In just a few hours, I finally get my hands (well digitally anyway) on a remaster I have waited very patiently for – Final Fantasy VIII remastered. I may come off a bit biased with writing a hype piece about my all time favourite game getting remastered, however I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to list eight reasons why I am hyped and to help ease people into this game.

Now, Final Fantasy VIII isn’t liked by some FF fans or JRPG fans out there – but I feel that this game was an exceptional title and perhaps ahead of its time. In fact, a large barrier to get into FFVIII was it’s mechanics, as it wasn’t seen as a traditional FF game. FFXII was another title to be unique for its time (think of the gambit system etc) – so it wasn’t alone in the franchise, but to me at least, 8 remains my favourite and below are the reasons why I am so hyped for September 3rd.

1 – Characters

Now, I couldn’t really start this list without a rough explanation of characters, but if you want a full breakdown I’d recommend googling as I don’t want to put spoilers here. You start as Squall, a 17 year old who is training to become a fully fledged SeeD, a group of soldiers that come from three academic schools – know as gardens – who get contracted to protect weaker countries. There is more to go into here, but by not writing the story like wiki – these soldiers are trained to fight and are able to junction guardian forces or summons (GF) enabling them to use magic and ultimately complete their missions to protect people with this boost in strength. Squall is my fav FF male protagonist because he just wants to get the job done. His personality is a world apart from more recent protags in the franchise. As the game moves on, more characters enter the fray and they do make an impact on his personality, making him a bit more soft – most notably a girl turns up called Rinoa. It’s obvious to see that something special is going to bloom with these two (the logo is a dead giveaway) but it is a gentle blossom and not sudden. The most memorable scenes are beautifully displayed in CGI, accompanying in-game text dialogue. Also worth mentioning are the Moomba creatures, they come in a bit later in the game and are super cute!

The remaster has enhanced the character models, enemies, plus other notable improvements – so anyone who has played this before will notice the changes and new players will likely appreciate how easy it is on the eyes. Considering FFVIII came out in 1999, I still believe the CGI has aged well and I personally look forward to sitting back and enjoying every single moment. One part that is disappointing is that some character models seem to have been censored, such as Siren, which is a shame. Hopefully this won’t take the shine of the remaster.

2 – World and music

The world of final fantasy is rife with magic and advanced technology, but rather than having entire continents flushed with these advances, every part of the world landmass feels unique. Indeed, as you go through the game you’ll see flushed forests, seaside towns, highly advanced cities, caverns and sailing over more in an airship. You don’t just use the world to visit places or do random battles – you can also find hidden spots to draw magic. Two islands where you’ll visit a bit later for this purpose are the islands closest to heaven and hell. One to the far east and one to the far west (full of holy and ultima and more). You’ll need to traverse the world to find certain monsters to gain items etc (I’ll explain a bit more below). The Encounter None ability wil be useful here.

During your travels you will be joined by beautiful music compiled by Nobuo Uematsu. I have to say with all honesty, FFVIII has my favourite music from a FF game. Blue Fields, which is the world map song, is my alarm clock ring tone and everytime I have a bath I listen to Eyes On Me and Fisherman’s Horizon at the very least. Whenever I do the washing up or have chores to do, I put on Force Your Way – a song which had an epic cover by The Black Mages. I fondly remember Waltz for the Moon playing at a Cosplay Ball and getting pretty emotional.

I think my fondest memory of the games music has to be Liberi Fatali – the epic opening music introducing you to the world with CGI. An overwhelming moment for me was having a seat at Distant Worlds with my husband and feeling the full force of this song via orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London – yes I cried, happy tears though! Whether you play very little of FFVIII or squeeze it dry, the music will stay with you.

3 – Battles and beasts

The battles in FFVIII are turn based and you can either attack or make other moves – use an item, steal, summon a GF, draw magic or make a monster into card. Attacks can become limit breaks when the characters health is low and in the remaster you can make everyone max out if you wish. The draw magic system is a feature which took alot of time to take full advantage of, as aforementioned you can draw in the world, but you’ll spend more time drawing from monsters. Roughly speaking, if you draw a specific magic from a monster (taking around 10 seconds per time) you can get about 5 of that magic e.g 5 cures. If you are trying to max 100 you can see why this would take a long time, and it’s understandable to see why this might put people off. However, the remaster has fixed this with the 3x speed add on which you can turn on and off with ease and I am super excited for it.

Levelling up works similar to other FF, depending on what you do in the battle you can earn EXP and AP – but to earn gil you get paid as a SeeD. Exp levels you up, but monsters also level up with you! This makes things much more interesting, as you’ll never be ridiculously overpowered so you’ll feel like you’re accomplishing something. Personally I never got disgruntled about fighting the same enemy, because of these reasons you are always looking at how to take down an enemy by scanning, what can you steal, what can you draw, what card they become etc.

