Anyone here playing this game right now? If so, why?

Styx said:
Yeah. Being a Final Fantasy VIII fanboy is so much better.
Click to expand...

^ this. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to be either a VII a VIII fanboy. It's like the silly love triangle war with Cloud, Tifa and Aerith. I like both games, they both excel in certain ways and are exceptional additions to the gaming world.

Anywho, I'm currently playing through VIII albeit slowly. I'm trying to juggle it within other games that I'm playing mainly because I want to relive all the epic moments again. I finished VII a year or so back and it jogged my memory, kind of want to do the same with VIII :D
 
Repliica said:

^ this. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to be either a VII a VIII fanboy. It's like the silly love triangle war with Cloud, Tifa and Aerith. I like both games, they both excel in certain ways and are exceptional additions to the gaming world.

Anywho, I'm currently playing through VIII albeit slowly. I'm trying to juggle it within other games that I'm playing mainly because I want to relive all the epic moments again. I finished VII a year or so back and it jogged my memory, kind of want to do the same with VIII :D
Click to expand...


HA! I completed FF7 a year ago too, playing through 8 currently again and this time recording it so I can one day look back on it and be like.. Yeah, I played that game once.. Because who knows? It might stop working on a future OS... :/
 
Robbiedbee said:
Welcome to the forum!

On FFVIII you needn't worry about being underlevelled, the enemies level with you. It's all about being extra prepared with your Junctions ;)
Click to expand...
Wow so I just needed better junctions....damb damb!

Edit: Thanks for the advise. I legit never knew that monsters lvl'd up with my characters.
 
I just started playing it last week. Mainly because I've just recently beast 6 and 7. Plus I remember as a kid how much I loved the game and i remember for some reason I never beat it even though I loved it. So right now I'm playing 8 then next up is 9. My goal is to have 1 through 9 beaten again in the near future.
 
Enzo Amore said:
I'm technically playing this game. I started it because I want to finish all the FF games. Yet here I am, still on disk one. I don't plan on moving on anytime soon. I hate the junction system. It's just.... Ugh. Anyway, the story does seem good and all, but the battle system makes me stop playing every time I try again.

I have others I want to play right now anyway.
Click to expand...

The junction system is indeed a contemptible load of utter wank.

Much unlike FFIX, which is my favorite system. I don't know how 9 got kept in the shadows of 8, it's a big ball of WIN in relevance.

However, FFVIII does have enough to keep in it's bag to keep it interesting from start to finish. The role play in itself gets pretty exciting, the atmosphere is addicting, and the boss battles are epic.
And of course, the story is magnificent as always.

Assuming you haven't played through it before, just keep playing it. The end of disc 1 is where it really starts to pick up.
 
I found the junction system to be a magnificent improvement over the materia system. The junction system required actual intelligence to be doing well and strategy to know when to use spells since they directly impacted your stats. In doing that they also removed grinding as a way to overpower yourself - anyone can go kill monsters for a few hours, level up, then beat the shit out of any boss; FFVIII had the enemies level with you so that you always had a challenge (in theory at least. There were of course weak monsters and strong monsters by base nature.)

I won't deny that FFIX was a good game but I didn't care for the rigid definitions of class they imposed that was such a throwback to FFI; I much preferred the versatility that came with FFVII and FFVIII. FFVIII still outclasses though in that respect by forcing you to realize just how much of an impact your choices make - any idiot can junction materia and succeed.
 
Yaoi Master Gavin said:
I found the junction system to be a magnificent improvement over the materia system. The junction system required actual intelligence to be doing well and strategy to know when to use spells since they directly impacted your stats. In doing that they also removed grinding as a way to overpower yourself - anyone can go kill monsters for a few hours, level up, then beat the shit out of any boss; FFVIII had the enemies level with you so that you always had a challenge (in theory at least. There were of course weak monsters and strong monsters by base nature.)

I won't deny that FFIX was a good game but I didn't care for the rigid definitions of class they imposed that was such a throwback to FFI; I much preferred the versatility that came with FFVII and FFVIII. FFVIII still outclasses though in that respect by forcing you to realize just how much of an impact your choices make - any idiot can junction materia and succeed.
Click to expand...

