Final Fantasy VIII

[chiufan]

I'm sorry. I really am. But, you know, I just am really sick of people saying how much Final Fantasy VIII blew! And I'm sick of it. Yes, you can point out that my username states that I love Final Fantasy VIII, and I do, but my username is not the point (I wanted it changed a while back, but found out you would have to create a completely new account for that.)

Just what is it about the storyline that was so dumb and stupid and cliche? Yes, they didn't focus a lot on Ultimecia, but that was only because they wanted her a mystery. The whole "we all grew up together" thing was not bad, and how was it? Yes, Squall and Rinoa didn't develop enough in terms of relationships, but how could you focus too much on a relationship after being cold and uncaring your whole life. How would you feel if the only person that truly stood by you was taken away from you? Huh?

I understand that the battle system was a little complicated, but don't you people know how to read and follow directions? If you read the tutorials, it can be agreeable, you know...

Yes, it was high-tech, but you can't keep the medieval setting forever. I like it just as much as you do, but high-tech is very refreshing and a change of pace from the medieval setting.

The music? Hmmm, I loved it. It was epic, and I could almost feel it. Especially the overture piece.

The characters were amazing, and I loved how much each one's personality shone. You can really feel for some of them sometimes. An example would be Quistis. She, for the first few hours of the game, had an obvious love for Squall. But Squall never realized it, and after Rinoa came into the picture, she became more silent and serious, instead of more open.

I loved the settings. The academies were an amazing idea, and I thought they should have expanded the areas of it even more.


I'm not saying this is my favorite Fantasy, but it is a damn amazing game, and I am sick of people dissing it! Everyone loves a Final Fantasy, and this is mine. It's not perfect, but neither is Final Fantasy VII, and look at their fanbase!

 

[Mega Flare]

I love Final Fantasy VIII Its like one of my fav games of all time. Only Problem I had with it was that it was so easy. I swear I had only one guy die once in the whole game. The music was great! i loved the music when they were storming the beach of dollet(i think i spelled it right). Also I don't get what you mean by the battle system being complacted... i thought it was easy and simple... but anyways ovearall this is a great game... alot better the X *shivers* or XII

 

[Dopples]

You sure are making a lot of topics lately.:-/


Anyways, most FFs inbetween 7-10 sucked. Only one that didn't suck was 9, and that was marginally at best.

 

[KhaoticErase]

You sure are making a lot of topics lately.:-/


Anyways, most FFs inbetween 7-10 sucked. Only one that didn't suck was 9, and that was marginally at best.

Hate to break it to ya, but every Final Fantasy between 7-10 are in the top six, according to the fan polls:

1. FF7
2. FF8
3. Kingdom Hearts 2
4. FF10
5. FF6
6. FF9
7. Kingdom Hearts
8. FF4
etc.

As for 8, it wasn't exactly one of my favorites. Reasons for which have absolutely nothing to do with Ultimecia, growing up together, or the relationship with Rinoa. It was actually Squall's personality that I liked most about the game. I cried during the scene when Squall gave that speech over the intercom.

Anyway, don't pay attention to what the guys here say. Everyone here owns rmxp, so they pretty much title themeselves game experts, including me. Conceited, I know... but rmxp has that effect on people, whether they want to admit it or not.

But as long as FF8 is in the top 3, what's to complain about?

Now, in my opinion, fighting for FF5...

 

[Zankoku no Yami]

FF7 to 10 I think were the BEST FF's.

FF8 was my very first FF! And RPG at that! I still think its one of the best FFs ever created. I loved the characters, battle system, music, and story! Laguna's story was one of my all time favorite and I think one of the saddest!

I dont get why people rag on this game as much as they do. I probably never will be able to get it either. This game is just too great to be as bad as people make it.

 

[Pein]

Agreed! i loved playing those games. People are still talking about them now which is proof of their greatness! but then everyone's different, just ignore them if you don't want to talk to them

 

[Ocean]

Things like drawing spells, getting cards and all that were a real pain and I have never played FFVIII normally. I beat it twice while cheating at Level 99, every item, spell, and stuff like that. I went through most of the game on Encounter-None.

It was pretty decent when I played it while cheating. I liked some of the songs (Breezy is a very very cool town song, Fishermens horizon is another one, and the boss song was nice), and the setting was pretty neat, I'm pretty tired of medieval style settings so futuristic/modern is a nice thing. Balamb Garden looks awesome.

