Is FF8 worth playing? Why is there a stigma attached to this

Yes.Just don't expect a coherent story. It's got a nice setting and the mechanics are fun. Also the card game is goat.

Honestly when it comes to FF even if the game is objectively bad the story is at least unique. With the shit fest that is 8 at least the story is weird/unique enough that people still argue whether squall is dead, Rinoa is the sorceress or etc...

The story becomes very weird after Disc 1, and the characters and dialogue may be weird from time to time, but that may be because teenagers are actually behaving like teenagers, something every storyteller ever, especially in Japan, seems to have forgotten.

The combat mechanics make it easy to break the game, especially if you invest in the card game. You raise your stats by equipping GF (the summonable monsters) with the corresponding stat junction ability. Said abilities allow you to junction magic to those stats. Strong, well stocked magic makes it better.

By using refinement abilities (again through GFs), you can easily mod cards and loot to gain access to -ga tier spells, making every fight ever a breeze.

The game never tells you, but monsters scale with your level, and they gain much better stats than you do, so abusing the junction system is expected to give you an edge.

>>387289859
My friend who played it says that the problem with the game is the level scaling exceeds the player's own ability to get stronger. As a result you quickly learn the best strategy is to avoid leveling up altogether

>>387289859
I never played ff8 until I was 20. I played it along with the other final fantasies since I never played them, so I'm saying this without nostalgia goggles.
My main problem with it was really the junction system. Playing it blind, it's likely you won't know what things to junction. This wouldn't be so bad if the draw system wasn't so ass, and slow to the point that it takes forever to experiment.
It's a bit different from the other games in that you don't need to level up the main character by even one level. This is because most of your power comes from the junction system and forced drawing.
Anytime I see threads bashing the story I laugh because most ff are just typical jrpg shit. You either like it or you don't. I didn't think the story was an exceptional 10/10, but it wasn't dog shit either. When you play it you'll see it's just another cookie cutter plot that gets retarded toward the end.
Mastering the card game is actually pretty hard if you dont cheese it, and some of the music is pretty great (in my opinion this has one of the best boss battle themes of the final fantasies). Overall I had fun

>>387291135
>>387291260
>>387291276
So if you just play it through for the story it's still fine?

>>387289859
people were expecting FF7-2

>>387291276
>It's a bit different from the other games in that you don't need to level up the main character by even one level.
Not only that, but enemies level up with you which can make things harder. It is only worth leveling if you have the GF stat bonus from leveling up, but it really isn't that helpful since all your real stat increases still come from junctioning.

At different levels enemies can drop different items needed for crafting. There are abilities you learn from GF that will increase the enemy level and also decrease the enemy level so you don't need to worry about having a high level to get high level drops.

I remember playing this back in the day and not grasping the junction system at all. The game never fucking explains that you can turn cards into junctionable magic.

All I remember from playing it was getting my ass handed to me from beginning to end.

>>387291413
Well, if you go in expecting a decent story... meh?

The game is fine if you learn how to use the GF/Junction system and don't fall for the draw meme. Draw should only be used to acquire GFs. Always keep one character with draw so you don't miss any GFs. The best way to get magic is to refine it from cards and other items. The best way to get cards is to play the card game and use the CARD command that Quezacotl learns.

>>387289859
/vr/ old geezer

>>387289859
best FF game, last good one

The game's biggest sin is never telling you that, contrary to all FFs in which grinding was a good option, this one will actively punish you by making the monsters tougher and tougher. You basically have to learn the junction system while avoid grinding as much as possible. Fight monsters to gain GF abilities, not for experience.

Good players will note this and carefully choose what abilities GF learn to make sure the relevant abilities get learned ASAP. Great players will mix and match the item and magic refining abilities to fill their magic inventory. Alas, new players who aren't shown how these options work mostly rely on "drawing" magic from regular enemies. At best, you'll draw 9 spells out of a critter, with the max being 100, making it a tedious process. And most critters have shit-tier spells anyway.

And since magic is tied to your stats, and with limited magic inventory, using magic actually hurts your stats in the long run, or, at the very least, demands constant management. So most playthroughs can be done by making physical powerhouses attack relentlessly.

