>>12830496
The culprit is autism.

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>>12830496
>Yes anon, you fit in here, have a cookie

>>12830514
Hello, bot-kun.

I actually think the game just has too much going for it honestly. You could just play FF8 in a straight forward manner, but by ignoring a lot of the systems built in, the schedules, Triple Triad, etc..
If you want to fully explore and play the game doing everything in conjunction it's a mess, made me lose motivation to keep playing. Not a bad game, honestly liked it quite a bit but man. Felt like I had choice paralysis.

>>12830496
honestly, the only thing about this game that really pisses me off is that once you buy a weapon upgrade you lose your old weapon and have to farm the ingredients to rebuild it

>>12830496
I played it for like 30 hours or something getting max stats and weapon upgrades on the first disc. I beat the game on disc one and quit to watch story videos about it instead. 10/10. Triple triad is better than tetra master or whatever shit bitch.

>>12830496
it's a rushed unfinished mess like VII and IX
it's like they decided on a theme, started making the game around it, then forgot or got bored halfway through so they dropped everything and reverted back to the generic stop the big evil bad guy from destroying the world cliche. the PS1 trilogy is a mess, none of those games are good

>>12830496
so even for an ff game the story is a convoluted shitshow, utterly detestable characters, less said about the flash sequences the better, worst magic system i've ever seen, literally the only good thing about it was triple triad

It had anti gamer designs. A true gamer wants to see the numbers go up. So if drawing magic for hours on end makes the numbers go up we will do it. Same with leveling up, the number went up so why is it harder? Anti gamer is code for anti gamer.

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>>12830790
>>12830820
>>12830872
>game implements intelligently designed mechanics that punish mashing confirm to win and allow for unique styles of play
>considered the worst in response

>>12830872
>A true gamer wants to see the numbers go up. So if drawing magic for hours on end makes the numbers go up we will do it.
But you get better magics at a faster rate if you just progress the story, so it isn't any different from the usual EXP grind.

>Same with leveling up, the number went up so why is it harder?
The game is already too easy and if you do a bare minimum of junctioning you're always staying ahead of the enemy curve. No one actually experiences the game as getting harder so why are you spouting this speedrunner trivia zoomer mind-virus shit?

>>12830909
He was mindgraped by spoony 20 years ago

>>12830496
The game is incredible. I love how the card and Junction systems work, especially experimenting to find the best magic and make your characters completely overpowered. I also love Triple Triad and how open-ended it is.

The problem is the story. So much of it feels strange or poorly explained. The whole thing about GFs making you forget things comes out of nowhere, and the fact that all the main characters were apparently raised in the same orphanage feels incredibly convenient and weird. The villain also doesn’t feel right, and Seifer’s arc feels unsatisfying. On paper, I really like what they were trying to do with his character, but the execution just doesn’t work for me.

That said, there are some genuinely great moments in the story. Sneaking around disguised as an enemy soldier was really fun, and the mechanical spider in the first mission is still one of the coolest moments in the game. There are plenty of great ideas and individual scenes.

But overall, especially toward the end, the story just stops making sense to me. Nothing really fits together, very little feels properly resolved, and so much of it feels half-baked. This is the only Final Fantasy I’ve played so far, and I think the game itself is genuinely great in many ways. But honestly, the story is one of the weakest point. (I’m a Zoomer, so I didn’t grow up with it. I don’t really have any attachment to it.)

>>12830931
>>12830909
>>12830898
You are being anti gamer.

>>12830589
>30 hours
>max stats
>first disc

that is impossible, you don't have access to every place you need to max your stats until disc 3

>>12830496
all the stupid flashbacks with Laguna made me stop playing 30 hours in on disc 2 last time I went to play through it. I only beat it one time actually back in 2010 or 2011.

Love the GF system
love junction system
love refining stuff
love triple triad

like squall generally, and balamb garden


DONT like stupid unrelated laguna flashbacks
dont like the turn to "more realistic" polygons from FF7
don't like the overworld generally
don't like shittier limit break system

although when people bring up the game, it makes me want to reopen my save on XBONE (where I last played it, originally beat it on PSONE). I have squall as one of my commanders in Magic although it really has very little bearing on the game.

I don't have any complaints about the gameplay. The story and characters are just retarded though.

>>12830496
I havent played this game in a while. I remember the combat being too easy. I remember just summoning some creature and just nuking the enemies.

I need to replay the game since I remember barely getting to the second disc.

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>>12831362
>stupid unrelated laguna flashbacks
Bruh he was Squall's father, how is that unrelated
>dont like the turn to "more realistic" polygons from FF7
7's in-game models during combat look very much like 8I's do, 8 just made things consistent between the battle scenes and the rest of it and that's a sensible evolution. I have nostalgia for 7's character models but it never made sense that characters were realistically proportioned in combat and deformed dwarves outside of it
>don't like the overworld generally
the overworld is kino
>shittier limit break system
Okay I kinda agree with this one a little because having to be low hp to use limits sucks at first since it makes it a risk/reward scenario whereas in 7 it was more something you could bank. But the thing is, 8's system lets you strategically manufacture limit breaks more or less on demand and use them repeatedly by staying low hp and later in the game when you have stupid high hp totals and access to the aura spell / stones it mitigates the low hp risk factor. So it's less of a downgrade and more of a tradeoff. I still prefer 7's but 8's works well in its intended context. For example, having to wait for limit breaks to build up rather than intentionally going into fights with low hp would make the "kill 20 tonberries" sidequest so much more time consuming.

>>12832218
I dont remember that BIG SPOILER at all from when I beat it 15+ years ago. Big if true. would make sense why at Shumi village they really wanted to finish the Laguna statue while you're there visiting.

I was randomly back at FH when I reloaded my save from a few years ago, did that, took off with the Garden, got Tonberry and Odin and did both little statue quests for SHUMI's and just got BOKO as well at the snow covered forest. Guess I'll keep playing

but I definitely did not remember the Laguna connection

>>12830496
no you dont understand I HAVE to junction 99 of every spell by drawing over and over again in every random encounter. I CANT ever cast those spells, then my stats would lower by some imperceptible amount!! I CANT level up at any point, then the enemies will level up too and the game will be IMPOSSIBLE!! the devs FORCED ME to grind triple triad for 8 hours before ifrit's cave so I can have optimal stats and ruin the game!!
>t. legions and legions of completely fucking retarded faggots

>>12832713
you never questioned why the moombas in d-district prison keep saying laguna~ laguna~?

>>12832713
>I dont remember that BIG SPOILER at all from when I beat it 15+ years ago. Big if true. would make sense why at Shumi village they really wanted to finish the Laguna statue while you're there visiting.
I assumed that Laguna was Squall's dad by the beginning of Disc 2, why else would he be there? I didn't see the text directly stating it for another 2 decades, but it seemed obvious to me.
It's my favorite game.
>>12832724
Yeah, people ruin the game for themselves. It's like being 20 levels over in other games, you can do it, but you're only cucking yourself.
I've done runs where I got tons of shit, hours of grind at 3X speed before Ifrit.
I've done a low-lvl run where I was lvl 8-10 at the end of the game. Since enemies scale with you, this actually makes the game much easier and makes it JUST the story, and the story isn't that great.
The most fun way to play it is to play it normally, fighting most encounters, occasionally mugging, and dabbling (but not obsessively) in draws and card shit.

