Buying The Game

Final Fantasy VIII is considered as a rare game and so is not often found in shops, you may get lucky and find it in the pre-owned section or at a market or car boot sale. The best place to find it is online at places such as ebay and amazon. The price of the game varies but is generally between £10 and £15 which is very reasonable considering how good the game is. The strategy guides however are more widely available in the shops and online, they usually cost around £10 which is also a good price as they are very helpful when you are playing the game.

About The Game

Final Fantasy VIII has the same concept as the previous Final Fantasy games but is better in alot of ways. For a start the graphics are alot better and the way the weapons and magic works is done in a better way. You now have Guardian Forces (GF's) rather than summon materia, infact you don't have materia now you just have spells which you must draw either from enemies or special draw points. You also have more in depth ways of equipping the characters with magic and things as there is a new Junction feature which allows you to allocate magic to specific areas of their attack and defense to make the best usage of your resources. It sounds complicated but it is easily explained during the game play. There is also a new mini game which is on going called Cards, you collect various cards and can battle with others to get more cards and rarer ones. You can then refine these cards into rare items later on in the game.

All in all this game has many better features which the previous games didn't have. You have a salary in this game and can get promoted by taking tests and demoted by going off course by too much in the gameplay. The new menu's and features allow you to not only make your characters alot stronger but you have more choice over what abilities they have. This allows you to customise the game alot more than ever before.

Gurardian Forces

Guradian Forces (GF's) are a new type of creature that your characters can summon to help them in their battles. You will aquire several of these GF's throughout the game and will rely on them quite heavily. GF's will assist you in battles, strengthen your characters with new abilities and the Juntion feature, and they will help you aquire new magic, items and cards.

Throughout all the Final Fantasy games summoned creatures have always been there to help the characters when needed. Final Fantas VIII has given the summoned creatures an even bigger role with the intoduction of GF's. They're still the same powerful creatures you have come to love, and you will see alot of familiar GF's among the new ones but now their roles are much larger than in the past.

Instead of just assisting the characters during battles, GF's determine the vital stats ans abilities of the character they have been assigned (junctioned) to. The GF's will act as a barrier when they are being summoned and for a brief period they will absorb damage and lose hit points rather than the characters themselves.

GF's grow throughout the game much the same as the characters, they level up and can learn new abilities. The more compatible each GF is to the character you've assigned them too the faster they will come when summoned. This is helpful in battles where speed is of the essence. Slow GF's could spell death in tougher battles.

Now lets meet the GF's:

Quezacotl

Quezacotl is an elemental GF whose attack is thiunder based. It is especially good against any type of machine/robotic enemy. Quezacotl can be found in Squalls study panel from his desk in the classroom at Balamb Garden. When you select tutorial Quezacotl will automatically be added to your inventory along with Shiva.

Shiva

Shiva is one of the old faces from other games, except now she is alot stronger. Her attack is elemental Ice based. She is very powerful against elemental Fire enemies. Shiva is found in the study panel along with Quezacotl.

Ifrit

Ifrit's attack is elemental Fire based, which makes him most effective against elemental Ice enemies. You will find Ifrit at the end of the Fire Cavern which is your first mission of sorts. You must fight him, once defeated he agrees to join you.

Siren

Siren's attack is a non-elemental attack. This makes her safer to use than previous GF's but she has a lower attack power than most of the others. When you use her attack she attempts to affect enemies with the silence status, which if successful can be quite useful. You will find Siren during the boss fight with Elevoret at the top of the Dollet Communications Tower.

Brothers

The Brothers' are two minotaurs who are as the name suggests brothers. One is called Sacred and the other is called Minotaur. Their attack is elemental Earth based. This means that they are useless against flying enemies because those types of enemies don't touch the ground. You will find The Brothers at the Tomb of the Unknown King. You must defeat one of the minotaurs brothers (Sacred) first and then defeat the two of them together before they will join you.

Diablos

Diablos' non-elemental attack may not seem any good at the start. Once the GF gains some experience however it quickly becomes one of the most lethal GF's in the game, causing as much as 9999 hit points of damage to some enemies. There are alot of enemies that are immune to Diablos' attacks but the ones that aren't are usually easily taken down with his help. Speak with Headmaster Cid before you leave for Timber and he will give you a magical lamp. Diablos is trapped inside this lamp and if you select the lamp in your inventory you will be thrown into battle with him. So save your game and make sure you are very strong before fighting him as he is a tough one to beat.

