Quote Originally Posted by Karellen View Post
It's broken because you can make your characters ridiculously powerful very early on in a relatively short amount of time. It's clunky because standing around drawing magic for about ten minutes each time a new spell comes up is beyond tedious.
I disagree, because as you later stated, it's the magic refining abilities which can allow for the game to be easily broken early on. However, there are 20+ abilities for GFs to learn, and any given player may opt to learn other abilities prior. Also, you do get a few stones that refine highly early on, but even then, the magic you refine isn't enough to give your characters overly-exploited attributes.

Also, you don't have to draw to the max everytime a new magic comes out. You should only do as much as you need. That's like seeing the Level # in prior FF's and thinking that it means you have to get it to 99 before proceeding.

For that being, said, I prefer VIII much more because the Junciton system is so open ended that you can get a different experience each time you play. Variation is something almost completely ignored in DQVIII.

That's not to say it's not one of my favorite RPG's. As far as traditional, dragons & princesses RPGs go, it's done about as well as it can be, the game is huge, the amount of side content is massive, and the graphics and music are some of the most breathtaking I've witnessed in a game.

The truth is the Kitase/Nomura/Nojima/Uematsu team took alot more risks and made extremely unique games in their time together. The story in VIII is well directed and there are few gaming expriences like it, to me.