Ultimo Gallos
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 29, 2016 3:22:20 GMT -5
Here's my question. Final Fantasy VIII came out after the highly successful Final Fantasy VII and was hyped up pretty well. Unfortunately, at the time I was young, broke and without a Playstation. My family eventually got one and we bought Final Fantasy VIII. But I never got to play Final Fantasy VIII and I know very little about it, other than whichever characters showed up in Kingdom Hearts. I rarely hear it mentioned and I was never clear on if it was even all that good. Is it worth pursuing? Where does it stand among other Final Fantasy games? First off ,you should know that while I liked FF 7 I made it all the way to the last disc and just gave up playing it. Realizing I hadn't been enjoying the game for a long time. And that FF 6 is still in my eyes the best game of the series.Got 8 the year it came out as an X-mas present. Played it for about 2 weeks and just gave up on it. Also since then have tried FF 9 and 10 and didn't care for them. FF is another series,like Mario and Zelda,that doesn't appeal to me once they went from 2d to 3d.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 3:29:30 GMT -5
VIII is an excellent game. I think the Junction system is a little intimidating to some folks, but honestly, it isn't that bad. I beat the game when I was like 12-13, so even if I had a guide, it couldn't have been that bad.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2016 4:03:21 GMT -5
I also hated the fact that it seemed like you pretty much had to use the GFs to get through most battles because your basic weapon was pretty pathetic. Which of course meant you had to sit through the same cutscenes again and again, at least until you figured out how to turn them off or shorten them. Granted it probably got better as you were able to upgrade it, but the actual way to upgrade stuff was obtuse as well since you couldn't just buy new weapons. Instead you had to find magazines, which told you the recipe for items which you then had to track down in order to build it. The thing to me is Final Fantasy VIII made things way too needlessly complicated. Which also works against it a great deal. The real trick is to convert items and cards into spells. It's an often overlooked ability you can get very early on and if you know exactly what you're doing you'd rarely want to waste your time doing anything other than basic attacks.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 4:25:18 GMT -5
I also hated the fact that it seemed like you pretty much had to use the GFs to get through most battles because your basic weapon was pretty pathetic. Which of course meant you had to sit through the same cutscenes again and again, at least until you figured out how to turn them off or shorten them. Granted it probably got better as you were able to upgrade it, but the actual way to upgrade stuff was obtuse as well since you couldn't just buy new weapons. Instead you had to find magazines, which told you the recipe for items which you then had to track down in order to build it. The thing to me is Final Fantasy VIII made things way too needlessly complicated. Which also works against it a great deal. The real trick is to convert items and cards into spells. It's an often overlooked ability you can get very early on and if you know exactly what you're doing you'd rarely want to waste your time doing anything other than basic attacks. Yeah, getting either or both abilities, especially if you also can turn enemies into cards, makes the Junction system trivial. Now, if you wanna talk a mechanic that was a pain, in my eyes, anyway, the one in 9 is much harder to game. I guess 10's sphere grid was a happy medium, though it did make characters a bit same-y after a time.
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Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Dec 29, 2016 4:57:15 GMT -5
edit: oh and it was the first of the games to decide that we needed a terrible card game with pretty nonsensical rules. which is kinda optional but I think you need to play it to get certain items. Higher number beats smaller number is nonsense?
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 5:03:50 GMT -5
edit: oh and it was the first of the games to decide that we needed a terrible card game with pretty nonsensical rules. which is kinda optional but I think you need to play it to get certain items. Higher number beats smaller number is nonsense? The base game's fine, but while I like Triple Triad quite a bit, some of the variant rules as things go on get very irritating, especially Random if you are a completionist. If you want to use your best cards, getting given a low-tier card can be crippling.
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Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Dec 29, 2016 5:42:29 GMT -5
Higher number beats smaller number is nonsense? The base game's fine, but while I like Triple Triad quite a bit, some of the variant rules as things go on get very irritating, especially Random if you are a completionist. If you want to use your best cards, getting given a low-tier card can be crippling. Still, "random" is pretty self-explanatory. Really the only rule I find genuinely confusing is "Same Wall" and thankfully it seems to be the rarest one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2016 5:42:30 GMT -5
Higher number beats smaller number is nonsense? The base game's fine, but while I like Triple Triad quite a bit, some of the variant rules as things go on get very irritating, especially Random if you are a completionist. If you want to use your best cards, getting given a low-tier card can be crippling. Yeah, you can manipulate rules spreading and being abolished in different regions but it's a huge pain in the ass without following a step by step guide. I wish there was a way to play with a custom rule set because some of the rules can makes things interesting after you have a few good cards and winning the base game is super easy. Now, if you wanna talk a mechanic that was a pain, in my eyes, anyway, the one in 9 is much harder to game. Yeah, I recently played through the PC version and being able to quickly grind on fast forward mode and disable random encounters when you want to really added to the game if you want to play it in a mostly normal manner. Or just make yourself max level with max gil and learn abilities a soon as you equip something that always you to learn them if you just want to plow through the story.
