Likes and dislike about VIII

[Da Chink]

To get high level magics, all you need to do is get the refining abilities and keep stocking enough magics to make them, before monsters carry them, at least. Like I said, not many people have the patience, but it's just not right that all the highest level spells are actually within reach right at the beginning of the game. (And let's not talk about Lionheart ><; )

The fact that leveling is only useful for obtaining items dropped by monsters at high enough levels is also disappointing, and that there are 'power-leveling' monsters really kicks it while its down. (Especially the latter, this seems to be common in alot of RPGs.)

But really, that's the only blaringly obvious fault I can see. I really don't understand why people complain about the story, as slow as it is at the beginning.

Zomg! did know one use the card game to refine magic?! i was doing 5k dmg in 2 hours.
Likes
Music
Story
Junctioning system
Card Game
Zell XD

Dislikes
Only one Char that I Dislike and thats Laguna
story line (once they started talking about time compresion)
The Chocobos were whack in this one
Doom Train?! LAWL

 

[SephirogaUltimecia]

liked- Just about everything... especially the music
disliked- Marlboro, and excessively long cinematics... only 1 or two got me peturbed

 

[blukazoo159]

i like the versitility of the game!!!

 

[ChibiSelphie]

Even though FFVIII is my favorite. I don't like Rinoa
I love the music, characters except for the one above and the storyline

 

[Spirit]

i like everything about ffviii

 

[dappa]

I love everything about this game. My only gripe with this game is that you dont get money after every enemy you defeat.

 

[ultimecia]

i like the game but it lacks a bit in story line it would have been a better game if the producers of the game would include more action and i dont like the idea of having a number of times you can use your spells its a bit stupid more when you draw crap spells i think it should either had the ffVII materia or the FX sphere grid would help the game a lot but every game cant be perfect exept for ffvii its ashame they didnt have the best graphics then but i heard they are making a new ffVII remake with more storyline and better graphics its going to be the ultimate game ever made but ffVIII isnt a bad game at all they should make a remake of that too!

 

[Slider]

I can't really find ANYTHING to dislike.................

 

[ThroneofDravaris]

Not even the things that everyone else has listed and are more or less unanimously consider by even die-hard FFVIII fans to be legitimate flaws?

 

[Gumdrop]

Like - decent level of playablity, cactuar and tonberry summons and also the huge cactuar boss, Omega Weapon (took me a while to beat him first time), some of the music + takes a while to get everything done (as with all FFs).

Dislike - the story, the characters and the whole "draw" to get magic buisness becuase it was boring as hell, most the summons - especially Eden becuase it went on way too long + the annoying card game rules.

 

[Slider]

Not even the things that everyone else has listed and are more or less unanimously consider by even die-hard FFVIII fans to be legitimate flaws?

You brought it to yourself, let's see........

Your own dislikes: - Storyline : I already love it, yours is no more than personnal oppinion, it made it best to me to be united after destiny had seperated the characters in so many diffrent ways to many diffrent places and gardens how can you dislike that?
-Vasy Majority of characters: That's something you can hate???????? maybe if they were too much but they weren't and they weren't too small in number either giving you MORE options thaat's an advantage and I don't understand why you dislike it????
- Disc 4: I agree that Disc 4 didn't take time as much as the others but it was AWESOME (you can regret that like me but not hate it coz that indicates you wanted even MORE put in the game, it may sound unreasonnable but that's how I feel) also it included so many diffrent monsters if you think about it it probably had the BIGGEST variety of monsters and enemies
- Seifer : You're just mocking it, how about from mislead dream or brainwashed Seifer to the one who found piece of mind or the one regretting passing the age restriction of the SeeD exam and never becoming one?

Dachink:
- Laguna: Personnal oppinion, can't help him
- Storyline: Same.
- Chocobos: Yeah, it's true they didn't give too much significance to the chocobos this time but then again I never really cared
- DoomTrain: It's a Status changing GF Summon, his damage and abilities were good too!