Oh, how about limit breaks? You get a chance at using them if your characters are near death, mostly. The chance of using them is random... except you can mash the "next character" button until it pops up. Or use Aura, a spell that makes it more likely to get a Limit Break.

>>387289859

>Is FF8 worth playing?
Eh, if you like Final Fantasy games, it's one of the better ones. But that's not saying much.

Why is there a stigma attached to this game?
It came out in the early days when the general population was gaining access to the internet. And like now, whatever was massively popular got contrarian hate. It also didn't help that this game came out after Final Fantasy VII. Basically, it was a perfect storm for attention whores. One specific one in particular.

>What is considered "bad" about it?
It isn't Final Fantasy VII-2. Pretty much everything else people complain about it can be seen in other Square games except the junction system. And even then, the complaints people have against the junction system apply to other FF games.

>>387289859
level scaling

Really want to play this game again but I can't into junctioning to save my life. I think I only beat FF8 the first time around because I was using Gameshark

>>387289859
Junctioning was a horrible mistake and the level scaling is brutal. They won't explain to you how to junction and with the scaling enemies you should actually avoid random battles. The plot is pretty gay too about time travel and stupid shit.

>>387291260
Wrong. People who conplain about the level scaling need to get fucking good.

FF8 is a story about teenage orphan mercenaries with Alzheimer's who are given the mission to kill a big bad evil sorceress, except that sorceress comes from the future and wants to find a girl that can send the mind of people she knows into the past because reasons. The key to solve all this is to let the evil sorceress succeed, but through the power of love and friendship, bypass those time shenanigans to give her a solid beating and engineer a time paradox. Then they all come back to their time and choke on hot dogs.

It's whatever.

Story turns shit after disc 1 and once you figure out the junction system Squall will just destroy everything.

>>387294760

>Story turns shit after disc 1
You mean Disk 2. Disk 2 ends with Squall commanding a major attack and telling Rinoa she's an idiotic child. He's actually growing to be a good character.

Put in Disk 3. "WAh! Rinoa wake up! I want he hear your voice!"

>>387293902

>Really want to play this game again but I can't into junctioning to save my life.
It's not hard dude. Just pick up spells you see in draw points and occasionally steal some in battle. You can get through the game with just basic spells junctioned to STR and DEF. Which you can let the computer auto junction for you.

Good setting, great music, okay characters, battle system was a huge gamble that failed. It's an unbalanced mess.

On the whole, game is a stain on the PSX Final Fantasy legacy. We have FF7, 9 and Tactics which were gold and FF8 which is controversial at best and complete shit at worst.

That said, it's still better than 13

will games ever have as climatic and memorable music as in final fantasy 7-10 era?

Nobuo Uematsu please come back.

>>387296260

>will games ever have as climatic and memorable music as in final fantasy 7-10 era?
There are a lot of games that have better music. Both before and after. The key in your question is 'memorable'. You have nostalgia for the PSX.

>>387296260
Final Fantasy XIV has absolutely fantastic music, and Uematsu has nothing to do with it. They made him compose one(1) title song so they could put his name on it.

>>387297121

Also FFXIII. It's literally the only good thing about the game.

>>387289859
Still enjoy the hell out of this game personally. Weirdly my favorite along with 6

>>387289859
its an incoherent mess of a game. stopped playing once the cunt with the cowboy hat said "hey guys, we were raised together as orphans, but we le forgot about it".
Also fuck drawing magic

It's my favorite (and first) FF.

>>387297121

FFXIV has the best version of the prelude theme. And the remix of the FF2 battle theme is great too. Uematsu's songs have a history of getting better when someone else remixes it.

Story is unique and cool. I have no problems with what's going on after disc 1. I replay it once in a while. #3 disc best disc. I enjoy the story.
Best music.
Gameplay wise it's cool, challenging when you play it for the first time. Once you learn how to minmax, you can break it and things become easy. The only thing I hate is Malboro.
Best card game.
Best ship.
Many, many hidden things, items, locations, summons and side quests. If you're going to play without a guide, you'll probably miss some great summons.

