What used to take upwards to 10-minutes you can now finish in 2. The new 3x game speed in-game command accelerates the combat mechanics to fast forward through the annoying draw spell grinding against enemies. Thankfully, there are a few new features to move past this. Worst is the draw command during combat, where one would spend hours endlessly stealing magic spells away from enemies. Mostly, how much of a grind it was compared to modern games today. However, after a few hours of eye-gazing at all the visible upgrades, I started to remember some of the annoying parts of the game. With sleek looking details and three-dimensional textures to combat weapons added in, all while keeping the original backdrops and FMV sequences. This includes not only character skins, but cars, magic, and even technological devices. Which is why the best part of the rework is how they reworked the in-game models. So much so that the game even inspired a meme. The biggest problem with the original game over time had been how poorly the character skins and designs had aged. No one thought videogames would be re-released via ports again-and-again.įinally, the biggest issue in the game’s delay was that no one at Square had saved the source code of the game at the time as again, porting was something nobody knew was possible until the last decade.Īs a result, using some of the original team on FFVIII, Square Enix had actually remade the game from scratch. Which was a very different premise for its time.Ītop of that, there were legal issues regarding Faye Wong and the use of the game’s theme song “Eyes on Me” which made it difficult to re-release the game given that the licensing was meant for a single release one game agreement for a single videogame. It was also, unlike other games of its time, solely focused on a love story. A follow-up to the critical hit FFVII that likewise took place in a world of technological fantasy, yet still, never fully embraced the fantasy elements in the way that FFIX or FFXII had. There were a lot of negative reasons why FFVIII took a long time to get remade. Finally, I’ll conclude with a piece looking back at the FFVIII story 20 years later. First with this review, then a tips and tricks section for both seasoned veterans and new players alike. I’ll be covering the game for a three-part series. As the long-awaited port reworked not only updates the game’s graphics but also, added features to fix some of the more highly criticized aspects of the gameplay. Here’s why, without a doubt, this is the best version of Final Fantasy VIII ever made.įinal Fantasy VIII Remastered debuted on September 3rd, and after two weeks of binge-gaming, including achieving a near-perfect run, I can honestly say everything about this remaster is an upgrade to the original game.

Final fantasy viii review