Final Fantasy VIII takes place in a futuristic world, like FFVII. It again will be on the playstation. It is said to be 5 CDs, and 100 hours of game play. It is to be released in late 98 in Japan and late 99 in the US. The main character is Squall Leonhart, a 17 year old. His weapon is the gunblade.

Instead of one character representing the party when walking around, you will see everyone. I've heard two different things about party, I heard that 4 is the max and 3 is the max. In battle, the screen looks a bit different. It is cut in the area where the enemies name was listed in FFIV and FFVI, leaving room to see more.

Final Fantasy VIII features a new magic system. You have to option to "Draw" which has a sub menu of "Use" or "Stock". Selecting "Use" allows a character to take an enemy's magic and focus it back towards your opponent. Selecting "Store" stores the magic so it can be used later. I don't know if this is the only magic system, but I've been hearing that it is and that there is the other one with MP.

As for Summon monsters, there's a term called "Guardian Force, where a summoned monster actually gains experience. The more you summon, the more experience it gains and as you would assume, the more powerful it gets. The thing that is in every Final Fantasy should be back:

1) A character named Cid
2) Chocobos
3) Call magic: Bahamut, Odin and other summons
4) Other stuff as well, although I hear somethings might be taken out

There will be a demo packaged with Parasite Eve which comes out Septemer 16. This will be just movies, not an interactive one. The interactive one will be packaged with Brave Fencer Musashi which hits the US on Nov 18. The Japanese demo has already been released (packaged with Japanese version of Brave Fencer Musashi), so you might have to buy the game. Although there are places that just sell the demo alone. Also you will need a MOD chip to play the Japanese version.