FF8! What's Wrong With It?

[FFanatic Of FFantasy]

I believe FF8 is a great game! However I believe it had the potential to do better. What do you think? WHAT'S WRONG WITH FF8? :confused:

___________________________________________
A tough knight with a girlish name!
A dude which looks like a dudette!
A chick with amnesia!
A guy with a big sword which is same size as him!
A teenager whose mad about lions!
An annoying monkey!
A gal in dodgey robes!
Whats next a woman dressed like a rabbit with a bow?
That's Final Fantasy For You! ;)

[TheAbominatrix]

The general consensus is that VIII had very little character development. It focused on two very annoying and bland main characters, and shoved everyone else to the back. The storyline seemed pretty lame to me.

I do enjoy the general game play, and Triple Triad, but the rest of it just isnt up to Final Fantasy standards, in my opinion.

[Carnage]

everyone thinks its the worst and it is but its still a great game just not as good as the others but i love the draw and junction system

[ChaosCalibur]

What is wrong with it...?
I say nothing! And there is nothing wrong with magic as many people say... Ultima still does 9999 damage... And so does flare, and you don't have to even draw the magic, just play some cards, lots of different monsters can be refined into rare magic...

[nik0tine]

there was huge character developement in this game, it was just a little more subtle than say ff6. also, every single character didnt have to much developement, like Irvine, but he was retarted anyway. squall goes through huge changes, and the story is more about him and rinoa than it is the 'bad guys' in my opinion at least. it personally is one of my favorite FF games of all time, and it was what got me started in the whole series. there is nothing wrong with FF8. i even think it was one of the better games in the series.

[Del Murder]

I think drawing magic took too long and the characters weren't cool enough. Otherwise this game wasn't that bad.

[Rusty]

I found nothing wrong with FF8..I thought it was the best game out of the entire series!

[Trumpet Thief]

*Spoilers*

It matters by what kind of person is playing it. Personally, I enjoyed the storyline. At least it had some creativity. Ultemecia didn't want to just take over the world, but all of time. Everything fell in place, IMO, and I think that each character had important roles.

Although, Squall and Rinoa were supposed to be the center of attention, for love was the main theme of Final Fantasy Eight. Also, I thought that characters did develop, and at the right times. Squall had an explained past, and had reasons for his depression, and I thought he was an extremely cool character, along with Seifer.

Triple Triad was the best kind of card game I had played, although Final Fantasy VIII didn't have any mini games besides that and the Chocobo one.

The gameplay was good too, but some people found drawing a tedious task. IMO they would use GF's nonstop when actually attacks and magic are way stronger.

It depends on the person, but I thought there was nothing wrong with FFVIII.

[TheAbominatrix]

there was huge character developement in this game, it was just a little more subtle than say ff6. also, every single character didnt have to much developement, like Irvine, but he was retarted anyway. squall goes through huge changes, and the story is more about him and rinoa than it is the 'bad guys' in my opinion at least. it personally is one of my favorite FF games of all time, and it was what got me started in the whole series. there is nothing wrong with FF8. i even think it was one of the better games in the series.

There's a difference between character 'development' and character 'changes'. Squall changes, not develops.

[Peegee]

Not having played FF2-6 I can't be sure whether this is true, but I believe perhaps the idea of making the game revolving around a bunch of teenagers probably aided the bland characters and wish-washy character development. It was like watching a bunch of kids in high school actually, which is why I think it is the age of the characters.

Anyway, in terms of actual gaming, it was very enjoyable. Draw/junction system might be a bit odd, but it's not something you can't get over (actually I was surprised it didn't run on MP system).

[aeris2001x2]

i love this game. yes there are some huge flaws in the characters and storyline but all in all these problems are no where near as bad as the game u SHOULD be hating...ffII. every time ffVIII is dissed i will stand up 4 it and direct u 2 the location of true darkness...

[selphie666]

IMO, the game didn't really give too much history of characters other than Squall. Yes, they did explain about the group of peoples going to the orphanage, but then it's like there's this big gap between the time when they were at the orphanage and then when they went to Balamb.

I found that I liked the overall stroy of FF8 and everything did seem to fit together. I mostly liked how all of the main characters were connected somehow.

I think that using draw points was a pain, but it's better than being constantly on the lookout for ethers to restore MP. And It's good that everyone can use the same types of magic (meaning, there aren't ONLY black mages, white mages, etc.) and there are more options when it comes to the characters limit breaks.

Now that I've told you my opinion, I'm going to run and hide before anyone can disagree with me :P
*laughs maniacally*

[DJZen]

What makes this game weird is that while it IS an epic quest to save the world (like all other FFs), the main plot is drawn away from that. Instead, what we have is a love story set in a FF world. I think that's not a bad thing, but it was so poorly executed. Squall spends the majority of the first 2 discs berating or ignoring Rinoa. Then out of nowhere he's all head-over-heels for her, and there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT TRIGGERED THIS. That being said, I think it's very possible that this is only due to a bad translation, or it just needs some fine tuning from the script to bring out some of the facets that would make the love story actually good. That and MAKE THE TEXT BOXES SOME COLOR OTHER THAN GREY!!!!!! DEAR LORD IT MADE MY EYES BLEED!!!!!

