Final Fantasy VIII is Objectively the Worst Final Fantasy

[Gamblet]

and even on top of the list of best RPG of all time.

It IS a great FF game, but one of the best RPGs? I don't think so.
I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

I played many RPG, but with FFVIII I had a lots of fun and I find Junction system the most intresting leveling up system.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

[Zeiferxx]

and even on top of the list of best RPG of all time.

It IS a great FF game, but one of the best RPGs? I don't think so.
I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

I played many RPG, but with FFVIII I had a lots of fun and I find Junction system the most intresting leveling up system.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

If it is too easy, you can always visit Islands closest to Heaven and Hell. There are battles hard, especially without Limit Breaks.

[Gamblet]

and even on top of the list of best RPG of all time.

It IS a great FF game, but one of the best RPGs? I don't think so.
I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

I played many RPG, but with FFVIII I had a lots of fun and I find Junction system the most intresting leveling up system.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

If it is too easy, you can always visit Islands closest to Heaven and Hell. There are battles hard, especially without Limit Breaks.

I mean the overall difficulty, no point in grinding there unless you want to upgrade weapons.

[maybee]

and even on top of the list of best RPG of all time.

It IS a great FF game, but one of the best RPGs? I don't think so.
I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

I played many RPG, but with FFVIII I had a lots of fun and I find Junction system the most intresting leveling up system.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

If it is too easy, you can always visit Islands closest to Heaven and Hell. There are battles hard, especially without Limit Breaks.

I mean the overall difficulty, no point in grinding there unless you want to upgrade weapons.

Or if you want to go to Level 100 and then try and defeat the Final Dungeon and Ulti.

[Gamblet]

and even on top of the list of best RPG of all time.

It IS a great FF game, but one of the best RPGs? I don't think so.
I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

I played many RPG, but with FFVIII I had a lots of fun and I find Junction system the most intresting leveling up system.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

If it is too easy, you can always visit Islands closest to Heaven and Hell. There are battles hard, especially without Limit Breaks.

I mean the overall difficulty, no point in grinding there unless you want to upgrade weapons.

Or if you want to go to Level 100 and then try and defeat the Final Dungeon and Ulti.

Omega Weapon is the only challenging fight in the game in my opinion or I have just played the game too much.

[jlenoconel]

I've played many and completed quite a few Final Fantasy games. I'm currently playing VIII on my PSP and am enjoying it immensely. It lacks some character development/storyline, but its still really fun to play. I actually like the draw system. Its something new for Final Fantasy, and allows the player the opportunity to collect their magic, and not have to clock MP all the time. I'm sure I'm in the minority for that though. The junction system can be a pain at times, because I've found myself having to change junctions between characters.

I'm also playing Final Fantasy XIII right now, and honestly, while its not a terrible game, its pretty much a chore to play. Much of the charm of the older Final Fantasy games is lost in this one, and the battle system offers very little in ways of innovation. I like the whole thing where you can set a character to heal automatically in battle... erm. But yeah, its far too linear of an RPG, and is more focused on pretty visuals than gameplay. Sad as Final Fantasy 4-7 are masterpieces, and 8 has been good this far. So yeah, VIII is definitely better than XIII.

[Ultima Shadow]

I can understand II, but first and third? They had the most impact on the series.

They also get boring rather quickly, while FFVIII is pretty entertaining to play from start to finish. Also, FFVIII has Triple Triad. That little mini-game alone is seriously more fun than FF1.

Matthewtheman got it right. FFVIII > FF1-3.

I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

Too limited? I'd say it's on about the same level as FFVII, and it completely overshadows FF1-6 in this aspect, with FF5 being the only exception. In FFVIII you could customize everything from stats to what commands your characters would have, plus bonuses such as Auto-Haste, Auto-Potion, Counter and the like. It's above average in the customization aspect if you ask me.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

This is correct, however. It's the one thing about FFVIII that bugs me the most. FFVIII is the easiest FF by far, as soon as you figure out how to "break the system" (which is incredibly easy to do). If they ever do a remake, it better at least have the option to increase the difficulty level. When you can beat the last boss and the ultimate extra boss blindfolded, then the game is probably too easy.

[Gamblet]

Also, FFVIII has Triple Triad. That little mini-game alone is seriously more fun than FF1.

Yeah, Triple Triad!

I should've written my arguments better, though.