Carbuncle

Carbuncle doesn't attack the enemy, instead he casts reflet on your whole group. This is a good defense and is usually available before reflect and triple spells begin to appear. Sometimes it can be a burden though as once reflect is on you cannot heal yourself with cure spells, it just heals the enemy. You must draw Carbuncle from the boss fight with the Iguions on disc one. You will need it in the following boss fight with Edea.

Leviathan

Leviathan's attack is elemental Water based. This is the strongest Water attack in the game and will come in handy when you fight the few ememies that are weak to water attacks. You must draw Leviathan from the boss fight with NORG during the battle at Balamb Garden on disc two.

Pandemona

Pandemona's attack is elemental Wind based. There are alot of enemies that are weak to Wind based attacks, especially flying enemies, this is good as it makes Pandemona a valuble asset as there is not much in the way of wind based magic. You can draw Pandemona from Fujin during the boss fight with Fujin and Raijin on disc two.

Cerebrus

Cerebrus doesn't technically attack anyone, he casts double and triple on all your characters which is good in fights where you need to cast two or three lots of magic as fast as possible (eg healing all your character at once). You must fight Cerebrus in the main hall of Galbadia Garden on disc two if you want him to join you.

Alexander

Alexander is an elemental Holy based GF. It is very strong against undead enemies (zombies etc) or enemies that are affected with the Zombi status. The attack isn't very powerful at first but by the end of the game against the right opponants Alexander is one of the strongest GF's in the game. You must draw Alexander from Edea during the boss fight at Galbadia Garden on disc two.

Doomtrain

Doomtrain's attack is elemental Poison based. This means that it is very useful against human enemies, like Galbadian Soldiers. This attack also attepmts to cause several status changes including poison, darkness, silence, beserk, sleep, doom, curse, petrify, confuse and VIT 0. To aquire Doomtrain you must go to Tears Point in Esthar and get the Solomon Ring. You will also need to collect Marlboro Tentacles, Remedy+ and Steel Pipes. Use these items with the ring and Doomtrain will accept these items and join you, this is first available on disc three.

Bahamut

Although Bahamuts non-elemental attack isn't exactly powerful it has a long animation sequence which allows you to boost the attack power close to 250. To find Bahamut you must go to the Deep Sea Research Center once you have the Ragnarok and complete this side quest to aquire Bahamut.

Jumbo Cactuar

Cactuar is the second most powerful GF in the game. The damage it inflicts is directly related to it's level. 1,000 needles cause 1,000 points of damage for every 10 levels of Cactuars experience. So when at level 100, the attack causes 10,000 poins of non-elemental damage to enemies. Also, the damage of this attack cannot be reduced by a high defense. You will find this GF on Cactuar Islan, a small desert island to the east of the Centra Ruins. In the desert sands you will see a small green creature that randomly appears. This small creature is the GF, an ancient cactuar that has grown enourmous. You must defeat it for it to join your team.

Tonberry King

Tonberry attacks a single enemy at random. This attack isn't very powerful to start with but it will become more valuble as the game progresses. You will fing Tonberry King at the Centra Ruins. You must defeat 18 plus Tonberrys before the Tonberry King will appear. You must fight and defeat him for him to join you.

Eden

Eden is THE most powerful GF in the game. without boosting it can cause around 13,000 points of damage and its long animation allows you to boost it to a full 250 which results in about 35,000 points of damage. Your game will be alot easier if you aquire this GF. After you defeat Bahamut at the Deep Sea Research Center you can head deeper under water. Well below the surface you will find Ultima Weapon, you must draw Eden from Ultima weapon during the battle. It is an extemely tough fight but well worth it.

The Characters

Squall Leonheart

Squall uses a sword called the Gunblade. This is a rare weapon which takes many many years to master and is therefore rarely used. There is currently only one other Gunblade user at Balamb Garden, Seifer Almasy. Using the Gunblade Squall can unleash his special skill Renzokuken this is a deadly series of punishing attacks that are sometimes followed by a powerful end move. Squall is seen by others as a silent and cold person. Being percieved like this is fine with him as he doesn't want to get close to anyone.