[selphie666]

I agree, gray is such a dull color.

[Laguna]

In answer to the question....NOT MUCH REALLY! FF8 was awesome, one of my favourite games of all time. I loved the story and the characters were all awesome. The focus on the love was cool as well, much better than having to do a million and one flashbacks to find out the history of a character I didnt really care about. Plus it will always be better than FFIX! So meh. :P

[Az Lionheart]

all i have to say is that it is one the best games ever :)

[Cloudane]

The battle system was hideous... having to find an enemy with a fairly strong magic and draw-draw-draw for an hour to build up your character's junctions and make them stronger got really boring.

The answer to battles was always to just sit summoning GFs as they were so overpowered compared to the normal attacks (the GF animations were really long, too)

Otherwise it was great, I loved the story and the characters. I did miss the non-human characters you normally have though. The only thing I didn't like was the battle system, and unfortunately that's one of the major things that make an FF. After all, without it, it's just a movie.

[BottledJustice]

I agree heartily that the draw system was tedious. Especially when you tried to draw 100 of something good, and it took 20 minutes to do it. I remember reading a book at the beginning of the game while I was drawing my first magic out of stuff.

The junction system is something I always enjoyed tinkering with. Not so much the GF junctioning, but the stat junctions were a lot of fun.

I think the real reason the game sucks so bad is because it was such a terrible storyline. I had to play the game about four times before I finally understood what the hell was going on. Especially those Laguna transitions. Lord, every time I hit one of those I groaned and prayed it would be short.

The love thing was a bit thick for me. It was too realistic, somehow. FF9 did a much better job of that kind of thing. There was too much avoiding the topic of the love thingee. I think Seifer had it right about the Squall-puberty thing. Grow up some, and get some Zoloft!

The card game was pretty good, but again, FF9's was better.

[Xander]

The storyline is just tedious and there aren't enough moogles or cute characters! But don't get me wrong apart from that, I kinda like it. ^_^

[Polaris]

Everything is perfect!

[BG-57]

The SeeD rank system essentially punishes you for deviating from the storyline or spending a lot of time hacking up characters. I prefer getting money from defeated monsters as illogical as that is.

Everything else was well done.

[m4tt]

WHAT'S WRONG WITH FF8? :confused:
The question should be: What ISN'T wrong with FF8? Not much. Zell was good. And uh.. Triple Triad was fun. And... well Zell was good. Other than that, the entire game sucked. The love story between Zell and Seifer wasn't developed enough.

[selphie666]

Ooh, there was a love story between Zell and Seifer? Darn, I missed out on the yaoi. :love:

[aeris2001x2]

i think if u want yaol u should just stick with gravitation or whatever its called lol :D

[selphie666]

lol, sure, I'll do that

[SeeDRankLou]

There's a difference between character 'development' and character 'changes'. Squall changes, not develops.

For a fun and seemingly pointless discussion had by myself, TheAbominatrix, aeris2001x2 and a few others on this topic, check the thread entitled "Poll: Squall." I felt the urge to start that again, but it would just go the same and end in us arguing again and then making up again, too much hassle.

What is wrong with this game? I only have two complaints. One, character development on a whole. Too much character development was given to Squall (and whether you believe it was real or attempted is besides the point) and Rinoa. I understand that they are the main characters, but the supporting characters, who were still important, didn't receive enough. They had some, and it was good, but not enough. Two, the insane overabuse of the junction system. I love the junction system. But the junction system combined with the leveling system in this game made it so that you could go through the game and only have one slightly difficult boss. While you don't have to play the game as such, the ability to uberize your characters almost from the very beginning of the game makes the want to have maxed out characters almost null.

Other than that, I loved this game, and my dislikes stand deep in the shadow of all the things I like about this game. Nothing's perfect.

[TheAbominatrix]

For a fun and seemingly pointless discussion had by myself, TheAbominatrix, aeris2001x2 and a few others on this topic, check the thread entitled "Poll: Squall." I felt the urge to start that again, but it would just go the same and end in us arguing again and then making up again, too much hassle.

:p Yeah, that was a cool discussion. I recommend it for everyone's list of required reading for the evening.

[American Badass]

I think my post from another thread accurately conveys my thoguhts about this game's shortcomings. That and I'm too lazy to retype everything.



Yes, I understand Square was trying something new with this game. Hell, I appreciate that. Square needs to do more innovationg, but in the case of FFVIII, those innovations just didn't pay off.

For example, FFVIII was the first one which really centered on the love story more than anything else. I really didn't have a problem with that. I'm a romantic guy at heart, and I can handle a good love story so long as it was believable and well done, two things which the love story in FFVIII was not (unless you want to talk about Laguna/Raine, but I digress). The love story depended on two characters, and Squall and Rinoa were just not up to the task of delivering.

