*** Welcome to piglix ***

Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII
The box cover of the PlayStation version of the game, showing three figures (from left to right a man, a woman, and a man) looking away from the viewer at different angles. The game's logo floats above them, while the background consists of a faded image of a woman wearing an elaborate costume.
North American box art showing (from left): Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer, with Edea in the background
Developer(s) Square
Publisher(s)
Distributor(s) Eidos Interactive
Director(s) Yoshinori Kitase
Producer(s) Shinji Hashimoto
Designer(s) Hiroyuki Ito
Programmer(s) Ken Narita
Artist(s) Yusuke Naora
Writer(s) Kazushige Nojima
Composer(s) Nobuo Uematsu
Series Final Fantasy
Platform(s) PlayStation, Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings PS: 89%
PC: 80%
Metacritic PS: 90/100
Review scores
Publication Score
CGW PC: 2/5
Edge 9/10
EGM 95/100
Famitsu 37/40
GameSpot PS: 9.5/10
PC: 6.7/10
GameSpy 90/100
IGN PS: 9/10
PC: 7.4/10
Maximum PC 9/10
PSM 10/10
Awards
Publication Award
Electronic Gaming Monthly Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
IGN Best RPG of E3 1999
Computer Gaming World 20th Best Game of 2000
IGN 7th Best PlayStation Game

Final Fantasy VIII (ファイナルファンタジーVIII Fainaru Fantajī Eito?) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation console. Released in 1999, it is the eighth main installment in the Final Fantasy series. Set on an unnamed fantasy world with science fiction elements, the game follows a group of young mercenaries, led by Squall Leonhart, as they are drawn into a conflict sparked by the sorceress Edea. After defeating Edea, the protagonists learn that she was under the control of Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time. During the quest to defeat Ultimecia, Squall struggles with his role as leader and develops a romance with one of his comrades, Rinoa Heartilly.

Development began in 1997, during the English localization of Final Fantasy VII. The game builds on the visual changes brought to the series by Final Fantasy VII, including use 3D graphics and pre-rendered backgrounds, while also departing from many Final Fantasy traditions. It is the first Final Fantasy to use realistically proportioned characters consistently, feature a vocal piece as its theme music, forego the use of magic points for spellcasting, and deviate from the series' traditional means of increasing a character's power.

Final Fantasy VIII was mostly well received by critics, who praised its originality and visuals while criticizing some of its gameplay elements. It was voted the 22nd-best game of all time in 2006 by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. The game was a commercial success; 13 weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title until Final Fantasy XIII, a multi-platform release. It was later ported to Windows-based personal computers and became available on PlayStation Network as a PSone Classics title in 2009. As of December 2013, it has sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide.


...
Wikipedia

...