FFVIII is definitely one of my least favorite RPGs in general. True, I don't hate it more than Legend of Dragoon (nor do I think it is possible for me to hate a game more than that one), but it would still rank just about as low as it can go on my list of favorite RPGs.
Yes, I understand Square was trying something new with this game. Hell, I appreciate that. Square needs to do more innovationg, but in the case of FFVIII, those innovations just didn't pay off.
For example, FFVIII was the first one which really centered on the love story more than anything else. I really didn't have a problem with that. I'm a romantic guy at heart, and I can handle a good love story so long as it was believable and well done, two things which the love story in FFVIII was not (unless you want to talk about Laguna/Raine, but I digress). The love story depended on two characters, and Squall and Rinoa were just not up to the task of delivering.
First off, we have Squall which is a decent character for a lot of the game. Sure, he was an ass to pretty much everyone, but I was used to that from Cloud in FFVII so no big deal. Ok, he doesn't want anyone ever getting closed to him because his "sis" left the orphange he was in when he was younger. Ok, that's a pretty big stretch there but I'll let that go. He throws himself into SeeD because we assume that it is something to believe in. That's fine, someone with no friends would commonly throw himself into his work. Then enter Rinoa. She confuses him about 99% of the time with what she says and does. We consistantly see evidence of this in his thoughts. But where's the attraction to her? Sure, they may be snippets of thoughts here and there but there is not enough internal dialogue to prove to me that he sees her as anything more than a pest of nuisance. He suddenl only really shows that he cares when Rinoa goes comatose, and I wouldn't mind that so long as the character's dialogue showed him starting down that path when he first met her. But I didn't get that at all. I understand the concept of someone not realizing what they have until they're faced with the possibility of losing it, but I don't agree with damn near an entire love story being based on that belief.
Then to add more fuel to the fire by stating that I absolutely hate Rinoa. I mean, I have never seen a more selfish, impulsive, naïve girl in an RPG before in my life. From conducting plans while sitting on the floor of her train to being upset when she doesn't get her way to throwing a tantrum when the obviousness of a situation is presented to her in cold hard fact. She reminds me of a little girl who you have to hold hands with all the time and cries when she doesn't get her way. Granted, she does change a little bit as the game goes on, especially when she is comatose. I'm sorry, but I found nothing positive about her character, and the fact that the love story involves her is one of the reasons I hate it so. Like I mentioned earlier, I consider the Raine and Laguna love story to be better, and it only had about a half hours worth of dialogue and FMV at the end to support it, and I found that so much better and much more believable than Rinoa/Squall.
And lets not forget the other characters who take a backseat to Rinoa and Squall. With the exception of Laguna, none of the other characters get any kind of decent treatment with the exception of the exact same backstory. Let's not forget, these kids are the Fated Children, and the all happened to grow up at the same orphange. What else is there to these characters? Zell's hometown gets invaded. Ok he wants to kick their asses. What else...oh wait that's it as far as Zell goes. Then there's Selphie who's Garden she was at before coming to Balamb was attacked and pretty much reduced to rubble. But she's ok again pretty soon and nothing else is said about it. We've got Mr. Arrogant sharpshooter Irvine who, apparently, can't actually pull the trigger when he needs to, but minutes later gets over it and finally pulls the trigger. Anything else about Irvine...nope. And then there's Quistis. Ok, she thinks she has an infatuation with Squall, but not really she's apparently only trying to take Ellone's place. She also apparently can't say something mean to someone without the need to apologize, despite possibly ruining her assignment. Well that pretty much says everything about her.
But that's alright, I can withstand a plot I don't believe in and shoddy character so long as the gameplay is good. Oh wait, this is FFVIII, so I can't really do that. Like I said, I enjoy innovation, but whoever thought the idea of the battle system actually penalizing you for using magic deserves never to have any say in the development of games in the future. Because that's what FFVIII's gameplay did, it actually penalized you for using magic. Why? The Junction System. Now, I like the idea of junctioning to Guardian Forces to be able to access abilities (except for the Item command, which I think is stupid being it leads me to believe a character can use a potion with the GF's help but I digress). I thought that was a good idea. Junctioning magic to increase your stats? Hey, that wasn't a bad plan either. Horribly executed? Oh hell yeah it was. The idea that my character's stats would actually be lowered by using junctioned magic in battle was the stupidest thing I could ever imagine. I've never seen and RPG that acutally penalized you for the use of magic, and as a result of that, would damn near force the user to abandon using magic, which I did because I'm a stats whore and I didn't like to see my stats lowered for using magic, nor did I particularly care for finding a draw point for the magic I used so I can have a maximum supply too. And there's drawing too which is so mind numbingly boring its beyond description. Thank God for Triple Triad and the ability to refine the cards you won. The only problem with this method is that you'd still need to draw the higher level magic cause it'd take forever to get the cards you need to finally refine it, and drawing the Ultima spells from the Ultima weapon is not my idea of a fun time, nor do I find it particulary well thought out.
And that's quite enough from me I think.
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