First off, we have Squall which is a decent character for a lot of the game. Sure, he was an ass to pretty much everyone, but I was used to that from Cloud in FFVII so no big deal. Ok, he doesn't want anyone ever getting closed to him because his "sis" left the orphange he was in when he was younger. Ok, that's a pretty big stretch there but I'll let that go. He throws himself into SeeD because we assume that it is something to believe in. That's fine, someone with no friends would commonly throw himself into his work. Then enter Rinoa. She confuses him about 99% of the time with what she says and does. We consistantly see evidence of this in his thoughts. But where's the attraction to her? Sure, they may be snippets of thoughts here and there but there is not enough internal dialogue to prove to me that he sees her as anything more than a pest of nuisance. He suddenl only really shows that he cares when Rinoa goes comatose, and I wouldn't mind that so long as the character's dialogue showed him starting down that path when he first met her. But I didn't get that at all. I understand the concept of someone not realizing what they have until they're faced with the possibility of losing it, but I don't agree with damn near an entire love story being based on that belief.

Then to add more fuel to the fire by stating that I absolutely hate Rinoa. I mean, I have never seen a more selfish, impulsive, naïve girl in an RPG before in my life. From conducting plans while sitting on the floor of her train to being upset when she doesn't get her way to throwing a tantrum when the obviousness of a situation is presented to her in cold hard fact. She reminds me of a little girl who you have to hold hands with all the time and cries when she doesn't get her way. Granted, she does change a little bit as the game goes on, especially when she is comatose. I'm sorry, but I found nothing positive about her character, and the fact that the love story involves her is one of the reasons I hate it so. Like I mentioned earlier, I consider the Raine and Laguna love story to be better, and it only had about a half hours worth of dialogue and FMV at the end to support it, and I found that so much better and much more believable than Rinoa/Squall.

And lets not forget the other characters who take a backseat to Rinoa and Squall. With the exception of Laguna, none of the other characters get any kind of decent treatment with the exception of the exact same backstory. Let's not forget, these kids are the Fated Children, and the all happened to grow up at the same orphange. What else is there to these characters? Zell's hometown gets invaded. Ok he wants to kick their asses. What else...oh wait that's it as far as Zell goes. Then there's Selphie who's Garden she was at before coming to Balamb was attacked and pretty much reduced to rubble. But she's ok again pretty soon and nothing else is said about it. We've got Mr. Arrogant sharpshooter Irvine who, apparently, can't actually pull the trigger when he needs to, but minutes later gets over it and finally pulls the trigger. Anything else about Irvine...nope. And then there's Quistis. Ok, she thinks she has an infatuation with Squall, but not really she's apparently only trying to take Ellone's place. She also apparently can't say something mean to someone without the need to apologize, despite possibly ruining her assignment. Well that pretty much says everything about her.

But that's alright, I can withstand a plot I don't believe in and shoddy character so long as the gameplay is good. Oh wait, this is FFVIII, so I can't really do that. Like I said, I enjoy innovation, but whoever thought the idea of the battle system actually penalizing you for using magic deserves never to have any say in the development of games in the future. Because that's what FFVIII's gameplay did, it actually penalized you for using magic. Why? The Junction System. Now, I like the idea of junctioning to Guardian Forces to be able to access abilities (except for the Item command, which I think is stupid being it leads me to believe a character can use a potion with the GF's help but I digress). I thought that was a good idea. Junctioning magic to increase your stats? Hey, that wasn't a bad plan either. Horribly executed? Oh hell yeah it was. The idea that my character's stats would actually be lowered by using junctioned magic in battle was the stupidest thing I could ever imagine. I've never seen and RPG that acutally penalized you for the use of magic, and as a result of that, would damn near force the user to abandon using magic, which I did because I'm a stats whore and I didn't like to see my stats lowered for using magic, nor did I particularly care for finding a draw point for the magic I used so I can have a maximum supply too. And there's drawing too which is so mind numbingly boring its beyond description. Thank God for Triple Triad and the ability to refine the cards you won. The only problem with this method is that you'd still need to draw the higher level magic cause it'd take forever to get the cards you need to finally refine it, and drawing the Ultima spells from the Ultima weapon is not my idea of a fun time, nor do I find it particulary well thought out.

And that's quite enough from me I think.

[escobert]

The general consensus is that VIII had very little character development. It focused on two very annoying and bland main characters, and shoved everyone else to the back. The storyline seemed pretty lame to me.

I do enjoy the general game play, and Triple Triad, but the rest of it just isnt up to Final Fantasy standards, in my opinion.
Yup.

[kikimm]

Personally, I don't think anything wrong with this game at all! I'm not going to repeat what I've posted before oer and over again, so to make it short, FF8 is my absolute favorite in the series. I love everything about it. I know that drawing magic took a very long time, but I didn't mind one bit. I was okay just sitting in the same battle for 20 minutes stocking meteors, because I love the game so much.

However, I DO think that the other characters should have gotten more time in the game. Even though I don't like her very much, I think Quistis needed a little more. I lvoe Irvine, so any more of him would have been great, and the same goes for Zell. Selphie....after about 5 minutes of meeting her, you already know everything there is to know, so I don't think there's much more to be done there.

But the gameplay was good, the plot solid. Although a lot of the game was devoted to the love story, at least it wsa a good one. I know Squall's sudden change was.....sudden, but hey, maybe he's flaky. I'm like that-one minute I'll be talking about how much I dislike a certain person, next minute that opinion has completely changed. You never know.


