Welcome to our review of Final Fantasy VIII, the remaster is out now and we played it on Playstation 4!

It is a time of war.

The Republic of Galbadia, under the influence of the sorceress Edea, mobilizes its great armies against the other nations of the world.
Squall and other members of SeeD, an elite mercenary force, join hands with Rinoa, a resistance fighter, to fight against Galbadia’s tyrannical rule and to prevent Edea from fulfilling her ultimate goal.

This product is a remaster of FINAL FANTASY VIII, featuring multiple enhancements including additional options to customise your gameplay experience and difficulty, such as:

– Battle assist options (HP, ATB gauge, and Limit Break boosts)
– Game speed boost (x3)
– No random encounters

Final Fantasy VIII is one of the games I loved in my childhood, I owned the original PlayStation for pretty much the Final Fantasy franchise. Having always been a Nintendo preferred household in the past, owning a PlayStation in itself back then was a big deal. I have become the perfect example of an all-round gamer and I buy games for all my consoles nowadays. Having received the review code for Final Fantasy VIII, I was thrilled to be able to play this gem from the past again.

With all the remastering came loads of new features and it should be mentioned, they are awesome. The increased game speed actually makes the game a whole lot more energetic. Being an RPG, all the random encounters can pretty much ruin the pace of a game and when that pace is very high, so is the action sensation!

Graphically, this game is a bit of a weird one. Being a remaster, it does get my usual description of “it looks great but those backgrounds…” Much like previous remasters I played, the game up front looks rather crisp and the backgrounds tend to be more blurry. Being such a great game however, this was never any issue and Final Fantasy VIII is just what it is, a great game.

Now the most important part, did it age well?

Frankly, mostly due to the edits in options, I would say yes… I did play it with the “normal” speed on and during that gameplay, especially when walking from one side of the place to the next, screen to screen, it got a little tedious but I honestly wonder whether this is due to me having played the game before in the past or due to it being too slow?

Storywise, Final Fantasy VIII is one of the best games in the franchise, I think it runs a 9 out of 10 score on Metacritic and I basically agree with that rating. There is little a remaster can do to influence a game of this grandeur and it should be treated like the classic it is.

So why am I only giving it an 8.5 score instead of the 9 score?

Sorry for the spoiler on my score, but I did go for 8.5 instead of my prior praise and it is something simple really. The temptation to keep playing at the highest speed. It will honestly influence how you play and I lost a few fights during my gameplay purely because I felt pressured to make instant decisions and instead of just switching to normal speed, I botched out.

I know it sounds strange, you do have this all in your own control. It just kept happening. Easy enemies fell instantly like I was invincible but the bigger bosses, they fell like near impossible at times. I kept playing this way on purpose and often felt like I was not really getting it all…

In conclusion, Final Fantasy VIII is a gem. It was so in the past and it should be treated as such, my rating is

8.5/10

Tested on PlayStation 4