Final Fantasy VIII turns 20

[charliepanayi]

Final Fantasy VIII came out in Japan on 11th February 1999. Happy birthday to the most divisive of FF games! It's great obviously.

[Wolf Kanno]

Happy Birthday FF VIII.

75941

[maybee]

Happy 20th Final Fantasy VIII!

I remember being a young kid and licking some yogurt flavored ice cream and just being completely blown away by the opening movie and the upgrade in graphics between FFVII, and the big dream and want to live in Balamb Garden as the soothing music played in the background as we gave Selphie a tour of the building. Then trying to work out the north/south/ west/ east and getting lost and not finding the Fire Cavern and then again being even more confused by the Junction System. Ooof.

AND THEN THE WITCH PARADE AND THEN IRVINE FAILING AND IS SQUALL DEAD ? DID THE MAIN CHARACTER ACTUALLY DIE ? DOES ZELL TAKE OVER ? THE HOT DOG GUY ?

Also feeling like I should be wondering about the Laguna dreams and who he actually was, and what's going on, but not caring, because he was 'hot'. :lol:


I don't think I truly loved this game till about 2010-ish though, before then, I actually felt like FFVIII was more of a movie, sort of like the Final Fantasy XIII of the series before that game even existed. But then Spoony and his "review " of him trashing the game came out, and while watching it, I just felt like something about it was.....off. I wanted to test this, so I downloaded FFVIII on the PSP and gave it a try, and yeah, I was correct. You don't have to stand there and draw magic forever, and Quistis is a right dumbass. There was also a man called Hc Bailey who was playing through FFVIII and he helped me understand the Junction System and many others on how it worked and how easily broken it could be, the card game, and how it can be used to make your FFVIII playthrough easier and more fun.

During 2010, I replayed FFVIII and I had the time of my life, and I realized that I truly love this game. FFVIII may be flawed and it may be a struggle to understand it, but once you do, it's a blast.

I also find it interesting how a man who loathed the game and his review/s trashing the game and trying to 'rip' the game to shreds actually helped me love the game so much more than I originally did before. So thanks Spoony.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I didn't realize FF 8 was released on my birthday! So that's why the featured article was FF 8's characters were on the front page of Wikipedia yesterday!

I still can't say it's one of my favourites - I gave up on it at some point after the space sequence (which was a highlight) - there was some kind of raid on a city and an enemy with endless HP that I couldn't dispatch because I was still spamming GF's for every battle. I've gotten more adventurous with mechanics now though so I'll have to get around to finishing it some day - might even still have my old save on my memory card.

[Mr Gashtacular]

i will never not be a stan for this game no matter what anyone says it makes me feel old and sad that it is so old

[Jiro]

It still makes me smile when I think about my mother praising the graphical fidelity. We've come so far!

[Rocket Edge]

Still the greatest game I ever played!

[infinite draws]

Still the greatest game I ever played!

just started playing, first time too. I can see why so early in the game