:D

[CloudSquallandZidane]

I think drawing magic took too long and the characters weren't cool enough. Otherwise this game wasn't that bad.


????

But that was the game .... oh....

It took long but i liked that system it made me stratigize, instead of justkilling off everything or using as much of any magic whenever i felt like it.

In my opinion great game entertained me for so many hours even after i beat it the first 3 times...man good times...

[Griever_Leonhart]

Stupid boring Laguna flashbacks. That is all.

[Wilder]

Hi, jaja you should not be so drastic with this amazing game, how many hours did you enjoy it ?, I would say that the most memorable Video Game Moment in the history is the Intro with the blasting libery fataly (My heart still Beat faster when I see it ) . I think The caracthers are perfect , And the storyline... well, those who think that it is simple can go and take a look to the Forum About "rinoa is Ultimecia" and see the imposible puzzle that the story writers create. enjoy it !, It Got The final fantasy signature, it got to be awesome.

[Jolts]

This isn't the worst one, FFIX was, but now FFXI is (my opinions). This one was pretty boring though. It wouldn't be so bad if using GF's wasn't frowned upon (your rank is partly determined by how often you use GFs, and the more, the worse). I'd also rather use MP than to have so many uses before you have to start drawing magic from certain enemies at certain levels. You also can't use junctioned magic too often, or having them junctioned would be pointless...I didn't like that.

[GhandiOwnsYou]

Spoiler: Squall spends the majority of the first 2 discs berating or ignoring Rinoa. Then out of nowhere he's all head-over-heels for her, and there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT TRIGGERED THIS.

Actually.... that would be character developement. The idea is that he's so trained into being stoic and isolated as a protective measure, that even though he is growing an affection towards her, he acts like an ass to cover it up and remain "safe." when he finally does come around, it's the showing of him rejecting his former lifestyle and realizing some things are worth it. viola. Trying looking at the psychology instead of the actions.

[Ouch!]

The point isn't that there wasn't developement, it's that it happened too rapidly. The point was that he thought of Rinoa as a hindrance and an annoyance, and the second she goes comotose, he's completely and totally head over heels in love with her. It was poorly done.

The game had great potential. I thought the first two discs were awesome. When they brought Ultemecia into the picture, it just got too predictable and boring. They touched a strange topic, time travel. Time travel is always going to get sticky in the end, no matter how well executed it is. Personally, that aspect of FFVIII just irked me.

Like many have mentioned, they completely blew it on the developement of the other characters. They all got to shine for just a moment, but then they just fell into the background again. Had there been more back story behind each of them and something interesting enough to hook a player, it could have been awesome.

FFVIII had great potential, but Squaresoft blew it.

[TheAbominatrix]

The point isn't that there wasn't developement, it's that it happened too rapidly. The point was that he thought of Rinoa as a hindrance and an annoyance, and the second she goes comotose, he's completely and totally head over heels in love with her. It was poorly done.

The game had great potential. I thought the first two discs were awesome. When they brought Ultemecia into the picture, it just got too predictable and boring. They touched a strange topic, time travel. Time travel is always going to get sticky in the end, no matter how well executed it is. Personally, that aspect of FFVIII just irked me.

Like many have mentioned, they completely blew it on the developement of the other characters. They all got to shine for just a moment, but then they just fell into the background again. Had there been more back story behind each of them and something interesting enough to hook a player, it could have been awesome.

FFVIII had great potential, but Squaresoft blew it.

Agreed.

The development was there for Squall, but it was poorly done and rushed, which made it unbelievable. Any talk of subtlety seems silly to me, because you were privy to Squall's thoughts almost constantly.

[razor248725]

i just thought of this the other day but i dunno if anyone has thought of this yet though. when you have the ragnarok you can auto-piolet it to various places right? well i think that you should be able to make your own locations that you can auto piolet to. example, you bring up the world map that covers the whole screen and you move the pointer to the island closet to hell and it will make a dot on it (just like where there are towns and cities), so you can easily auto piolet there. another useful place would be battleship island, the island closest closest to heaven, and cactuar's island. im such a genious lol :yap: :upsidedow :spin: :rolleyes:

EDIT:
Stupid boring Laguna flashbacks. That is all.

they were my favourite part of the game!! :(

[Jolts]

Sorry for not knowing, but where is the Battleship Island?

To comment, yeah, that would've been sweet!

[razor248725]

battleship island, ya know the research island thing where you fight bahamut, ultima, and get eden? zell calls it battleship island when you first get there

[Jolts]

Ah, that, I know it as the research lab :D. I don't like fighting there...can't use tents.

[Wilder]

I played V, VI and VII before I played VIII, and it was amazing. It´s just different, and like everything different , have enemies. V was amazing but I didn´t like the story, VI was blamed to be very easy and nowadays it´s the best SNES RPG. VII was awesome, and nobody in nintendo realized that until It moved To PS, afeter that, it was a blast everybody love it for different reasons, now when you see new fans playing it they say "I Dont Like This Punky graphics Waaa", I first saw the VIII in a giant TV Shop :eek: amazing. The ultimecia - rinoa is giving this game new life , so the story isn´t too simple as "Rinoa I love you", IX another bad fame game, people don´t like it because it looks like a 6 years old child game, and they don´t even give it a chance. X is incredible but not everbody like it too, Dude looks like a lady I heard. XI online , It´s just so exclusive that some fans can even see it in the shops, and X-2 intro is just like a Britney spears video, it´s just so femenine that I´m playing it scared that my friends don´t catch me playing a game with tree barbies kicking monster to look pretty.

