Why was Final Fantasy VIII so hated back in the day?
>>12884237Check all the other threads you've made about this game.
because retards think minmaxing is the default way to play an rpg instead of just playing it. also some people didnt read the mandatory tutorials. also some people think the story is dumb because they didnt pay attention. also some people are just brown with no taste whatsoever and nothing can be helped.
>>12884237It was an IQ testIf you had half a brain you used the game's systems to play any way you wanted to and enjoyed it thoroughlyIf you were a retard you grinded for levels without noticing the enemies scaled with you, didn't keep pace with the level scaling because your junctions were shit and had to summon spam., which made for a miserable experienceIf someone tells you they hate VIII it's basically an admission that they're dumb
>>12884237Because it was too big a departure from the older games by trying to be too realistic, not just in style of the graphics, but they had cars, TVs, computers. I know FF7 had that too, and that was the beginning of the end, but 8 took it even further, deviating away from the actual fantasy in Final Fantasy that many people grew up loving, things like castles, mages, sorcery, wooden ships flying with propellers and white dancing catbeaver creatures.
Level scaling and the junction system.
>>12884237Because it required players to read the text on their screen in order to understand what was going on and how to play.
>>12884237Too realistic lookingthe setting is averagehigh school setting
it wasnt
FF8 was so hated that pretty much every single teenage boy who was into video games played it, Even if they didn't have a PSX (because PC version). With perhaps as an exception only the one guy who only played Tekken, Gran Turismo and FIFA. And this, lasted for several years after its release. By comparison only the nerdiest of nerds played FF9 and even then nobody talked about it even though FF8 was a common schooldyard topic.That's how much everyone hated FF8.
>>12884237They don't know the real lore.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa5gcYA8xf8
>>12884361>Fantasy has to be castles, dwarves, and elves.This is what they were trying to move from.Look at the development of X, they complained that "fantasy" had become stereotypical European castles and such so made X a southeast Asian fantasy and the setting worked.This mentality 7-10, with a throwback in 9, made these games so memorable. A lot of FF8 is like being in '90s France.
Basically what >>12884361 said.It felt unlike earlier entries. Doesn't feel that way as much now in hindsight, since it's closer to old Final Fantasy than the PS2 and later games in the series. A lot of people were also comparing it to Final Fantasy VII too, so some thought Squall and the romance story was lame compared to Cloud and VII's story. The magic drawing and Guardian Forces were annoying to some people too, since some people felt they had to draw a ton of magic in battles or summon long GF animations constantly. >>12884539That said, this is correct too. VIII was still very popular and well-liked by many. Even just going off my personal memories offline, I remember a kid coming to school dressed as Squall. IX was only played by a few of my friends, while a lot of people talked about VIII. Online, VIII was a controversial entry, but it was still Final Fantasy during Square's peak years, and still had more people liking it than not. It was divisive, and less universally liked than VII, but also had tons of fans.
>>12884706>I remember a kid coming to school dressed as SquallDid he also genuinely consider giving himself a scare in the face? I knew a kid who said that. I think he was serious.
>>12884710Maybe, but people didn't stop talking about VIII in 1999. I took "back in the day" to mean when it was still relatively recent. Online discussion in the 2000s was more relevant, and that still shapes how the game is remembered and talked about online now.
>>12884713It wouldn't surprise me if he considered it. I wonder if any kids out there actually cut their faces up trying to look like Squall.
>>12884710>>12884719>ff7 1997>ff8 in 1999>ff9 in 2000>ff10 in 2001It's crazy looking back how quickly Final Fantasy games were coming out compared to now. In an interview about Xenogears and why they had to do Disc 2 the way they did, Takahashi talks about how Square tried to finish all their projects within 2 years back then.>“Honestly speaking, what had happened is Xenogears as a project was staffed pretty much entirely out of new staff members, young staff members,” said Takahashi, speaking through a translator. “Back then, we had the direction of, ‘All projects take two years and that’s when we need to get it done.’ So on top of developing the game, we had to nurture and teach and grow these younger employees. Things like 3D were extremely new, which led to some delays in the schedule. It just wasn’t possible to get everything done.”https://kotaku.com/the-real-story-behind-xenogears-unfinished-disc-2-1796151112
>>12884237It wasn't.
>>12884729they were working 20+ hours a day and sleeping at work, probably drank whenever they werent working too
>>12884237Because leveling up made enemies stronger than you, and the only ways to get stronger yourself were to draw magic from enemies, draw magic from points in the world that respawn over time, or turn cards into magic, all of which were boring and tedious to do.
>>12884757You can turn items to spells and cards to items
>>12884237Drawing spells was tedious.The junction system wasn't fun or interesting, and it had too many menus and submenus (compare to the materia system which contained everything in one screen). The junction system also stripped away traditional RPG features like weapons and armor for no benefit. The world and characters were fairly bland and uninteresting. No it doesn't need to be medieval/European, but making it modern was seen as dull.The sappy story and teenage cast felt like a bizarre mix of fantasy and Dawson's Creek or 90210 or some other chick drama. Disc 3 and 4 were rushed as hell. There's barely a single dungeon and instead you just get tons of talking/cutscenes, huge plot exposition dumps, maybe a few boss fights, and then it's the final dungeon.Speaking of which, once you make it to the final dungeon, almost the entire world map is perma locked, which was stupid as hell.The boxart cover looked gay as fuck. I was legit embarrassed when I had to ask the Wal-Mart worker to unlock the glass and get the game for me to purchase.