>>12832713
>at Shumi village they really wanted to finish the Laguna statue while you're there visiting
I'm not sure of the exact sequence or requirements but they do end up finishing the statue. The last couple of times I've played it I've beelined for Shumi Village with the Garden then revisited with the Ragnarok on disc 3 where they end up finishing it and dumping a lot of Laguna lore on you.

Always felt Winhill was a complete waste of time outside of the flashback.

most fun way to play ffviii:
>2 GFs max per character
>no card or item refine
>one draw per character per battle
>no aura
>no meltdown
>no perma stat boost on level up GF abilities

>>12832749
oh yeah and no cerberus summoning either. shit is busted.

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>>12832743
>Always felt Winhill was a complete waste of time outside of the flashback.
It is. You can rebuild the vase and get some minor item. But, I grew up on the border of Germany and France in the '90s in a little traditional village that looked like Winhill. I originally played VIII living there. So Winhill is a real nostalgia hit for me and I make sure to go there occasionally. Reminds me of simpler times and the old world with fields of flowers and smoky bars.

I beat FF8 but damn, it took a lot of willpower. It's even more of a straight line than 7. You'd think that, at the very absolute least you'd have to go to Flower City or whatever as Squall in the present just to see what Laguna was doing there back in the day but not even that! The place is completely optional. That's not necessarily bad but it's a setup without a real payoff. And then at the end of the game when you'd think you'd be able to travel through the world going to towns to finish up everything you missed, everything's locked away and stores are also locked behind GF abilities! It's just very strange.

>>12832758
They had to take out half the game to rush it out the door to get that sweet FF7 hype money. It's unfortunate.

I wouldn't have beaten Ultimecia without that Invincible shit.

>>12830496
worst thing about this game is that disc 4 basically nukes your save file

>>12832865
>worst thing about this game is that disc 4 basically nukes your save file
wdym?

>>12832880
Disc 4 on VIII and IX were mostly data-filled with the ending cutscenes so they had to wall off a lot of the game locations and sidequests on the world map. There's a point of no return before the end dungeons where after that you can only go to some locations.

>>12832218
>it never made sense that characters were realistically proportioned in combat and deformed dwarves outside of it
The deformed dwarves are readable at smaller scale than the realistic models. This lets FFVII set the camera back farther and gives the whole game a better sense of scale.

>>12830496
Junction and level scaling is stupid. Creates an rpg where all you do is auto attack, trying to do something cooler weakens you, and leveling up is bad.
Really retarded game
However I think most people's real issue comes down to squall being a terrible character. Extremely unlikeable to anyone who doesn't have autism, tries to hard to be cool to the point of unrealistic, game still sucks his dick because hes the protagonist
8 is a bad game, you can like bad games but that was the general consensus since before half of you were alive.
Time did not change this.

btw i'm trans if that matters :3

>>12831171
Oh maybe i meant max junctions idk it was a long time ago. Maybe it was slightly more hours too.

>>12832880
He's probably talking about the time compression, it pretty much locks you out of every city and sidequest. It really sucked as a kid reading all those guides from magazines only to realize I was locked out from doing pretty much any sidequest by disc 4.

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>>12832983
>tfw autistic edgelord from the late-'80s.
I've beaten this game 10+ times, have bought it 4 times (twice on psx in the early 00s), and started another run over the weekend.
Who did you think is on /vr/?

>>12832885
i dont think they walled cities off to save room on disc (isn't the entire game minus fmvs on every disc anyway?), I think it's just a weird narrative choice

>>12833415
>33/34 (97%)
embarrassing

>>12833429
The ending fmv of VIII was 14 minutes long.
It was because of disc space. A PSX disk holds ~650MB.

>>12833502
Speaking of that ending...
It's absolutely whack:
https://youtu.be/NvPXZot9Lks
2:30 to 4:30 looks like it's saying Rinoa wasn't even real or something and really, really feeds the R=U stuff. It won't spoil anything really to watch as it's pretty much uncomprehensible psychedelic stuff. It all makes sense to me, but is my interpretation correct? Who knows?

>>12830514
Thank you~ :3

>>12833509
Fun coincidence: psilocybin mushrooms weren't illegal in Japan until 2002 and could be bought at some convenience stores.

>>12830496
>I don't get the hate
you don't get people then.

like, people come in all sorts of varieties like low intelligence, weak, feeble, stupid, lazy, with bad taste, etc.

and on the internet (especially on anonymous image boards) when you read a shit take, you have no fucking idea
where is it coming from.

did it come from some retarded spoiled weak pathetic weakling who is onanxiety meds, got into gaming like 2 years ago, played FF7 remake, liked it and decided to go back, played 8, didn't understand it and naturally he got upset and shitposted about it on the internet?

or did it come from a legit normal person, who wrote that, yes, FF8 is a nice game, the battle system is way above average, customizable and fun, awesome music, memorably story, good characters, and a great deal of heart and soul.

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>>12832749
Nah the most fun way to play is
>use the magic lamp as soon as Cid gives it to you (saving your game first though)
>Get Diabolos
>grind out enc-half immediately
>learn enc-none as you progress through the rest of disk 1
>learn card+ card mod and whatever refine skills you can at the same time
Once you have enc-none + card mod you can just turn off random battles entirely. You play cards to get magic for junctions and stay relatively low level. This lets you explore at your leisure, and if you're good at finding people with high-level cards your stats from junctions will quickly outpace whatever leveling might have done. Makes for a very comfy, nicely paced playthrough and since you're accruing magic faster than you use it it mitigates the "I can't use magic if it's junctioned to my stats" autism so many suffer from.
>but I don't want to play that much triple triad
>then turn the encounters back on in the proper places to grind for items instead if that's how you want it. You can turn it on and off whenever it suits you, or eschew too many junctions and play with low stats for a challenge like you suggested (which sounds like a pain in the ass to me but to each his own).

The real point is that you have options. VIII lets you play however you want. if people still find it boring, that's honestly on them

>>12833509
ending makes perfect sense when you realize he dies at the end of disc 1. thats why he flashed back to deling city where he died.

>>12833518
They weren't illegal in the UK until they closed a loophole in 2005, we used to get the train to Camden and buy them a kilogram at a time in college.

>>12832749
>2 GFs max per character
That's a good way to play, and encouraged since fewer GFs junctioned = faster ability unlocks

>>12833648
Goddamn, and here I was in college in the '00s making my own mushrooms. A kilo dried is a lot, thats 300 doses, jesus.
I don't like psychedelics anymore, I like opiates. I don't want to feel scared, I want to feel zero fear. But the media that comes from artists taking psychedelics is amazing so I'd allow it despite my preferences.

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>>12830496
The game is retardedly broken, it's either way too hard or way too easy depending on how you play, no in between.

That being said it does have the best minigame of the entire franchise, Squall is top 3 MCs and the music is one of Uematsu's all time best.

