I was hoping to see a little more than they did, but we will get to that later. The upgrades they have done to the visuals are just OK. The game feels a little pointless without the random spawns.

The only one I don't like very much was the random spawn toggle as half the fun of the game is the grind to fully leveling your character. With just a press of the thumbsticks, you can activate or deactivate one, two, or all three bonuses with ease.

I think that is my favorite thing about these additions they aren't on all the time. It does help with the slow grind that exists at the beginning of the game and can be deactivated simply. Having the ATB full all the time can feel a little like cheating. While I was skeptical at first - I still am about the random encounters one - the ability to speed up the tedious traveling is tremendously helpful, especially when you start continent-hopping in the Ragnarok. The characters in Final Fantasy VIII: Remastered come alive in a way you couldn't have imagined 20 years ago. The new additions are the ability to play the game at three times the speed, being able to remove random encounters, and having your ATB and Limit breaks always full. The additions they have made to the gameplay are thankfully entirely optional and added more to the experience than I first thought.

Final fantasy viii remastered ps4