There have been several discussions about FF8 before so I decided to make one new thread for it.

What makes FF8 in your eyes a good or a bad game??

I have a number of things to say about this game.

The story could have been a little better, in my opinion Ultimecia isn't involved ebough in the game. Sometimes I got somewhat confused by the story aswell. Yet the story was original enough.

The battle system was ok, the only thing which bothered me was that you had a maximum of 4 menu options, though this forces you to think over who will be using items and the like and who be using more magic.

The absence of mana was in the beginning a little hard to get used to, though the drawing makes up for this, you no longer are dependant on mana and you need to be on the look out for particular magic, which adds to the game. Also to ability to junction magic to make your character stronger/more resistant gives you the ability to personalize them. Though if you use particulary strong magic this will prohibit you from casting it in battle since that will make your character weaker.

The Gardian Forces with their junction abilities also adds to the personailsation of your characters, the only disadvantage is that they were to strong and would be cast too much. The game should have a build in option for only summoning a GF for a small number of times per battle. Also an option to turn of the summon sequences should have been there (like in FFX), because summoning Eden 3 times per battle takes alot of time.

The music wasnt the best, like the battle tunes from Laguna, they could have been better.

So what makes this game stand/fall in your opninion??

What a neat idea, Neo. All right, let's talk.

- The main thing I liked was all of the subquests and things to explore and stuff. For example, cities like Esthar, you just get the feeling that it's so large and there's so much to do. Also when you get the mobile Garden and all of sudden there's so much available, like getting Odin/Tonberry and Shumi village and chocobos and card quest and more.

- Dialogue - sometimes it was cheesy, but there were some really good characters and lines and stuff you could identify with. And, like other Final Fantasys, so many things to explore depending on what decisions you made.

- Kudos to the card game - it could get annoying at times, but it was way better than FFIX's "Tetra Master," where it's just like "what's the point," since unlike in FFVIII, you couldn't refine your cards into cool items and there were only a couple of times really where it worked into the plot.

- Junctioning was a decent system, although "draw magic" sucked.


music wasnt the best, like the battle tunes from Laguna, they could have been better.
Huh? Laguna's battle theme rocked!


Also an option to turn of the summon sequences should have been there (like in FFX), because summoning Eden 3 times per battle takes alot of time.
Or like in FFIX, I think that after FFVIII, the programmers realized their mistake.

Huh? Laguna's battle theme rocked!

Let's not forget that this is about your personal opninion :). I personnaly wasn't to fond of it.

Well, I think it rocks and anyone that disagrees... (Just kidding!)

<font color=red face="comic sans ms">FF8 is currently my favourite FF. I haven't compelted FF10 yet, but I'm near the end, and that could easily become my favourite, but I want to see the ending before I make a full judgement on it.

Anyway, I'll start with the junction system. Some people say they had problems getting used to using it, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I tohught it was a very good system, as it allowed you to make your characters stronger while reducing the need for levelling up. The fact that enemies level up with you means that the boring fighting simply to level up is no longer needed, you can just concentrate on junctioning and get through the game at any level. The main problem with this system is that it can make the game TOO easy, but then the player can decide not to make their junctions too good if they don't want to.

Drawing magic may have been a little tedious, but it was still much faster than levelling up your materia, etc. The battle system in itself was good. One thing though is that it's too easy to get limit breaks; you can either keep your HP low and keep using them, or cast Aura on yourself and use loads at a time. Either way, it means you get loads of limits in, while in the other games you had to wait until they charge up.

As Agent0042 said, the card game was excellent. You could play it almost anywhere if you wanted a break from the main game, and you could also refine the cards into useful items, some of which may have been difficult to obtain otherwise. Some of the rules were difficult to work with, but at least they could be understood. I didn't like Tetra Master in FF9 anywhere near as much because the stronger cards didn't always win, and this could get very annoying, especially as you got no real reward out of the game.

There was some good music in the game, like everything from the final battle, Eyes On Me, and The Man With The Machine Gun (Laguna's battle theme ;)). Some of it wasn't quite so good or could get quite annoying like the Balamb Garden music.

Overall, I think FF8's a great game, and I don't see anything majorly wrong with it. True, the fact that you don't see the final boss until you're right in front of them is quite wrong as you don't know a huge amount about them before that apart from that you have to stop them, but at least it's better than FF9 where you don't even know what the final boss is until about 5 seconds before you fight it. :p

Yah, the storyline could have been improved but the characters, music, battle abilities, scenery, etc. was fine. Overall, I think what brought FF8 down was the serious side to it so people couldn't enjoy it as much while the other games in the FF series are a lot more easy-going.

I didn't really like the Draw system cause I hate wasting like forever just to get a 100 of a spell. Plus it makes you very hesitant to use magic cause than you're going to have to waste more time to Draw them back. But the item-->magic refinement was a nice touch to help it out...

The GFs were cool but Boosting may becone tedious and some GFs could take awhile to summon...

The Card Game was great!

The Limit Breaks were pretty cool as well but it sucks that you can only use them when you're dying or use Aura but then you have to draw them back again and so on...

I forgot to mention about the card game. In my opnion it was one of the best minigames in any FF. It was a game in a game actually, you could go fight card battles and earn cards, which you could refine into usefull items. This made the game more atractive to play, since this way you can refine power items which prove very usefull in battles. Or refine into needfull combining items for weapon upgrades. Which brings me to another interesting part of FFVIII. You can't jsut simply buy a new weapon, you need the right items for it.

The money system was rahter interesting, instead of getting gil for fighting battles, you get gil based upon your SEED level every time cycle, and by selling items to shops. Which was refreshing but hard to get used to.

There were a lot of things to get used to in FF8. But overall, I think it was excellent...first off, I must say:

- Card game was freakin' awesome. And who cares if you could refine them into items and stuff?! Is that all you people like about this game? Hm.. I found it awesome just to be doing something different or just to have fun and stuff.

- Music. What was so bad about it? I felt for the most part, the music of this game was awesome..(especially through the first two disks)

- Junction system. Ehh, yeah..it took quite a lot of getting used to. Having a supply of magic rather than mana/MP to rely on. but hey, atleast Square tried something different, which in my opinion, was a good idea.

- Characters. Lovable, ditzy, emotional, you name it. The characters of this game were plenty awesome. And the secret behind it all...well, hey, I loved that. "Didn't see it commin'" type of thing, y'know? Not to mention...the characters had their own qualities which made you love/hate them even more...(Selphie was a real hottie =) )

- Story. For the most part, it wasn't bad.. at times, predictable, and at times, boring. But hey, I loved the story for the majority of this game...finally, an FF game that focuses around love...(unfortunately, it's kind of a "teen-love" esque type of thing...:( but that didn't totally ruin it)

Overall, FF8 was great. I still haven't beat it, but I practically know the entire story (it was spoiled for me). The characters, music and events are what really make this game great.

...However, towards the second half of Disc 3 and the first half or so of Disc 4...it kinda' got weird...:erm:

I don't think Final Fantasy VIII was that bad a game. I think the main problem that it received was that, the people who had been washed in by the hysteria and greatness that was Final Fantasy VII expected the game to be similar to the one they had loved and finished.

I cannot think of another RPG that caused so much talk at school. Final Fantasy VII was many a discussion topic in science lessons. (An hour session where we would only actually do twenty minutes of work...) Alas, I digress. With VIII following VII, and with people who weren't really RPG fans expecting the same sort of game, with the magic system they had mastered in it, found the game complicated with the GF junction and magic system. Which is probably why a lot of people don't like it.

Personally, the junction system was great. It allowed you to up your stats, even if it meant you couldn't use magic. You needed to be patient to draw the magic, but during random encounters I never really use magic spells if I can help it anyway, conserving my strength for the end boss battle at the end of that section. Even in VIII, I often relied on GFs. Cerberus for Double and Triple effect. Bahamut for a lot of pain. Etc.

What made the game too easy was Aura. Aura = Limit Break. Squall's Lionhart Limit Break = Bye bye bad guy. That move is seriously too powerful for its own good, hitting more often than Omnislash. Cool effects though.

The storyline started off well. Two rival gunblade experts. A mysterious force. Battle between different factions of SeeD. What might've made Ultimecia more effective as a villain is more of a hint of her from the first disk, or from Cid saying that Edea "wasn't being herself." Or something like that. Just to make you think "if she ain't herself, then what the heck is going on?"

I never got into the card game. It annoyed me. That's just a personal thing.

The music was pretty cool. Laguna's battle theme had a nice beat to it, but I'm not sure if it should be playing during a random encounter, or if it should be when he's just doing something heroic instead. The very, very final boss battle theme is cool.

Anyways, there's my two bob.

The main thing I disliked about the junctioning system was that you simply could not use up all your magic in the battles if you have it junctioned with your HP amount or your strength.
Well, I must admit I rushed through the game without ever getting used to this system, so I had major problems with the last battle. x_X

I say the story itself was beautiful, especially if you look back at it in the end and consider the failed love between Laguna and Julia, and how their children Squall and Rinoa basically brought it to a happy end years later, that was sweet, and sad and moving. Also it was interesting to see the circle: After the final battle Squall and Ultemecia travel through time and Edea inherits her power through the dying sorceress from the future. Surprised me.

However, yes, we simply did not know Ultemecia at all. I would have loved to learn more about her, her story, the reasons behind her wish to destroy/rule the world.
I also thought that while Seifer was okay and all, he was a pathetic character. He should have won a battle against the party to demonstrate his strength. But he was only that guy you knocked down once per disc. Seifer, Edea... there was nobody to hate! I want to hate someone during a game.

The music was good... There were a bunch of themes I really liked, the battle music for example. Some songs still trigger certain emotions in me, like that damn The Extreme. After listening to it for probably 3, 4 hours... you will understand me. I don�t like it as much as FFIX�s soundtrack, and compared to the older games, aka until FFVII, I think the soundtrack become more and more boring by mostly concentrating on two or three main themes and arranging them... Eyes on me, Melodies of life, Suteki da ne... The characters in FFVIII should all have had their own character themes. >:o

Talking about characters: What happened to variety? We have a bunch of mercenaries and a witch thingy, all aged 17, 18. Why, we used to travel the world in a mixed crew consisting of princes, sorcerers, ninjas, thieves, flower girls, moggles, mysterious unknown persons and small summoning girls. Whatever happened to this? ;_;

What makes FFVIII so freaking great? IMHO�? Well:

Story
Just about as good as it gets. I like love stories and this one is one of the best I�ve seen, ever. I really liked the way it kept its main focus around Squall and not the whole �We�re a gang of youngsters/teenagers that gotta save the world� FAST!� theme which seems to be quite usuall for the FF saga. Sure, it has its moments of cliches and sometimes Squall & Rinoa (or Laguna & Raine/Julia) gets a little too mushy, but there weren�t really any scenes that I went like: �HOLY HELL! What the FUCK is this crap!?!?� Whenever stuck in the game, and I looked over my shoulder and saw what I�ve said and done to get where I were, I couldn�t help thinking one or two times: �Man, that�s pretty thin,� but at the time I played through these �thin story moments� I really didn�t noticed. So the trick is to look mainly forward ^_^

The only parts of the story I didn�t like were the Laguna dreams. Whenever things started to get interesting, everyone past out and entered the dream world. Hurray�. >_> I didn�t hate them, it�s just that I didn�t really feel that they added anything to Squall�s story/time and that they tended to slow down the story. With that said, I might as well add that I got no idea what to replace them with if I was given the chance. Laguna�s love life was somewhat of a disappointment to me. I thought that Lauguna & Julia would make it to the very end, one of �em classic love themes: �Soldier meets girl, they fall in love, soldier heads to war, girl awaits his return, soldier returns from war and meets up with girl again, girl gets in danger �cause of aftermath of the war, soldier comes to the rescue and the end��

The whole WinHill thing was just one big �Eh?� to me. For some reason, I couldn�t see how it fitted into the rest of the picture, not to mention that the story around Ellone, Raine, Laguna & Squall is quite blury at this point (or did I miss something�?)

Chars
Squall is simply the best, though he looses some of his most interesting features as Rinoa �warms up� his rather frozen heart. It doesn�t really get anywhere objectional until Squall has his little �awakining�, which is right after the Lunar Cry and Rinoa is to be sealed up. Despite this, I really, really love the FMV where Squall frees her and Rinoa runs into his arms. It� got: �And so he finally learned to love�� written all over it and I just love that kinda stuff. The rest of the gang is also alive and have more than just one side to them. You notice changes in them, though it�s hard to see since Squall & Rinoa is in the spotlight 90% of the game. If you hate Squall and/or Rinoa, you�re gonna hate this game as well.

Most of the Laguna crew is� just there. They only got fragments of their story to tell you, and they jump a lot in the time line. You don�t get enough under their skin so they�re just� there. Kinda sad really�

Looks
The looks of this game are just about as good as it gets. Okay, FFX is better by todays standard, but even so, FFVIII is still on a good second place. True that the in-game chars look a little edgy in the PSX version compared to the PC version, but I can live with that since most of the time you see them from afar. The FMV�s however� and the way they�re nearly seamlessly introduced to the game? OH-MY-FREAKING-GOD!!!! The intro, field exam and the BALL!!!! I can�t take it!!! Yeah, they�re good�.

Sound & music
Sound is a-okay to me. The music� well, the main theme (Eyes On Me) is damn sweet and there are several other sub themes that are quite pleasant to the ear (Balamb Garden Theme, world map theme, FH theme etc), yet there are a few that are just� YUCK!!! (Man With the Machine Gun, Don�t Be Afraid) And then you got the really cool ones (Libre Fatili, Maybe I�m a Lion).

Gameplay
Okay, the junction system is just soooo freaking sweet (though I needed nearly 2 � disc to figure it out). Play your cards right and you�re a God by the time you hit lvl 25. Play �em wrong, and you�re cannon fodder even to a Bite Bug :p

Trick with FF8 is that you gotta find the balance, what you draw, stock, cast, summon and limit break. If you cast every godamn spell you get, your stats will drop like rocks, if you summon like a madman, you�re in deep shit the day you�re put on mute (not to mention you�ll grow sick of the animations) and lastly if you use Aura spells/stones and limit break 110% of the time, the game is a walk over and an insult to you as a FF fan. If you mix all these element together, use each one once in a while, you�ll find the game quite enjoyable ^_^ (at least I did�)

�Drawing & stocking takes AGES!!! What a pain�.� Well, set up a mage in your team (one of the 3 lovely ladies, �cause their limit breaks are focused around magic and thus they have the higest basic magic stats) and have her draw and stock in addition to your attacker & healer. After the battle, they exchange their spells (think of it as Pok�mon, just spells instead of beasts :p). And as a side note, getting a fully mastered materia takes LONGER than to draw 100 of a spell.

�Junction system makes it too easy.� Use auto junction then. That way, you get an okay setup. Not god-like, nor cannon fodder. You�ll do fine, but you�ll still need skill to finish of the job. Works like a charm to me and you�ll save yourself the trouble of doing it the hard way whenever Laguna & Co takes over the show.

�Monsters level up with me?! What�s the big idea!?!?� Y�know� I never really saw the trouble with that. It means that pretty much no matter where you are in the world, you gotta be on your toes. As an example we can take FF7: you�re at level 84(Cloud), 78(Tifa) & 82(Vincent) and decided to do a few sidequests in Midgar before finishing of Mr Black Cape up north. Well, what a challenge� every enemy is like level 12 around here, hardly even worth the effort of fighting. Hp = 30 and you do 1500 damage with your WEAKEST char. The battles becomes boring and irretating interuptions while you try to figure out how to get the next turtle bar note or whatever�

IMHO:
FFVIII rises, it rises above any other game I�ve ever played(yes, that includes that blasted FFVII).

FF8 is my favorite, I had lots more fun playing 8 than I did playing 7. What made the game better in my eyes is that 8 kind of tried out new things and did a lot of stuff differently. For instance, the junction system, draw system, being so dependant on your gaurdian forces, etc.

I thought that the music was pretty good. The only music I did not like was the music at Galbadia Garden :eye: . It just bugged me. I thought that the graphics were very good, although they were a little pixilie.