>>12830496
Ok I'll explain, I don't want to play a fucking card game I want to play a jrpg. Is that hard for your pea brain to understand? A jrpg.

>>12831057
>The whole thing about GFs making you forget things comes out of nowhere
Not if you actually paid attention

>>12834045
The card game is entirely optional
You can get items and spells from monsters and refining abilities

>>12834068
It's the central progression mechanic

>>12834045
Well card games are enjoyed by intelligent white men and hated by brown shitskins, so...

>>12834045
Soulless

>>12832713
replying to myself to show that im this person. decided to keep playing. on disc 3 near the end. just got bahamut and eden in the bottom of the ocean. pretty sweet stuff. about to go to bed while leaving Angelo Search to run

points to make
- yeah. the laguna shit still makes no sense to me
the forcing other characters thing was foreshadowing for the much worse and much slower shittier game ff9 (ff7 is the best ps1 FF and best game of all time)

the junctioning is awesome but its far too clunky in this format. you really need like a PC interface and a big table to move around magic between people. if they ever remake this and actually try and keep the proper mechanics (unlike the groomer dog shit incomplete fetch quest game ff7 remake) like one big magic pool like 100x how ever many characters you have so you can pull from that for junctioning.

really such a lackluster overworld, but not as bad as ff9.

the space shit is even more ridiculous than I remembered.

>>12832983
no I remember very well when I was a kid people said this game was dog shit and to just go for ff7 instead because you could still find both at the store. even into 2000 when ff9 was released ff7 was selling new and better than either one.

its somewhat worth revisiting but having not completed it until I was a young adult in 2010 I had no desire to replay it much.

>>12833569
this does sound fun. this run I'm finished on XBONE I started back in 2023 and I was playing a lot of triple triad. but I think I had spread some retarded rules because every game had random. the one game I won recently was against Edea after she stopped being a psycho bitch and got her awesome card. and then all the other games are elemental plus random every shitty rule combined to make an unplayable game. bummer. I know theres ways to eradicate the gay rules but I hadn't done that I guess.

>>12833660
I dont see how this makes a difference

>>12833668
speaking truth to power here.

>>12833509
Quistis is Ultimecia.

>>12831057
>The whole thing about GFs making you forget things comes out of nowhere
the game literally tells you this on the computer where you get the 2 first GF in the very beginning of the game.

>>12834091
i beat the game easily on my first playthrough without playing a single game of cards

>>12834548
Yeah this is why people always say FF8 filters brainlets, it's no joke

>>12834548
It does. And when you graduate to seed after the first mission the Norg affiliated guy tells you not to worry about "rumors" about GFs. There are several points of foreshadowing, I guess if your gaming experience is following a guide you wouldn't notice.

>>12834168
>the laguna shit still makes no sense to me
Ellone thinks Laguna is her father?
Do you remember Squall thinks Ellone is his sister?
You're not paying any attention.

Game mechanics are too easy and people complain the game is too easy. Otherwise, people complain the game is too hard and tedious.

Junction system feels like getting hit in the head when trying to use that shit for the first time.

>>12835605
>assign spell to stat
>stat go up
math class must have been hell for you.

>>12835605
>>12836060
no let him cook. why certain spells increase certain stats is not part of the math. why death improves luck (because its funny?). why Holy gives status resistances, why Protect gives elemental resistances? there is some weird sht in there but its fun. obviously those spells arent all dumped on you at the beginning or even the ability to junction them that way but there is definitely some "quirky" stuff going on

>>12834998
I'm still just milling about the end of disc 3 grinding out items in-between Angelo Search sessions (leaving the game on while running errands or sleeping). Right before I had to go to Pandora I met Laguna and he said Ellone's parents were killed by Galbadian soldiers, thats when she went to stay with Raine in Winhill and he "didnt adopt her for certain reasons"

yes it did seem that Ellone is Squall's sister but and it seems like that should have been more fleshed out on the space station. I dunno. going into Lunatic Pandora and Ultemecia's Castle now and finishing this up tonight so maybe some things will click that I definitely probably forgot in the last 16 years since beating it the first time.

>>12836219
The Elaine “sister” thing was probably a translation mistake. Children often call older girls who they look up to oneesan (“big sis”) in Japan as anyone who’s watched enough animoo can attest to.

>>12836229
>Elaine
JFC. I’m still not used to typing on phones.

>>12830496
>seems directed at the Junction System
Midwit gamer statement of the fucking century.

>i understand how thing works
>how can rest of thing be bad?
It's a mediocre mechanic that the game couldn't put its full ass behind. Why would it? The whole game is a half-assed mess which centers on the biggest Debbie Downer in gaming history and his band of forgettable nobodies.
"Easy" and "difficult" have nothing to do with FF8s gameplay.
When the biggest proponents of a game almost universally agree the best way to play the game is to break one of its core mechanics in order to rush through the game then it's not a good game. How did you not realize they fucked up when the throwaway card minigame was the best part?

The only thing 8 had going for it was the graphics upgrade for character models, but they were even late to that AND they made them boring as fuck.

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just finished it up again. yeah its a good game overall. better than 9 but yeah definitely lots of issues. the trippyness is cool. I do overall think junction is a good system and especially how the summons are used. characters meh.

the story still is just pretty strange. or maybe nonsensical is a better descriptor. I feel like I know a little bit more now than I did in 2010/2011 but still am going to have to do some reading. it was definitely worth revisiting. The peak for Square's period 98-99 (or what seems most effort went into) was Parasite Eve by a long shot.

S Tier FF's: 7, 10
A Tier: 3 (NES) 5, 6
B Tier: 1, 4, T
C Tier: 8
D Tier: 9, 2

(games after 10 not rated for being trash. remakes are not considered FF games here, but honorable mention to FF4 DS)

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>>12834168
>all the other games are elemental plus random every shitty rule combined to make an unplayable game
Random doesn't make the game unwinnable, it just means that you can't brute force your way through it with a loaded deck like you normally can. You actually have to git gud and play strategically, although if you have a shitload of high-level cards you still go in with a bit of an advantage because they'll still show up frequently. And you can mod as many low-level cards as possible to lower the odds of them showing up

Or if you just don't want to fuck with it, there's a student at the port in balamb who will reset all the card rules in the region after you play him and IIRC it applies to balamb garden as well so you can at least play the CC club without random and the higher level club members will give you access to lots of good cards.

You DO know about the CC club, right?

>>12836623
I didnt end up doing anything with the card club this time around. I know I could have modded away all my crappy cards but I kind of wanted to have a complete collection although then I didnt keep playing but I had some good cards. Edea, Seifer, Quistis, some GFs etc

>>12830496
>leveling makes you weaker
>casting spells makes you weaker
>the simplest way to get stronger is to draw to 99
it's fucking stupid

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwW6uzIDoGQ

>Includes the line, "Grrrrghghg"
>"What did he say?"
>"I think his throat got injured, he lost his voice."
>"It was... voodoo!"
Well, there wasn't a battle scene of his throat getting cut/pierced, but at least the narrative clip explaining why the big-guy Ward doesn't speak anymore.