Two fighting techniques that are enjoyable are the use of GFs and Limit Breaks. Standard attacks for Squall are improved by hitting R2 as he strikes, shooting the gun his gunblade. Limit Breaks for Squall are similar where you have to hit a window with the trigger to get a boosted hit. Other Limit Breaks for different characters are very unique, where it be Rinoa’s Angel Wing or Blue Magic from Questis – battles are interesting and fun. GFs are a big part of FFVIII, and they deserve it’s own point 4 for my hype. All in all, you will feel satisfied after every battle, whether it’s just for drawing magic, getting a new item or card, it’s likely you will hum the FF battle music!

4 – Guardian Forces

Guardian forces can be boosted in battle by hitting the Square Button repeatedly, once you’ve learned the technique with AP – you can also speed up the summoning time. When you junction a GF (see point 5 for more) it knows whether you have an opposed GF junctioned too – which is bad. You need to learn which GF to attach to each character and use them regularly to boost up the summon gauge. As an example, don’t junction Shiva and Ifrit together!

The reason why I love the GFs in FFVIII, more than any other FF, is that you can use them often and they are the cornerstone to your development in the game. Without them, you would have less power – statistical benefits from junctioning – so they are important to shuffle and pay attention to, plus in battle if you get hit whilst they are being summoned, they will take damage for you.

There are 16 GFs you can junction and four special ones you can’t. Many come along as you progress the story and some are hidden, so it is exciting to hunt them all down.

5 – Junction system

So the junctioning system may well put off new players, but I plead, please give it a chance and do a little bit of research first. This system is your best friend. Within just a few hours you can upscale your HP and Strength and Spirit stat significantly by drawing 100 of cure, blizzard, thunder and if you fight T-Rexaur and turn him into a card – you get 10 AP and avoid over levelling with EXP. GFs can learn abilities and boosts via AP and it is wise to share this out and target certain abilities early on.

Card is one of my favourite abilities, turning monsters into cards means you win the battle and earn AP. This is important when you are trying to forge items and them forge them into magic. Again, abilities learnt by GFs allow you to refine items etc to make use for forging new weapons or stockpiling magic. For example, T-Rexaur card becomes Dino Bone which becomes some Quakes.

Never underestimate the importance of this system, its unique and I am so excited to build my team from the ground up again.

6 – Collection heaven

Now point six is short…. but worth its own section as during FFVIII you’ll need to collect many things. Magazines can be found around the world and can teach limit breaks, such as with Riona’s, help you craft new weapons, and also unlock other mysteries. Its important not to miss these magazines as some can not be bought with the Gil you earn as a SeeD.

During the game you’ll collect magic, GF, magazines and items – the more the better as you’ll need every character to have a decent stockpile and to be prepared for the end bosses. I can’t stress enough how important it is not to neglect the stats for each character – not just through junctioning, but also the fact that enemies level up with Squall and co.

7 – Triple Triad

So, in order to keep this point short, why am I hyped for Triple Triad in the remaster? Well, to me it’s a card game worth investing in. As aforementioned, cards are a great asset to get items, some of which you need to get a specific GF (or you will need to keep fighting specific monsters for an item drop). The game itself can have its rules changed – you can visit the Queen of Cards to do this – but ultimately you want to take ‘All’ and see all cards in your opponents deck. If you want a ‘how to play’, I recommend researching this, as you’ll find step by step guides about the grid set up, numbering system and elemental influences. It’s kind of like top trumps, so once you get the hand of it, its super addictive!

I spent hours playing TT and in fact, when I got FFVIII on PS Vita, I spent hours at the start of the game collecting cards in Balamb Garden!

8 – Secrets

As is typical of FF, this game has its own secrets to uncover – away from the main story – the side quests are both interesting and rewarding (depending on what you personally see as a reward of course!).

One of the ‘secrets’ (which can be missed if you choose) early on in the game is the contents of the infamous Magic Lamp you get in Balamb Garden. Now, this is a spoiler if you haven’t already seen numerous screen shots since 1999, but by opening said lamp, you initiate a fight against Diabolos – a GF. Personally, I would recommend saving and having boost available on summon and junction 100 of cure magic to HP and magic to Spirit and Strength, as if you get Diabolos early inhe game, it’s a fantastic asset. One special move he can learn can be turned on with a quick click thanks to the remaster – Encounter None, but before this remaster that ability was gold! Still, the black hole Diabolos summons is great to sit back and watch as it pulverises your enemies!

Other side quest secrets include the unusual UFO sightings (just wait for the cute that is PuPu) and mysteries of Obel Lake – both of which earn you a trophy for the PlayStation version of the game – necessary if like me, you want the platinum!

Remaster incoming…

Well, we’ve come to the end of this post, and as it goes live we are just hous away from 3rd September 2019. Just a few more to go until it’s time to relive my favourite game again!

I hope this write up has inspired you to give FFVIII a chance, it’s a unique and memorable game. It is thanks to this Final Fantasy title that I got into gaming properly, so it holds a firm place in my heart.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what your thoughts 🙂

Ja ne!

@RayeRayeChan