Other than that, I thought that the game was a little bit easy. I could beat the game in about 3 or 4 days, sometimes less depending on how much I feel like playing.

I thought the story was amazing. I had no problem understanding the story and thought it was really deep. In my opinion FF8 had the BEST story out of all of them. I liked the futuristic kind of vibe of the game.:D

OH! I forgot to mention the the bad guy problem:

The fact that we don't learn about Ultimecia until the beginning of disc 3 seems to be bothering a lot of fans. My bet is that they're spoiled away with FFVII. As for me, the way they solved the Ultimecia "problem" was better than Mr Black Cape.

In FFVII all you do is follow his track, you got no idea what the hell he's up to(not the details, not until kinda late in the game) and there isn't all that much you can do about it. Why? 'Cause the fucker is 10 steps ahead of you 90% of the game.

In FFVIII you meet Ultimecia quite early, though she's "hiding" inside Edea at the moment. Throughout the game, Edea/Ultimecia really tires to take down Squall & Co or at least SeeD in general. She tires various ways and each time you have to counter attack her efforts. True, you don't learn the face of the REAL enemy until the very end of the game, butlooking back, you'll see that Ultimecia was there all the time.

FFVIII has more twists and turns on it as far as the bad guys plans compared to FFVII. Like I said, all you do is tag along after Mr Black Cape, running into him & "mom" now and then and after the fight you're back at square 1. Edea/Ultimecia tries a new approach, changes their objective ever so often and it keeps you on your toes, not knowing what to expect next. Which IMHO is just about as good as it gets.

I think something went bad with your code. Nothing happens when I click it, except that I just get an "Error on page" message on my browser's status bar at the bottom of the screen. I can read your message if I pull up the source code, but otherwise it isn't working.

Originally posted by Agent0042
I think something went bad with your code. Nothing happens when I click it, except that I just get an "Error on page" message on my browser's status bar at the bottom of the screen. I can read your message if I pull up the source code, but otherwise it isn't working.
Hey, I'm just posting. Not my fault if the site coding ain't right. That's the staff's department, yeah?

Well, I don't know about all of that. It may not be your fault if something's wrong with the site coding, but it is your lookout if you actually want anyone to see your message and they can't because it's a broken link. If you're just trying to hide it so that it won't spoil anyone, then I'd recommend doing what I've done before and putting the text in the same color as the background of the message. That way, if anyone wants to view it, they have to highlight it with their mouse first. On a second note, if there's anyone that's worried about spoilers, then they shouldn't be in here, since just the thread title itself screams "Spoilers, Duh!"

Originally posted by Agent0042
Well, I don't know about all of that. It may not be your fault if something's wrong with the site coding, but it is your lookout if you actually want anyone to see your message and they can't because it's a broken link. If you're just trying to hide it so that it won't spoil anyone, then I'd recommend doing what I've done before and putting the text in the same color as the background of the message. That way, if anyone wants to view it, they have to highlight it with their mouse first. On a second note, if there's anyone that's worried about spoilers, then they shouldn't be in here, since just the thread title itself screams "Spoilers, Duh!"
I give up...




*SPOILERS ALERT!!! GO AWAY IF YA HAVEN'T BEATEN DA GAME DUDES!!!!!!!!*

























The fact that we don't learn about Ultimecia until the beginning of disc 3 seems to be bothering a lot of fans. My bet is that they're spoiled away with FFVII. As for me, the way they solved the Ultimecia "problem" was better than Mr Black Cape.

In FFVII all you do is follow his track, you got no idea what the hell he's up to(not the details, not until kinda late in the game) and there isn't all that much you can do about it. Why? 'Cause the fucker is 10 steps ahead of you 90% of the game.

In FFVIII you meet Ultimecia quite early, though she's "hiding" inside Edea at the moment. Throughout the game, Edea/Ultimecia really tires to take down Squall & Co or at least SeeD in general. She tires various ways and each time you have to counter attack her efforts. True, you don't learn the face of the REAL enemy until the very end of the game, butlooking back, you'll see that Ultimecia was there all the time.

FFVIII has more twists and turns on it as far as the bad guys plans compared to FFVII. Like I said, all you do is tag along after Mr Black Cape, running into him & "mom" now and then and after the fight you're back at square 1. Edea/Ultimecia tries a new approach, changes their objective ever so often and it keeps you on your toes, not knowing what to expect next. Which IMHO is just about as good as it gets.

As for me, getting to know the badguy (or girl) early in the game is good. I love to get into characters, and getting them to know better, know about their pasts and why they are doing the things they do. I even grow sympathy for them. That's the reason why I didn't like finding out on disk 3 who was pulling the strings.

Originally posted by Neo Xzhan
As for me, getting to know the badguy (or girl) early in the game is good. I love to get into characters, and getting them to know better, know about their pasts and why they are doing the things they do. I even grow sympathy for them. That's the reason why I didn't like finding out on disk 3 who was pulling the strings.
Yeah, but when looking back, you'll understand a bit more of the things said and done. I like the feeling: "Eh? What was that...? Didn't make much sense, but seemed important." and then go like: "Aaaaaah... so THAT'S what he was talking about." later on.

Also, knowing the villan is a puppet master, hiding until disc 3 adds to replay value. You can replay it knowing who the villan is from day 1 and you might view things differently(for the better or worse or course).

as one mite notice i really like this game.

although lots of people didnt like the story or thought it was complicated, i disagree. the story made u thinka lot, it was very in depth, and jumpidty out like. one of the first ff's not to be about ur dad or the past( which is getting really annoying). also, the biggest up is the difficulty. you basically chose it. you could level up all your characters to level 100 and then go fite ulty, making her very very hard, or you can be simple, keep yuor 3 fav characters at 100, and then every one else at 15, making you ridiculusly strong, and making ulty look like a 100 ur old lady in a wheel chair thats paralyzed. then a lot of people didnt like the hole card game deal. i thought is was quite good. it puts a lot of extra mini into the game, and it makes getting lionheart easier, and if you absolutely hate it, then you can at least get the best items in the game(laguna in 100 heros-fawesome) the subquest, ah the subquests. the m,any times i played this game i could not wate to get the ragnarock. bahamut looked beautiful(although kuja really knew what he was doing, that was sucha great scene)then there was that moment when ur playing, and u figure out that edea isnt bad. total mixer upper. a good mixer upper. the one problem that everyone seems to have is ulty kind of coming out of no where. totally agreed. i belive square kinda rushed things once they got to disc 3, so they just kinda messed up a lil... i would rather seen like a 5 disc game where they go into ulty a lil more. other than that, a fmasterpiece.

Well it has been a while since I played FF8, but here goes about what I thought about it.

STORY: This part I really liked, spanning over 4 discs, though 4th disc was a tad short, for the obvious reasons as you know. The story wasn't too complicated then again, it wasn't too bland either, one of the best stories for an FF I have played. 2 different stories, well, 1 main story and a little side story that comes in to play later on.

CHARACTERS: Same ol with characters, you have the strong, the weak, the sure of themselves and the usual annoying character. Squall was a pretty good main character, not too sure on him picking up OBVIOUS signals when it comes to the ladies. Selphie is quite possibly one of the most annoying characters to me in a game, too damn happy and positive (FAKE), in a world like that you wouldn't be. All in all the characters are believable in the circumstances I suppose. Ohh and Seifer is my all-time fav FF character, gotta love them bad guys.

LOOKS: I liked what they did with the graphics, of course it is no FFX coz of the obvious power of the PS2 compared to the old. However the one thing that did blow my minds first time I played it was the FMV's (full motion video's). Little snippets of graphical movies that fit well and some are simply breathtaking, the Lunar Cry is one of my fav.

SOUND: Some of the music is ok, I liked the theme as does most people and the intro music is damn decent during the FMV of Squall and Seifer. Sounds, well, I don't remember it that much to comment.

GAMEPLAY: The most important bit of the game. Square introduced the junction system in this one which I will admit I didn't think was a bad idea. Sure it was a little confusing first time you use it but once you get the hang of it, the game becomes a breeze, hitting enemies 9999 made it so. Drawing of magic was a pain in the ass but it had to be done to get anywhere. Once you have played it 1-2 times you would have mastered the system of junction making FF8 a very, well not easy, but not hard either.

CARDS: (had to make a mention of this) The card game I simply could not get enough of, there were nights where I reckon I just walked around searching for the good cards, GF's etc and play it for around 1-2 hours just to pick up 1 or possibly 2 of these cards, it is simply addicting. Once though you get the good cards, with all the high numbers then playing cards becomes ridiculous coz there is basically nobody who could then beat you.

In closing FF8 is a great game, which will not simply take you 1 day to finish as you would expect from a FF game. FF8 in my mind is the top FF I have played to date, I have played 7-8-9 and am currently at the near end of 10, unless 10 pulls out the stops at the end I feel FF8 will remain #1.

:lol The story of FF8 makes it stand, because the story is very beautiful i almost cried when i heard the song eyes on me when i was watching the last FMV.... hmm what makes FF8 fall? I can't think of anything right now ill just post it someother time

ff8 was like school: characters are all preppy with their uniforms and clickety-clackers (shoes..), following Cid's orders on the first disc, field trip time after Balamb goes aerial, astronaut training to study Eden's predecessor as Ultimecia's representative...(yeah i forgot her name, Altemicia..dunno), then playing cards when teachers ain't looking=playing cards when player isn't questing (cause u don't need extra items and Train to finish game)..story was too slow to really have anything too positive to say, that game shoulda been called final reality cause fantasy doesn't deserve to label such preppiness

Final Fantasy 8 was a overall a o.k. game. I enjoyed it, but the story took to long to get into. If you compare the story to Final Fantasy 7, then you can see what I mean. The characters were o.k. I really liked Zell, but I didn't really understand Selphie or Quistis.

I know many have already said this and in greater detail than I but I love FF8. It was the first FF game I played. After finishing it I backed tracked to the games I missed and played the ones that came after.
I love the characters in Final Fantasy VIII. I love the music and the cinema graphics.
I was absolutely spellbound when I first saw it

FF8 was excellent. The storyline was rather captivating, and Squall really stood out to me as a character with amazing depth. Rinoa slightly annoyed me, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the game. The ending was a little rushed however....I wanted more detail.
The junctioning system was very unique and I personally loved it. It was great once you got the hang of it.
I loved the GFs. They really made the game.
The card mod was really fun, if incredibly frustrating. I had played FF9 first and that card game is completely useless, so it was a nice change to be able to actually DO something with the cards.
I found the bosses rather easy...Squall's Renzokuken was incredibly powerful(Lionheart is superb!), and the GF's did some nice damage too. This surprised me since I'm somewhat of a newbie, and I had heard how hard Omega Weapon and Ultimecia were....maybe i just leveled up too much?
The music is also incredible....The Landing(theme when Squall and the SeeD's first land in Dollet) is very memorable.
The graphics were decent, the FMV's were great.
The sidequests were pretty good, although i hated the chocobos in FF8....they just lacked the coolness of FF9's chocobos, or even FF7.
The Ragnarok looked awesome, but it was way too slow.
Devour....wow. That was a disturbing ability, but very cool...

Overall, I still prefer FF9....(but maybe thats because it was my first RPG and i'm quite partial to it, esp. the chocobos.)

I think FF8 is great game cause it was a big improvement in graphics from FF7 and it was fun to play, but I still like FF7 the best.

I didn't like it.

I think the junction system's a bit crap because i refuse to use any magic because of the negative effects it brings on my hp, strength etc. Also at the end of the game, due to Ultemicia randomly choosing your characters, you have to junction gfs to all your characters (even my lv9 Selphie!) destroying any bonuses for rarer abilities, unless you have a super gf.
Also its really easy until the end, I didn't even get eden or bahumut then got murdered by Ultemicia :(
i also don't like the fact that your SeeD level is the only way of supplementing your income, stopping you from raising levels outside of 'game time', unless you want to drop a level.
The game does have many good points, espec. the story and MOST of the gameplay.
However, I feel the Junction system ruins it, and I would have liked the old 'kill stuff and your level/ abilities/ money goes up' system rather than SeeD and the gfs controling everything.

i think ff8 is the best ff in PS1!

thats what it is.
compared to other rpg's in PS1 ff8 has the best story, chars, fmv, battle squence you name it. it greater than any.

FF8 had a good graph and a good story but the story of ff7 is better and have more feeling inside it...one thing i wish that Final Fantasy Never End... (do you feel it too).

yeah i feel it too!

Thank You yahmieriel.

yeah!!!

anytime dude!!!

as long as ff8 was concerned i wont let anyone say a crap about it!

but maybe this will be one of my lasts posts...
because ill be signing off of the shrine for a long time....

but ill be certainly be back, though i might change my name then...
but ill inform you guys if ever.

The story and the characters were the two factors that made FF8 so unbelievably deep, addicting, and emotion-wrenching.

I would easily put up with a status advancement system fifty times more complicated than Junctioning just to get my hands sticky in another plot and character party as awesome as those in FF8. It was well worth it.

I could go on about this for hours, but I have homework, so I'll just keep it at this :P

There are spoilers from ff8 and 9 in this post.

A lot of people complain about the battle system in FFVIII. There was a lot of purpose behind the moves that they made with FF8, but people don't seem to recognize that. The reason they made the summons so long was to encourage people to use them rarely, to set up your characters well before the battle. In timed situations it is simply not worth it to use GFs, most of the time.
The junction system gives a lot of control to the player, which makes it great. It does take a long time to do if you want your characters to be powerful, and that doesn't appeal to a great audience because not everyone likes to modify junctioning all the time.
Also, everyone complains aboutt the "draw" ability. Now, I am unsure if they did this for a reason or if it was just not well received, but they may have made it so tedious so that you would have a more difficult time getting your stats high so early in the game. It is brilliant because each person can have their characters as strong or as weak as they want. You can get quite high stats very early in the game. Mod zell, draw holy and flare from diablos, and you'll be huge. I never mod zell, but I'm just saying that any person can be as strong as they want. With the bossed giving no exp, you can actually go through the game without levelling at all. FF8 is as hard or easy as you make it, so people who say it's too easy just are not challenging themselves.

Story wise, the biggest downfall of FF8 was the main villian, Ultimecia. You barely see her until the very end, which makes her very weak. Had they stuck with Edea, she could have been one of the best villians ever. The way they orchestrated that part of the story was not a swift move on their part. Same goes for Seifer. He starts out in the foreground of the story, but then fades out. Edea and Seifer were great characters, but had no follow through as villians, and that detracted from the story. It was nothing compared to FF9, though, where the necron was not mentioned throughout the rest of the game. In this department, FF7 shines above all other games. Sephiroth is easily the ultimate villian in FF. I'm not going to go into reasoning here because I wager that not many people will disagree with me.
Other than the problem with Ultimecia, the story was almost flawless. Intricately woven, and it all makes just the right amount of sense at the end. Laguna being squall's father was great. The ending was touching and perfectly done. There are a lot of things left up to the imagination, which I find to be a good thing. Leaves people on message boards room to make up weird conjectures like the R=U theory, which I don't buy, but it's a good example.

The characters were awesome. A lot of people try to point out faults in them, saying selphie is annoying and whatnot. I found her very likeable though. I suppose this is a case of personal preference, but I fully enjoyed the characters of ff8. There was no character who seemed to just be along for the ride, like in ff7 with cait sith/yuffie/vincent or ff9 with quina/amarant. FFX did a good job with characters as well. Rikku sure annoyed me at the thunder plains, but I got over it. All the characters in ff8 had unique personalities, and were likeable in their own ways.

The graphics were not only good for their time, but continue to be good on today's standards. Pre-rendered backgrounds enable the makers to have cinema quality surroundings, which they put a lot of time into. The GF sequences were beautiful, although long. That's discussed above, though.

I have to be going for now. The music ruled but that's all I can say at this time.

I liked it alot, sometime the charecters felt a little underdeveloped, but all in all they did a good job with them.

