Final Fantasy VIII - Page 2

TonyL2

England1953 Posts

October 05 2008 17:52 GMT

#21

I actually really like the game. The characters were decent, good story and just fun. Especially the card game, which dwarfs FFIX's.

Problem for me was to get magic you needed to draw which took ages but with patience you get uber stats even early on. This then meant there was no point in casting magic as if you put that on your Str-J it would make you super strong.

Last small gripe, the menu was grey. Yuck.

LuMiX

China5757 Posts

October 05 2008 18:07 GMT

#22

omg FFVIII was soooo good. very romantic-esque storyline but i still enjoyed it. also, the music was so pretty! =D

KOFgokuon

United States14912 Posts

October 05 2008 18:11 GMT

#23

On October 06 2008 02:44 fusionsdf wrote:
the card game in FF9 was horrible

whereas in FF8 it was probably the best part

Sigrun

United States1655 Posts

October 05 2008 18:52 GMT

#24

I was going to make a blog about Final Fantasy VIII, but seems you beat me to the punch.

And yeah, I agree VIII was a good game, but I believe that many dislike it because they don't understand the story and they don't read into the foreshadowing dropped throughout the game. The entire story is based upon a timeline created by Ultimecia when she attempted Time Compression to stop Squall and his group from coming to the future and defeating her. Ultimecia is actually introduced in Disc 1 when she is in possession of Edea, so she is not just a boss that came out of nowhere like many believe.

Here's an extremely in depth discussion of Ultimecia and how she started the events of Final Fantasy VIII (very long and complicated, but a good read): link

VIII also had really good character development. The supporting characters played their role very well and the story and connection between Laguna, Raine, Squall, Ellone, Rinoa, and Julia was done in a very mysterious yet well executed way. Squall and Rinoa were fated to be together because of the relationship between Laguna and Julia. Pretty much everything in the game, including the final boss fight with Ultimecia, leads to the theme of "Children of Fate", which also happens to be the intro song to the game.

Coincidence? I think not. A truly great game.

CFDragon

United States304 Posts

October 05 2008 18:56 GMT

#25

I really, REALLY, want to like FF8, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Combat makes itself rather dull, especially when you're trying to draw magic. I absolutely loved the junction mechanics and many other aspects of the game, but to me the game seemed unrefined. Like it just needed a bit more polish to flesh out the characters/story/dialogue/etc. to a better degree, add more depth to combat, sharpen up the Guardian Force system a bit, and it'd be a really really great game.

As it stands, the game just seems like the deadline snuck up on Square while they were putting the finishing touches on it.

jeddus

United States832 Posts

October 05 2008 19:11 GMT

#26

A lot of people crap on this game, but I like it.

But I'm a softie and a sucker.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

October 05 2008 19:15 GMT

#27

I loved this game when it came out my grandfather actually stood in line at Best Buy before it opened to get it for me as a surprise which was awesome and compared to the FMV's of Final Fantasy VII it was fucking revolutionary.

Pangolin

United States1035 Posts

October 05 2008 19:35 GMT

#28

It's definitely not my favorite Final Fantasy, but I still liked it. There hasn't been a Final Fantasy game that I didn't like to be honest. I haven't played Crystal Cronicles or X-2 but I have played XI for a while on my friends computer and, at the time, I thought it was pretty fun. I agree that VIII had a good first half story and I liked most of the characters. The way that I played VIII probably contributed to it ranking relatively low on my list. I never used magic because I wanted to keep it for junctions. I never really used limit breaks because I didn't like letting my characters stay at low health. I accidentally spread the random rule throughout most of the world so the card game was not fun for me. Basically if I replayed it I would probably have more fun with it but, as it stands, I didn't enjoy my time with it as much as VI, VII, IX, or X.

Oh yeah, and when you said that VII didn't have any special temporary party members, I think you are forgetting the part where Sephiroth is in your party in that flashback.

Salv

Canada3083 Posts

October 05 2008 19:39 GMT

#29

On October 06 2008 01:37 micronesia wrote:
I wish people would credit their dislike of 7, 8, or 9 to their own personal tastes rather than pure inadequacies in the games themselves. I loved 7, liked 8, and didn't like 9... but I assume that's more stylistic incompatibilities with my RPG preferences than anything else. BTW I maintain that I'm one of the only people who didn't claim to 'like' or 'hate' FF8 lol.

What do you mean? If some inadequacies hinder the game, then that's your own personal taste. Some other person might disagree that it doesn't hurt the game or maybe even benefits it.

Pangolin

United States1035 Posts

October 05 2008 19:51 GMT

#30

On October 06 2008 04:39 Salv wrote:

Show nested quote +

What do you mean? If some inadequacies hinder the game, then that's your own personal taste. Some other person might disagree that it doesn't hurt the game or maybe even benefits it.

