FFVIII : Love It Or Hate It?

Love it or Hate it?


  • Total voters
    441
I love it, I don't think people give 8 enough credit, it is one of the ff greats, the story line was very good gameplay

i agree it's one of the best, i reckon the main reason it was disliked by some is because it came after VII which was always going to be hard for any final fantasy.
 
I love FF series most because I've been played this game over & over from 2001.. Great story & nice game...:neomon:
 
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I like it definatly, if lightning wasn't in it i would not like it. It not my favourite game FFVII is but FFXIII comes second.
 
I like it definatly, if lightning wasn't in it i would not like it. It not my favourite game FFVII is but FFXIII comes second.

This is FFVIII aka Final Fantasy 8. Lightning isn't in this game but I assure you it's a really good one. I find VII overrated and XIII is good for bringing in newcomers to the series. ^^
 
I sooooooo love it this and VI are my favourite games of all time. VIII really speaks to me because most of the events that happen throughout the game and a certain persons attitude towards it -.- really changed my life. Also the characters are just epic because afterall they are just Students whereas Cloud was a mako infused soldier.

So in general this game is epic.
 
I liked it a lot. But nothing compelled/pushed me to finish it. Plus my psp made things difficult, what with the lagging and whatnot. It was fun, but I never found myself so engrossed in it that I did not want to put it down. I actually only played it like 3 times a week, and not for very long. However, the card game got me WILD because I love how it worked and it was so addicting! Overall, good game, but was not able to finish it.
 
I liked it a lot. But nothing compelled/pushed me to finish it. Plus my psp made things difficult, what with the lagging and whatnot. It was fun, but I never found myself so engrossed in it that I did not want to put it down. I actually only played it like 3 times a week, and not for very long. However, the card game got me WILD because I love how it worked and it was so addicting! Overall, good game, but was not able to finish it.

Playing TT cards was possibly the most annoying thing. Once you got the basic knowledge down, it wasn't hard at all to beat most people with a 8-2 win ratio. The people who for formidable at cards rarely had anything worth getting from them. And I agree with you, I wasn't compelled to finish it (re-run). I guess Ill pick it back up and continue trying to perfect it.
 
I personally thought VIII was a great game. The only thing I hated was playing as Laguna and crew at certain points. Oh and the draw magic feature. Eh it was okay. But everything else was completely lovable about the game.
 
Love it.

I have always been, and always will be a fan of Final Fantasy VIII.
Truthfully it depends on how you want to play the game. In the beginning I was pretty GF dependent, and I will admit - it got boring. However, when you get out of that rut, it gets pretty exciting.
I also adore the storyline. It is so romantic... and I am a sucker for romance!!!!! So with the whole Squall Rinoa backdrop, it made me a very happy bunny.
The Triple Triad mini game is my favourite from all of the Final Fantasies. It is addictive and you really want to collect all of those rare cards. Then when you can trade them in for items - this is incredibly useful!!!
The junctioning system is also good. I admit stocking up on the magic is a huge pain in the *** but once done you feel the power ;)
 
When I'm not spending another three hours a day on Xenoblade (oh God, is that game simply like crack to me), I'm switching out the Wii for the PS3 and revisiting my downloaded PSone game library on my PS3. The game in question I was revisiting is of course, FFVIII, else I wouldn't be in this thread. Despite swearing an oath to myself that I will play through this game again for the first time in quite a few years, I dropped it and went on Star Ocean 4, then dropped that for Assassin's Creed 2. So, I picked it up again recently and I've got somewhere...I think. My impressions in general? It's not actually a bad game. Yes, it's mired by faults, pet peeves and general headbanging issues that make me want to kick the guy who came up with the ideas in the balls, but it's still a very solid and enjoyable title.

Once I've figured out the little shortcuts to the Junctioning system I quickly began to exploit it. It saves having to stand there in battles just drawing and drawing as many Fire spells or Aura spells as you possibly can while giant caterpillars or ticks start eating your face off. And the fact that the player doesn't need to draw everything means the Drawing system only seems to be as excruciating as you want it to be. It doesn't change the fact however, that you do need to draw to stockpile a decent deck of spells and it's then I would sit there and ask myself who in the world thought this was a great idea. While having to re-junction stuff to and fro whenever the storyline dictates that the party must split or whenever you have to make a new party isn't time consuming as there is a shortcut function that's very handy, but it does get annoying considering how often I seem to be switching party members around.

Triple Triad has just becoming something I hate with a passion. It's like FFIX's Blackjack. It's like FFX's Blitzball. It's like FFX-2's bastardised Blitzball. It's like FFX-2's tedious Sphere Break. It's a minigame that I just cannot stand for the sake of my sanity and neither do I have the physical will to get my teeth into it for rewards that I predict are probably rubbish and underwhelming. I've seen what the rules system can do, and if someone wants to play with the Galbadia rules, what does that mean? What rule is that? Why can't I just pick my own rule to play with? Thank goodness there's never a mandatory moment in the game making me play the card game.

People say the storyline is just one of the best in the series and while I'm replaying it, a lot of things pop out at me that just make me either roll mye yes, constantly blink in disbelief or even facepalm. The storyline, while passable at best, just feels like sloppy writing with cringeworthy dialogue. You look me in the eye and tell me that you didn't roll your eyes at Rinoa's MEANIE line and at Selphie's love and peace rubbish. Do people actually...talk like that. I know this is fantasy, but...dialogue like MEANIE? Seriously? Sorceress Edea's inauguration speech for example - the crowd is cheering as she calls them lowlifes and transparently declaring to them that she is going to make their lives a living hell - as well as murdering the President before their very eyes. What kind of politician does that? Or is the crowd simply just possessed? If so, what's the point?

