FINAL FANTASY VIII - REMASTERED

First run in 2025; started playing in order the entire series blind in 2022. I had some trouble with combat system that I had to take a rest from the game, I didn't enjoy the draw system and spamming guardians. Restarted some month later with story focused approach, I dind't love it anyway but somehow enjoyed the journey. Still, I can see why it's appreciated by those who played it at the time.

[h2]Final Fantasy VIII: Remastered[/h2] [h3]The middle-child of the PS1 era[/h3] Even though it's the odd man out of the three PS1 classics, it's still one of my favorite FF's. The gameplay is famously divisive because of the junction and draw systems which can be cryptic and vague for beginners, but once you grasp the mechanics and learn how to take advantage, its one of the best and most satisfying FF's to master. In large part due to Triple Triad and all the ways you can break the game with cards. As many have pointed out, the Remaster does have a problem with its higher quality character models clashing with the blurry, unfocused backgrounds. For me, I did some tinkering with ReShade to get the game looking decent. [i](There are upscale mods out there for those who want to go that route, but the largest one in development is currently Patreon only).[/i] There are also some QoL additions like speed boost and no encounters. I also modded the UI to a nice blue. It's "BLUI" on NexusMods and looks great. [i](Isn't it wild how we went from a fully customizable, vibrant, colorful menu system in 7 to... dull gray?)[/i] I will always love coming back to this game. And this time, I finally went all the way 100%. FF8 holds its own as a true hall of fame JRPG. [h2]9/10[/h2]

Squall and Rinoa are awesome and so its Triple Triad. Zell is cool too, oh and the music. Uhhh yeah yup that's the awesome parts. We all love the Junction System here.

Why does it keep crashing on steam decks? And I cant find the proton launch option the discussions are saying to try. I tried this game in 2011 an gave up after disc 1. Now I try again and have crashes. I'll put a thumbs down at this rate. I already played FF 1 through 13, but 8 is the last one.

Worked originally. Left for a while and come back and now get crashes every 30 minutes. Tried a few fixes and nothing. Can't give this a good review until this is sorted on Steamdeck.

Game is straight up a banger!