Junctioning allows your party members to power up and use abilities based on the aforementioned Guardian Forces, aka GFs, which actually serve as the summons in this game. Rather than a simple turn-based approach where characters have their regular attacks and magic and only need be concerned with MP to cast them, Final Fantasy VIII introduced something very different with the Junction system. In a world where gameplay systems have gotten much more complicated, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered fits right in much better than it did in 1999. This does not mean that the combat system is bad by any means, just it’s definitely not what you would expect when you think of Final Fantasy. Going much further into the story would really spoil some nice surprises early in the game, so just know this has one of the better stories in the Final Fantasy franchise that still holds up incredibly well today.įinal Fantasy VIII has always been sort of the black sheep of the PS1 generation of Final Fantasy games for its very unique combat system that tries some different things that the series had not done to that point and has not done again since. Squall and Rinoa’s relationship has always been a personal favorite of mine in all of gaming, which is a treat to watch unfold once again in Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. The game does a really good job at introducing you to these various characters early, along with the sprinkling in of others later. The FMVs in the original were already stellar for their time, and now the actual visuals outside of them are able to matchup rather than being such a staggering downgrade when transitioning between them.

Even the menus are much cleaner in this version compared to the original. It does not appear that much was done to the backgrounds, but the character models are much improved with a lot more detail than before. Instead, this game features brand new visual renders that are vastly superior to the original. Rather than just a port with a few additional features, Square Enix has now given the game a visual facelift with Final Fantasy VIII Remastered.įinal Fantasy VII may make be getting the full remake treatment from the ground up, but Final Fantasy VIII Remastered features nowhere near that level of change. While Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX have received ports in recent years across multiple platforms, the middle child, Final Fantasy VIII, had been left out until now. Final Fantasy VII may have been the genre defining RPG that everybody thinks of when it comes to the original PlayStation, but there were two other major mainline entries in the franchise found on the system as well.

Final fantasy viii review