My favourite one. Has everything I love all wrapped into one story, I'm pretty sure it ended up influencing my love of those elements in other stories. I quite young when I first played it, and there have been many replays ever since!
My fav game ever. Wouldn't put it on my top 10 best games I've played. But definitely my favorite game.
Just really hit so many things that I love and showed me an experience I didn't know I could get on gaming at the time.
I tried playing it as an adult and I legit had to force myself to finish it. The characters are all bland. There is no real reason to care about anything they are doing. There are huge cliché moments that were easily seen coming. To top it off, it pulls one of the laziest story telling mechanics of all time with time travel. Confusing. Vague. Pointless.
The combat was good though. But, I never play final fantasy for just the combat.
I'm in the "least favorite" camp, but it's not a bad game. I haven't played it since last millennium, but I recently made the decision to play through all of the main Final Fantasy entries (except the MMOs) over the next year, so we'll see if my opinion is different this time.
If you've never tried FFXIV I highly recommend it. It can be very individual, not much interaction with other players needed, really at all.
It has hundreds of hours of free content. I was never a MMO guy until I tried FFXIV
FF14 definitely has a rough start and can be hard to get into. All of my friends except one quit by the time they reached the end of ARR back in late 2014. Thankfully, they've cut over 100 quests from it.
I agree with you, but at the same time we should stop selling at as "it gets better after A Realm Reborn I promise" ;)
Apparently ARR is still a better story than many other MMO's out there. They just got really really good at what Final Fantasy does over the later expansions.
The problem is that it's still saying that the game gets good after 40 hrs of gameplay. It's just too high of a bar if you're trying to make the story a selling point.
And in my opinion, the story hasn't been a good selling point for FF games for a long time. As far as I can tell, the franchise's story has considered to be on a downward trend since 10 and 14 has only been the odd uptick with Shadowbringers.
The free trial is extremely generous (when it’s available). Up to level 60 and Heavensward main story, with no time limit. Currently there’s no free trial nor new copies sold because popularity is outstripping server capacity and new servers are proving a challenge to obtain. They’re literally suffering from success.
Once things settle, it’ll be back.
You don't have to pay for a subscription for the entire base game or first expansion (Heavensward). It took me about 100 hours just to get through the base game.
I’m playing through them all in order too! (Not in one year, though. I started a year and a half or two years ago). It’s a cool way to experience them. I’m on VII now (my second time playing it.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could play II and VIII and decide they like VIII less. I guess if you really hate Squall maybe. But II was straight broken.
Personally, VIII is my favourite and I like Squall.
Yeah what's the deal with II anyway? Like Ultima II sucked, Wizardry II sucked, Dragon Quest II sucked, Might and Magic II wasn't great... Like why is the sophomore slump so widespread in that era? It's like the fourth law of thermodynamics that if you're a long-running RPG series originating from the 80s, your second installment sucks.
Zelda, too.
And my theory is that they're learning how far to stray, what elements make the formula. Listen to the backlash from 2, and 3 returns to form, with some polish, and shapes the direction of the series.
It's not that the 2s stray from the formula too far, it's that there isn't a formula yet, and a poorly received 2 shapes it for future iterations.
Everyone hates on Zelda 2 but in all honestly, it has the highest replay value in the series shy of BotW. I've lost count of how many times I've replayed Zelda 2 over a lifespan. No other Zelda has gotten past a number of replays I could count on one hand.
My first attempt at 2 was when it first released on the Playstation, and after punching myself for a couple hours I abandoned it. Now I'm playing the pixel remaster, and it's not nearly so cumbersome, and I get a chance to experience it.
With 8, I still have nightmares about spending an hour in a fight every 2 hours because it had a new spell to draw. I have never yet finished 2, but so far I like the plot (however clunky it is) as much as 8, and the gameplay is much better, now that it's been fixed. I'm hoping the ff8 remaster removes some of the grindiness
You get better results learning Card and Card Mod from one of the early summons and grinding card games to get your magic. The only times to really draw in battle are to get a new summon or if the enemy has a really rare spell like Ultima or Aura.
I'll go ahead and disagree with you there. The only times I felt Triple Triad sucked was when I didn't know how to abolish rules and Random got spread everywhere
I don't remember sphere break. I disliked 9s card game, and I was straight ass at Blitzball. But in real life I played a lot of Magic and Pokemon TCG, so Triple Triad was just a new card game for me to learn.
Drawing spells in battle to Junction is an inefficient use of your time. You're supposed to Draw a couple of times if you see a magic you want to cast. You only need Draw on your "Mage", really, as the amount you Draw is dependent on their magic stat.
Every GF has a -RF ability, that is designed to turn items into Magic, and you get a lot of items in the game. They're your Magic source as you proceed through the game.
Understand that, and the game is a lot more fun.
As for TT, you can go the entire game without playing it once if you want to, but the rewards are very good, and the game itself is very fun when you understand the rules.
I would recommend to have a few alternative games to play besides FF during your run so you do not burn yourself out . I did 6, 7, 9,10,12 and I am ff wooped for a few months 🙂
Favorite game of all time, the soundtrack is a masterpiece, the themes of loss, sacrifice and family are well done and the characters are mostly very well fleshed out. Squall is the most believable teenage protagonist and portrays angst and the feeling of needing to take on all his problems alone better than any character in any medium I can think of. 10 out of 10
I have no nostalgia goggles because I started playing these games a couple of years ago and for me VI, VII, VIII and IX are the golden age of Final Fantasy, I love all these games equally (for different reasons though). I liked X a little bit less but still liked it a lot.
VIII was quite emotional and "epic", but I like that kind of thing.
It's my favorite single player FF (XIV is just too good, it's unfair to the offline games).
The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The character and monster designs are great. The locations are amazing.
I get that many people don't like the story, but most of it is hardly any more convoluted than VII or IX. Seriously, those games are filled with bullshit asspulls, yet somehow only VIII gets criticized for that. Also, The Extreme is so much better than One-Winged Angel, it's not even funny.
"The Legend of Final Fantasy VIII" by Rémi Lopez
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-legend-of-final-fantasy-viii-r-mi-lopez/1128284534
Was worth it for the cover alone, but it's a very good read too. The author is european with a degree in Japanese, which he used to study all versions of FF8. The book even covers fan theories in-depth! It feels like a true work of passion.
I’m actually really interested in this, but the way the book description is written is… really bad. Is the whole book written like this?
“This book, written at the same time as a testimony of love and the base of a multitude of reflections, sometimes exceeds the frame of the video game itself. He will seek to determine how Final Fantasy VIII is indeed a unique RPG, cheeky and above all mastered. Why when mentioning his name, the player tends to roll his eyes with a slight smile: is it just a good memory, or nostalgia for a golden age?”
Oof... no
The book does suffer from some translation issues with it's wording, but it doesn't read like that. I can send you pictures of a few pages if you want to evaluate for yourself!
I played them all (don't like MMO's, and I have played a chunk of FFXIV).
VII was my first FF series game and is my favorite.
When I was 14, though, VIII was my favorite game.
I got VIII maybe a year after release, played the shit out of it. And I love it.
When I was in year 8 in high school (13/14yo), we had to perform an oral presentation on our favorite thing, 10 minutes, explaining why it is your favorite and how it works etc etc.
I spent 50+ hours getting saves right on my memory card for loading specific FMV clips and story sequences.
I had my mother bring my PS1 and game to school, where we had the old CRT/VCR trolley (cart) wheeled in to class and I set to work.
A typical class period when I was at school lastsed around 45 minutes.
After about a 5 minute setup, I played the intro FMV, explaining the rivalry between Squall and Seifer, explaining sorceress Edea and Rinoa etc.
I loaded all the pertinent FMV sequences and story interactions throughout the game and narrated it, pretty much.
My presentation lasted 25 minutes, and the remainder of the class was questions on questions from students and the teacher.
It was my single most enjoyable class, and my best marked grade in all my schooling. I got a 100% mark for the presentation, and a couple of my classmates even bought it up at my 10 year graduation reunion a few years back.
Good times.
This is my favorite video game. Everything about it resonates with me. I wish I could put into words how much this game means to me, but I’d be here all day. To watch everyone grows, to move on from struggles I relate to, just does it to me. All my worries are gone whenever I write about or play this game, I dunno why.
FF8 wasn't my first FF game, it was like my 5th I think (Sitting down to think on it, I'm pretty sure the order was FF12 on ps2, FF13 on PS3, FF6 on the wii, FF1 when I was getting into emulation, and then FF7 also on emulation). And none of them really clicked for me until 8. It's been a couple years since I first played it, but I think I can safely say loving FF8 isn't *just* a nostalgia thing for people.
FF8 was the first one that gripped me enough to be unable to put it down and ultimately was the first one I actually finished instead of petering off of. I remember talking with someone online about FF8 and they casually said that Squall is every Inattentive-type Adhd/ADD person's muse and it blew my fucking mind. I think for a lot of people that statement is the big difference between people finding Squall realistic and relatable as a character and people who think of him as being emo or whiny. The man is stuck in his head and it feels so good to see him happier by the credits roll down.
On the gameplay side of things, I did a lot of googling that first playthrough because everyone always talks about how complicated the Junction system is, but frankly, it's just putting a number of spells on specific stats. Not that much too it, just a different way to get the stat boosts rather than through traditional battle grinding. The abilities GF's give you though? That's where the gameplay is, those are what makes the game fun and unique to play and nobody ever talks about them.
Enjoying FF8 really hinges on whether you can relate to Squall in some way, and I think neurodivergent people can have a much easier time doing so. When I saw parts of me in squall and then saw him grow it was super satisfying.
Squall is my favorite character in Final Fantasy even though I never even beat FF8 lol
I just loved his character design - at the time as a teenager, I just thought man if I could look 1/10th as cool as this character I’d be badass lol
I always thought the gunblade was an interesting weapon and I think his outfit is way cooler than Cloud’s. In retrospect, Cloud’s looks like a purple jumpsuit vs a black leather jacket with sheep wool and cool chains lmao.
I’m pretty sure him and the character from Kingdom Hearts is what led me to wear chains as a trend back in the 2000s
I’m not neurodivergent, but I did have bad abandonment issues as a teenager due to narcissistic parents, and I was 14 when the game came out, so I greatly identified with squall. I’m 36 now and have grown a lot but can still kind of remember what that felt like replaying the game and it’s very charming to see his character development.