It's considered bad for the following reasons:
>the story starts off solid, but pops a gallon of LSD after disk 1 and it's down the rabbit hole from there
>the combat focuses very heavily on the "draw" mechanic, linking drawn magic to stats is the only way to improve in the game so you're gonna' be doing a lot of it
>the game mechanics are easily abused and almost criminally easily broken, even if you've never played the game before there's a good chance you'll break them without noticing - leveling, limit breaks, stat-junctioning etc etc are all very breakable elements
>characters are mostly stock, with only Squall having any real emotional development, a lot of the side-cast feel and act like filler

How they could have resolved these issues, because no one asked:
>the story should have stayed grounded a little longer, perhaps becoming a little more surreal at the END of disc two, and not gone full retard as it did near the end (monsters from the fucking moon? Really?))
>the "draw" mechanic should be linked to level, so that you could only draw the amount of magic your character's level was at, this would mean the early-game would feel less tedious (no more drawing 100 blizzards) and the stockpiling would feel more fluent
>the problem here with the mechanics is that the only thing that really scales with your level is your enemies, everything else scales off your stats, meaning that levels are literally NOT good for you, instead perhaps being level 1 only gives you 1% of the stats 27 fires should give you to your Strength attribute, make levels scale something on YOUR character, not just the enemy, this would solve a lot of the game's mechanical problems
>honestly I'm not sure this one needs fixing

Yes you must experience the best MC in all of videogames Squall.

>>387298613
>so that you could only draw the amount of magic your character's level was at

This one fix could have re-balanced the entire game. Suddenly there's a reason to level and gain experience, and thus fight tougher monsters.

This might literally have been the only thing needed to turn FF8 into a mechanically sound game.

>>387297121
Doesn't FFXIV have a few Uematsu pieces in it, such as Sohm Al hard mode's theme and "Fury" from some of the ARR hard mode bosses like Brayflox? I seem to recall reading that 1.0 had a lot of Uematsu in it too. Or am I mistaken?

It's better than Final Fantasy 10, and maybe 13.

On an unrelated note, I don't understand how Final Fantasy 10 doesn't get more hate. It is guilty of everything 13 is, and more, and the combat system is hot garbage. At least at the very end of 13, the combat ends up alright.

It is the ultimate "gamers game" as I call it. The game will play fine if you just play it, you won't notice all the stuff going on in the background or the strange way it's systems work.

But the game seems designed to be broken. You won't learn all this on your first play through. It rewards being replayed and discovering new ways to smash the game. The leveling itself is unique. The game plays differently depending on your level. It's a totally different game depending on if you do a low-level run or a high-level run. This is intended. It's why you can get the ability to turn off random encounters right at the start of the game, OR spend a little time grinding and hit max level before you start the "real" game (you can fight a monster that will level you up once per fight). It was designed from the ground up to cater to people who like manipulating the systems of a jrpg. The monsters themselves change their stats and movepool and even loot as you change levels. I mean there is even a GF ability that lets you level up or de level monsters, so you can access such loot regardless of the playthrough you are doing.

None of this is explained, naturally. Without the internet, you would have to just learn it on your own. This is a major part of what makes the game amazing. With the internet and looking up how to do stuff, people have this retroactive hate for the game where they pretend they knew all the ways to exploit the game the moment they turned it on. If you are going in blind, you wouldn't know to rush to this one secret spot and get a bunch of tornado and junction it to HP, or you wouldn't know how to get squalls ultimate weapon on the first disc. You just don't learn these things until you've explored the game (or looked it up).

It's an amazing game and it's story is really good, especially if you access all the side stuff and explore the world. Every complaint I hear could be fixed if the person talked to the right people.

>>387289859
Two things:
1. Use the GF item refine abilities to spend less time drawing spells
2. The level scaling is not as terrible as people claim, story bosses have fixed max levels and only a small set of tough enemies like Ruby Dragons or Malboros gain significant powerups at higher levels

>>387300417

10's combat system was literally the best thing about that game though.

>>387290004
>Just don't expect a coherent story.
This is why 8 has stigma. People really cant follow the story.
Your first playthrough of 8 will sound confusing but the game is intentionally made made to only make sense right near its end. You need to tlrethink it after youre done instead of just dropping the controller.
The more you think.about 8, the better it becomes. Thing is, most people dont give it a second thought.
Go play it.

