How do you rate VIII compared to the rest of the series?

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they were realistic and among the best supporting cast I’d seen in the series at the time.
You really think so? I thought the characters were diabolical in FFVIII. They all really did act like pre-adolescents who thought they knew everything about growing up. Seifer's analogy of Squall was pretty bang on, and the same goes for every other character.
 
I know I'm no mod or nothing, but try not spam guys ;)
they were realistic and among the best supporting cast I’d seen in the series at the time.

You really think so? I thought the characters were diabolical in FFVIII. They all really did act like pre-adolescents who thought they knew everything about growing up. Seifer's analogy of Squall was pretty bang on, and the same goes for every other character.

You bet! I wouldn't class them as your "A" typical teenager, but for the most part, like em or not, they did a pretty good job portraying most of your common teenager angst.

For among the best supporting cast, Yes I really think so. I know a lot of people thought their stories were weak with little depth combined with a common background, but whether you liked them or not, I thought they complemented each other pretty well. Fujin & Rajin added depth to Seifer's character as well as Squall & Co. I also thought that Squall and Co added to each others character depths pretty well, especially when it came to changing Squall.
 
wellll. so it wasn't the best final fantasy, but i can honestly say that squaresoft/square-enix can make a final fantasy and have it "not good" yet i will still enjoy it and play it. it probably seems like it falls short because of the greatness of the series and anything short of incredible we deem as bad. but yeah its not the best, but its definitely not the worst. i liked it better than XII.
 
My hatred for VIII is comparable to my Hatred of Tifa. so i pretty much Despise this game.

In Game Graphics

At the time - 7/10
Now-a-days - 3/10

Sure they were pretty impressive back then, but now they look dated, and really fuzzy.

FMV Graphics

then 9/10
Now - 7/10

These graphics were really good when they were first unveiled and still are now - much like FFVII.

Gameplay - 0/10

the draw system was horrible, i hated it then and i hate it now, it turns magic into an item, wastes your turns if drawing magic fails, you can make your characters absurdly powerful early on if you draw the correct magic at the beach, most of my boss battles went like this "GF, GF, GF, GF, GF, Heal, GF, GF,GF" and using the Junction system you could turn your characters into flat out clones of each other...which goes quite well with...

Character development 1/10

The backstorys for each character were pathetic, they were all identical save one. and Rinoas was pretty weak too. they barely developed during the course of the game, character interaction was forced and the Squall and rinoas relationship went from "I hate you" to "I LOVE YOU" in the space of ten minutes.

Storyline - 4/10

the storyline was a bit weak, the final villain appeared out of nowhere and barely explained, and i feel the storyline reached it's peak at the end of disk 2. the only thing that gives this a 4 out of 10 as opposed to 2 is the Rinoa=Ultimecia theory and Laguna=Squalls dad.

Music - 7/10

This Games saving grace, the music was excellent and the Quality of the music was also excellent for its time and did anyone else Notice how "Timber Owls" was a Lot like Aeriths theme but faster ;)
 
The level up system sucked worse than any RPG I've ever played. It only takes 1000 exp to level up, regardless of the level that you're currently at. And on the other hand, it's utterly useless to level up, being as that the monsters only become harder in the process...pointless...

But the bosses stay the same level. So, that gives the player a very big advantage of PWNING those bosses that are a pain in the ass. Plus if you know what you're doing, it makes the game easy to play on right through.

The graphics were hands down amazing in relation to the time of release. The thing that dissapointed me however, was that the graphic quality far outweighed the gameplay factor...I personally would have prefered round chibi characters as opposed to tall and realistic, yet choppy characters.
That's horrible. That would've been horrible. If that happened, Squall would not have had the popularity he does have.

the draw system was horrible, i hated it then and i hate it now, it turns magic into an item, wastes your turns if drawing magic fails, you can make your characters absurdly powerful early on if you draw the correct magic at the beach, most of my boss battles went like this "GF, GF, GF, GF, GF, Heal, GF, GF,GF" and using the Junction system you could turn your characters into flat out clones of each other...which goes quite well with...
BZZT! Wrong! How could you use Guardian Forces all the time? Everyone knows using nothing but Guardian Forces and running away gets you crappy salary. Plus it would've made the game suck. Also, I have no idea how battle worked that way for you, but good job jamming yourself into that thar pickle of a situation. That sounds just as amusing as my friend getting Ragnarok at level 16. I shit you not.

