FF-VIII Ain't so bad... -- Oddfellow's FFVII & Z-Files Discussion Board

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Date Posted: 03:05:41 04/19/01 Thu
Author: Oddfellow
Author Host/IP: netcache1-acld.auckland.clix.net.nz / 203.97.2.242
Subject: FF-VIII Ain't so bad...

After significant thought and long hours of gameplay, I have deduced that not only is Final Fantasy VIII NOT the single most boring game in the world, and it is, in fact, very playable and quite enjoyable. You just have to get past that start, which I'm sorry to say, doesn't get better with time. Here's some things I like and hate:

Pros:

1. I'm finally beginning to understand everything about the junctioning process, and I reall like the way magic is handled.
2. The dialogue is quite realistic in ways. As opposed to VII, in which dialogue that wasn't needed was usually cut and left for the audience to fill in the gaps with their nuggets, VIII blurts it all out. It's strange to see something do this after playing so many old RPGs that don't.
3. I like all the characters so far. That's not saying much as I'm very easy to please with characters and I empathise with almost anyone, but Squall I'm beginning to like, and even Zell, in ways. Squall and I are much on the same line of thought, so many thoughts, stored up in the head. I'm finding that the characters speaking so much is giving me some real idea of the characters and motivations, but this can also lead to the feeling of undiscovery, where the audience just plays along and doesn't inquire about people.
4. The cuts scenes are very well done and quite tasteful. Enough said, really.
5. When Squall, Rinoa, Quistis and Selpie stand in a straight line accross the screen, they remind me of the four basic paint colours. :)
6. Squall and Rinoa really do look cute together, and at the moment, Irvine and Selphie are really cute, too! *I'm a sap*
7. I REALLY like the fact that the characters look the same from cutscene to battle to field! (Better than having a blocky Cloud, a rendered Cloud and a smooth polygonal Cloud.)
8. The humour is quite enjoyable.

Cons:

1. Movement around the map sucks, I find. It took me an hour to get back to Balamb after leaving FH!
2. While it may be good for dull-witted people, I occasionally find that the outbursts in characters, telling their feelings and thoughts, too informative and although I can tell that people are on my side it leaves no mystery about them, which is something I crave.
3. The limit breaks never come often enough, and when they do, they're severely unimpressive in comparison to those in FFVII. Honestly, I'm still on the 2nd disc, but I've seen enough to know what I don't like.
4. I find the even though I prefer the use of weaponary in battles, that I'm relying more upon my GF, to the point where I feel I don't deserve winning battles in some cases, and that they should just give my medal to them.
5. With only two kinds of shops, I find that city strolling is a real bore. All the money in the world, a level-30 SeeD, but nowhere to spend my moola.
6. This one's pretty easy to work out why I don't like the game sometimes. "Disc one - Secrecy, Wanting to be alone, questions, thoughts, doubts, lingering suspense. - Disc 2 - At the orphanage, hey! we all know each other really well! oh and everybody we are fighting against we know, ellone is Sis, what a rush!!" Obviously, I wasn't impressed by having all these fact just crushed down on me in such a short time, it was like putting a hole in a bag of sand just to slice it cleanly open before it's ready to be.
7. Most of the BOSS fights are just way too easy.
8. I haven't learned what Laguna's real tie with Squall is yet and it's annoying me! :)
9. I've played the game a long way through Disc 2 and I've only seen ONE chocobo, and that was a baby one! (Which I sent flying with one graceful kick.)

So, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be, so I'm playing a lot with it and seeing how good it gets. It's nowhere NEAR Final Fantasy VII, but I guess it's okay to still include it in the series. :)

Thoughts?

:)

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Replies:

Agreed. -- Achilles, 12:47:52 04/19/01 Thu