Redpill me on FFVIII /v/. It feels like the most polarizing game in a very polarizing series.
Final Fantasy VIII does indeed some weird stuff, narratively and also with its system mechanics. On one-hand, it's very breakable. Some people complain about that, others appreciate it. You also don't need to abuse the system mechanics, but some autists do anyway and then call the game shit.There is a whole lot that you can say about the story and some character development. It is, however, not the worst FF in that regard. Some aspects of the game are overhated thanks to a certain internet celebrity.The game also has lots of really cool story moments, set pieces, characters, boss fights, great music, mysteries and world-building. There is a lot to love about it. There is a lot to dislike as well.
>>732204352Was the 2000 Toyota ECHO a good car?
it's polarizing because it had oblivion-tier level scaling and a batshit insane story, everything else about it is great, like top-tier great
>>732205074>oblivion-tier level scalingYou never played FFVIII.
>>732205074>it had oblivion-tier level scalingIt doesn't.
>>732205172Maybe he hasn't, but I have played FFVIII and I'm happy to report that his assesment on the level scaling is indeed incorrect. It's much worse than Oblivion's.
>>732204787No.
>>732204352If this music doesn't make you want to play the game I dont know what to sayhttps://youtu.be/YP9in2EqREAJust play it yourself and make your own mind its worth trying going in blind.
>>732204352the storytelling shift from 7 as well as the setting is what does it
>>732205238You do realise that other people can play the game too and verify that you're lying?
>>732204787Better than any American car at that time
>>732205238How is it worse?
>>732205183Monsters scaled with you meaning the game was easier if you ignored leveling. Isn't that oblivion-tier?
>>732205559You’re saying people don’t like Ender’s Game?
Lmao kino advertisementIt’s amazing a single person bought a new one of those shitboxes. They might not have. Car companies work on the idea that they will save as much stock as possible, pretend the cars are worth the maximum price their calculators can hit, then slowly drop the price until they get idiots on the line.Also Final Fantasy VIII has some of the best NPC’s in series, IX alone might have more depth to them. Every time I play through the game I shoot the shit with every possible dork, helps that the card game is so OP. Did you ever get to the secret card room in Dollet? There’s even some Laguna lore in there
Horrible plotLevel scalingObstuse mechanics
>>732205780Or any modern car for that matter
>>732205780my mustang (95) and f250(99) are still going strong
>>732205867The scaling isnt as bad as Oblivion, they also start dropping much better items at higher levels. The problem is some monsters disappear, some items are harder to get any other way, so if you don’t prepare for this as a completionist you could get fucked, especially trying to get the ultimate weapon mods
>>732205907the whiplash from the opening cutscene to waking up in a school is pretty severe
>>732205867That's just scaling in general.And it wasn't even easier. Depends on how you build your characters as well.In general, purposedly keeping everyone as low as possible is some weird powergaming that doesn't even do that much.Your characters can absolutely stomp the game at level 100 with tactics, spells, and the best equipment.
>>732204352The game was too complex and ahead of its time for people from the late 90's.
>ToyotaHoly shit ama->ECHOuhh, yeah, keep your game.
>>732205640Of course. If they play it and attempt to verify it, they will find that I'm indeed correct.
>>732206067People from the late 90’s were complex and ahead of their time. Pic related.
>>732206065It's not "some weird powergaming that doesn't even do that much". Leveling up is literally a trap. It doesn't do anything to you, at all to make you stronger. All it does is make the enemies stronger. Not you. This contradicts and goes against a very a very basic aspect of every RPG: that you level up, you get stronger, and the game doesn't even tell you about it. It can happen that by the time you notice it, it's too late to fix easily. Actually, leveling up to 100 and trying to deal with that is the powergaming move, as it serves no other purpose than to challenge yourself for no reason.
>>732206454Nah anon, replayed the game not too long ago and had every character at level 100. Shit was no problem. Ultimecia went down like a bitch.Enemies scaling to your level is only a problem if you don't use the system mechanics.
>>732206541Good for you, as for how you think it addresses anything I said is beyond me. That doesn't make the system suddenly somehow not fundamentally broken, or anything I said not true.
>>732204352basically there's a lot of cool ideas mixed in with some very weird and awful ideascombat system was weird and awfulstory is a mix of interesting and awful asspullscharacters are pretty hit or miss but the hits have some of the better character development of any ff gamemusic is really goodworld is mid but has some interesting locations
It has a fucking T-Rex what do you think?
