FFVIII's Bad Reputation.

Seifer

Seifer

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Hello all,

Just writing to ask the question. Why?

Out of the numerous FF forums i have been a member of over the past 5 years, a lot of people strongly dislike VIII far more than any other FF game, and i know that it can't just be a co-incedance. So if anyone cares to enlighten me in some way, with actual reasons why they dislike this game?

For example i know a lot of people didn't like the junctioning system. I found it quite ingenuititive and effective. I mean if your smart about it, you can equip maasive amounts of elemental advantages, so if you knew what bosses and areas had certain elemental attributes, you can own them royally.

It was the first FF with real size people which i liked.

The world map wasn't too bad, And the characters and storyline were quite easy to submerse yourself into.

Although i know i am a little byist to this game, as it was the first FF i had played, so i do have a soft spot for it.

But any inout would be appreciated :)
 
I think alot of people dislike the junction system, and the fact you had to draw magic - too time consuming and fiddly. I have to admit, drawing 100 of each spell got really annoying. And it also made using magic quite useless because if you had it juncioned, using the junctioned magic would affect that particular stat. Being a non-magic user it didn't bother me one bit but I can see why other people would really HATE that :wacky:

A whole STACK of people hate Rinoa and her whole damsel in distress status

I personally love the game, it's up there with VII & X for me

I guess it's just one of those people either love or hate

I was one of the ones that love it!
 
Yayyy, you like it too :D

Yeah im not a magic user either, and it makes more sense to have 100 stocked of all aga's at your disposal for elemental at/def and have like ultima for str and what not...

I didnt mind rinoa :)
 
I'll always love FFVIII. Mainly because it was the first Final Fantasy I played. Seifer was quality as well. One on my favourite all time villains.
 
The reason I personally disliked FFVIII was because of the story. It had a pathetic villain (for that see my thread about Ultimecia) and pathetic sci-fi elements. It was too muddled. The story just didn't flow well. I guess the romance between Squall and Rinoa is cool and how he opens up but that's as far as you're gonna get in the character development department in this game. The gameplay I liked although the system is so easily abused that it makes the game far too easy. Even the superboss Omega Weapon wasn't too much of a threat.
 
i happen to be one of the people who LOVE Final Fantasy VIII. It was my very first Final Fantasy and i loved it from the start. i don't see why people don't like FFVIII. I think that sadly, a lot of people don't like it because it wasn't Final Fantasy VII. I think that FF8's story, gameplay and everything about it made it awesome
 
Since FFVIII is the FF game that I've played the most times, I'll give you a lengthy response on it.

The Pros:
1. Incredible graphics. Even today, I still find the FFVIII FMVs to be the most impressive in the FF series.
2. Very well-developed battle system. The battle system was rather ingenius, because it was entirely customizable, which made the battle experience quite a lot of fun.
3. Great soundtrack. FFVIII had a wonderful soundtrack, there's not much denying that.
4. A Finalized ending. The ending to FFVIII was rather complete, and it didn't give you a "well, what happens next?" feel to it.
5. First Card Game System. FF8 gave birth to the Card Games, so...some may love that fact, some might not.
6. Guardian Forces. The Summons in FF8, were INCREDIBLY useful. Not only did they deal heavy doses of damage, but they are the basis for the Junction System, and offer up plenty of useful abilities.

The Cons: [Unfortunately, this will be a much longer list.]
1. The Story. As much as I've tried to like FFVIII, it's nearly impossible to get over the BAD script. For example: During the battle between Galbadia and Balamb Garden, while soldiers are coming in from all sides and attacking...Zell, pulls Squall, THE COMMANDER aside and asks him for his Griever Ring. ...What?! "They're coming at us from all sides! We have plenty of casualties! We need to protect the Junior Class---oh, Rinoa wants my ring? Here ya go!" Ugh. :ffs:
2. Squall & Rinoa's Romance. In the game, we discover that Squall and everyone else in your party, minus Rinoa...were all connected due to an orphanage. Rinoa...the odd one out, we later discover...Could have been Squall's half-sister! IF that didn't make their romance weird enough...Squall actively disliked Rinoa until the very end of Disc 2. Squall only goes to save Rinoa those times, because Irvine, or some other comrade told him he HAD to do it. Suddenly, I pop in Disc 3...and Squall has gone head-over-heels for her. It was a complete 180. They just seemed to have absolutely no chemistry. Even in the Ragnarok, Rinoa talks about how she "Doesn't want this moment to end," and then, two seconds later says: "I'm sorry Squall, we can't be together. I'm a Sorceress." ....Oh, Rinoa! Romance him with small-talk!