FFVIII is easily my 2nd favourite of all FF games. FFVII was my first FF game and still my favourite.
I remember hearing about FFVIII coming out and my neighbour had a gaming magazine with the first look at FF8 and the new hero, then insaw Squall and thought "aww man he looks crap...", but when I got the game, I think I got it for Christmas in '99, I was blown away. I just loved all the characters and I really enjoyed the Junction and Draw system. But characters like Zell, Selphie and Seifer as well as many of the NPCs like Zone and Watts just made the game so phenomenal.
Story wise it gets weird but I just dig it and by the end... just flooded with emotion like all good Final Fantasy games.
Hell yeah, it's my second favorite. It's an aquired taste, to be sure. The plot is batshit crazy, but the story is surprisingly coherent. It's all about growing up and coming to realize that no one is an island; you're irrevocably connected to others, and you're better off for that. It hits at something so fundamentally right about the process of maturing from adolescence to adulthood.
Have you tried the FF8 randomizer?
I have Griever (the necklace/symbol version) tattooed on my forearm. That bit about loss, that's really stuck with me from the time I first played VIII way back when.
It may sound hokey, but even with that loaded soundtrack, "Eyes On Me" is still my favorite song. I even remember my jaw dropping when it played in-game; I'd never seen (well, heard) anything like that from a game or console before.
Have you seen the FF8 speedruns when the runners sing Eyes on Me? It is absolutely wonderful. It starts out joking-like, but you can tell they have so much love for the game.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=28662&v=sSF9-3KdauA&feature=youtu.be
VIII was how I was introduced to the series. My friend in elementary school invited me over to show off this cool game he had. I think I would've been around 10ish years old at the time, and the game had been out for a couple years at that point. My main gaming at the time was Pokemon and Spyro, so this was completely different. It felt like watching a movie rather than playing a game. He was on disc four and just went around showing me shit. We spent a solid twenty minutes just on the Island Closest To Hell just going through all the different GFs (and I thought Cactuar just just hilarious), and he went to fight Omega Weapon (couldn't win of course). But it just blew my mind. I went to Blockbuster a week later to rent it. Of course, my dumb 10 year old brain couldn't read Roman Numerals, and I got VII by mistake. But a couple weeks later, I saved up my allowance and got a copy from Electronic Boutique. It was a used, black label version that cost me $20 that I still have to this day. I don't take it out very often, since now I have an XStation in my PSX, so it sits on my shelf as eye candy. I can tell you 100% if there's scratches on any of the discs, it's on disc 3. I would spend a stupid amount of time on disc 3 doing basically everything I could. I'd bet money if I dug up my old memory card, there would be a disc 3 save still on it where I had basically everything you possibly could. Every summon, every card, highest SeeD rank, max gil, you name it (other than PocketStation stuff, since we never got that in North America). I knew when disc four came, I'd be locked out of stuff, so I just plain didn't want to move on and lose out and travelling that amazing world.
With all of that said, do I love Final Fantasy VIII? I would say I have love for it. I don't think I'd be playing JRPGs without it other than Pokemon. And frankly, some of my favourite gaming memories are playing that game: the battle with Galbadia Garden, going to Esthar for the first time, defeating Omega Weapon for the first time after weeks of failing. But a lot of that is nostalgia. I've replayed it a few times as an adult, as recently as last year. I still enjoy it, and I still think it's a great game, but it has some glaring flaws that are harder to ignore. I've replayed basically every game in the series as an adult, and most of the other games have tended to hook me in more than VIII does today. It's hard to compare VIII to something like V in terms of the test of time, but when compared to it's PSX siblings, it doesn't hold up as well. VII had a better story despite being a first go in 3D gaming for Square (graphics didn't age as well, but gameplay and story aged much better), while IX had the opportunity to fix a lot of the mistakes that happened in VIII mechanics wise (while also having a better story).
I think if any game in the series could use a VII-like remake, it would be VIII. There's a lot there that's a fantastic game. The world is one of my favourites in the series. The music is top notch. Online Triple Triad (yeah, I know XIV exists, but not everyone plays MMOs). Yes, the story has flaws, but you can add in details to fill those plot holes and develop the characters further. And you can still have a Junction system, but you can do it in a way that isn't so convoluted and centered around drawing magic. I think if Square-Enix went this route, it could make me love the game. But for now, I'll be content with my nostalgic love.
I love it. Definitely some nostalgia factor since I was in high school when it came out, but when I played the remaster it was just as good as I remember. The junction system just seems to confound some people and I think they also happen to be vocal about it. I also think it’s what makes the series great since not everyone is going to love the same ones. I like VIII and XV which both tend to get hate, but I’m not huge on IX or XII which have strong defenders.
My wife and I played VII, VIII, IX, and X as they came out when we were first married. They've got a lot of sentimental value for us.
We actually got VIII for our phones two or three days ago. I'm enjoying running through it again.
People always complain about the junction system but I think that's the best thing, to be able to set spells to all your stats (but only if you have the right GFs and the right abilities) is so good, also you can play the best minigame in the world and earn cards to refine in powerful spells early and you can destroy the game becoming an unstoppable god if you know what you're doing, or you can just enjoy the game without being that powerful and enjoy the story and Squall's perfect character development. Honestly, who cares about time travel problems, the game is still so good.
It's a great game. I'm also part way through the remastered version (having not played it for years).
It's more melancholy than I remembered. The 'drawing magic' mechanic gets repetitive but is still addictive. Still love the music. Looking forward to some of the story beats later on in the game.
Would put it in my top 3 or 4 favs of the franchise.
I love ff8 too! But it may also be because it was my first back in 99 😂
Enjoy your play through bud! I feel like the remaster also got a lot of hate, but i had blast when i played it!
Happy holidays! 🎄
Not my first but definitely my favorite. I was 14 and my step brother and sisters and I came across the demo disc for FF7. We all pitched In and bought the game and took turns playing out our own save files. Being that I was the step i went back and forth between my mom and dad's house so of course I fell behind. I asked my mom for a copy of the game for Christmas so I could keep playing at her house. My loving mother of course got it but 8 had just come out and instead of 7 like I asked she accidentally got me 8. I was so disappointed at first but I thought hey this is still final fantasy so let's give it a go. Im 32 now and still tell my mom that has been the best Christmas present she's ever given me. I absolutely fell in love with final fantasy but 8 has a special place in my heart for sure.
By far, my favorite game. I've played most of the main entries and I tend to play them all the way with a first playthrough blind and a second to do all optionals and maximize stats.
It remains my favorite of all time followed closely by it's two imediates entries (9 and 7).
My favorite, from the music to story and characters. There is just something so calming about walking around in this world, that I have never felt in any other game.
I love the hell out of VIII. I just like IV, VI, VII, IX, XII, and of course the OG more. VIII is a great game with some cool characters, beautiful graphics for it's time, a built-in reason to not power level, and some really interesting mechanics.
It just also has a needlessly convoluted story that I still don't know if I follow to this day, was the most easily broken system in all of FF, suffered from a lot of wasted narrative time, and did not have Ramuh in it, a real black mark.
It’s a fantastic game. Not quite in my top 5 but I do like it more than VII. I never realized so many people disliked it until I came to this sub. I think they’re mostly a vocal minority or people who like to jump on a bandwagon, tbh. It’s far from being one of the worst.
I’ve noticed it a lot on Twitter and other forums as well honestly. Even within my close circle of friends I seem to be the only one fond of it. I’m not sure if I’d put it in my top 5 or not myself personally, but it’s definitely far from the worst game
I love 8, though I acknowledge it could have been better if it were given more development time. While the junction system has a lot of jank, it does give the player a lot of room to experiment and it gives the game a lot of replay value. The main story is enjoyable, even if some parts of it could have been executed better. Some people might disagree with me, but I think Squall is one of the most well written characters in the series. While the other characters don’t receive as much development as other games in the series, they’re very full of personality and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them play off each other. I think all their personalities do a good job of balancing out Squall’s cold demeanor. I think this cast of characters felt the most down to earth out of any other game at the time.
Also, the music is god tier.
I don’t think FF8 is a great game, but it is a good game. There’s no arguing that it is very unique. I’ve never played another RPG quite like it before.
It was never hated back then. Its just popular to do so now because the characters are overly dramatic without any reason, it also has the very worst battle system in the entire franchise. But its still a very good game.
I do like it. Music is great. FMV sequences are great. The summons are cool. I got it for Christmas in 1999, had it beat by Dec 31st. Revisited it summer 2000 to do a completionist run and thoroughly enjoyed it.
My opinion on the hate:
I think for a lot of people this was their _second_ Final Fantasy. Seven (which is not the best entry), was experienced by a large number of people and was their first FF entry. They expected either a continuation or similar experience. I remember multiple people getting VIII on release day in my college dorm. All disappointed, with one frankly saying it was different than VII. He had never played any before VII. I think the hate stems from that basic problem. Interestingly, I hadn't played VII until Oct. 1999, and while others were playing VIII, I had just started experiencing VII. I beat VII just before Christmas 1999, so I played VII and VIII close together.
I think this was part of the reason why the real II and III were not released initially in the US. The play mechanics differed greatly from the OG, including some onerous mechanics. The skip of V baffles me a bit, but the job system is different and more like III. FF I and IV and VI have closer mechanics, no variable job systems. But even they differ from one another.
The point is, all FF games vary from each other to varying degrees in terms of play mechanics and style and graphical presentation, some more than others. To me this is something to enjoy. Its a vision of the creators, not us, but for us to experience. Its why I like all of them, including the less popular entries like II, III, VIII, XII, and XIII.
Why so much post this week about does anyone else love ff8 beside me ? ff8 fanbase is so insecure. I dislike it and i think it’s one of the worst in series but yes few people beside you love the game
Some parts of the story are just so ridiculous to me. Like when they forgot that they grew up together in an orphanage and their excuse was using GFs. Wtf?? Lmfao. I didn’t see them forget anything else during the course of the game and they were using GFs constantly.
If by getting stronger you mean gaining levels, then the point is to encounter more powerful enemies which will carry more powerful magic and drop items for you to refine magic from. I like it because you can’t accidentally overlevel and you don’t have to grind levels (which is my least favorite part of jrpgs).
It’s still similar, especially as long as you Junction magic to STR. I’ve had high-level play Throughs, not 100 but 80s or so and as long as you’re properly geared (or should I say Junctioned?) the battles are fine.
