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Thread: final fantasy viii and it's predecessors

  1. #1
    UltimaSepheroth
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    Default final fantasy viii and it's predecessors

    is final fantasy viii realy as good or better better than it's predecessors?

    the graphics are undoubtedly better but what about the gameplay, storyline, music, and most important, characters?

    *who out there agrees with me that the characters are tremendously lacking!*

    i thnk that final fantasy viii could have been alot better than what we see now!

    *bah!*

  2. #2

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    *thinks this sis the third thread now*

    Whatever-Squall from ff8

    In fact i think ff8 was maniacally better than his predeccessors.The only one i can see will pose a threat to ff8's first place in my game list would be ff9(need to finish it though).
    I think posting my game list would just about do it

    1.ff8
    ff9?
    2.ff6
    3.ff5
    4.ff3!
    4.ff4
    4.ff7
    4.ff1
    8.ff2

    In any matters it is still better than that horrible horrible ff2 and ff7.Both was a good rpg wannabe but failed miserably for me.FF7 was a good game just a month and a half go but in my second replay i actually realised how boring and pointless it was...

    One word:ff8 is an excelent piece of gaming but it is not for everyone just like ff7 is not for me.


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  3. #3
    Not a Banana Mo-Nercy's Avatar
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    Well, I think its the best game I've ever played.

    Graphics were obviously better than it's predeccessors but then again, all FF's have the best graphics of it's time.

    Gameplay, battle and junction systems may get a little repetative, but that's the case in most RPG's if you play for ages and ages.

    Storyline was excellent, I can't help but feel that we could've known Ultimecia a little better. Supporting the R=U theory would clarify that.

    Music is probably the best of the series so far, all tracks are nice to listen to especially Lunatic Pandora, Eyes on Me and the Boss Music.

    Characters were prefect to me, except for Ultimecia. All others seem to be pretty straight-forward. I personally found Squall really realistic which made the game better.

  4. #4
    I have one matching sock PhoenixAsh's Avatar
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    I've said it before, but I think without the (annoyingly banned) R=U element, the plot has no real depth. I like the characters, I like the battle system I like the graphics, but the plot just can't hold it against FF7. Therefore it's my second favourate FF.

    I say what I think. If you disagree, then that is up to you.

  5. #5
    A Perpetual X-Phile ShivaBlizzard8's Avatar
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    I'm a big FF8 fan, but I must admit, what I loved most about the game were asthetics: the graphics, the music , the character/location designs, the juntion system, etc. Plus, after the dark atmosphere of FF6 and the very depressing FF7, I really apprechiated the brighter, colorful, more positive attitude of FF8. However, storyline-wise, I don't think it was as evolved as some of the older FFs.
    That said, however, FF8 tried to do something different with its plot; rather than focus on the story, it tried to focus on its characters. For example, very little time is spent in FF8 putting together a plot bent on action or intent; you can play the whole game and not really get WHY anything happened. What the hell was Ulty up to? Why control Galbadia? Why why why why? It all just leads to more questions. INSTEAD, we learn about these characters: their personal struggles and relationships. The game developed a large cast, and the story relied heavily on even minor characters, making them interesting and engaging. Most of the story twists involved the roles of these characters and their relationships relative to each other.
    I think this is why reactions to the game vary; plot-wise, its an unsatisfying game, but players tend to develop an affinity for the characters they get to know so well. It's fustrating for many to see so much time devoted to Squall's growing up story than to the larger picture, when it seems that maybe they should have done both. However, FF8 was certainly an experiment in all respects, and change is good. I like it just as it is.

  6. #6

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    Comparing FFVIII to the Final Fantasies before, I would feel that a majority of areas are a lot better and unmatched compared to the previous Final Fantasies. The FMVs showed characters almost Human-like and that was a revolution of its own. I admit the digital makeup of the characters were a little pixelated and IMO Square wasn't ready to move to life-like digital characters yet, the revolution was extraordinary and that deserves praise for its time.

    In music, I feel that Final Fantasy VIII music has the best collection in a Final Fantasy series and even in Final Fantasy X, it is still unmatched. What I enjoy about the music is that it all fits with the scenario whether it's fighting or wandering. The sorceress-fighting music is a favorite of mine, and Libarati Fatali, in the eyes of a first timer, is much more fantastic than any others.