SephirogaUltimecia:
-Malboro: Personnal oppinion, I know they're hard to beat but unlike some people I take it as a challenge more than hate it.

dappa:
Money: Welcome to reality, you can take a defeated enemie's Item (i.e. Malboro Tentacles, and so on) a mutated monster living in the outback doesn't walk around with a bag of gold. These are M-O-N-S-T-E-R-S not Leprechauns.

ultimecia:
Magic: Unlike materia the use of para-magic is more R-E-A-L-I-S-T-I-C as for the number limit ,at least it shows that anyone has a LIMIT of magic summoning, but like you I'm REAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY looking forward for another part of the game.

heavens cloud:
Card Rules: Another personnal oppinion, I like the mind challenging varieties because otherwise it would've been a REEEAALL boring task to collect the card

Any other oppinions I left are either repeated or are just personnal oppinion with no explanations. Maybe I'm not the biggest fan, but I still don't dislike anthing about naturally!

 

[ThroneofDravaris]

Storyline : I already love it, yours is no more than personnal oppinion, it made it best to me to be united after destiny had seperated the characters in so many diffrent ways to many diffrent places and gardens how can you dislike that?

If it had been handled well it may have been tolerable but “we all grew up together and then just kinda forgot about it due to Deus Ex Machina plot point ‘A’” is not the making of a great story.

-Vasy Majority of characters: That's something you can hate???????? maybe if they were too much but they weren't and they weren't too small in number either giving you MORE options thaat's an advantage and I don't understand why you dislike it????

Most of the characters receive almost no character development, some of them to the point where they are more like ‘avatars’ then they are characters. Most of the characters have one characteristic to define them, with all their actions within the game being based on that one characteristic. Zell and Selphie fall into this category. Beyond the stereotypical achetype that they portray, there isn’t anything to them. Then there are characters like Quistis and Irvine who look like they are going to receive some decent development but then virtually fall into a role of unimportance after the first disk. This is particularly noticeable for Quistis, who the characters clearly initially intended to be a love interest for Squall to compete with Rinoa. After the first disk however, any mention of these feelings is completely void up until one of the last moments in the disk where she states the equivalent of “OH WAIT I WASN’T REALLY IN LOVE LOLZ”. Seriously, even the characters in FFV were better developed than those in FFVIII, and FFV is notorious for being considered as having some of the worst characters since they started to give FF PCs personalities.

- Disc 4: I agree that Disc 4 didn't take time as much as the others but it was AWESOME (you can regret that like me but not hate it coz that indicates you wanted even MORE put in the game, it may sound unreasonnable but that's how I feel) also it included so many diffrent monsters if you think about it it probably had the BIGGEST variety of monsters and enemies

The final dungeon was ‘nifty’ and all but that was practically all there was on the disk. This wouldn’t have been a problem if everything had been resolved up to that point but the game still left many questions behind. Seifer I’ll talk about below. Ultimecia is never given a clear motivation. Time Compression is explained so poorly that people speculate as to its mechanics to this day. No details are given as to what happened to Galbardia, or anything to do with the dubious political situation in general, after Seifer’s defeat. Squall’s relationship with Laguna is never explored to the level it should have considering it had been built up throughout the entire game. It’s as if they forgot about the rest of the plot points and just decided to focus on the showdown with Ultimecia and threw a whole load of bizarre visuals at us to try and make us forget that there was anything else to explain.

- Seifer : You're just mocking it, how about from mislead dream or brainwashed Seifer to the one who found piece of mind or the one regretting passing the age restriction of the SeeD exam and never becoming one?

I have nothing against Seifer. In fact, he’s one of the few characters I actually like in this game. What I was referring to was how he simply fades from the plot in disk 4 after trying to kill everyone, only to appear in the ending with a completely changed demeanor. Sure, it isn’t a great leap in logic to assume that Seifer would return the way he was after being defeated, but we are given no indication that Seifer was beginning to change at the time we last see him. In fact, where did he go? He just sort of throws Rinoa at Adel and runs off, never to be seen again until aforementioned final scene. This leaves a hole in the continuity of the game, a pretty inexcusable one since it wouldn’t have taken more than a few lines of dialogue to completely fill out the character.

 

[Gumdrop]

This is why these things are a bad idea, you often can't say something bad even when invited to without people getting upset.

If it had been handled well it may have been tolerable but “we all grew up together and then just kinda forgot about it due to Deus Ex Machina plot point ‘A’” is not the making of a great story.

That's the sort of thing I also hated about FF8s story.