I don't care so much about the failings of the story/characters (Which I still fairly enjoyed) so much as the failing of the gameplay for me, which if I didn't have access to cheats, I would have never played beyond the beginning.

At least it's better than IX, that game was the most boring non-NES FF I've ever played.

 

[Mega Flare]

FF8 is boring with cheating... also your cheat diveces sucks... only got you to lvl 99 not 100... just wow.

oh to make this game hard train to lvl 100 right at the start! then you got a chanalge... its easyer to beat the game at lvl 7

 

[Ocean]

It might have been 100, I don't remember and don't care. As long as I don't have to draw all of those spells, it's fine enough for me.

 

[Dopples]

Hate to break it to ya, but every Final Fantasy between 7-10 are in the top six, according to the fan polls:

1. FF7
2. FF8
3. Kingdom Hearts 2
4. FF10
5. FF6
6. FF9
7. Kingdom Hearts
8. FF4
etc.

As for 8, it wasn't exactly one of my favorites. Reasons for which have absolutely nothing to do with Ultimecia, growing up together, or the relationship with Rinoa. It was actually Squall's personality that I liked most about the game. I cried during the scene when Squall gave that speech over the intercom.

Anyway, don't pay attention to what the guys here say. Everyone here owns rmxp, so they pretty much title themeselves game experts, including me. Conceited, I know... but rmxp has that effect on people, whether they want to admit it or not.

But as long as FF8 is in the top 3, what's to complain about?

Now, in my opinion, fighting for FF5...

I'm conceited because I dislike FF7-10? That statement within itself is conceited really.


Those polls mean nothing because most polls have fanboys voting in them, and FF is known for it's horribly large amount of fanboys. I don't claim to be an expert on games, but I do claim to be able to judge which games AREN'T half-assed and generally not fun.

 

[Raziel]

FF8 was plain boring. It wasn't the story at all, more the battle system, the drawing system.
It wasn't hard at all, but just boring. I didn't like I'd have to draw magic and even summons from enemies. I also didn't like it you couldn't access any city on cd 4.
The story was okay, but the mechanics were the thing that made the game boring. Also, the card game wasn't as good as the one in FF9. :p

Edit:
By the way, FFVIII Lover. You don't have to create a new account to change your name, just PM an admin like Trickster, Ceroscuro or ccoa.

 

[ccoa]

The later FFs are rated higher simply because they are more recent and thus have more fans. People tend to like the games they play first more than those they play later, especially when the graphic quality goes down so much. For the old school gamers, you'll find much more appreciation for the games before the Playstation, particularly VI. At any rate, people who think FF games are the epitome of RPGs really need to play more RPGs. They're generally solid and worth the money, but they're almost without exception not all that special.

Personally, I found FF VIII to be enjoyable, but not all that great. The characters were extremely shallow and the plot was just silly. I'm supposed to genuinely believe they all went to the same orphanage and forgot through a ridiculous plot device? That the villain wants to create a world only she can live in for no adequately explained reason? There was simply no depth to the world, characters, and story at all. It was a sweet love story, but little else.

The battle system was at turns incredibly dull and drawn out (draw, draw, draw, draw) and a ridiculously easy button masher. The card game was fun, though.

All in all, it was decent, but not so good that I ever replaced it after my son broke disc 3.

 

[KhaoticErase]

ccoa, I'm well aware that there are a lot of great RPGs beside FF. Skies of Arcadia is my favorite game of all time, but according to the statistics, is only the 160th best game on Earth. Sad...

FFs 7 and 8 are still on the top of the list, though. wonder when they'll be replaced?


@Dopples: I never said that. Do you and andy6000 enjoy putting words in my mouth? I bet you were laughing when you typed that.

 

[Dopples]

Hate to break it to ya, but every Final Fantasy between 7-10 are in the top six, according to the fan polls:

1. FF7
2. FF8
3. Kingdom Hearts 2
4. FF10
5. FF6
6. FF9
7. Kingdom Hearts
8. FF4
etc.

As for 8, it wasn't exactly one of my favorites. Reasons for which have absolutely nothing to do with Ultimecia, growing up together, or the relationship with Rinoa. It was actually Squall's personality that I liked most about the game. I cried during the scene when Squall gave that speech over the intercom.

