FF8 Is Rubbish!

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by rigell
I have only been on the eyesonff.com forums for a little while, just one quick question, does anybody ever post anything positive?

Rarely when it comes to "This Final Fantasy sux", "This Final Fantasy is the best" or "This Final Fantasy is better than this Final Fantasy" threads.

[Del Murder]

People who dislike the game are intitled to their opinion. I will allow this to stay open so people can voice their opinion on what parts they didn't like, but I won't tolerate any more calling of others' opinions stupid, proclaiming that nobody cares, and any other off topic banter.

Personally I thought FFVIII was an alright game. Drawing magic got on my nerves and not having any equipment also sucked, but I liked the way the GFs were used and the junctioning system.

[lonely]

I love FF8, it is the best RPG, best game in the world, the characters are great, the story is excellent, the graffix are doody and the FMV's jes blow you away, fantastic, love it, love it, love IT! the magic system is awsom and also the leveling system it's all doody!
I dunno why anyone can hate it!

[Cloudane]

I really liked the story, and the suspense / tension during certain moments As a DVD it would've been brilliant.

As for the game itself, I never thought much of it. Drawing got on my nerves, having a trail of people behind you was silly (but a step up from walking into the main character a'la FF7) and GFs were far too important in battles for my liking.

There, see, it's not difficult to at least *attempt* some reasons/justifications for voicing an opinion on a game

[Mo-Nercy]

Originally posted by Derman
If u dont like FF8 then i think that you dont have the soul of a RPG player.

Hahaha. According to that, about three quarters of the FF playing community lack souls of RPG players.

[Silent Warrior]

Squall04: I know. Normally, I'm almost obessively sparing with such formulations, but this time I felt it was warranted. Play Torment and see for yourself.

Derman: Sonny, the RPGs I've enjoyed the most have all been constructed around D&D, the most recognized RPG-standard/ruleset of our time (Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights). Why? Because I get to role-play. Because in those games, story and characters are everything and then some. You really shouldn't say I lack the soul for RPGs.

[Stupid Moomba 88]

Well, let me see why the game isn't any good.
FF VII was the start to a new and exciting series. It awoke the Role-playing era. New games started to pop up, classics. Everyone loved FFVII. Even I can't say it is bad, because I love it. When someone I knew started to play FF 8, they said it was fantastic. I thought I might as well try it. I began to play and after 1 hour I was hooked. I couldn't stop playing it. But then Square got a bit stupid. I began to lose intrest. Eventually, it got boring. I stopped playing it. I decided to play other games. Then when FF9 came out, I was unsure that Square could hook me again. We got the game and I began to play. Yeah, I know it got 9/10, but I actually enjoyed it. It is easy, the characters aren't exactley exciting. But I liked it. I probably hate FF8 now because well, I didn't connect as well to the characters as well as I did to FF7. I know that they introduced a love sense into it. They were being daring with the changes, and if Square didn't rush disc 2 and 3, I would probably still play it. My friend got to the end of the game but when at Ultimecia's castle, they got stuck. So I decided to give another chance. Fantastic! I really enjoyed that bit. But I wouldn't waste my time trying to reach that part of the game. I would probably fall asleep. I wouldn't say FF9 was perfect. The best ones are 1,7,10 and Tactics Advance. I plan on getting Crystal Chronicles. Lets just hope the main characters aren't as confusing, difficult and down right stupid (Irvine, Zell, Quistis, Squall). Square did make a mistake in boring me. Leave all the Long videos and cutscenes to the games that work well with them (Metal Gear Solid 2). I would happily play that game despite the cutscenes. A role- Playing is when you explore a Fantasy World, you get involved with the characters. You smile, you laugh, you cry. With FF8, I yawned.

