Final Fantasy VIII is on Steam.

I might buy this on a sale unless I find out that this release is terrible for some reason. Right now I don't have much reason to buy it when my discs work just fine, but it'd still be nice to have the option to play it on Steam.

Only thing that might make it worth to buy is the Chocobo World minigame.

I'll wait for a Steam sale just like with FFVII.

Just purchased it!

edit:

Okay, word of warning. This uses crappy MIDI quality tracks again like the Steam release of FFVII did. It's possible to mod it, like with FFVII, to use the original tracks.

It's sad that they'd release it with the sucky MIDI. I can see maybe a reason for it back in the day when disk space was premium. There's no excuse nowadays.

Link to the mod?

Steam Community :: Guide :: Better Music Mod

It boggles my mind that they wouldn't take the time to fix the soundtrack. It doesn't even really make a ton of sense to me that they ever used it back in the day anyway. It's not like CD's were lacking in storage space, or expensive. Even if they'd just included an install disc back in the day that loaded the soundtrack and some other assets to the hard drive, rather than relying on midi when they didn't have the PSX soundchip, it would have made things a lot better.

Not understanding the soundtrack stuff, cool that it's on Steam though. I still have the hard copy for the PlayStation so I'm just going to stick with that for now. Hardly have any money to spend anyway.

Originally Posted by ToriJ

Not understanding the soundtrack stuff, cool that it's on Steam though. I still have the hard copy for the PlayStation so I'm just going to stick with that for now. Hardly have any money to spend anyway.

For the soundtrack talk, the original PC versions simply had midi files for the music which were played through a pretty troutty synthesizer. The quality of the electronic instruments, and the audio quality in general really, were far below that of the PlayStation versions. When they re-released the PC version of VII, and now VIII, instead of using the higher quality PlayStation audio, they used the original stuff. But now it isn't even midi so you can't run it through a better synth. They literally converted the original stuff to music files, despite certainly having access to the better quality music files quite readily.

Basically they didn't even bother to fix the easiest to fix problem ever before re-releasing the games.

I meant not understanding why they can't fix it. Sorry for not bearing clear before.

Actually Chocobo World has been seen on a US release. It was available on the original PC release of FFVIII as well.

I'm almost surprised that they went with the crappier music; especially since everyone complained about that with VII and they ended up updating the music. I hope they come to their senses again and add the PS1 music.

Originally Posted by ToriJ

I meant not understanding why they can't fix it. Sorry for not bearing clear before.

haven't/won't*

So Final Fantasy VIII has been given a steam clean (pun totally intended) and I was wondering if we could get an in game comparison thread going?

So far I am ambivalent about one of the features; Magic Booster:

Originally Posted by FFVIII steam site

When Magic Booster is used, the player’s inventory of the following spells is increased by 100:

Cure, Cura, Curaga, Fire, Fira, Blizzard, Blizzara, Thunder, Thundara, Sleep, Blind, Silence, Berserk, Bio, Esuna, Aero, Confuse, Break, Zombie

This feature can be used from the launcher.

Sure it's nice not to have to draw all those magics, but doesn't it kinda kill the game, especially Curaga right from the start?

Anyways, the main thing I am curious about is the graphical update, really eager to see some side by side pictures of the graphics.

I actually don't mind the Magic Booster. I mean, it's something you don't have to use at all, but the option is there if you just want to quickly play and enjoy the story. I might actually use it if I play the PC version, but that's partially because I want to try getting some screenshots and such for something I will potentially work on in the future. It will save me some time.

I want to know about this chocobo world.

Honestly I've tried VIII several times but couldn't get into it. I may pick it up now that it's on steam though.

The controls are pretty wrecked. The 16 way analog movement is not present in the controls. Otherwise, replace the music files, and it's better than the PS1 release, by far.

Awesome.

So I bought the game on steam and so far I'm not really that impressed with the character models, for a start, I thought their faces would look a bit better but they make me think that they look exactly the same as the PS1 models (been a few years since I played it so I might be seeing the PS1 version through rose tinted glasses) so obviously I am disappointed.

The chocobo mini game is a little dull to be honest, you spend a lot of time running around fighting random monsters (almost no interaction here just rapidly tapping the left and right arrow keys to get your attack in before the other guy) finding random treasures and so forth, story is a little thin and apparently (I only know this because I read a guide) that at level 20 (loads of grinding) you meet coco and she gives you a kiss and you fall in love... apparently there's more to it but that's the jist of it.

On the whole I find myself questioning the £10 price tag I spent on this game but there isn't anything I can do about that now.

Oh and here is the picture that made me think they had actually done some graphical updates on the game:



I don't know about you but when I saw that (well done square you sneaky bastards) I thought that had actually went ahead and given us a true HD FFVIII. I don't recall EVER seeing that particular shot of Zell in an FMV.

You will also notice the cleaver wording they have on the website advertising:

Optimized for PC
Fully Enhanced for modern HD PC's

I foolishly thought (along with that picture in the email I got) that the game had been remade. All I need now is for Mr T to come in and tell me he pities me.

That's in the Dollet escape, when Zell is calling Squall to jump into the vessel. Sorry you feel a little duped