Final Fantasy VIII could have easily aped everything about it's wildly successful predecessor and simply been Final Fantasy VII-2. Instead, Square decided to get ballsy. Instead of loading the game with Mind Screw after Mind Screw, they told a story about characters. Instead of recycling the same character building mechanics from the previous seven entries, they replaced it with Junctions and Drawing. And after the extremely villain-centric plots of the previous two games, featuring a scene-stealing Mad Clown in one and a pretty boy with a god complex, they introduced a villain that worked with subtlety behind the scenes.

Whether all of this works or not really depends on how open you are to a very different type of game. It's not a return to the SNES era of yore, and it's not a direct copy of Final Fantasy VII. This is a game that expects the player to think more about its plot instead of telling you what to think. It's central romance, despite being a Foregone Conclusion, is developed slowly over time and hence feels more realistic than other games in its genre. Even the battle system asks you to put a little thought into it. While you could spam summons over and over for random fights, they lose effectiveness the further you get into the game and you fail to gain any of the benefits from actually using abilities and Junctioning magic to stats. Actually utilizing the game's mechanics gives you unprecedented control over your characters growths, though this does come at the cost of character specialization - characters quickly become defined only by their limit breaks and nothing else.

The main character, instead of being the traditional happy-go-lucky adventurer, is someone who questions everything. Unlike your average Emo Teen, he legitimately attempts to understand the world around him and define and accomplish his goals. As a character study, Squall is extremely compelling, and as a reflection of the impulsive and less introspective Rinoa (who has an unfortunate habit of being imperiled at an alarming rate). The supporting cast has an intriguing and entertaining chemistry, though the lush subplots of some of the other games are sadly absent.

It's a game that every Final Fantasy fan should play with an open mind. You might just love it the way a lot of other folks do. And if not, there's always The Spoony Experiment.