>>12884780Wrong. Towns get locked. All side stuff and dungeons and GFs are still available and if you completed Card Club in Balamb Garden, you can play cards with them in Ragnarok and win back lost and refined rare cards
>>12884780All of this, plus the fact enemies level scaled with you. Nothing about it felt like Final Fantasy other than having the obligatory Shiva and Ifrit.
>>12884237Because it wasn't FF7. Later FF9 was hated for being neither 7 nor 8.
>>12884237because it's garbage. if people can't see that as they play it, I don't know how anyone could possibly explain it in a manner that would convince them. everything but the music, art direction and setting is absolute dogshit, and everyone knows it, but they try to convince themselves that it's not because a) it's final fantasy and b) it's the one that it's cool to pretend to like.
>>12884306Not sure I understand what you mean, I played this game eons ago when I was a wee lad on the ps1 so memories are hazy but I remember playing by basically fighting every encounter and using both normal attacks and summoning G.F.s (that's the name of the monsters with special abilities with long animations right?). Is that a bad way to play? Because the monsters animations are too long to sit thru every time or what? I also don't remember the game being particularly challenging where you needed to think carefully about your build, even tho I didn't finish it because my memory card saves got wiped out but I was near the end, I was going to the witch temple or whatever
>>12884306>any way you wanted toI want to play against a challenging set of enemies and puzzles that constantly force me to get better at the game. There is no JRPG in history that has ever allowed me to play the way I want.
>>12885538GFs are slow yeah and you can outdamage their damage output with regular attacks or using spells enemies weak to. GFs intended perk was suppose to be their HP protecting the caster while they summoning buuuut why would you minimize damage taken when you can just kill or otherwise render them harmless. So in the end GF summoning ends up inefficent. The super boss Omega Weapon biggest attack relies on the characters having Protect/Shell and summoning GF for damage wall to withstand the attack but usually players cheese it with Hero or Holy War giving them invincibility. Also the game discourage you from GF spamming by having your SeeD rank take penalty from too much summoning
Going from the awesome Materia mechanic to the dog shit Junction mechanic will do that
>>12885538The point to a game is to have fun so if you were enjoying the experience then it wasn't wrong for you.But yeah, for most people sitting through the summoning animation got really old really fast and it was something you could do without fairly easily. Summoning was the most braindead, low-effort and repetitious way to play. So it didn't really matter but you might have had a better time if you understood the alternatives
>>12884780You just proved my point about low IQ people being the ones not liking it>Drawing spells was tediousSo don't. The enemies in the beginning are so weak you don't need junctions to survive yet. You get three GF with magic refining abilities right from the beginning and the ap requirements to learn them are low. Just play the game, learn the refine abilities, refine enemy drops and save drawing for rare spells or GFs only. I don't know how many times I have to say this but you do not need to just sit there like a robot and keep using the draw command just because you don't have 99 of something yet. You do not need to jack up your stats in the early game and by halfway through disk one you can have fire, ice, lightning, life and status refine plus card mod and enc-half / none if you're paying attention. If you keep drawing even when it's completely unnecessary, that's on you for being a stubborn retard. The game doesn't force you to do it>too many menus and submenusBreh every base stat junction is on one menu screen and only stats and elemental effects get their own submenu. >There's barely a single dungeont. didn't find the centra ruins or the deep sea research center>once you make it to the final dungeon, almost the entire world map is perma lockedas >>12884828 already explained, you're not locked out of anything. Can still buy every item that would have been available, can still get pretty much every rare card, can still find the secret GFs, can upgrade weapons....and it bears mentioning that you can back all the way out of lunatic pandora, get back in the Ragnarok and fly to wherever you want even if you saw the scene where you crash into it. You have to go through the entire interior of pandora and initiate time compression to get "locked" into disk 4. If you got that deep into the endgame without a backup save outside Pandora, maybe you're too dumb to play JRPGs. And even if you were that dumb, as already explained, it's really a non-issue
>ctrl+f "orphanage"Wow, no results. I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned one of the worst plot twists in any RPG story ever.>inb4 n-no you don't get it, it's fully explained!It's bad regardless of any explanation or justification. The idea that all of the party members and the villain grew up together in an orphanage is awful. I get that there was a big war with Adel prior to the events of the game's story and that's why there's so many orphaned children, sure, but why have the cast grow up together and then forget those memories? And it's pretty convenient that Rinoa and Irvine were there, too, and then move to the other side of the world later in life only to magically reunite with everyone later. Also Quistis getting fired as a teacher, only to join Squall's SeeD crew. There's way too many coincidences for this to be plausible, and ultimately it served no meaningful purpose.