I think FFVIII is the best FF ever made...Few reasons for that

1. The most important thing...Great plot. It was an epic love story
2. Characters are cool (I hate the way how they are in FFVII...u know...small).
3. It's never boring (I have played it trough about 7 times and I still love every event of the game)
4. Breathtaking music. Much more better than VII or IX
5. Enough side-quests and mini-games

And there's much more...

Or maybe I think this way cause FFVIII was the first final fantasy I ever played...naah! :)

is anybody here ??? theres nobody in my thread!!!noone!!!

I loved ff8 maybe because I haven't played ff7. The sidequests, the cardgame, the junction system, GF Eden, weapons, limit break are all cool.

The look is awesome. The character design, architecture of buildings and environment were carefully planned and executed.

But most importantly I like the feel of the story. Its a bit sad and nostalgic just like Lord of the Rings. There were lots of things, mysteries to discover and the plot prods you to continue...that is after you finish all the sidequests your obessing in.

What annoyed me most in this game was the level up system.
As your characters' levels get high, enemies' levels go up.
Level up doesn't upgrade your characters much while enemies get really strong.
Have you ever got your characters around level 70 to 100?
Enemies are unbelivably strong, if you don't have decent magics on Junction you can get killed very easily by even normal enemies.

Hmm, well, I guess what made it stand out was it's graphics (FMV-wise) ^_^

I mean, when I saw the opening FMV my mouth was hanging ;) hehe

I guess what made it fall was, they had no voices (they should've put some even if it's only in the FMV!) And when it's none FMV you really can't see the emotion they show (or at least try to) when they talk but I really couldn't blame them 'coz PS1 couldn't handle it :(

I think ff8 is the best ff cause of the
atmosphere(music,scenery etc)
cinematics
squall+rinoas relationship- it develops really well and keeps u hooked, personally I felt most other ff couples e.g. tidus/yuna, zidane/garnet had pretty dull relationships.
and the fact that the story is easy to relate to-love is a fairly obvious theme but it is used incredibly well

couples e.g. tidus/yuna, zidane/garnet had pretty dull relationships.

*laughs* I don't think that Garnet and Zidane's relationship was dull, but I thought it was funny ^_^

Neither was Tidus and Yuna's, I liked it, 'coz, it was dramatic IN A GOOD WAY :D

the Junction system runs through my veins and my eyes crave the sight of the perfect beauty, Quistis Trepe.
I'm a Trepie!

Hahaha, I'm a Trepie myself :) but DON'T put no malice there! I admire the instructor, and I am FEMALE so yeah, I really look up to her :) Hey, um...does anyone care to check the Seifer/Quistis thread? :)

The first Final Fantasy i played, and it brought me out of my stupidity. Before i played it i thought...lots of bad things about FF...[please don't kill me T_T ]. But FFVIII changed my mind.

Graphics : They were wonderfully beautifully goodifully yummilicious!!~ When I watched the opening fmv i was like "Woah! Is that real!?" [being such a retard at that time, i really thought it was real and continued thinking it was real until my brother told me it was rendered]. *cough*

Soundtrack : The soundtrack for this game was also very interesting. If you compare it to FFIX, the soundtrack of FFVIII beats it hands down. For FFIX, there were only a few remarkable songs. Personally, for FFVIII, I liked Liberi Fatali, Don't Be Afraid, Force Your Way, - practically every song there is. Also, i thought that the sounds for some of the towns were unusual - eg estar.
Plus the songs all have cool names, like Only a Plank Between One and Perdition, Succession of Witches, etc.
And Liberi Fatali and Eyes on Me both had meanings, while Melodies of Life didn't really mean anything.

Battle System : I went through the whole junction thing without really understanding it, and only mastered it at the end of disk two. After that it was fairly easy to use. GF's were quite useless for me, even though they didn't require mp to use, i only used them to junction. I didn't summon them much, except at the beginning of the game. Eden's animation was fairly long [to avoid overuse of it, no doubt] and so i rarely summoned it.

The draw system was also interesting, deviating from the standard "white mage" "black mage" thing. However i tend to not use magic for fear of "wasting" them. I like to keep all my spells at 100 ^^"".

Sidequest/cards : The card game was, and still is, my favourite card game. Of course, only FFVIII and FFIX had the card game, which was disappointing, but it was really excellent for FFVIII. You actually had to think with all the rules, and even if you're losing, if you play it right, you can do a combo and win. Nothing much to do with luck, because you can figure out how to use the laws to your advantage, which was amusing. For FFIX it was just placing the arrows and depending on luck. I couldn't bear to refine my cards [like the laguna card T_T] though.

Characters : One thing that really bugged me was the lack of character development. Except for Squall, everyone just "appeared" and conveniently came from the orphanage. Except for Rinoa, of course. She was the daughter of that Caraway guy and apart from acting like a spoilt brat all the time, she was extremely useless. I personally really hated her, for being so "I-am-so-right" all the time. And she, in the beginning of the game, picks on Squall for no good reason. Reminds me of a girl in my school who "scolds" people as an excuse to flirt.
Irvine was also a surprise. He acted like a big shot [not in a bad sense], but when the time came for him to assassinate the sorceress, he wimped out. Surprising, and totally unlike the standard "Imma cool guy and i can take anything anytime" that he acts like. I thought this was good too. And Seifer was cool, although he was too weak. I think he should have been more powerful, since he was supposed to be Squall's rival, and the Sorceress' Knight to boot.

Limit Breaks : Squall is overpowered. And to achieve LionHeart I hammer on the keyboard constantly. Apart from that.. Zell is also pretty good, but I alwats cannot remember his combos. Rinoa's limit break is just stupid. [who the hell uses a dog?] Granted, it's unique, but ...a dog? And Angel Wing...she goes berserk on spells and you can't control her anymore. Selphie's spells were useful sometimes, if you can find the good ones.

Final Fantasy 8 is a fantastic game

The storyline is pretty good in my opinion and unlike i heard people saying about final fantasy 7 i think all the characters get involved with the storyline and there is a part of the game where every member is going through something or that focuses on them and their life. The only downfall with the storyline is what most people i read are saying is that Ultemicia was not involved enough in the story and kind of just showed up out of nowhere but still pretty cool storyline.
The characters are great i love all of them except maybe sometimes squall can be a little irritaing when he goes off in to his own world and can be a little arrogant at times.
i love the battle system and as it was the first final fantasy i played it didnt bother me that the mp wasnt there. i love most of the gfs although some are pretty useless later on.
all the little subquests are ace especially the card games they were awsoume. i loved the magazines you could collect as well.
the weapons are amazing and the lion heart is probably the best weapon on any of the games only because the ultimate weapons on the other games were just called ultima weapon.
the graphics were good when it first came out and they are still pretty good now. the fmvs are the most amazing things there is so much detail in them and they look great.
all in all i think that ff8 is possibly my favourite final fantasy although i do like all of them and its a while since i played ff8.

In my opinion I like everything about it.

But, with number 8 they used and new battle system and the story was a little different.In some people's eyes this was good, but others hated the change. So it depends on the person.

Hey I know I am a newbie to the forum and you probly won't think much of my opinion but I am no newbie to Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy VIII was my first final fantasy. The only reason i bought this because of the demo.

Story: I loved the story. I wonder if Squall was ever jealous of Seifer. I liked how everything was put together. It was surprising to find out everyone (except Rinoa) used to live in an orphanage together. I couldnt wait to find out what was next for Squall when playing. I liked it when they dreamed about Laguna and got to learn about him.

Gameplay: Drawing magic was a bit tedious but u have to do wat u have to do if ur a final fantasy fan. The gf's were amazing. I liked the mini games especially the card game. I found this game to be a bit easy for leveling up though (island closest to heaven, island closest to hell)

Graphics: The graphics were unbelievable for a game on PS. The opening cinematic got me itching for more.

Sound: The sound is what Final Fantasy is all about. Whats a game without music. I loved all the music in this game. That "eyes on me" song is great

What makes this game fall is that its pretty easy even the last boss. Omega Weapon was sure a challenge but still wasnt enough a challenge as emerald weapon in FF VII.

Originally posted by Shenny
Hahaha, I'm a Trepie myself :) but DON'T put no malice there! I admire the instructor, and I am FEMALE so yeah, I really look up to her :) Hey, um...does anyone care to check the Seifer/Quistis thread? :)

Oh hey, where's the Seifer/Quistis thread? I'm a Seiftis fanatic, and a Trepie as well, :D

But anyways, going back to the topic, FF8 was excellent, the only downside, in my opinion, is the story. The orphanage thingie was rather pathetic. Compared to ff7, FF7 characters had their own stories to tell.

i thought final fantasy eight stands tall with the juntion system it is easy to master however i didnt like the idea that if ultima was junctioned to hp and you use it 5 time in batlle your health falls bad idea but thanks to the island closet to heaven and hell thats not a problem i really like the card game and cod refine ablity i got the lionheart in disk 2 easy love the gf also the music was good laguna theme the man with the machine gun is good im sorry for my spelling

Well mostly everything that there could have been said was mentioned so i'd just like to point out what attracted me more, first... it was honestly the first game with a serious emotional plot into the main storyline...that was a piece of art idea. The soundtrack might sound shabby for some people but listen, Nobuo Uematsu is a VERY good musician (is that how it spells?!) well i am one too and i find most of his compositions absolutely genious for the game, lets take The Extreme for instance... probably like 10 layers or so you could say 10 people to perform it live, and yeah it sounds kind of eletronic so thats probably why it sounds kinda boring that sound isnt much of an attraction but when you try and put that on your real instrument you find it genious! great progressions and arppeggios! well anyways let me cut my own crap and say that the characters were just perfect! i mean except for seifer who was supposed to be a badass and the worst thing he does is put a scar on squall's face i mean cmon, make him kill someone and then regret it and help them in the end as he dies to try and make it up! Ultimicia could have been more explored but i think it was perfect cause you get to know about her just at the same time as the chars! so you kind of feel like you're in that storyline! pretty nice touch! The Laguna and Raine thing and Julia with the general was really nice too...ah there are so many things to say, i could never find so many things to say in any other game i ever played, but i think FFX can hold that spot...but until then...FFVIII is the best one for me...after all, it cost 10 million dollars! what did you expect!? :D

The only thing wrong is that a sequel wasn't made

a bit late for a sqeual but i would have brought it

did they really spend 10 million $/� on ff8

Yes they sure did, i dont know if any game beat that already but when it was released it cost 10 times more than the second :D or something like that i dont really remember, and i dont think any game has beaten that yet cause technology today allows them to do more for less money, but FFVIII inspired new tech so i guess its gonna be the most expensive for a long time, but if i am wrong please correct me...hehe

Wouldn't it be awesome if they made a similar thing like Advent Children but for FF8? Or even better a remake of FF8 on the PS2/PS3.

Well, what does everyone think?

You know what?! FF8 would be an AWESOME kick ass movie!!! can you imagine all that visual? those incredible buildings, perfect characters, breathtaking battles! man! i would be the first to watch it :D
But making FF8 for playstation 2 is kind of weird, its like trying to remake Star Wars 4, 5 and 6 you know!? those are classics, and they shall never be touched :D

Okay, you have a point about the whole remake thing, and for this I agree with you. I can't wait to see if they do make a movie of FFVIII. It would have to be the actual events of the game rather than the sequel because the best part of FFVIII in my eyes was the storyline.

Maybe I should write to Square Enix and ask them to make a movie out of it. Not that they would take any notice. :(

Well, you could start a movement around the internet gathering names and all and send a big ass list to them, maybe they'll consider, cause FFVIII is really a movie on the playstation format, its beautiful indeed

Hey, maybe I'll start here. Do you think that's a good idea? Should I use polls or whatever?

Any suggestions would be fine.

I just thought of something. I'll have to find someone who can translate English to Japanese, seeing as the staff of Square Enix are mainly all Japanese.

OK i havent yet taken partin this thread. But aftercompleting Final Fantasy VII fro the 25th time, i think i should contribute my views to it. Here they are in no particular order.

GF's
I think that the GF system is one of the best systems in terms of summoning. There are 16 of them, therefore towards the end you have 16 GF's to chose from to summon. I also like the idea of GF's learning abilities. It is very simple and you just have to set the ability for your characters when they have been learnt. Some being very useful such as HP+80% and Enc-None etc. Also you can assign specicfic abilities for your GF's to learn. Lastly i also like the humour in some GF's attackfor example Tonberries DOINK and what-not.



Junction
I have mixed views about this. Junctioning is a good idea becuase you can custominse your characters thusly. For example you could auto junction Squall for the attack, and auto junction Zell for magic etc. It was very useful for that. However it could be annoying at times when you have to junction excahange when your not playing as your strongest characters.


Storyline
I think once you get into the stroyline, it really is great. OK it is a little weak at first, but from late disk 1 to early disk 2 i think you really start to get into it. I also like the thing that you are able to see Squalls thoughts as well as what he says, very interesting.

Gameplay
I enjoyed the gameplay. The battle system was simple and cool. I also like some of the weapons. Rather than the main character having a big sword, he has a gunblade which is great. The laguna dreams are OK too. OK, it is a little annoying when your final boss target isnt intorduced until disk 3, but i liked ther way that instead of having an evil sorceress taking iver the world which is incredulously corny, you have an evil sorceress planning tocompress time which is somewhat more orirginal. Lastly there is planty of thing to do when you have the ragnarok:
Go fight Jumbo Cactuar
Go fight Ultima Weapon
Go fight Bahamut
Do the Shumi Village quest
Do the three stars quest
Get PuPus cards
etc
etc.

Cheers 4 readind (If you did)

Originally posted by lone_wolf
Hey, maybe I'll start here. Do you think that's a good idea? Should I use polls or whatever?

Any suggestions would be fine.

I just thought of something. I'll have to find someone who can translate English to Japanese, seeing as the staff of Square Enix are mainly all Japanese.

A poll here wont make a difference, you need to use internet comunities such as orkut to get more people to sign for it and give their id so you can validate the thing and send to square and they MIGHT, and just might consider :) or you can get a few million dollars and produce a movie yourself :D

Originally posted by Chelsea
But anyways, going back to the topic, FF8 was excellent, the only downside, in my opinion, is the story. The orphanage thingie was rather pathetic. Compared to ff7, FF7 characters had their own stories to tell.

.....

You're right.

i think ur right, what battle system would u say is the better 1 tho? i think the junctioning system is pretty decent, especially when u absorb all elements and getto 255 str with all the characters. but then materia was pretty gd with stuff like knights of the round

FFVIII was the first FF that I ever played, and I love it. Blame my friends, but they showed me how to do everything, and when I needed help, like with junctioning or fighting, they were always there.

The music; some of it is weird, but it works with the story. It just wouldn't have been the same otherwise. I'm listening to it now, that's how much that I like it.

I admit, often I was confused, and didn't know what I was doing, but the Draw ability helped a lot, especially when I didn't have any magic in the beginning. I've never personally used Item in a battle, but I suppose that it could be useful. Especially if you run out of cures but have potions.

The GFs and their own special abilities was a shocker when I started off, but then again, I was very new to gaming and to Final Fantasy. What I liked best about them was that each had a level of compatibility per player, and you could switch them between players, not just have them permanently stuck on only one.

I liked that they all knew each other as children, because it seems more like real life. Who hasn't known someone as a child but forgot them in the bustle of real life before meeting them again? I know I have.

The dialogue was fairly decent, though some of it seemed a little cliche. But hearing what Squall was thinking gave a lot of insight into him as a character.

I liked the idea of someone whom everyone had known as good being bad, even if Edea was controlled by Ultimeacia. And having more than one sorceress made it more complicated, but at the same time made it more interesting.


Originally posted by lone_wolf
Okay, you have a point about the whole remake thing, and for this I agree with you. I can't wait to see if they do make a movie of FFVIII. It would have to be the actual events of the game rather than the sequel because the best part of FFVIII in my eyes was the storyline.

Maybe I should write to Square Enix and ask them to make a movie out of it. Not that they would take any notice. :(

Write to them. I'll do the same. Having both Advent Children and FFVIII movies would totally rock!