And the refining process is very helpful, you just don't know. It's an alternative for remedies and tools! Sometimes you run out of a certain magic, so it's nice to have backup stock.

If draw fails, get a higher magic stat.

I hate it when people just go through a game, not realizing it's truest aspects and advantages and say that they hate the game when they don't even know how to play.:dry:

Also, this is supposed to be a thread rating FFVIII compared to other final fantasies, but as you can clearly see, it's turned into a thread for people to say however, quite inaccurately, how much of a suckfest they think it is.
 
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I liked FFVIII, it was a brave move to try something different. It's not the best game in the series, but it's not the worst either. If i had a chioce to replay this or FFX then i'd take FFVIII all day long.
 

IMO, this was the best game of the series. It had everything, romance, suspense, action. All the elements of a great game were present and accounted for. The characters were deep, fleshed out and appeared real. Squall didn't assume the mantle of "The Hero" as readily and easily as Cloud, adding more reality to his already complex personality.

The game was only helped out by the great soundtrack, revolutionary junction system and amazing (for the time) graphics.


Warm regards,
~The Legendary Wullfe
 
It is, in my opinion, one of the best FF games to date. I just loved its characters, and the mass character development with Squall. And I loved the storyline, even though the main villian wasn't revealed until near the end of the game. But it doesn't matter. The game just rocks more ass then an anal porn video.
 
I have completed FF VII - XII, and I must say that even though VII was a very good game, nothing in my mind compared to VIII.

The graphics from VII were definitely a big upgrade, but that wasn't really what I base my opinion off.

People complain about how complicated the draw/junction system was, and yes it wasn't the easiest to get used to, but it made you actually THINK! You had to work hard and journey all over the world to find the rarest spells to junction. I liked the idea that it wasn't just pure grinding for hours, as really this game was designed to not be about what level your characters were, rather how well you could junction magic to boost stats. This system gave you an infinite amount of options for which to customize your characters to your liking. The change at least gave some variation, and it didn't bother me at all.

The GF system I enjoyed a lot, I liked the idea of how everyone could summon and GFs had compatibility levels with each character so you had to plan out which character(s) would be assigned each new GF you obtained.

The side quests were challenging, but that made them all the better. In this game, you HAD to complete some of the side quests to at least stand a chance against Ultimecia, something that I think a lot of the other games lack as you can still complete the game without gaining more powerful weapons, summonings, etc...

The characters were absolutely amazing in my opinion, each one brought a different feel and attitude to the game. The variation in their dialogs made the game more believable and engaging to the player.

I have heard people complain that the love story between Squall and Rinoa was not passionate enough because throughout the entire game, they never said "I love you" or the sort. Personally, I found their passive and awkward relationship a key to the game. I am tired of these typical love stories, we see it too often. Why not change it around a bit? I think Square Soft did a good job in this.

The world was simpler to most of the other Final Fantasies, but I again think made the game more believable. You could still relate to the surrounding environment, even with all the fantasy elements mixed in. I don't mind the more outrageous settings, but this world was easy to interpret and get into the mood of the game much easier.

The soundtrack for this game was another piece of brilliance, but I am not sure it was the best. I really enjoyed songs like "Maybe I'm a Lion", "Eyes on Me", "Premonition", "The Man with the Machine Gun" etc... My point is there definitely wasn't a lack in this department, as Nobuo produced more masterpieces.

