Here we are, 1999, the very end of a century, of a millenium, and all that is ahead of us is uncharted territory, yet in retrospect of the past we can peer into the crystal ball to view the future and see the way of things to come.

Role Playing Games have allowed gamers to transcend the ordinary regurgitation of gaming themes i.e. shoot the bad guys, get to the next level, shoot more bad guys, get the girl, beat the game, or, punch and kick as many times as you can until your thumbs are numb to get a brief ending about your fighter, or, drive like mad down some highway trying to beat all the cars until you win the race and are top dog on the leader board. Mind you, these games can be fun, but they may only provide temporary satiation for that desire to escape from the boring world that surrounds a hardcore gamer. To become "immersed" in the gaming experience a game must tantilize not only his wits and visual senses, but the imagination of the player. RPG's combine aspects of movies and novels, then put the player in control of how the events of the storyline transpire as well as include strategy and battling elements to heighten the depth of gameplay. A great RPG uses the immersive themes and amplifies them to the highest degree possible to create a true "Fantasy." Some RPG's can be Action/Adventure-Role Playing where the player directly controls the movement of a character or hero and events transpire "on the fly" where rather than command based actions, as in a traditional RPG, the player can make events occur on the screen simply with a tap of a single button or combination of buttons that are assigned to perform a certain function. An example of this is Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, a game that doesn't fit wholely into the traditional RPG genre, but rather incorporates some of the aspects while relying moreso on action based gameplay. The game is a paragon of gaming excellence, but what it lacks is what could be called that imaginatively exhillarating RPG "epic" feel. What is "epic?" The notion of epic in a RPG entails the use of and feel of vastness (a whole world or universe), depth in storyline, strong character development and interaction, broad history, dialogue, human-like emotional expressions and dramatic events, visually realisic environments, drastically fantastic abilities that defy reality, and profound philosophical themes. This is epic, and this is what RPG-makers have been striving to attain during the past decade. Some games emphasize some of the elements of "epic" but do not employ all of them, instead incorporating alternative gameplay features to compensate for diminished use of "epic." Some of these types of games are very successful and become gaming legends, but they will never actually fall into that True Epic RPG category.

Traditionally RPG's that have multiple party members rely on a turn based battling system when characters must fight enemies, and it was the first Final Fantasy that originally defined this system back in the eighties. Since then many different game developers have reproduced variations on the turn-based system, while it is Squaresoft that has spent years streamlining it, gradually removing that detatched sense of automatic computer controlled combat and diversifying the array of options available to the player. The difficulty in removing the turn system entirely lies in the use of multiple characters during instances of battle. A single player cannot actively control more than one character at a time during an active battle. For instance if there was no turn based system in an RPG, the game's player would control only one of the party members while the others just stood there and watched as the one being controlled beat up on an enemy. This would be a waste of the remaining party members unless the computer controlled these other members to autonomously attack. The turn system tends to detract from allowing the player full control of his characters movements, but it does allow all party members to participate in battle and perform their own style of fighting or offensive/defensive ability. As the quality of RPG's progress, the turn-based system is becoming less and less a hinderance to gameplay and more of an enhancement.

Final Fantasy VIII embarks where no RPG has gone before in terms of graphical quality, gameplay, and storyline. Squaresoft learned a great deal of things when developing Final Fantasy VII, and since then has found ways to