Never big into games.. not big into Final Fantasy for that matter I bought Final Fantasy VII the day it came out in North America and I was overwhelmed.. but I really prefer VIII.. Aeries death was saddening but nothing ever in a game or movie brought me so close to tears as the epic conclusion to FF VIII... the plot was great... I loved the fact that Squall wasn't static and he evolved.. and the love between him and Rinoa was fully evolved unlike the one between Cloud and Tifa/Aeris...

I really hope they make a prequel or sequel to this game since I think that Final Fantasy VIII had the most interesting universe. I could have gone with more cities.. but it had two rival nations.. and a strong group of elite mercenaries.. come on.. isnt that better then one big corporation ruling the whole earth :D

The FMVs were amazing.. and that alone the opening and ending FMV is well worth your money..

best... final... fantasy.. ever (comic book guy style ;) )

Originally posted by Neo Xzhan

The Gardian Forces with their junction abilities also adds to the personailsation of your characters, the only disadvantage is that they were to strong and would be cast too much. The game should have a build in option for only summoning a GF for a small number of times per battle. Also an option to turn of the summon sequences should have been there (like in FFX), because summoning Eden 3 times per battle takes alot of time.

the longer the better, i say. it gives you more time to boost.

Final Fantasy 8 was a good stable game, but IMO not the greatest FF. I think they could have done much better.

First of all, the story was a bit odd. They kinda killed it with the whole orphanage thing and how the GF makes them forget. Its sort of like an excuse to explain certain things. The characters were interesting but you didnt really get to learn much about any other character besides Squall and Rinoa. Everyone else had their two minutes..

The whole Laguna and Raine are Squalls parents thing. Even if its obvious that they are and that Squall may know it still bothered me that their wasnt any talk about it. I mean, he has been alone all his life because he didnt have parents to love him right? well wouldnt he have something to say if he knows Laguna is his father?. Squall was so distant, and as soon as he met Rinoa he just opened up. Its hard to crack a shell you know.. I think the effect with Rinoa happened way to quickly.

Now the Gameplay. The drawing magic was IMO the most horrible idea. It took ages to get 100 magic into your inventory. Then the Junctioning the magic was also a bad idea, sure it boosted up stats but If you used like 10 of the magic junctioned to lets say HP then your HP is lowered. I also didnt like how you had to depend Heavily on GF's to learn abilties, get good items, and to have some type of strength. I felt that was not good at all.

GF's werent all that great. It was just the boosting that twirked me. My fingers were getting tired of boosting just to get the damn GF to do a good strong attack.

The game was weak in story line and battle systems. I enjoyed it but felt they could have done much better.

I might as well make my second post in here although being a newbie here i'll probably be ignored =P. I myself like Final Fantasy VIII a lot, it is one of my more favorite games if not my number one favorite Final Fantasy game, however it wasn't my first FF, Final Fantasy on nes was.

Guardian Force

I myself did like the Guardian Forces in the game, like others I liked the fact that there was quite a lot of them, but I used them mostly for there abilities and not for summoning. However those abilities that they gave you I thought were great such as the additions to strength, lvl up, enc-none, recover and so on.



Junction

Now as far as I know I am one of the few people that do like the Junction System, drawing magic didn't bother me because early in the game I got the abilities from the GF's to turn Items into magic and I just used that 80% of the time to get the magic for my characters.

Also the ability to Junction the certain magic to your defense and attack I enjoyed, and just how you can use the certain magic to make certain stats higher, I actually had Rinoa's magic stat pretty high and used her as a mage type character. I know a lot of peoples main problem with it is that if you want to cast the magic then your stats get lower, but to me that�s was fine and I didn't mind having a downside if anything at all it just made me work harder on the game.

The Junction system though is what I feel makes this game stand/fall, for me it is one of the reasons that make it stand, but for a lot of people this is what makes it fall. For me it was an interesting system with a new learning curve, it made me think about what I was doing and when I prepared for battles or certain area�s I spent time working on my Junctions for what I felt would be best for what was going to happen. For other�s to them it was boring and tedious and they just didn�t care for it (whatever floats your boat) I�ve heard mixed feelings about the story line and the Junction System but I�ve heard more about the Junction System, so in my humble opinion I think this is to most people what will make the game stand or fall.


Storyline

The storyline, the other part that will make this game stand or fall, for me it made the game stand. I enjoyed the story from begging to end, it started out slow to me, but as it went on it pulled me in more and more and I found myself unable to put it down. Since it was a love story I didn�t mind the fact that most of the focus was on Squall and Rinoa, since they were the focus points and if at some point in the game it talked about who adopted Selphie and what the rest of her child hood was like, to me that would have just taken away from the main point of the game. One point of the story that got a lot of criticism was Ultimecia, which I can understand a little bit but if you do look back she is there from the begging just hiding inside of Edea, to me this made the game better when I found it out at the end, it was something to make me go �Whoa.�

The Orphanage scene is another part of the story that gets a lot of complaints, I to felt it was corny but also I Felt it had a purpose. When Laguna told Squall and the rest of the gang how to go through time compression and how they needed to think of each other, I saw that Orphanage thing as a common bond between all of them with the exception of Rinoa, with this bond they were able to believe in each other because they all had something in common, as far as Rinoa goes the feelings she had for Squall and the feelings he had for her was what allowed her to make it through time compression. So like I said I think it�s Corny, but I feel it had a purpose.

Overall though like I said I enjoyed the story, and I enjoyed the Character of Squall as well as the others, I found Squall to be one of the most interesting characters in a Final Fantasy game, like SephirothBizzaro said I to liked how you got to see his thoughts, and what he thought about the situations and everything else.

Game play

I to liked the game play, I liked the built in card game, I enjoyed the side quests, I enjoyed the battles in the game, and the weapon system. I thought the Weapon system in it was fun since it was well new. I liked that they tried something different with it and in my opinion I think it worked.

This game I felt was one of the better FF's for the reasons I stated above and also because it was diffrent in so many ways from the other FF games. I felt that almost everything in it was new and fresh, which for me makes it stand even more.

Overall I would give the game a 8 out of 10 (no pun intended =P)

I read most of the posts in here, but I'm still gonna list all mine out cuz :-*.


+ The music was nice. I actually enjoyed it a lot. Nothing wrong with Laguna's battle theme! ;)

- Character development. Yay, Squall was cold and now he's normal. Did anyone else get any decent development? Or a stab at development at all? I'd have liked to haved played with characters who really evolved more. FF6 had way more characters but also much more development among them. FF8 had only six people!!

+ I liked junctioning. It was really confusing at first because no other FF had ever used something like it before, but I eventually got the hang of it and liked it. A lot of people hated junctioning for various reasons, and I'm sure the fact that it's not very user-friendly (unlike materia, which people got) was part of that. But it was useful. Drawing magic could be tedious, but I didn't really mind hunting for draw points. :-*

+ I got SO ADDICTED to the card game! I didn't care much for it at first, but towards the end of the game, I was in love. Some of the rules pissed me off, though. I wasn't the best card player, either.

- Ultimecia? Who the hell is that? I personally would have liked to know who I was fighting throughout the game, rather than just at the end. Also, time compression? Er... what?


That's all for now because I'm about to play nwn online. :-[

Not to nick SK's comments again, but i'm tired so...

On the plus side;


I got SO ADDICTED to the card game! I didn't care much for it at first, but towards the end of the game, I was in love. Some of the rules pissed me off, though.

On the down side;


Ultimecia? Who the hell is that? I personally would have liked to know who I was fighting throughout the game, rather than just at the end. Also, time compression? Er... what?

Plus leaves the field wide open for 'Is Rinoa Ultimecia?' and all that bollox, which frankly, everyone can do without.

the positive:

the beautiful storyline and the romance drama of Squall and Rinoa! Worth every penny!

the downside:
I hated the complications of the Junction system! Too much for a slower learning person as myself!

Within the last week or so in chat rooms and forums alike I�ve heard people saying that Final Fantasy VIII "sucked" because it was to "real"

I mean yeah cars, trees, houses, towns, monsters, guardian forces, hovering cars, casting magic spells, time traveling sorceress all that was way to realistic why didn't they put anything fantasy in the game?

Even the games previous to Final Fantasy VIII had real things in them. the older FF's had ships as in regular ships that go in the water, those exist in reality, and they had canoes, I�m pretty sure I�ve seen a canoe before, and in FF7 Cloud rode a motorcycle! yup I�ve never seen a motorcycle before I wish those were real!

Although they could be onto something here, lets take all the real things out of the game so it will be more fantasy like. we could start with all of these things first.

Towns, houses, trees, fields, mountains, oceans, land in general, clothes, swords, guns, whips, gloves, axes, people in general, cars, ships, buggies, motorcycles, canoes.

If we can get all of those things out these games would be so much better! just like this!

Final Fantasy XIII "you are Keeblo Snosapik an Alien on a distant planet that is made of a metal like substance (but don't worry it's not metal) you work for an alien law firm that has laser blasting spoons"


*sarcasm*

Pure greatness if I do say so myself!

*end sarcasm*

I felt this belonged here because to allot of people the realistic look and so called real objects in FFVIII made it fall, and if they made FFVIII fall then I think all of the realistic things should make the others fall in some stature as well.

Sailing across an ocean is okay, but renting and driving a car isn't? .... spare me.

+ The music was the best so far in the FF series
The graphics were really neat
The worldmap was cool since there was trains 'n stuff on it
You did some pretty cool mission, like the one in Timber and the garden war

- Where did Ultimecia come from?

The Music
The Music is the best thing in FF8. I don't know what's wrong with me, but it seems that a computergame can't make me to feel the right feelings when there isn't any music to listen.
The GF-s
I like the fact, that it's possible to summon GF-s as many times in a battle as you want, but at the end it gets kinda boring. If there wouln't be a Boost Command, it would be veeeeeeeery boring, since then i woudn't have a button to tap at the right time:p Then again i like the fact, that after summoning a GF it protects you, not like in FF7, cause then you have a smaller possibility to die.
The Junction System
I don't know about that... The fact that you have to draw 100 magic... I don't think it's a big problem, cause at the moment i'm at the beginning of the third cd and still i don't have a single magicx100. Yet still the only enemies that have killed me are the Diablos and Cerberos. So i don't think that it's nessecary to draw a magicx100. I belive it's possible to complete the game without drawing so much... But i haven't completed it yet. So there can be enemies, who you can't defeat without junctioning a hundred magic to somewhere.
The Storyline
It's kinda confusing. The fact that they were all raised in one place (except for Rinoa ofcourse) is kinda... i don't know what the word is... Ridiculous? But i don't know... I still have a lot to do/see to complete the game.
But i love the fact that i can see Squalls thoughts:)

Anyway...
FF8 is a really great game and i'm pretty sure, that it'll become one of my favourit:)

positive:
- a wide variety of cool Guardian forces
- good storyline
- great characters
- FMVs
- (transportation)How u can manually control the Ragnarok and the Garden
- Triple Triad
- Junction System
- Locations
- Sidequests/missions
- Music (if not the best, one of the best in the series)

Negative:
- Long GF summons. And it'll be better if you can command them yourself (like u can command the aeons in ffx)
- "Draw Command"

i really loved the whole game. i think what really got me was the characters. i just loved rinoa and squall so much.

i thought the battles systems were good, i could fumble my way through untill i got things pretty muched figured out.

i love the music in the game. its so beautiful.

i hated not being able to skip fmvs or other longs scenes. they getting tiring after awhile if you can't find a save spot right after and you continue to die.

they story though, and romance between squall and rinoa and his steady change is what really makes me love the game.

Iv'e got to say before i start that i love ff8 and its one of my favorites, it did have some major poblems tho......

Imo the GFs weren't all that useful, if you use the junctioning system right you dont realy need to summon them at all, by the end of disk one my characters can generaly do more damage than the GFs, and they're quicker to.

The draw comand was a great idea, i loved how you could sytock magic spells, but it drove me nuts how you could take ages to get 100 of the spells you need...

The story was great, although i was anoyed that you didnt find out what was realy going on untill mid disk 3 and disk 4, my bigest problem with it though is the sudden memory flash backs at Trabia garden, i find that just a litte to convenient :-( .

The mini game was great tho, ive no problems with it what so ever, it was useful with the refining, it was fun to play, i havnt seen a better example of a mini game yet.

I liked the limit breaks, the visuals were pretty cool, but they were to powerful, Squall's Lionhart was instant death for almost any enmy you came across, but Rinoa's Angel Wing was potentialy just as powerful, and a lot more acurate, capable of doing up to 80000 damage in a single strike (and no thats not a typo).

I thought that the music, really helped this game. Also the element of curosity. I mean, there were so many moments when you were tired, but you needed to know what was going on in the game. Which I guess you could say takes away from it's replay value. Another thing I thought that sort of helped this game was the romance factor which Final Fantasy VII didn't have. I think the way the really milked that factor was having Rinoa slowly growing on Squall as vice versa. Now I love this game, but that's not to say I won't critize it. I thought that the other charatcers roles were a bit weak. They were there but that was about it. The idea that once time was compressed you couldn't do anything. And of course who could forget Omega Weapon (I hated that thing ... :|). But While saying that I'll end by saying a few more things, Those things on the Ragnarok were the weirdest things ever, and would never die. On that note The Ragnarok was the coolest vehicle ever. Finally, the weapons (Especially the Gun Blades) were tight. A gun, and a broadsword? What a combo. There's my 2 Cents

I did not like the game very much, it was okay, and of course I got everything there was to get in the game, but it was boring to me, the FMVs were beautiful, but that's about it, I didn't mind the storyline, wasn't that great though...

Within the last week or so in chat rooms and forums alike I�ve heard people saying that Final Fantasy VIII "sucked" because it was to "real"

I mean yeah cars, trees, houses, towns, monsters, guardian forces, hovering cars, casting magic spells, time traveling sorceress all that was way to realistic why didn't they put anything fantasy in the game?

Even the games previous to Final Fantasy VIII had real things in them. the older FF's had ships as in regular ships that go in the water, those exist in reality, and they had canoes, I�m pretty sure I�ve seen a canoe before, and in FF7 Cloud rode a motorcycle! yup I�ve never seen a motorcycle before I wish those were real!

Although they could be onto something here, lets take all the real things out of the game so it will be more fantasy like. we could start with all of these things first.

Towns, houses, trees, fields, mountains, oceans, land in general, clothes, swords, guns, whips, gloves, axes, people in general, cars, ships, buggies, motorcycles, canoes.

If we can get all of those things out these games would be so much better! just like this!

Final Fantasy XIII "you are Keeblo Snosapik an Alien on a distant planet that is made of a metal like substance (but don't worry it's not metal) you work for an alien law firm that has laser blasting spoons"


*sarcasm*

Pure greatness if I do say so myself!

*end sarcasm*

I felt this belonged here because to allot of people the realistic look and so called real objects in FFVIII made it fall, and if they made FFVIII fall then I think all of the realistic things should make the others fall in some stature as well.

Sailing across an ocean is okay, but renting and driving a car isn't? .... spare me.


That is the awesomest post... Ever.

there were alot of things i didn't like about this game

1. the story was weak ( and the plot twist was weaker)
2. the music was generally poor although there were some fantastic tunes
3. you could use the GFs continuously throughout a battle until its hp was depleted

things i liked

1 i kinda liked the junctioning system although it does mean that using junctioned magic weakens your character
2. the locations were inventive
3. the mother of all transport: The RAGNAROCK ( man what an awesome ship, and name!!!)

I think FF8 had the best music in the series and the best minigame also. Only Blitzball has come close to the enjoyment of card gaming. It showed great depth in actual collecting of cards and wasn't that annoying compared to losing at many other minigames. Ragnarock was sweet cause of the possibilities of landing areas compared to the Highwind.