Lastly, the ending to the game was the BEST in my opinion, it was pure beauty and excitement. Although I enjoyed all the other games with delight, there was a different sense to the finish in this title. The whole build up from traveling through time to end up going head to head with the infamous sorceress was just unbeatable. I really got swallowed up in this story so much, that it really touched me deep :). To this day, it the only Final Fantasy that really brought out the overwhelming emotion in me, and that is something to remember.
 
VIII wasn't one of the best but it is at the top. The graphics were good, the people were more realistic and it had a good storyline. I liked the draw and junction system after i got used to it. I ended up absorbing most magic and immune to most status effects by the end of disc 3. once you get used to it, it helps out a lot.
 
8 is imo the best FF game, I loved every bit of it. I loved teh story, characters, junction system. It is easily my favourite one, and definately the one i play the most. I have no idea why so many people dislike it so much, It was a step in a more mature direction and had great character interaction. I once spent about an hour in an EB games arguing with the clerk that it was better then ff7. Of course like most big ff7 fans it is incredibly hard to mak ethem change there minds. Newayz, 8 is the best in the series imo.
 
--possible spoilers--

i for one, thought it was a good game, (not as good as 9 though :P)

the junction system was pretty unique, but too easy to exploit (i.e. standing there near a monster drawing magic until you had full :huh:) and a tad easy (spamming GFs) the story was good imo, yeah squall came off as a brat who thought only he was suffering and that it was better to be alone. But during the story he slowly came to realise it was okay to rely on others, that scene
where he walked all the way across the bridge with Rinoa on his back
was great imo..

the interactions between Squall and Rinoa/Selphi/Zell were great, the way Selphi would poke fun at him falling for rinoa, the way Rinoa would bate him

All these attentions to character interaction and slighly far fetched story line
Time traveling sorceresses anyone ? :D

granted, its not the best ff (thats reserved for ff9 imo :)), but its a good final fantasy
 
I find VIII to be the least best (I cant say worst!) FF I've played.

I played VI --> X and all of them just have a funner gameplay overall, and yes the characters were pretty crap in VII, expecially the ladies! I didnt like any of them, the guys were ook: Squall and Irvine were cool. they should have changed Zell a bit, maybe even more "stupid" :p.

The equipment system was crap, I'm a fan of all that fancy equipment and the more the better xD, in this version you can only get weapons and by soems tupid way I mostly end up by using only 2 different weapons (starter and ultimate) for all except Squall. And no armor ! =(

The junctioning was kinda cool but then again it kept me from using magic and also destroyed the uniqueness of characters (like you had black/white mages, thiefs, knights,... in other FFs).

The fantasy-part was not enough in it ( only humans ! no hippo-looking ppl apart from some shumi guys).

I liked the limit breaks tho but kinda disappointed about how to achieve them, it made the game so easy, just let your health go slightly into the yellow and keep delaying your turn by pressing triangle I think until you see you got yer limit (or you could cast aura).

I found VII not rlly a challenge, especially with those GF being able to take damage in your place.

Card system was OP!
 
imo i think FFVIII was GREAT until.....MY GAME STOPPED WORKING!!! i was so annoyed >:( gave up after that...grr was so angry was up to the part where the school gets attack and your on the rope fighting that one soldier then it just froze GRRRR!!
 
Of course like most big ff7 fans it is incredibly hard to mak ethem change there minds. Newayz, 8 is the best in the series imo.
Yeah, because it's only FFVII fans who's mind's don't change to what you want them to think. Not with any other FF or any other genre for that matter :rolleyes:


Don't like VIII. My least favorite in the entire series. I hated almost all the characters, the junction system, drawing magic, and I didn't like the final boss to boot. I'd go into more detail but I've already said the same things over and over again %D
 
I can't give an honest opinion as it is mainly the only one I have ever really played day on end without let up and beat. Personally, I loved it. Great game. I am however for the first time, going to be playing 7 soon enough so I will give you all my real opinion then.

Although, I think the beauty of Squall and Seifers struggle is amazing. So alike and yet so different.
 
Given that FFVIII came directly in between FFVII and IX...I found it to be kind of...lacking.

Especially the horrible character development.
 
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