01:48 “Squall, you’re forgetting something... Your GF.” “No, you’re standing right in front of me.”

Cant wait for 2029 for the Remake...

I played through 7 and 8 when they were relatively new. Amazing how much the imagination will fill in when there's nothing better to compare it to. I doubt I could play it through again in it's original form but the remaster has been great so far. I remember thinking the backgrounds were such eye candy. Interesting that the Switch version doesn't improve them. The backgrounds really made memorable for me.

My favorite FF game. So many memories of the hours and hours leveling up every character/GF to their maximum levels, getting all Triple Triad cards, kicking Omega and Ultima Weapons' butts... I would love to play it again after all those years but damn this new Squall look really pushes me away.

the first game that lets you take a selphie

They turned Squall into a brunette Tidus

1999: 11/10 would bang Shiva and Siren 2019: still 11/10 would bang Shiva and Siren

Squall looks so much cooler in the original version with the way his hair is brushed up. There's just something elegant about it. The remaster version makes him look like he just woke up. I really don't like how they made him look like a generic anime character.

I'm almost 100% sure they used the same Squall character model from the PSP Dissidia game.

I love that they took time to remodel Siren to cover the golden bush but left Shiva's big blue porthole covering alone.

I actually owned the '99 Eidos PC version back in the day, along with the original FF7 PC port! I still loved them, but I never quite grasped exactly how poor they were in comparison to the PSX originals. Even the crappy .midi sound, though, couldn't stop "Man with the Machine Gun" from being an absolute banger.

Good work on the video, and pretty educational. Its never been difficult to enjoy games, and this remaster has rekindled my attachment to VIII

C'mon square patch the backgrounds with an AI upscaler. Fans have done it on the PC versions.

Wow, you got this done a lot faster than I expected. Great work! Thanks for clearing up some of the information I wasn't completely sure on.

Whenever I have source data from hit titles, I usually place it on a harddrive in an unmarked shoebox and toss it into the ocean. I'll hope to find it when the time comes.

I was SO into this, I actually ordered the mini PS pocket version. Turns out I still have that. Gives you MASSIVE advantages. The ribbons.

If they were going to change Squall's head/face it should have been to match the FMV version of his face/head. Everyone else's character design looks more like an upgraded version of the original design - Squall's design is an upgraded graphic, but looks totally different and not like himself. If fan versions of the game can upgrade the backgrounds to be high definition / sharpened, then Square Enix should certainly have had the technology to do the same for this re-release. Very disappointing, and clashes with the HD character designs.

I've had the pleasure of owning multiple versions of this game, and I have to reiterate your initial point. There is no wrong way to enjoy this game. For all its quirks and shortcomings, FF8 is a unique and entertaining game. I'm currently playing through the remaster on my Switch, and it is particularly excellent when undocked. Also, Triple Triad! 'Nuff said. Excellent comparison work as always!

I had the PC version growing up, my computer could barely run it. This was the fist final fantasy that I 've ever played, and I still love it.

The PSX version is still the best. No dithering and texture wobbling should be great but it actually looks worse on those "modern" ports. Duckstation and FF8 is the way to go, if you have a PC that is.

Been waiting for this one! Thanks for all your hard work! Really appreciated.^^

I'm playing the remaster nowadays. I finished the original PSX version back in 1999, my first JRPG and RPG is this game. I believe even just the Balamb Garden vs. Galbadia Garden portion of the game deserves a remake like the FFVII Remake. Hoping for Square to remake FFVIII next

Turning squal into a kpop band member was downright criminal. Squal was conceived from the get go to have a very strong european style to him. Normua himself directly stated river pheonix as key inspiration to his visual design.

I had a lot of bad info about later releases. I appreciate this video so much!

I hope one day they completely remake it

It's crazy that Squall looks completely different...

I really can't believe that Square lost the source code for this game and other games. It's just mindblowing to me that a VG company as high profile as they are could do that. And they and their fans have seemed to have payed the price over the years. A sad and unfortunate situation.

The biggest issue with the remaster is the cartoon look they gave Squall. In the original FMV’s.. he had a sharp, chiselled look.. he looked serious and grown up. In the remaster he looks so young and cartoony, completely different feel to the guy

I played this game in Highschool...God time flies....Rinoa was practically my first love lolz.........:(

Steam version with mods. HD models, HD backgrounds, HD music, HD menus, HD localization, HD text boxes. The absolute best way to play.

damn this was a super in depth review and super helpful, thanks!

I really like your review and comparisons it was a really awesome and detailed explaination too. Thank you.

