Final Fantasy 7 has Midgar, one of the greatest locations in RPG history, or maybe videogame history in its entirety. FFX is a wonderful story, Final Fantasy 9 has that terrific opening, and I wish they’d bring back the FF5 job system. But despite all of these various highs and attractions – and the multiplayer allure of FF14 – there is one Final Fantasy game that stands above all others. Often overlooked and occasionally maligned, it’s now cheaper than ever.
Final Fantasy 8 is the best entry in the entire RPG game series. It’s not perfect. The GF and Junctioning systems are very fussy, and force you to spend far too long in the menus, especially when the story suddenly jumps to another set of characters and you have to manually move over everyone’s abilities.
Similarly, the final few hours, inside Ultimecia’s castle, are largely spent going back and forth between save points and trying to brute force and grind through aggravating, gimmicky enemies. Whatever narrative momentum has gathered by the closing hours comes screeching to a halt thanks to this overlong, overdesigned last dungeon.
But this is all forgivable. A love story told across lucid dreams, multiple timelines, and fractured dimensions, at its heights, Final Fantasy 8 combines stylish, aesthetic excess – characteristic of the series – with Shakespearean narrative pretensions.
The extended assassination scene at the end of act one. The contradicting views of the war as told by Squall and Laguna. That silent embrace outside the Ragnarok. Balamb Garden remains the greatest central location and hub world in the entire FF series. Its accompanying theme, by Nobuo Uematsu, is light, uplifting, and melancholic in equal measure, and something you could listen to all day.
Final Fantasy 8 Remastered adds detailed and smoothed textures, as well as some baked-in ‘cheats’ that can help the toughest moments proceed more easily. You can speed the game up to three-times speed, give all your characters instant limit breaks, or disable random encounters for when you just want to roam the world map.
No matter what you might have heard, Final Fantasy 8 is the best in the series, and it’s now available at the historically low price of $7.99 / £6.39. Just head right here.
Alternatively, check out the latest on the FF14 Dawntrail release date, as the next chapter in the epic online RPG draws closer, or maybe get the best MMORPGs available on PC.
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