Ultimicia's evil plot to rule time. Your heroes are in a battle to save all of existence! The plot sounds pretty epic, huh? Well, it isn't really. The emphasis on the game was love and everything else seemed to take a back seat to that. There are some outright stupid points in the story that make you wonder if first graders helped to write parts. In the end it's basically your classic "man fighting evil meets up with a hot chick and they fall in love while saving the world" type of storyline.

A lot of time was put into character development, but in the end I still found the characters to be some of the most boring I've ever seen. Maybe I found them so dull because they were all plain old humans and it just seemed like a fantasy game could have been a little more original than that. Your main character Squall doesn't come off as a very likeable character, but that's because he's a jerk. He was still my favorite character in the game, and he turns out to be both an amusing and interesting main character. As the game progresses you can see the influence of Rinoa on Squall and he begins to open up somewhat and is no longer so shallow. Seifer, a rival of Squall's at the academy, is another interesting character. He constantly runs into your party and he's nothing but trouble. The opening sequence features a fight between Squall and Seifer, and it's one of the coolest openings I've ever seen. Even if you hate the game I'm sure you'll be impressed with the opening, and you'll probably end up watching it over and over. The remaining characters are nothing particularly special including the villain, which I found to be dull and horribly under-developed. Your earlier villain in the game, Edea, was multiple times cooler than the main villain and if they would've switched the two characters roles around I would've been much happier.

Final Fantasy VIII's battle system is all about summoning your Guardian Forces, also called GFs. You'll probably end up summoning every couple of minutes and sometimes it'll get really boring. Fortunately the Guardians look really cool and you are able to increase how much damage they do by rapidly pressing X. Each Guardian also come with multiple abilities that you can teach to the characters using that GF. You also get to choose which of these abilities the GF learns so that you may learn the most useful ones first. Your characters will do a lot of drawing, which is basically stealing magic from your enemies.You can cast this magic during battle or you can junction it to your stats and increase them. A powerful spell, such as flare, will drastically increase your stats, such as HP and strength. Also, the more you draw of a certain spell, the higher the stat it is junctioned to will increase. This all takes some getting used to and the junctioning can be really confusing. Once you've got it figured out though, the characters will become versatile and very customizable. You also never have to worry about running out of MP in VIII, which I found very refreshing. No more searching around for hours to find ether! Although it can get really boring sitting in a battle forever drawing magic from your enemies, but the reward is well worth it.

The weapons in this game cannot be bought in shops. Instead you collect magazines to find ways of upgrading them. I found all the weapons stuff in this game rather dull, but Squall's gunblade has its own special attack that allows you to fire a bullet when attacking to inflict extra damage. Each character also has limit breaks that they can perform when near death. These limit breaks are pretty powerful and are often your best method of attacking. Unfortunately you have to be near death to perform them, so don't let the enemy touch you or you're dead!

Graphically Final Fantasy VIII is a vast improvement over VII. The characters look much smoother and more realistic, and the GFs are amazing! Although the summons in Final Fantasy IX and X are graphically better I've found VIII's to be the best overall. Odin in this game is very cool and I wanted to clap my hands every time he showed up. Diablos, Shiva and Ifrit are also some of the best summons I've ever seen. The cinemas are outstanding and are worth watching over and over. Although much of the graphics are outdated compared to modern standards, they're still quite nice and were great for their time! The soundtrack was perfect, and added an emotional/romantic feel to the game. This is one of my favorite soundtracks from any game ever, and helps to make this a truly epic experience! Everything from battle sounds to the noise of footsteps are crisp and clear.

A lot of people disliked Final Fantasy VIII because it was fairly linear. It took quite some time before you were actually allowed to do some decent exploring compared to VII where there is seemingly endless opportunities to explore. But VIII has plenty to keep you busy. There's countless different spells you run around stealing from your enemies, and tons of hidden summons. Even if you do the bare minimum in side-quests I recommend you get Odin. I can't stress enough how cool he is. And did I mention the card game? This has to be one of the game's best features and I know some people who have disappeared for days while playing it. The game is very addictive even for people like me who don't often enjoy mini-games. There's hours and hours of card playing opportunity in this game and practically everyone you meet is willing to play a couple of games. You'd think Squall would be a little busy saving the world to play cards all day, but what ever...

Personally, I don't feel Final Fantasy VIII quite lived up to some of the previous Final Fantasy titles, but it's still one of the better RPGs around. The graphics will get you interested, the unique gameplay will keep you going, and the card game will get you addicted.