I agree. I played it before I had heard anything about it online, and I absolutely loved it. Definitly my most favorite game ever.
Then when I got online and saw how many people hated it, it was really depressing. I was amazed how many people hated Rinoa. It makes me so sad. Yuna annoyed me far more then Rinoa ever did. (In her defense however, the voice acting is probably to blame for a lot of that...)
I suppose I'll list my reasons for disliking the game, then.
First off, what I did like. I enjoyed the overall gameplay (the feel of it, the scenes, etc) and I very much liked some of the secondary characters. The card game was very fun. The opening FMV blew me away.
Now, what I didnt. We'll start with the battle system. I didnt like drawing magic. Contrary to popular belief, it doesnt make one an idiot to dislike the system... I found it very tedious to sit for hours and hours drawing magic, which was neccesary to junction to your stats. Square created the 'monsters level with you' deal to prevent the need for level-grinding, and just added a feature that is as tedious and useless leveling.
The characters. Rinoa is probably the most horrid thing I've ever encountered in a game. She was selfish and very childish. For example, her Forest Owls endeavor was not simply to free the city, but instead to make her father angry. She throws tantrums and essentially gets over the death of her boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend) in an hour's time and proceeds to throw herself at Squall. You have to save her at least five times. FIVE TIMES. At least, with other annoying Square girls, they could take care of themselves for the most part.
Now Squall, he was cool at first. Then, for no reason at all, he does a 180 and starts freaking out over Rinoa and falling for her. Okay, fine.
Now I could deal with those two if it wasnt for the fact that they were so important. Square completly ignored the wonderful, interesting other characters; Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, Seifer, and Zell. They could have done so much with them, all they really developed was the "OMG you're all from the same orphanage you just forgot" and I use the word 'develop' very loosely.
Now, those are the reasons I dislike this game. I play FF for story and characters, and when the characters are that horrid, it makes it extremely difficult for me to enjoy.
And no, I dont love VII, either.
It's underrated by those who think it's a bad FF and a bit overrated by those who think it's the greatest game ever.
I agree, save for one thing. I think it's underrated by those who think it's the worst game ever. It's most certainly not.
Yea, FF8 is FAR from the whorst! Now, Tetris... THAT is the whorst game ever!
(not really... I guess there's much whorse games out there, but I really hate tetris)
I really like FF8, but I don't think its underrated - not like poor FF9 or FF5 or anything like that. Most people who dislike FF8 still admit that the graphics were amazing compared to 7, and that the soundtrack is one of the best FF soundtracks. However, most detractors had a problem with the plotline, which I agree is realtively weak compared to some other games:
1. Ulty came in so late in the game (begining of disc 3 was the first time we'd even really heard of her), that she was confusing as a villian. Sure, Edea being possessed was somewhat of a switch, but they dragged that on too long. To really hate an enemy you have to know who they are.
2. FF8 gave us some awesome characters, like Quistis, Irvine, Seifer, etc, but focused so much on Squall and Rinoa that we never really got to explore these other characters as much as we should have.
3. Even I thought the sudden "oh my God, we all grew up together as kids and forgot!" thing was kind of lame. They should have played up Squall and Ellone's heritage more instead - that was much more interesting and surprising, and fit with the "Fate" theme.
Long story short - its a great game, and doesn't deserve a lot of the crap it gets, but I don't think its underrated. It's still one of the most popular FFs.
As I dislike the game, I'll be the first to agree with Shiva. The graphics were great (along with the character design, which is better than IX's... I really disliked the '8 year olds with big heads' thing) and the music was wonderful.
8 year olds with big heads thing
lol thats funny stuff
I don't like this game. I've tried to like it and I even WANT to like it, but I just doesn't.
My first impression when I first saw the game was that it didn't look like a Final Fantasy. The realistic looks and lack of fantasy elements was a dissapointment, but I newer got an opportunity to play it for myself.
Years later, I'm playing through the whole series, and after completing FFVII, I'm looking forward to a game I've never played before, even though I didn't like the look of FFVIII. After all, I had heard a lot of good things about the game, and it could still be a good game even if it didn't feel like a FF.
At the beginning I thought this was going to be a great game, but it didn't take too long before I discovered it's faults. A boring battle system, with few good abilities and too much focus on the stats. Stats that required you to use time drawing from monsters, which is boring ... The way Ultimecia was (barely) introduced ... The summon animations took way too long time (nice for toilet breaks and when you wanted to make some tea, though) ... Most of the game felt too linear (not the worst FF in that regard, though) ... And all those times where you saw a FMV/event, then had to go search for the right person to talk to, then had to go find another right person to talk to, and then got to see another FMV/event again. Like when Balamb Garden was attacked by that other Garden.
For the last two discs I just didn't bother about all those boring random encounters, just ran from the battles instead. Even though the bosses became harder after then, it still wasn't enough to redeem the game.
OMG I dont understand whats wrong with u ppl...
y do u want to waste ur time drawing magic from a monster, and then complain its boring...
when all u need to do is simply refine cards and get spells...
It even gave u the freedom of no random encounters...
If u dont play game efficiently its not games fault...
btw I agree with what someone said before that is there is ant underrated it would be FFT...
Don't be afraid of shadows, it only means there is light shining somewhere behind...
i dont understand how some people say they draw magic for hours... ive gone through VIII like 10 times at least and ive never spent hours JUST drawing magic... refining cards and the wizard stones is the easiest way to get magic spells, and i very much agree... that its not the game fault if you dont exploit the games easier methods... it appears to me that a lot of people just arent open to this game, they find the things they hate before accually thinking about it... its hard to appreciate a game when you start off hating it...
Why draw at all?
Way to ignore every other point everyone's made, UnGod and Des.
Refining cards and items was just and boring and dumb to me as drawing magic. It was a stupid system. I suppose that makes me an idiot, right?
Yeah I agree with Abominable, some people just don't like certain things. The game had many aspects that I could see certain types of people being discouraged by.
Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!
When I grow up, I want to go toBovineTrump University! - Ralph Wiggum
THANK YOU.Refining cards and items was just and boring and dumb to me as drawing magic. It was a stupid system.
Everything about the battle system reeked to me. EVERYTHING. I personally didn't even like the fact that the monsters leveled up with you, bc then no matter what I did the battles were still just as annoyingly difficult. GRRRRR.
The story was ok, I enjoyed it.....I just can't stand going through the horrible gameplay just to experience the story again. Blah.
Love FF8, but the battle system can go to hell.
THE MEW HATH NO NEED OF A SIG >:3
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