Post by Warlock on Jan 2, 2012 14:35:43 GMT -5
I thought I'd start up a new thread instead of adding more fuel to the Final Fantasy 7 fire.
FF8 was such a polarizing game that I'm always kind of interested to see what other people think about it- my impression of the game as a whole is that it was overly ambitious and didn't end up living up to Square's plans and expectations for it.
The storyline has a lot of interesting aspects to it, but I feel that there's a pretty definite point at the end of the second disc where it stops making sense, and the game clearly goes into "Work through this plot outline as fast as possible" mode. There are some things that are hinted out later on, but not really elaborated on in-game (Ultimecia-as-a-future-Rinoa, for example). Seifer, despite his apparent role as a recurring antagonist/rival-type character, never really seemed to be developed for me beyond "He does evil things because he's a jerk".
I liked Squall as a character, although I can see why others didn't. I realize that redeeming him over the course of the game was the point, but maybe they played up his unlikeable jerk aspects too much early on. I was kind of disappointed that they pretty much wrote Quistis off after the first disc or so, too. Having said that, I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the cast.
I feel like a lot of the game's systems could have used some more work, too. I like the idea of the Junction system, but it seems like it would be a more interesting system if each character could only equip one GF at a time- that way, choosing who has what GF becomes a more meaningful choice ("Do I really want to give up Ifrit's strength bonus for Leviathan's Recover command?"). I liked the way they handled limit breaks this time around, but it was way too easy to 'force' them by switching between characters. I can't for the life of me understand why each character had a chance at getting a limit break every time you switched to them instead of just when they first became active; I can assume that this was a bug... Either way, it makes a lot of the game trivially easy after you get the Cover ability.
The way weapons were handled in 8 was... different. I don't have a strong opinion about its' implementation in FF8, but it did seem to eventually develop into FF10's excellent weapon customization system.
Interestingly enough, particularly for a game that Final Fantasy fans seem to regard as the black sheep of the PSX-era FF games, this one seems to be the most popular among non-RPG-players. I think it has to do with the character designs- FF8's characters have a much more realistic, western look to them that makes them more attractive to people who aren't into the anime look.
- HC
FF8 was such a polarizing game that I'm always kind of interested to see what other people think about it- my impression of the game as a whole is that it was overly ambitious and didn't end up living up to Square's plans and expectations for it.
The storyline has a lot of interesting aspects to it, but I feel that there's a pretty definite point at the end of the second disc where it stops making sense, and the game clearly goes into "Work through this plot outline as fast as possible" mode. There are some things that are hinted out later on, but not really elaborated on in-game (Ultimecia-as-a-future-Rinoa, for example). Seifer, despite his apparent role as a recurring antagonist/rival-type character, never really seemed to be developed for me beyond "He does evil things because he's a jerk".
I liked Squall as a character, although I can see why others didn't. I realize that redeeming him over the course of the game was the point, but maybe they played up his unlikeable jerk aspects too much early on. I was kind of disappointed that they pretty much wrote Quistis off after the first disc or so, too. Having said that, I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the cast.
I feel like a lot of the game's systems could have used some more work, too. I like the idea of the Junction system, but it seems like it would be a more interesting system if each character could only equip one GF at a time- that way, choosing who has what GF becomes a more meaningful choice ("Do I really want to give up Ifrit's strength bonus for Leviathan's Recover command?"). I liked the way they handled limit breaks this time around, but it was way too easy to 'force' them by switching between characters. I can't for the life of me understand why each character had a chance at getting a limit break every time you switched to them instead of just when they first became active; I can assume that this was a bug... Either way, it makes a lot of the game trivially easy after you get the Cover ability.
The way weapons were handled in 8 was... different. I don't have a strong opinion about its' implementation in FF8, but it did seem to eventually develop into FF10's excellent weapon customization system.
Interestingly enough, particularly for a game that Final Fantasy fans seem to regard as the black sheep of the PSX-era FF games, this one seems to be the most popular among non-RPG-players. I think it has to do with the character designs- FF8's characters have a much more realistic, western look to them that makes them more attractive to people who aren't into the anime look.
- HC
