Too Easy?

[Flying Arrow]

I'll certainly agree that just about every FF title ever is realy easy, but the problem with FFVIII is that unlike games like FFVI, FFVII, FFIX, etc. where the ungodly powerful stuff is at least locked behind a wall of having to gain enough experience/actually finding the right items/equipment/magical doodad/whatever else, you can unlock the abilities to gain access to rediculously powerful refinement abilities and stat junctions in under two hours in FFVIII. Your characters can literally be unkillable (barring actually trying to let them die) when you're only a fraction of the way through the game, and they only continue to get more powerful from there.

Other games generally had pretty easy battles as well if you didn't run from many fights, but they didn't give you the ability to become a nigh unstoppable killing machine in the first few hours. It may, in practical gameplay terms, be a fairly small distinction but at least other games made me feel like I had to pay attention, especially on the first play through where other games did a much better job of not making the exploits inherent in the system immediately obvious.

I generally agree. But on the other hand, VI, VII and IX are all a straight-forward form of easy. Go forward, equip what you find, maybe get a little clever with some set-ups, and you should be okay. With VIII, the player is required to have some extensive knowledge of the mechanics and some more esoteric abilities to break it the way most VIII veterans can. A first time through with no prior knowledge of the game would probably be harder for most players used to more traditional RPG mechanics.

Thing is, I really like FF8. I mean, I don't like some of the skimpy characterization and plot twists, but overall I think it's an enjoyable and unique game. Square really should have taken more care with balancing access to powerful items so early on. It makes re-plays kind of un-fun.

I know I'll get laughed at but I actually find this game kind of challenging because I don't know where to begin to get all these junctions. (I should mention I'm not much of an FAQ user either)

Yeah. I also think the presence of the internet kind of kills a lot of FF8's nuances. Since all the information is so readily available, players really don't have to figure anything out. I think a lot of players wouldn't be complaining about how easy the game is if they hadn't, at some point, been spoiled to where all the great stuff can be found.