    One of the little bits that I did not like is the storyline. I do not especially hate it, I just wish it could be reworded and clarified better. Many times I had to go into the menu and look up certain terms in the information section such as Lunar Cry and Lunatic Pandora. I think this could have been explained a little clearer.

    when I play FFVIII, I imagine an anime, as if FFVIII was created to be an anime, with plenty of bosses per episode and events. I take note that the male lead is extremely attractive (amongst the girl friends I have) and the females in garden wore a lot of skirts and it's something I find repetitious in many animes, so I kinda get the feeling of an anime-like theme to it all. It's a game of its own and was the basis of many future games to come as well. FF8 is no doubt better than the previous ones (I have yet to play FFVII though) in my opinion. But my feelings for FFIX? That's a story for a different time.

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  7. #7

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    Hey everyone guess what?

    Final Fantasy VIII is the best, most beatiful game there has ever been and it is the best game that can possibly be fathomed even given an eternity of people trying to think of a better game!

    FF8 is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It is so wonderful!!! You should base your life off of this!!!!!!! Do the things the characters do and you will acheive excellence!!!

    and also FF9 sucks...ha! wtf is up with zidane? stupid weakling look-like-a-woman cat?

    FF5 and 6 are cool, too

    if yoo dont agree then yoo are dum...

  8. #8

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    Originally posted by Mr. Bojangles
    It is so wonderful!!! You should base your life off of this!!!!!!! Do the things the characters do and you will acheive excellence!!!

    if yoo dont agree then yoo are dum...

    heheheheheee agreed...
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chakan the forever man
    If you never hear from me again, it is because I came to close to the truth.

  9. #9
    Huh? Flower?! What the hell?! Administrator Psychotic's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Mr. Bojangles
    Hey everyone guess what?

    Final Fantasy VIII is the best, most beatiful game there has ever been and it is the best game that can possibly be fathomed even given an eternity of people trying to think of a better game!

    FF8 is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It is so wonderful!!! You should base your life off of this!!!!!!! Do the things the characters do and you will acheive excellence!!!

    and also FF9 sucks...ha! wtf is up with zidane? stupid weakling look-like-a-woman cat?

    FF5 and 6 are cool, too

    if yoo dont agree then yoo are dum...
    LMAO! sheer comic genius!

    TCH! Spoilers abound!

    Anyways, I think FF8 is the worst Final Fantasy. Pure and simple. I dislike descriptions of this game such as this board's description which goes a little something like this "The most captivating and emotional FF expierience yet"
    I'm sorry, but that is just... wrong. For example, the "big evil" in this game is Ultimecia. Do they give us any reason to feel hatred towards her? She wants to compress time! oh the naughty woman! Squall and Rinoa are all but do I really care? No! Am I made to care? No!

    The Music? Well, I'm not going to deny that it is good. "Unrest" (The music that comes on when Seifer is around in the early parts of the game, like when he is told he won't be a SeeD) is a superb sng, and one of the best out of the entire Final Fantasy series.

    The story? Yeah, that was *soooooooo* great. Not. I felt as if the makers had loads of little ideas, and decided to through them all in. Which ideas? I hear you cry. Well, The whole idea of Garden, the whole idea of Esthar, the whole evil sorceress from the future thing and the whole base in space thing, to name but 4. Whereas in Final Fantasy VII, the majority of the plot was all circulating around a common point.

    The characters? I think Square worked so hard to try to give them personalities, that they just made them all moronic posers who just made me think "Pass me the sick bucket" OK, I accept this game has a Fantasy setting, but there are humans in this setting. Humans have personalities. I have never met people with personailities like the ones in 8 - nobody is that extrovert (or inrovert in Squall's case)

    Junction system? Well, that was just a whole stupid idea. It basically made combat in Final Fantasy VIII extremely tedious. In order to become powerful, you have to spend ages drawing magic from your lovely enemies. You just sit there pressing the same commands over, and over. Now, this also causes another problem - you now don't want to use magic because you
    A) Don't want to become weaker
    and B) Really don't want to have to draw a damn thing again.
    Physical attacks until you get powerful magic like Ultima(which won't happen for a loooooooong time) do as much damage as a feather duster. So, you are forced to rely on GFs in combat, making it extremely repetitive. On top of all that, the GF sequences are horrendously long, and accuse me of being blind, but I for one didn't see a "shorten GF animation"

    I could go on ranting and raving like this, but I won't for two good reasons

    a) I have better things to do
    b) the stereotypical FF8 lover has so short an attention span, that they stopped at the words "anyways" and skimmed down to what I am writing now. Yes, YOU. Go back up and read it, then tell me why FF8 is sooooooo wonderful.

  10. #10

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    Originally posted by Psychotic
    LMAO! sheer comic genius!

    TCH! Spoilers abound!