[Rand Al'Tor]

Hmmm... my issue with VII (whcih, let's get it straight, I DID enjoy immensly) is that the character are a bit too 'larger than life' while the characters in VIII feel a bit... closer to me. Also, they come more alive to me. I think part of the reason is that while FFVII has more background on each one, they have relatively little dialogue compared to VIII I feel. And that dialogue, even if it IS rather normal stuff on occasions, helps making them feel real to me, while Cloud and company stay rather distant, so that even a better background has elss effect on me. (one of the main reasons VI fails to affect me. Many of the characters only have a few lines outside their background. It starts out all right, but it stops pretty soon)

To each his own.

[Kirobaito]

I didn't enjoy it that much. I don't mind change, but it was too much. No equipment just can ruin an RPG. I also didn't like the magic system. The best part was the graphics, but there just wasn't a whole lot there. Not enough characters either.

[celtcknight]

Opinions are deadly. Bush or Kerry? (seriously, thats all I hear about now adays {in college}) :grr:

I didn't finished VII, I just got tired of it. Not like I suck, and it was too hard, but I simply got tired of messin with it (got to final battle but never enhanced anything). Is FFVIII rubbish? I enjoyed it, I played through it twice and had a better connection with it. Maybe theres an element outside of videogames that determines whether were gonna like them or night. I related better with VIII with the whole military orientation. VII with the gang and ghetto, Poor people against the powers of the country, and WMD, its like the Bush and Kerry debates in here.

Simply its your frame of mind thats going to determine your taste in videogames, not the games themselves.

[Meow]

Originally posted by Silent Warrior
Now, I can live with people appreciating FF8, but a simple fact of life is that Planescape Torment is ten times the RPG FF8 is.

Planescape: Torment is indeed an excellent game. Your post makes me want to reinstall it and actually attempt to complete the thing this time around.

However, i'm not sure there's any easy way to compare the two. Planescape is a much more traditional, deep D&D-styled adventure, on a different level than Final Fantasy's more progressive and simplified storytelling. The former centers around direct and personal character development, from class to alignment to the actual flow of the storyline. The latter, though, sets most of those in stone from the beginning, instead carrying the player through a set storyline while watching the characters grow and change. Planescape is about direct and influential player activity, whereas Final Fantasy is more akin to an extremely interactive movie.

For any hardcore roleplayer, it's likely that Planescape is far more interesting than the linear, story-centric Final Fantasy series. But for some folks, good story trumps that huge personal involvement any day of the week. They're both achieving different goals, and for different audiences.

Which, by the way, is FF8's trouble. Despite the game's inherent reliance on storytelling and characters, the storytelling and characters aren't as strong as they could be. Many of them are unfortunately expendable; the game would not have changed had some other character taken his or her place. This isn't the case with, say, FF7, for which a good handful of the charaters are active, dynamic and essential to the main plot. Other folks have covered this well enough, so i'll leave it at that.

Despite that, i enjoyed FF8. i really did. It just wasn't my favorite.

[rigell]

MHO, don't ya think that judging a game by its characters is kinda lame? i would rather concentrate on the plot and gameplay that the characters are involved in

[DocFrance]

It's almost a fact that Final Fantasy isn't known for its gameplay (really, it's the same thing over and over for ten games, with some new little twist in each one). And characters and plot usually go hand in hand (you usually can't have plot without characters, and vice-versa).

[Silent Warrior]

Blanco Meow: Um... FF8 is far too linear to consider it an interactive movie. Wing Commander 3/4 and the Tex Murphy-games are interactive movies all the way through. Study.
OK, perhaps bringing out Torment was cheating, but what the hell, it's a good piece of software.

rigell: ... Yeah, what DocFrance said. YOU TOO go study Wing Commander!

[Meow]

Originally posted by Silent Warrior
Blanco Meow: Um... FF8 is far too linear to consider it an interactive movie.

No, its linearity is what makes the comparison valid. When you go to a movie you don't expect to write the story, do you? No. The movie plays out a defined story and you watch. With Final Fantasy, the game plays out a defined story and you interact within it. Nothing you do changes the main plot, and for the most part doesn't change anything, save your ability to progress through the game. The comparison lies in the specific, predefined progression of characters and storyline, which makes the games much like movies with constant gameplay elements.

The games you mention are certainly more cinematic, but that wasn't my point.