Also, I can't actually watch these movie arts.
I want to, I loved the game and the story, but... I can't stand "acting."
Still, it is humorous to see some odd direction, poor adapting of gears, but some pretty spectacular scenery. And, while I turn volume "OFF" for 95% of the video, it's still makes IRL commentary sense that even this cast doesn't know how to pronounce ANY name or location of anywhere in FF8. It's fun to hear how other people have, apparently, been pronouncing
>Seifer
>Galbadia
>Laguna
>Rinoa
etc.
The music isn't remarkable, at all, however. That hurts.

>>12837452
SEE-fer (although maybe it could be cypher), gal-bad-ee uh, lagoon-uh, Rin-oh-uh. what other ways are there even? or are these people foreigners

>>12837463
>quistis + rinoa = quinoa

>>12837463
For me:
>Psy-fer
>Gaul-bad-eeyuh
>Laguu-na
>Linn-(o)wah
In German when there are two vowels you pronounce the second one ("when two vowels go a-walking, the second does the talking") but I have no idea what the intent was.

>>12837452
>Galbadia
Even in the video, who speak the nation's name, it's different nearly every time.

"gal-BUH-DEE-uh"
"GAL-BUH-dye-uh"
"gal-BAY-DEE-uh"
"GAWL-bah-DYE-uh"
"gal-BAY-JYAH"
Even Laguna pronounces his country differently 3 times.

>>12830496
The story is a huge downgrade coming from VI, VII, and Tactics.

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>>12837307
>I kind of wanted to have a complete collection

You can't get 100% of the cards unless you do the queen of cards quest and that is an ENORMOUS pain in the ass. It's not even really possible unless you're willing to do some really laborious RNG manipulation. I did it once just because I got stupid lucky and abolished random in a couple places without even trying but in general it's not worth the drama. It's not even difficult exactly, just painfully frustrating and tedious. You can get some insanely OP items out of it but you can already break the game a thousand ways anyway so none of them are necessary.

You *should* do the CC quest, though. It gets you some good cards, pays dividends in disk 4 and is a nice bit of worldbuilding. Plus, everyone involved is in Balamb garden so you can do the whole thing without a ton of travel and it's the one place where you really can't fuck yourself by spreading shitty rules because of the reset.

Besides, it's a sidequest, anon. Why are you playing RPGs if you don't want to do sidequests?

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>>12837345
>>leveling makes you weaker
Only if you're a fucking tard who doesn't engage with the junction system. The level scaling is there to keep you from steamrolling enemies as your stats increase but if you have even half a brain your junctioned stats will still outpace whatever benefits enemies gain from increased levels
>>casting spells makes you weaker
Again, only if you're absolutely fucking retarded and never replenish your supplies. You're not going to cast 15 ultimas or tornados in one fight, one or two casting has a negligible effect on junctions and even if your MAG dips by 1% it's something you can easily live with until you either refine or draw replacement spells. EVERY spell in the game can be restocked easily once you have access to the ragnarok and before that you don't need 99 pains or ultimas anyway, although you can still statmaxx until the game is a cakewalk if you're enough of an autist.

Everyone who screeches about stat losses from magic use either is an ultra turbo mega autist who just can't live with even a temporary and barely perceptible (and usually purely hypothetical) change in one stat for one second, or disingenuous faggots who never even played the game and are just parroting a common but entirely baseless complaint. Either way, the fault is with you, not the game.
>>the simplest way to get stronger is to draw to 99
And the simplest way to win every fight is to spam summons but why the fuck would you do that? There's no point in the game where you have to sit there like an automaton and draw 99 of a particular spell just because it's available. In the early game enemies aren't strong enough to require insane stat boosts and later in the game you have access to lots of draw points, refining and card modding so drawing from enemies is just one of many options.

If you decide you want to be massively OP 1/4 of the way through disk 1, you can but stop acting like it's something you have to do. Just play the fucking game normally

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>>12837554
>This anon did beat the game

>>12837474
so Rinoa should be pronounced like the French car maker Renault? LOOOL

>>12837536
yeah I gave up on it. this was a playthough I started in 2023 and was 30 hours on disc 2 and just threw in the towel because the hour long laguna flashbacks kept annoying me. when I came back there were too many fucked up rules and the only major card I won was Edea. but I love the card refine thing, I just forgot what I should be doing or maybe I screwed myself earlier in the game with the rules proliferating a certain way

>>12837554
this is one remaster where using the "battle boost" shit makes a ton of sense because if youre a high level it just lets you dispatch enemies in a timely fashion

>>12837554
also not to mention once you get tonberry you can get the shop related abilities and then just refine cottages into mega potions and buy whatever bullshit you want to refine other items. guess you need to go to Esthar to get the "pet shop" items but whatever.

or I guess you can just get to A seeD rank from the menu screen, I didnt realize that until after I beat the game again yesterday. you can buy so many things to refine, Aura stones, all kinds of shit

>>12833606
I agree. But did his mom kill him? Or was that just part of Squall's Final Fantasy?

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>>12837618
>maybe I screwed myself earlier in the game with the rules proliferating a certain way

Accidentally spreading the random rule everywhere before you realize you shouldn't have can be demoralizing but remember:

>if you're determined enough you can always abolish rules so you're never permanently stuck with it anywhere
>As mentioned earlier Balamb garden has an easy rule rest option and all the CC club members are there so it can act as a sort of quarantine zone where you have access to all normal (i.e. non-character cards) without dealing with any of the more convoluted rules.
>Several of the people with rare cards play with all the crazy rules by default so if you want the best cards it was something you were going to have to deal with even if you never spread those rules yourself. It's not a bug, it's a feature

And the thing is, you CAN deal with any rule set. The first time you play a hand with random / plus / same it's kind of horrifying because the NPCs go from boring pushovers playing by-the-numbers hands to comboing the shit out you but that mostly happens because up until that point you haven't had to think about same or plus. Once you do start thinking about it you can see those combos coming and not set yourself up or better yet, start using those rules against the NPCs. It works both ways. You can have a shit-tier hand by the numbers but use a same / plus combo to flip the entire board if you play it right. It's harder to win every hand that way but the more complex rules actually make the individual hands more interesting. It's just hard mode. I routinely take the rare cards off Edea and Ellone without abolishing any of their rules

The only thing you really want to avoid in the card game is the direct rule. It's a good way to lose rare cards even if you win hands. If it ever happens track down the card queen and play her until it changes

>>12837492
>Poop-Bear-Tea
Seifer also can't pronounce puberty in the same series. Unless Balamb has goofy accents

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>>12837804
What about pooped bear tea?

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>>12837803
Adding to this, you probably know already:
-When you offer a card game and the challenged NPC says you'll have to change the ruleset to play them, you can challenge them 5-10 times and the prompt to play will come up without mentioning a rule change (and the rules don't change). This is helpful in various ways.
-There is a guy on the docks in Balamb Town (picrel) and if you challenge him it resets the Balamb area rules to the most basic and it resets the player's traveling rules (I forgot the ins and outs of TT rules) which can help you clear rules.

