Is Final Fantasy VIII any good? It looks interesting but I

The draw system a shit

It's my favorite. The setpieces, its dream-like quality, and general presentation just can't be beat.

Yeah it's pretty good. There's nothing really too complicated about the junction system anon, just practice a little and you'll get the hang of it.

The only flaw the game has in my opinion is the draw system.

>>389106915
Nope, arguably one of the worst in the series. Not even one of the one's I'd recommend grinning and bearing it for the sake of the story, since that's pretty boring, too.

I never got past disc 1. When I bought it as a kid I was missing disc 2
fucking worst FF ever

>>389106915
If you can't play Final Fantasy VIII then you're retarded like these guys: >>389106995 >>389107414 >>389108675

>>389108795
I'd like to play it. The junction system is hard to approach though. There's really no system quite like it.

>>389106915

The Junction system amounts to 'bigger number is better.' You might use inefficient ways to achieve said numbers, but it really isn't complicated and can be reached with any method.

I think the game is really bad though. However since it interests you, go for it.

It's great if you have a tickling fetish.

FFVIII is fine

Just remember on the back of the case it mentions a big focus on "Love"

Just remember the paramilitary theme goes out the window after first disc in lieu of space time witches

It gets as wacky as all the other classic FF games

>>389106915
It was my first big JRPG, and one of my favorite games. I went back and beat it again last year, and it honestly holds up pretty well. Soundtrack and visual design is still top notch, combat is serviceable(though easily broken if you optimize your AP choices), story is reasonably compelling, and the characters all do a good job of having and explaining their motivations without waxing on for too long, save for the final villain who mostly does it to sell exactly why you gotta beat them. Get the card and card refine abilities ASAP, chase that with item to magic refinement across the board and encounter reduction, and the game might as well bend over a table and pull down its pants.

>>389106915
you can let the game auto junction for you.

but good luck getting spells.

you either draw or play a shitty card game since enemy drops is a bad idea due to levelscaling

>>389106915
I personally like it but I'll be the first to admit it is so broken that your characters will be overpowered even if you don't junction optimally. You can cast limit breaks whenever you want and at least 3 of the characters have limit breaks that will beat just about every boss in the game in 1 round. Another has a limit break that fully heals and revives the party.

>>389106915
You put offensive magic into your offensive stats and you put defensive magic into your defensive stats, and the health magic into your health stats. There's nothing complex about it.

>>389106995
You never need to cast magic, you have GFs for a reason.

>>389111968
faggt

>>389111060
>Just remember on the back of the case it mentions a big focus on "Love"

despite the fact that the main love story is badly written, the girl is shit, and there is fuck all for development

>>389112319
I never said it was a competent love story

There is no other video game where you can use a motorcycle to jump from one flying school onto another flying school for the express purpose of preventing the enemy flying school, which is controlled by a time-traveling sorceress (who is your girlfriend), from using nukes.

Go on. Name one game where you fly into space, fight space aliens, get dream-raped by your sister, cut the planet in half with a lightsaber to kill a T-Rex, get sexually harassed by your pedophile instructor, or destroy your enemies by introducing them to a beautiful green field. Name ONE game in which a robot spider chases you through a city that is being invaded by a country whose president is actually a zombie and gets impaled on a woman's hand.

An invisible futuristic city is being crushed by a giant, slow-moving wall.

FF8. The greatest game of all time.

>>389108940
It's pretty easy actually. Just stock spells and they increase the stats you assign them to.

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>>389106915
It is as flawed as it is entertaining, imho. Don't feel the need to draw 100 of everything or you'll get bored. Be on the lookout for GF abiities that allow you to refine magic from items. Also you might wanna go ahead and cheese it with a guide for the SeeD rank tests to get cash.

what is everybody's problem with the draw system?
the loss of stats when you use a spell is minimal and you can just keep spares on your inactive characters and trade them over if you need to get it back to 100

>>389112651
>a giant, slow-moving wall
Lunatic Pandora wasn't crushing Esthar, it was passing over its airspace to reach a set location so the monsters on the moon could reach the planet through a celestial event.

And the time-traveling sorceress that you get to on the other school is not the player character's girlfriend. Also you don't use the motorcycle to get there, you use the jetpack after doing that rescue part and land in the courtyard where the two opposing sides of students are clashing.

>>389112964
The draw system didn't bother me as the whole battle system is broken overall. I ended up getting Diablos and learning Encounter None and just used limit breaks on necessary fights.

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>>389112651
jesus man.

