Let’s just cut to the chase. I’m not going to fill my limited space here describing all the new additions made to this installment of Square’s absurdly titled Final Fantasy games. You’ve already had this information hammered into your skulls for years.

I’ll start with the graphics. FFVIII is absolutely the most beautiful looking game ever to grace the Playstation. The computer rendered backdrops and movies are breathtaking. The opening movie alone puts everything ever done before to shame—I had to watch it three times before starting my game. It’s that good. The game frequently cuts between in-game graphics to rendered cutscenes, and the seamless manner in which this is pulled off must be seen to be believed. The locales on the game destroy those found in Final Fantasy VII. The detail is amazing, and most backdrops have animated elements. However, the overworld seems to have suffered a bit and looks fairly lackluster compared to the rich environments found in towns and other areas.

Control is what you’d expect. Analog works slightly better in some areas, where I’d find the D-Pad running my party in strange directions because of the constantly shifting viewpoints from scene to scene. I have to give Square credit for giving gamers more to do with the controller during what would otherwise be "select option-watch" battle scenes. The ability to boost the main characters attacks with a well-timed button press, plus various other interactive elements such as powering up Guardian Force attacks, and some neat touches with the Limit Breaks are all welcome.

The sound is a mixed bag. None of the background music really hooked me—in fact I found a lot of it annoying. Some tunes are cool; but for me at least most were far too jazzy and upbeat.

I can see why Square would try some new things with the game—every installment in the series is known for its radical departures in some category or another. This time around, Square’s changes are both good and bad. Guardian Forces are encouraged to the point where you’ll be relying on them more than physical attacks, which are incredibly wimpy by comparison. Great, you say, those GF spell effects are spectacular, and you’re right… until you watch the same one for the hundredth time and realize that each time you use one of these things you’re in for a good minute or more of just watching it play out. That’s like watching two TV commercials every time you summon one!

The Junction System is just plain weird and I dislike it. It’s great that Square has taken out all of the armor and equipment purchasing from earlier games, but come on—attaching inventoried magic directly to your characters statistics is just way too abstract a concept for me. It also makes you a lot more possessive of certain magic spells than before, since the more you have the higher the stat you’ve "attached" it to.

So what changes do I like? Well, I like the system of drawing magic out of enemies—one less thing to have to worry about now that there are no magic points to keep track of. I like the unlimited Limit Breaks when a character’s health drops below a certain point; that really counters the weak attacks they deal normally. I like the way the game is set up as a series of missions for a military group and how you get paid a set rate depending on your rank. I like the fact that Guardian Forces are actual characters and can learn really useful abilities to help your party. I like the card game, and the fact that it’s always there and you can choose whether or not to ever play it. And even though I really don’t care for some of the characters, including the whiny main character, I like the storyline and the fact that Square keeps it moving along at a brisk pace and fills it with those amazing rendered movie sequences.

Final Fantasy VIII is a solid adventure game with a good story and some phenomenal visuals. It takes awhile to get going, but it’s worth the ride when it does.