Most of the characters receive almost no character development, some of them to the point where they are more like ‘avatars’ then they are characters. Most of the characters have one characteristic to define them, with all their actions within the game being based on that one characteristic. Zell and Selphie fall into this category. Beyond the stereotypical achetype that they portray, there isn’t anything to them. Then there are characters like Quistis and Irvine who look like they are going to receive some decent development but then virtually fall into a role of unimportance after the first disk. This is particularly noticeable for Quistis, who the characters clearly initially intended to be a love interest for Squall to compete with Rinoa. After the first disk however, any mention of these feelings is completely void up until one of the last moments in the disk where she states the equivalent of “OH WAIT I WASN’T REALLY IN LOVE LOLZ”. Seriously, even the characters in FFV were better developed than those in FFVIII, and FFV is notorious for being considered as having some of the worst characters since they started to give FF PCs personalities.

I very much agree. Nice that somebody else feels this way, people always seem to love the characters and story.

Disc 4 was okay, it could have been bigger but personaly I don't mind that much even if they probibly did do that just so they could say it spans four disks.

 

[Slider]

If it had been handled well it may have been tolerable but “we all grew up together and then just kinda forgot about it due to Deus Ex Machina plot point ‘A’” is not the making of a great story.

So you need a better reason than the GF....oh well that's your saying but remeber that they seperated while being very very young as well.

Most of the characters receive almost no character development, some of them to the point where they are more like ‘avatars’ then they are characters. Most of the characters have one characteristic to define them, with all their actions within the game being based on that one characteristic. Zell and Selphie fall into this category. Beyond the stereotypical achetype that they portray, there isn’t anything to them. Then there are characters like Quistis and Irvine who look like they are going to receive some decent development but then virtually fall into a role of unimportance after the first disk. This is particularly noticeable for Quistis, who the characters clearly initially intended to be a love interest for Squall to compete with Rinoa. After the first disk however, any mention of these feelings is completely void up until one of the last moments in the disk where she states the equivalent of “OH WAIT I WASN’T REALLY IN LOVE LOLZ”. Seriously, even the characters in FFV were better developed than those in FFVIII, and FFV is notorious for being considered as having some of the worst characters since they started to give FF PCs personalities.

Thankfully there weren't too much love twists or i might have HATED it for being a soap opera drama (one the things I hate most in life). As for the characters I don't think they're sterotypical espicially Squall who slowly and COMPLETELY changes throught the whole time. But I don't wanna discuss it and argue coz it will take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNG time so in short you believe wht u want , n I'll do the same

The final dungeon was ‘nifty’ and all but that was practically all there was on the disk. This wouldn’t have been a problem if everything had been resolved up to that point but the game still left many questions behind. Seifer I’ll talk about below. Ultimecia is never given a clear motivation. Time Compression is explained so poorly that people speculate as to its mechanics to this day. No details are given as to what happened to Galbardia, or anything to do with the dubious political situation in general, after Seifer’s defeat. Squall’s relationship with Laguna is never explored to the level it should have considering it had been built up throughout the entire game. It’s as if they forgot about the rest of the plot points and just decided to focus on the showdown with Ultimecia and threw a whole load of bizarre visuals at us to try and make us forget that there was anything else to explain.

Time Compression: Compressing the past with the coming future to form one eternal present, as for Ultimecia's final attempt to absorb Time and space that would've made her a Goddess who can create or get rid of any other existence than herself. but it's true that the final enemy was revealed very late unlike most of the other FFs in which you know your enemy since the begining. And it might've been cool too if they made Squall fight along Laguna Kiros and Ward (or just tied their fates in Disc 4 for awhile in any way) as REAL playable characters, but then again they were much older and haven't fought in so many years. So I'm guessing what you're saying (espicially about Disc 4)is that it was good but it could've been better, true?

I have nothing against Seifer. In fact, he’s one of the few characters I actually like in this game. What I was referring to was how he simply fades from the plot in disk 4 after trying to kill everyone, only to appear in the ending with a completely changed demeanor. Sure, it isn’t a great leap in logic to assume that Seifer would return the way he was after being defeated, but we are given no indication that Seifer was beginning to change at the time we last see him. In fact, where did he go? He just sort of throws Rinoa at Adel and runs off, never to be seen again until aforementioned final scene. This leaves a hole in the continuity of the game, a pretty inexcusable one since it wouldn’t have taken more than a few lines of dialogue to completely fill out the character.