The scaling isn’t bad because it makes the game harder. The only hard enemies are generally the ones with fixed level anyway.Leveling doesn’t make the player stronger, scaling doesn’t make the enemies a challenge unless you’re intentionally gimping yourself. And it makes everything easier if you don’t level.In this sense, the implementation of scaling in FFVIII is a failure. SaGa games have stuff like BR so you don’t overlevel and it works much better there even if it’s crazy punishing if playing blind or if a newbie tries to grind like it is Dragon Quest.
FF8 and FF10 are the only final fantasy entries with a grounded mature storyline that doesn't feel shounen.There's a reason expedition 33 praised those specific entries as inspiration.
>>732206720I just explained how it's not fundamentally broken.It's pretty much not a problem. Have you tried upgrading your gear and equipping spells?
>>732206880>implying VI and VII is shounenCmon bro VII is art
>>732207074It's shounen as fuck. In fact it became a shounen cliche.
>>732207074VII is shonen af. Even the omnislash duel at the end if peak shonen.Fighting giant mecha-kaijuu creatures.The bishōnen demigod cold antagonist etc.A terrorist giganigga with a fucking machine gun for an arm.It’s for because it has all that, don’t try to pretend it’s jrpg brothers karamazov.
>>732204787It's a 2013- Mitsubishi Mirage tier shitbox
>>732204787From what I read it was basically the American version of what in Europe was the Yaris. Considering I still regularly see late 90's Yaris driving around, I would say yeah, it's probably a pretty decent car. Assuming they didn't cheap out on quality material for the US version.
>>732206326Eva was complex and precisely a product of its time. That’s why it hits so fucking hard.Anno captured exactly the zeitgeist he was living in. It wasn’t some avant garde shit only a handful of people connect with.
>>732204352It's a very experimental game.For starters instead of getting money by defeating enemies you have a salary. But money isn't that used.For characters, you equip summons that will allow you to equip spells to get better stats, but the more spells you have the better the bonus so you can't use those spells.Locations look great and has one of the best modern fantasy esthetics there is.Music is amazing. The plot covers all the definitions of bollocks. There is a card mini game that is simultaneously better and more retarded than the main game.
>>732207349>wasBut the Yaris line was never retired?
Is any e-celeb playing ff8 remastered?A bunch of threads about it recently.
>>732207676I think Remake Intergrade on Switch is getting people hyped for the remake of VIII
>>732207549>Locations look great and has one of the best modern fantasy esthetics there is.This anon's mind is gonna be blown when he finds out that postwar France was a real place.
>>732207601I mean the first gen Yaris, the one you always won as a prize car in GT3 even when you didn't want one
>>732206872>Like Dragon QuestGrinding has always been the idiot filter for most of the games in the series.
>>732204352It had a bunch of cool ideas, but throwing all those ideas into a blender haphazardly was a big mistake.
>>732207676No but expedition 33 is quoted as being a spiritual successor to FF8 by the studio founder. Before E33 ff8 had the reputation of being bad on the internet so right now everyone and their dog is (pretending) they always liked ff8
Squall is one of the best characters in the franchise but as a trade-off every other party member sans Rinoa(and even then she's pretty boring) has like 10 minutes of being relevant
>>732207715Square isn’t touching 8 with a remake anytime soon.9 was the one with rumors of a remake and it went radio silent.I don’t think they would try to remake them like they did 7 (and even splitting 7 in 3 parts like the hobbit movies was a mistake), but even smaller scope remakes are unlikely.
>>732204352Whenever people talk about how great the plot is (it isn't) it's always schizo theories, what other fucking game with a """great""" plot needs fans to come up with retarded theories to explain it, or rather to make it interesting?
>>732204352It's a game with severe design flaws that a lot of people played when they were young because of FF7 hype and the Pizza hut demo.
>>732207963But i did always like ff8. Squall is top 3 ff protagonist and ff8 romance mogs ffx.
>>732204352Why do we have this thread every day
>>732208050This is true but 8 was intentionally made like that. I don’t agree with it, the cast is what makes FF great and they took a risk in FFVIII in focusing exclusively in Squall & Rinoa that imho didn’t pay off the cost of neglecting the remaining characters.Laguna also suffered but he’s so integral to the main plot I’ll discount his case as cut content/rush to deliver.