[TasteyPies]

The only thing wrong with ff8 is that you can't tilt selphie during scan.

Come on, every guy here tried it once.

[Jolts]

She wears white panties. The camera angle changed far enough when I was casting magic once.
In fact, almost, if not, all video game characters in 'T' or less ratings wear white underwear, just in case the camera spazzes out and you see that area. Either that, or they have nothing there, like Link in The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and Majora's Mask.

[Foo-N-Tifa4eva]

The storyline was good but more often than not you'll find yourself saying "huh?". It was pretty hard to make sense of the story. Someone had to play it over again to fully grasp what was going on.

Also, the battle system was probably the worst of all the FFs I've played. Random battles were tedious and because of junctioning, players were reluctant to use magic for fear that it would weaken their character stats. Random battles basically came down to drawing magic and summoning GFs with 5 minute long sequences. I got so tired of it that fleeing became my favorite move in the game. Thus...I reached Adel at level 17, and had to restart the whole game hahaha

[SeeDRankLou]

The point isn't that there wasn't developement, it's that it happened too rapidly. The point was that he thought of Rinoa as a hindrance and an annoyance, and the second she goes comotose, he's completely and totally head over heels in love with her. It was poorly done.
I agree and disagree at the same time. You are right that it was poorly done, but I don't think it happened too rapidly. The writers of this game don't go into enough emphasis that these characters are teenagers and are dealing with life in such a manner at the time this story takes place. Squall (being Squall) has probably never given a girl the time of day before, let alone considered being attracted to a girl, let alone fathomed falling in love. Squall probably doesn't really know how to handle having the feelings that he's having, so he does what every stupid boy does when he likes a girl and tries to be nice by being mean. I don't know about anyone else, but I could so see his instant attraction to her (through his stoic face) when he first saw her in the ballroom FMV, and how he was utterly disappointed almost to the point of tears when she just left in the middle of the dance. So when he saw her again, what do you think he was going to do, be happy? Especially when she said the she was really there looking for Cid, and that the dance was just because he was there. Then he finds out that she was dating Seifer and she still kind of likes him, major stab in the back. So of course he thinks she's annoying, she played him (well at least that's as played as he's ever been). So his annoyance takes a sharp pike, but then it gradually goes down. It's just hard to see, because reading Squall is like trying to reading Al Bhed Greek. First, you go from Al Bhed to Greek, and then from Greek to English. You are privy to his throughts all along, and he doesn't become unannoyed with her, he becomes less and less annoyed with her, because he's still holding on to the person he used to be. Squall juxtaposes several opposing feelings and positions almost constantly--trying to be the person he thought he was, trying to be the person he needs to be, and trying not to be the person that his feelings are making him be--until he breaks down at FH. For me, the transistion between Squall finding Rinoa annoying and falling in love with her happened rather smoothly. But the writers could have emphasized a lot of things much more that would have made it a bit more clear, because I do see where you are coming from. I just thought I'd share. :D

[Jolts]

Then he finds out that she was dating Sephiroth

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! :lol: :laugh: :laughing: :roll: :crying:

But yeah, that's pretty much how it was.

[SeeDRankLou]

Then he finds out that she was dating Sephiroth


Oh wow, I need lunch. Too many S names, I get confused. I fixed it, it now says Seifer like it was suppose to.

[Jolts]

I could see that.

Rinoa: Sorry, Squall, I can't go out with you. I'm currently involved with a homicidal maniac from a completely different dimension.

:lol:

[braver_cloud_strife]

Cities with them being closed is whats wrong with FF8 I swear that game could have done a bit more better.....it would have been better if those dumb cities just blew up from something instead of sitting there lookin at them knowing theres no way to get in..... :mad2:

[TasteyPies]

Whats worse is having mole hills in front of everything (ff9)

[Jolts]

Those aren't mole hills, those are tree roots, but yeah, having cities permanently closed is just plain wrong. I bet they only did that because they couldn't fit any more data on the fourth disc. Or just didn't want to. At least they could do something like they did with Mideel in FFVII. It got destroyed, but you could still visit the people who were able to save themselves from getting engulfed into the Lifestreem.

[Cloudane]

The point isn't that there wasn't developement, it's that it happened too rapidly. The point was that he thought of Rinoa as a hindrance and an annoyance, and the second she goes comotose, he's completely and totally head over heels in love with her. It was poorly done.

I think the point they were trying to get across is "you never know what you've got until you've lost it". He thought he'd lost Rin, and suddenly realised what he had (not just her but friends and other Good Things) and how ignorant he was of it. That's what I think anyway :)

Oh, and Jolts, fix your sig :P Having to scroll left and right all the time to read your posts is really annoying! kkthxla~

[Jolts]

My signature isn't all that wide at all. In fact, it's total width is only 160px. What, you can't see the images or something? We should really descuss this in PM, so, when you see this, do that, please.