I agree there wasn't much explanation to what happened to Seifer in the end, but anyone would guess the hell going throught his mind by that time, I would've liked it also if Ultimicia had kept him as her knight (maybe she didn't when he was defeated several times or she thought she didn't need him anymore,but whatever) but you make a good point the only diffrence is that you dislike it and I don't at all!!!

 

[ThroneofDravaris]

So you need a better reason than the GF....oh well that's your saying but remeber that they seperated while being very very young as well.

They were 7-8. Most people can clearly remember that time in their lives, especially when it’s only ten years later.

Thankfully there weren't too much love twists or i might have HATED it for being a soap opera drama (one the things I hate most in life). As for the characters I don't think they're sterotypical espicially Squall who slowly and COMPLETELY changes throught the whole time.

This is why I said ‘vast majority of characters’ rather than ‘all’. Even so, Squall’s character development was dubious at best: He is pretty much the same person right up to the point where Rinoa fall into a coma, at which point he changes. Really though, Squall along with Rinoa and Laguna were still acceptable as characters. It was the way all of the supporting characters were glanced over that got to me.

Time Compression: Compressing the past with the coming future to form one eternal present, as for Ultimecia's final attempt to absorb Time and space that would've made her a Goddess who can create or get rid of any other existence than herself.

We know what time compression is. It’s how it works that is not only confusing but also nonsensical. For example, moments from the beginning of game such as the first mission in Dollet are seen as being compressed yet we don’t see any of Time Compression's effects until the beginning of Disk 4. Also, we are never given a reason as to why Ultimecia has to travel into the past in order to start it off.

but it's true that the final enemy was revealed very late unlike most of the other FFs in which you know your enemy since the begining.

No, in many FF games the true antagonist doesn’t appear until some point near the end of the game. FFI, FFIII, and FFIV all followed this pattern before FFVIII. The difference is that all of the villains in these games also had clear motivations for their actions. The only definite motivation that the game presents Ultimecia as having is that she’s evil.

And it might've been cool too if they made Squall fight along Laguna Kiros and Ward (or just tied their fates in Disc 4 for awhile in any way) as REAL playable characters, but then again they were much older and haven't fought in so many years.

Not really. The limited cast didn’t really bother me in the slightest.

So I'm guessing what you're saying (espicially about Disc 4)is that it was good but it could've been better, true?

No, I’m saying that Disk 4 would have been adequate if all of the game’s plot points other than the final battle had been resolved in Disk 3.

I agree there wasn't much explanation to what happened to Seifer in the end, but anyone would guess the hell going throught his mind by that time, I would've liked it also if Ultimicia had kept him as her knight (maybe she didn't when he was defeated several times or she thought she didn't need him anymore,but whatever) but you make a good point the only diffrence is that you dislike it and I don't at all!!!

Even if it doesn’t bother you, surely you must acknowledge that said plot point was poorly handled due to aforementioned continuity issues and is therefore a flaw.

 

[Slider]

They were 7-8. Most people can clearly remember that time in their lives, especially when it’s only ten years later.

I'm intrested to know your source that they were 7-8, they were five when garden was built, Zell was adopted, Quistis too but was returned, Selphie & Irvine were gone too, meaning Only Squall Seifer and Quistis stayed together until the others joined them.

We know what time compression is. It’s how it works that is not only confusing but also nonsensical. For example, moments from the beginning of game such as the first mission in Dollet are seen as being compressed yet we don’t see any of Time Compression's effects until the beginning of Disk 4. Also, we are never given a reason as to why Ultimecia has to travel into the past in order to start it off.

I read this many time and I still can't figure out what you mean by the effects of time compression in Dollet? why would therebe any effect if Ultimecia achieved Time Compression at Disk 4?????????????? please explain!

No, in many FF games the true antagonist doesn’t appear until some point near the end of the game. FFI, FFIII, and FFIV all followed this pattern before FFVIII. The difference is that all of the villains in these games also had clear motivations for their actions. The only definite motivation that the game presents Ultimecia as having is that she’s evil.