>>12832190
This

>>12834556
>i beat the game
Except you didn't

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>>12837827
>you can challenge them 5-10 times and the prompt to play will come up without mentioning a rule change
The fact that this you have to say no repeatedly and players wouldn't necessarily know they can avoid mixing if they didn't say no enough times suggests they really wanted rule spreading to be a thing (although like most aspects of the game, they allow you to do i your way if you understand the mechanics and are determined enough)

This seems kind of like a dick move at first but I think they wanted TT to feel like sort of a live thing where the NPCs were actually competitive and there was some drama and strategy to each hand. Because let's face it, the players who cultivate minimalist rulesets do it so we can hammer the shit out of people with our unbeatable hand full of character cards and win 100% of the time. It's no coincidence that the rarest rare cards require engagement with the larger rule set one way or the other. It was supposed to be hard. People don't hate random and plus because they're unfair. They actually make the game more fair, and we want it loaded in our favor just so we can hoard rare cards.

But to be fair, I always rationalized it as we're fighting to save the world and the cards help so if I more or less cheat by using a loaded deck and manipulating the rules that's okay. I needed those cards more than the NPCs did.

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>>12837827
I love the little details I learn about these games decades later.
Like, in FFVII when you go to the gold saucer after some point in Disc 2 there's a guy hiding around a corner in the entrance that will sell you GP for gil. He only spawns in like 1-in-10 times.

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>>12837907
I didn't know about the honeybee inn shenanigans for the longest time. I mean, I knew the place existed but I didn't know Could could participate in a gay orgy there

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>>12837901
I agree. I feel like abusing the no rulechange gimmick is against the spirit of the game. But I know about it and have used it in several playthroughs before.
But... there's a part of these games where I feel like they're trying to teach japanese children to THINK. I think they wanted players to figure out that if they get random, they're better off if they refine all the weak cards. I think they wanted players to find the hidden exploits and encourage out-of-the box experimentation.
Also Princess Bride is absolute cinema and the poison battle scene is hilarious.

>>12837803
this kind of shit is why I wish there was still that old ass android app for Triple Triad that they had in like 2010/2011 to practice with. when not many people had androids.
I got Edea's card this most recent play through and then I was about to duel Ellone and then decided against it because the last few games had some wack rules and I didn't want to reset again. I should have done it though.

>>12837827
I did not know any of this but I was wondering about:

whats up with sometimes I would just check out if people would even duel and then back out of starting a match especially if it had wack rules and it said that rule spread in the region. it even did this on the space station once (is that considered Esthar?)

>>12837907
this is like the oldest trick in the book its the only way to get GP for the pass really until you get to Chocobo racing later. unless you absolutely love and are incredible at the basketball game or something.

>>12837912
that is not at all what happens there contrary to what the North American groomer team added in the remake. he dressed up like a chick to fool his way in. you can look through the key hole of a dude doing some silly shit with one of the girls

>>12837345
>>leveling makes you weaker
higher levelled enemies have stronger magic that you can draw, and drop items that can be refined into stronger magic
also a lv100 bite bug is still a bite bug

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>>12838032
>whats up with sometimes I would just check out if people would even duel and then back out of starting a match especially if it had wack rules and it said that rule spread in the region
I think that once you accept the match and the software shifts to the Triple Triad screen you've already accepted the match.
If it wasn't clear, I'm talking in the "field" screens (the pre-rendered background areas). You press Square or whatever and challenge someone to a match. You say no over and over again, eventually they'll not say anything about rule changes and you can battle them without changing anything. Picrel, you say "no" 5+ times until they only respond with "would you like to play cards?" and you can play them without any rule adjustments.
I don't recall if it works on big opponents like Edea, but maybe.

>>12838045
At lvls 20 and 30 enemies get stronger magic you can draw from them and a lot of them gain new abilities to use against you at those levels, many of which are unique to only one enemy.
Also the mugs change.
I seem to remember at least one thing you can use to rebuild weapons that's easier to drop / mug at lower levels so it has some complexity to it.

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>>12830496
The junction system is unbalanced. They clearly thought players would be too stupid to know how to use it, but if you do then the game becomes trivially easy. Not to mention the story is retarded nonsense anime drivel and the dungeons suck too.

>>12838070
>The junction system is unbalanced.
Unbalanced = more player autonomy.
Think about it.
You can read a guide that tells you how to make the game trivially easy, but why? Do you use summons in FF games? Most people don't because it's too easy, you can choose not to make the game easy. You'll save time AND boss fights will be difficult and interesting. You simply choose to be overpowered.
The alternative is a game like the Remakes where items that you go out of your way to get only give a 5% increase. It's so balanced that the player has no power, and reason to think or strategize.

>>12838052
It works on Edea, pretty sure it works on everyone.

>>12837536
>You can't get 100% of the cards unless you do the queen of cards quest

on disc 4, the queen of cards is in a hidden area on esthar, i dont recall where exactly but she has all the cards from her quest. pretty sure she uses every rule besides open but you can win any card you didnt get during your playthrough

>>12838070
>the dungeons suck too

>tomb of the unknown king
>centra ruins
>deep sea research center
>ultemecia's castle

>make FF7
>proceed to make a game that's worse than FF7 in every way
>I DON'T GET THE HATE
chatgpt thread

>>12834712
Imagine graduating from spermatozoa to seed. Deep lore...

>>12830496
The character designs went to people like appearance and the gayass card game. Those are the two reasons that stand out why I dropped..... Oh and the summon system zi remember losing health using a summon or something. The game sucks.

>>12830496
I love FFVIII. Junction system, now during the Internet era where everything is explained and tested to the point of breaking the game in your favor, like manipulating the rules of Triple Triad so they stay the way that most benefits you. Back when I was playing the thing with cursory knowledge of English, it was actually hard. You couldn't simply outlevel your enemies due to level scaling, you had to experiment with Junctions. Even then, you had to understand GF abilities and set them MANUALLY to prioritize learning refining spells. It's not as clearly explained in game. Once you had it all down, you were in for some good, crazy fun.
Checking out an actual guide made me realize how much hidden stuff is all over the geimu. It's really a great, mainline entry, which suffers some weird localization decisions.

>>12838557
I just had to ring the bell in Ultimecia Castle. Wait, what is this countdown timeACK-

>>12834491
Looper was based on FF8.

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If you used Hero/Holy War, Meltdown, The End or potion exploit in your lvl100 Omega Weapon battle, you cheated and didn't win.

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>>12838104
>You'll save time
There's explicitly a button that will do it for you. All of it. For you.

>>12830496
>What gives?
All I've learned from souls-like is that people hate difficulty options.

>>12838558
yeah usually the follow up after the pinnacle of a brand, or band or artist etc' work its not super horrible but this is a major step down from Ff7. There are a lot of parallels between 8 & 9 though. And I think 9 is a really bad game because it has nothing like materia or junctioning system.

hell ff3 (NES) has even more customization than 9 (and is a vastly superior game).

>>12838557
ultemecia's castle is one of the best locations in any FF but like the other "dungeons" aren't that great. deep sea research center is somewhat interesting of course getting to the bottom is awesome. getting odin is cool but hardly even a dungeon.