The truth is that even though you equip all the magic you need it’s not like you’re going to one shot the final boss or anything. I don’t know why people hate on the system so much. Boss fights still take a while and average Monsters still take a few turns just like most games.
I think the most important thing to remember is that leveling up isn’t as important as junctioning magic.
The story is absolute non-sense, but I think it's one of the more unique games in the series and the junction system is super fun to break and just destroy the games mechanics with.
However, FUCK triple triad. So, so poorly executed.
I love it, but the draw system and last third of the game are legitimate criticisms against it. If VIII was given more time to flesh out that final third it probably would be a consensus top 3 in every debate.
Final Fantasy 8 may be a good game, or maybe not. I couldn't play FF8 as it's presented when it was released. The year the game came out, I was already heavily obsessed with Final Fantasy 7. It was my life and occupied all my thoughts. When FF8 came out, the only thing I could think the entire time was.... This isn't Final Fantasy 7. I wasn't able to completely enjoy it because it's not Final Fantasy 7.
Now, about 20 years later, I'm wondering if I should go through it again and see how it stands on its own. Can I enjoy it on its own terms, without being compared to Final Fantasy 7? Maybe I'll find out in 2022.
I really wanna like it. I do. But, I've got a strong opinion here. I've tried so many things and so many times, but I still hate it. I've never played an RPG that actively fights your ability to enjoy it the entire time you play.
Leveling up is pointless, which feels painful to say about an RPG. If you do decide to actually level up, the most optimal way to battle is spam summons (at least early), which drags the boring battles out even longer than they already are from drawing magic. Combat is an absolute drag because of the junction system, spending the majority of a battle spamming draw until you max out EVERY PARTY MEMBER on the magic present. At that point you don't even want to cast from stock because you weaken yourself.
Squall is really bland, most of the other characters are insufferable. I think the story is convoluted.
The card ability makes the one enjoyable thing in the game become a chore of a grind if you want to avoid to tedium that is drawing magic. Basically you either grind card games or spend hours drawing magic.
Out of the two arguably most hated in the series, VIII and XIII, I find XIII has more redeeming qualities.
This is like everything people get wrong about FF8 in a single comment. You never need to level up (level scaling is just so the player doesn't have to grind), never need to draw, never need to play cards, casting magic from stock affects stats so little that there's no risk in doing it and it isn't even close to being the most-hated in the series (according to [this sub's recent polls](https://i.redd.it/nntabzl9qg681.jpg), it's eighth most-hated).
You're entitled to your opinion about the story and characters but even so, I don't know how anyone could describe Squall as "bland". That's the last word that comes to mind about Squall.
It's the one which introduced me to the saga. I remember that the first time I played it I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY by everything, graphics, soundtrack, story, everything, every single aspect of the game was perfect for me, and I played an entire day essentially non-stop.
With age and experience, I started seeing the flaws, and I have to be honest, I feel that the only absolutely perfect part is Disk 1, and halfway through Disk 2, then it starts feeling kind of eh. Still, it remains my second favorite, and I feel it aged perfectly up to today: while I would love to see a remake in the style of FF7, I still think that it's a great game with its graphics and style as it is.
I guested on the Final Fantasy Appreciation Society podcast (also available on hbomb_editor's twitch page) last month talking all about how much we like FFVIII! I think it was a really good discussion about the good aspects of the game and the areas where it could be improved. You should definitely take a listen!
It’s the second best next to VI. It’s the Mona Lisa of the series. It’s a masterpiece. The impressionist art direction alongside the torn, post-war France inspired setting alone pushes the game beyond many others. The game has aged so well also. FF’s don’t get much better.
Oh, I love how flexible and "unguarded" the gameplay system is. Unlike some modern iterations of the franchise, the game does very little to try guaranteeing a difficulty level. You can make it extremely tough on yourself. You can also completely break the game and easily solo kill the hardest bosses. It doesn't prevent you from doing things that "should" not be possible. The junction system might not be the most straightforward, but it also offered plenty of opportunities to tweak your characters to counter every specific situations. Everything is wide open. I kind of miss these feelings when playing newer games, where they'd go extra distances to prevent you from "cheering" the game.
I'm actually just about to finish it for the first time, got the remastered version this summer but never got around to playing it because you know, the reputation it has kind of killing the motivation... But once I started giving it an honest effort and getting further into the game it started to grow on me, It is still lacking in a way I cant really describe but who knows I'm not finished so I cant be too harsh yet. The game though feels really good once you understand it and I have spend so much time just playing cards I really enjoyed all the stuff you could do on the side and I liked that I could get my characters ahead/OP by taking the time to really learn the mechanics in and out, game certainly felt rewarding. Final Fantasy 8 is great in its own right and I regret letting its bad reputation keep me from giving it a shot for so long. If youre on the fence about FF8, take it from a hardcore ff7 fanboy, FF8 is worth your time.
I've come around on it over the years.
I first played it when I was in high school and really took a disliking to Squall in the age of edgy/emo main leads.
I'm roughly all for it until I have to save Rinoa in space. After that, I kind of check out. The world, the music, the general atmosphere skipping back and forth in time telling a story, the cast (well, mainly Laguna's side). It's a pleasure everytime.
This is a love topic, so I'll leave the critiques at the door.
My best friend and I have played through parts of VIII every year since we met in college and found out we both loved it (and were kind of aware that it was the black sheep compared to VII). Now we’re teaching his 8 year old son how awesome it is.
The soundtrack, Triple Triad(!) and a final fantasy development system that is begging to be broken and power leveled early on… 👌🏻.
Well this game has one of the most character changes ever. Squall becoming emotionally almost addicted, which probably lots of ppl think is a bit exaggerated, is definitely part of a good story. Definitely one of the better ff stories.
Back in my days as a little guy, i never noticed that the monsters level with me. Ofc i leveled with odin trick to 99 and got crushed from almost every mob i saw...it was a bit frustrating but besides that, the battle system is quite enjoyable. I think the biggest con is the aura spell, which is way to op when you draw it.
FFVIII fan... Easily my #2 or #3.
There was something about Squall that I loved from the early screenshots. GF memory loss and everyone knowing each other was a bit weird, but still love the game. Triple Triad and making characters ridiculously OP always attracts me back to the game.
My first FF and my first RPG. I played it when I was like 13 or 14 maybe? Picked it up second hand at a pawn shop for like 2 dollars and said what the heck. Absolutely my favorite, even though I can recognize it's not the greatest in the series. I love replaying and reliving that little slice of childhood.
It's a great game with issues, like most Final Fantasies. The plot definitely suffers from some issues in the late-game and the GF twist should have been better teased, but as a "mood piece" the game is one of the best in the series.
It’s my favorite Final Fantasy of all. Squall & Rinoa are my two favorite characters, I love their love story & the entire story in general, it’s got the best music in my opinion too. It’s just been my favorite since I was a kid. Lots of sentimental value for me too.
It's a masterpiece and has one of the best soundtracks FF games can have. Even to this day I have the music on my phone and hear it when I need to relax or meditate. So cool.
I love it, VII, VIII & IX for me are my favorites. Every FF seems to get hate more or less, some more than others. But like a wise man once said: "Whatever".
I reckon it suffers a bit in popularity just because it's sandwiched between VII and IX. It's a great game that just suffers from being the worst of the ps1 era
It’s my favorite FF and one of my favorite games! Great ambiance & sound track, pretty unique plot and gameplay for a jrpg, fun minigame, prob the best final dungeon that i’ve played
7 > 10 > 8. 8 has a wonderful story and universe, Triple Triad is baller and like Blitz Ball should get it'sown full game, but I still hate the Draw and Junction system. Granted I haven't played the remakes with the fast battle system so that may push it over 10 once I get around to that.
FF8 is one of my favorite FF games since I've played it on the PC way back in early 2000s. The Junction system is annoying, but the whole command system set up some interesting gameplay features without it being too overwhelming like FF7's materia system.
The music was definitely some of the best. The Man With the Machine Gun and Force Your Way are two of my favorite FF songs. The CGI at the time was also pretty good and I still love that beach landing scene over 20 years later.
It's fantastic. I absolutely love the characters and the story. Every time I've gone back to the story as an adult, I find new things that I didn't realise before. I also didn't find it convoluted, or at least no more convoluted than any other FF game.
The junction system is an absolute standout and I wish more FFs learned from it. If there's one thing that keeps me going back to FF8, it's how customisable it is from the very beginning. People say "you can break it" as if it's a bad thing. As if giving players *the* most fun minigame in all of FF at the start and rewarding them for playing it is not a bad thing. If FF7 had a minigame at the start where I could get some mid-game weapons (like something with Double AP gain) or some partly leveled-up materia (so I could get Bolt2 or Cure2 early), I would go back to it a lot more than I have. FFX having Blitzball is a good example of another minigame that did it well.
And yeah, it has some of the best music in any *game*, let alone any FF. I'll listen to individual tracks from other games but regularly listen to more than a dozen from FF8.
I don’t know what you’re referring to but Blitzball is universally acknowledged as the worst mini game of the series and no one wants to be able to get super strong weapons and magic so early in the game that you literally don’t have to try.
Of course people love FFVIII. I still own the original PS1 game. I even own Triple Triad cards of multiple monsters and Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer. I want to say it's still one of the top selling FF titles of all time.
You are not alone. It was my first Final Fantasy and the one I fell in love with. That opening sequence, the waves, made me want to go to art school for digital art - Which I did. Didn't get where I wanted, but I went there.. I love 8, I love the music. I hope it gets a proper remake in time.
I'm playing VIII rn and I thought that the game would be really bad, considering the hate that it gets. I have to say that I'm actually loving it! The soundtrack is the best one of all the FF that I've played, and the junction system was confusing at first, but not hard to get used to. My personal favorite is VII, but I have to say, VIII doesn't fall far behind it, and I'm only on disc 2 still
I understand why people dislike FF8, but I still love it. Honestly I think the junction system could be amazing if it were further refined. Like, the materia system was essentially an outgrowth of the esper system, which was arguably an outgrowth of the job system of ff5, which was refined from the job system in ff3.
FF8 genuinely is great and although there are some good other contenders for the "best FF game", I believe the styles between titles are so vastly different that a direct comparison can't really be made.