Dude, don't argue about that, it still leaves many others in which the antagonist appears early and even not all of the games you said showed the antagonist as late as VIII (althought you actually fought Ultimecia many times, she just was using Edea but her identity wasn't revealed)

Even if it doesn’t bother you, surely you must acknowledge that said plot point was poorly handled due to aforementioned continuity issues and is therefore a flaw.

Not necessarily a flaw, not all storylines (this includes movies, books etc...) have the usual order : beginning, middle, ending. For example some of them just start from the past and end with the present. In 8, it was the present with a LOT of flashbacks and its ending is the actually the beginning's explanation. but yeah it was a bit confusing, but not too much to HATE it!!!!!???

 

[ThroneofDravaris]

I'm intrested to know your source that they were 7-8, they were five when garden was built, Zell was adopted, Quistis too but was returned, Selphie & Irvine were gone too, meaning Only Squall Seifer and Quistis stayed together until the others joined them.

From what I gathered the events at the orphanage were from 10 years prior to the game. If I’m wrong I’ll retract that statement.

I read this many time and I still can't figure out what you mean by the effects of time compression in Dollet? why would therebe any effect if Ultimecia achieved Time Compression at Disk 4?????????????? please explain!

It’s simple. If the events around the Dollet mission were being compressed then the characters should have been able to see the effects while they were enacting said mission. The fact that we only see the effects of time compression at the start of Disk 4 simply does not make any sense.

Dude, don't argue about that, it still leaves many others in which the antagonist appears early and even not all of the games you said showed the antagonist as late as VIII (althought you actually fought Ultimecia many times, she just was using Edea but her identity wasn't revealed)

You’re missing the point of what I’m saying. I used those other antagonists as examples of successful villains that appear late in the game and yet were still filled out to a decent degree. The problem that I, and most other people, have with Ultimecia isn’t that she appeared late in the game, it’s that she didn’t have clear motivations for her actions.

And jftr, all the games I listed present the true antagonists as late, if not later than in FFVIII. Garlend appears in the beginning of FFI but the game gives no indication that he is the one manipulating the present until right before you fight him at the end of the game. The Cloud of Darkness doesn’t show up until the VERY end of the game in FFIII. Zemus isn’t mentioned until the characters visit the moon in FFIV.

Not necessarily a flaw, not all storylines (this includes movies, books etc...) have the usual order : beginning, middle, ending. For example some of them just start from the past and end with the present. In 8, it was the present with a LOT of flashbacks and its ending is the actually the beginning's explanation. but yeah it was a bit confusing, but not too much to HATE it!!!!!???

I’m not talking about the main plot. I am purely talking about Seifer. The manner in which the main plot is presented is irrelevant to the continuity error between his disposition at the end of Disk 3/beginning of Disk 4 and in the ending FMV. Also, I don’t hate said continuity error; that would be incredibly pointless. I do, however recognize it as a flaw in the story telling; one which could have easily be avoided.

 

[ultimecia]

i think that the weapons and battling is not very good as you need to find a load of items to upgrade your weapons and bit crappy spells

 

[Slider]

-Balamb was built "12" years ago making the maximum age of the characters adoptions 6 years (if they were 18)
-Becoming a God isn't a motivation? in any case it didn't have a lot of drama or stories and explanations that's what you're saying.....................................
-I still CAN'T see (or maybe I still don't understand) why isn't the least bit reasonnable for you the way Seifer turnned out at the end. He found peace of mind at last and his posse that nearly abandonned him returned again!!

 

[ThroneofDravaris]

-Balamb was built "12" years ago making the maximum age of the characters adoptions 6 years (if they were 18)

As I said, if I’m wrong about what I said I retract that statement.

-Becoming a God isn't a motivation?

No, that is her goal. A well-developed villain has decent reasoning behind their actions in order to make them realistic.

--I still CAN'T see (or maybe I still don't understand) why isn't the least bit reasonnable for you the way Seifer turnned out at the end. He found peace of mind at last and his posse that nearly abandonned him returned again!!

Once again you’re missed the point of what I said. I’m not saying his change wasn’t logical. I’m saying the fact that they don’t present the transition between when we see him in the Lunatic Pandora to when we see him fishing in the ending is sloppy story telling.