Back on topic: Final Fantasy VII had stories, even for the "secret" characters. So, why didn't Final Fantasy VIII have more in-depth stories for Quistis, Zell, Selphe, and Irvine?

[aeris2001x2]

The only thing wrong with ff8 is that you can't tilt selphie during scan.

Come on, every guy here tried it once.

i,ve only just noticed how brillant this post is, and yes, that was a huge problem.

i think selphie Rinoa should also have had alternative outfits avaliable for beating the weapons. Omega would have had sum real worth then.

seriously, apart from being too easy and alot of character/plot flaws, this game just rocks. i feel a huge urge 2 play this again now.

[Zante]

I think FF8 is a great game. Only it isn't realy FF-like. As it is the first Final Fantasy I played, it didn't bother me. But if I would play it after playing FFVI and VII, I would be very disapointed.

[Jolts]

Squaresoft was actually more interested in FFVIII than they were with FFVII. In fact, they didn't even really like FFVII (read so in an interview). They wanted a more "serious" feel for FFVIII, and that's what they made.

"Learn from your mistakes."

[bluBob]

The only problems I had with FFVIII were, drawing got REALLY old, the fact that the entire last disk was just the final dungeon kinda irritated me, and the fact that all the main characters were orphans...from the same orphanage...and Edea was the head mistress...and they all forgot because of the gfs...I'm sorry, after that, I had to stop playing for awhile.

[ISRviper]

IMO I think that If they added vocies than this game would be the best thats really all there is missing vocies to go along with the cool looking characters

[Chris]

Personally I did enjoy Final Fantasy VIII.
But as much as I might like it, one cannot deny that the game could and should have been much better.

Here's why:

1. The characters were weak and extremely dull.
2. The gameplay is the worst thing that's ever been created.
3. The story was pathetic and very, very DULL. (At times they dragged it out so much to the point were I wanted to kill myself).
4. The villain had no apparent motives at all.
5. And finally, FFVIII has nothing on either FFVII or FFIX...or any other Final Fantasy come to think of it.

And here's the good things:

1. Laguna, WOW, the only character with an actual story.
2. Ellone...could have been interesting.
3. The music is magnificent...like all other FF games.
4. The graphics were amazing.
5. Amazing landscapes.

[aeris2001x2]

"And finally, FFVIII has nothing on either FFVII or FFIX...or any other Final Fantasy come to think of it."

then u have not played ffII or ffX-2. ffII is the most annoying game ever made, while ffX-2, despite being fun, is absoltuly crap in almost every rational way.

[Chris]

If you're talking about FFIIj (Origins) I have played and finished it.
And it was so much more fun to play through.

[SeeDRankLou]

then u have not played ffII or ffX-2. ffII is the most annoying game ever made, while ffX-2, despite being fun, is absoltuly crap in almost every rational way.
Are you sure that he hasn't played those games and just doesn't feel the same way as you do about them, thus actually thinking that FFVIII is absolute crap, as you feel toward FFX-2? There are a lot of people that feel differently about those two games than you do, just as there are a lot of people who feel differently about FFVIII than you do. Let everyone have their opinion, just as I let you have your opinion about FFX-2 without slapping you everytime you bash FFX-2 in like every other post you write. :mad2: :D


The villain has no apparant motives at all.
Ultimecia wished to compress time, thus bringing all sorceresses into one point in time. Thus all the pieces of Hyne would be present, and by killing all the sorceresses they would have no one to give their powers to except for her. Thus she would absorb all the pieces of Hyne and become all powerful. It's not stated in the game, but you can more or less deduct it.

[Bloody_Valentine]

I, personally, think its a great game. The only thing I didnt like about it was that I thought that the main characters werent "fantasy-ish" enough. But, Besides that, the game is excelent. Not my fave in the series, but very, very good.

[aeris2001x2]

Are you sure that he hasn't played those games and just doesn't feel the same way as you do about them, thus actually thinking that FFVIII is absolute crap, as you feel toward FFX-2? There are a lot of people that feel differently about those two games than you do, just as there are a lot of people who feel differently about FFVIII than you do. Let everyone have their opinion, just as I let you have your opinion about FFX-2 without slapping you everytime you bash FFX-2 in like every other post you write. :mad2: :D


Ultimecia wished to compress time, thus bringing all sorceresses into one point in time. Thus all the pieces of Hyne would be present, and by killing all the sorceresses they would have no one to give their powers to except for her. Thus she would absorb all the pieces of Hyne and become all powerful. It's not stated in the game, but you can more or less deduct it.


hey man i was only joking. i,m not conceited enough 2 believe someones opinion is wrong. i just like to defend ffVIII when it gets bashed.

i should really put something in my sig, saying everything i write is an opinion.

p.s- i dont bash ffX-2 all the time...i bash ffII. at least ffX-2 was fun enough personally, 4 me 2 master :greenie:

[SeeDRankLou]

Oh don't mind me ranting, I was having a rather bad day yesterday. And if you wish to imply humor or sarcasm without saying those actual words, try smilies. Here, have a cookie :cookie:

