Alerith said:
Two Nations at war is an appealing plot to alot of people. Even if you arent one of them.
It's over done and trite.
Squall and Zell being pussies is a matter of opinion. Granted Zell IS, Squall is pretty badass.
Squall... badass? Hmm, well, he did seem to know what he was doing most of the time, and he was a fairly effective fighter. ...Whatever.
Magic was nothing more than something to use in the junction system. The only worthwhile spells you could use were Aura and Demi. [And occasionally meltdown....Jumbo Cactuar anyone?
Yeah, and the Junction system
was the hands-down worst abilities system ever in any RPG I've ever played.
Gunblades make sense like this: They dont fire projectiles. When you swipe down with it, you pull the trigger and it sends a shockwave through the blade. Im not making this up. Does that make it any better? Not to some people. But again, its just your opinion.
It's only a "gun" in shape. The way Seifer holds his "Gun"blade would break his wrist, and the way Squall holds it, a parried or otherwise deflected hit would break his index finger. The weapon is completely absurd.
And yes, I'm well aware of how the weapons "work", I beat the game twice.
Basically Esthar gets a big cloak field. Thats about all there is too it. Activate the cloak field, BOOM, city dissapears.
And before erecting the high tech force field and cloaking device, Esthar was a hicktown which nobody noticed at all? Right...
Lunar Cry (monsters from the moon) they actually started talking about this as soon as you get to Esthar on Disc 3. Its not THAT late. And its only a ploy to get Adel's containment device out of orbit.
It's one of many FF8 plot points that's just.. silly.
Ragnarok airshiop IS THE COOLEST. It looks like a dragon, its a nice shade of red, it doubles as a space ship, machine guns, a cannon, arms, etc. The pilot? Well....the pilot and crew were dead so IDK. Plus the name itself is sweet.
OMFG IT'S RED, ALERT THE INTERNET!
Time compression was an intelligent concept. The sorceress wants to rule time. ALL of time. Past present and future. How can she do that? Compress time into one zone.
Yeah, and they locked out the entire planet on the last disc to make room for the shitty ending.
Oh, and... the main villain you thought was the main villain until the very end when it turns out they're one of the good guys who's been under the control of the REAL main villain - which you don't learn about until the very end of the game. ZOMG FF4 FLASHBACKS
The level system was a good idea because it forced you to level your characters at a fairly even pace. If one of your characters is level 20 and the others are still 7, then monsters, which take on the highest level, would rip up the level 7 characters. And if you facing monsters like Maborlo or Courel, who have bad breath and Death lvl2, that can be a very bad thing.
No, it was a shitty idea. Your characters' levels are better off
low as possible because the monsters are weaker at lower levels. Junctioning > leveling. Continued after the next quote.
Junction/Draw: You dont have to fight a single monster for an hour to get 99 spells for each character. In the world, there are draw points for each spell that deplete and recharge as you use them. So what do you do? Draw magic from a draw point, fight through some of the story, come back, draw again, continue through the story, find a new draw point, continue. The only magic that must be drawn from a monster is the spell Apocalypse that you draw from Ultemecia's Final Form. If you junction correctly, you can make your characters immune to things like Death and Bio and even make it so you get health from elemental attacks like Blizzard, Thundaga, Fira etc.
Yeah, if you want your party to suck you do that. Draw points give 3-15 or so of a spell. Don't give me that shit about "If you junction correctly...". Don't assume I hate the game's mechanics because I don't know how they work - quite the opposite.
In normal RPGs you level your characters to overcome harder enemies. In FF8, because of the shitty Junction system, combined with the shitty monster leveling system, you instead power up your characters by standing there Stocking 100 of every spell you see, so you can Junction to boost your characters' stats by gigantic amounts.
If you junction correctly, you can make your party nigh invincible (ever try junctioning 100 Drain to your weapon, and 100 Quake/Ultima/Whatever powerful spell to your STR? and then Meltdown to VIT?)... at level 1.
Oh, and if you know where to go, you can also get spells from certain Draw Points very early - for example, as soon as you can fly around on Balamb Garden, you can go up to this one cave or w/e where you pay a dude some gil to draw Ultima. LOLz.
But yeah, thanks anyway for assuming I know nothing about the game.
Squall........again, its your personal opinion. But part of the story of the game is Squall's transformation from a lone wolf into a socially budding person. But lemme guess, you want it to be like Cloud and have a constant attitude all game. Right?
No, I wanted Squall to not be a FUCKING DOUCHE. Squall's "transformation" was boring and trite (zomg he finally found and accepted love! now he will be outgoing. <Glee!>).
Limit Break system is different in every game. You like some, you hate others. Yet again, only your opinion. Limit Breaks like Selphie's "The End' (instant death to anything, even bosses and WEAPONS) and Squall's "Renzokuken-Lionheart" are EXTREMELY deadly attacks. If you had access to these from a basic ATB gauge, it would make the game even easier.
Okay, let's compare FF8's Limit break system to other games.
In FF7, you slowly build a Limit gauge every time you take damage, until finally it fills. You get one strike with it, and then it empties out and you have to start over again. The higher your limit break level equipped, the slower the gauge fills.
In FF9, you slowly build a Trance gauge as you take damage. The moment it fills up to 100%, your character goes into a "Hyper" mode, with increased stats, and usually a special command of some sort. After either completing 3-4 actions, or ending the battle (whichever comes first), Trance ends and the gauge is zeroed.
In FFX, you slowly build an Overdrive gauge, with several different modes available for filling it. Once it fills up all the way, you have the option of using it for one powerful strike, and then it empties again, having to be refilled before another use.
In FF8, you let a character get down to yellow HP (or, hell, attack him yourself...), then mash Triangle until you hear a little 'ring!' sound. You then unleash a devastating attack. Once that character's turn comes back around... you mash Triangle until you hear a little 'ring!' sound. You may then repeat the devastating attack on the following action. Once that's done, you wait for the ATB gauge to refill again... and then mash Triangle. Again.
OMG BRILLIANCE!
Not only that, but because of the way FF8's Limit breaks are enabled, the single best possible team is Squall, Zell, Irvine - the three characters with multiple hit limit breaks. And Zell's limit break, while having lots of cool branching paths, deals the most damage when alternating between the TWO WEAKEST ATTACKS (Booya and Beat Rush).
AND THEN YOU GET AURA, GG FF8.
The "GF erased our memories" thing, I MUST agree with you on. That was completely retarded.
It's amazing how even FF8 Apologists (err, sorry, I mean fans) agree on this point.
Pretty much everything boils down to opinion.
Yeah, if you like shitty game mechanics...
Added: Oh, and Marajade, things DO have a maximum level. Most bosses have a level cap. I went through the Research Facility at the first possible opportunity, hit level 100 on my main team down there from the random encounters (oh, here's a cool one for you - normally, Enc-NONE is not supposed to work down there, but on some playthroughs, it randomly does. Not only that but there's a glitch you can execute that makes Enc-NONE take effect down there), and then went through Lunatic Pandora.
The machine boss near the end was level 42, and the Sorceress whose name I can't remember (the one that absorbs Rinoa) was level 48... lol
not too much left for normal. only 15 seconds for cargo thing, 30 seconds for poster, sephirth, the tournaments (last 3 and some of the points for like.. the last 5?), and umm.. I think that's it ^^ oh and synthesis!