I do agree with you as far as the junctioning compared to materia system. I did like the materia in its own simple way but it took so little effort to make your characters strong. I'm playing through 8 now and while it took some getting use to I really love the depth of the junctioning system 8 offers. In my opinion outside of FF6's esper system and FF tactics job system FF8's junction system is my favorite as far as leveling systems.
 
Yaoi Master Gavin said:
I found the junction system to be a magnificent improvement over the materia system. The junction system required actual intelligence to be doing well and strategy to know when to use spells since they directly impacted your stats. In doing that they also removed grinding as a way to overpower yourself - anyone can go kill monsters for a few hours, level up, then beat the shit out of any boss; FFVIII had the enemies level with you so that you always had a challenge (in theory at least. There were of course weak monsters and strong monsters by base nature.)

I won't deny that FFIX was a good game but I didn't care for the rigid definitions of class they imposed that was such a throwback to FFI; I much preferred the versatility that came with FFVII and FFVIII. FFVIII still outclasses though in that respect by forcing you to realize just how much of an impact your choices make - any idiot can junction materia and succeed.
Click to expand...

Well, with VIII, the only thing that matters is basically a towering junction system. Instead of anything else, you have instead drawing hours and hours worth of magic that you will barely use for nothing more then augmenting stats.

So where it might be a bit more complex and strategic, it's also redundant. And with creatures leveling up with you along with lacking upgradables, it takes away from the sense of continuing succession in the game.

I personally did not find VIII exceptional in any sense of the actual character progression.
 
Ultimaja said:
Well, with VIII, the only thing that matters is basically a towering junction system. Instead of anything else, you have instead drawing hours and hours worth of magic that you will barely use for nothing more then augmenting stats.

So where it might be a bit more complex and strategic, it's also redundant. And with creatures leveling up with you along with lacking upgradables, it takes away from the sense of continuing succession in the game.

I personally did not find VIII exceptional in any sense of the actual character progression.
Click to expand...

What didn't exactly upgrade spells or weapons cause both got upgrades. So the weapons shops for your weapons apparently didn't exist or you just didn't use them to upgrade your weapons. Did you ever draw the more advanced spells like Fira and Firaga cause they are most certainly an upgraded version of fire. As are all the others spells with similar suffixes. As for drawing you were never limited to that you had your card mod and refine abilities as well. Which let you refine spells from your items. As far as just augmenting stats with 8 pages each page holding 4 spells each so a total of 32. All you really had to do was use a lesser version of the spell. So if you had Firaga junctioned use Fira, seems like you couldn't understand the concept of the junction system.
 
Soulcorruptor said:
What didn't exactly upgrade spells or weapons cause both got upgrades. So the weapons shops for your weapons apparently didn't exist or you just didn't use them to upgrade your weapons. Did you ever draw the more advanced spells like Fira and Firaga cause they are most certainly an upgraded version of fire. As are all the others spells with similar suffixes. As for drawing you were never limited to that you had your card mod and refine abilities as well. Which let you refine spells from your items. As far as just augmenting stats with 8 pages each page holding 4 spells each so a total of 32. All you really had to do was use a lesser version of the spell. So if you had Firaga junctioned use Fira, seems like you couldn't understand the concept of the junction system.
Click to expand...

I understood the junction system perfectly. Maybe you're just surprised to know that every fan of FF particularly likes VIII's system despite the games ginormous fan base.

All the observations you've stated are just sort of dodging the inevitable- the only physical thing upgradable were weapons, and that wasn't very substantial in and of itself either. The card mod was just a good way to take a breather from going out and drawing, which is what you're doing most of the time at least until late game.
And by the time you get the next upgraded magic, the last one isn't really needed for combat anymore. In fact, magic becomes obsolete quicker in VIII then any other FF.
And leveled creatures just sort of took any joy in having a high level right out. The only FF where being level 100 means exactly shit.

But that's just me.
 
Well clearly you're doing it wrong Ultimaja. Anyone who understands the system well knows that you can get by in the game with maybe a sum total of one hour of drawing, two if you're a completionist or power gamer (based on the advertised fifty hour gameplay average not including sidequests). Hell, there were only two points in the game I grinded and still grind - the very beginning so I have 200 of each starter spell and gather a few spider webs, roughly 20 minutes, and at the forest before Galbadia Garden to get Diablos' Mug. The rest of the time, you can just draw every now and again and you'll be fine for the main storyline. Though if you're like me you can draw the entire Ultima Weapon fight and have everyone stock Ultima and Full-Life like a boss.