I Have to say imho FF8 was the worst FF ever

Thing's I disliked

1. the story was pretty bland, we're the good guys, you're the evil sorceress lets fight
2. the opponent never changed ( maybe in apperance) but all through the game you're just fighting one sorceress after another
3. the junctioning system was effective, but severly limited your magic use ( you either had to use other spells or sacrifice the stat junction)
4. none of the characters had a reason for fighting. What i mean here is that (except for Rinoa) It was just a case of 'Our job puts us in the firing line, lets fire back then'
5. there were no fantasy characters ( no red 13 or Quina) something i sorely miss in the earlier FFs as well.
6. the music could be good at times but generally it was a dissapointment

Things i (quite) liked

1. the graphics at the time were exceptional
2. the card game was fun, when you learnt the rules and values
3. the fact that monsters could also level up made combat interesting
4. weapon Upgrading rather than buying out right was interesting

FFVIII is GREAT!!
i wuz in the middle of beatin FFIX again, and i just completely ditched it to play 8 again, mainly cause i wanna beat OMEGA.
Final Fantasy VIII is sooo good that it is almost as half as food as FFVII

4. none of the characters had a reason for fighting. What i mean here is that (except for Rinoa) It was just a case of 'Our job puts us in the firing line, lets fire back then'
Wow, if you think they had no reason for fighting other than "putting themselves on the firing line," then you must not have been paying attention to the game. Squall was fighting for Rinoa. They were all fighting to save the world from being corrupted by time compression and for their friends. And each of them had their personal feelings from having grown up in the orphanage and then seeing what happened to Matron Edea after she was possessed by Ultimecia.

i agree completely, i think ff8 deserves more credit than that, they all have their reasons other than just fighting 4 the sake of doing their job. i wouldn't really say the story was bland either. mature is a better description. the fact that there no fantasy characters like some qu or some strange cape-wearing talking ducks from treno is a good thing! it just wouldn't have been the same if squall had a tail and vivi as a friend. there would have been complete loss of effect.

i beat omega a while ago too, it was quite disappointing, i thought it was gonna be a serious pain but with triple aura on irvine, squall and quistis it was no problem. =)

The reason I think FF8 don't get the credit it deserve is cause look what it had to follow. FF7 is considered by many to be the greatest game ever made, and even though it's old now, people(like myself) still love it. FF7 set peoples expectations so high that although FF8 was a great game, it couldn't stand up to the hype that FF7 created. FF7 was truly a tough act to follow, and FF8 should definitely get more credit for doing it so well.

I liked what many hated...the romance in the game. This game had a large romance theme. I thought it fit well, but some hated it. And, you have to have VERY good characters to kill Ultima Weapon..I have a party of 3 maxed out chars at level 100. And it STILL took a good amount of time to beat it.

Ultima Weapon is simple... Renzokuken>Lionhart will kill him instantly, but the hard part is GETTING to him...

I liked what many hated...
me, too, like
the Draw/Junctioning system. PURE GENIOUS. to me, drawing 100 of each magic was no different than running back and forth fighting the same monsters, leveling up. It's just another aspect of training you characters and raising your stats.

the storyline. EPIC. nothin beats bein an elite mercenary, trying to save the world from a corrupt government ruled by an evil sorceress who is possesed by an EVILER sorceress from the future.

the characters. LOVEABLE. they all have their own distinct personalities, and u can identify with them.

the music... WONDERFUL. what else can i say? Uematsu wrote it!

the antagonist, the enemy, the villain, the foe, the BAD GUY!!! Ultimecia was great, and a hell of a whole lot of fun to fight.

Yeah, and not too many FF games feature the female bad guy either..The only thing I hated about the draw system was that I had 100 ultimas..200, actually, but of course on 2 diff chars...anyway, I never want to use the because I have them junctioned to elemental defence, which GREATLY increases your absorbtion depending on what else you junction to that stat!

Funny enough, when i first fought Ultima Weapon I only had great divide, not Leonheart. So It took me a while. NOW I have it, but then I didn't...

This is the BEST FF that I have ever played. It is my favorite game of all time I seemed to be one of the only ones that liked it more than 7. Everything was fun about it, the awesome storyline was so because you were a student at a school. It made it better than the randomness of FF 9 what were you in that, I've got to admit I did not buy 9 I only got a little ways into the game so I can't really judge it. And I just bought 7 (yeah i know it is a little late) but i am hoping to like it a lot.

Music. 100% makes it rise!

Graphics during play let it down.

nah FF8 aint all that great
i dont like squall or many of the other characters and the storyline was pretty shit

ur an FF7 boy arent ya?.....i cant blame ya cause i am to (FF7 fo life foo's)

BUT FF8 is really good to.....i already said this about the game but the junction system made the game WAY TO EASY

yeah FF7 is the best

Yes indeed it is my friend.....but lets not talk about it in an FF8 thread..........

also in 8 i think the whole having to draw ur magic thing was pretty bunk to

yea that sucked
i also hated having to press the squre button for summons to get stronger
i prefer to just sit there and watch em blow stuff up

yah that was stupid and if u get it SOOO HIGH and u accidentally press it while the fucking x is over the hand it goes back to 75......that was STUPID

i must say that there are a few parts of that game that sucked off guys


SUCK OFF GUYS SUCK OFF GUYS

SUCK OFF GUYS SUCK OFF GUYS

whaaaa? r u gay or sumthin?

HAHA i didtn even see that post....my fucking asshole friend did that.........hence forth i must now kick his ass..


chopper i thank you for showing me that

TOPIC please.

chopper i thank you for showing me that

no problem ;)

I played FF7, FF8 and FF9

I liked FF8 in almost all ways

Story : Like someone said : Ultimecia is in the whole game, but you don't realize untill Disc 3-4. It has a cool story, but FF7 too .. it's kind of a tier ..

Battle System : 4 Commands is not enough, true, but what if every Character could have 6 ? wouldn't that be too many ?

Junctioning : I missed Junctioning a lot in FF7 and FF9, that's when I realized the junctioning system was really perfect ..

Cards : cards in FF9 wasn't cool enough, in FF8 you know what you were going to do with it .. Refine into items and more items or magic ..

Drawing : yeah, it's kinda boring, the first 3 hours of my game were trying to get outside, and drawing from monsters outside ..
But it was a cool way to get Magic

GF's : Not only summons that fight for you, that have those cool abilities that they have to learn .. I liked that

Chocobo : FF7 definitely did a better job on the Chocobo's, in FF8 there were 6 puzzles, and oh yeah, you need them for the Ragnarok on Disc 4, but that's it ..

overall, FF8 > FF7 > FF9 for me

FF8 was the 2nd worst game EVER in my opinion.
It lacked quality in gameplay, storyline and in characters. Virtually nothing made it worthwhile to play, other then it having great scenery ( Esthar ) and a semi decent stroyline compared to FFCC. Oh, not forgetting Seifer and his Posse.

I hated the junctioning, it was boring and lacked excitement for me. To draw magic all the time was a pain the ass. Stupid Tents as well. I didn't think they even revived KO'd characters >.>. The weapons were ok, but the whole junctioning system put me off.

The characters all came from the same place, apart from Rinoa. THE SAME DAMN ORPHANAGE. So much for having unqiue backgrounds. The main cast were dull, boring, and half the time, the only characters that were worth using and that I HAD to use where Zell, Squall and Irvine. The women sucked. >.>

Oh, the biggest downfall would have to be the love storyline. Please, why the hell did Squall fall for someone that made him do everything for her? Rinoa and Squall ruined the game overall, no, make that Rinoa. She ruined Squall, for me, and therefore my liking for him faltered.

Heck, compare this game to FFCC however and you could class it as being as good as FFVII! ( But isn't...if you get me. )

I played FF7, FF8 and FF9

I liked FF8 in almost all ways

1. Story : Like someone said : Ultimecia is in the whole game, but you don't realize untill Disc 3-4. It has a cool story, but FF7 too .. it's kind of a tier ..

2. Battle System : 4 Commands is not enough, true, but what if every Character could have 6 ? wouldn't that be too many ?

3. Junctioning : I missed Junctioning a lot in FF7 and FF9, that's when I realized the junctioning system was really perfect ..

4. Cards : cards in FF9 wasn't cool enough, in FF8 you know what you were going to do with it .. Refine into items and more items or magic ..

5. Drawing : yeah, it's kinda boring, the first 3 hours of my game were trying to get outside, and drawing from monsters outside ..
But it was a cool way to get Magic

6. GF's : Not only summons that fight for you, that have those cool abilities that they have to learn .. I liked that

7. Chocobo : FF7 definitely did a better job on the Chocobo's, in FF8 there were 6 puzzles, and oh yeah, you need them for the Ragnarok on Disc 4, but that's it ..

overall, FF8 > FF7 > FF9 for me

I am NOT picking on you fist off, I just like to have someones opinion to elaborate on.

1. Story, like you said, it is a pretty annoying twist, about not finding out about Ultimecia until Disk 3/4, but the storyline is great, and while it seems unoriginal sometimes, it is still nice.

2. Battle System, 4 commands, would be enough for me until I played FFX, but I can still tolerate it, but still, you can have up to 4 non-command abilties too i.e. Auto-Haste, which is more than both FFVII, and FFIX.

3. Junctioning, well, I wouldn't say it was PERFECT, but it was indeed, very good. It was quite irritating at first, but it was totaly un-linear iykwim, you could strategically get ready for your next boss battle by using status and elemental junctions, plus the whole thing gets ALOT easier when you have plenty of magic and you can just use auto-junction.

4. Yeah, I would agree with you here, Triple Triad is the better card game, obviously it is a bit repetetive after a while, and VERY frustrating at times, it was very rewarding.

5. Drawing did get boring. You had to wonder around repeatedly drawing magic from enemies to increase your stats, but thats why refining, and draw points are so useful.

6. GF's are definately the best summoning system to date, imo. You can have it learn an unbelievable amount of abilties and the summonong sequences were great.

7. I think the chocobo sidequest was great, on FFVII, I found it all very repetetive, and on FFVIII it made a great sidequest.

I am not going to give an order though becuase I like the three individually.

I think it was interesting to see what kind of magic they put in the different monsters for you to take, I especially liked it when you could draw GFs from the different bosses, that was pretty cool.

To be honest i was a bit of an RPG rookie, but now final fantasy is one of my most favourite games series of all time. Final fantasy 8 started all that. I loved the gorgeous pre-rendered scenery, sometimes i played just to see what the next screen looked like! The sweeping orchestral soundtrack really sets the mood for the game! in my opinion, this was it's best quality.
The characters breathe life and personality and you can really familiarise with them. It definately stands the test of time, i am still in awe of that beautiful opening cutscene!

FF 8 was the first FF I played and I think it had a good storyline and battle system along with great graphics (at the time that is) and put simply I thought the characters were more realistic and gripping, but different things for different people.

FF8 was the 2nd worst game EVER in my opinion.
It lacked quality in gameplay, storyline and in characters. Virtually nothing made it worthwhile to play, other then it having great scenery ( Esthar ) and a semi decent stroyline compared to FFCC. Oh, not forgetting Seifer and his Posse.)

First off let me just say for the record i think FFVIII is a good game i'll say why later. faithful_to_sepiroth you say it lacked quality in gameplay what exactly was wrong with the gameplay? the junction system was good it allowed a lot of variation and didnt take THAT much intelligence to figure it out. the battle system was good although a bit basic, and GF's were actually very good IMO because they actually got stronger throughout the game and you could set abilities for them to learn. The storyline could have been better what with ultimecia's late appearance and all but it was still solid with good likeable characters. so tell me what exactly made FFVII "whorthwhile to play"


I hated the junctioning, it was boring and lacked excitement for me. To draw magic all the time was a pain the ass. Stupid Tents as well. I didn't think they even revived KO'd characters >.>. The weapons were ok, but the whole junctioning system put me off

Drawing magic may have been a bit of a drag but it was good in a sense that it allowed your characters to become quite powerful physically without penalty's to other statistics I.E the materia system.i dont see how one small item such as a tent can make a game bad. even so tents have never revived anyone in any FF anyway have they? the weapon system was a bit flawed but nonetheless was still quite good and it made getting new weapons quite a bit harder.


The characters all came from the same place, apart from Rinoa. THE SAME DAMN ORPHANAGE. So much for having unqiue backgrounds. The main cast were dull, boring, and half the time, the only characters that were worth using and that I HAD to use where Zell, Squall and Irvine. The women sucked. >.>

I admit that the whole orphange scene was just a bit too cooincidental but it did play a key role in the story line and without it a lot of the story would not have made sense. also the fact that some of the characters are women! i wont reply to that.


Oh, the biggest downfall would have to be the love storyline. Please, why the hell did Squall fall for someone that made him do everything for her? Rinoa and Squall ruined the game overall, no, make that Rinoa. She ruined Squall, for me, and therefore my liking for him faltered.

the love storyline, I think it was what set it apart from some of the other final fantasy's. it focused more on that than anything else, i suppose that it is purley a matter of opinion whether that is a good or bad point but to me that is a very good point, it wasnt just your typical boy meets girl, boy falls head over heels for girl, girl isnt interested, oh by the end he's up her skirt. Squall has a very retarded personality at the start but Rinoa gradually changes him as the story progresses and i think that this gradual change is what makes it so good.


Heck, compare this game to FFCC however and you could class it as being as good as FFVII! ( But isn't...if you get me. )

FFVIII IMO is better than FFVII but thats only a matter of opinion.

sorry if it looks like im picking on you but i am bored with nothing to do O:]

I think what makes it fall is the fact that it was way too easy. You could basically have unlimited magic for that one battle. There's really no point in leveling up cuz the enemies are the same levels as you, and you make your stats god like with no problem at all. What was the point.

If you used your supply of "unlimited magic" then your stats would fall making magic limited.

Not really, if you store magic with inactive characters.

That's what I did, that way I could use some magic and then get it back after a boss battle or whatever.

what do you mean? if the inactive people have the magic stored and you use your supply of magic during the battle then replenish it afterwards you still lose stats during the battle. if thats what you meant.

Yeah, you lose like maybe a few stat points at the most during a tough battle. That's really dangerous.

I never really used magic much though towards the later stage of the game, with the exception of Aura and Meltdown --- I couldn't be bothered with that level of fiddling in the menu.

yeah the only magic i ever used was aura and meltdown, i used recover a lot and revive.

One thing I really enjoyed about FF8 was the GF animations and graphics. Even if you don�t like FF8, you have to agree with me that those were pretty cool. I especially liked Diablos� animations.

I have just started replaying FF8, and I realise know my earlier posts were wrong.

What makes it stand are the awesome graphics and cutscenes
What makes it fall is the crap in between the cutscenes

FF8 was e second FF seris which I played.. First was FF9, and third was FF7 (Yea... Weird, I know) I thought it was quite nice esp the GFs, tt's really what I love most abt the game =))))


yeah the only magic i ever used was aura and meltdown, i used recover a lot and revive.
Lolx... Me too!!! I use all the Cures and blah blah only.. And most of the time, Squall is e one who gets all the spells and I use... (Reserve the best for the best! Muahahaha)

I liked ff8 'cause it is so complex and you really have to think to understand it.

Overall I liked FFVIII but I had alot of problems with it. I think the junction system was the worst ff system but i didnt mind it all that much. I didn't like that you don't see Ultimecia until the final battle. Also, this game just kind of bored me, Its starts off pretty fun, but after disc one it all goes to crap.

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Whats up. I think FF8 was a very very good game ill say why but first ill answer your questions.
1) Ultemecia's Rinoa. As time goeas on after FF8 every one ages and dies but her (her being an immortal sorceress) and she lives in solitude for eons. She then does some vierd spell thing to warp back in time (the time compression) to find what she had been missing throughout the thosands of years in solitude.
2) dont think so
3) dont think so

anywho i like 8 because of its deep convulted (in a good way) storyline. Its characters were pretty good (not as good as X) and its battle system was okay.. it got stale after 4 discs but the ending redeems the game... I got goosebumps all over. It was so well done. it was kind of "ringu" or "Ring"ish

1. That's just a theory.
2. If Kiros and Ward know, then it seems to me Laguna probably does too.
3. Maybe, if he's smart.

1) Yeah its just a theory because they dont directly tell you, but come on. yhey give you clues throughout the whole game that practically spell it out for you. but i suppose you're right.
2) Kiros and Ward know!!! wow i missed out on that... i feel ashamed to call myself a fan :(
3) Squall isn't known for his brightness, but you never know.