>>12838880
I used r3 for battle boosts (built into the game by Square) to continuously cast limit breaks. Felt good to finally legit beat Omega weapon at L.100!

>>12839361
>getting odin
You mean getting tonberry.

>>12839419
Nta, yeah fuck getting Odin.
>Trying to farm mugs that only show up lvl 20-30
>Too bad, RNG Odin outta nowhere and gives your whole party exp

>>12839419
I got tonberry first then did the rest to get odin

>>12839461
sometimes annoying

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>>12839361
>I used r3 for battle boosts (built into the game by Square) to continuously cast limit breaks

>>12839469
I beat it back in 2010 on a 17" crt on my Ps2. no reason to do it again "the hard way". besides with the cottage-x potion sell glitch and infinite crowns for infinite aura spells you can basically do that any way

>>12839492
edit I wouldn't even call that a selling glitch just an exploit they programmed in to allow easy cash (I mean why else would they let you go into the menu you and pass tests to get to A seeD rank?)

>>12839494
If you want to really make the game shitty, you can get Quistis’s Degenerator limit break in the first 30 minutes or so. It one-shots every non-boss in the game. I know about it, yet I don’t do it.
There’s a difference between seeing games as an escape from reality or as a task to complete.

>>12839502
I dont remember the first 30 hours of this play through but quistis did have Degen on this one. I wanted to have fun doing broken shit in this game, junctioning the best spells doing all the best shit. doing broken shit is fun for me in this game.

running around in circles on the world map to get your SeeD salary doesn't sound any more fun for Gil.

>>12839745
>SeeD salary
What? I’ve never had issues with money in any play through, even the exploit min max ones.
As said before, I think that “normal” non min-maxed playthroughs are the best way to play it. Just play the game, battle almost every encounter, and draw / card only occasionally. No summons.

>>12839757
ok but needed a few million Gil to buy Hypno Crowns for Aura Stones is what I was talking about. Not that I "needed" to that at all. but I have fun exploiting the junction system.

>>12839768
I know what you were talking about.
To be honest, I’ve quick-entered the TEST questions using
https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/03/24/final-fantasy-viii-seed-test-answers-cheat-sheet-390526
within the last 3-4 days. I’m so fast at it. I’ve never had a run where I needed money, I just do it anyway lol.
If you’re having fun that’s the point. So, cool.
My issue is when people follow an maxing exploit guide first time then call the game boring. The fun is figuring this stuff out.

>>12832771
>[citation needed]

>>12837912
>I didn't know Could could participate in a gay orgy there
They take a bath together.

>>12838032
>he dressed up like a chick to fool his way in
That's Corneo Hall, not the Honey Bee Inn.

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>Selphie uses the expression "Booyaka!" on her website as a greeting. She wants to spread the lingo, but fails. In Japanese, it is "Mamimumemo!"—which is the "M" row in the Japanese alphabet.

>>12840218
You have to go back.

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>>12840218

>>12830496
Hold onto my beer.

1. The development team was already suffering when all the old guard left for Honolulu to make what would become FF9. Then they were split up again because Square wanted to work on Spirits Within movie.
2. After the song “Eyes On Me” started to gain traction this tiny production team was told to make the game more of a romance story.
3. Kazushige Nojima came out a few years ago and said in an interview that none of the creative team actually talked to each other.
4. The game has plot points that go nowhere, massive plot holes and genuinely disturbing parts…
A. Like Squall taking Rinoa out of a medical facility he himself manages to carry her unconscious across a continent on his back. Presumably taking care of her “hygiene” and food needs without her specifically saying it's okay.
B. Irvine being the only one who remembers everything, not asking them why they were all okay with shooting their surrogate mother.
C. Being able to get a train across the planet, find and argue with a blob monster all quicker than an ICBM can fly.
5. Because of the average level monster shit the correct way to play is to draw magic and then run from all fights.
6. Disc one is completely different in tone to the rest of the game. It’s basically a different product.

Quistis = Best Girl.
Rinoa = Ultimecia going back to a time Squall still liked her.

>>12840285
I always wondered how much of damage his limit break would do with 255 str + meltdown.

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Anyone remember this controller? It came bundled with my FF8 purchase when I bought it new (I'm an oldfag). Unfortunately I don't have it anymore. It's one of the best jrpg controllers ever. You can play the entire game one handed and take notes with the other (there was no internet back then), or jerk off or something

>>12840648
>ICBM
They were cruise missiles.

>>12840834
>Intercontinental ballistic missiles are different to "Cruise Missiles" that travel across continents to hit their targets.
Did someone hit you with the stupid stick?

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>>12840648
>1. The development team was already suffering when all the old guard left for Honolulu to make what would become FF9. Then they were split up again because Square wanted to work on Spirits Within movie.
You seem to imply Squaresoft's staffing between FF8 & FF9 was both radically different and are making the assertion that FF9 had a much more praiseworthy development team.
>2. After the song “Eyes On Me” started to gain traction this tiny production team was told to make the game more of a romance story.
Lots of Final Fantasy stories from Squaresoft are romantic. This is not, at all, uncommon and hearing a 2-minute song during a 75 second FMV is not "the cause" to FF8 being romantic.
>3. Kazushige Nojima came out a few years ago and said in an interview that none of the creative team actually talked to each other.
A single developer speaking of a personalized experience with a very small team about a project from nearly 30 years ago is not the defining truth of 1998's Final Fantasy VIII. Furthermore, your claim, that he claims, "NONE of the team... talked to each other," is a blatant hyperbolic lie.
>4. The game has plot points that go nowhere, massive plot holes and genuinely disturbing parts…
Beyond a poor opinion, this statement is not true and highly opinionated.
>A. Like Squall taking Rinoa out of a medical facility he himself manages to carry her unconscious across a continent on his back. Presumably taking care of her “hygiene” and food needs without her specifically saying it's okay.
Squall is very strong. He has GFs. "Walking across the continent" is easy, for him. FFVIII is not realistic, you know? He could use a phoenix down if she died of hunger. Maybe just cast "Cura" every once-in-a-while. The game doesn't even indicate it was a long-timed journey; it implies it only took two days given we only see one sunset.

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>>12840648
>>12841414
>B. Irvine being the only one who remembers everything, not asking them why they were all okay with shooting their surrogate mother.
Irvine is actively displayed as using his "ladies man" persona as a facade; he is, actually, a socially shy coward, especially with friends and family.
>C. Being able to get a train across the planet, find and argue with a blob monster all quicker than an ICBM can fly.
This is a childish remark about realism in your Fantasy video game, not some "obvious plothole that completely shatters the story!!!"
>5. Because of the average level monster shit the correct way to play is to draw magic and then run from all fights.
"Average level" monsters are very weak. Very, very weak. "Escape" is not the obvious action to take and "draw" is not necessary to win a battle.
>6. Disc one is completely different in tone to the rest of the game. It’s basically a different product.
Stories shift, yes. Have you ever read a book? Turns out, most stories begin with introductions and expository settings to get the reader invested!
>Quistis = Best Girl
Opinion. She's very shallow as a "teacher/onee-san who thinks Squall is sexy" character.
>Rinoa = Ultimecia going back to a time Squall still liked her
Ultimecia is using the "Junction Machine Ellone" with the intent of flattening time; she is not personally capable of "time travel" and she's rebuking time out of current (future) spite.

