While Square Enix’s E3 2019 presentation had the gorgeous Final Fantasy 7 Remake on center-stage, another of its seminal PS1 games was not far behind: Final Fantasy 8 is indeed getting remastered.
Before you get your hopes up, that’s remastered, not remade, so don’t expect the same incredible upgrade we’ve seen in the FF7 Remake. On the plus side, Final Fantasy 8 Remastered will take far less time to come out - it’s due sometime in 2019 for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Expectations tempered? Watch the trailer below:
Okay, let’s dive in.
Guys, Gals, and Guardian Forces
A quick refresher: Final Fantasy 8 stars Squall Leonhart, a loner training to become a SeeD mercenary as the world tips to war. He’s joined by a motley but spirited crew of other young fighters to unravel the mystery of the tyrannical Sorceress(es), recruit godly Guardian Forces to aid your cause, and dominate strangers at the card game Triple Triad.
There’s also a romance and lots of emotions, but focus: the card game is great.
If this doesn’t jog your memory, or you haven’t played in a minute, that remastered trailer footage might not look updated at all. Thankfully, Twitter users are to the rescue:
The graphical in FF8 Remastered difference is actually way bigger than I initially thought JEEZ pic.twitter.com/4l08UYnBHLJune 11, 2019
Sure, some of the geometry is still flat. You can’t have everything. But the facial textures are rounded and much cleaner, with filled-out character models below them (as seen in the Tweet below).
Here’s Squall in the original game, with fan-modded hi res textures and the #FinalFantasyVIIRemastered version they just showed us. The fucking upgrade is blowing my mind. pic.twitter.com/KWfkVURWchJune 11, 2019
We’ll see how the game looks when more footage is revealed, which we’ll probably get closer to its release date - whenever that is. Even if it’s less glamorous than the completely remade Final Fantasy 7, at least Final Fantasy 8 fans will get to play their revival this year.
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