>>387300417

FF10 has a great story and battle system. The only thing to dislike about it is character design and voice acting.

>>387300526

I partially agree with you, which is why I think I had so much fun with FF8 the first time I played it when I was a pre-teen.

It was a lot of fun because as I leveled normally, as one does in JRPGs, I never knew anything of the underlying systems that went on, and just assumed leveling up made me stronger. I even took to grinding inside Galbadia after failing to beat Seifer (didn't help).

The point is that the game is fun when you don't understand anything and you follow your JRPG-instinct.

That being said there is some marvelous and fundamentally bad game design here.

>>387302589

I recently replayed it, the story is still a mess even if you know exactly what's going to happen.
The biggest flaw is that it's supposed to be a love story, but it's not build that way at all.
Squall goes from thinking Rinoa is an annoying idiot to being madly in love with her as soon as she becomes catatonic at the end of disc 2.
They should have solidified their relationship at the Garden Festival concert, but because Japan can't into romance nothing happens there.

How in the world do I beat Diablos? I feel like I'm not junctioning correctly

>>387302858
Cast blind on him.

>>387302850
In the early game, you dont read Squall for what he says but for what he thinks (the maked dialogue). The whole point is that he's a shut in that slowly opens to himself. That's why Rinoa is important, since she breaks his shell. Their romance is fine and people overblow it.

>>387302635
>ff10 has a great story
>Dude religion was the enemy all along

nigga please.
Good battle system though.

>>387303067
whatever

>>387303067

Do you really think people play FFVIII without knowing what's dialogue and what's inner monologue?

>>387291413
The story isn't all that great, but the world and its history is good. The game takes place years after cool shit already happened.

>>387302401
>>387302635
>>387303076
What on Earth are you guys referring to with a good battle system? It's mostly generic JRPG with some forced rock paper scissors mechanics to make you work in all the characters.

Also the story is terrible because it builds on terrible characters. It's also one corridor from start to finish.

>>387303165
No, they play it without thinking why theyre both there for us.

>>387289859
The story make sense. Some of the delivery were really bad tho. Goat FF soundtrack make this a really comfy game desu

>>387303165
8 apologists are all about the 2deep4u. Whether it's the story, or the mechanics, or even that one shit who shows up every thread saying the game's great except for triple triad which he can't win because the CPU literally cheats and not because he's just retarded, it's the only answer they ever have.

Best music in the history of 3d Final Fantasies.

Force Your Way, The Landing, Find your Way, The Boss Theme, Man with the Machine gun...the list goes on. Great fucking OST.

>>387303234
Pretty much this if rock paper scissors only had two signs which beat each other

>>387303241

But Squall doesn't even think highly of Rinoa until the start of disc 3. There's no inner monologue about him being attracted to her at all. He's cool with her for about five minutes after they touch down at Galbadia Garden at the end of disc 2 and then he's immediately devoted to her as soon as she's comatose.

I get what they were trying to do there, but it feels like they skipped the part where he acts all distant while secretly liking her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1njLpZDfUCQ

you gotta continue from the russin subs since the other parts of the review are deleted

>>387303425
pretty sure the flashbacks establish that he was traumatize about losing people close to him. His fear of losing Rinoa eventually lead to love

>>387289859
Sure but don't expect another FF7. Only the main characters are similar.

>>387303425
It's slow but its there. Squall dont care about anyone at the start but everyone grows on him. As far as romance in these FF games go, 8 has probably one of the most natural one. Just the fact she was Seifer gf is some tabu shattering stuff since i can barely remember another jrpg game presenting you with some "unpure" canon romance.

>>387303425
I find it really simple, to be honest. Squall has a trauma about his big sis leaving him, so he grows up stupid because he's afraid of to make new friends in case they have to leave too. Then you have 2 discs of Rinoa and pals trying to get Squall to open up, and it actually works, but then Rinoa 'goes away' sort of like Ellone did. Squall cares so much because Rinoa has become his new Ellone, but in a more romantic way. Squall doesn't admit his love until later into disc 3 though.