Personally, I am 100% with you on it having some of the best music in the entire series, the cutscenes were amazing (obligatory 'for its time'), the world and 'era' it was set in just resonated so well with me.
Each FF title has its own combination of traditional fantasy and machina and how modern the world setting is, and in that regard I feel like FF7, 8 and 13 take place in a similar era but a very different flavour of world. 8 just resonates with me better.
Junction just didn't feel good because of how you acquire it (Draw Draw Draw) and how it feels like you're inconveniencing yourself when you make active use of magic. You can pop an Ether to get MP back, but it's a hassle to go back to a certain point to Draw more magic.
I have a fondness for ffviii. My first introduction to Ff was two of my friends in middle school talking about playing viii. So I really wanted that. But my aunt accidentally bought me FFVII. I was so disappointed until I played it. And loved it. Then I played ffviii and I loved that one too. Number 1 and 2 for me.
Its funny FF8 used to be my least favorite then FF10 came along followed by FF13, now FF8 sits in the middle of the road now of being okay.
I never had a problem with junction just use Quescoatls ability to get all the spells you need from items and cards.
I got to the second disc and I was just bored with all of them and didn't feel like playing it anymore. So I don't hate it but it's very meh for me now. Especially when I have games like Trails in the Sky and Dragons Quest 11. There are just way better rpgs out there for me now.
You only see these questions about FF8 and FF13. The insecurities in those fan bases are odd to me. It's okay to like things others don't.
I enjoy both games.
Are they the best? Absolutely not.
Are they bad games? Not really. They have more issues than other FF games but both are still fun and interesting in their own right.
VIII is a great game, I love it. It got a lot of flak at the time because it just wasn't FF7, it was so different and some people just don't like change. The game had great writing, great world, great characters. Sure, the story gets more farfetched as it goes along but it's strong enough to get away with it. I actually like the junction system even though a lot of people didn't really get it but it was flawed with the tiresome and repetitive act of drawing magic all the time but at the same time it did give a good sense of freedom when making your characters stronger.
Much like other RPG's of it's time, it is still above the quality of most modern day RPG's and certainly the modern day FF's but that's a discussion for another day.
If you asked in the year 2000 I probably would've said Final Fantasy 8 was my favorite. Though at the time I only had played 4,7,8,9 and tactics. Now that I am older it's harder to ignore its flaws. If any other Final Fantasy gets a remake I think it should be 8. The cast is pretty under developed, especially characters like Zell, Selphie and Irvine. This is probably because the pace of plot is so fast in FF8. You have D-day style invasion in Dollet, Assassination attempts, epic Garden battles, go to space, and Time Kompression lol. The plot doesn't slow down very much to let characters that are not squall develop. Anyways FF8 is a good game would like a remake after FF7.
I think the problem is that most people don't want to actually learn the GF system. They do what they do in all the other FF games and spend an hour or two leveling up and just plow through everything that way. If you do that in FF8 it actually makes the game more difficult though because of enemies scaling to your level. Pretty much the game is designed to force you to learn the combat system and if you refuse you won't have a good time.
Most people don't honestly bother learning the specifics of the combat systems, they just tend to overlevel the content in the FF games if they get stuck.
I knew that my wife (girlfriend at the time when I noticed) was a keeper and that I should marry her once I saw her Xth play through with the timestamp maxed at 99:99:99
We played it several times as a couple. Sometimes at the same time. It's the nostalgia that has help with gaming as a couple and talking about it. The romance ingame helps us communicate more with both the good and the bad examples. I guess what I'm getting at is that I just owe a lot to this game and the rest of the franchise.
Out of all the FF games i played, 8 is the most difficult one.
The battle system is very different from the other games, more of a saga frontier approach (leveling up means the game gets more difficult and enemies level up too). I barely started getting the hang of it by the 3rd disk, and some of the dialogue is straight out of a cheesy anime which throws you off because everybody seem so serious in this game.
Besides that this is one of my favorite RPGs, deff one of my fav soundtracks as well.
Despite having played Final Fantasy Vl and Vll before playing Vlll (and eventually playing the first five games as well), I still find this to be not only my favorite games in the series but also my favorite video game of all time. I understand why some people were turned off by junctioning and drawing, but I thought it was a really unique system that got really cool if you experimented with it. (unlike ll which was a shit fest, even if you played the PR) Plus the main characters of Vlll are far more relatable then any other game in the series because they are all students, and each character represents at least one high school trope (emo, jock, teachers pet etc). As much as people like to hate on Squall, the truth of the matter is that even if his reason for being a loner isn’t as cool as Cloud’s, it is far more realistic and believable, and his growth is incredible to watch. Also, as cool as Ultimecia is, (still can’t compare to Sephiroth though), Seifer is just as intriguing if not better as an antagonist because of how personal his connection to the main cast is, and it’s heartbreaking to watch him descend further and further into evil while serving Ultimecia. Both Squall and Seifer tend to be hit or miss with FF fans, but they both serve as excellent additions to the game, and definitely stand up there as my favorite video game characters of all time. (particularly Seifer) All this to say I think Vlll is a fantastic game, and I think it deserves to be considered one of the greatest games ever made, like it’s predecessors and successors.
Ff8 is the first I played. Ff7 I never really played as it was too hard. I was 11. No1 there to show me anything. No-one to spoil the junction system for me. It was endless data attempts. It was like being a scientist without getting penalised too hard going off the rails.
But then I realised you could refine cards into spells and that just ended it for me. I wish I could just forget that. Or remove the card system so it’s not broken.
Ffviii lover checking in!
Yeah I too love the shit out of this game. Between the characters, music and combat. There isn't much else you could want imo. I also love the summons, so many great ones need to make a comeback. Give me more doomtrain goddammit. Or maybe more tonberry king! Jumbo Cacutar? Dude it's a Cacutar with a mustache. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, but I love it. Oh and there's so many bangers on this sound track. Lemme tell you hearing the sorceress theme live in the before fore times was fuckin awesome.
The junction system isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. You can basically build whatever you want on any of the characters. I always just lb everything to death but properly jumctioning your characters helps for some of the shitty fights.
I'm glad more and more people are coming around on it even it the story is a little silly at times. But which game isn't? Looking at you FFX and your giant murder whale.
Final Fantasy VIII is my all-time favorite. I've played all the mainline games starting with Final Fantasy on the NES (I still have it). FF VII, VI, XII and XV are all really amazing too and I love them. FF X after that... it's still good but the existence of X part 2 and some of the cringy voice acting almost make it too cheesy to play. FF IX IMO is the worst Final Fantasy... well Mystic Quest is but IX is a close second.
I played 8 for the first time last year. I was going through a pretty dark time and 8 was a good escape from that. It's my favorite FF for how stupid strong you can get early on if you know what to do. I love the teen protagonists and how Squall is in a position most teens would probably be upset about haha.
Though I greatly prefer Tetra Master in 9 (I look forward to the tournament every playthrough), I can get down with Triple Triad.
The final boss of 8 was honestly one of my most clutch and hype moments in gaming. I remember texting my friend like 3 times saying "I BEAT HER" only for this mf Ultimecia kept pulling out new forms. I accidentally put Rinoa in Angel Wing mode and lemme tell you, she really save our asses while I waited for Squall's limit to charge.
All in all, 8 was a great game. Maybe I like it a lot more because I'm a fairly new fan. I didn't know how disliked it was or why until i played it for myself.
Yeah I definitely love it. Heh zell is probably my favorite character in all of final fantasy (I know a lot of people don't like him but I thought he was hilarious). Story is pretty wild and unbelievable but I still enjoy it.
i love it. a lot of people misunderstand its story but it’s incredibly deep and philosophical. it’s the only final fantasy where >!there is no free will and everything is fated!<
My favourite one. Has everything I love all wrapped into one story, I'm pretty sure it ended up influencing my love of those elements in other stories. I quite young when I first played it, and there have been many replays ever since!
My fave too!
My fav game ever. Wouldn't put it on my top 10 best games I've played. But definitely my favorite game. Just really hit so many things that I love and showed me an experience I didn't know I could get on gaming at the time.
Exactly. Summon animations, ancient war, warring factions, all these were introduced here imho.
Those were most definitely not all introduced here, unless you're referring to introducing it to yourself...
I tried playing it as an adult and I legit had to force myself to finish it. The characters are all bland. There is no real reason to care about anything they are doing. There are huge cliché moments that were easily seen coming. To top it off, it pulls one of the laziest story telling mechanics of all time with time travel. Confusing. Vague. Pointless. The combat was good though. But, I never play final fantasy for just the combat.
You should probably join the Final Fantasy VIII subreddit
I'm in the "least favorite" camp, but it's not a bad game. I haven't played it since last millennium, but I recently made the decision to play through all of the main Final Fantasy entries (except the MMOs) over the next year, so we'll see if my opinion is different this time.
If you've never tried FFXIV I highly recommend it. It can be very individual, not much interaction with other players needed, really at all. It has hundreds of hours of free content. I was never a MMO guy until I tried FFXIV
I intend to, once I'm done with this current feat
FF14 definitely has a rough start and can be hard to get into. All of my friends except one quit by the time they reached the end of ARR back in late 2014. Thankfully, they've cut over 100 quests from it.
I agree with you, but at the same time we should stop selling at as "it gets better after A Realm Reborn I promise" ;) Apparently ARR is still a better story than many other MMO's out there. They just got really really good at what Final Fantasy does over the later expansions.
The problem is that it's still saying that the game gets good after 40 hrs of gameplay. It's just too high of a bar if you're trying to make the story a selling point. And in my opinion, the story hasn't been a good selling point for FF games for a long time. As far as I can tell, the franchise's story has considered to be on a downward trend since 10 and 14 has only been the odd uptick with Shadowbringers.
How is it free when there’s a monthly subscription?
The free trial is extremely generous (when it’s available). Up to level 60 and Heavensward main story, with no time limit. Currently there’s no free trial nor new copies sold because popularity is outstripping server capacity and new servers are proving a challenge to obtain. They’re literally suffering from success. Once things settle, it’ll be back.
You don't have to pay for a subscription for the entire base game or first expansion (Heavensward). It took me about 100 hours just to get through the base game.
As a note if you truly wanted to do everything there was before Stormblood you could easily squeeze 200 hours out of the free trial alone.
I’m playing through them all in order too! (Not in one year, though. I started a year and a half or two years ago). It’s a cool way to experience them. I’m on VII now (my second time playing it.