I love FF8, but your description is embellished as fuck.

>Motorcycle jump
"you" get to watch it, not do it
>fight space aliens
only every shooter ever
>dream-raped by sister
you might have me there, but it might only be a plus on 4chan
>planet dissection via lightsaber
a limit break that you get to watch after you select it from an excel spreadsheet
>pedophile instructor
18 y/o hitting on a 17 y/o. Call the fucking cops.

Overexaggeration like this is why hype invariably kills every time.

>>389113204

Thank you for the corrections. A moon crying monsters, punching dudes off of your jetpack so that you can save your girlfriend who is about to fall off of a flying school--just more proof that FF8 is the most exciting game of all time.

It's one of the most excellent FF games ever. It's also one of the most awful. It's absolutely one of my favorite games of all time, but if you can't recognize why it'd be polarizing, you're a blind idiot.

The good:
>Soundtrack, good fucking lord 10/10 best of all time
>Protagonist, don't believe the memes, Squall is genuinely a well-developed and fairly cool guy with flaws the game makes a point of dissecting
>Setting, oddly one of the most grounded, "hard" fiction settings in the FF setting
>TIMED HITS NIGGA
>Cutscenes, some seriously fun shit that I won't spoil
>Coolest final dungeon ever

The bad:
>Love interest, possibly one of the worst characters of all time
>Decent side characters largely glossed over
>Great setting and vaguely political happenings tossed aside for konfusing time bullshit

Debatable:
>Draw/Junction system, can be either too tedious or way too fucking easily broken- personally enjoy breaking RPGs, but it's difficult to find a good spot for a challenge
>Party members almost completely interchangeable in terms of battle usefulness, can use anyone, but no one feels unique
>Level scaling, tries to amend the "where the challenge at" problem, but also makes low-level runs stupidly easy

tl;dr: It's one of the most mixed bags of all time, and you'll either love it or hate it.

No one is too dumb for the junction system. The real question is how much do you value fun and your time? If you value neither, then sitting in one battle and drawing magic for an hour is a mechanic you'll highly enjoy.

>>389114347
I love FF8 threads. They are the perfect brainlet bait. Not that it's a good game, lord fucking knows it's fucked up on several levels, but if you're too dumb to know how to Refine, you deserve rape.

>>389106915
As far as everything outside gameplay, it's one of the best. The junction system isn't hard, you just need to understand it before you play. Enemies scale with you, so never kill them unless it's required such as bosses. You junction yourself up by getting magic, each GF equips to you like armor with different slots like HP, STR, VIT, etc. That is junction. you can get magic from either using "draw" on enemies or turning the mini game cards into magic. My recommendation is to level up Quetzocal, your starting GF, until you get the Card Mod skill, allowing you to turn those cards into magic. What you want to level up GF's is AP, not EXP, so the beach near the beginning will help you get started quicker. The game provides plenty of turtorials, so if you got lost in my explanation watch the one it gives and it should click

>>389106915
Junction is simple. Spells increase your stats that they are equipped to, stronger spells = better stats. If you do decide to play keep this in mind:
>GF have the ability to turn items into magic get this and the card ability asap.
>Cards can be turned into items
>Draw let's you cast spells that the enemy have if you don't want to waste your spell charges.
>They hint at the twist the entire game don't fall for the meme
Hope you enjoy it OP. If you finish disc 2 and still hate it just drop the game.

I rented it back in the day after it released and didn't get very far, nor did I care to. The gameplay and underlying systems were much to weird and almost being forced to play a cardgame was an instant turnoff.

>>389112065

You should literally never use GFs.

I adore FF8. It's incredibly flawed, but it's so ambitious and experimental that I can't help but to respect it.

>>389106915
it's great, if you abuse the meta game

>get spells from cards
>petrfy/card enemies for zero xp gain. carding also gives you points for your gfs
>kill squall and zell when you have seifer, let him level up with ifirt to get ammo refine during the dollet mission
>use the lamp, beat diablo, get encounter-half, then encounter-none
>finish the game at level 9 doing 9999 damage.

>>389118089
>>389115858
Who is this bitch and how is she related to FF8?

>>389106915
>too dumb for the junction system.
m8. How can you not get it? Big spells on stats make you strong. Wow!

>>389106915
I think it was probably the weakest of the 3 PS Final Fantasy games. Still worth a playthrough though.

>>389106915
You'll like it if you like FFVI , Chrono Trigger, and FFVII, but it is noticeably worse than all three of those.