Things we failed to appreciate...

I realized recently that VIII was the first game to have separate animations for spells within one character. Okay, these were relegated to Quistis' Blue Magic Limit Break (of which there were only three separate animations), but at least it showed a hint of diversity. One of the things about battles in any game that quickly gets tired is having one animation for each action. Final Fantasy VII was the first to breakup the monotony by giving different characters different animations. Still though, who would do exactly the same thing twice in any situation? Quistis having different casting animations appropriate (mostly) to her choice of spell was the first (second?) step in the right direction, imho.

Anything else?

I feel like the trains were a really cool if underutilized mechanic in the game. I always loved watching them move about on the world map, made it feel a bit more alive.

I agree with Wolf about the trains. I also like how after you visit Galbadia Garden for the first time you can just leave by yourself with Squall and explore the rest of that section of the game. I was all "Screw you guys, I'm going solo!" and visited Dollet and Timber.

I appreciated the not so clunky battle screen. Something about just seeing your battle party's name and HP was just like a breath of fresh air after FFVII. Even being able to press select further clear the screen and watch battle cinematics was great, too.

I didn't fully appreciate the soundtrack until my second playthrough. Granted, I did like a few key tracks when I first played the game, but the scope of it didn't hit me until I gave the game a second spin.

I imagine a lot of people might not have enjoyed it, but I really liked the boost for GF's. It made them interactive without taking away from awesome cinematics etc.

I also liked the books and magazines. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that was the first time we got readable sub-lore like that in a game. Even if it was very little.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I imagine a lot of people might not have enjoyed it, but I really liked the boost for GF's. It made them interactive without taking away from awesome cinematics etc.

I also liked the books and magazines. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that was the first time we got readable sub-lore like that in a game. Even if it was very little.

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Yeah, the magazines were fun to collect and were useful, as well.

The boost feature was interesting, but I think they went overboard on how long the summon animations were. They are cool, but after the billionth time it gets a bit tiring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I imagine a lot of people might not have enjoyed it, but I really liked the boost for GF's. It made them interactive without taking away from awesome cinematics etc.

I also liked the books and magazines. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that was the first time we got readable sub-lore like that in a game. Even if it was very little.

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You could read tons of books in FF5. Some of them had lore in them.