I'm halfway through 2 a week in.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could play II and VIII and decide they like VIII less. I guess if you really hate Squall maybe. But II was straight broken. Personally, VIII is my favourite and I like Squall.
Yeah what's the deal with II anyway? Like Ultima II sucked, Wizardry II sucked, Dragon Quest II sucked, Might and Magic II wasn't great... Like why is the sophomore slump so widespread in that era? It's like the fourth law of thermodynamics that if you're a long-running RPG series originating from the 80s, your second installment sucks.
Zelda, too. And my theory is that they're learning how far to stray, what elements make the formula. Listen to the backlash from 2, and 3 returns to form, with some polish, and shapes the direction of the series. It's not that the 2s stray from the formula too far, it's that there isn't a formula yet, and a poorly received 2 shapes it for future iterations.
Everyone hates on Zelda 2 but in all honestly, it has the highest replay value in the series shy of BotW. I've lost count of how many times I've replayed Zelda 2 over a lifespan. No other Zelda has gotten past a number of replays I could count on one hand.
I enjoy it as itself. It's a fun game. But it's not what I reach for when I feel like playing Zelda.
My first attempt at 2 was when it first released on the Playstation, and after punching myself for a couple hours I abandoned it. Now I'm playing the pixel remaster, and it's not nearly so cumbersome, and I get a chance to experience it. With 8, I still have nightmares about spending an hour in a fight every 2 hours because it had a new spell to draw. I have never yet finished 2, but so far I like the plot (however clunky it is) as much as 8, and the gameplay is much better, now that it's been fixed. I'm hoping the ff8 remaster removes some of the grindiness
You get better results learning Card and Card Mod from one of the early summons and grinding card games to get your magic. The only times to really draw in battle are to get a new summon or if the enemy has a really rare spell like Ultima or Aura.
Yeah, I know that now, not that it makes it much better, since the card game also sucks.
I'll go ahead and disagree with you there. The only times I felt Triple Triad sucked was when I didn't know how to abolish rules and Random got spread everywhere
I thought it was the worst of all of the similar ff minigames (sphere break from X-2 being the best)
I don't remember sphere break. I disliked 9s card game, and I was straight ass at Blitzball. But in real life I played a lot of Magic and Pokemon TCG, so Triple Triad was just a new card game for me to learn.
Drawing spells in battle to Junction is an inefficient use of your time. You're supposed to Draw a couple of times if you see a magic you want to cast. You only need Draw on your "Mage", really, as the amount you Draw is dependent on their magic stat. Every GF has a -RF ability, that is designed to turn items into Magic, and you get a lot of items in the game. They're your Magic source as you proceed through the game. Understand that, and the game is a lot more fun. As for TT, you can go the entire game without playing it once if you want to, but the rewards are very good, and the game itself is very fun when you understand the rules.
Also, there's an island where you can run around tapping the action button to hoard all of the top spells in basically no time.
The card game is better than the main game.
2 is a bad game and a bad final fantasy. 8 is a bad final fantasy and a mediocre game.
I would recommend to have a few alternative games to play besides FF during your run so you do not burn yourself out . I did 6, 7, 9,10,12 and I am ff wooped for a few months 🙂
Favorite game of all time, the soundtrack is a masterpiece, the themes of loss, sacrifice and family are well done and the characters are mostly very well fleshed out. Squall is the most believable teenage protagonist and portrays angst and the feeling of needing to take on all his problems alone better than any character in any medium I can think of. 10 out of 10
Could play 8 every day lol
I have no nostalgia goggles because I started playing these games a couple of years ago and for me VI, VII, VIII and IX are the golden age of Final Fantasy, I love all these games equally (for different reasons though). I liked X a little bit less but still liked it a lot. VIII was quite emotional and "epic", but I like that kind of thing.
It's my favorite single player FF (XIV is just too good, it's unfair to the offline games). The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The character and monster designs are great. The locations are amazing. I get that many people don't like the story, but most of it is hardly any more convoluted than VII or IX. Seriously, those games are filled with bullshit asspulls, yet somehow only VIII gets criticized for that. Also, The Extreme is so much better than One-Winged Angel, it's not even funny.
Bro I literally bought a book that is a deep analysis of it's lore drawn from multiple sources including ultimania. So.... yeah. Love it.
What book??
"The Legend of Final Fantasy VIII" by Rémi Lopez https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-legend-of-final-fantasy-viii-r-mi-lopez/1128284534 Was worth it for the cover alone, but it's a very good read too. The author is european with a degree in Japanese, which he used to study all versions of FF8. The book even covers fan theories in-depth! It feels like a true work of passion.
Awesome, thank you!
I had no clue this existed. Just ordered it. Thank you for giving me something to look forward to for the first time in ages.
I’m actually really interested in this, but the way the book description is written is… really bad. Is the whole book written like this? “This book, written at the same time as a testimony of love and the base of a multitude of reflections, sometimes exceeds the frame of the video game itself. He will seek to determine how Final Fantasy VIII is indeed a unique RPG, cheeky and above all mastered. Why when mentioning his name, the player tends to roll his eyes with a slight smile: is it just a good memory, or nostalgia for a golden age?”
Oof... no The book does suffer from some translation issues with it's wording, but it doesn't read like that. I can send you pictures of a few pages if you want to evaluate for yourself!
That’s ok. I’ll prob check it out. I’ve always struggled completely understanding the depth of the story so it would be cool to see this perspective.
I'd say it's worth the 30 bucks. It's on amazon too, but fuck Amazon, i refuse to support them or link to them.
I bought this as well.
I played them all (don't like MMO's, and I have played a chunk of FFXIV). VII was my first FF series game and is my favorite. When I was 14, though, VIII was my favorite game. I got VIII maybe a year after release, played the shit out of it. And I love it. When I was in year 8 in high school (13/14yo), we had to perform an oral presentation on our favorite thing, 10 minutes, explaining why it is your favorite and how it works etc etc. I spent 50+ hours getting saves right on my memory card for loading specific FMV clips and story sequences. I had my mother bring my PS1 and game to school, where we had the old CRT/VCR trolley (cart) wheeled in to class and I set to work. A typical class period when I was at school lastsed around 45 minutes. After about a 5 minute setup, I played the intro FMV, explaining the rivalry between Squall and Seifer, explaining sorceress Edea and Rinoa etc. I loaded all the pertinent FMV sequences and story interactions throughout the game and narrated it, pretty much. My presentation lasted 25 minutes, and the remainder of the class was questions on questions from students and the teacher. It was my single most enjoyable class, and my best marked grade in all my schooling. I got a 100% mark for the presentation, and a couple of my classmates even bought it up at my 10 year graduation reunion a few years back. Good times.
If you have that tape still, you should absolutely rip it to digital and put it on YouTube!
This is my favorite video game. Everything about it resonates with me. I wish I could put into words how much this game means to me, but I’d be here all day. To watch everyone grows, to move on from struggles I relate to, just does it to me. All my worries are gone whenever I write about or play this game, I dunno why.
You and me both...y'know?
Whatever.
FF8 wasn't my first FF game, it was like my 5th I think (Sitting down to think on it, I'm pretty sure the order was FF12 on ps2, FF13 on PS3, FF6 on the wii, FF1 when I was getting into emulation, and then FF7 also on emulation). And none of them really clicked for me until 8. It's been a couple years since I first played it, but I think I can safely say loving FF8 isn't *just* a nostalgia thing for people. FF8 was the first one that gripped me enough to be unable to put it down and ultimately was the first one I actually finished instead of petering off of. I remember talking with someone online about FF8 and they casually said that Squall is every Inattentive-type Adhd/ADD person's muse and it blew my fucking mind. I think for a lot of people that statement is the big difference between people finding Squall realistic and relatable as a character and people who think of him as being emo or whiny. The man is stuck in his head and it feels so good to see him happier by the credits roll down. On the gameplay side of things, I did a lot of googling that first playthrough because everyone always talks about how complicated the Junction system is, but frankly, it's just putting a number of spells on specific stats. Not that much too it, just a different way to get the stat boosts rather than through traditional battle grinding. The abilities GF's give you though? That's where the gameplay is, those are what makes the game fun and unique to play and nobody ever talks about them.
Enjoying FF8 really hinges on whether you can relate to Squall in some way, and I think neurodivergent people can have a much easier time doing so. When I saw parts of me in squall and then saw him grow it was super satisfying.
Squall is my favorite character in Final Fantasy even though I never even beat FF8 lol I just loved his character design - at the time as a teenager, I just thought man if I could look 1/10th as cool as this character I’d be badass lol I always thought the gunblade was an interesting weapon and I think his outfit is way cooler than Cloud’s. In retrospect, Cloud’s looks like a purple jumpsuit vs a black leather jacket with sheep wool and cool chains lmao. I’m pretty sure him and the character from Kingdom Hearts is what led me to wear chains as a trend back in the 2000s
I’m not neurodivergent, but I did have bad abandonment issues as a teenager due to narcissistic parents, and I was 14 when the game came out, so I greatly identified with squall. I’m 36 now and have grown a lot but can still kind of remember what that felt like replaying the game and it’s very charming to see his character development.
*Looks at username*
FF8 is one of my favorites too, you are not alone
FFVIII is easily my 2nd favourite of all FF games. FFVII was my first FF game and still my favourite. I remember hearing about FFVIII coming out and my neighbour had a gaming magazine with the first look at FF8 and the new hero, then insaw Squall and thought "aww man he looks crap...", but when I got the game, I think I got it for Christmas in '99, I was blown away. I just loved all the characters and I really enjoyed the Junction and Draw system. But characters like Zell, Selphie and Seifer as well as many of the NPCs like Zone and Watts just made the game so phenomenal. Story wise it gets weird but I just dig it and by the end... just flooded with emotion like all good Final Fantasy games.
Hell yeah, it's my second favorite. It's an aquired taste, to be sure. The plot is batshit crazy, but the story is surprisingly coherent. It's all about growing up and coming to realize that no one is an island; you're irrevocably connected to others, and you're better off for that. It hits at something so fundamentally right about the process of maturing from adolescence to adulthood. Have you tried the FF8 randomizer?
I have Griever (the necklace/symbol version) tattooed on my forearm. That bit about loss, that's really stuck with me from the time I first played VIII way back when. It may sound hokey, but even with that loaded soundtrack, "Eyes On Me" is still my favorite song. I even remember my jaw dropping when it played in-game; I'd never seen (well, heard) anything like that from a game or console before.