    Anyways, I think FF8 is the worst Final Fantasy. Pure and simple. I dislike descriptions of this game such as this board's description which goes a little something like this "The most captivating and emotional FF expierience yet"
    I'm sorry, but that is just... wrong. For example, the "big evil" in this game is Ultimecia. Do they give us any reason to feel hatred towards her? She wants to compress time! oh the naughty woman! Squall and Rinoa are all but do I really care? No! Am I made to care? No!

    The Music? Well, I'm not going to deny that it is good. "Unrest" (The music that comes on when Seifer is around in the early parts of the game, like when he is told he won't be a SeeD) is a superb sng, and one of the best out of the entire Final Fantasy series.

    The story? Yeah, that was *soooooooo* great. Not. I felt as if the makers had loads of little ideas, and decided to through them all in. Which ideas? I hear you cry. Well, The whole idea of Garden, the whole idea of Esthar, the whole evil sorceress from the future thing and the whole base in space thing, to name but 4. Whereas in Final Fantasy VII, the majority of the plot was all circulating around a common point.

    The characters? I think Square worked so hard to try to give them personalities, that they just made them all moronic posers who just made me think "Pass me the sick bucket" OK, I accept this game has a Fantasy setting, but there are humans in this setting. Humans have personalities. I have never met people with personailities like the ones in 8 - nobody is that extrovert (or inrovert in Squall's case)

    Junction system? Well, that was just a whole stupid idea. It basically made combat in Final Fantasy VIII extremely tedious. In order to become powerful, you have to spend ages drawing magic from your lovely enemies. You just sit there pressing the same commands over, and over. Now, this also causes another problem - you now don't want to use magic because you
    A) Don't want to become weaker
    and B) Really don't want to have to draw a damn thing again.
    Physical attacks until you get powerful magic like Ultima(which won't happen for a loooooooong time) do as much damage as a feather duster. So, you are forced to rely on GFs in combat, making it extremely repetitive. On top of all that, the GF sequences are horrendously long, and accuse me of being blind, but I for one didn't see a "shorten GF animation"

    I could go on ranting and raving like this, but I won't for two good reasons

    a) I have better things to do
    b) the stereotypical FF8 lover has so short an attention span, that they stopped at the words "anyways" and skimmed down to what I am writing now. Yes, YOU. Go back up and read it, then tell me why FF8 is sooooooo wonderful.
    Psychotic,why are you bashing?Yes bashing.I will make his short to avoid flaming.Most of the things you already know(or forgot)-i have told them to you.

    This time you focused on other ppls opinions i see.
    If you hate the game so hard then at least dont tamper with other ppls opinions.I aint gonna dictate a 100 things why ff8 is great instead of your opinion.I would just be talking against myself.

    I now know that ff8 isn't perfect.It has a few serious holes in the plotline(Edea and Squall:You know there is a sorcerer named ultimecia.Squall:i just got a wacky idea:she wants to compress time!"That was a serious plothole and that ruined the story a lot.


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  11. #11
    I have one matching sock PhoenixAsh's Avatar
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    Psychotic quote:
    "Junction system? Well, that was just a whole stupid idea. It basically made combat in Final Fantasy VIII extremely tedious. In order to become powerful, you have to spend ages drawing magic from your lovely enemies. You just sit there pressing the same commands over, and over. Now, this also causes another problem - you now don't want to use magic because you
    A) Don't want to become weaker
    and B) Really don't want to have to draw a damn thing again.
    Physical attacks until you get powerful magic like Ultima(which won't happen for a loooooooong time) do as much damage as a feather duster. So, you are forced to rely on GFs in combat, making it extremely repetitive. On top of all that, the GF sequences are horrendously long, and accuse me of being blind, but I for one didn't see a "shorten GF animation"

    Okay I'm sick of argueing this. People are perfectly entitled to their opinions, but people keep saying this sort of thing, it isn't opinion its just plain false.
    FFVIII does not MAKE you sit and draw, in fact it speeds up the process of getting strong a hell of a lot and gives you a choice between that and levelling. It's also a lot less repetitive than hitting attack over and over to get strong.

    If you were weak untill you got ultima that was your fault, FFVIII lets you get strong faster than any other FF I've played, it rewards people who learn how to play instead of anyone who wanders around a field for hours on end.

    GFs are incredibly powerful, and have their own HP, if there weren't drawbacks to using them the game would be stupidly easy.

    Oh no, if I use magic, my stats will go down! Oh no, the games making me making choices and think for a change, make it stop my brain hurts!!! If you wanna just sit and tap the buttons without doing any actual work, mess about with the pad while watching TV, it's much cheaper.

    I say what I think. If you disagree, then that is up to you.

