Poll of the Day > Is Final Fantasy 8 the black sheep because its easy to break?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or is it something else. Ive never played it
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No, because FF2 is the black sheep. Unless one of the newest games overtook it.
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It's the shit writing, IMO.
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The plot is bonkers even compared to other FF titles and the characters are paper thin and may as well be a group of 11 year olds

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A variety of reasons

- story has pacing issues
- final boss isn't a sephiroth or Kafka where you're pumped to fight em. Not memorable at all
- level scaling. The lower the level, the better in some ways
- some people like the junction system some do not

That said i personally love the game. I like the music and atmosphere/world. I even like the characters even I their development is weird. And i like the "dream world" sequences.

But yeah that's me a lot of people hated it. I won't argue.

argonautweakend posted...

That said i personally love the game. I like the music and atmosphere/world. I even like the characters even I their development is weird. And i like the "dream world" sequences.

But yeah that's me a lot of people hated it. I won't argue.

To be honest id probably hate the dream shit if it wasnt for man with a machine gun probably being imo the catchiest and perhaps best battle music in ff hands down.
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argonautweakend posted...

That said i personally love the game. I like the music and atmosphere/world. I even like the characters even I their development is weird. And i like the "dream world" sequences.

But yeah that's me a lot of people hated it. I won't argue.

The music is about the only thing good about the game, I will admit it is probably in the top 3 or 4 of all FF music.

Everything else is trash easily a top 3 worst FF mainline games.

Its my least favorite FF, even more so than FF2. Here are a few of my reasons:

The draw system. Earlier in the game, the main way you acquire your magic is by drawing it from enemies. You take a turn to draw, and youll pull anywhere from 1-10 or so magic stocks. Its a very cumbersome way of going about it, especially considering that the junction system makes it so linking magic spells to your stats is the primary way to build your character. (And yes, Im aware that the more efficient way of getting magic is through cards, but I still just really dont like the drawing system in general.)

The plot just gets really bizarre, and the writing feels lazy to me. It took me 3-4 attempts to finally beat the game, and the only reason I finally beat it was I was doing a marathon of beating FF1-10, and needed to beat 8 to proceed. I think the whole first disc is actually quite good, but it gets a bit weaker in disc 2, and near the start of disc 3, I feel it just falls apart. Every single one of my unsuccessful attempts to beat the game came around the exact same spot. Id just lose interest.

One plot point in particular that even fans of the game tend to admit is a weak point: the whole GFs made us lose our memories and none of us remember growing up with each other at an orphanage plot point. Not a fan.

Triple Triad just isnt my thing. Im in the overwhelming minority on this one. Most people absolutely love the game. It just didnt click with me.

I didnt care for the characters. This is a big one for me. I love the characters in FF4, 6, 7, 9, and to a lesser extent, 10. The only ones I dont particularly dislike are Selphie, Laguna, Ward & Kiros.

Flying the garden around is sooooo slow. No a fan of it when you take control.

Just wasnt a fan of earning a salary instead of earning gil through traditional means. Same with building weapons as opposed to finding/stealing/buying them.

Thats most of it. Theyre just my opinions - if anyone likes any of the things that I dislike, thats absolutely fine. The game does have its positives, such as most of the music (all very good IMO, except for the garden theme and the overworld theme), the graphics were very good for when it was released, and as I mentioned, I think the game is actually pretty good through the first disc.

Also, I wouldnt rate it anywhere near any worst game of all time kinda list. I just think its a weak entry to the FF series, which is my favorite series of all time. I just feel it comes up short with the bar that the series established.
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The setting is weird
The plot is stupid
Most of the character designs are pretty awful
The game mechanics are somewhat broken
The final boss doesn't have much build-up
And there's a ridiculous twist, based around the fact that Guardian use causes memory loss... although even if you play through the game without using Guardians, that twist is still there

I will say that I actually liked the junctioning system or, at least, the theory behind it. And I liked quite a few of the Guardian/Summon/Esper designs. However, the Guardian Force name was just fucking stupid.

The other big plus is Triple Triad. Love me some Triple Triad.
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The playable characters looked more human than the other entries, and the mood of the game is kind of depressing. Not as bad as Lost Odyssey, though.

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The biggest problem I had with the game was the story. It just falls apart. It starts great, but then it just makes no sense. It's why people keep making all the theories to explain it.

I think maybe because of the different "draw" system and that it had a tough act to follow (FF7).. That being said, I enjoyed it and would consider it my second favorite of the series.
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The writing is awful, and the characters are terrible. Also the battle system is kinda blegh and tedious.
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