What is JUST me or was the main party stupid?

[Red Mage Coffman]

How do I begin? I don't wanna piss of FF8 fans for starters. Do I like FF8? Yeah, to some extent. My first time playing it, I didn't put it down for a while. I enjoyed Triple Triad, (Again, to some extent) some battles were heated and intense, and I thought the idea of GF's were pretty cool. Just wish you could skip the damn Summoning sequences. So annoying, then again 7 had the same problem. *cough, cough* Nights of the Round *cough, cough* So, no offense is meant by this. This is my personal opinion. Now, lets start with Squall. Typical. Emo, loner guy who doesn't enjoy having a social life. Well, that's just great. Our main character is a douche bag, piss ant, who hates everybody, it seems like. I just didn't like him. He was mean, he was anti-social, and he wasn't likeable, if you ask me. Next up is Zell, the ADHD, "fresh", extreme guy who never really contributed much to anything besides breaking out of prison. Zell was just another annoying character. He was like Steiner in FF9 and Hope in FF13. Characters, whose SOLE purpose, I swear, was to annoy the hell out of you, the player, and make the story as stupid as possible. Well, to be fair these characters usually improve along the way of the story, but not Zell. Hell no. From the moment that smiling smurf flipped my way, he remained the same old annoying Zell. Then there is Selphie. Who I love. So back the smurf up son. Selphie is the BOMB. Now, Quistis. She didn't really get on my nerves that much. She had some REALLY stupid moments in the game, but everyone did at some point, so never mind. I only really hated her when she spoon fed me tutorials. Time to go on to my most hated character in this entire game. Irvine Kinneas. Honestly, he didn't piss me of at first. He was an okay character, and I didn't hate him as much as I hated Zell. So, all was well, right? WRONG. Irvine joins the party to aid the assassination of the sorcerress, hell he IS the assassin. The plan is to trap the sorcerress in a tunnel, and snipe her as quick as possible. This, to me, is where the game began getting REALLY stupid. But, I'm not dogging on the story yet, we'll save that for another rant. Aside from Rinoa being a retard, and Quistis endangering the mission, everything is going smoothly. When the time finally comes, the gates are dropped, the gun is aimed, and its now or never. So... Why the smurf is Irvine NOT SHOOTING? I'll tell you why, he is a complete and utter pussy! He doesn't do ANYTHING. He proceeds to bitch about how it's a tough life, and how we always chokes up when this time comes, how killing is difficult. THEN WHY THE smurf DID THEY ASSIGN YOU TO A POLITICAL ASSASSINATION THAT IS AS IMPORTANT AS THIS?! I mean, what the HELL? You could have told me that, oh I dunno, BEFORE THE MISSION. But no, he smurfs everything up, Squall is stabbed with an ice spear, the party is sent to prison, and the Gardens are now being targeted by the sorcerress. Way to smurfing go John Wayne. "I'm to afraid to kill..." No, shut up, just five minutes ago you were shooting people, point blank, in the face with a shot gun, don't give me your pussie excuses. God, I hate this mothersmurfer. Onto the last, and the last, Rinoa. To sum this up easily, she is as dumb as a brick, her peronality is bland vommit, and she actually likes Seifer to some extent. How the smurf do you like Seifer, he's a complete dick! I hope Squall enjoys those sloppy seconds, cause if he doesn't want Quistis or Selphie, then he deserves Seifers leftovers! And to suppot my dumb theory, she thought approaching the sorceress, with a little charm, would seal of her magic completely. She doesn't even go about it in the right way. She makes her prescence known, lies like an obvious liar from L.A. Noire, and gets the smurf blasted out of her. Seriously, who thought her character was a good idea? I would have picked Quistis or Selphie ANYDAY over her. And this is JUST the main party. I didn't even get into how bad the story was, how lazy some of the writing was, how horrid some of the other characters were, this was just a small fraction of the Final Fantasy 8 experience. Personally, the only things that pulled me through that game was my devotion to Square, my love for Selhpie, and how awesome I thought Laguna was. I thought Laguna would have made a MUCH better main character, and offered a central plot love story that was ten times better than that of Squall and Rinoa's. Sorry if I'm pissing some of you off, but I just hate this game SO much. To be fair, I thought the gameplay was decent. Besides the concept of drawing magic spells, and the complex junction system, I thought the gameplay was okay. So, can I get some feedback? Am I just a bitter prick, or can I get some support? And, again, I don't mean to piss anyone off. I'm new here, believe me, I want to avoid that. This is just my personal opinion. So, gimme yours.

