Guide To Final Fantasy 8

Final Fantasy VIII is the second highest seller in the FF series, lagging just behind Final Fantasy VII.  A role playing game, or RPG, played on Sony PlayStation, Final Fantasy VIII earned over 50 million dollars in its first three months of release in September of 1999.  It's also credited with being the fastest-selling title in the FF family: 2.5 million copies were sold in Japan alone within the first four days of its release.

Despite its extraordinary success, reviewers and users are split on some Final Fantasy VIII features.  Some users criticized the new forms of gameplay, most notably the Junction methodology.  Magic Points, a key feature of previous installments, were largely replaced with "Draw Points," which re-utilizes spells drawn from enemies. 

No matter which features are your favorite, however, Final Fantasy VII scores high with critics and gamers.  An "Editor's Choice" for many game review publications, FF8 is praised for superior quality gameplay, best-of-the-best graphics quality and exceptional value.  Heroes are praised for being more like real people, and fans say they like the storyline of this FF the best of them all.  The difficulty level is usually judged to be "medium" and the uninitiated should expect to take about an hour or so to get a handle on the game. 

As with previous editions of Final Fantasy, the music is rich and orchestral, and challenges preconceptions about the quality of music within the video game soundtrack genre.  The original soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, was released on four compact discs.  A special single disc of orchestral highlights, performed by Shirou Hamaguchi, was released separately.  The soundtrack is famous for two songs, one of which is a choral piece sung in Latin which was featured during the 2004 Summer Olympics.