Is FF8 worth playing?

[rubah]

ff8 is a pretty polarizing game. Most people find it hard to be neutral about, either they love or hate it.

The reasons I like it:
it has a love story <3
junctioning gives me pretty awesome control over my characters
witches
pretty fantastic fmvs, even if they're low quality resolution wise
it has this feel that is just nostalgic for everything I like. the little details of computers, magazines, pets, etc, it makes me think of the early 90s when I was little, I guess and they just make me happy
oh, and pretty much all of disk 3.

things that are not so great about it
it has ps1 graphics. that's hard to get used to sometimes
there are some dumb parts to the plot
some of your modes of transportation (while so cool in theory) are pretty annoyingly slow >:[ and you have to listen to the overworld theme the entire time >:[

What was broken about the gameplay?

[Skyblade]

What was broken about the gameplay?

Junctioning made Magic useless. Other than that, it was fine.

[MJN SEIFER]

I guess it's all opinion, I myself thought that VIII was a brilliant game, and I don't think there are any Dues Ex - whatever storylines at all. Everything, that's everything is foreshadowed, you just have to look for some of them, which one of the many things I love about the whole FF series. It's like in FFIX, a lot of people still think that (SPOILER)the final boss Necron was never hinted towards, but they are wrong. I didn't find the characters "boring" either, they all played they're part, and I found Squall probably the easiest of all FF characters to relate to.

Who ever made that comment about "The FFVII fan boys" it's completely right. I know because, I was one my self. I was so obsessed with VII I just refused to give VIII a chance. But when I did, I was mesmerised. Final Fantasy VII is still my favourite, but Final Fantasy VIII has enough of my respect as a game to my 2nd.

But I know people disagree, and will continue to do so - that's life I guess, we can't all like the same thing.

Oh, and Junctioning was easy.

[Woodinator]

I think its a good game and you should give it a shot.

I'll admit when i first played it i hated it...but that was when i was young and naiive. I replayed it a year ago and I have to admit i loved it, although it isn't my favorite. I enjoyed the storyline and I liked Squall's character a lot.. i nearly peed my pants the first time he rejected a hand shake haha but yeah definetly a lot of critics for this game..but then again there are a lot for each game...how many threads are there bashing VII, IX, and XII? A lot, and there all still good games. People have there biases so you just have to try it for yourself.

[ReloadPsi]

It's better than FFX-2.

Hahahaha! Truer words were never spoken!

[Vivisteiner]

All FFs are worth playing.


Excluding FFX-2 if that counts.

[rubah]

What was broken about the gameplay?

Junctioning made Magic useless. Other than that, it was fine.

Guess you didn't like draw-cast then!

[NeoCracker]

It's better than FFX-2.

Hahahaha! Truer words were never spoken!

I would actually rather play X-2.

[Jimsour]

As if magic needed to be used in FFVIII. You leave Squall in yellow and let him limit break constantly

[Karellen]

What was broken about the gameplay?

Junctioning made Magic useless. Other than that, it was fine.

You can also make your characters exceedingly powerful very quickly very early on, which takes the challenge out of a great deal of the game.

It's probably worth noting though that this generally won't effect people who are playing the game for the first time, since they probably won't have a great enough knowledge of the junctioning system to be able to abuse it, so it isn't really something the OP needs to take into consideration.

[Marshall Banana]

"Drawing magic is dumb and tedious," and "It's too easy to overpower your party," don't seem like valid complaints, since this game doesn't force your characters to draw magic or junction it to their stats.

Your playthroughs are as easy, as balanced, or as challenging as you make them, ya know?

[Karellen]

Forcing players to not take advantage of the battle system if they want a decent challenge is a pretty stupid way of going about things. A game should reward players for understanding the battle system but not to the point where it's not even remotely challenging. Games are designed to be won and most players are preconditioned into doing anything they possibly can to achieve that result. If the designers really wanted to give the player the option of setting their own difficulty level, then they should have included easy, medium and hard options at the beginning.

[Jimsour]

It was more of a pain in the arse having to level Materia, to be honest.

[Marshall Banana]

Forcing players to not take advantage of the battle system if they want a decent challenge is a pretty stupid way of going about things.

D=

A game should reward players for understanding the battle system but not to the point where it's not even remotely challenging.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's fun.

Games are designed to be won and most players are preconditioned into doing anything they possibly can to achieve that result.

Maybe level grinding is more to your taste!

If the designers really wanted to give the player the option of setting their own difficulty level, then they should have included easy, medium and hard options at the beginning.

Baloney!

[Karellen]

Unless I'm mistaken, it's fun.

I'm sure there are some people who don't mind. I don't think it makes FFVIII unplayable or anything. Doesn't make it less broken though.

Maybe level grinding is more to your taste!

That conclusion doesn't make any sense. Just because I don't like a broken leveling system doesn't mean I would support another equality stupid leveling system.