1) Yeah its just a theory because they dont directly tell you, but come on. yhey give you clues throughout the whole game that practically spell it out for you. but i suppose you're right.
Perhaps, but I've seen some pretty passionate debates on this forum as to whether that's true or not. If you look around the past threads, you might find some of the conversations about it.


2) Kiros and Ward know!!! wow i missed out on that... i feel ashamed to call myself a fan
Yeah, they definitely know --- see the "Laguna:Is he really Squalls father" thread for more details.

thanks for the redirection there agent... i'll inform myself now

I just got the game and dont want to read this thread just in case there is spoilers but, Am I the only one who thought the junction system and the fighting sucked?

It's probably just because you don't understand it.

Though you've gotta admit, the battle system is a bit basic/easy.

I love the storyline so far and you probably are right I dont understand it enough where I will like it.(junction system) Not only is the battling too easy but the gf always have to be summoned for power or you will most likely lose the fight. (thats what I heard)

Not only is the battling too easy but the gf always have to be summoned for power or you will most likely lose the fight. (thats what I heard)That is 100% wrong, GFs are probably the slowest way to kill enemies in this game. By late Disc 1, your high strength and strong Limits will defecate all over your GFs; the only ones you'll want to use in the end are Cerberus and Doomtrain.

THIS GAME SUKS1111111! OMG WTF LOL ONLY FF7 IS GOD AL OTHER FINAL FANTASYS SUKS1111 WTF

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(reason why so many people on these boards hate FFVII fans)

THIS GAME SUKS1111111! OMG WTF LOL ONLY FF7 IS GOD AL OTHER FINAL FANTASYS SUKS1111 WTF

What a weirdo... :confused:

Please go to another forum cloudstre666 no one tells you to stay here, GET OUT YOU SPOONY BARD

the worst part was that selphie always checked if she had shit on her shoes and the chocobo sidequest
the best part of the game was the rest this game is unbeatble

final fantasy 8 is the most ultimately awesome final fantasy game in the existence of every final fantasy game in this galaxy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Final Fantasy 8 isthe best in the series by far. Some things that rocked were:
-The characters and storyline, like agent0042 said earlier on it could be cheesy at times but as you went along you really got into the storyline and felt like you really knew the characters, i think this was one of the things that drew me to it.
-There is sooooo much to do! You can play the main game or there tons of mini games and quests so if you wanted a little breakfrom the game it was easy. I also liked the way they made a lot of towns to explore, you could just go and have a wonder in Winhill, Deling City or Dollet and have a little chill. Perfect!

As well as been the best there was a few downfalls:
- GF's! I'm not saying the GF's were terribles i mean most of the time they were brilliant, my only complaint is how much time they took up in a battle. It could up to half an hour to beat a not so complex boss all beacuse of the time the GF takes up.
- I'm sorry to complain about this but i have to say that i never got into the card game, I started it at the beginning but got that wrapped in the story line i forgot all about, my fault but the card game just didnt appeal to me at all

Overall Final Fantasy VIII is still the best game ever!!

i think there should be a sequel that combines the systems of 7&8. but instead of a sorceress there should be a sorcerer and two other characters that team with Squall and Rinoa with different virsions of their wepons

final fantasy 8 is the most ultimately awesome final fantasy game in the existence of every final fantasy game in this galaxy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Being sexually attracted to any game is just scary.

STEP AWAY FROM THE PS NOW AND PUT THE JOYPAD DOWN

Being sexually attracted to any game is just scary.

STEP AWAY FROM THE PS NOW AND PUT THE JOYPAD DOWNWhere the fuck did he specify that he was aroused by the game?

i have to agree with Irvine there it doesnt mention anything about being aroused by the game

Final fantasy VIII imo is the best of the ones ive played ( 7, 8, 9, X, and X-2).

Some reasons (already said about a 100 times, but once more cant hurt :)) :

The characters: I LOVED the characters in FFVIII ! Each had there own distinct personality, and each one of them had several layers to them too, not one of them was one dimensional, not even the minor characters. (For example: Squall starts off very introverted and cold, but as the game progresses we get to see his loyal, caring side, who would do anything for his friends. Even Fujin who seems uptight and mean at first shows us that she actually has a heart deep down in there and a sense of humor)

The junction system was a good system once I got used to it. It allows for more peronalization than materia and i liked that.

Drawing was a bitch though, lol. Ok concept, but really annoying at times.

I Like that FFVIII revolved around a love storyline, instead of just the usual 'save the world' thing. Of course the object of the game was to save the world, but the main focus was still love. I see a lot of people here dont like the whole everyone was at the same orphanage thing, but I do like it. It ties in with the story extremely well, and the characters personalities were so diverse to begin with that the need to have them be from different parts of the world is negated imo. So besides the occasional cheesy line, I think the story was very well done.

The card game was awesome, and is probably one of the best if not the best mini game of any FF imo.

I think it was pretty cool that we had to make our own weapons using items we gathered rather that just buying them, this made it more challenging and fun.

GF's are also, imo, the best summoning sytem of any FF series, although boosting made my finger really tired. :)

And, of course, the graphics, for back then were REMARKABLE. The cutscenes are still good by todays standards imo and thats saying a lot.

FF8 is the first FF game ive ever played followed by half of FF9,FF10, FF10-2, FF7 and FF6( the order i played them). but compared to the rest i think FF8 is better.

I liked the storyline, i thought it was excellent, not perfect, but damn near.
i liked the whole 'Squall is Laguna's son' thing, i realised this the first time i played it. Laguna and Squall do know coz Laguna says something like 'I know there's alot you wanna talk about, but we'll talk about it later' and on the Ragnarok Kiros and Ward say something like 'At least you look like your mother and not like your father'. is Raine Squall's mum?
oh yeah did yall realise that Julia is Rinoa's mum? probably.

oh anyway, yeah the storyline is good. The characters are original, the scenery excellent, the juntion system is the one im used to. it took me a while to get used to the whole sphere gris in X and the mana in VII. The score was very catchy.

I enjoyed beating Omega Weapon although it took me a while and i used all the heroes. and Holy War trials. and Rinoas Invincible moon Limitbreak.and squall's Lion Heart about 5 times.

i rekon Ultimicia should have been harder, after Omega weapon, peice of cake.
oh well theres my point of veiw.

There have been several discussions about FF8 before so I decided to make one new thread for it.

What makes FF8 in your eyes a good or a bad game??

I have a number of things to say about this game.

The story could have been a little better, in my opinion Ultimecia isn't involved ebough in the game. Sometimes I got somewhat confused by the story aswell. Yet the story was original enough.

The battle system was ok, the only thing which bothered me was that you had a maximum of 4 menu options, though this forces you to think over who will be using items and the like and who be using more magic.

The absence of mana was in the beginning a little hard to get used to, though the drawing makes up for this, you no longer are dependant on mana and you need to be on the look out for particular magic, which adds to the game. Also to ability to junction magic to make your character stronger/more resistant gives you the ability to personalize them. Though if you use particulary strong magic this will prohibit you from casting it in battle since that will make your character weaker.

The Gardian Forces with their junction abilities also adds to the personailsation of your characters, the only disadvantage is that they were to strong and would be cast too much. The game should have a build in option for only summoning a GF for a small number of times per battle. Also an option to turn of the summon sequences should have been there (like in FFX), because summoning Eden 3 times per battle takes alot of time.

The music wasnt the best, like the battle tunes from Laguna, they could have been better.

So what makes this game stand/fall in your opninion??

They did that because if you have Boost for your GF learned, (On PC) If you press W or sumting then the character stats will dissapear and will be an A that gets an X over it and not, and over, and not. And pressing A will liike make your damage stronger or like that

I think this game was awesome though :D Although boosting every frikin battle with bosses can make my finger cramp x_X Especially the FMV's. WOAH!

ff8 is great! storyline is good, theme music is awesome, gameplay's excellent and a lot of sidetrips to keep it's players playing for hours, specially the card game. a classic!

good: 1this was the first ff game i played so of course i thought it was awsome
2battle system is awsome(propably because i mastered it)
3lvl up system is awsome
4 story super awsome
5 music awsome
bad:1characters werent so super awsome like in ff7 go sephiroth
2well nothing more in my mind is bad so i guess thats it

I loved the Junction system to me all of the Final Fantasy's have to be different and it works into the story which is amazing, time compression was very intressting and though I wondered why VIII was Sci-fi after VI I enjoyed it very much but highly confused by the end which I always like, a complicated story makes me go back and watch it again, I like when stories make me think then just giving you it all on a plate.

The music mostly I enjoy but there's a few tracks that I dislike

Characters are good, love Zell and Irvine, Squall well not so but his character develops through the game which is a delight.

Overall this game had to be different from VI in many ways and it is which helps the game be a success.

I thought Final Fantasy VIII is the best of them all i love the ending the story is Graet the charictors are funny. the banter between them makes my laugh. I like the idea of drawing your magic as it can get anoying in the other games when you run out of MP. its original, its not like the others & this reson alown makes it graet no one will change my mind on that fact.the Charactors are all Fu#*ed up. Selphie & Irvine are enough to make you pi#* yourself laughing not to mention Rinoa's continueus rants at Squall . I like the fact that you can Upgraid Your Wepons instead of saving up rediculous amounts of Cash to buy them. Some People may not have understood the story but i did and i loved it, The GF are graet, Bahamut rules. the only thing i found that was wrong with it was the fact that it didnt last very long. it realy didnt take me long to complete but the fact that there was so many side missions compansaited it(for me anyway).

I love Final Fantasy VIII. It was my first Final Fantasy ever. That was about 3 years ago, and I saw nothing wrong with the games at all. I was still stuck with my PS1 so the graphics still looked amazing to me and all. And I was just fine with the battle system. I'm still undersided or not weather or not it is my favourite, It's so hard to decide. After buying 2 more IX and X and borrowed VII aswell I compared them.
After comparing them I still see nothing wrong with it really. Maybe the music could be a bit better, but that is it really. Because i was absolutely fine with the junction system, infact it wouldn't bother me if they brought it back a second time. =)

Well the graphics now are enough to make me vomit.But nevertheless a very playable game even to this day.

Well the graphics wern't that bad for the time. I mean there were some games back then with some really really bad graphics like some games you were just an arrow flying around shooting dots at things. So I still think the graphics are good even now.

What makes this game the best is that after six years, hearing chords in music and seeing brief frames of ff8 fmvs and gameplay make me think back to the 125 hours I put into this game. It's like playing FF8 at age 12 for that long made it part of my childhood and I just keep getting that warm cozy feeling thinking about it.

It's an incredible game.

Now... back to battlefield2.

ive played the game a countless no of times and i still prefer it to any other apart from pocket billiards and i just realized that its not a perfect game as im not in it but then evry1 would be as jander said "any1 being attracted to a comp game would be weird". i guess thats y im not in it

I'd have to say the first disc was just incredible. The cast of characters while underdeveloped was cool, the mercenary school atmosphere was really cool, and I loved the battle/abilites system.THE MUSIC .... *drool* the music for this game was awesome. The fmv's were well done cinimatically also. Everything merged together to add an extra depth to the game which made it a 10/10 in my book.

i think that ff 8 was a good, not great good game. It was nothing compared to ff 7 tho... I really liked the junctioning, it can really boost ur characters up and defeat enemies quicker, the story line was kinda stupid and made no sence. overall the game is ok but i would rather play ff7 instead

A note about my thread; I specifically noted this thread. But for goodness sake, it is not relavant entirely to this. It was a diferent discussion, but whatever.

90% of FF8 fails. Thats what makes it fall.

Discussion ended. Excuse me while I leave again.

It's not a different discussion, not really...


This sig is fine, normal size for a sig, doesn't take up lots of space, kthx. SO like, stop whinging about me. I hate this place.
'Cept there are posted rules about what's allowed, they're good rules, sheesh...

Well all the FF games have been great for me and each one has a different style of leveling up. The first FF i got into was FF7 and that was pretty much because i was watching a m8 play mog house in golden saucer. After a while of lending it i eventually :o managed to get used to the materia system and ended up loving the whole system. Especially when i discovered summons!

Then FF8 was totally different and i had expected for it to be a follow on cos i was so naieve then. i was so suprised to be given summons at first as well cos i didn't have any mp and thought oh great how do i use them. But i thought thats better cos then when something big was gunna rip ya 2 pieces you could use that to take the damage! Apart from when Ultemicia just unjuntioned them!

Also the magic was an equal good and bad thing cos it was great to junction pain onto status attack for Quistis' whip to have the real effect (oh come on u would!) and to stop annoying creatures like bombs with ice on elem attack. However with the magic going down so did the stats and % of element/staus chance. When i put cure on my HP junction and used cure i healed but my total health went down. So yeah!

So Good points

Better summoning system,
could use magic to improve attacks as opposed to items
and at the time the characters seemed a lot better

Bad points.

The magic couldn't be used as much because it was junctioned,
Mp wasn't there so magic did have a limit.

Apart from that it's my second favourite ps1 game eva!

For starters, FF8 had really innovative GF, Magic, and Customization systems. I liked the way Special Attacks were done too. The Boosting system let you pummel your opponents. The Triple Triad card game was real fun, and the fact that you could refine items from cards was good. And of course the fact that you can junction "Death" to your status attack. FF8 was a benchmark for all RPGs.

the bad part is you can rely on the gfs to much and the gfs can make you super powerful >:O

the bad part is you can rely on the gfs to much and the gfs can make you super powerful >:O
I don't think you needed the GF because you had 100 of every single item and super beefed up characters the last time i was up
Hello everyone, just saying cause i'm new

The thing that sucks is when you are near the end (Just before Ultimecia) and you cant go and visit the cities again on the worldmap..damn barrier.. :(

In FFIX is the same, most of the places youc an't go i because of the Lifa Tree

Thats too bad.

It's not an entirely new idea --- in FFV, certain stuff is destroyed by the N-Zone, but yeah, it is a pretty dramatic amount of stuff you can't get to in FFVIII and FFIX after certain points.

i love it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful! Why not take the time to tell us a little bit more about why you like all of the aspects of the game, instead of posting a one-line sentence laden with exclamation points?

I'm sold simply on the card game alone

I played ffix as my first ff game. It is very different from viii (battle system etc) and i cant stand viii. I loved ffix and viii its very different. For me the main proplem is th3 babattle system which works without MP. Characters are ok, the story is a bit cobfusing. But it doesnt matter what i say, its what u like to play ;)

FF8 was a benchmark for all RPGs.

Care to back that up with some evidence, or are you being the FF8 equivalent of an FF7 fanboy?

Christ almighty, FF8 sucked after about halfway through Disc 2, where the story began to fall into a steep dive straight into the pile of shit the last disc was (Hello? Orphanage scene where they all talk about growing up together and then forgetting that fact for some complete bullshit reason that (then) Square pulled out of their ass).

Seriously, if FF8 was a benchmark for all RPGs, then every single RPG on the market is the greatest thing since sliced bread, because FF8 is among the worst RPGs I've ever played, next to FFX-2.

ffx2 is beeter. Always for me of course. and that GFthing it was :s:s:s

Seriously, if FF8 was a benchmark for all RPGs, then every single RPG on the market is the greatest thing since sliced bread, because FF8 is among the worst RPGs I've ever played, next to FFX-2.

And what would be the greatest RPG then?

The only thing that made FF8 "good" was that it was different. Same for FF7 but that was a better storyline. Had FF8 been more concrete it may have had the same result.
I agree that the Draw magic idea was good but it could have been made more playable. I spent hours drawing magic but I hated MP in the first place.

The SeeD concept however is what kept me playing.

ff8 is the best ff game ever no contest...the music, draw/junction systems, triple triad, gf's have thier own abilities. i can never get myself to hold back a tear when i beat the game and "eyes on me" hits my my speakers

eyes on me is a dog with chronic wind farting, (don't hate me i just don't like the song).

eyes on me is a dog with chronic wind farting, (don't hate me i just don't like the song).

I kind of liked the song, actually, but I'll have to give one thing to you: that's a really creative way to make fun of a song.

Disagreements aside, that was the most inventive rip on a song ever. Anyway, FFVIII...

