Warning: Scholarly discussion of game design ahead. Read at your own risk.

From a game design standpoint, Final Fantasy VIII featured some of the most, if not the most, innovative gameplay systems in the Final Fantasy franchise.

The decision to leave behind the level-based attribute-growth system used in all the previous Final Fantasy (aside from Final Fantasy II, which featured an organic growth system) in favor of the Junction system was a bold decision by SQUARE and was not one met by enthusiasm from all players. Likewise, the evolution of the summons found in previous games, which were simply retooled spells, into Guardian Forces was the natural evolution for the system to take following Final Fantasy VI's Esper system and was a step forward in the franchise's design, unlike Final Fantasy VII's Materia-based summons, which were a backwards step following the innovative magic-teaching Espers of FFVI; likewise, the decision to grant Guardian Forces additional abilities that could be used modularly was an excellent design decision that put flexibility into the hands of players.

Following 7 games utilizing the same MP-driven magic system, Draw system was a breath of fresh air into the game; combined with the Junction system, players were forced to make a decision: either junction powerful spells into key attributes to augment them greatly and suffering from those attributes being lowered when said spells were used, or junction lower-end spells into attributes but be able to freely use high-end magic. Likewise, the Refine system changed the way players acquired magic and items, turning almost anything dropped by enemies into something useful at any time, given the player had the correct Refine abilities available to them; furthermore, by allowing players to customize Guardian Forces through the application of items, SQUARE gave players the ability to choose how to equip their characters.

The card game within Final Fantasy VIII was a well-designed mini-game, frustrating at times and with a difficult learning curve, but players who mastered it often found it rewarding; I wasn't one of those people, so I kept playing the card game to a minimum. However, the amount of thinking that went into balancing and goes into playing the game is incredible, considering the plethora of rules that can the transported from one region to another, making careful planning necessary for players who wish to completely master the game. Compared to the mini-games that preceded this, namely the arcade available in FFVII, the card game in FFVIII has more depth than any that came before it.

Regarding the limit breaks, while some of them (such as Zell's Dual, Selphie's Slot and Quistis's Blue Magic) were natural evolutions of abilities from previous games, new abilities were also designed (Renzokuken, Combine/Angel Wing, Shot). While the evolved limit breaks took the previously existing abilities in directions previously unexpected, like Selphie's Slot, or combined previous abilities (Dual, which combined Sabin's Blitz and Tifa's limit break slots), the new limit breaks themselves are not without merit, as most of them featured gameplay elements previously unseen in the Final Fantasy franchise.

Final Fantasy VIII's story itself was nothing to write home about, particularly in that it shared many similar elements with other games in the Final Fantasy franchise, and this is something I admit freely. However, story aside, the game shows many innovative design elements that showed SQUARE capable of stepping away from many of the things it knew to try something different with it's big-name franchise, something it would do again in Final Fantasy X; even though the game wasn't greeted with as much love as many players give Final Fantasy VII, I believe, from the perspective of game design, it was the best Final Fantasy of the franchise thus far, with Final Fantasy X coming in second. However, I say this with bias, as Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite within the franchise, and, ultimately, I think SQUARE did the right thing in Final Fantasy VIII by placing the ultimate in flexibility in the hands of the player, rather than forcing the player to play the game in a way where they were shoehorned into using specific, pre-built strategies implemented by the designers.

But hey, what do I know? All I am is a university student studying game design.

ff8 was very fun, alot of people complain about the emotional story line....but that does not at all make it a bad game, but i dont think it makes it in my top 3, for me it would be 1- ff4, 2- ff7, 3- ff1, ff1 because of its orginality, im probably one of the few to say that =P. 4- ff6, 5- ff8

This post was edited by nate321 on Jan 18 2009 08:38pm

FF6

yu type to much, i doubt anyone will read, good efforts though

Bite me; I'm studying game design, so breaking down how games are designed are an interest of mine.

not saying thats a bad thing, but on a simple forum no ones gonna read an essay

True. Although, I must admit, I posted something similar on GameFAQs once, and that led to a flame war between FFVII and FFVIII fanboys.

lol...flame wars between games is dumb, people are entitled to their own opinion and if someone is a legitiment ff fan theyll be able to appreciate the uniqueness of each ff game

While I do appreciate every single one of the Final Fantasy titles for their own aspects, I must admit, I prefer certain titles more than others, particulary the ones that feature more innovative gameplay decisions than their predecessors. But you are right in that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, although try telling that to fanboys.

fan boys are the ones who usually havnt played the game they are talking shit about, or played it for 10 minutes just to say they did and talk more shit about them, and no one really cares about their opinions but themselves.