[SadisticStreetSoldie]

I thought that this game was pretty easy and good and the whole Balamb Garden thing put me at ease because it had a 'safe and sound' atmosphere to it (I'm easily scared and FF7 scared the poop out of me :shame:) but sometimes it got boring and repetitive. And plus I really hated:
The desert prison part
The sewers
Having to save Rinoa in space
Having to be with Rinoa in the spaceship
The lack of character development especially when it came to Ultimacia
Ultimacia's castle
Having to waste nearly 8 hours looking for Ultima Weapon all around the world
And the too-mellowed out music

[UltimateSpamGrover]

the stuff that I hated about FFVIII

1. No MP consumption system
2. GF has HP
3. No weapon shop or armor shop
4. you had to "make" your own weapons
5. only 3 people in a party!?
6. if you run away from a battle, you have to go into menus.
7. too much camera angles
Just my 2K.

[aeris2001x2]

ohhh, ffVIII, i flame u so...but i do love u. ffVIII=Genius :p .

personally i found this one to be one of the strongest musically...

[Chris]

It did have a wonderful soundtrack ;)
Some of my favorite songs are "Fisherman's Horizon",
"Julia's Piano" and "Fragments of Memories".
Even though I didn't like the game that much,
one can't deny the fact that its soundtrack is amazing.

[black orb]

>>> With FF8 I never felt like playing a Final Fantasy game.
The only high points were the music and the FMVs..

[DJZen]

When I played FFVIII I felt like I was playing a FF game with WAAAAAAAY too much eye candy. Actually, thinking back on it, I thought the gameplay was VERY FF.

[Gunblade_Master]

hi i'm new.

anyways, i think that ffviii is the best ff game ever! please don't flame me! yes, i think it's the best. nothing is wrong with it. i wish they would make a sequel game for it... :mad2: :mad:

[Ultima Shadow]

1. No MP consumption system- Yea, that's bad.
2. GF has HP- Hey, that's great!
3. No weapon shop or armor shop- There IS weapon shops... oh, well... Junctioning shops atleast.
4. you had to "make" your own weapons- I liked that idea.
5. only 3 people in a party!?- Hey, that's not just FFVIII!!!
6. if you run away from a battle, you have to go into menus.- Not only FFVIII.
7. too much camera angles- I don't think so.

I'm only dissapointed with the non MP system. Your magics should just grow stronger as you collected more of them.

[UltimateSpamGrover]

5. only 3 people in a party!?- Hey, that's not just FFVIII!!!

Well, FFVII made up for that flaw, and FFX made it too easy with the "switching people in battle" thing, and FFX-2 just plain sucked.
__
6. if you run away from a battle, you have to go into menus.- Not only FFVIII.

I think FFX had it too...
__
7. too many camera angles- I don't think so.

FFIX also had that problem, especially when a battle starts.

[Jolts]

1. No MP consumption system
2. GF has HP
3. No weapon shop or armor shop
4. you had to "make" your own weapons
5. only 3 people in a party!?
6. if you run away from a battle, you have to go into menus.
7. too much camera angles

1. I think we all agree on that one :D.
2. I liked that. It keeps you safe from damage. Very helpful when you're almost KOed.
3. Like Ultima Shadow said, technically the Junk Shop is a weapon shop.
4. Kind of annoying, yes, but I don't have a real big problem with it.
5. Better than one.
6. You lazy ass :p.
7. This only a problem when it affects the loading time too much.
WAAAAAAAY too much eye candy
I like eye candy :D. However, like the camera angles thing, it's a problem when it causes the loading time to take a lot longer.

[aeris2001x2]

man i cant wait till i reply this game again.(i,ve only beat it two and a half times)

I almost want to skip to this one, but ffIV-VII need replaying again first...

[Ultima Shadow]

man i cant wait till i reply this game again.(i,ve only beat it two and a half times)

I almost want to skip to this one, but ffIV-VII need replaying again first...
When you'r going to master FFVIII... just don't forget to keep your characters at as low level as possible until you get the "status boosting at level up" abilities.

[Jolts]

Why? It's more of a challenge when you're at high levels. I thought you were always looking for challenges, Ultima Shadow.?

[ZellMog]

I found nothing wrong with FFVIII. I liked junctioning, and although drawing wasn't fun, I didn't mind it either.

And I liked all the characters, too. As for Squall "suddenly falling for Rinoa for NO REASON!!!! OMG!!!" These characters are teenagers, right? 16 or 17 or so?

When I was 16, there was this girl I had feelings for. For months we talked online and stuff but she didn't like me back. Actually, she disliked me. In person, she would ignore me and everything.

One day, she came over my house for about an hour. We hung out for that short amount of time. Nothing amazing happened; we talked and watched tv and stuff.

The next day she asked when she could see me again. We've been dating since then. Why the hell did she go from disliking me to wanting to go out with me, and then maintaining a strong relationship with me since then? I dunno. We're teenagers. We're crazy, man.

I personally find Squall's change in attitude towards Rinoa not exactly "realistic", but I find it entirely possible.

But that's just my opinion. And I'm a teenager. And remember: We're crazy.