I remember Christine Love saying something like "the great thing about FF8's story is that right when you're in the middle of resolving some kind of urgent crisis, you get hit with the most insane plot twist imaginable that has nothing to do with what you're currently dealing with." Wish I could remember the exact quote but it captures what I love about the game
>>732208167We don’t but we should
>>732208148Spacefucking > Waterfucking
>>732206891You aren't countering his points. Yes, if you use the systems correctly, upgrade your gear, and junction spells you'll be fine. But doing all of that at level 1 is objectively better than doing it at level 80. He's correct, you are wrong. It doesn't matter, the game is easy regardless. It's just universally shit aside from the music.
gay gay sissy sissy gay gay gay
>>732208557Chicken wuss.
>>732208557https://youtu.be/sjxuM5WOqFQ?si=sPfbv2hBe5stKdrb&t=120
>>732208548>But doing all of that at level 1 is objectively better than doing it at level 80It is certainly not, since you need certain enemies to spawn and to drop items to level up your gear.Some stuff is only available from level 30 onwards.>It doesn't matterThen it's not a problem and doesn't break anything.
>>732205850*crickets*
>>732208653This aged very poorly and very ebin-ly at the same time…
Did Seifer's patsies a bunch of failures, or were they just cheerleaders that didn't actually want to be SEED agents? The girl with the speech impediment seemed to be competent, and having a unique fashion style should have given her the edge at graduating.
>>732208720It’s useless and makes almost no difference. I consider it a failure but also do not understand the amount of vitriolic hate the scaling/junction receives.You can get by fine by refining item drops and never touching the card game.
Also Oblivion’s scaling is worse in my opinion because it can potentially softlock the player or make combat very miserable.FF8’s will never do something like that, you catch up easily if needed. There is no way to do that in Oblivion.
>>732208653It buck broke millions
>>732208915No idea. Seifer is at least competent enough but he flukes because of not following orders and going apeshit.
>>732209062>FF8’s will never do something like thatIndeed because most bosses have level caps below 100.
>>732209062Oblivion is still a much better game thoughbeit.
>>732209062FF8 level scaling was just not necessary. Having the stat spreads, magic draws, enemy A.I correlating to all levels. Square could have easily designated areas with a level cap, since all the information was available. I'm really not sure why they did it, since FF8 is not a open world game. That is usually when level scaling is done, because it's supposed to give the player much more freedom of movement.
ProsStory is goodMini games are completely optionalYou can beat the game in under 30 hours if just focus on the main questSoundtrack is great and the FMVs ages surprisingly wellConsSquall suffers from the same problem as Cloud in that his entire personality is "I don't give a shit, or rather I do, I just don't know how to express myself without coming off as an Autist"Zell and Selphie are the most annoying characters in existence and you can't ship themAlot of your time will spent hearing "weeeee slurp" as you draw every monster you encounterJunction management between certain segments in the game are migrane enducing
I wish triple triad was the combat system
>>732209447To me it felt someone who worked in a saga title was sent to work in FF but couldn’t go too bonkers with the systems because FF was a (huge) mainstream title in the 90s.
>>732209991Queen’s Blood is so much better
>>732208557No you
Coming out after FF6 and Ff7, this one was very gay, basically a rom-com for fat women and effeminate male
>>732204352Objectively one of the most soulful games ever made.
>>732212585Based
>>732211608Ok
>>732204352It's the best one.Or if you're really stupid it's the worst one.
>>732204787Oh god, most of you kids weren't even alive back then.
>>732204352Every single bad thing Spoony said about this game is true. The plot was a brainfuck tier nonsense. The world building was shit. A complete disappointment after FF VII.FF IX appears as an underrated masterpiece in comparison.
>>732204352Its a huge drop in quality after FF7 but I guess it was impossible to follow up on FF7 anywaysAs a result they tried way too hard and the game has great things on it like the cinematics, moster designs and setting but the story is garbo and so are the characters.Still worth playing once though as its a very painless experience
Replaying. Just had the 2nd Laguna dream and after the dream farmed Grendels for Dragon Fangs in the forest you had the Laguna dream in. You need to hug the west cliff in the forest to guarantee Grendel to appear.Squall is hitting about 1000 per strike, Zell 600 and Selphie doesn't have STR junction yet. I'm letting myself gain some levels but mostly carding enemies.