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Kalmia
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Post by Kalmia on Dec 29, 2016 6:17:29 GMT -5
I enjoyed the game, but some of the plot twists as you head towards the end are ridiculous even by Final Fantasy standards.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 6:27:53 GMT -5
I enjoyed the game, but some of the plot twists as you head towards the end are ridiculous even by Final Fantasy standards. Necron is still dumber, though yeah. FFVIII's strength is in part a strong cast. Without spoiling anything, things go amiss with the story for me beginning with the question regarding Balamb Garden's benefactor. It is the turning point for me, where I feel like twists and revelations start getting added entirely too much to the story.
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Post by chronocross on Dec 29, 2016 7:48:56 GMT -5
It took a while to get used to the Junction system, but it's a good game. I thought it had more replay value than FF15, which was a good game but not really a whole lot to do afterwards,IMO.
Once I got Doomtrain, I used it on everyone.
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dav
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Post by dav on Dec 29, 2016 8:34:35 GMT -5
Did they ever give a reason why they used Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid's design? Always found that a little distracting.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 8:38:11 GMT -5
Did they ever give a reason why they used Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid's design? Always found that a little distracting. I do have to wonder if it was intentional, the resemblance. I think they just needed him to look kindly and fatherly, yet still look within the age range of, well, y'know.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Dec 29, 2016 8:58:08 GMT -5
Higher number beats smaller number is nonsense? The base game's fine, but while I like Triple Triad quite a bit, some of the variant rules as things go on get very irritating, especially Random if you are a completionist. If you want to use your best cards, getting given a low-tier card can be crippling. that's more of what I meant. Though I also may have mixed some of it up with a later card game on top of it. It was the first mainline Final Fantasy I really disliked... and was probably my least favorite of the series until 13 came out and failed on every level instead of most. the Junctioning system isn't really explained particularly well and it is necessary to figure it out to beat the game and you only find that out on like the last boss as you can pretty much cheese all the other bosses with summons that do 100x more damage than you can use with your weapons alone and using spells messes with your junctioning... but you can't use summons towards the end of the game. finding the things to get the new weapons could be a pain in the ass as well as they are mostly hidden... which again isn't a major problem for most of the game due to the aformentioned summons. also it's a pain in the ass to actually draw all teh things you need to junction since the enemies level up with you so you are always in a battle where you could very easily die. 8 is very much a love or hate game. edit: oh and it was the first of the games to decide that we needed a terrible card game with pretty nonsensical rules. which is kinda optional but I think you need to play it to get certain items. I dont often disagree with you, but I do here. VIII is one of the best games of the franchise. As I said it's a love or hate game, very rarely have I ran into anyone who thought it was in the middle ranges.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 29, 2016 8:59:33 GMT -5
The base game's fine, but while I like Triple Triad quite a bit, some of the variant rules as things go on get very irritating, especially Random if you are a completionist. If you want to use your best cards, getting given a low-tier card can be crippling. that's more of what I meant. Though I also may have mixed some of it up with a later card game on top of it. I remember not understanding the card game in 9, though admittedly, I didn't put a whole lot of effort into it. I was more engaged with stuff like powering up Frog Drop.
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Push R Truth
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Post by Push R Truth on Dec 29, 2016 9:22:51 GMT -5
Did they ever give a reason why they used Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid's design? Always found that a little distracting. Ronald Reagan as the president was the most obvious
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Dec 29, 2016 9:32:43 GMT -5
Did they ever give a reason why they used Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid's design? Always found that a little distracting. Ronald Reagan as the president was the most obvious I thought he was more based off of Bush
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Dec 29, 2016 9:35:31 GMT -5
Did they ever give a reason why they used Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid's design? Always found that a little distracting. Ronald Reagan as the president was the most obvious ... The Actor?!
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Post by Stu on Dec 29, 2016 9:52:02 GMT -5
Reading all these comments, it sounds like the game got a B+. Not a bad game, but too many flaws to give it an A.
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Post by Red Impact on Dec 29, 2016 11:29:43 GMT -5
There's also their leveling system; from what I can recall, whenever you level up, the monsters also get stronger, though there are commands that will allow you to lower or increase the monster's level. By raising the level higher, it'll be harder to defeat, but you'll get higher-valued items. Also, Meltdown is a necessity. Finally, Cactuar Island is the best place for AP farming (each Cactuar is worth 20 AP) without gaining a lot of EXP. Be sure to junction a lot of Triples on the Hit Rate, as the Cactuars are very evasive, and are strong against magic. The side effect of this being that leveling up is actually a detriment to you in the game, but grinding for cards is just as tedious.
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