Fans of Final Fantasy VIII had long been suffering with the “neglect” their favorite entry has got throughout the years. Final Fantasy VII was far more popular (spawning a set of expanded material collectively known as The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII), IX appealed a lot to the old-school RPG crowd, and by Final Fantasy X, most people – even the game’s developers themselves – seem to have forgotten its existence.
All that is apparently in the past now. During Square Enix’s press conference at E3 2019, it was announced that Final Fantasy VIII will finally receive a remaster and be released in the PS4 this year. Although not a full remake as the game’s most ardent fans had hoped, the remaster would at least reignite interest in it which will lead (hopefully) to more material being done about it.
Final Fantasy VIII was released back in 1999 to enormous expectations following the massive success of Final Fantasy VII. It was a success, both critically and commercially, eventually selling 8.5 million copies worldwide. It was the first game in the series to use realistically proportioned characters, with a vocal piece as its theme music, as well as forgoing the use of magic points. The Remake will be featuring high definition graphics and improved character models. True to other Final Fantasy remasters of this generation, it will likely not have additional missions, nor vast improvements or modifications to its mechanics.
It is being produced in collaboration with DotEmu SAS, a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. The game is scheduled for release on all current generation consoles and PC in 2019.