...What a lot of people have been ranting on about for so many years. I must admit, I didn't understand the game and it's structure. I had no idea how to work the Junction, and I had no idea when or what to draw. I played through the game a year ago and I almost got it, and I'm recently going through it, and I can finally say: "I Got It!"

Is this game harder to understand in your opinion? I don't just mean the gameplay, but overall as a Final Fantasy game?

No. It's fairly simple. I had trouble when I first played it, but I was nine at the time. If you just draw a lot in the beginning, by the end of Disc 1, you should have learned to limit drawing from enemies to an absolute minimum. And junctioning isn't very difficult after the tutorial.

On the other hand though, I've never been able to follow VIII's plot very well.

And then there's the Weapons. My God, I still can't get them all. I just find it way too stressing to gather all of the required Items, and then the Magazines.

The story, however, I'm slowly beginning to grasp the structure of.

Pointless to get all, Lionheart's all you need all the other weapons are like little piss drops all they do is lead to the stream. There is a walkthrough on how to get Lionheart in disk one on this site, once you get the lionheart you have all abilities/ Squalls limit breaks if IRC. The games relatively easy, I satrted it when I was uuh like 8/9/10, pretty simple, hard to grasp at first though best to leave it alone for like a month, and restart and listen to instructions rather than say "X,X,X STFU!!!!"

For some reason, I never had all that much difficulty over understanding the mechanics of this game. But that's probably because I'm obsessive about reading the manual and the in-game tutorials and such.

actually, it wasnt all that difficult the first time through from what i remember,
i remember understanding junctions, drawings, etc. fairly quickly.

I thought this game was the easiest to understand. I didn't get FFVII very well until years later and FFIX took a while before I got the hang of it.

It's funny how the mind works. I have no problem understand either one of those games.

I can't tell you how much I love FFVIII now.

Mm, when I replayed FFVIII recently, it was beautiful...all the little things I missed that finally opened up made the game so wonderful....

The Junction system wasn't that hard to get used to for me the first time through...but like...
I'm a "grinder"...and I like leveling up for hours....
And this game has enemies level up with you....I never got the weapon system either XP
And at the end of the game, I unlocked almost everything except limit breaks and Command Abilities (Recover/Revive, etc). I'd been relying on GFs most of the game, so I thought I could do the same with the final boss....
<<

I had sooo much trouble...
I had to rely on Meteor/Meltdown/Ultima to beat the final boss...and I didn't have many castings of those, either....
I definitely needed Expend 3-1...

Cerberus kicks ass >>

I think I had a harder time with the plot than the mechanics. I was about thirteen years old when I first played VIII, but I was fortunate enough to have the official Piggyback guide book (which I bought purely because of the art work in it at the time). My understanding of the Junction system probably would not have been affected without that guide book BUT I will say that it tought me a good deal of other things that the tutorials fail to let you know. I've learned things about the game here, that I haven't realised on several run-throughs of the game ie. The relationship between Julia and Laguna etc.

It's funny how the mind works. I have no problem understand either one of those games.

I can't tell you how much I love FFVIII now.
Yeah. Maybe it has to do with what interests people. Like me; I'm always interested with futuristic things. And when swords are involved, I'm sold. But FFVII and FFIX were kinda the same if you ask me. But I dunno, I'm thinking about replaying FFIX again after I'm done with FFXII (so far, I played it only until the first save point and haven't touched it since...)

Draw heaps at the beginning to get strong, get Squall levelled up, use GFs until middle of disc 2 then renzokuken and it's easy. But it took a couple of tries. And the storyline is easy to understand now too.

Your avatar just got me in the mood to watch that movie...

And then there's the Weapons. My God, I still can't get them all. I just find it way too stressing to gather all of the required Items, and then the Magazines.

The story, however, I'm slowly beginning to grasp the structure of.

You don't have to get the magazines just the items

I recently just started playing VIII again, and I'm loving it. I was at the end of the game and pretty much gave up for like 6 years, haha.

I recently just started playing VIII again, and I'm loving it. I was at the end of the game and pretty much gave up for like 6 years, haha.
Same thing happened to me. x(

:) Wow! It's a time of rediscovery and reminisces. Ya'ay! (P.S.: Not being sarcastic.)


Oh, BTW, not counting the forum hack...

8000th Post!!!

But, yeah, I almost forgot that I had this game. Maybe it's time for a full-scale revival of all my Final Fantasy games, non? Haven't played a lot of them in years.

I would recommend VI or IX first.

After I beat The Sword of Etheria, I'm thinking about replaying IX because that's the only FF game I have that I haven't beaten more than once. It's not even close to being a good game IMO, but I just haven't played in years and I'll most likely understand it better because I'm alot older now.

It's a lot better the second time around, trust me. I didn't quite like it either, but now it's one of my favorite games.

Sadly I've only beaten 3 of out of all the final fantasys. 7,9, and 12. I'm on a mission to beat all the ones I own now. Which is all of them besides III for DS.

For some reason, I really want a DS. Some of you might find that shocking because a few of you know that I'm not really interested in Nintendo, but I want one! And Mario 64 DS and FFIII!

In other words, you're wising up and looking at products according to their merits instead of their brand name. Good for you.

It's just that, I realized that I'm still addicted to Mario 64 and I don't have a Nintendo 64 anymore. And I also just learned that you can doodle on it.