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I never played 8 but the little i have seen of this game i like the look of Seifer he seems like a straight up school yard bully cunt which i like so without going in to many spoilers does Seifer manage to be a good villain or does he just suck shit? He seems like he would have more personality than Sephiroth who in my opinion pretty much had none

>>387302635
>great battle system
You mean the game that you hit the slow bulky monster with pierce weapon, the physical resistance monster with magic, and the fast weak monster with the fast character?
Or the boss battles which is either summon spam, hastega and healing beatdown, or max grid ultimate weapon 99999 spam?
It's as generic as other FF games, except you don't really get to start mixing character's stats and abilities until near the end of the game when you can just steamroll the summoner ghost bitch and Braska's Aeon, or grind up to fight the trillion superbosses

>>387296260
For all its faults, XV had a fantastic score.

Frankly, Shimomura is better than Uematsu.

>>387304072
>doubting the man with a ROMANTIC DREAM

>>387304072

He sucks. He starts off as Squall's rival and is a major recurring villain, but ultimately that plotline doesn't really go anywhere.

You also fight him multiple times throughout the game and he's pathetic each time.

>>387302589
>The more you think.about 8, the better it becomes.
I have come to the opposite conclusion.

The more I think about FFVIII's story, the stupider it gets.
>the entire party came from the same orphanage and they all forgot (the explanation being GFs affect memory but somehow they all lose the SAME memories)
>Ultimecia wants to defeat SeeD because people make fun of her in the future due to SeeD defeating her in the past, so she goes back to the past when SeeD defeats her and expects that to not happen somehow
>time compression in general

FFVIII was alright when it was about military schools and warring factions. A more political FF would've been neat.
But when the narrative takes the focus into Ultimecia, shit really hits the fan and the plot falls apart.

>>387304072
I dont even know if you can see him as a villain, more like an asshole in love with the wrong person. His role is being Squall complete opposite.

>>387304417
That's not how it goes.

Ultimecia was persecuted her whole life and she manages to see her future. She knows a SeeD will kill her. Her whole plan is trying to stop it and timecompression is a way to stop her future from ever happening since the whole concept of future is nonexistant.
The orphanage stuff is retarded i agree. But i wont condemn the whole thing for it. Its amazing how you can ignore it and it changes nothing.

>>387304417
It doesn't help that Ultimecia's a shit villain to begin with who only appears at the tail end of the game.

>>387304717
>who only appears at the tail end of the game
Yeah, like disc 1.

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>>387303524
>spoony

>>387304717
Just because youre not face to face doesnt mean she isnt present through the whole game.

>>387304651
I recall her being persecuted because in her time (she's a witch from the future), it was already ancient history that she went into the past to take over the world or something, and was defeated. Maybe only Ultimecia knew she was defeated by a SeeD, but it was a matter of history that she was defeated.

So she was a fucking joke in her own time, she was defeated before she even did anything.
I mean it's been a while but that's what I remember her backstory being.

>>387297369
The composers worked with uematsu in FFX. They're talented artists, but I'm sure Uematsu influenced them in some way.

>>387304865
Yu Yevon is also present the entire game.
And as we all know, a GREAT antagonist.

>>387299901
You are probably right. The point I was trying to make is that less than 1% of the music was produced by Uematsu there and it still has fantastic memorable music. The sound team of FFXIV made a fantastic job. So, Uematsu doesn't necessarily have to come back for good FF music, they have a perfectly competent team for that. Too bad SE can't make good games anymore to capitalize on that talent.

>>387304879
We only have hints so theres a huge margin to speculate. But as far as we know, she's evil that's for sure but she's also from a future where sorceres are persecuted just from being sorcerers.
You could make a case she was made evil because of circunstances but also that her future is direct consequence of the damage she did to the past (which i think it's the correct idea), creating a stigma for sorcerers.

>>387289859
It's perfect. Learn the junction system, enjoy the best card game ever, and don't every actually use attack summons. Ever.

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>>387298613
I think you just summed it up for me, anon.

I liked the junction system, but it was clearly broken. I've wanted to see another attempt to make it work. But like you pointed out, if the level scaling applied to the amount or percentage of the power of the junction, it would be more balanced. You've got the right idea.