Succession in the game came from the storyline - it was a story driven plot. If you hadn't realized it, FFVII had a very combat centric plot: beat Shinra then beat Sephiroth and alternate between the two. Most of your majour concerns had to do with battling (kill the weapons). FFVIII took us away from that by making a it's plot story driven. Yes, there's combat but very little of it, story wise, was initiated by Squall and Co. Hired by Dollet, Fake Deiling attacked, NORG attacked, Hell, you only have to fight like 4-5 of the bosses in Ultimecia's castle to get to her. It basically became the story about a sorceress coming to power and then realizing that said sorceress is under the control of another sorceress from the future and having to stop both. Your thinking that the growth of monsters took away from the succession is utter tripe. Can you honestly believe that nothing grows and betters itself over time? Or that among the regular and mundane there exist paragons? For all your talk, you seem to know very little.

You speak of magic becoming obsolete. I won't profess myself to be the best but I'll say that I am one of the best players of FFVIII and I use magic on a regular basis in that game; again, you must be doing it wrong. There are a number of fights where magic is your best friend; take Krysta for example. This boss counterattacked anything but GFs with a punch that dealt about 2k dmg to characters with good Vit. A bad player will sit and use GFs until Krysta is dead. A good player only uses Cerberus and goes to town on Kyrsta with spells because that cuts the time down by 60%. The Tonberry King GF side quest took a lot of magic to accomplish, especially if you were doing it on Disc 2.

I stand by Soulcorruptor on this one - you're clearly doing it wrong.
 
Yaoi Master Gavin said:
Well clearly you're doing it wrong Ultimaja. Anyone who understands the system well knows that you can get by in the game with maybe a sum total of one hour of drawing, two if you're a completionist or power gamer (based on the advertised fifty hour gameplay average not including sidequests). Hell, there were only two points in the game I grinded and still grind - the very beginning so I have 200 of each starter spell and gather a few spider webs, roughly 20 minutes, and at the forest before Galbadia Garden to get Diablos' Mug. The rest of the time, you can just draw every now and again and you'll be fine for the main storyline. Though if you're like me you can draw the entire Ultima Weapon fight and have everyone stock Ultima and Full-Life like a boss.

Succession in the game came from the storyline - it was a story driven plot. If you hadn't realized it, FFVII had a very combat centric plot: beat Shinra then beat Sephiroth and alternate between the two. Most of your majour concerns had to do with battling (kill the weapons). FFVIII took us away from that by making a it's plot story driven. Yes, there's combat but very little of it, story wise, was initiated by Squall and Co. Hired by Dollet, Fake Deiling attacked, NORG attacked, Hell, you only have to fight like 4-5 of the bosses in Ultimecia's castle to get to her. It basically became the story about a sorceress coming to power and then realizing that said sorceress is under the control of another sorceress from the future and having to stop both. Your thinking that the growth of monsters took away from the succession is utter tripe. Can you honestly believe that nothing grows and betters itself over time? Or that among the regular and mundane there exist paragons? For all your talk, you seem to know very little.

You speak of magic becoming obsolete. I won't profess myself to be the best but I'll say that I am one of the best players of FFVIII and I use magic on a regular basis in that game; again, you must be doing it wrong. There are a number of fights where magic is your best friend; take Krysta for example. This boss counterattacked anything but GFs with a punch that dealt about 2k dmg to characters with good Vit. A bad player will sit and use GFs until Krysta is dead. A good player only uses Cerberus and goes to town on Kyrsta with spells because that cuts the time down by 60%. The Tonberry King GF side quest took a lot of magic to accomplish, especially if you were doing it on Disc 2.

I stand by Soulcorruptor on this one - you're clearly doing it wrong.
Click to expand...

I don't see how I'm 'doing it wrong' if I've beaten the game multiple times over, but the game never interested me so much as to actually know every nick and cranny of it either. Precisely because the system is redundant to me. There's nothing rewarding about 'your way' of doing it if I can do it just as well without such, which by the way isn't really much different- you seem to just be overly dramatic about moot details.