3. Rinoa. I think she was such a horribly flawed character that she deserves her own stand-alone con-section. If saving her SEVEN times wasn't enough to dislike her...her stats are also HIGHER than even SQUALL'S. So...what the gamer is supposed to understand...that Rinoa, a little rebelling rich-girl with no formal training...is somehow STRONGER than MERCENARIES who have been trained for several YEARS?! I mean, the girl has a boomerang and a dog-rocket! Somehow I think a Blade + Bullet to the face would hurt a little more. I'm sure people could say its because 'she's a Sorceress,' to which I answer: In Disc 2, before Rinoa becomes a Sorceress, I had her at level 93...and she was incredibly strong. So, that counter-argument doesn't work.
I just thought she was such a ridiculous character, and she had absolutely no growth throughout the entire game. She was the same Rinoa from when you first meet her, till the end. And, let's not forget the fact that she was with Squall's rival, right before she fled to him. I could go on about her for ages.

4. Ignoring the other Characters. After Disc 1, everyone but Squall and Rinoa were practically ignored for the rest of the game. Quistis, for example...after Disc 1, didn't appear at all in the rest of the story, except for the Orphanage revelation. After that Revelation, the rest of game focuses ENTIRELY on Squall and Rinoa. The rest of the characters were given no time for character development. In fact, I think some of the NPCs had more screen time than some of the main characters. The game just seemed to completely forget that there were other, more interesting characters than Squall and Rinoa.

5. Battle System. I mentioned this earlier as a Pro, but its a double-edged sword. The system, though very inventive and customizable...made the game EXTREMELY easy. I recently replayed FF8, and on Disc 2, Squall had already reached level 100, and I junctioned 'Drain' onto my battle characters Status-Attack...so they would never, ever die. Everytime they attacked, they were healed. Characters just levelled up WAY too fast in that game, and the Junction system made it VERY easy to become a Demi-God early on in the game.

6. Draw Ability. I think everyone who has played FF8, can sympathize with this one. Everyone remembers sitting there for hours, just drawing magic from enemies, so that you could stock it and beef up your stats. The sad thing is...you rarely EVER used that magic for casting, because it's much more useful to junction it, especialy since Attack does more damage than most Magic, anyway.

7. The Villains. All right, I'm sorry...but I am NOT intimidated by a Witch's boy-toy. Seifer at first, seemed like an interesting, fun character...despite having a lot of physical similarities to Rufus ShinRa. Then all of the sudden, he talks about his "Romantic Dream,"....and then becomes the Sorceress' lapdog. If Seifer wasn't bad enough, the Sorceress' were even worse. The script for them was not well-written at all, not to mention the fact that they didn't DO anything EVIL. All Edea did was kill an already hated scumbag-President, and try to blow up Garden. Trabia, admittedly, was hit...but to me, it didn't seem like it was really done by Edea. Instead of having a villain that you can recognize throughout the game, suddenly, in Disc 3...you're vaguely introduced to other Sorceress'. We're shown Adel...who is the most physically frightening 'witch' I've ever seen. She looked like an albino Shaquille O'Neal on steroids. Once she was taken care of, we get to meet Ultimecia...who is apparently German, or Russian...for her use of "K" in place of "C."

8. Fan Theories. The most popular fan theory is the 'Rinoa is Ultimecia Theory." The reason I raise this point, is because fans...had to actually come up with a much-more interesting theory than what the game had offered in the first place. It's not a good thing when fans are trying to create something more intriguing...to make up for the lack of fascination in the original story.

Conclusion: Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed FF8, but it likely has to do with the fact that it was my first Final Fantasy. All I'm saying is...while there are a lot of noticeable pros about the game, there seems to be a lot more cons against it. But again, this is all opinion-based, and everyone has different perspectives.
 
I think one problem FFVIII had is it had to follow up FFVII, which was the most famous and popular entry in the series. Any game that came next was always going to suffer in comparison (I prefer FFVIII, but I just mean it suffers coming after FFVII's fame). Elements like the junction system and especially Squall and Rinoa's story tended to polarise people as well. Some loved these things, some hated them. Hell, I know some people who love FFVIII but don't like Rinoa XD

It is very much the 'Marmite' game of the series.
 
I just hate the characters backgrounds, also I believe it could be better without the Junction system, or the limitbreak system which required that you should have 10% of your health or lower, and I didn't find the Villains interesting actually -_-.
However I don't say the I hate FFVIII in everything, I like the FMV in it and the Graphics (it was way better than FFVII) and I also like the soundtracks but still FFVIII could've been better than that -_- .
 
I thought X-2 had more haters than this one....
Not that i disliked X-2, ironically, this series is the one i detested most among all.
Mainly the junction system. But otherwise, the story is okay, along with music.
 