Mario 64 DS is a pretty damn good conversion IMO. Any fan of the Sixty-Four version can't help but love it. You'd might imagine (as I did at first) that it'd be hard work with a stylus, as opposed to a button filled control pad but it isn't. Delightfully responsive would be the expression.

(Excuse the DS related commentary in the FFVIII section) :)

I also like that fact that I don't really need the other screen to play it.
I didn't know they added extra stars on it, but I knew something was up when I noticed a stage looked different!

I've never played Mario 64.

DS!! I'm still waiting for a better reason to get a PSP. Apart frm the hours it will eat up on the bus. Or maybe I'm waiting for the price to go down..

Anyhoo, I was hardout into VII and couldn't bother with VIII, until I got it as well. Then I was up til the early hours drawing magic to junction. The final battle is easy with expend3-1, renzokuken, megalixers or whatever (i've forgotten) and AP ammo..

alright guys bit of a newbie to the whole forums thing cuz i just registard,gota say just played the ff8 demo and the memories came crashing back what a wicked game it was...truly awesome espesially when ur like 11 or 12 just whish they would revive it 360 gears of war style would seriosly kick several kinds of ass. ps 9 ruled too

Um, Gears of War wasn't at all that great. It was completely overrated IMHO.

/\ That one statment aboce me pretty much somes up all of gears of wars
l

I honestly thought VIII was the easiest of all the FF games i've played to grasp.

I started playing when i was 10, got through the game and didn't really have any problems understanding the logistics of it.

Out of all the games i've played, VI is proving the most confusing for me.
I remember getting it 3 or 4 years ago, playing for 10mins and just giving up because i didn't understand it..

But, i pulled it out 2 weeks ago.. and now i'm raging through it.. i love it.. it's still really confusing though and i am having trouble grasping the concept of 'Espers' =P

To be honest, I'm still having trouble with a alot of things in the game. I guess I'm just gonna have to get over it. :(

Yes, the Junction system was very confusing. We actually had the same problems at first. I thought that the only reason why you draw magic is for you to have something to cast upon your enemies.

That's how it was for me when I played it for the first time. Then a friend of mine came over and I noticed he had spells on his stats. He showed me how to do it and the game became extremely easy (I was level 40 getting ready to fight Edea at the end of the first disc at that time).

The battle system? Yes. It's overly difficult to figure out because it's poorly and shittily (whoo made a word) made.


The story? No, it's quite simple, the FFVIII team just couldn't write a damn story worth a penny. Plotholes galore, my friend.

Edit: This forum needs to stop doing this. :(

1) Stop double-posting

2) Elaborate on your hatred towards the game

3) Stop being an ass-monkey

4) I agree on you with some of the things you said xD

I agree with Zulu's numbers 2 and 3.

FFVIII has become one of my favorite games of all time. I think it took me about halfway through the first disc to figure out the junction system. I couldn't figure it out at first so i just ignored it. But, when i realized how it played on the stats it clicked real quick.

I must have played it two dozen times over growing up. I just fell all over myself with the chemistry between rinoa and squall. It really struck a cord with me. I wish there was an art book to go with this game too. I thought this one was probably one of the most beautiful games of its day.

I think there was, but I might be mixing it up with something else.

I think the game had one of those things where it made you feel like you were there with the characters (which you are in a sense) and you know them, but everyone has some kind of relation to a certain character in the game. Kinda makes you feel like you want to be there.
I love the music. It always grabs me.
It's an awesome game..

I couldn't help it. I didn't dig the game much at all. The Junction system was an interesting attempt at differing itself from the usual FF style of gameplay, but it proved more irritating than innovative.


The plot...God in heaven. Yeah, okay, so I got the concept of it, it's just, well, I hated it. Freaking loathed it. The amount of plotholes in the story were insane. "Hey, guys, do you remember that we used to be in an orphanage in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere, on a continent that was utterly destroyed not even a century ago by an assload of monsters dropping from the moon for absolutely zero reason, whose survivors emegrated to two different continents and created vast empires in less than eighty years? Remember? No? Really, you don't?? Oh yeah. GFs can sometimes lead to memory loss! Tee hee, my bad! Well now we remember, right? RIGHT?!"

...Yeah. No. Seriously.

It's just, okay, it had a great concept for a love story/tragedy. Laguna and Julia were unable to find their happiness so their children did. Squall was sorta created to finish up for what Laguna did. The whole idea of fate and paradoxes floating all the fuck everywhere. I got it. But the way the went about it sucked beyond the point of redemption.

Didn't help that I wanted to punch Squall, kick Rinoa in the babymaker, and elevate Laguna to the status of Godhood, a la Sephiroth. I mean, honestly, I'd lay waste to a village if I found out they shipped off my kids to an orphanage without telling me. Oh, and then there's that tidbit of, "Did Laguna know, how much did he know, and if he did know, what the fucking hell was he smoking when he decided to leave his son and adopted daughter in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere?"

Y'know. Things like that.

It's just...agh, such wasted potential. The FMVs and beginning/ending theme were the shit, though. >ducks tomatoes<

game would've been better with some pokemon

3 pennies

I don't really enjoy the history lessons in the game either. I still don't get them. Anyway, the rest of the game roxs0rds. I find I can relate to Squall a bit, except for the fact that I have more balls and two brain cells instead of one like him, mwahahahaha!