This was really well done, thank you! It's still a little hard to decide, but I'm leaning toward modded PC. Seems like there's no real 'definitive version' otherwise.

oh god those remastered faces are not what i imagined the characters looking for 20 years

I think something I would have altered for a Remaster is with the magic system. Drawing and Junctioning magic would remain, but Drawing would give larger quantities (so that you're not wasting time just waiting for a Draw Point to restock) and instead of casting using up what you've got, the power of the spell is based on how much you've drawn. So, for example, having 5 Firaga would have you casting Firaga at 5% strength, rather than using up a cast of it (though that would also possibly involve reintroducing MP).

11:00 The Siren transitions I never noticed until JUST THIS MOMENT that the crotch area may as well have been pubes. The final redesigned version made such a point to redo that area that it just called extra attention to it, especially when juxtaposed with the other images. Not even once did it occur to me. SMH LOL

I got the Remaster on Switch and PC via Steam. I love having VII-X and XII on Switch and hoping mods or official patches will make the PC version of the Remaster even better!

I was waiting for this video! Thank you

Thank you, this video was just what I was looking for!!! :D

I still think it can get a lot better, its beautiful for what it is remastered esp, it just goes to show how much more it really can be brought still

It's not my favorite FF but it has some absolutely superb concepts that we definitely need a remake for. I played it again last year and enjoyed it a lot more playing with a guide for obtaining the best cards for junctioning.

I love JRPGs because reading text gets me into it more then just watching movie like voice acting

You left out that starting from the moment Cid first talks to you, they frequently missed applying HD to characters models - including Cids while he's standing in front of the sign. All the people who are not walking in Deling City are all PSX quality.

They never give the love this game deserves hope one day it gets a real remake

I actally like the pixelated look of the PS1 version. I don't understand why pixels are seen as bad for the PS1 but not older systems.

Every single track in ff8 is memorable.

I really don't know why people think the original FF VIII (and VII) PC Version has a different musictrack than on the PSX. In fact they have the same MIDI Tracks. However the PSX has a _way_ better Sythesizer than most PCs have. A simple (yet not huge) improvement is to install a different software sythesizer in Windows. Anyway great Videos :) I like the in detail comparisons you provide for the games - very good work.

Had ff8 on ps1 back in the day, such a great time for video games when you had the time and you didn't get as bored so quickly with a game and move on to the next hot new release the next day.

In case you needed clarification the definitive version of the game can be downloaded and played on PS3.

Honestly, this remaster would've been absolutely perfect. The character models are an improvement especially the particle effects but the huge drawback to everything is the loss in quality to the backgrounds and FMV's

Nice, very well informed and straight to the point video! Thank you for clearing up a lot of the differences between the 4 releases! Can definitely tell you've done your research! What are the chances you'd be able to do a FF8 story summarised in 7-10 min? No one has anything good out =\

Thanks for the video. I just couldn’t play the remastered version, I couldn’t deal with the updated model for Squall…

Nomura: "More core players on PC, therefore, they get more game enhancers." Also Nomura: "Here. Now you don't have to make cheat engines. Just take all this and don't mod our game."

Squall's look in the remastered version is a crime.

I got the switch version along with ff7 twin pack, cant wait to finish digimon cybersleuth to start them both. Loved these games as a kid

Amazing video, it was very well done :)

I played the EU PC version back around 2000 when it came out! It still had working transitions. The music is actually MIDI based in both versions, but the integrated sound bank in the Playstation game is based on Roland SC-88. In the PC version, the game would load custom DLS sample bank made by Yamaha instead, and if you had a Yamaha PCI soundcard, it could render them in higher quality - i didn't. It was also supposed to work like that on a handful other PCI sound cards with DirectMusic and DLS support, maybe Aureal Vortex, S3 SonicVibes, Trident 4D Wave, ESS Allegro? Not sure. I had none of those either, i had an SB Live, which was really more powerful, but it lacked that feature because Creative are rats. I seem to remember that the game force installed a Yamaha software synthesizer systemwide, in order to support all of that magic and give you a decent sound in case you didn't have the right hardware. Word of note, custom DLS for the game contains a full GM set, some patches outside of it, and some fully custom patches like the voice samples that sing "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" for a couple songs outside cutscenes, so guess what you're missing out on if the MIDI signal gets routed to an incompatible synthesizer! Besides usually all semblance of quality, especially if the synthesizer happens to be the horrible Microsoft butchered version of SC-55 built into Windows, which is subtly mistuned, downsampled, and lacks... reverb, chorus, LFO, LPF, just about every necessary synth feature you can think of. Obviously some things broke, like Yamaha S-XG50 can not be installed under more modern versions of Windows than 98/ME i think. So on Playstation, obviously everything sounds... exactly as it's intended to, and lush reverb hides the sins, and on PC with software Yamaha XG, it sounds... well, more Yamahaish, sharper attack, weaker sustain, overall i don't hate it. Very disappointing background work on the remaster. ESRGAN came out in 2018!