I guess the only thing i disliked about it wuz how the enemies got stronger as u did and it wuz a bitch to get the stats maxed out wit the +1 stat itemz way. Other than that it wuz 1 of my favorite ff gamez.
 
I can find nothing wrong with VIII whatsoever, it's definitely one of my favourites along with VII, X, XI and XII :p.

Seriously though, it does have faults as others have pointed out but then any Final Fantasy title has faults, none of them have been perfect (bar for arguments sake XII's 40/40 rating :P).

I suppose it really comes down to which faults really annoy you and which are the ones you can live with. Most people find VIII's faults annoying while being able to live with the others.

That said, I often dare to say VIII is my favourite :P, I'm willing to look past all of it's short comings.
 
I did not enjoy this game.

All in all, I believe it was a poorly written script. They focused too much on Squall and Rinoa. I felt that they could've put more effort on the rest of the characters' stories. Laguna's story also complicated the whole.

I didn't like the Draw system, but I have to admit that I enjoyed the Junction System and the FMVs (which was very advanced for its time).
That, at the very least.

It had everything going for it in the beginning. The Seed missions, the training, the GFs..but all seemed to go downhill after disc one.

The fact that this could've surpassed the greatness of FFVII, frustrates me.

That is why I dislike it.
 
I cannot personally see why most people would this game, I find the gameplay challenging and the music unforgettable. I will admit that the story gets a bit convoluted after the first disc and the world is somewhat unbalanced since Esthar is the technology advanced nation while the rest of the world is just way behind. I wish that developed the other characters besides Squall and Rinoa and I do have a love/hate relationship with Rinoa. I used to believe that KH Leon was a good character based off the original but after FFVIII, I would have to agree that they pretty much kidified Squall! No wonder my cousin's friend told her not to play FFVIII because honestly Leon?!
 
Well, you have to consider that FFVIII came out right after FFVII. Fans were expecting an outstanding game from Square Soft, but instead most fans were very disappointed.

I didn't think FFVIII was that bad. A big turn off from the game were the characters and their development. Contra pretty much summed it up. The first disk and for some of disk two there was more interaction between all 6 characters. From there it was just Rinoa and Squall.

It seems that Rinoa is probably the most disliked female character out of all the main female characters. Rinoa wasn't just a damsel in distress but a very rude and obnoxious one.

As for Squall, well he was very emotional and confused. His personality probably made many males turn of their system and walk away.
 
Yeah, I agree, VIII does have a bad reputation. Most of the people, I've chatted with, are of the opinion it was a lackluster game and not half of the game VII was. Now you have to take in account, too, alot of people were introduced to Final Fantasy by VII and that introduction touched alot of people's hearts. You could describe it as a first love - no matter how good, or fine the succeeding love is - it will usually pale, in comparsion, to that first experience. Many were let down because, I think, they were thirsting after another FF VII.

Now, this is all opinion. I'm not saying that everyone, who doesn't like the game, was introduced to FF by VII or were simply disappointed that it wasn't VII. Not at all, I'm saying, that SOME - were! Again, this is mere opinion and speculation. Many simply hate it, because they weren't pulled in by the story, disliked the characters as well as the game mechanics. I, for one, am of that opinion. From my, point of view, it was a decent game! I can't say that I enjoyed, many of the characters, except for Laguna, Raine, and Julia. I loved those three and always will. Squall and the rest, except for Quistis, really didn't do it for me - I hated having to draw magic, early in the game, and really couldn't get into the Squall/ Rinoa love affair. Something was definitely missing. So there you go. It has it's faults and merits, just like the rest in the series.
 
As these posts show, herein lies the problem - unlike the other games in the series, FFVIII focuses in on two of the main characters (only FFX really comes close to doing the same, and even that allows some room for the others), and the others are very much supporting players and are largely marginalised (as much as I like the game, I do agree that Quistis gets a lot of short shrift after an interesting beginning with her character)

This approach tends to divide people - I like the Squall/Rinoa story (Rinoa IS very bratty at times - but I like those imperfections), but if you don't think much of it there's nowhere else to focus your attentions really, and so you probably won't like the game.
 
I have to say I liked FFVIII but my favourite Final Fantasy had to be FFVII.
I don't know, It just seemed like most of the story was centered about Rinoa the 'damsel in distress' and Squalls love for her.
I still loved the game but I realize it has alot of bad reputation unfortunatly. :'(
 
I don't know about those other guys but I enjoyed FFVIII because its romance, story, characters and world. I just know if people give a chance, they will get that same feeling I did when I played the game. I just wish that gave the other characters more attention tis all.
 
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