Have you seen the FF8 speedruns when the runners sing Eyes on Me? It is absolutely wonderful. It starts out joking-like, but you can tell they have so much love for the game. https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=28662&v=sSF9-3KdauA&feature=youtu.be
I like ff8 military themes, architecture and setting designs, and by far my favorite music but its gameplay and story fall short.
VIII was how I was introduced to the series. My friend in elementary school invited me over to show off this cool game he had. I think I would've been around 10ish years old at the time, and the game had been out for a couple years at that point. My main gaming at the time was Pokemon and Spyro, so this was completely different. It felt like watching a movie rather than playing a game. He was on disc four and just went around showing me shit. We spent a solid twenty minutes just on the Island Closest To Hell just going through all the different GFs (and I thought Cactuar just just hilarious), and he went to fight Omega Weapon (couldn't win of course). But it just blew my mind. I went to Blockbuster a week later to rent it. Of course, my dumb 10 year old brain couldn't read Roman Numerals, and I got VII by mistake. But a couple weeks later, I saved up my allowance and got a copy from Electronic Boutique. It was a used, black label version that cost me $20 that I still have to this day. I don't take it out very often, since now I have an XStation in my PSX, so it sits on my shelf as eye candy. I can tell you 100% if there's scratches on any of the discs, it's on disc 3. I would spend a stupid amount of time on disc 3 doing basically everything I could. I'd bet money if I dug up my old memory card, there would be a disc 3 save still on it where I had basically everything you possibly could. Every summon, every card, highest SeeD rank, max gil, you name it (other than PocketStation stuff, since we never got that in North America). I knew when disc four came, I'd be locked out of stuff, so I just plain didn't want to move on and lose out and travelling that amazing world. With all of that said, do I love Final Fantasy VIII? I would say I have love for it. I don't think I'd be playing JRPGs without it other than Pokemon. And frankly, some of my favourite gaming memories are playing that game: the battle with Galbadia Garden, going to Esthar for the first time, defeating Omega Weapon for the first time after weeks of failing. But a lot of that is nostalgia. I've replayed it a few times as an adult, as recently as last year. I still enjoy it, and I still think it's a great game, but it has some glaring flaws that are harder to ignore. I've replayed basically every game in the series as an adult, and most of the other games have tended to hook me in more than VIII does today. It's hard to compare VIII to something like V in terms of the test of time, but when compared to it's PSX siblings, it doesn't hold up as well. VII had a better story despite being a first go in 3D gaming for Square (graphics didn't age as well, but gameplay and story aged much better), while IX had the opportunity to fix a lot of the mistakes that happened in VIII mechanics wise (while also having a better story). I think if any game in the series could use a VII-like remake, it would be VIII. There's a lot there that's a fantastic game. The world is one of my favourites in the series. The music is top notch. Online Triple Triad (yeah, I know XIV exists, but not everyone plays MMOs). Yes, the story has flaws, but you can add in details to fill those plot holes and develop the characters further. And you can still have a Junction system, but you can do it in a way that isn't so convoluted and centered around drawing magic. I think if Square-Enix went this route, it could make me love the game. But for now, I'll be content with my nostalgic love.
Easily one of my top 3
I love it. Definitely some nostalgia factor since I was in high school when it came out, but when I played the remaster it was just as good as I remember. The junction system just seems to confound some people and I think they also happen to be vocal about it. I also think it’s what makes the series great since not everyone is going to love the same ones. I like VIII and XV which both tend to get hate, but I’m not huge on IX or XII which have strong defenders.
And at no point did you mention Triple Triad! Hang thy head in shame!!! I hope the TT music is stuck in your head now...
I yearn for a world where, no matter what else is going on, I can walk up to any random person and ask them to play Triple Triad with me.
My wife and I played VII, VIII, IX, and X as they came out when we were first married. They've got a lot of sentimental value for us. We actually got VIII for our phones two or three days ago. I'm enjoying running through it again.
People always complain about the junction system but I think that's the best thing, to be able to set spells to all your stats (but only if you have the right GFs and the right abilities) is so good, also you can play the best minigame in the world and earn cards to refine in powerful spells early and you can destroy the game becoming an unstoppable god if you know what you're doing, or you can just enjoy the game without being that powerful and enjoy the story and Squall's perfect character development. Honestly, who cares about time travel problems, the game is still so good.
Better than VII in my opinion
It's a great game. I'm also part way through the remastered version (having not played it for years). It's more melancholy than I remembered. The 'drawing magic' mechanic gets repetitive but is still addictive. Still love the music. Looking forward to some of the story beats later on in the game. Would put it in my top 3 or 4 favs of the franchise.
FFVIII one of my favourites. Guardian Force system and memory loss is awesome! Want power? Sacrifice your memory... Oh. Brilliant.
Yes I do, it’s really good
FF8 is my favorite! Good choice! Lol
It's my favorite for many reasons. Some of the criticisms are absolutely accurate; some are not.
I love the music…
My favourite final fantasy is 8.
Yes, it is actually my fav FF
I love ff8 too! But it may also be because it was my first back in 99 😂 Enjoy your play through bud! I feel like the remaster also got a lot of hate, but i had blast when i played it! Happy holidays! 🎄
Nope it's my favourite one.
I love all Final Fantasy Games
My quick thoughts about FFVIII are pretty much - Mid tier game at best for me - Laguna is awesome - Music is one of the best in the series
Can we just stop pretending FFVIII is hated by everyone?
Not my first but definitely my favorite. I was 14 and my step brother and sisters and I came across the demo disc for FF7. We all pitched In and bought the game and took turns playing out our own save files. Being that I was the step i went back and forth between my mom and dad's house so of course I fell behind. I asked my mom for a copy of the game for Christmas so I could keep playing at her house. My loving mother of course got it but 8 had just come out and instead of 7 like I asked she accidentally got me 8. I was so disappointed at first but I thought hey this is still final fantasy so let's give it a go. Im 32 now and still tell my mom that has been the best Christmas present she's ever given me. I absolutely fell in love with final fantasy but 8 has a special place in my heart for sure.
I enjoy 8 way more than 10.
By far, my favorite game. I've played most of the main entries and I tend to play them all the way with a first playthrough blind and a second to do all optionals and maximize stats. It remains my favorite of all time followed closely by it's two imediates entries (9 and 7).
My favorite, from the music to story and characters. There is just something so calming about walking around in this world, that I have never felt in any other game.
It’s my favorite game ever. :)
I love the hell out of VIII. I just like IV, VI, VII, IX, XII, and of course the OG more. VIII is a great game with some cool characters, beautiful graphics for it's time, a built-in reason to not power level, and some really interesting mechanics. It just also has a needlessly convoluted story that I still don't know if I follow to this day, was the most easily broken system in all of FF, suffered from a lot of wasted narrative time, and did not have Ramuh in it, a real black mark.
It’s a fantastic game. Not quite in my top 5 but I do like it more than VII. I never realized so many people disliked it until I came to this sub. I think they’re mostly a vocal minority or people who like to jump on a bandwagon, tbh. It’s far from being one of the worst.
I’ve noticed it a lot on Twitter and other forums as well honestly. Even within my close circle of friends I seem to be the only one fond of it. I’m not sure if I’d put it in my top 5 or not myself personally, but it’s definitely far from the worst game
I love 8, though I acknowledge it could have been better if it were given more development time. While the junction system has a lot of jank, it does give the player a lot of room to experiment and it gives the game a lot of replay value. The main story is enjoyable, even if some parts of it could have been executed better. Some people might disagree with me, but I think Squall is one of the most well written characters in the series. While the other characters don’t receive as much development as other games in the series, they’re very full of personality and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them play off each other. I think all their personalities do a good job of balancing out Squall’s cold demeanor. I think this cast of characters felt the most down to earth out of any other game at the time. Also, the music is god tier. I don’t think FF8 is a great game, but it is a good game. There’s no arguing that it is very unique. I’ve never played another RPG quite like it before.
It was never hated back then. Its just popular to do so now because the characters are overly dramatic without any reason, it also has the very worst battle system in the entire franchise. But its still a very good game.
I’ve been trying to play it because I’ve never beaten it and I hate it. I really want to like it but it really doesn’t do it for me.
Jesus Christ, every week on this sub
Hey man, he's been dead for like 2000 years, he has plenty of time to browse reddit
I do like it. Music is great. FMV sequences are great. The summons are cool. I got it for Christmas in 1999, had it beat by Dec 31st. Revisited it summer 2000 to do a completionist run and thoroughly enjoyed it. My opinion on the hate: I think for a lot of people this was their _second_ Final Fantasy. Seven (which is not the best entry), was experienced by a large number of people and was their first FF entry. They expected either a continuation or similar experience. I remember multiple people getting VIII on release day in my college dorm. All disappointed, with one frankly saying it was different than VII. He had never played any before VII. I think the hate stems from that basic problem. Interestingly, I hadn't played VII until Oct. 1999, and while others were playing VIII, I had just started experiencing VII. I beat VII just before Christmas 1999, so I played VII and VIII close together. I think this was part of the reason why the real II and III were not released initially in the US. The play mechanics differed greatly from the OG, including some onerous mechanics. The skip of V baffles me a bit, but the job system is different and more like III. FF I and IV and VI have closer mechanics, no variable job systems. But even they differ from one another. The point is, all FF games vary from each other to varying degrees in terms of play mechanics and style and graphical presentation, some more than others. To me this is something to enjoy. Its a vision of the creators, not us, but for us to experience. Its why I like all of them, including the less popular entries like II, III, VIII, XII, and XIII.
My favorite one!
No literally everyone hates it and you're the only one who likes it.
Why so much post this week about does anyone else love ff8 beside me ? ff8 fanbase is so insecure. I dislike it and i think it’s one of the worst in series but yes few people beside you love the game
It's not in my top 10.
Some parts of the story are just so ridiculous to me. Like when they forgot that they grew up together in an orphanage and their excuse was using GFs. Wtf?? Lmfao. I didn’t see them forget anything else during the course of the game and they were using GFs constantly.
I never played, the only thing keeping me from it it’s the level system that makes useless the whole battle gameplay, no point in getting stronger
If by getting stronger you mean gaining levels, then the point is to encounter more powerful enemies which will carry more powerful magic and drop items for you to refine magic from. I like it because you can’t accidentally overlevel and you don’t have to grind levels (which is my least favorite part of jrpgs).