>>12841414
>He has GFs
Good point, he probably forgot that Rinoa needed to eat and piss. GFs give you memory loss you know.

>>12838569
>funniest clanker

>>12837536
This is wrong, you don't have to do the QoC for 100%, only the CC. QoC just gives you earlier access to certain cards.

>>12841331
>not knowing the difference
Bruh.

>>12830557
Why would you want to regress to a worse weapon?

>>12830496
I remember finding Bahamut's sea vessel lair thing by chance, since I didn't use cheats or guides when I first played as a kid, that shit blew my mind. I also collected all the cards without using the "Rules" trick and just played by local continent rules. The game has so much extra content, it really is amazing. Also the GOAT OST.

>>12841868
self-imposed challenges, maybe
but really i just hate when a game makes earlier equipment completely obsolete

>>12841881
>really i just hate when a game makes earlier equipment completely obsolete
That's fair. I did like FFX and having tons of weapon options. What I didn't like was how it was impossible to build a better weapon with better attributes than the Celestial Weapons, since customized weapons don't have their hidden defense-ignoring trait. I tried making a mage staff for Kimahri that mimicked Lulu's Celestial Weapon, only to find out it was ultimately inferior.

People talk about FF7 being unfinished but even though there's certain things that may give off that impression. I think FF8 has it's share of things that also can make you assume that the game wasn't finished and rushed out of the door. Considering that the Trabia section of the overworld seems to have been slashed as they seem weren't going to reach the deadline of putting the game out on sale.
FF8 for all of it's content galore which is great and I have plenty of fun with it. It's really strange that there's only 3 major locations. Balamb, Galbadia and Esthar.
I enjoy FF8 a lot for how uncanny it can feel while being comfy at the same time. And the combat is good, the game has things to offer there.
The story of FF8 at least in the case of the campaign and the characters is not really something worth of note for a regular play. But for the lorefags that like to get into that stuff, FF8 has a lot to offer.
Is ff8schizo still around? Hope he cooks up more kino

>>12842134
I haven't seen "the FF8 Schizo" in a while. Maybe even a year. I'm on tripping on halliucinohens right now and can say anything about FF8 if you want. I know the game life the software engineer I am.The key to paying .. you know what? This serves noi purpose anymieree and evewurything is fine.

>>12842145
Wat

>>12830496
I didn't like that all of my junctions would get wiped because of some stupid story reason usually related to Laguna sections so I'd have to waste time redoing everything, which was annoying.

>>12830496
Junction is gay, enemy level scaling is gay, and so is the story. 3 strikes and you're out. Fuck that faggot game.

>>12842198
Oi haven’t seen his whack ass theories in a while is all I’m saying. Maybe that’s a good thing, who knows?

>>12842339
this is why disc 1 and most of disc 2 sucks is too much insane laguna flashbacks. I've been commenting on this thread, but my most recent play through I finished a couple days ago I had started in 2023 and after 30 hours and half of disc 2 I just had to stop I couldn't deal with anymore insane flash backs and moving shit around fucking up what I set

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>>12842897
These days I always take pics from my junction settings with my phone right before those flashbacks. The one that happens right when you enter Esthar is the worst. Oh, you wanted to explore this giant futuristic city you just found? Well fuck you, it's Laguna time!

>>12842980
>>12842897
All you have to remember is which GF had the Str junction. Squall's go to Laguna. So you only need to keep track of two (2) GFs with Str-J. The rest come easy as you just fill the remaining junctions.

>>12842980
>game asks which character's junctions you want to give to Kiros and Ward
>ignores your choice and wipes everything anyway
I love the game but I fucking hate this lol. It's like when you go through Wutai in FF7 and your materia gets removed then returned jumbled. It's as if they thought that was a great enough idea to do eight times.

>>12843215
materia is less bad to redo though. in ff8 everybody has different amounts of magic and one GF being changed can totally throw off what you had junctioned,(like missing a stat) and its just a headache

>>12842339
>I didn't like that all of my junctions would get wiped because of some stupid story reason usually related to Laguna sections
This has never happened to me. Your stock either comes with you or gets left with another player who didn't go in the dream flashback

>>12831057
Not only the game tells you about the memory loss as soon as you get control of Squall after the first lecture (if you bother to read it), if you pay attention you can also notice how you get to meet certain students "for the first time" more than once. In this aspect this game is actually very interesting, if you just play it unattached, like Squall would, you'll suffer from the same lack of information he does, and ultimately be as confused as he is. The info for you to really get what's going on is all there though, you just have to put the phone down and read stuff.
>>12830872
>A true gamer wants to see the numbers go up
Skill issue, just rush through the early content and you can draw more powerful magic from late game enemies and you don't need to spend hours doing it. This is like complaining it takes too much to level your charmander to lvl 100 before viridian forest.

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>>12830872
So do you grind to level 99 in the first area of every RPG you play and complain about it?

>>12836060
Of course there are fags like this that defend a system that's obviously flawed.

>>12844456
>Player freedom is bad, acktchually!

>>12843414
There were definitely some instances where my junctions got wiped because of story reasons where I lost party members temporarily, etc.

>>12844739
you can transfer whole junction set ups through the menu.

A pro-tip to you:

remember that forest before Galbadia Garden you have your 2nd Laguna dream at? If you grind against the cliff wall there and initiate a random battle, you can encounter Grendel that is usually encountered on top of the cliff after you get the airship. In your early meeting with Grendel you can get Dragon Skin items from it for Zell and Quistis' weapons and to refine them into Double spells.

Heh.

Also if someone is bragging how they got Lionheart before Dollet mission, don't believe them. You need Adamantium for it and the earliest part you can get any is either getting Brothers and one of their cards can be refined into the item. There's also chance to get Adamantoise encounter near Dollet on the beach but it's low and you need to super level to high levels for it to drop/steal so you better of just refining the Brothers' card. And don't worry, if you completed Card Club in Balamb Garden, the CC members will be in Ragnarok on disc 4 and you can win back any refined and lost cards.

>>12845045
I got the Lionheart right after Timber last playthrough. Sadly it was a short lived experience as my ghetto'tard friend shot my PS3 before I could get to Disc 2

>>12845579
So, you grinded your levels high enough for Adamantoise to drop the item needed for it?

>>12830496
Some people just get mad at things they can't understand. Making a video game that's even a little bit weird is just too much for that kind of person. People also always act like FF8 has some uniquely bad game balance or something, when the fact is you can break pretty much any of those old RPGs somehow. The more freedom they gave you, the more ways you can do that. They were made to be played by kids/teenagers a couple times for a few weekends, none of them were built to survive decades of giganerds optimizating them.