But I still think the game should have had some kind of equipment on character except weapon.

[Pumpkin]

I never actually played Triple Triad.

I don't really understand why so much hate for this game. Sure it had its flaws, but they all do. It was a good enjoyable game. I liked the gameplay (for the most part) and the story and I think it had a good cast of characters.

[dandy da oak]

There is no worst Final Fantasy.

HA!

[jlenoconel]

I can understand II, but first and third? They had the most impact on the series.

They also get boring rather quickly, while FFVIII is pretty entertaining to play from start to finish. Also, FFVIII has Triple Triad. That little mini-game alone is seriously more fun than FF1.

Matthewtheman got it right. FFVIII > FF1-3.

I find the lack of equipment customization disturbing and the Junction system is too limited.

Too limited? I'd say it's on about the same level as FFVII, and it completely overshadows FF1-6 in this aspect, with FF5 being the only exception. In FFVIII you could customize everything from stats to what commands your characters would have, plus bonuses such as Auto-Haste, Auto-Potion, Counter and the like. It's above average in the customization aspect if you ask me.

If they had raised the difficulty level and made the magic harder to obtain, it would be great. The limit breaks were too OP. Even without using limit breaks, the game was a breeze.

This is correct, however. It's the one thing about FFVIII that bugs me the most. FFVIII is the easiest FF by far, as soon as you figure out how to "break the system" (which is incredibly easy to do). If they ever do a remake, it better at least have the option to increase the difficulty level. When you can beat the last boss and the ultimate extra boss blindfolded, then the game is probably too easy.

The game being as easy as it is is sort of annoying. I mean, its still an enjoyable game, but I can pawn most enemies just by using GFs. I will say that after playing Final Fantasy 8 I will probably have had my fix of FF for awhile, well aside from finishing Final Fantasy 6 which I still have to do, and will want to play another, different RPG series. I think from my recent experiences of playing Final Fantasy, that I will say I think the series needs a reboot/revival of sorts. It would be nice to see the series go back to basics in some way. I'd actually love to see the original premise of FF7, with the detective storyline, come true in some form. Maybe set it in the 1980s or 90s or something. Would be cool just to see things changed up a bit.

[maybee]

There is no worst Final Fantasy.

HA!

FF XII says hi.

[Wolf Kanno]

I honestly like FFVIII, while its overall design is greatly flawed (this is what happens when you remove the battle system designer from the project in its early stages) but I can't help but feel like FFVIII is one of the most unique games in the series, it still plays like a typical RPG but it really threw out a lot of conventions and staples of the genre so it always feels somewhat unique to me whereas ever entry before it felt more cohesively the same and even the entries after it kept to more of the staples even if they found new ways to get them wrong *cough* FFX and XIII *cough*

I still stand by the fact that I feel Squall is one of the best written characters in the series and one of the only characters that we the player truly ever get to understand because we not only see his external actions like every other protagonist but we also get to delve into his internal monologue and see who he really is. In real life he comes across as a n unfeeling "the mission is everything" jackass but internally we see that he's not as confident as he seems to be, he's not as harsh as he wants people to believe him to be, and we really get to see him slowly open up and realize that he doesn't really gain anything for hiding behind his image and instead opens up little by little in the game until the end he stops his internal monologue because its now just become his voice.

I really loved the concept of the Laguna dream sequences, and honestly I felt Laguna's part of he story really felt like a return to some of the old school charm of the series with Laguna often joking around and simply enjoying what's going on around him. This brings up the interesting contrast of the game's story with Laguna representing the old school charm of the series while Squall's section represents the darker more introspective direction the series had slowly began to move into, the parallel with the real world history of the franchise growing up on its charming sometimes silly roots and being the root of what led to the bigger more introspective and Hollywood-style modern entries is kind of interesting when you think about it. I don't believe Kitase or Nojima had this in mind when they originally envisioned the story but its an eerie happy accident that came from the whole game.

I like the concept of the gunblade, I felt it was far more thought out and I love that it gave me some small tangible control in battles, if there is one direction I feel ATB needed to do it was follow VI's example of being more interactive for the player, especially after VII brought in the concept of making everything cinematic. I felt the game did a better job of giving the Summons more purpose. I never liked that summons were rarely different from mages and after VII made each one into a long ass cut-scene, I appreciate the boost system giving me something to do while the overly convulated spell animation was going off. The Guardian Forces just had more purpose both mechanically and story-wise than some of the previous entries and I appreciate that.

