Too Easy?

[Ultima Shadow]

1: Allow all junctioning except stat-junctioning.

2: Repeat: allow abilities to be junctioned, but don't junction magic to any actual stats.

3: ??????

4: Profit!

[Mirage]

Yeah. I also think the presence of the internet kind of kills a lot of FF8's nuances. Since all the information is so readily available, players really don't have to figure anything out. I think a lot of players wouldn't be complaining about how easy the game is if they hadn't, at some point, been spoiled to where all the great stuff can be found.

Yeah, this is what I meant to say.

Without the internet or a strategy guide, you're not gonna know where to get all this magic so quickly.

This is why I kinda struggled with the game. I knew about the Junction system but I didn't know where to find the higher-leveled stuff.

A very good point. When I first played FF8, the game was new, and my internet access was limited (it was in 1999 after all). The information about easy refinement of curaga from balamb wasn't widespread, neither was most the other stuff either, like where to get really good cards early on that refined into powerful magic. That's why, at least for me, the game had a normal difficulty curve the first time I played it. That's also why I try to keep away from gameplay mechanics conversations about games I haven't played before either. I like figuring things out on my own, that's half the fun for me.

I remember my brother and I printing out tons and tons of final fantasy information while at school and compiling it into an encyclopedia for use whenever we needed it later . Even if that is totally impractical by today's standards, I sort of miss that time . We were really passionate about it.

[Jessweeee♪]

It took me a while to figure out the magic thing. The first time I played it I was very very young and just didn't "get" RPGs and stats and stuff. I just kind of whacked at things and spammed GFs. I made it to the missle base, where I got stuck fighting the tank. I never got past it because my brother accidentally pushed the TV too far and it fell onto our PS1, smashing it and the disc to pieces. Then in middle school a friend gave me his copy and I got as far as the end of disc two without even learning any magic refining abilities (I thought they were useless!) or even realizing that you could draw GFs from some bosses. Needless to say Edea gave me some trouble, and somehow I ended up overwriting that save file by accident before I could beat her. Then I started again and got as far as fighting Fujin and Raijin on the Lunatic Pandora, but got stuck there because while I did figure out refining magic, it didn't occur to me to get items from cards so I didn't have a whole lot. And I was still using Auto-Junction. But then I overwrote that file because my brother was playing and asked me to save the game for him, but he didn't switch our memory cards out ;_;

But I started a fourth time, and then I was like "huh, Triple Triad is actually pretty fun if you keep the rules from getting out of hand oh wow I can turn these cards into some pretty cool stuff WHOOAAA DINO BONES GIVE ME 20 QUAKES EACH AND THIS CARD GIVES ME 100 OF THEM?!" It wasn't until I decided I wanted the Lionheart that I went looking for help and stumbled upon this lovely website

And yes, I did finally get to finish it the fourth time!

[Roogle]

The main issue with the difficulty of the game is the sheer number of options that the player can utilize from the outset of the game. I remember having an easy time with this game up until the end of it because all I needed to do was spam the Guardian Force command. Maybe if it had a more linear type of statistical system it would have fared better in the difficulty department. I think that, with time, most of the Final Fantasy games tend towards the easy side because of the sheer amount of people that understand its mechanics inside and out shortly after the release of the game. There are occasionally breakthroughs that occur to this day when certain aspects of battle mechanics or programming of the game open up with discussion.

[Raian the Fallen]

I find the main game to be quite easy, especially if you take your time and walk around the dungeons to find everything.

I just got Ragnarok, and Squall is level 80. And the only grinding I did was to find items needed to forge weapons.

The card game can get really out of hand at times, though. The random, same, and direct rules make the game almost unplayable for me, since I usually always end up losing a rare card by accident.

[Mirage]

All card rules except random are fine with me .

I think "same wall", "plus", and "same" just add more thinking to it. Of course, same wall is brilliant because the walls count as A and usually you have several cards with A on them and the AI usually has only one at most.

Direct trading rules are pretty annoying though. You can usually influence things to avoid it from becoming common.

[Raian the Fallen]

All card rules except random are fine with me .

Seriously? Random is the only rule I can actually tolerate.

[Mirage]

You can tolerate not being able to choose your deck? You're crazy.

[Raian the Fallen]

You can tolerate not being able to choose your deck? You're crazy.

It's not very fun, but I can still whoop the other guy's ass easily.

I still prefer being able to choose my own deck.

[Jiro]

When you refine all cards except awesome ones, Random is less of a problem. It still sucks major balls though.

I was always too absent minded and got nailed by Same/Plus. Same Wall wasn't a problem usually.

[Carl the Llama]

When you refine all cards except awesome ones, Random is less of a problem. It still sucks major balls though.

I was always too absent minded and got nailed by Same/Plus. Same Wall wasn't a problem usually.

Ya see this was what I tried to do once, but the problem starts when you have to many or not enough cards to refine them.

[Raian the Fallen]

If you play for cards that refine into awesome items (Windmill, for instance) early in the game, you can pick up 100 Tornados, which junction nicely to Strength.

[Jiro]

You can also use the Card function to limit the amount of exp you receive, which means that all the enemies will be weak while you're Card Modding etc to give yourself insane stats

[Raian the Fallen]

You can also use the Card function to limit the amount of exp you receive, which means that all the enemies will be weak while you're Card Modding etc to give yourself insane stats

Seriously? How?

[Jiro]

If you Card enemies in battle, you don't gain experience points. You still gain AP, thankfully. So if you never gain experience, the enemies don't scale up in level either, and all the cards you're gaining can be refined using GF abilities to pump up your stats phenomenally without increasing the abilities of the monsters. The problem with this is that you will soon be too strong and will kill enemies before you can Card them