Need I go into detail about the whole orphanage thing? The tacked-on explanation that maybe prolonged GF use may wipe out parts of memories and ooh, it just so happens they happen to forget the same bits of their past completely bar Irvine. Don't even get me started on why Irvine feels the need to keep quiet about everything he knows. Then there's Ellone. Ellone's goal with all these flashbacks just feel so pointless and lead to hardly anywhere (or I'm just missing or forgetting something). I mean, she wants to edit the past, yet even acknowledges anyway that it's probably unfeasible, but hey, what's stopping her from trying? The Laguna flashbacks though, are rather entertaining. In fact, Laguna is a better protagonist. The theme song Eyes on Me fits him, and he's generally a lot more enjoyable than Squall.

Ahh, time compression. Yeah, I'm stumped. I just don't think Ultimecia's ultimate goals are directly explored all that well. She wants to compress time to a single moment (which is something I still don't quite get) aaaaand...then? She's got the Garland complex and wants to live forever? I mean, what exactly does she really want to do that warrants this elaborate puppetry that has lasted through most of the game? Why do I even care for Ultimecia as a villain? Who's writing this? Aaaaaghhh! The sheer horrors of time travel stories with your bewildering mess. Seeing as FFXIII-2 is revisiting the concept of time travel, then I wish the writer good luck. You'll need it dude, you're waltzing into a minefield of sloppy writing and infinite plotholes.

Yeah, I want to really enjoy FFVIII's writing. The overarching story takes a very baffling turn that feels messy, sloppy and deus ex machina-infected (ooh, we're floating in space to our certain deaths and there happens to be a functional spaceship floating around nearby for us to pilot!). Yet there is still enough in the story to enjoy despite these glaring flaws and issues. I can't quite say the same for the characters though in that I just cannot enjoy most of them. In fact, the characters I can tolerate or enjoy are Laguna, Quistis (despite many calling her dull) and uhh....uhh...err...ahh, I actually don't mind Biggs and Wedge. Fujin is surprisingly likeable for some reason as well.

Tl;dr. I don't love it. I don't hate it. It's marred by problems, but I still enjoy it considerably, like FFVII. It's a lot more enjoyable than FFX and FFXIII in my opinion, but still the weakest of the PSone titles.
 
Ya know, I'm kind of afraid to play this game again. What if I end up seeing how dumb the story is not like I did years ago? Well hopefully it wouldn't be bad but....we'll see. I think I might play it again here soon.
 
Love it. It's my favourite of all the final fantasy's. Everytime I play it I love it more and more. The characters, the development, the gameplay, the world, the story. It's all amazing.

Xx..xX
 
Love it. I loved the characters, story, and the music! The only thing I didn't like about the game was drawing and junctioning magic ._.
 
I havn't played every FF yet but out of the many i have played this is definitly my favorite, i was very young when i first played this (maybe 3rd grade) but even then i was able to acknowledge and appreciate the depth and greatness of this entry in the series, first of all i loved how it had a school like feel to it (especially early on in the game) and also how it was more realistic than any of the previous titles, as far as the characters i could really relate to both squall & seifer as i was also a bit of a lone wolf (squall) & at times an outspoken troublemaker (seifer) back in my school days, i also liked how the main villain was kind of like a witch (sorcress) & speaking of the sorcress the parade scene in deling city has to be my favorite scene ever in any game or movie i mean it was just crazy from the setting to the visuals to the music (IMO all of the music in the game was incredible) i've never seen anything else that cool in a game but anyway i thought the story overall was very interesting and engaging & it also had a great love story tied into it, and IMO and experience the junctioning system was always pretty simple (even as a 3rd grader) so all in all i loved this game & i would consider it a masterpiece, & even when i play it nowadays its still a great experience & also very nostalgic
 
I dont love it, I dont hate it. It´s a good game with some major flaws. The junction system is fun (except all the damn drawing magic) and the music is amazing. The story however is pretty weak and full of plot holes and most of the characters are completely unlikeable.

So i like some parts and dislike some parts.
 
I agree there's some things I didn't like about it, but the system was pretty fun once you got use to it, and the game was full of challenge.
 
Ya know, I'm kind of afraid to play this game again. What if I end up seeing how dumb the story is not like I did years ago? Well hopefully it wouldn't be bad but....we'll see. I think I might play it again here soon.
It kinda goes like this, the smarter you are the more clever you think the story is, so yeah i think you should give it a 2nd go.
 
I love it, it was my first FF and even the way I got to playing it was weird.

I went to my local Game store looking for FF8 after playing the demo, and all I could find is a second hand FF7, so I thought I better buy it seeing as how it was before 8 and the story might be connected (obviously had no idea that they never relate back then) after I left the store I opened the case to read the manual (as you do) and I found the 4 FF8 disks and I was shocked, it was like it was fate :\

Anyway that's how I was introduced to Final Fantasy, back on topic I love it because it has the best collection of characters (Squall being my favourite of all time) and the best story. The best weapon in any game (the beautiful gunblade) and the card minigame was pretty good (Blitzball from FFX was best for that though). It had a massive romantic story set in different locations and made me want the story to go on and on after the end.

Cant forget bad points! The drawing system was a bit pants and didn't really like the fact that you always needed 999XP to level up (if I remember correctly it was a similar system to that)
 
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The first RPG I ever played was The Legend of Dragoon which spawned me into trying the Final Fantasy series which FF VIII was my first one. I enjoyed the story and battle system and it spawned me to get the other games in the series (at the time only FFIX).
 
Compared to I-IX, VIII really is unique. They changed the battle commands, the magic stystem, how you get paid, how summons work...

I can't really say anything bad about this game, though. It's got good music, graphics (the cutscenes were beautiful, really), the story was unique.

It's probably not as good as I remember it, but it's definitely better than some other FF games.
 
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