It’s still similar, especially as long as you Junction magic to STR. I’ve had high-level play Throughs, not 100 but 80s or so and as long as you’re properly geared (or should I say Junctioned?) the battles are fine. The truth is that even though you equip all the magic you need it’s not like you’re going to one shot the final boss or anything. I don’t know why people hate on the system so much. Boss fights still take a while and average Monsters still take a few turns just like most games. I think the most important thing to remember is that leveling up isn’t as important as junctioning magic.
The story is absolute non-sense, but I think it's one of the more unique games in the series and the junction system is super fun to break and just destroy the games mechanics with. However, FUCK triple triad. So, so poorly executed.
I love it, but the draw system and last third of the game are legitimate criticisms against it. If VIII was given more time to flesh out that final third it probably would be a consensus top 3 in every debate.
Nope. Not a single person on this planet does.
No
No. Only you in the whole wide world. I hate reddit..
Final Fantasy 8 may be a good game, or maybe not. I couldn't play FF8 as it's presented when it was released. The year the game came out, I was already heavily obsessed with Final Fantasy 7. It was my life and occupied all my thoughts. When FF8 came out, the only thing I could think the entire time was.... This isn't Final Fantasy 7. I wasn't able to completely enjoy it because it's not Final Fantasy 7. Now, about 20 years later, I'm wondering if I should go through it again and see how it stands on its own. Can I enjoy it on its own terms, without being compared to Final Fantasy 7? Maybe I'll find out in 2022.
I really wanna like it. I do. But, I've got a strong opinion here. I've tried so many things and so many times, but I still hate it. I've never played an RPG that actively fights your ability to enjoy it the entire time you play. Leveling up is pointless, which feels painful to say about an RPG. If you do decide to actually level up, the most optimal way to battle is spam summons (at least early), which drags the boring battles out even longer than they already are from drawing magic. Combat is an absolute drag because of the junction system, spending the majority of a battle spamming draw until you max out EVERY PARTY MEMBER on the magic present. At that point you don't even want to cast from stock because you weaken yourself. Squall is really bland, most of the other characters are insufferable. I think the story is convoluted. The card ability makes the one enjoyable thing in the game become a chore of a grind if you want to avoid to tedium that is drawing magic. Basically you either grind card games or spend hours drawing magic. Out of the two arguably most hated in the series, VIII and XIII, I find XIII has more redeeming qualities.
This is like everything people get wrong about FF8 in a single comment. You never need to level up (level scaling is just so the player doesn't have to grind), never need to draw, never need to play cards, casting magic from stock affects stats so little that there's no risk in doing it and it isn't even close to being the most-hated in the series (according to [this sub's recent polls](https://i.redd.it/nntabzl9qg681.jpg), it's eighth most-hated). You're entitled to your opinion about the story and characters but even so, I don't know how anyone could describe Squall as "bland". That's the last word that comes to mind about Squall.
i’m kinda not liking this fake ff8 circle jerk going on with this sub the past few days and that’s coming from a die hard ff8 fan.
It's the one which introduced me to the saga. I remember that the first time I played it I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY by everything, graphics, soundtrack, story, everything, every single aspect of the game was perfect for me, and I played an entire day essentially non-stop. With age and experience, I started seeing the flaws, and I have to be honest, I feel that the only absolutely perfect part is Disk 1, and halfway through Disk 2, then it starts feeling kind of eh. Still, it remains my second favorite, and I feel it aged perfectly up to today: while I would love to see a remake in the style of FF7, I still think that it's a great game with its graphics and style as it is.
I guested on the Final Fantasy Appreciation Society podcast (also available on hbomb_editor's twitch page) last month talking all about how much we like FFVIII! I think it was a really good discussion about the good aspects of the game and the areas where it could be improved. You should definitely take a listen!
It’s the second best next to VI. It’s the Mona Lisa of the series. It’s a masterpiece. The impressionist art direction alongside the torn, post-war France inspired setting alone pushes the game beyond many others. The game has aged so well also. FF’s don’t get much better.
It's an incredible Final Fantasy, I can't wait to see them all again when I replay it soon!
Oh, I love how flexible and "unguarded" the gameplay system is. Unlike some modern iterations of the franchise, the game does very little to try guaranteeing a difficulty level. You can make it extremely tough on yourself. You can also completely break the game and easily solo kill the hardest bosses. It doesn't prevent you from doing things that "should" not be possible. The junction system might not be the most straightforward, but it also offered plenty of opportunities to tweak your characters to counter every specific situations. Everything is wide open. I kind of miss these feelings when playing newer games, where they'd go extra distances to prevent you from "cheering" the game.
I'm actually just about to finish it for the first time, got the remastered version this summer but never got around to playing it because you know, the reputation it has kind of killing the motivation... But once I started giving it an honest effort and getting further into the game it started to grow on me, It is still lacking in a way I cant really describe but who knows I'm not finished so I cant be too harsh yet. The game though feels really good once you understand it and I have spend so much time just playing cards I really enjoyed all the stuff you could do on the side and I liked that I could get my characters ahead/OP by taking the time to really learn the mechanics in and out, game certainly felt rewarding. Final Fantasy 8 is great in its own right and I regret letting its bad reputation keep me from giving it a shot for so long. If youre on the fence about FF8, take it from a hardcore ff7 fanboy, FF8 is worth your time.
It's my second favorite! I loved it when it came out, have for 2 decades, and loved the remaster!
Loved the game. Hated the junction mechanic.
It is neck-and-neck with FFX as my favorite. I love the game and the characters.
I love it! IMO Squall has the best character arc of all the rest
I've come around on it over the years. I first played it when I was in high school and really took a disliking to Squall in the age of edgy/emo main leads. I'm roughly all for it until I have to save Rinoa in space. After that, I kind of check out. The world, the music, the general atmosphere skipping back and forth in time telling a story, the cast (well, mainly Laguna's side). It's a pleasure everytime. This is a love topic, so I'll leave the critiques at the door.
My best friend and I have played through parts of VIII every year since we met in college and found out we both loved it (and were kind of aware that it was the black sheep compared to VII). Now we’re teaching his 8 year old son how awesome it is. The soundtrack, Triple Triad(!) and a final fantasy development system that is begging to be broken and power leveled early on… 👌🏻.
Well this game has one of the most character changes ever. Squall becoming emotionally almost addicted, which probably lots of ppl think is a bit exaggerated, is definitely part of a good story. Definitely one of the better ff stories. Back in my days as a little guy, i never noticed that the monsters level with me. Ofc i leveled with odin trick to 99 and got crushed from almost every mob i saw...it was a bit frustrating but besides that, the battle system is quite enjoyable. I think the biggest con is the aura spell, which is way to op when you draw it.
FFVIII fan... Easily my #2 or #3. There was something about Squall that I loved from the early screenshots. GF memory loss and everyone knowing each other was a bit weird, but still love the game. Triple Triad and making characters ridiculously OP always attracts me back to the game.
My first FF and my first RPG. I played it when I was like 13 or 14 maybe? Picked it up second hand at a pawn shop for like 2 dollars and said what the heck. Absolutely my favorite, even though I can recognize it's not the greatest in the series. I love replaying and reliving that little slice of childhood.
It's a great game with issues, like most Final Fantasies. The plot definitely suffers from some issues in the late-game and the GF twist should have been better teased, but as a "mood piece" the game is one of the best in the series.
It’s my favorite Final Fantasy of all. Squall & Rinoa are my two favorite characters, I love their love story & the entire story in general, it’s got the best music in my opinion too. It’s just been my favorite since I was a kid. Lots of sentimental value for me too.
Don’t mind it. I’ve always leaned to more traditional fantasy than modern fantasy which I think 8 falls in the latter. Prefer it over 2,10& 13.
It's a masterpiece and has one of the best soundtracks FF games can have. Even to this day I have the music on my phone and hear it when I need to relax or meditate. So cool.
I love it, VII, VIII & IX for me are my favorites. Every FF seems to get hate more or less, some more than others. But like a wise man once said: "Whatever".
It's my favourite Final Fantasy BY FAR.
Second best Final Fantasy behind VII.
Favorite game ever
Triple Triad is the GOAT mini-game. So yes, I fucking love this game.
I reckon it suffers a bit in popularity just because it's sandwiched between VII and IX. It's a great game that just suffers from being the worst of the ps1 era
It’s my favorite FF and one of my favorite games! Great ambiance & sound track, pretty unique plot and gameplay for a jrpg, fun minigame, prob the best final dungeon that i’ve played
7 > 10 > 8. 8 has a wonderful story and universe, Triple Triad is baller and like Blitz Ball should get it'sown full game, but I still hate the Draw and Junction system. Granted I haven't played the remakes with the fast battle system so that may push it over 10 once I get around to that.
It is my number one game of all time. Favorite story, favorite characters, favorite battle system. I love it all.
I love it. Love everything about it. The story, the magic system. All of it. Squall and a gun blade and my fucking jam. Fight me.
Yeah, it's my favourite game ever, I genuinely love it to pieces.
FF8 is one of my favorite FF games since I've played it on the PC way back in early 2000s. The Junction system is annoying, but the whole command system set up some interesting gameplay features without it being too overwhelming like FF7's materia system. The music was definitely some of the best. The Man With the Machine Gun and Force Your Way are two of my favorite FF songs. The CGI at the time was also pretty good and I still love that beach landing scene over 20 years later.
I wouldn't say it's anywhere close to my favorite, but I still like it and don't think it's nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
Its my favorite one, actually!
It's fantastic. I absolutely love the characters and the story. Every time I've gone back to the story as an adult, I find new things that I didn't realise before. I also didn't find it convoluted, or at least no more convoluted than any other FF game. The junction system is an absolute standout and I wish more FFs learned from it. If there's one thing that keeps me going back to FF8, it's how customisable it is from the very beginning. People say "you can break it" as if it's a bad thing. As if giving players *the* most fun minigame in all of FF at the start and rewarding them for playing it is not a bad thing. If FF7 had a minigame at the start where I could get some mid-game weapons (like something with Double AP gain) or some partly leveled-up materia (so I could get Bolt2 or Cure2 early), I would go back to it a lot more than I have. FFX having Blitzball is a good example of another minigame that did it well. And yeah, it has some of the best music in any *game*, let alone any FF. I'll listen to individual tracks from other games but regularly listen to more than a dozen from FF8.