[noshowmillk]

Final Fantasy tends to have those characters you hate. I understand why you feel that way towards the main party even though I could easily tolerate it.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I'm not that tolerant. Characters are either good or bad. Or some characters just fall flat on their face, being so tasteless, so boring, that they might as well be cardboard cutouts. Like Rinoa. But still, I did play the game once and I did tolerate it, so I guess SOME part of me has a little bit of approval towards 8.

[noshowmillk]

I never really cared for them either until the second half of the game, even though they were trying to revolve the story around them.

[SwordFox]

You loved the gameplay but hated the characters and battle mechanics.

...So you enjoyed walking through towns and pressing X in battle?

I do agree with you about Laguna, though. Laguna would have made a much better main character. Squall stopped being so much of a douche towards the end of the game, but by that point it hardly mattered. I love Zell, though.

[Red Mage Coffman]

SwordFox, poses a very good point. Let me just explain how much I love the playstation controller... You do pose a very good arguement though. The gameplay can easily be summarized by the X button. Good job, you broke the spine of my gameplay opinion. And yes, thank you! Finally, someone with some sense. I usually tell people Laguna would be better and they slap me with their gunblades and proceed to Ranzokuken my opinon to pieces. To me, Laguna was more interesting, he was more likeable, and, to top it all off, he and Julia would have presented a fine love story. Unlike Squall who was not interesting in the least, he was an unlikeable prick, and he and Rinoa just don't pose a very good love story.

[Flying Mullet]

Considering FFVIII as a whole is stupid that would make the main party stupid as well.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I love you. I don't know who you are, but I love you.

[Jiro]

There was always the idea that Irvine was losing his trout because he knew Edea was their Matron. I think I would be faced with quite the quandary if I was to murder someone I held very dear to me. There's also the possibility that he was assigned to the mission because he was going to smurf it up. NORG mentions something about offering up SeeDs' heads on silver platters to appease the sorceress; I don't think they honestly expected the plan to work.

Zell's character is easily one of the more believable ones. He was always second string to Seifer and Squall and so developed a need to impress people and draw attention. His acrobatics skills and facial tattoo all scream for attention, as does his passion. He might be a bit of a goofball but that is hardly a trait to hate him over.

Whereas you love Selphie, I find her to be one of the weakest cast members. She fulfils the need for a genki girl or whatever the stereotype is called, but outside of the disk 2 missile base-Trabia Garden sections, she shows little in the way of growth or relevance.

Rinoa's idiocy is well acknowledged but you seem to think that it is without basis. That's hardly the case. She obviously had a troublesome childhood; her mother died when she was four (thank you #trivia) and her father was always busy with work. So while she was lacking the attention she so desperately wanted, she was also being pampered and getting whatever she wanted. Sounds contradictory, but think about any spoilt brat kids you know. Rinoa epitomises this with a completely idealistic viewpoint and a lack of real, fundamental skills (at least when relating to SeeD skills such as combat).

Squall's character is far deeper than you realise too. You say it seems like he hates everyone, which is actually the opposite to the truth. He does not hate anyone - except maybe Seifer - but he is too afraid of loss and betrayal that he can't let anyone close. To further protect himself, he takes up a harsh exterior to try and push people away. Do you think someone who hates everyone would be so paranoid about them talking about him in past tense? The Galbadia Garden scene is the strongest present-day example of his insecurities; all of the flashbacks with him standing in the rain highlight it even further.

Quistis doesn't need a mention because I have no points of contention with you.

I think you've identified a lot of pseudo-problems without being able to understand quite what the intent might have been. Certainly Squall seems to personify that aloof archetype but it's not as simple as being reserved and a prick; he has reasons for this, realistic reasons. All of the characters are done with a relatively strong sense of where they're going. Certainly they might not all gel together, leaving us with an incomprehensible plot and an overwhelming sense of disappointment in its resolution, but it wasn't all bad.

