Final Fantasy 8

Hot off the success of Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft released their second Playstation Final Fantasy in 1999. Earning more then $50 Million in sales, the game became the fastest selling Final Fantasy in history. The majority of Final Fantasy VII's developers returned for another round.

Final Fantasy VIII departed from many Final Fantasy traditions. The game was the first to get rid of the MP points system completely, and replaced it with a unique junctioning system in which players drew magic from monsters and assigned it to their characters. Summons were also changed, renamed Guardian Forces, and specifically assigned to individual characters. Once assigned, Guardian Forces grew with the character themselves, and each were dependent on one another for special abilities and stats. Monsters grew in level with the party in this entry, and a popular card minigame, Triple Triad, was introduced. Rental cars were used to travel the world map.

The game featured a loner fighter, named Squall Leonhart, a student at the Balamb Military Garden, an academy that trained students from around the world in taking on specific missions to benefit the greater good. Alongside Squall were his friends and fellow students Zell and Selphie, as well as his rival Seifer and teacher Quistis. Along the way Squall would meet Rinoa, the leader of a resistance movement against the Galbadia government and eventual secret lover of his, and Irvine, a sniper for the Galbadia Garden. Squall and his friends eventually join SeeD, the advanced organization of fighters for the Gardens, and are assigned a mission to stop an evil sorceress, Edea, on her path to controlling the world through her magical powers. What results is an adventure quite unlike any other, with many plot twists unveiling the truth of just what is going on in their world.

Despite criticisms from certain fans of Final Fantasy VII for being rather different, VIII continued the series success and, as the other titles, broke many molds within the RPG Genre.