Anyway, don't pay attention to what the guys here say. Everyone here owns rmxp, so they pretty much title themeselves game experts, including me. Conceited, I know... but rmxp has that effect on people, whether they want to admit it or not.

But as long as FF8 is in the top 3, what's to complain about?

Now, in my opinion, fighting for FF5...

Sure as hell seems like that's what you said. And being the top on polls doesn't equal a good game. Armored Core is a good example of this.

 

[Celesinator]

I don't like when people say FFVII is be best. FFVIII seems like a good game, but I can't get into it at all. It just didn't get to me. But I love alot of music on it, Particually the Battle theme. I love it. I hated the world map theme, though. Nothing really special for me. I'm heavy for video game music.

IV, VI, and IX are my favorites, though. V, III, and X afterward.

VII kind of bored me.

 

[chiufan]

Well, I guess everyone entitled to their own opinion...but I still think the opening movie of the game is amazing.
And I love all of the FF, even the old-school ones, I'm just sick of people ratting on it.

 

[Fafnir]

Out of the FFs I have played(which isn't very many...) 8 is my favourite. The only thing I really didn't like was the difficulty. Way too easy. I only gameover'd twice, once against cerberus(I was totally unprepared, everything was not setup as it should have been), and against Greiver when it OHKO'd my party when I wasn't expecting such a hit. Other then that, it was a cake walk. Everything else was decent or better. The storyline had a lot of loose ends, and required some extra piecing together and theories to make sense though.

 

[Anonymous]

Anyway, don't pay attention to what the guys here say. Everyone here owns rmxp, so they pretty much title themeselves game experts, including me. Conceited, I know... but rmxp has that effect on people, whether they want to admit it or not.

see, i don't have a background in console RPGs at all. by and large i hate them; they're boring and repetitive and have shallow plots and formulaic music and more or less a rehash of the same basic fighting system. the bulk of my RPG background (and i am a massive fan of RPGs) stems from western-style RPGs - Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, ES2: Daggerfall, ES3: Morrowind. games that focus largely on plot, music, and atmosphere, rather than reusing the same twenty-year-old fighting system with a few alterations and making a quick buck.

maybe it's because of that that FF8 is by far the only game in the Final Fantasy series that i can actually truly say i COMPLETELY ENJOYED. i've toyed with FF1-6, and they never hooked me; the gameplay was repetitive and the plots were nothing especially fantastic. FF7 would have been a pretty rad game, but it PLUMMETED when they left Midgar and the bulk of the Shinra/reactor arc and never picked up after that at all. FF9 was a pretty cool game (i prefer it over FF7), FF10 was pretty terrible, and FF12 was INTERESTING, but i wouldn't necessarily say i TRULY ENJOYED IT. i loved the battle system though.

everything about FF8 is excellent imo. the setting is very interesting (mobile combat universities), the plot is fairly solid (and marginally less annoying than FF7's), the battle system is a pretty interesting concept, and the soundtrack is, aside from Parasite Eve's, by far my favorite in a console RPG.

 

[Untra]

FFVIII was my third favorite fantasy. Second was a tie for X and VII, First being X-2.

X-2 was awesome. If maybe more people played it and it wasn't made to be a spin-off fantasy, it would be appreciated more. It had a job system, the grid system from ten, and was incredibly customizable.

Least favorite FF was XII. So many people were excited for it, but it just didn't feel like a FF game. Only names and objects reminded me of FF. Even the battle system sucked, and the customization options were crap because you were screwed without all members knowing "heal".

...At least the voice acting and cut scenes were good. Other then that, it sucked.

 

[LightAndMagic]

I didn't mind FFVIII. Would never ever call it one of my favourite games of all time. Why? There's two reasons:

a) They tried to hard to make Squall some cold, distant warrior. And he just came off as pathetic, and incredibly whiny. His overuse of the word "whatever" bugged me to no end. Furthermore, that moment in disc 1 where he throws a hissy fit over Seifer's supposed death made no sense at all and actually made me cringe. It was an incredibly dumb scene.

b) They all grew up in the same orphanage? I mean, it's not even believeable. And also, it served no purpose other than "hrm, what a coinky-dink!" I mean I haven't played the game in a while, but from my memory that whole memory loss we grew up in the same orphanage had no real purpose and definately could have been done without. It was just cheesy.