One quick thing I want to mention is the Steam FMVs are the same as the Remastered FMVs, but are different in one respect to the 2000 PC FMVs. The FMVs in the 2000 version are higher-quality 640x480 video, not an upscale of the PS1 version at all. The Steam version took these 480p videos and "upscaled" them to 1080p by applying a bilinear filter over each movie. I wish you had managed to acquire the 2000 PC version in some fashion for a more proper FMV comparison. For the record, Kayael's fan-made FMV upscale (Which does a much better job than the official releases) is based off of the 480p videos from 2000.

Thank you for the video, very detailed, good job :) One of my fondest memories from PSX era, love FF 7 slightly more due to impact it made at that time. Could get teary here... it's profound. Yet I might surprise any reader of this post that my all time favourite JRPG is Parasite Eve

Being my second favorite (behind 12) as soon as i saw it on the psn for my ps3 and psp i immediately bought it and was pleased that it was almost identical to the psx with the new option for analog movement

Bought this for switch and in steam. No regret enjoyed this game so much ♥️

i love the remaster ♡ (maybe someone will do the backgrounds justice with a A.i gigapixel mod on steam)

Switch version bonus: There is a physical copy available, the twin-pack that bundles it with FF7, Asia & Europe only(but region-free).

Helpful as always, pal. 👍🏻

Great video! Honestly this may have sold me on the Remaster. I originally prepurchased it but refunded it once I saw screenshots of the backgrounds. Seeing it in motion and being reminded that there are mods that come out for PC may have me wanting to buy it again. How amazing would it be if an incredibly talented team created ALL NEW 2D assets?

Squall no longer resembles River Phoenix anymore. Kinda sad about that. But I'm happy to be playing it on console again.

The blurry backgrounds are unfortunate and I agree they could have done better improving that--but my god, the remaster looks worth it for the character models alone! HUGE improvement!

good analysis of this, really good job, and i guess i will get the remastered for pc thanks to you. Chocobo game is already included there also?

If there's ever a remake I hope they finally use all they had planned for Laguna, which was to take up half the game and had its own maps and all.

12:55 I don't mind the swap, recent RPG has menus on triangle and circle for cancels.

Great video, thanks!

When I had completed the game and replay it. I was pretty much reluctant to move forward after the seed test. Somehow I felt this was the best part as I didn't want to move away from the Garden and come back as a ship.

You missed 1 more error: In PSX, when sorceress Edea appears in battle, the sound is chimes. But on the Remaster, the sound is Astral Punch.

The original grainy models are beautiful and iconic.

thank you for this explanation!

Might grab the remaster and upscale all the backgrounds myself.

They gave squall a diferent hairstyle for some reason xD

Wow I’m so happy they did a remastered. I remember playing this when I was a kid but I was too young to understand and beat the game. Now I can play it again without worrying about the old graphics! Thank you

Got the remaster now on steam on sale :) Actually I bought all from 7 to 10-x2 ^^ Gonna be fun summer haha

Wow this was well made. Good job

Well Raijin now makes me thirstier than before...

The issue I have with 90% of remastered games are the SUPER HIDEOUS fonts they keep using. Makes it look like a mobile game.

grats, great review! Except does the remaster have Debug Mode?

got to admit those remastered character models are nice. Good work Square. 8 was my sisters favourite of them all I think I'll need to sneakily gift it to her on steam.

Ff7 is amazing, but sorry, this was my very _first_ FF experience, a masterpiece if you ask me. I was mind blown for an 11 year old kid in the year 2000 who's coolest game owned so far was Super Mario World. This game was breathtaking for me and began my obsession with the rpg world, but none like the ff series: ff7, ff9, and ff10 (although the first 6 were memorable too)

I've been playing the 5 new FF games on Switch. I will say that FF8 and FFX are the ones I am most impressed with, they are the most modern feeling of the 5. I was actually a little surprised with how many advancements FF8 had over FF7, and how lackluster my old favourite FF9 felt. FF12 and FF9 kind of suffer from the same issue in that it seems like the devs made the first 10 hours of each game very good, but then kind of let the quality of the remaining 25-30 hours slide considerably, FF7 remained interesting for the first 70% or so, while I liked 8 and X pretty much from start to finish, and the extras in each were more fun. I also liked the GF skills and sphere grid better than the systems in the other games - Materia was a lot less fun than I recall. I think the X3 speed helped FF8 a lot because it made Triple Triad significantly more fun from the lower time consumption. My biggest issue with FF12 is that I find it a little half-baked, like it was on the edge of something brilliant and then the devs just thought "forget about it, lets just wrap this up." If they had Tetsuya Takahashi on the team with his Xenoblade ideas, I think they would have made it. Also, Takahashi probably wouldn't have stood for allowing the story to kind of fall apart after 10 hours or so.