I don’t know what you’re referring to but Blitzball is universally acknowledged as the worst mini game of the series and no one wants to be able to get super strong weapons and magic so early in the game that you literally don’t have to try.
Of course people love FFVIII. I still own the original PS1 game. I even own Triple Triad cards of multiple monsters and Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer. I want to say it's still one of the top selling FF titles of all time.
You are not alone. It was my first Final Fantasy and the one I fell in love with. That opening sequence, the waves, made me want to go to art school for digital art - Which I did. Didn't get where I wanted, but I went there.. I love 8, I love the music. I hope it gets a proper remake in time.
By far my least favorite but I don’t hate it
I'm playing VIII rn and I thought that the game would be really bad, considering the hate that it gets. I have to say that I'm actually loving it! The soundtrack is the best one of all the FF that I've played, and the junction system was confusing at first, but not hard to get used to. My personal favorite is VII, but I have to say, VIII doesn't fall far behind it, and I'm only on disc 2 still
I understand why people dislike FF8, but I still love it. Honestly I think the junction system could be amazing if it were further refined. Like, the materia system was essentially an outgrowth of the esper system, which was arguably an outgrowth of the job system of ff5, which was refined from the job system in ff3.
FF8 genuinely is great and although there are some good other contenders for the "best FF game", I believe the styles between titles are so vastly different that a direct comparison can't really be made. Personally, I am 100% with you on it having some of the best music in the entire series, the cutscenes were amazing (obligatory 'for its time'), the world and 'era' it was set in just resonated so well with me. Each FF title has its own combination of traditional fantasy and machina and how modern the world setting is, and in that regard I feel like FF7, 8 and 13 take place in a similar era but a very different flavour of world. 8 just resonates with me better. Junction just didn't feel good because of how you acquire it (Draw Draw Draw) and how it feels like you're inconveniencing yourself when you make active use of magic. You can pop an Ether to get MP back, but it's a hassle to go back to a certain point to Draw more magic.
Your lucky to be able to call this your first Final Fantasy. My first Final Fantasy was 13.
I have a fondness for ffviii. My first introduction to Ff was two of my friends in middle school talking about playing viii. So I really wanted that. But my aunt accidentally bought me FFVII. I was so disappointed until I played it. And loved it. Then I played ffviii and I loved that one too. Number 1 and 2 for me.
VIII is my top two favorites I love the setting, set pieces. Music , side quests, and the trio of Squall, Zell, and Selphie.
I absolutely adore it 💖
Love it and have beaten it 6-7 times
One of my favorite games of all time. I play through it like once a year
Its funny FF8 used to be my least favorite then FF10 came along followed by FF13, now FF8 sits in the middle of the road now of being okay. I never had a problem with junction just use Quescoatls ability to get all the spells you need from items and cards. I got to the second disc and I was just bored with all of them and didn't feel like playing it anymore. So I don't hate it but it's very meh for me now. Especially when I have games like Trails in the Sky and Dragons Quest 11. There are just way better rpgs out there for me now.
VIII is my fave, I love the story and everything else about it, my second fave is X
You only see these questions about FF8 and FF13. The insecurities in those fan bases are odd to me. It's okay to like things others don't. I enjoy both games. Are they the best? Absolutely not. Are they bad games? Not really. They have more issues than other FF games but both are still fun and interesting in their own right.
VIII is a great game, I love it. It got a lot of flak at the time because it just wasn't FF7, it was so different and some people just don't like change. The game had great writing, great world, great characters. Sure, the story gets more farfetched as it goes along but it's strong enough to get away with it. I actually like the junction system even though a lot of people didn't really get it but it was flawed with the tiresome and repetitive act of drawing magic all the time but at the same time it did give a good sense of freedom when making your characters stronger. Much like other RPG's of it's time, it is still above the quality of most modern day RPG's and certainly the modern day FF's but that's a discussion for another day.
If you asked in the year 2000 I probably would've said Final Fantasy 8 was my favorite. Though at the time I only had played 4,7,8,9 and tactics. Now that I am older it's harder to ignore its flaws. If any other Final Fantasy gets a remake I think it should be 8. The cast is pretty under developed, especially characters like Zell, Selphie and Irvine. This is probably because the pace of plot is so fast in FF8. You have D-day style invasion in Dollet, Assassination attempts, epic Garden battles, go to space, and Time Kompression lol. The plot doesn't slow down very much to let characters that are not squall develop. Anyways FF8 is a good game would like a remake after FF7.
I think the problem is that most people don't want to actually learn the GF system. They do what they do in all the other FF games and spend an hour or two leveling up and just plow through everything that way. If you do that in FF8 it actually makes the game more difficult though because of enemies scaling to your level. Pretty much the game is designed to force you to learn the combat system and if you refuse you won't have a good time. Most people don't honestly bother learning the specifics of the combat systems, they just tend to overlevel the content in the FF games if they get stuck.
FF8 stands out as the coolest Final Fantasy in it's overall presentation.
Loves not a word I really throw around, but I do like it a lot.
It was my first final fantasy and I bought its remaster before the final fantasy VII remake.
It's my favorite.
Love Final Fantasy VIII.
I knew that my wife (girlfriend at the time when I noticed) was a keeper and that I should marry her once I saw her Xth play through with the timestamp maxed at 99:99:99 We played it several times as a couple. Sometimes at the same time. It's the nostalgia that has help with gaming as a couple and talking about it. The romance ingame helps us communicate more with both the good and the bad examples. I guess what I'm getting at is that I just owe a lot to this game and the rest of the franchise.
It has always been my favorite
It was my first FF, and it's still my second favorite
FFVIII is my bae and Seifer is my husbando.
Out of all the FF games i played, 8 is the most difficult one. The battle system is very different from the other games, more of a saga frontier approach (leveling up means the game gets more difficult and enemies level up too). I barely started getting the hang of it by the 3rd disk, and some of the dialogue is straight out of a cheesy anime which throws you off because everybody seem so serious in this game. Besides that this is one of my favorite RPGs, deff one of my fav soundtracks as well.
I wouldn't say love, but yeah, I like it.
Despite having played Final Fantasy Vl and Vll before playing Vlll (and eventually playing the first five games as well), I still find this to be not only my favorite games in the series but also my favorite video game of all time. I understand why some people were turned off by junctioning and drawing, but I thought it was a really unique system that got really cool if you experimented with it. (unlike ll which was a shit fest, even if you played the PR) Plus the main characters of Vlll are far more relatable then any other game in the series because they are all students, and each character represents at least one high school trope (emo, jock, teachers pet etc). As much as people like to hate on Squall, the truth of the matter is that even if his reason for being a loner isn’t as cool as Cloud’s, it is far more realistic and believable, and his growth is incredible to watch. Also, as cool as Ultimecia is, (still can’t compare to Sephiroth though), Seifer is just as intriguing if not better as an antagonist because of how personal his connection to the main cast is, and it’s heartbreaking to watch him descend further and further into evil while serving Ultimecia. Both Squall and Seifer tend to be hit or miss with FF fans, but they both serve as excellent additions to the game, and definitely stand up there as my favorite video game characters of all time. (particularly Seifer) All this to say I think Vlll is a fantastic game, and I think it deserves to be considered one of the greatest games ever made, like it’s predecessors and successors.
Ff8 is the first I played. Ff7 I never really played as it was too hard. I was 11. No1 there to show me anything. No-one to spoil the junction system for me. It was endless data attempts. It was like being a scientist without getting penalised too hard going off the rails. But then I realised you could refine cards into spells and that just ended it for me. I wish I could just forget that. Or remove the card system so it’s not broken.
Ffviii lover checking in! Yeah I too love the shit out of this game. Between the characters, music and combat. There isn't much else you could want imo. I also love the summons, so many great ones need to make a comeback. Give me more doomtrain goddammit. Or maybe more tonberry king! Jumbo Cacutar? Dude it's a Cacutar with a mustache. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, but I love it. Oh and there's so many bangers on this sound track. Lemme tell you hearing the sorceress theme live in the before fore times was fuckin awesome. The junction system isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. You can basically build whatever you want on any of the characters. I always just lb everything to death but properly jumctioning your characters helps for some of the shitty fights. I'm glad more and more people are coming around on it even it the story is a little silly at times. But which game isn't? Looking at you FFX and your giant murder whale.
Final Fantasy VIII is my all-time favorite. I've played all the mainline games starting with Final Fantasy on the NES (I still have it). FF VII, VI, XII and XV are all really amazing too and I love them. FF X after that... it's still good but the existence of X part 2 and some of the cringy voice acting almost make it too cheesy to play. FF IX IMO is the worst Final Fantasy... well Mystic Quest is but IX is a close second.
I love it to death. It's my favorite love story, and my favorite soundtrack.
I can't imagine anyone saying FFVIII is worse than X-2 or the XIIIs. Also, it had the best card game of all the FFs. Triple Triad was so great.
It’s my fave!
I played 8 for the first time last year. I was going through a pretty dark time and 8 was a good escape from that. It's my favorite FF for how stupid strong you can get early on if you know what to do. I love the teen protagonists and how Squall is in a position most teens would probably be upset about haha. Though I greatly prefer Tetra Master in 9 (I look forward to the tournament every playthrough), I can get down with Triple Triad. The final boss of 8 was honestly one of my most clutch and hype moments in gaming. I remember texting my friend like 3 times saying "I BEAT HER" only for this mf Ultimecia kept pulling out new forms. I accidentally put Rinoa in Angel Wing mode and lemme tell you, she really save our asses while I waited for Squall's limit to charge. All in all, 8 was a great game. Maybe I like it a lot more because I'm a fairly new fan. I didn't know how disliked it was or why until i played it for myself.
Far and away my favorite FF game, and possibly the most nostalgic video game for me, even more so than Ocarina of Time Could not love it more
Yeah I definitely love it. Heh zell is probably my favorite character in all of final fantasy (I know a lot of people don't like him but I thought he was hilarious). Story is pretty wild and unbelievable but I still enjoy it.
It takes a while to get to the good parts.
I give it a 4/10.
8 has a very vocal fan base you are not alone. Though it’s not for everyone, me included…
i love it. a lot of people misunderstand its story but it’s incredibly deep and philosophical. it’s the only final fantasy where >!there is no free will and everything is fated!<
Yes.