The Landslide
[13] Hero
But the gameplay was phenomenal, a trait that VIII lacked and I consider very important for games.
My Favorite Final Fantasy Game...
- Thread starter Jaxel
- Start date
Tidus_Crescent
[09] Warrior
VIII was my 1st FF. My friend showed me some FMV's from FFVII and VIII, I told him to let me borrow one of them because the FMV's looked hot. He gave me VIII. I loved it and then even brought my own copy. Then IX came out. Fail. Tried out FFVII to see what all the hype was about...Nothing special. Then X Came out and instantly became my favorite ^_^.
X > VIII > VII > IX
X > VIII > VII > IX
Bootyclap
[09] Warrior
Imo. They are both really great games.Tactics Ogre came before FFT, so there are always going to be those people saying the original was the best, but they are way seperate games. They both have really deep, intensive storylines, great job/class systems, and are anti-noob, hardcore rpg fun! Tactics Ogre was the pretty much the founder of godly tactic rpg games, and when you think about it there are only two, so love them both. lol Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics.
A_Bad_Idea
[01] Neophyte
A few elements of FFVIII's story struck me as odd, which is probably keeping me from liking it as much. I mean, it's great that it's so different from your usual Final Fantasy fare of story, but there were just some things I couldn't accept.
Squall annoyed me, and this was before emo became a fad. His feelings for Rinoa seemed to have an on/off switch that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It was like...
Before comatose
Rinoa: "Hey Squall! Let's hold hands and prance around! Tee-hee!"
Squall: "...whatever."
While Rinoa is in a coma
Squall: "Oh GODS, Rinoa...!! I can't live without you...!"
When Rinoa comes back from coma
Rinoa: "Hey Squall! We should totally make out!"
Squall: "...whatever."
I also have issues with the gameplay. I mean, the system is cool, don't get me wrong. Junctioning and drawing magic and GFs and all that good stuff was actually really cool and hugely inventive in its time (and hell, it's still a good system now). My issue is that there were a FEW things in the game that were completely broken that just made the game way too easy.
First culprit: the Aura status effect. I mean, FFVII taught you that Limit Breaks were the WTFPWND move that you can break out when bad shit happens to you so you can turn nigh hopeless fights around with a sudden powerful turnaround strike. With a single spell, that sense of desperation and grandness of the Limit Break is made obsolete by the fact that you can do it infinitely as long as someone can cast Aura-All on the whole party. It made standard attacks obsolete, and it made most magic obsolete by the idea that you could just Aura your way through every fight.
Second culprit: Unbalanced Limit Breaks. Let's face it, there was NO reason to use anyone other than Squall, Irvine and Quistis (Mighty Guard for All-Aura, anyone?). I mean, sure I guess you could use Zell if you liked him, but Selphie and Rinoa's Limit Breaks were absolute garbage. There's no reason to obtain a Limit Break with Selphie when there's a CHANCE she'll actually do something useful, or a chance she'll deal some mediocre magic damage that you could just deal in bigger payloads with Squall or Irvine anyway. Rinoa's random limit break was just as bad; either Angelo will make your party invincible... or dash out and deal 10 damage to the enemy. I mean, sure it's great that everyone's limit breaks are different (unlike FFVII, where everyone's LVL4 Limit Break was basically a giant beam), but there's a huge case unneeded system gimmicks that made Selphie and Rinoa mostly useless.
Third culprit: Squall never misses! Okay, okay, I know they were trying to do that cool thing where you get to press the trigger and make the Gunblade go off and that was kinda cool and creative in a Mario RPG kind of way, but on a balance standpoint... he never misses! What's up with that!? If they were going to bother with that, why not give a trigger-gimmick to every other character? Well, okay Irvine got some trigger-play for his Limit Break, but he could still miss with his regular shots! It was entirely possible to stat Squall to deal ridiculous damage with just his regular attack, and it never missed! Maybe Square was just intentionally making Squall the best character in the game, I dunno, but that just doesn't sit well with me. It's so easy to twink the game that there's no variety in how to play (unless you want to SERIOUSLY nerf yourself and go through the game with Zell, Rinoa and Selphie. Nothing wrong with that, challenges are fun).
This is just my opinion though, so don't get all uppity. I won't get on your case if you enjoyed FFVIII, because I'm not going to change your mind. I'm just voicing what I thought was offsetting about the game, for me.
...oh, and the card game was AWESOME.
Squall annoyed me, and this was before emo became a fad. His feelings for Rinoa seemed to have an on/off switch that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It was like...
Before comatose
Rinoa: "Hey Squall! Let's hold hands and prance around! Tee-hee!"
Squall: "...whatever."
While Rinoa is in a coma
Squall: "Oh GODS, Rinoa...!! I can't live without you...!"
When Rinoa comes back from coma
Rinoa: "Hey Squall! We should totally make out!"
Squall: "...whatever."
I also have issues with the gameplay. I mean, the system is cool, don't get me wrong. Junctioning and drawing magic and GFs and all that good stuff was actually really cool and hugely inventive in its time (and hell, it's still a good system now). My issue is that there were a FEW things in the game that were completely broken that just made the game way too easy.
First culprit: the Aura status effect. I mean, FFVII taught you that Limit Breaks were the WTFPWND move that you can break out when bad shit happens to you so you can turn nigh hopeless fights around with a sudden powerful turnaround strike. With a single spell, that sense of desperation and grandness of the Limit Break is made obsolete by the fact that you can do it infinitely as long as someone can cast Aura-All on the whole party. It made standard attacks obsolete, and it made most magic obsolete by the idea that you could just Aura your way through every fight.
Second culprit: Unbalanced Limit Breaks. Let's face it, there was NO reason to use anyone other than Squall, Irvine and Quistis (Mighty Guard for All-Aura, anyone?). I mean, sure I guess you could use Zell if you liked him, but Selphie and Rinoa's Limit Breaks were absolute garbage. There's no reason to obtain a Limit Break with Selphie when there's a CHANCE she'll actually do something useful, or a chance she'll deal some mediocre magic damage that you could just deal in bigger payloads with Squall or Irvine anyway. Rinoa's random limit break was just as bad; either Angelo will make your party invincible... or dash out and deal 10 damage to the enemy. I mean, sure it's great that everyone's limit breaks are different (unlike FFVII, where everyone's LVL4 Limit Break was basically a giant beam), but there's a huge case unneeded system gimmicks that made Selphie and Rinoa mostly useless.
Third culprit: Squall never misses! Okay, okay, I know they were trying to do that cool thing where you get to press the trigger and make the Gunblade go off and that was kinda cool and creative in a Mario RPG kind of way, but on a balance standpoint... he never misses! What's up with that!? If they were going to bother with that, why not give a trigger-gimmick to every other character? Well, okay Irvine got some trigger-play for his Limit Break, but he could still miss with his regular shots! It was entirely possible to stat Squall to deal ridiculous damage with just his regular attack, and it never missed! Maybe Square was just intentionally making Squall the best character in the game, I dunno, but that just doesn't sit well with me. It's so easy to twink the game that there's no variety in how to play (unless you want to SERIOUSLY nerf yourself and go through the game with Zell, Rinoa and Selphie. Nothing wrong with that, challenges are fun).
This is just my opinion though, so don't get all uppity. I won't get on your case if you enjoyed FFVIII, because I'm not going to change your mind. I'm just voicing what I thought was offsetting about the game, for me.
...oh, and the card game was AWESOME.