I really appreciate the architecture and design, in fact one of the areas I do feel VIII falters is that it never made full use of its towns and locations because many of them are gorgeous and if you really want to see Dollet you have to go off the path to find it.Yet the idea of trying to move the series into a more modern setting was really intriguing and the game pushed the acceptable boundaries of what a "fantasy" story could be, though I still feel VIII falls more into Science Fiction side of things. Partly because I feel Time Travel is a major style of science fiction story telling.

I like the Draw mechanics, I felt it was an intriguing mechanic that really changed the way the player approached battles and seeing every monster not as just a random encounter but as a new potential to make your party stronger or introduce a new spell. The Junction system itself offers a lot of customization potential but sadly its lack of balance and foresight makes this a bit of a moot point.

The game's final dungeon is easily the last really well designed dungeon in the franchise, the rest being simple backdrops that failed to live up to their gameplay potential to really challenge the player. It also has the distinction of being one of the hardest section of a game that is known for its relative easiness. It brought back a bit of the VI party switch mechanics and the idea to fight the various bosses with handicaps in order to win back your abilities makes it easily one of the most memorable gameplay experiences in the game.

Triple Triad is also the best mini-game in the series, I won't even debate this with anyone because if you disagree you are just inherently wrong and may need to re-evaluate your other life choices because this sheer flaw in your logic may be the underlying issue in all of the problems you have had in life. Think about it.

[Hambone]

It's okay.

[champagne supernova]

After all the debate that Wolf Kanno and I had over Final Fantasy XII, I would think that we would have vastly different views on VIII. Strangely enough, I think a lot of what he said (and I have come to appreciate XII as time has gone by - perhaps as I have grown more mature).

I felt that VIII had the best 'world' of the series. And I don't mean best town (Midgar wins that one) or best dungeons (XII for me), but best diversity and history in the locales that the world had. Someone mentioned how samey the towns were in VII, and that applies to the games pre-Playstation due to the way games were developed back then, and I feel that comment is very fair. However, each of VIII's towns and cities had their own unique look and feel, and even the people in each town and city had a different culture.

It also had an amazing number of side quests that differed from the usual go into a dungeon, kill somebody/something and recover the treasure that RPG games are famous for. Shumi Village, the 2 Triple Triad quests, finding the hotdog lady's son in Fisherman's Horizon (I doubt 5% of the people who finished the game knew about this, let alone did it), coupled nicely with the more traditional fare like getting Odin. Even Chocobo riding had a unique mini-game. So, I think it was the most well-fleshed out in that area.

Then it comes to the story and VIII is unique in the series in that the storyline is not focused on a group of people saving the world, but on the much more human focus on a boy becoming a man, finding a love and dealing with conflict. Detractors say that Squall is a whiney, emo boy. Well, to be fair, at the beginning, he is. It's his progression through the game that changes him into someone who is a strong leader, a good friend and an inept but dedicated lover. Also, you get a reason for him wanting to be a loner that is actually grounded in childhood reality that people can identify with, rather than X killed Y therefore I hate the world stereotypes that abound in video games.

Of course, like any game, it was flawed. The rest of the cast kind of fell aside as Squall and Rinoa's story progressed. I wouldn't say they completely stagnate but their screen time does get severely reduced. Even saying that, Zell does become less annoying and insecure as the game goes by, Quistis grows into accepting herself and what she is capable of, Selphie deals with the trauma of losing a lot of loved ones and Irvine...okay, Irvine is pretty much static throughout the game.

And yes, there is no real villain in the game. Ultimecia is more of a reason to have a final boss battle and complete the game. On that note though, the time compression ending where Rinoa saves Squall from his own loneliness is quite an appropriate, if blatant, closing to the main theme of the game.

Then there's the battle system. It is easy to break. But if you have such a problem with it, don't break it! I think the concept was quite unique, in that using magic reduced the stats of anything it was junctioned to, but the execution was lacking.

So I think VIII was a very unique, different FF experience, one where they focused more on one character's progression, a love story rather than a save the world scenario, and an interesting battle system that they didn't quite pull off. I don't think it can be rated as objectively the worst FF ever made. Objectively, FF1 or 2 (I haven't played 2 but I hear it is ridiculous) are probably the worst, because they are about 4 technical generations behind us so they lacked many things that we are now accustomed to.