[aeris2001x2]

When you'r going to master FFVIII... just don't forget to keep your characters at as low level as possible until you get the "status boosting at level up" abilities.

true. i think i got just before Abaddon on disc 3 without a single level up on one of my plays. but then ffIX or ffVI was released and i forgot about it :greenie: .

lol ffVIII i found was still easy at uber-high levels. in fact i found it slighty easier at high levels(i was clattering bosses in one turn and stuff). at low levels i even got a game over ( on that machine at the Galbadia missle base).

[Ultima Shadow]

Why? It's more of a challenge when you're at high levels. I thought you were always looking for challenges, Ultima Shadow.?
Aeris2001x2 FF mastering= Max out stats of all characters and alot of other stuff.
Aeris2001x2's mastering in FFVIII= If he don't get the status boosting abilities, it will be a hell to max out the stats. The status boosting abilities only works at level up. Therefore Aeris will have to get those abilities at as low level as possible. That will make status maxing soo much easier for little Aeris. :p

Me, Ultima Shadow is not going to beat the game at level 7 or something. :tongue:

[Jolts]

I never really used the "Bonus" abilities. I always relied on items and 'Devour.' 'Course, those were with GameShark, so they were much easier...maybe I oughtta use the "Bonus" abilities in my current, cheatless file...?

[aeris2001x2]

lol. even if i use the GF level up stat abilities from lowest levels possible, do u have any idea how long it would take to max stats without junctioning?(u knowing, spending ages fighting to get certain items, then refining it into an item that increases a stat by like 1).

i started it once but cause i,d leveled up like hell, i missed the stat bonuses, so it was gonna take about 1000 hours or sumthin.

[Ultima Shadow]

Seriously, when mastering... you don't mean you'll max every stat WITHOUT junctioning!!!??? Trust me... that'll take 32,000 years!!! :eek:

[aeris2001x2]

it must be done...and it wont take TOO long...will it?

[Ultima Shadow]

Well, I've heard you can get alot of gil by selling Mega Potions which can easily be refined from Mezmerise Blades... but yes, It'll still take a very long time...

[Jolts]

DEVOUR!!

It's one of the easier ways to increase your stats. If you have the Bradygames guide, then I know you can look in its bestiary to find out which monsters increase which stats at which levels.

[aeris2001x2]

wow i never knew that move existed. which GF teaches u that move?

[Jolts]

Eden starts out with it, and you can refine the Pupu card into a Hungry Cookpot, which can teach Devour to any GF you'd like. Also, you can rarely get a Hungry Cookpot from Angelo with its "Angelo Search" skill.

[aeris2001x2]

aww thanks man, i have that move but never knew what it did. when i eventually get back to ffVIII i,ll be trying that.

[Jolts]

Here's a big helpful paragraph:
Get Diablos to level 99. Now, find the enemy you wish to Devour, and use LvUp and/or LvDwn until they have 9,999HP or less (use a guide or scan them). Now, use Diablos to do 99% damage to their HP (if they're not immune to % attacks, like Diablos and Demi). Now, just Devour them. Devour is like Card, they have to be at low HP for it to work, and you don't recieve any EXP if you Devour all the enemies on the battlefield (which helps to keep Diablos at level 99).

[aeris2001x2]

hey thanks jolts, finally, a use for lv up/down (aside from using it to lower red dragon lv so he dont use breath).

just one Question, what is the advantage of diablos staying at lv99?

[Ultima Shadow]

Oh, yea. I completely forgot about that Ability. But remember... you only get your stats boosted when Devouring some specific monsters. Like Ruby Dragons, Malboros and stuff like that. Congratulations Aeris! Now it will only take 472 hours. :)


just one Question, what is the advantage of diablos staying at lv99?
He will take off 99% of the creatures HP. You need to lower the monsters HP if you want to devour them. If he's at level 100, he'll kill them.

[aeris2001x2]

well in theory it could be relatvely quickly. i just wish i had not hated Eden so much, i might have discovered Devour earlier.

i forgot what Diablos attack does. i kow its gravity based but it kills monsters. is it like the ffX move Mega-graviton?

i remember using Diablos so much that he was lv100 well before the rest. he is so awesome.

EDIT-aww now i see, he was lv100, thats why almost everything was dying when i used him. thanks.

[Jolts]

Diablos's damage depends on his level. He will do [level]% damage to the enemy, but can never do more than 9,999 damage.

[SeeDRankLou]

Well, if make it so that you don't level up until you have the Cactuar GF, you can have two sets of Str, Vit, Mag and Spr Bonus abilities. Then, you can very easily add between 87 (Irvine) and 93 (Squall) points to those stats just by leveling up. Or if you want, you can exchange one of those for HP bonus, which will net you several thousand HP points. I never thought of that Diablos at lv. 99 thing, good idea.

[aeris2001x2]

HMM. using Cacutar i think it could be relatvely quick to max my stats out in ffVIII. quicker then ffVII anyway...

[Jolts]

Oh, and some enemies damage you or cause nasty status effect when you Devour them. Use the guide to find out which ones do that, and if you end up fighting them, Card them instead (to prevent levelling up, and to keep you from having to run away).