[Red Mage Coffman]

Yeah, I'll give you props. I looked at everything you said anfd pretty much nodded my head. Think about it this way though, this is how I saw them. I just didn't like them. I tried to relate with the characters. I really did, and I think my firstplay through I did in some way. I didn't all hate them then. Okay, except maybe Irvine. I still hated him. But the second time around I looked at everything that was happening through a logical viewpoint. Some of the things done by the characters in this game are just flat out stupid. I could rant for days about some of the stupid things that were done, or some of the dumb choices that were made by them. For example, Quistis abandons her post at the assassination JUST to apologize to Rinoa for making her feel bad. Well, one she's a trained mercanarie, hell, she instructs them. Why would she leave her post, playing such a critical role in the plan, and go back JUST to say sorry? That, to me, was lazy as hell and degraded my opinion. Another example, Irvine knew the sorcerress raised them and he didn't say a word through out the story about it, up till that point. I mean, you think he would have had some sense and told everyone these kinda things, but no. He just... doens't. That, again, is lazy. I think my love for the characters were runied as soon as I looked at what they did as characters. You know what I mean? There were just some things in FF8 that drove me up the wall, in terms of characters and how they react with their envoirnments. Ya know?

[Night Fury]

Aren't they all like 17-18?

I know I was smurfing annoying as hell when I was that age.
I think they're quite realistic...


inb4 - and yes I'm still smurfing annoying now

[Red Mage Coffman]

Nice input lol. I'm pretty annoying to. Maybe that's why I can't score a date... 0.0 They're all so stupid though. Some of the desicions they make... I could prove my point if you could give me a few hours lol. I'm gonna play through 8 again, to try and reinvent my opinion, try to stop being a nitpicking prick. Hopefully, my eyes will open. Or rather, close again.

[Night Fury]

I really liked the characters.

I liked Quistis a lot because of her big sister type behavior, which I related too a lot when I played through the game. There's a lot wrong with this game, but I really liked the characters.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I only liked a few. The only one I can say I hated purely out of nonstupid behavior was Seifer. Given he was stupid, I hated him. He was such a douche! I thought Robin Wi- I mean, Cid was pretty cool. Laguna and his lot were okay. Well, Kiros and his weird Voldo style movement was weird and Ward with his freaking anchor was... Well, he through his anchor at the enemy JUST to go back and get it from them. So yeah. Laguna was easily my most favorite. Wish he woulda been main, but what can you do? Laguna with his laid back, not smooth lady skills was easily relatable.

[Jiro]

Yeah, I'll give you props. I looked at everything you said anfd pretty much nodded my head. Think about it this way though, this is how I saw them. I just didn't like them. I tried to relate with the characters. I really did, and I think my firstplay through I did in some way. I didn't all hate them then. Okay, except maybe Irvine. I still hated him. But the second time around I looked at everything that was happening through a logical viewpoint. Some of the things done by the characters in this game are just flat out stupid. I could rant for days about some of the stupid things that were done, or some of the dumb choices that were made by them. For example, Quistis abandons her post at the assassination JUST to apologize to Rinoa for making her feel bad. Well, one she's a trained mercanarie, hell, she instructs them. Why would she leave her post, playing such a critical role in the plan, and go back JUST to say sorry? That, to me, was lazy as hell and degraded my opinion. Another example, Irvine knew the sorcerress raised them and he didn't say a word through out the story about it, up till that point. I mean, you think he would have had some sense and told everyone these kinda things, but no. He just... doens't. That, again, is lazy. I think my love for the characters were runied as soon as I looked at what they did as characters. You know what I mean? There were just some things in FF8 that drove me up the wall, in terms of characters and how they react with their envoirnments. Ya know?

I get you, those points there are pretty concrete. The Assassination Sequence is one of the worst parts of the game purely because of Quistis and her decision to go after Rinoa. Well, it's not just her; Selphie and Zell tag along too. All three of them are equally idiotic in that section and it breaks my connection with the story. Plus the sewer part is my least favourite part of the whole game.

Irvine keeping his mouth shut too was one of the slackest plot devices ever used. "Oh I was just confused" whatever Irvine you dick, you just wanted to try and sleep with Selphie.