If I were to make a list, I'd say FFVIII were third-best. When the first two are 'tied,' that's not bad. The first two are FFVI and IX. Not going to go down the road as to why they're better...just what I think of VIII.

Story-wise, VIII is excellent. The love element was done quite well, and while the characters were very good, they just weren't quite as good as VI's or IX's. Seemed like they were missing something. I just can't put my finger on what.

Graphics don't matter in RPG's, but VIII deserves some merit. The backgrounds were gorgeous-the characters were probably the first to be properly proportioned in a FF (lol), and the CG's were second-to-one. The one being IX. Yes, the CG's were better than the ones in X.

Music matters a lot, and FFVIII had excellent music. Very moody, I thought. A major plus.

I liked the Junction system a lot better than Materia. Took me ages to get the hang of it, but once I did, it was great. I never really relied upon magic once I understood the system, since the spells nerfed your stats. If I wanted magic damage, I'd summon a GF. Or else I'd keep Flare unjunctioned, and fire off a Flare or two (or three, depening on double/triple). Limit breaks were too easy to come by (Aura, nuff said), but the double/triple idea was great. Pulling the trigger on Squall's gunblade was a nice touch, too-I just wish that all the characters had a timed strike, as well.

All told, an excellent story combined with great music and a well-thought out, deep 'battle system' makes FFVIII a great game. Now that I think about it...it may very well be as good as IX or VI...high praise indeed!

I think FF8 is the best cuz its the only and first one ive ever played. also i thought the graphics where pretty good for a PS1.

well i think FF8 is tha best game i ever playd, not just of they gameplay its just the story.

just look at it a guy calld squall ends in a SeeD squad.
and nets 2 find out how he is....and fights with his mind.
yes FF8 is the best game.....

Also:


I think that FF8 is the best game.
the gameplay was very good.
the Grafix yeah well that was ok.
but the movies man that was so sweet i nvr saw that kinda grafix.


and the story is so good!!
i just love it.

Oooh, ooooh! Necropost!

Having played FFVIII again, I'd like to publicly apologize for my fanboyish rantings in my previous post in this thread. FFVIII sucks. Period. The story is just blah, featuring the worst plot-twist in the long, sad history of bad plot-twists (that's called hyperbole, folks). The battle system...hopelessly broken. Not even the handymen of FH can fix that mess.

However, the music is quite moody, and Triple Triad is fairly entertaining. Doesn't make the game worth playing again, though...

Yeah I pretty much agree with you there. That bit at the orphanage was pretty bad.

Well, now lets try and revive some debate shall we? Something that's been lacking since the roll-back I have noticed.

Anyway, I think FFVIII is truly horrid from a technical point of view. Laughable difficulty level, shallow characters, unoriginal story, lame villians, a battle system then can be described as broken to put it midly

Story: Emo guy meets energetic girl. Emo guy slowly changes over time. They fall in love. Like that's never been down before! This game also has to have the worst, laziest plot twist i've ever seen, that orphanage scene is truly wretched.

Characters: I've seen deeper rockpools then the characters in FFVIII. Although the interaction between them is quite decent, the characters are nothing more then avatars to be honest. Also, Ultimecia is a truly woeful excuse for a villian, we know next to nothing about her, and unlike all good villians we don't hate her at all. What makes a good villian is a villian that you are determined to murder slowly and painfully and piss on their corspe. Not how 'cool' they are(the reasons many morons think Sephiroth is the best villian ever).

Battle System: Oh dear......

Difficulty: Are you kidding? This game is one of the easiest i've ever played. You don't even have to train your characters at all to win it, not even one. All you need to do is be proficient in the use of the junction system and the card refining ability. Example: Squall had over 3500HP and 100 str by the end of disc 1 for me!

From a technical point of view thats all I have to say. However, I really enjoyed Triple-Triad, the music is quite good and at the time the FMV's were exceptional. Also it's quite fun to play, if you want a simplistic, easy RPG(can I call it that?), this is the game for you.

Well, now lets try and revive some debate shall we? Something that's been lacking since the roll-back I have noticed.

Yeah but things are getting back to normal.


Anyway, I think FFVIII is truly horrid from a technical point of view. Laughable difficulty level, shallow characters, unoriginal story, lame villians, a battle system then can be described as broken to put it midly

Story: Emo guy meets energetic girl. Emo guy slowly changes over time. They fall in love. Like that's never been down before! This game also has to have the worst, laziest plot twist i've ever seen, that orphanage scene is truly wretched.

The story is very very bad. We dont even see or know who the last boss is until the end. The orphanage scene was dire to say the least.



Characters: I've seen deeper rockpools then the characters in FFVIII. Although the interaction between them is quite decent, the characters are nothing more then avatars to be honest. Also, Ultimecia is a truly woeful excuse for a villian, we know next to nothing about her, and unlike all good villians we don't hate her at all. What makes a good villian is a villian that you are determined to murder slowly and painfully and piss on their corspe. Not how 'cool' they are(the reasons many morons think Sephiroth is the best villian ever).

Agreed


Battle System: Oh dear......

Oh dear is right. First of all you get some really powerful magic which is fine. Then you junction it to your stats which not only give you an incredably stupid advantage over everything in the game but also you cant use the magic you got because it will fuck up your stats. The whole draw thing was crap. Give me MP anyday.


Difficulty: Are you kidding? This game is one of the easiest i've ever played. You don't even have to train your characters at all to win it, not even one. All you need to do is be proficient in the use of the junction system and the card refining ability. Example: Squall had over 3500HP and 100 str by the end of disc 1 for me!

Even though the monsters level up as you do its still handy.


From a technical point of view thats all I have to say. However, I really enjoyed Triple-Triad, the music is quite good and at the time the FMV's were exceptional. Also it's quite fun to play, if you want a simplistic, easy RPG(can I call it that?), this is the game for you.

The card game makes that game imo.

The card game makes that game imo.

That's the sad thing about this game DW, the fact that the best part of it is a fucking mini-game.

I stated playing this one years ago but can't remember hardly anything about it now for some reason.

Recently, just to remind myself of what the story was, I grabbed it off my bro and tried playing it. Strangely enough the disk wouldn't work on my PS2. Makes me wonder if someone up there was trying to tell me something at the time lol.

Yeah I pretty much agree with you there. That bit at the orphanage was pretty bad.
agreed that recked the game totally

the battle system was quite annoying you could summon GF 'till the cows came home

I stated playing this one years ago but can't remember hardly anything about it now for some reason.

Oh my. Must of been the GF... well that's the price we pay :-P.

I enjoyed VIII, it is one that I really do enjoy. But one thing that really gets to me is the fact that one of the biggest story elements was just so poorly introduced. I mean come on "Oh wait... now I remember... we all grew up together. Edea was our caretaker". It just seemed so far-fetched.

I enjoyed the story that was told. But I do feel some of it could of been presented better. When all is said-and-done though, its great fun and I think it is a solid example of an RPG.

That's the sad thing about this game DW, the fact that the best part of it is a fucking mini-game.

If they had a game like that in an FF with a good story then it would be a great game.

Well, now lets try and revive some debate shall we? Something that's been lacking since the roll-back I have noticed.
Yeah, I haven't seen much either and before the crash we'd had a good debate when I was Tonberry Assassin.


Anyway, I think FFVIII is truly horrid from a technical point of view. Laughable difficulty level, shallow characters, unoriginal story, lame villians, a battle system then can be described as broken to put it midly.
I agree that the game was extremely easy, and that the characers were under-developed, along with being hastily introduced, but I didn't think the story was that unoriginal.


Story: Emo guy meets energetic girl. Emo guy slowly changes over time. They fall in love. Like that's never been down before! This game also has to have the worst, laziest plot twist i've ever seen, that orphanage scene is truly wretched.
The whole love story thing is definitely unoriginal, but, like I said before, isn't that the kind of thing we see in every love story today, but people still take an interest in it and keep repeating it.


Characters: I've seen deeper rockpools then the characters in FFVIII. Although the interaction between them is quite decent, the characters are nothing more then avatars to be honest. Also, Ultimecia is a truly woeful excuse for a villian, we know next to nothing about her, and unlike all good villians we don't hate her at all. What makes a good villian is a villian that you are determined to murder slowly and painfully and piss on their corspe. Not how 'cool' they are(the reasons many morons think Sephiroth is the best villian ever).
I'm with you on that front, I did find Ultimecia rather lacking in evil attributes, and like DW you didn't find out untill alot later in the game that she was meant to be the villain.


From a technical point of view thats all I have to say. However, I really enjoyed Triple-Triad, the music is quite good and at the time the FMV's were exceptional. Also it's quite fun to play, if you want a simplistic, easy RPG(can I call it that?), this is the game for you.
I also enjoyed the FMVs, especially the introduction; the Squall/Seifer fight was excellent.

Overall, I liked FFVIII, but I think that's mainly because I was young when I played it and it was the first FF that I'd played.

For the record, FFVIII's love story isn't even good. The love story and Squall's development happen at the same time. When you fight Edea in Galbadia and Rinoa falls into her coma (yes, I do know why...). Squall realizes what a colossal faggot he's been the past 20-plus hours of gameplay, and decides to somehow make up for it by doing one of those tragic/romantic hero things, carrying Rinoa over the bridge, only to have the entire party waiting for them. He spends the rest of the story making up for his colossal faggotry with this zombie-ish "devotion" to Rinoa. All well and good, but once he does "get" her back, she sits on his lap for some typical teenage affection (they are teenagers...), and Squall pushes her away. The only difference between that scene and his "Go talk to a wall" line to Quistis is that he's only slightly less of a jerkwad in the delivery of said line(s). Development? Romantic hero? Puh-lease!

it's quite shit yeah and also sad that the majority of characters came from the same background

I agree with you CyanCyde, the love-story was pretty pathetic. They focused a bit much on Squall's hard attitude.
Also, Zell dincht XO is right, all the characters came from pretty much the same background. That's one of the great things about FFVI, the characters are gathered from all over the place and always have a different story to tell - like when, at one point in the game, when you have Shadow in your team, every time you rest it shows clips of his past with Clyde and his friend that dies (forgot his name; something beginning with 'B').

Baram. And the same can mostly be said for FFIX.

ff8 is the best ff game ever no contest...the music, draw/junction systems, triple triad, gf's have thier own abilities. i can never get myself to hold back a tear when i beat the game and "eyes on me" hits my my speakers
agreed

For the record, FFVIII's love story isn't even good. The love story and Squall's development happen at the same time. When you fight Edea in Galbadia and Rinoa falls into her coma (yes, I do know why...). Squall realizes what a colossal faggot he's been the past 20-plus hours of gameplay, and decides to somehow make up for it by doing one of those tragic/romantic hero things, carrying Rinoa over the bridge, only to have the entire party waiting for them. He spends the rest of the story making up for his colossal faggotry with this zombie-ish "devotion" to Rinoa. All well and good, but once he does "get" her back, she sits on his lap for some typical teenage affection (they are teenagers...), and Squall pushes her away. The only difference between that scene and his "Go talk to a wall" line to Quistis is that he's only slightly less of a jerkwad in the delivery of said line(s). Development? Romantic hero? Puh-lease!
please suck my balls.

How is Final Fantasy 8's battle system 'broken'?

please suck my balls.
WTF?
CyanCyde is right, although I like FFVIII, the storyline is unoriginal and not at all well thought out. Also, don't double post, there's an edit button in the bottom-right hand corner of your post.

please suck my balls.
Please, don't double post, be a faggot, and go suck some balls.
You're not cool enough to suck my balls. My gender won't allow such bullshit.

How is Final Fantasy 8's battle system 'broken'?

It is broken because the game can be beaten without you needing to train your characters. It is possible to win the game without levelling up at all. That is proof that the games battle system is fundementally flawed. Think about it, all you have to do is be effective in using the junction system. There is no need to fight battles to build your characters strength, when you can simply refine 10 tents into 100 curagas and junction to your characters HP, you can do this before you even leave Balamb on Disc 1.


please suck my balls.

You are a retarded faggot and should die as soon as possible.

loved the music, cardgame and the graphics(especially some of the GF's)
thats about it

the orphanage "twist" is probably the cheapest thing i've ever come across in any FF game to tie a story togheter and the whole game felt like it was made to appeal to the US with ridiculous stereotypes in plot and charakter

it also overused fmv's till the point that it made me sick to my stomach and the majority of them were terribly directed(especially the opening)

it also overused fmv's till the point that it made me sick to my stomach and the majority of them were terribly directed(especially the opening)

Thank you! I'm tired of seeing everybody creaming themselves over the Seifer/Squall battle in the beginning of the game.


How is Final Fantasy 8's battle system 'broken'?

Easy. One, the "monsters" level up with you, making it EASIER to complete at lower levels, especially when you consider how ridiculous you can make your characters with Junctioning--assuming you take five seconds to think about your junctions. And two, Aura spammage. 'Nuff said. It's even worse than KotR/Mime spammage.


please suck my balls.

And you can suck my ignore list. 'Cause that's where you've earned yourself a one-way trip to.

rofl.

I'll reply back to you when I have more time, anywho~

And you can suck my ignore list. 'Cause that's where you've earned yourself a one-way trip to.
I'm currently there, it's quite a desolate place, and you may want to consider bringing your own packed lunch

wat made it stand it's the best ff in my opnion. but honestly the graphics where quite good if you look at the crap that was produced at the time the cut scenes breath taking and battle grapics are awesome. but the only bad thing about it is the monster lvl up with you try fighting a level 100 malboro or that tiger thing that casts meteor and they come in twos so that is two simultaneous meteors. pure bullshit

honestly if think that 8's story is bad and unoriginal you need to play FF4 and watch naruto.then rethink your decission

wat made it stand it's the best ff in my opnion.

So...FFVIII is the best FF because of the graphics? When, if you look at the other stuff that was made at the time, FFVI's is very nearly equal, and FFIX's blows it away? Not to mention FFX and X-2's?

Viper and I talked about the broken battle system already--your gripe is just a symptom of the underlying problem.

no not only the graphics but they were a good factor the storyline had twists and turns fully introverted characters that where completely relatable. And the storyline sort of draws you into the world. as for ffIV as someone wrote if you meant the one i played for gba you have got to be kidding me. this is my formula for a bad game FF+GBA=Pure 100% garbge just imagine FF7 minus graphics, cool storyline, and interest. and you get FF4 advanced

ff4 is cool don't diss ma croneys palam and porom

c'mon tht storyline was soooooo dumb and your croney's killed themselves

no not only the graphics but they were a good factor the storyline had twists and turns fully introverted characters that where completely relatable. And the storyline sort of draws you into the world. as for ffIV as someone wrote if you meant the one i played for gba you have got to be kidding me. this is my formula for a bad game FF+GBA=Pure 100% garbge just imagine FF7 minus graphics, cool storyline, and interest. and you get FF4 advanced

Surely you've read the past page or so, where at least two posters (myself being one) have ripped the story apart? To recap: The big plot twist in the game (the whole orphanage/GF made us forget mess) was quite possibly the lamest, cheapest plot twist ever. As for the characters, just because you say things like, "...Whatever," "...I don't care," and best of all, "...," doesn't mean the characters are that great. Assuming, that is, that you were referring to Squall with your "fully introverted characters" thing. If not...then you're using introverted in some new way I've never heard of before. While we're on the topic of Squall, in all honesty, he develops from a complete jerk-off to a major jerk-off with a thing for princessy chicks (that'd be Rinoa).

I haven't a clue why you brought up FFIV, but you're wrong about that too--but that's not a debate for this thread.

Don't talk sense to the raving fanboy. They don't respond to it. All they respond to is like-minded drivel from other retards and mockery from their betters.

Give him a shred of credit--he was trying. I mean, he wasn't raving about how ZOMG KOOLZ Squall and Seifer's gunblades are. Or how Squall can kick Cloud's posterior. Or how...nevermind.

ff8 sucks man c'mon

actually every1's entitled to there opinions and i'm not a fanboy i just think that 8 raised the rpg bar when it came out and even now it is enjoyable. and if ff8 sucks why'd you name yourself after a character in it idiot "Zell dincht XO"

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooool

Great come back kiddo

Well then...if FFVIII raised the bar, how did it do so? I've yet to hear what's so great about it to raise the bar set by games like FFVI and Chrono Trigger.