  12. #12
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    I think FF8 is by far the best, although admittedly i only played 9 a little (all i could stand) and i haven't played 10 yet.

    I didn't care much for the FFs before it, especially 7 with it's cliched characters and boring storyline.

    I've heard lots of people complain that the story is boring and the characters are underdeveloped, but i think they're missing the true story. I think Squall is the story, not some war between two countries or some crazy sorceress. It's about Squall, a young man with serious problems and the other characters are just part of his story. The game isn't about beating the crap out of monsters, it's about watching this fragile confused emotionally damaged person finding out who he is and growing up.

  13. #13
    Huh? Flower?! What the hell?! Administrator Psychotic's Avatar
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    First of all, I'd like to state the following fact.
    I AM NOT UNDERMIMING ANYONE'S OPINION

    Not once did I state "so-and-so's opinion is wrong" All I did was say that I didn't agree with it.

    Locke Lionheart, I have never stated I don't care about other people's opinions. The thing about brick walls in my sig? that's just a funny quote someone I know said, it doesn't apply to me.

    Bashing, huh? Same old, same old. Now you see, here's an interesting thing. You are making me out to be the villain, claiming I go against other's opinions. Yet here you are, implying that I cannot state my own opinion because it isn't yours. Yes, you didn't say that, but you as good as said it when you called me a basher.

    100 Reasons? By all means, please do state them. "I would just be talking against myself" No you wouldn't, I would take the time to read every last one of them if you did such a thing.


    Phoenix17, yes, FF8 doesn't MAKE you draw. But to be honest, you'd end up getting hammered some time later on. The thing is, the junction system is easily abusable. You yourself say "FFVIII lets you get strong faster than any other FF I've played" EXACTLY! I would also like to point out you say "If you were weak untill you got ultima that was your fault" Both these quotes tie in with what I am about to state. When I replayed Final Fantasy VIII in February 2003-March 2003, I did not get faced with the game over screen once. FACT. All I'm saying is, where's the challenge in constantly summoning monsters to do your bidding, and winning by miles every time.

    "Oh no, if I use magic my stats will go down" Well, to that I say "Oh no! If I use GFs they'll get hurt! ooh no!"

    When one dies, there's always another one to take it's place and get it's head kicked in - not before it inflicts major damage, unless it's something like Cerebus of course. "Oh no, the games making me making choices and think for a change, make it stop my brain hurts!!! "

    Well, in my opinion the game does not let me make a lot of choices. Let me just take the example of Final Fantasy V - You had to choose a team that would fit the situation best and work together well. That is what I call strategy. In 8, all your characters are the same, you junction stuff to each of them - all of them become clones.

    borrie - FF7 had cliched characters huh? Well, other than Barret, I personally cannot think of a single cliche. But, until people like Zell came along, he was not a cliche in the Final Fantasy series. I could also compare Squall to Cloud if I so felt like it, and Rinoa to Aeris, and so on, and basically call FF8's characters cliched too, although if I did that, I'd have to call them more cliched, because FF7 was there first.

    As for your idea about the story, I think that is a good idea, but if I was being 100% honest, if Square were really aiming to do that, I think they would just make a movie or something - after all, there'd be no need for random encounters.




    As a kind of "Final Thought" don't label me as some kind of villain because I don't like a video game, or in particular, your favourite videogame.

  14. #14
    I have one matching sock PhoenixAsh's Avatar
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    Yep, FFVIII's characters were RIDICULOUSLY cliche, not even Barret can match them on that. The main problem with VIII is the character backgrounds and developement. With the exceptions of Zell (ish) and Squall, there just isn't any.

    Psychotic, if you sit through the amount of summons you sound like you do, then of course it's easy, it's tortoise and hare stuff, patience can win through if you choose that style.
    The complaints I hear from people about the characters being the same to begin, well I like it. I hate nine for exactly the opposite reason, everyone is dictated how they'll be, and when they'll learn their skills, it's so dull.
    Yeah on a replay you shouldn't really get beat unless you're doing something wierd, that's because the game rewards the skilled. Meaning your first play is actually a challenge, then you replay and YOU affect your game.

    The story was good, but with way too many plotholes, R=U tied everything up nicely, but apparently in that case opinions are allowed to be wrong.

    I say what I think. If you disagree, then that is up to you.

  15. #15

    Default ff8

    I do not class FF8 as a final fantasy game, because it is so much better than the others.

    FF8 is the rare exception.. mainstream Budget... Art house story line ... I WAS IN HEAVEN PLAYING FF8. FF8 is the ONLY FF game that I have ever replayed.

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