Also, if storyline alone is so great in VIII, then why is XIII treated so badly just because the first half of the game is story driven?
In general, you either like a game or you don't, and there's not really a specific detail but rather the game as whole altogether. But as it happens, yes, the atmosphere and story was great, about 80% of the reason why I even replayed it.
 
You're doing it wrong if you complain about things that can be remedied by your own effort and understanding, both of which you seem to have never given the game. You call me overdramatic because I use examples and that's absurd; though coming from a boy who uses no proof at all it hardly surprises.

As for your comparison to XIII, I can't honestly speak of it since I've yet to play it. However, I've heard quite a bit from many others and it's not storyline that drives them to hate it - it's the battle system, the linearity of it, the characters, the lack of character development.
 
Yaoi Master Gavin said:
You're doing it wrong if you complain about things that can be remedied by your own effort and understanding, both of which you seem to have never given the game. You call me overdramatic because I use examples and that's absurd; though coming from a boy who uses no proof at all it hardly surprises.

As for your comparison to XIII, I can't honestly speak of it since I've yet to play it. However, I've heard quite a bit from many others and it's not storyline that drives them to hate it - it's the battle system, the linearity of it, the characters, the lack of character development.
Click to expand...

Did you just refer to me as 'boy'?
Well, I would take that as a sign of aggression, but that's otherwise apparent by your recent posts anyway. Instead, I'll just take it according to what your user title states
:awesome:

I complained about things in the game that are inevitably part of the game; that can only be reduced where you call it 'remedied'. You are being overly dramatic, and something I didn't expect to see in this section of the threads, but I suppose it happens_

And XIII is story driven until halfway through. That is why it seems so linear, and the battle system not that great- it's on rails until you hit the turning point. People either complain by that, perhaps some never get that far, but mainly I think people simply set their standards way over the top, comparing it to other rpgs that aren't as great as they might remember.
 
Too bad; you had it right the first time. Your sort of lackluster argumentation is indicative of an immature little boy who might as well be sticking his tongue out because he didn't get his way. If you actually took the time to understand other people (don't say you do; you clearly don't), then you might actually realize where that moniker comes from and how it does in fact mean immature. The only difference is that with me, it's counterbalanced by maturity so that I get the best of both worlds: I'm not an arrogant piece of shit with his own head stuck so far up his own ass that he's created a singularity that threatens to devour this entire forum. Just some clarification for you so that you can be properly incensed.

And again, you call me overdramatic? Look at the rest of your posts lately? All I see is drama out of you - either you're trying to start it or you're trying to heighten it. Of course that might make you somewhat of a expert on the subject; if only your self-delusions didn't prevent you from being objective or by making you project your own issues. If I'm being overdramatic, then so are you.

So we're reduced to attacking language now? I meant exactly what I said, don't argue with me over what I said. I said it remedies it - that means fixed, just so you know. The first time you play through it, understanding the draw system takes some time to understand. After that, it becomes exponentially easier to understand unless you happen to be devoid of any sort of education past elementary school or simply have a learning deficiency. Any issues that people find with the system of FFVIII or any FF for that matter can 11/13 times be remedied through understanding and effort, both of which I reiterate that you seem to lack.
 
I'm playing it because I've never played this game before on the PC, because of its rarity. I've played VII on the PC but it took a while to find. I'm glad I started playing VIII though, I'm playing through that and X-HD at the moment, really nice games to play in combination.

Ultimaja said:
Also, if storyline alone is so great in VIII, then why is XIII....
Click to expand...

Oh for fuck sake.
 
I've just started the steam re-release at the moment, I'm playing it again for nostalgia value and to experiment with different character builds. There are also some items and side quests I still have never gotten around to completing as well.
 
I've never played it actually, but I am watching my best friend play it right now. Her relationship with it is - complicated, I really can't figure out if she adores it or thinks it's terrible. I think her opinion on it changes day by day depending on how frustrating it is, but is leaning somewhat towards 'enjoying it'.
 
I just started playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time in like... 12 or 13 years now. I don't know why I haven't played in so long. Main reason I started playing again was because I stumbled upon the "Squall is dead" theory (which I assumed has been discussed to death here so I'm not trying to bring it up... but it's relevant because it's the reason I'm playing again) and wanted to see if it was plausible. I just started Disc 2 today and right now I believe the theory is interesting but totally not true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top