>>732209491>Alot of your time will spent hearing "weeeee slurp" as you draw every monster you encounterUmmm. I have just been playing Cards and refining them to items and spells
>>732216070>it was impossible to follow up on FF7 anywaysThey had to leave the setting behind, but there was nothing preventing them to make a quality story and put some effort into world building.FF IX and FF XII were well thought.FF VIII on the other hand, and later FF X, were a headache inducing idiocy.The hit and miss of this scale is unbelievable and I believe if it's an effect of some profound changes in employment behind the scenes.
>>732216623Im pretty sure FF8 was made to appeal to women first and foremost
>>732216750Now when I think about it, both FF VIII and FF X seem to be like this
If you had to choose one FF to recommend to someone who hasn't played them, which one would it be?
>>7322168984 or 7
>>732216898The original FFVII. It’s just perfect and has actually aged incredibly well. Pure atmosphere and mastery.
>>732209062lmao no it can't softlock you, how retarded can someone be to actually believe this
>>732216898FF7, it's the best. The golden era is from 4-10 but you need to start with FF7
>>732216939>>732217015I'll try and get the modded PC version up and running since that has the restored PS1 music, right? I have a CRT monitor ready for this.
>>732217262You can just emulate the OG PS1 version
>>7322168984 is the most pure FF to me, and pure jrpg in generalbeyond the SNES era the franchise got way too anime infused and got pretty gay
>>732217327This. The PS1 version is best.
>>732206454If you play the game as designed, the higher level enemies give you higher tier items and spells, which you then use to improve your gear and junctions, which makes you stronger than they are. You can break this with other systems in the game like refining and cards, but the systems the game presents you with should encourage buffing your team primarily via junctioning and weapon upgrades via Draw and things like Mug. You still feel progress because you're getting stronger than the enemies you're facing if you're keeping up with your build. The problem with Oblivion is that you never feel progression because enemies keep up with you consistently. That isn't how FF8 works out. It's only once you've broken the game open that it makes sense to stay low level and max yourself with stupid spell combinations super early. You're coming at this with 25 years of hindsight.
>>732217015The original FF VII with ninostyle mod for models is the way to go. Then, any port of FF VI. It's absurd how underrated the game seems to be now.In general FF games have nothing to do with each other and don't share a common setting. Only some props, creatures and magic abilities are reused in a semi consistent way.
>>732217327>>732217437I think I'll try to go PC first, just because I think it's neat FF7 got a PC release.
>>732208548You only know how to do that at Level 1 if you're looking up guides or have played the game countless times. Yes, it's better, but you could say that about literally any game where advance knowledge lets you break it. Playing the game normally, enemies having stronger spells and items is how you level up your characters.
>>732217535Wow, that looks really good. I'll go with the OG models for my first time through but if I decide to do another playthrough I'll mod it for sure.
>>732217535Don’t use modded models use the actual game with the models the devs actually made.
>>732204352It´s a good game and one of the best FF games (All the PS1 FF games are great). VIII along with VII are pretty good if one likes the techno fantasy mix over more classic stuff.
>>732217637I don't recommend it. It's just easier and better for you to go with the OG PS1 version. I don't know what autism you have needing to play the PC version, but I guarantee you are simply better off by emulating the PS1 version
>>732217637May wanna wait a minute. Apparently the PC version is getting some updated version in the near future. It's unclear what will be different, but there might be notable improvements that don't require modding, so could be worth holding off a short while.
>>732217824There's no reason to not mod the original chibi models as long as they remain chibi.The original FF VII was planned to be released on Nintendo 64. All models except those used in combat look as they look only because the game was supposed to fit a N64 cartridge.
>>732218081Don't worry, I'm downloading the archive version.
>>732212585One thing I will say is FF8 is fucking packed with lots of background lore: these, the background about the various wars. The fact there used to be a fully fucking functional continent that I don't think actually gets a direct mention but you can infer was basically obliterated a hundred years ago by the moon monster laser. Look I didn't say it was good lore but it's there. Hell one random grandpapy tells you a nursery story that's entirely optional and easily missed but also gives the genesis of where sorcery comes from, the fact that there's some kind of deity belief in the world and the name of the god in question, Hyne. None of this shit is remotely important but it's nice to have.
>>732204352It puts the romance plot front and center, and it's a good thing.
>>732215502I could drive in 2000. It's fucked up man.
>>732218685Damn how old are you