Rinoa Heartilly

Rinoa is a member of the Timber resistance group called the Forest Owls. Rinoa fights against Galbadian president Vinzer Deling whose dictatorship has cause great suffering in her homeland for too long. Rinoa is extremely emotional and tends to go along with her feelings whe acting. Her best friend is her dog Angelo, he also rushes into battle to help Rinoa whenever she is in trouble.

Quistis Trepe

Quistis chosen weapon is the whip, but when faced with dangerous situations she relies heavily upon her Blue Magic ability. She is very admired at Balamb Garden and her admirers have formed a fan club called the "Trepies". She's a child prodigy considering she is the youngest instructor at Balamb Garden. However the way she acts towards her students sometimes shows her age and undermines her authority as she lacks the stern demeanor that is needed.

Zell Dincht

Zell is a master of close combat fighting, he uses kicks and punches to defeat his enemies. Zell also loves the hot dogs that are served in the cafeteria at Balamb Garden. Zell has an abundance of energy and a wild temper which sometimes get him into trouble. People in his hometown - Balamb - see him as a comic bookish type of hero or a klutzy badly behaved person.

Selphie Tilmitt

Selfie recently transfered to Balamb Garden from Trabia Garden. She grew up at Trabia Garden which is located deep in the mountains on the northern continent. She has an outgoing personality and is sincere, this has made her alot of friends at both Balamb and Trabia Gardens.She is currently orgainising the Garden Celebration between her training sessions. When she fights she uses a giant Nunchaku and some special magic, including several unique spells.

Irvine Kinneas

Irvine is an expert marksman who uses special ammo to attack enemies. He tries to convince everyone around him that he is a misunderstood loner. He uses this image to his advantage when courting female students. When placed in a pressure situation however he quickly loses his composure and confidence.

The Story

The story begins with Squall, Zell and Selphie taking and passing their SeeD exam. They are then sent on a mission to Timber, with Quistis as an inactive character. Once at Timber they meet Rinoa, she wants their help to get rid of Vinzer Deling, she says she will stay with them until Timber gains it's independance. After attempting and failing to kidnap Vinzer Deling the team head to Galbadia Garden to see the headmaster there. On the way however all but Rinoa go into some kind of wierd dream, it happend once already on their way to Timber, but this time the story in the dream has progressed. They find out more of the meaning of the dream as the game progresses.

Once at Galbadia Garden they meet Irvine, at this point they must split into two groups as they can only have three active characters at a time. It doesn't matter how you split the group for now so you don't need to worry about making the right decision. They then head to Deling city where a guard outside Caraways Mansion send them on a quest to the Tomb of the Unknown King. This is where they will find the Brothers GF. Once they complete this mission they head back to Deling and find that they are required to assasinate the powerful sorceress Edea. They attempt this but fail. This signals the end of disc one.

Disc two begins with Laguna (man from the dream) at Winhill. You go through this sequence and then you go back to the team who are now locked up in the D-District Prison, once they manage to escape they head to Galbadia missile base. The sorceress is retaliating on the assasination attempt by launching missiles at Balamb and Trabia Gardens. One team must stop the missiles while one team heads to Balamb garden with a warning. The missiles still launch, they must hope that they managed to get them off course enough to miss.

Back at Balamb garden the second team knows nothing of the missile teams fate. They must go into the depths of the garden and defeat Norg, this is the real owner of garden, once defeated they somehow make the Garden fly and manage to escape reasonably unscathed.

Now their quest is to find Sorceress Edea and stop her before she destroys everyone. They chase her around the world, fighting her and her cronies numerous times. It is then revealed that she was infact posessed by a sorceress from the future. When this is revealed and her posession ends the aims of the game change and they carry on to stop a sorceress named Adel from being freed by the future sorceress.

The final battle is against Ultemicia, the sorceress from the future, but before this part there are many more missions and side quests, aswell as GF's to find. I cannot explain all of the story in detail as it varies depending on decisions made by the player.

My Thoughts

This is my favourite of the Final Fantasy games and I think it is brilliant. The better graphics and features make the gameplay more exciting. Aswell as this, the story line is more in-depth than before and has many more twists and turns. I have yet to complete this game however but have got almost to the end.It takes a long time but the satisfaction once it is completed will be well worth the effort.

My Recommendations

I would recommend this game to anyone with the patience to play it, and to anyone that enjoyed previous Final Fantasy games. It really is a wonderful game. 10/10 definitly.