At the forefront of a rising tide of violence brought on by Galbadia's war declaration is a SeeD cadet named Squall Leonhart. Serious to a fault, Squall has earned himself the reputation of being a lone wolf. A chance encounter with the free-spirited Rinoa Heartilly, however, turns his universe upside down. Having thrived on discipline, Squall finds Rinoa's carefree attitude fascinating. Yet there is no time to ponder these thoughts, for the job of dealing with the sorceress behind Galbadia's irrational hostility has fallen to SeeD and Squall.

At the seemingly high-appraised Final Fantasy VII behind its belt; Squaresoft developed Final Fantasy VIII, and to everyone's gander, Final Fantasy VIII fell under critical review for its storyline and gameplay. Final Fantasy VIII is actually one of the best Final Fantasies in the series to be bluntly honest. With a change in gameplay and a compelling and interesting plot, Final Fantasy VIII is one of the best Final Fantasies to date.

One aspect from criticism that some may dislike is the plot. Although the storyline revolved around the growing bond of love between the main characters, the game still doesn't let you down with a seemingly unique plot. As time continues to revalate new porportions in the plot, what merely starts as a mission to elmininate a rouge sorceress turns into a battle that has been going on for various periods of in against a sorceress named Ultimecia. As time and history become prevalant, practically every single plot detail effects the future and the past, which is a great I guess. However although the increasing bond between Rinoa and Squall is expressed throughout the game, the game doesn't actually go as far as to show great emotions of love that are basically assumed in society today. Which can cause problems as the game is basically playing with a mute Rinoa and Squall who are trying to show their love through actions.

The greatest part of the game that came into criticism was the gameplay. The Junction system was overall a huge change. Magic points were abandoned for this sytem and it basically meant that magic needed to be drawn from enemies. Which was completely fine. However the problem is that to max out your character's statistics, to actually make them good, you had to junction your magic to a particular stat, which increased it decreased it. However, if you wanted to use magic, you'd use the reserve from you junctioned magic. However, it would decrease your stat which would cause problems in battles. To put it blunt, you couldn't use magic. Despite that, the gameplay was magnificent and was brilliantly constructed. The Limit Break meter was removed for a critical time period activation, which made more sense - logically than a meter. And instead many weapons, there were only a few that you upgraded to, which made things a lot easier to get your best weapons. Music in Final Fantasy VIII was simply brilliant, probably the best Final Fantasy score, even the battle theme was amazing.

Ingore everyone's seemingly brutal criticism of Final Fantasy VIII, although there are some flaws in the plot and gameplay, there is no real reason to say that it wasn't as great as it is. With a brilliantly crafted game, Final Fantasy VIII is probably the most underrated Final Fantasy in the series.