That is exactly what he is saying.

micronesia

United States24799 Posts

October 05 2008 19:57 GMT

#31

On October 06 2008 04:51 Pangolin wrote:

Show nested quote +

That is exactly what he is saying.

Yeah, not really sure how that can be misconstrued...

Salv

Canada3083 Posts

October 05 2008 20:28 GMT

#32

You said you wish people would credit their dislikes to their personal tastes rather than the pure inadequacies of the games themselves. Did you mean that is the only way to look at it? As your personal taste and nothing else? When I read what you said, I took what you were saying as there were two ways of talking about it, your personal taste and something else. I was wondering what that something else is, but I just misread what you put.

Viledica

Canada361 Posts

October 05 2008 21:04 GMT

#33

I played until disc 3 and I didn't like it, but I know friends who loved it so don't go by word of mouth, try it yourself before you make a decision.

That being said, I also didn't like Final Fantasy VII (Which I played until half way through disc 2), and we all know how well that did. (God we know Square is milking that one -.- lol, and I don't blame them, who wouldn't with that fan base.)

Also, I noticed that some people made reference to how "bad" the card game was in FF9 in comparison to FF8, and in all honesty it was a nearly identical game, you just need to know how to read the codes on the cards in FF9 to enjoy it (Which is something I never understood until I played Tetramaster via PlayOnline Viewer during the FFXI beta period.)

To each their own. ^^;

Zuries

United Kingdom156 Posts

October 05 2008 21:19 GMT

#34

8 was fun. no reason to hate it...
except for :
drawing magic
chocobo minigame needed some stupid fuck thing
getting new weapons was stupid
disc 4 was retarded, it must have barely not fit on 3 or something.

every other aspect was great

FakeSteve[TPR]

Valhalla18444 Posts

October 05 2008 21:37 GMT

#35

i like this game because i really really like the card game, which means i don't have to fucking sit around drawing single digit quantities of spells from some stupid monster

just refine all dat shit

before the seed exam my squall has punishment (the second last weapon), 100 tornado junctioned to strength (fuckload of damage), and 100 regen junctioned to hp (3600 hp)

this is enough to coast through the whole game hahahah

cba

Australia94 Posts

October 05 2008 21:41 GMT

#36

On October 06 2008 03:52 Sigrun wrote:
I was going to make a blog about Final Fantasy VIII, but seems you beat me to the punch.

wow, thanks. its everything i felt about FFVIII but put into words. you are exactly right, when you analyse the plot it hits you harder. the whole thing about fate and foreshadowing, just subtle yet adds this special touch to the overall story. and yeah, i also think the story didnt die after disc 3, i felt like it was when you are approaching the climax of the movie. youve already been training, been approaching the final showdown(s) and now its there!

oh and ffviii pulled off the love story better than all the other ffs i played

Ghardo

Germany1685 Posts

October 05 2008 22:02 GMT

#37

#2

elaborated on that quite a bit in kennigit's bonjwa blog

Epicfailguy

Norway893 Posts

October 05 2008 22:04 GMT

#38

On October 06 2008 06:37 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
i like this game because i really really like the card game, which means i don't have to fucking sit around drawing single digit quantities of spells from some stupid monster

just refine all dat shit

before the seed exam my squall has punishment (the second last weapon), 100 tornado junctioned to strength (fuckload of damage), and 100 regen junctioned to hp (3600 hp)

this is enough to coast through the whole game hahahah

Reading posts like this puts a smile on my face, because its obvious that the writer really enjoys the game, instead of just playing it for playing it.

Im like that myself, I really take my time and enjoy these games to the fullest :D

Thrill

2599 Posts

October 05 2008 22:29 GMT

#39

It's a stellar game, however it also suffers from a few real shortcomings. Most major is how 'common' summons feel. In FFVII i always felt a little *gulp* when a random battle started, in FFVIII i OFTEN found myself wanting a macro that just summoned an Ifrit + heal all combo.

You absolutely can not make summons a chore and that's why FFVIII will go down in history as a game better than FFX only due to the lack of terribad voice acting.

Not to say it's not worth playing for the story, which it of course is.

Pangolin

United States1035 Posts

October 05 2008 23:07 GMT

#40

I agree the summons were not that great. I think that the designers thought that button mashing to increase power would be fun, but really it was just tedious and made it so skipping the long animations was a not a good idea. I did love the part where Odin popped up during the boss fight(I think it was vs Seifer) and just got killed. Actually, I was surprised and upset at the time but in retrospect it was an awesome twist.

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