>>387305294
Fucking lol'ed at that dialogue. FF8 our of context is hilarious.

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Alright. I'll play some 8 tomorrow. I beat disc 1 about a month ago and never looked back.

You know what surprises me about FF8? It's almost clever. Almost.

Like the story is so surreal it may be considered "next level", and the gameplay was ahead of it's time in terms of innovation (not linking levels to character strength AT ALL was a very unique concept).

I mean sure, it failed on many areas, but on /v/ i see it talked about in a almost civil manner far more often then I see any of the other mainline FF games. I mean just look at this thread. People are talking about the gameplay, the characters, the plot, the mehcanics and so on.

FF8 is a rare breed of game that actually manages to spawn some pretty good threads on /v/ and that's almost (there's that word again) admirable.

>>387305617
You quit just before things get wacky. Have fun!

>>387305617

Madness awaits. Fun madness, if you're willing to take it with a pinch of salt, but madness none the less.

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>>387289859
FF8 was my first FF and I enjoyed it. Sure enough when I was a kid, I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I had to replay it a bunch of times as an adult to really enjoy it.

The Card game alone has me coming back for more. I really wish they kept card games in FFs, FF9's card game was really difficult to decipher whereas FF8's simplicity (aside from the random plus/minus rules) it was fun.

My only harp was character development, Seifer regresses as the discs go on. Squall and Rinoa only get some serious character development whereas the other characters take a backseat. They probably could have fleshed that out more but they didn't.

My verdict is that it's worth at least two playthroughs, one for story and one for 100%.

>>387299438
Whatever.

>>387306304
>random

D E L T H I S

i HATE THE STEAM PORT. LITERALLY THE ONLY THING STOPPING ME FROM REPLAYING THE FUCKING REMASTER. HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA PUT MIDIS IN THE GAME. FUCKING DIE DIE.DIE


its one of my least favorite classic final fantasy games because of the shitty junction system. But I still find it playable and enjoyable

>>387307707

There's a mod for that.

>>387307879
l-link?

>>387291135
>so abusing the junction system is expected to give you an edge.
No. Using the junction system normally and reasonably is what gives you an edge. Abusing it ruins the game.

>>387293758
>avoid grinding as much as possible.
Also complete bollocks. Nothing bad comes from gaining levels. As long as you're not outright ignoring the junction system the monsters are not going to get too tough for you and the game is not 'punishing' you. The game is maintaining a consistant challenge for the shockingly small amount of people who are willing to play the game normally.

>>387307707
That's why i want a fucking ps4 port for VIII and IX like VII got

>>387289859
yes just DON'T level to 99

Final Fantasy 8, more like Final Fantasy gr8

>>387309508
haha nice

it's my favorite in the series and i just don't know why people hate it at all

>>387309508
more like final fantasy 1/8.8

The opening FMV is pure vidya kino. Also best FF intro.

This game desperately needs a remaster. I will take any system over the god awful junction system.

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>>387309838
Final Fantasy 9, more like Final Fantasy Nein

>>387309962
>I exist for one purpose...
>To return the Jews back to the zero world, where there is no Jews and no crystal to give kikes life.
>In a world of no Jews, fear does not exist. This is the world that all life desires.
It was a different time.

>fly to heaven/hell islands
>draw everything
>characters become super OP
>game over

>>387310454
>fly
By the time you have access to the islands you should already be OP just from turning items into magic.

>>387300417
10 has the best combat system in any final fantasy, imo. Other than that its pretty garbage but i think the reason it is so loved is that it was the first ff for a lot of people since it was the first to come out on ps2.

>>387311272
Nope, Blitz Ball.

>>387302589
>Thing is, most people dont give it a second thought.

because it was a bad game, like MGS2 and I don't like playing bad games a second time

>>387309104
Level to 100 instead. There is no downside to levelling if you don't ignore how the game works. Stop this memery.

Story's contrived with convenient amnesia, many people dislike the draw system, and a lot of people don't like the level scaling. For me it's my favorite, though. Nothing beats VIII's setpieces and general presentation of its world. Always got way more immersed in it than other FF titles.