>>12845620
Nta, I’ve done it once, it’s possible on disc 1 but not super early.
I’m usually about lvl 20 at the point where you’re able to encounter them. The drop rate of adamantine is high at lvl 30+ but there’s a less than 5% chance it’ll drop at 20-30 (0% below 20). Technically you can get to 20 and destroy lots of them with Quistis’s degenerator (it one shots them every time) and get it but it’s not really worth it.

>>12846135
Or you can just go to Galbadia Garden -> Deling City -> Tomb of Unknown King and beat the Brothers to get the card to turn into Adamantine

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>>12846140
Well then you don't have the Minotaur card, silly!
It's OP for the bottom-right corner of the board.
You're right. But before you do the 2nd Laguna flashback and get to Galbadia Garden at all you can get them. That's the earliest point which is why people "challenge run" getting it as early as possibru.
I usually get Lionheart pretty late, after the Lunar whatever, because you can fight Elnoyles at will. Getting 20 goddamn Elnoyle cards on disc 1 is harder imo than getting the adamantine.

>>12846152
>20 Elnoyle cards
You can just mug the guys in the second Laguna dream for the pulse ammo

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>>12846187
I... didn't know that. Interesting.
But the 2nd dream is technically after the first point you can acquire it. I'm not that big on such things, I do not care much, the 2nd Laguna dream is still very early. But to some people that's what they're going for - the earliest point you can get it.

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>>12839361
>ultemecia's castle is one of the best locations in any FF
You liked getting locked out of the entire rest of the game for the whole of disc 4?

>>12846202
Nta but...
>Ultimecia Castle is one of the best locations in any FF
>BUT YOU CAN'T GO VISIT TOWNS
That's a fallacy. You being locked out from something doesn't diminish the quality Ultimecia's castle has.

Also, you can go outside, you can get Ragnarok, you can play cards with Card Club members on Ragnarok if you cleared the quest, you can get lost and refined cards back from them, you can visit Odin's dungeon if you missed or deliberately left to get Odin after Seifer's final fight, you can go Deep Sea Research facility to get Bahamut and fight Ultima Weapon and get Eden GF from it and you can visit and grind Islands Closest to Hell and Heaven

>>12846152
You already have Ifrit card with 9628 coverin the bottom right and you bound to have better cards than your opponents because even the players with rare cards only carry one against your current 5.

Loved playing TripleTriadX with my school mates because you and your opponent had top tier cards and you got decks from other FFs and Square games too

>>12846209
You can also go to CHOCOBO FORESTS

>>12846195
Except you can't bring the Lionheart into the Laguna dream. You're not exactly missing content by visiting that forest before the Dollet beach

>>12846241
You already have Tonberry GF with Call Shop and Junk Shop to use any shop you visited and you can do everything on world map bar visiting towns. Missed Tonberry GF? You can still go to Odin's ruins to kill Tonberries to get the GF. Missed Cactuar GF? You can still go to Cactuar Island to get it. Missed Solomon Ring to get Doomtrain? You can still go to Tear Point to get it. Bahamut and Eden? Deep Sea Research center is there. You can go spot UFOs and fight PuPu and get its card.

You can't do Card Queen quest but you can play cards with Card Club members on Ragnarok and get back any card you refined or lost

>>12846253
I think you mistook my post for sarcasm

>>12830496
it's better than VII

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>>12846202
I've never understood this complaint. It's not uncommon to have points of no return in RPGs and FFVIII handles it way better than most.

Even if you ram into Lunatic Pandora without realizing you're starting the endgame you're not committed to it. You can proceed into the dungeon, decide you're not ready, retreat back to the ship and go back to anywhere you want to go. You have to go all the way through the Siefer fight before the time compression kicks in and you're actually stuck in the compressed world and it is very, very, very clear shit got serious so if you just overwrite your previous save after that and don't leave yourself a way back, then you're so fucking stupid I doubt you could get that far in the first place.

And even if you are a complete mouthbreather who ignores all the warnings, waits until the absolute ass end of the game to even think about sidequests and overwrites their one and only savefile after a very clear point of not return, like >>12846209 and >>12846253 pointed out, you can't actually softlock yourself or miss anything essential. The towns have nothing you need at that point, the CC club is a better card source than anyone in the towns would be, the Tonberry GF replaces every store in the game and you either already have it or can always acquire it. What is it you think you're missing? A fucking potion? An issue of Timber maniacs? Fucker, you're in the final dungeon. The time for dicking around in Dollet or wherever is over. Go beat the game already

>>12845579
>my ghetto'tard friend shot my PS3
WAT

>>12846202
>You liked getting locked out of the entire rest of the game
Yes actually, I love "point of no return" final dungeons, if only disc 4 was actually that...
>>12846723
Calm down bro, I know what you're feeling, but you have to understand, people who hate on VIII usually played it before becoming fluent readers.

>game features trains
>trains have railway junctions where all paths converge
>junctioning
>time compression is like the equivalent of a railway junction
>fate is like a railway whose path you can't change

Trains are the key to all of this

>>12848502
Ok, Selphie

>>12848502
>galbadia: we have train lines spanning our entire continent. what do you losers have?
>esthar: we have spaceships and flying sofas

>>12848548
kek

>>12841419
>>12840648
Rinoa is a girl. Girls don't piss or shit.

>>12852071
>[citation needed]

>>12853072
So I've been thinking about this and even though 7 was full of them I can't think of a single toilet or bathroom in 8. Closest is the house near timber station where the family all lives in one room that has a sink you can drink from.

Am I missing any?

>>12853526
Squall’s cell in d-district prison.

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>>12853534
For reference.

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Why does every final fantasy feel so dream like? Like I could escape this world of chaos and feel at home in any of the final fantasies and people get in arguments over battle design exc. That squaresoft 90s team was like some kind of dream team of real artists we are never gonna get again.

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>>12854949
Tell me about. Amano's art captures that feeling of being in a dream so well.

>>12855198
NTA but I definitely feel a dreamlike, almost psychedelic, feeling to V-IX. I can't really describe it. I would not attribute any of that to Amano's art, however.

>>12855198
Can we not appreciate how cool it is that Squall steals Rinoa from Seifer? Everyone's self-inserting and talking about "used goods," but Squall straight-up stole that guy's chick despite having a hotter one begging for his dick. Look at that pic, it's clear as day. Squall's such a chad.

>>12855206
Yeah. His art is just pure fantasy/fairy tale. Very immersive.

>>12855208
Heh. Even Quistis wants him.

>>12855198
I'm sorry but Amano is such an overrated hack.

>>12840825
that is really cool. I love when I can play a pc game with just a mouse

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>>12846723
>publishes a whole autistic book on not getting it
It's a RPG. People don't want to be railroaded. SO2 remains the pinnacle on how to do the endgame world.

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OP here, why are you fags still bumping this?

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>>12856039
you wouldn't get it

>>12855206
Amano or not there is just something really surreal about certain old jrpgs. Not all of them but certain ones that somehow get close to anime art but not really anime. Indie jrpg inspired stuff doesn't really capture that same thing. Crpgs and western rpgs are entirely different in aesthetic, more realist or comic book or LOTR fantasy inspired. I can't think of a single western RPG that captures classic FF.

>>12856087
Bandersnatch?