FF VI is probably the best RPG i have played so far.
Well it doesnt seem that VIII raised the bar. If it does so, tell me how.
About Battle system. It wasnt used for any new games of Square. That means something i think.

FF VI is probably the best RPG i have played so far.
Well it doesnt seem that VIII raised the bar. If it does so, tell me how.
About Battle system. It wasnt used for any new games of Square. That means something i think.
I agree.
FFVI raised the bar and VIII couldn't beat that.

actually every1's entitled to there opinions and i'm not a fanboy i just think that 8 raised the rpg bar when it came out and even now it is enjoyable. and if ff8 sucks why'd you name yourself after a character in it idiot "Zell dincht XO"
I made this account when i was still a fanboy

P.S. FAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

I made this account when i was still a fanboy

P.S. FAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

1) You can get your account name changed.
2) Lionheart has contributed more to this thread than you.
3) Please stop your peanut gallery-ish shenanagians.

::grumbles:: Here I thought we were about to get into a decent discussion before Zell started up...

ff8 was one of the best ff Ive ever played and it was the first one I ever played it is what got me so hooked on final fantasy. Its had an awesome story and it was so easy to get into the characters. Personaly I liked the draw system instead of wasting time looking for a place to buy potions you could just draw cure off of fiends. There were so many awsome GFs and the draw system made it easy for you to get most of them. ff10 was a good game but I dont think it deserved the name final fantasy it didnt have that feel that you get from playing final fantasy its sort of neon flashy not medievil fantasy

Its had an awesome story

What was awesome about it?


and it was so easy to get into the characters.

Maybe because they were so poorly developed perhaps?


Personaly I liked the draw system instead of wasting time looking for a place to buy potions you could just draw cure off of fiends.

It was a good idea granted, but it totally unbalances the game and makes it stupidly easy.


There were so many awsome GFs and the draw system made it easy for you to get most of them.

Easy isn't a good thing, you know.


ff10 was a good game but I dont think it deserved the name final fantasy it didnt have that feel that you get from playing final fantasy its sort of neon flashy not medievil fantasy

What does FFX have to do with anything? Also, FFVIII is a lot less medieval then FFX, not that it actually matters.

ff10 was a good game but I dont think it deserved the name final fantasy it didnt have that feel that you get from playing final fantasy its sort of neon flashy not medievil fantasy

Just curious--how'd you come about that conclusion? I mean, have you actually played the other FF's? I mean, FFVIII isn't "medieval," at all.

1) You can get your account name changed.
2) Lionheart has contributed more to this thread than you.
3) Please stop your peanut gallery-ish shenanagians.

::grumbles:: Here I thought we were about to get into a decent discussion before Zell started up...
cyan please leave me alone you woman

Just curious--how'd you come about that conclusion? I mean, have you actually played the other FF's? I mean, FFVIII isn't "medieval," at all.

Yes it looks like Square worked on a completely new enviroment for FFs 7&8.
New console, new begining.

At Zell dincht X0. Please stop the gay fight, i ruins the topic. And he is right, you could change your accout name!

cyan please leave me alone you woman

Then don't spam up a promising discussion with your peanut-gallery antics.


Yes it looks like Square worked on a completely new enviroment for FFs 7&8.
New console, new begining.

I'm not knocking Square for that--I personally prefer fantasy steampunk over fantasy cyberpunk. However, that doesn't mean I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE cyberpunk settings. At any rate, the setting "change" isn't why I dislike FFVII and VIII so much. Flip back a page or two for those reasons...well, for FFVIII at least. :-p

Well this is not the reason i dislike that games too. And changes are sometimes good but risky. :)

cyan please leave me alone you woman

Look at you! You're chauvanist enough to think that's an insult.

i loved the story, but i think it got sort of rushed towards the end...the character buildup in the first disc was much better...

Gameplay: only 4 commands in battle...that sucked, GF sequences got boring...hard to withstand constantly summoning( i dont think i whipped out the ol' gunblade much during the entire game)

Visuals: Cutsenes were gobsmackingly moving, like the spacesuit scene
Again, no skip function for gfs

Characters: i loved them...not because they were terribly original, but these characters represent the typical schoolgoing youth...I was one when it was released, and sort of still am ^^

Crappy system, not because of its complexity but by sheer level of annoyance, But overall i ADORED ff VIII

Offtopic

Razorbunny i love your picture :-P

stole it from some 13 year old n00b @ vampirefreaks.com :p

i loved the story, but i think it got sort of rushed towards the end...the character buildup in the first disc was much better...

Gameplay: only 4 commands in battle...that sucked, GF sequences got boring...hard to withstand constantly summoning( i dont think i whipped out the ol' gunblade much during the entire game)

Visuals: Cutsenes were gobsmackingly moving, like the spacesuit scene
Again, no skip function for gfs

Characters: i loved them...not because they were terribly original, but these characters represent the typical schoolgoing youth...I was one when it was released, and sort of still am ^^

Crappy system, not because of its complexity but by sheer level of annoyance, But overall i ADORED ff VIII
I agree with you on the stand point that the four battle commands, i think they should hve used scroll system but if they did that it would be impossible for it to be a active time game because you would have sooo many options. But i disagree about the GF scenes if you got rid of them only the numbers would show up the only reason that worked in ffX is because they take out the entrance scene but you use the Gfs or Aeons to fight in battle so the entrance wasn't needed but in ff8 if you did that it would become closely related to a TBRPG

It is broken because the game can be beaten without you needing to train your characters. It is possible to win the game without levelling up at all. That is proof that the games battle system is fundementally flawed. Think about it, all you have to do is be effective in using the junction system. There is no need to fight battles to build your characters strength, when you can simply refine 10 tents into 100 curagas and junction to your characters HP, you can do this before you even leave Balamb on Disc 1.



You are a retarded faggot and should die as soon as possible.

Alot of people think you can beat the game w/o lvling up but that's not true they make the monster's and bosses difficulty due to the average lvl of your party. But when you get new characters that are in there 30's like edea and you're in your 20's they game gets extremely harder. Well Void my previous comment this is of course a no brainer of course you will leve.l up you have to fight the bosses wich will level you up and you'd have to be an idiot to run from every random encounter.

Surely you've read the past page or so, where at least two posters (myself being one) have ripped the story apart? To recap: The big plot twist in the game (the whole orphanage/GF made us forget mess) was quite possibly the lamest, cheapest plot twist ever. As for the characters, just because you say things like, "...Whatever," "...I don't care," and best of all, "...," doesn't mean the characters are that great. Assuming, that is, that you were referring to Squall with your "fully introverted characters" thing. If not...then you're using introverted in some new way I've never heard of before. While we're on the topic of Squall, in all honesty, he develops from a complete jerk-off to a major jerk-off with a thing for princessy chicks (that'd be Rinoa).

I haven't a clue why you brought up FFIV, but you're wrong about that too--but that's not a debate for this thread.
now if you think * had the lamest plot twist in the FF series you must not have played X or X-2 waaa waa i'm just a dream i'm not real or X-2 what the heck is a vegnagun if it was a weapon to defeat sin why did they never use it and i don't wanna hear it couldn't be controlled. Plus from the beginning of the game i knew that wasn't Tidus. and that 100% completion ending how does a dream from the faeths who are gone come back I was soo mad doing all that and just getting that shitty ending but alas this is what made ff8 stand not X or X-2 stand but i say the plot twist was better than them both

For fuck sake Lionheart, there's an edit button so that you don't have to post three times in a row.

yea but i prefer this way so i can spread my thoughts to every subject one at a time but it is not needed i guess it one of my quirks

You can still quote from everyone, just put in the same post using:

blah blah blah
Get it?

now if you think * had the lamest plot twist in the FF series you must not have played X or X-2 waaa waa i'm just a dream i'm not real or X-2 what the heck is a vegnagun if it was a weapon to defeat sin why did they never use it and i don't wanna hear it couldn't be controlled. Plus from the beginning of the game i knew that wasn't Tidus. and that 100% completion ending how does a dream fromthe faeths who are gone come back I was soo mad doing all that and just getting that shitty ending but alas this is what made ff8 stand not X or X-2 stand but i say the plot twist was better than them both

Um, the only American FF I haven't played is XI. Anyway. While I'm not a fan of FFX, at all, its plot twist is far less contrived than the "oh, I remember now!" garbage in FFVIII. So is X-2's. But, like you said, this is "what made FFVIII stand/fall."


alot of people think you can beat the game w/o lvling up but that's not true they make the monster's and bosses difficulty due to the average lvl of your party but when you get new characters that are in there 30's like edea and you're in your 20's they game gets extremely harder

Since when do you have to use Edea in a boss fight? Also, if you've any amount of brains at all, you can junction your way to uber-ness at a ridiculously low level--so even "tough" monsters don't really stand a chance. And honestly, if all else fails, Aura+Renzokuken trumps all. All levelling up manages to do is make it easier for your stats to be maxed. And really, with intelligent junctioning (that almost sounds like an oxymoron), your stats will be at stupidly high levels anyway.

actually you can use edea in a boss fight the zombie dragon looking thing before you get to esthar and the boss that you face in esthar with the big wings and long bird lips i think it's elyole or something like that and the whole junction system granted is your main way to get stronger but it doesn't mean squat when in disk 4 the bosses draw your magic from you to level the playing field and you honestly think that X or X-2's plot twist was better c'mon that ws pure garbage finding out you your father and father's friend aren't real that is rediculous granted the Oh I remember now i was a bit skeptical at first but it is a valid theory the use of Gf's and junctioning have been proven to cause brain erasal which is why Irvine who didn't really use Gf's until lately remebered.

alot of people think you can beat the game w/o lvling up but that's not true they make the monster's and bosses difficulty due to the average lvl of your party but when you get new characters that are in there 30's like edea and you're in your 20's they game gets extremely harder

That was their intention, but they failed miserably. Why, because with astute junctioning you can quite easily have 3500hp at the end of disc 1 and about 80-100 strength. You can see the thinking behind it, but the junction system dooms it to failure.

actually you can use edea

I'm well aware of that--but do you have to use her? Um, no. Besides, I had the Recover ability by then--the undead boss is well, undead. So Recover deals him quad-9 damage. Real challenging there.


the whole junction system granted is your main way to get stronger but it doesn't mean squat when in disk 4 the bosses draw your magic from you to level the playing field

By disc 4, you should have 100 of all your necessities (as well as about a dozen others), so having a few drawn from you here and there won't hurt you. Again, with proper junctioning, that's hardly enough to "level the playing field." Especially with Aura on Squall, Irvine, and/or Zell. FFVIII's battle system is hopelessly broken. There really isn't any defense for it.


you honestly think that X or X-2's plot twist was better c'mon that ws pure garbage finding out you your father and father's friend aren't real that is rediculous

Yes, and you honestly need to learn some grammar. Or at the very least, punctuation. I'm used to AOL-speak and that was still hard to decipher. Anyway, cheap little poke aside, I'd like to know just how FFX and X-2's plot twists were "pure garbage," especially compared to the contrived idiocy of FFVIII. Also, JFTR:


Con-trived: Obviously planned or calculated; not spontaneous or natural; labored

Also, the actual plot-twist in FFX is the reality of the whole Yevon system--if you missed that, then you would be well-served in playing the game again. The Tidus and Jecht thing is a natural consequence of what had already happened in the story. I also fail to see what your big problem with Vegnagun is. If you can't control something more powerful than Sin, then why would you release it, which can (and very likely would) create an even bigger problem?


but it is a valid theory the use of Gf's and junctioning have been proven to cause brain erasal which is why Irvine who didn't really use Gf's until lately remebered.

So there's a concept that, convienently enough, hasn't even been mentioned at that point. The party reaches a certain place, and this certain place triggers a memory that the characters shouldn't even have to begin with, according to said concept. But because Irvine hasn't been using GF's for as long, the GF's haven't been hanging out in his long-term memory the way they have for everybody else? See contrived, above.

vegnagun wasn't the real problem my question about the plot twist was how was vegnagun brought back if i forget his name (the tidus look alike) was 100's of years old i just didn't get it if you can build something strong enough to beat sin you should make someway to destroy it if it couldn't be controlled as far as the whole X lot twist I'm still rattled i understand he's a dream of the faeths but that still doesn't make sense why he exists is he supposed to be some kind of aeon?

FFX-2 isn't the game in question here; FFVIII is. If you want to discuss Vegnagun that badly, then take this to the X-2 forum. As for this thread, defend FFVIII if you wish.

Wow I guess noone wants to discuss this any longer... but I still believe this is one of the best FFs not The best FF but one of the best.
Plainly because even though the battle system was fairly easy to master, I say it is far less worse than 10's wow i did 99,999 in on hit that was pure bull. Even though people say the whole 'I remember' concept was a bit hard to grasp, but you couldn't have seen that coming and the story started to unravel from there. The whole new sorceress, thing then the story became more of a romantic title which squaresoft never delved that far into romance before, which suprised me but I did learn to accept I always liked a happy ending. Some people were also upset by Squall's change in character but I think that every man can change even douche bags that don't realize what they have.

Even though people say the whole 'I remember' concept was a bit hard to grasp, but you couldn't have seen that coming and the story started to unravel from there.

The problem with that part is that it was 1) a blatant deus ex machina and 2) a complete contradiction of itself.

It was a deus ex machina because it was a twist that had zero foreshadowing and was ridiculously unlikely. Think about it: what are the odds of all these kids who grew up in the same orphanage going on to do the exact same thing, then conveniently winding up running into each other and being bound by a common goal, with only a single outsider in their little group, who also happened to be bound in a more convoluted way to Squall? It's astronomical. Impossible even. The very thought of it is absurd, so with no rational explanation to justify it, it is the very epitome of horrid storytelling.

It contradicted itself because the whole "GFs made us forget" thing relies on memories being deleted. If those memories got deleted, how do they come back? Then consider that they all lost the exact same memories. How does that happen? And on top of that, one party member (don't remember who) still has his/her memories intact, despite the fact that the character has probably been using GFs ever since appearing in the game. I'm sure you can probably come up with an apologetic answer to some of these questions, but any answer you can give will just raise more questions that will bring the entire discussion so far into the realm of the absurd that unicorns with dance between the letters we type.

And on top of that, one party member (don't remember who) still has his/her memories intact, despite the fact that the character has probably been using GFs ever since appearing in the game.


It was Irvine I believe, the reason he remembers is because he hasn't been in the party as long or some nonsense like that. You're right on your other points, you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery.

The problem with that part is that it was 1) a blatant deus ex machina and 2) a complete contradiction of itself.

It was a deus ex machina because it was a twist that had zero foreshadowing and was ridiculously unlikely. Think about it: what are the odds of all these kids who grew up in the same orphanage going on to do the exact same thing, then conveniently winding up running into each other and being bound by a common goal, with only a single outsider in their little group, who also happened to be bound in a more convoluted way to Squall? It's astronomical. Impossible even. The very thought of it is absurd, so with no rational explanation to justify it, it is the very epitome of horrid storytelling.

It contradicted itself because the whole "GFs made us forget" thing relies on memories being deleted. If those memories got deleted, how do they come back? Then consider that they all lost the exact same memories. How does that happen? And on top of that, one party member (don't remember who) still has his/her memories intact, despite the fact that the character has probably been using GFs ever since appearing in the game. I'm sure you can probably come up with an apologetic answer to some of these questions, but any answer you can give will just raise more questions that will bring the entire discussion so far into the realm of the absurd that unicorns with dance between the letters we type.
Yes but understand this it's Final Fantasy it's a fantasy game I know that twist was nowhere near logical, but it's the pure absurdity that truely makes it what it is. If you over analyze a fantasy game it just ruins the experience.

Fantasy always has some grounding in reality. The entire trick to successful fantasy writing is making it accessible to real-world people by showing that real-world sensibilities are universal. If it makes you think, "that's ridiculous," something has been done completely wrong.