I hated it because of the gayass card game, I lost HP when I used summons (I think it was summons) and the characters went to a human design.
Collect Playstation games now while you can because after the PS6 Sony will go bankrupt by eliminating physical games and will become the new Sega
>>12887961>it served no meaningful purpose.It did, it's the theme of fate which is central to the game. No matter the variations and what happens fate will lead to these things happening because it's a timeloop and it has already happened.
>>12887804Instead of that glob of text you just posted, you could have just posted that you are a flaming homosexual.
>>12887963You dont lose HP fron symmoning. You lose HP max if you use spells junctioned to your HP but can refill them between battles
>>12884237It wasn't. Stop posting clickbait.
>>12884473/thread
>>12884306Jokes on you, I grinded to lvl 100 and still beat the game.
>>12888009Exceptional.You've gotten through the mental maze and come out the other side with the correct way to play this game. Intentionally not leveling to make the game easy is boring.
>>12887990Whatever it was, the change was stupid and you are gay for knowing that
>>128880687 is my most replayed FF followed by 5 and 8.
>>12884237Because people didn't understand that Rinoa = Ultimecia back in the day.
I remember 9 getting more shit for not being sci-fi and going back to cartoon proportions.
>>12884237Gay clown game
>>12892337>not HisokaLame and gay
>>12884237For the romance plot. A video game being "a love story" was a novel development and not well in-tune with the more adolescent brains to whom the previous FF games were geared.
Beat it a few days ago.Junction completely breaks the game..I was thinking of drawing 99 of Ultima magic during the Ultima Weapon fight, but after attacking 2 or 3 times he was already dead.Omega is harder, I remember reading how though he was when I was a kid, with a billion HP and what not.Spamming Aura on Squall and using the Holy War item you get from Gilgamesh card makes you invincible. And on top of that, with Lion Heart you'll be doing like 50k per hit.The game needs a remake, but definitely not by modern square.
>>12893116>If I acquire the single most OP weapon in the game which can only be attained through very deliberate and prolonged grinding for multiple rare items then also use another incredibly rare item which you obtain by modding an extremely rare card then you become extremely powerful briefly for like two minutes of one single fightWell no fucking shit, man. That's why you did all that crap to begin with. If the optional bosses facetanked max STR fucking lionheart *they'd* be the invincible ones. The single most difficult setup in the game to acquire ought to melt everything. It's the reward for your effort in acquiring it. Seriously, you are really glossing over how high-effort getting all that shit is. It's not that the boss is easy, it's that you prepped like a motherfucker
>>12884539Exactly. Wannabe purists tried to argue "FF7 was better" as if there could only be one FF. But Chad played FF8.
>>12885490If you think "it's cool to pretend to like it" you're projecting because you don't like it, but would like to because YOU think it's cool.Some of us just like it. I personally found Squall much more relatable than any other FF protagonist as a teen.
>>12884306>you're supposed to avoid the only thing resembling game play by avoiding battles and mindlessly refining cards into magic spells that you're not supposed to use in combat but slap on a stat so the few fights you actually can't avoid consist you mindlessly selecting the Attack command and occasionally using a potion or phoenix downWOW SUCH RIVETING HIGH IQ GAMEPLAY ANYONE WHO DOESN'T LIKE THAT JUST GOT FILTERED
>>12887961That's because there's so much fundamentally wrong with VIII at every level and every point of the game that the 'major plot twist' of everyone having amnesia being piss poorly written and implemented and totally irrelevant before and after the orphanage just doesn't stand out compared to the myriad of other bad writing and terrible game concepts.
>>12893116> drawing 99 of Ultima magic The limit is 100.This reminds me of Pokémon larpers who always said "I have this and that Pokémon at lvl 99!!!", because they were lying sacks of shits who didn't know the limit was lvl100. But I always knew.
>>12884237Dumbasses thought they were too cool to like the characters (all of which are great) and they couldn't understand the junction system. Basically everyone who hated it was intellectually and cognitively, and emotionally retarded.
>>12884361Jesus grow the fuck up aleady. Go back to jerking off to that absolute piece of shit that is FF9
>>12891048The one dude in Square said that he heard this and he explicitly said that it's not true.I understand the theory though.
>>12893585Kitase later corrected it to "ambiguous" as he wasn't the only writer.https://youtu.be/k8asSQorSngI thought R=U was true first playthrough in '01 with zero outside influence, it felt like the obvious way for the story to go.
>>12884237>Final Fantasy VIII was hated back in the dayno one said this
>>12884237>Why was Final Fantasy VIII so hated back in the day?Was it? Contemporary reviews are good, and sales were good. It was still considered one of the better Final Fantasy games and JRPGs in general by the time FFXII came out.It wouldn't be until 2007 that some asshat on the internet decided to make a video series about how he hated FF8, that the public online perception of the game turned negative.
>>12893607thisits all zoomers that got their opinions from youtube
My first FF.Glad it wasn't XIII because holy fuck.
