Final Fantasy 8 Remastered Review – The Best Looking Guy Here

Final Fantasy 8 is one of those games that divides fans. Following the masterpieces of Final Fantasy VI and VII — both having excellent stories and fantastic straight-forward battle systems — some players were a little less than thrilled with Final Fantasy 8’s Junction battle system. Admittedly, it’s very abusable and the storyline and setting had also shifted even further from fantasy to sci-fi than VII already had.

To top it all off, Final Fantasy 8 had a complicated ending that left a lot of players pretty confused. Some other players see Final Fantasy 8 as a classic with a unique Battle system that rewards planning, scrutiny and critical thinking.

Instead of just grinding experience points, players are able to use strategy even moreso in Final Fantasy 8 than other entries. It also has a story rich with enduring characters and interesting concepts.

Final Fantasy 8 Remastered Review

20 years after the original release on the PlayStation, Final Fantasy 8 has finally been remastered. This brings the divisive classic to modern consoles with a much appreciated graphical overhaul.

It’s been a long time coming for console players. PC gamers have been lucky with the amount of hard work the modding community has put into the Steam version to improve and update the textures.

However, it looks like Square Enix has put in the effort to make sure that Final Fantasy 8 Remastered provides a beautiful nostalgic experience. For past players, the detailed HD textures and loading times improve on a game they already love.

These improvements also allow younger players to appreciate it without running for the hills from the retinal assault of the low-res, jaggy, slow loading original.

EMO

For those who have limited gaming time, Square Enix has added some, ahem, “time-saving mechanics.”

With the press of a button, you can instantly disable random encounters, stop HP and ATB from depleting, set permanent limit break status…

Who am I kidding? These are just cheating.

One-button cheats mapped to the controller by default and I feel dirty just knowing they exist. The fact that Square Enix has been including these sort of “features” in remasters and re-releases of the Final Fantasy series has baffled me for a while. The only one of these additions that seems actually useful is being able to speed up time in battles by three and while walking around towns.

This is great for those cinematic, yet long GF summons or areas like the entrance to Balamb garden which are basically 5 long, empty screens of walking where nothing ever happens.

Ah, the good old days of gaming.

I <3 My GF

Unfortunately, there are no graphical options whatsoever leaving players with a pretty heavily letterboxed game in both axes.

Despite these minor infractions and temptations that some may see as positive additions, Final Fantasy 8 Remastered won’t disappoint.

Final Fantasy 8 Remastered is exactly what it is supposed to be; a great updated release of a classic JRPG with a unique battle system that will please old fans and hopefully create a whole lot of new ones.

Final Fantasy 8 Remastered was reviewed on PS4 using a digital code provided by Square Enix.