I like your videos a lot I appreciate this much

This is a very special FF game for me. A very special game for me in general. It was my very first RPG, its story is so rich, the characters are relatable and so real, the music is amazing, monster designs and clothing and areas etc - superb! and the gameplay was nothing i had every experienced before (at the time) . i was completely emersed into it. i was obsessed with it. i played until i beat everything, got every item, maxed out all my characters, HP, spells, weapons, cards (well almost lol - missed ONE CARD because of the stupid trade rules!! the guy just wouldnt give it to me), got every item (minus the chocobo mini game thing obviously), defeated every extra boss and got all GFs and maxed them out. Took me two years to beat. i even cosplayed as Rinoa years ago at GenCon Indianapolis. It almost feels like the characters are old friends when i look back on it. good times... oh! and I also have cosplayed as Yuna from FFX (another FF game close to my heart) that turned out to be my most popular cosplay (folks said i looked just like her at the time and my super shy personality apparently helped?). plus, my mother made my costume and staff for that one btw . thanks mom

Why the hell isnt analogue added yet? Its been 20 frikin years!

The cursor "that's supposed to flicker" is actually supposed to look translucent. Many games used 60 fps flicker as a way to achieve pseudo-translucency. You can see this technique in use even in NDS games

Such a good video. Thank you.

You truly found your niche. Thanks for the content

This game is so under rated. I loved it’s continuation of the futuristic theme of FF7. I like a lot of people could relate to Squall as a kid playing this. I did a 180 as I got towards my later teens. But it’s a great game overall, I thought it had a great story overall that at first was confusing but after playing through it enough time everything was very understandable. My party was the “no icky girls club” lol…I used Zell, Irvine and Squall. But to be fair they were the best of the 6 characters. Quistis was a blue mage that was “ok” and had 3 useful spells but the strongest one you didn’t get til the end anyways. Selphie I though was just terrible she annoyed me so much as a character and she was weak, however I know it you tried hard enough you could use her to really wreck…like for example using her random spell to cast Ultima, Triple, Aura, and one other that escapes me at the moment. And then there is Rinoa who was just terrible in my opinion all around even with her witch powers late in the game (theme of all the female characters) she still wasn’t good at all. On the other hand you could just totally wreck enemies using Squall, Zell and Irvine. Especially because you could get their best weapons by the 2nd disc if you worked your ass off. Squall if I remember right you could get Lionheart in the first disc before leaving the Balamb area (if I’m not mistaken).

I really enjoy your port reviews. There are things I haven’t noticed or known about before. But as I’m sure as someone else has said, you can still get all GFs in the game even if you miss drawing them the first time.

I think this one is my favorite i love 7 a lot and the story is important but the feel of this game is really good cant wait to download the remaster.

I’ve played and beat this twice. The first time with four of my friends after I introduced it to them. Then by myself about a couple years later.

The first FF that i played in my life. Soo good!

I, personally, like the newly remastered version better than the previous releases. The only thing Square should do is upgrade the dreadful backgrounds (as well as patch and correct the same background quality issues in FFIX), correct the frames per second and correct the eight movement step limitation. As for the remodeled character visuals, they look the best they've looked thus far. What many people cannot fathom is the six main characters are between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, which explains why they have a more youthful appearance (i.e. Squall, Riona, Zell and Irvine are seventeen, Quistis is eighteen and Selphie is sixteen years of age). Overall, I'm pleased with the upgrade on FFVIII compared to the older versions. I hope one day Square does a remake of both FFVIII and FFIX the way they've done FFVII - minus DLC and microtransactions. I'd prefer a remake that's a complete game the same way the original games were released. (P.S. I'm grateful for the 3x speed booster in the remastered version; the original walk speed was so painfully slow it took the fun out of the game - especially when manipulating card rules. Now, it saves so much time.)

3:26 “you would have to go out of your way to get your hands on this version” Well, about that… Went to the movies today, and my friend told me she went to the thrift store, and got me a copy of the game… so now I have the Eidos PC Version! And I’m determined to play it now too!

Awesome review. The P$4 remaster looks great.