Final Fantasy VIII Now on Steam
- Thread starter Sarah LeBoeuf
- Start date
Sorry Jim, you love your Transformers, I'll love my Final Fantasy VIII.
Also, ALL HAIL THE DRAW SYSTEM!
Also, ALL HAIL THE DRAW SYSTEM!
Yeah, the Draw system clearly wins in my book. It's the first feature in a FF that I can point to that actually is designed to keep grind down to a bare minimum. "Oh but you have to sit there and draw, and draw, and draw to get the spells." Yes, but you can potentially fill out full racks of each spell in ONE FIGHT. No more wandering around the forest hoping and waiting for random encounters... just see new enemy, he's got a spell I don't have, now I haz all the spellz like 2 minutes later. Enemy doesn't have a new spell, or is a type I've already fought... kill it and move on. FF8 is the least grindy FF game made. Materia? You remember how long you have to wander around praying for a random encounter to level EACH SINGLE PIECE of Materia to a decent level. It took hundreds of random encounters for each single one. Hundreds of fights to do the same thing I could do in ONE fight in FF8. I pick 8, I've got other crap to do today.
Twenty seven comments in and no-one's mentioned that this is probably Spoony's worst nightmare come to life?
The card game in 8 was excellent though. :VRJ 17 said:
Until you inadvertently start spreading some seriously heinous rules around and completely kill the fun of it.
That aside, everyone likes something. This game has and has always had it's fans.
They are the ones who want it.
Protip: The one who spread those bullshit Triple Triad rules was you. Yes, YOU!BanicRhys said:
There is actually an extremely simple way to make avoid spreading the worst rules:
But first a tip of efficiency:
-Play in Balamb.
-When you encounter the Queen of Cards for the first time, make sure you engage her multiple times, as in Challenge -> Choose Yes -> See the Rules on the first page -> If the Trade Rule is not ALL then hit cancel and repeat from the beginning until you get it -> Stop pestering her.
-After this point ALL becomes part of the Balamb Ruleset.
Now, moving on to how to not spread those nasty Rules like "Random" and such:
-Challenge someone to a children's card game [http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Children_1d496d_1335368.jpg].
-They tell you by what regional Rules they want to play (Timber, Galbadia, etc.).
-Hit cancel and challenge them again.
-Repeat this a few times and they should stop asking for their local ruleset and start using Balamb Rules instead.
-Choose yes.
-Congratulations, you just replaced the local Rules with your very own Balamb Rules (Which at this point should be only Open and All), meaning you never have to worry about those pesky local Rules in that region anymore.
-Rinse and repeat in all other regions when you get there for maximum profit!
(Disclaimer: Sometimes it takes quite a while for the NPCs to drop their own rules, as I remember having to ask Ellone 50+ times, but it works and it's worth it, so don't get discouraged.)
That's all folks, lecture is over.
I had to go through that whole song and dance during all of my other play throughs, modding it would be so much easier.GabeZhul said:Protip: The one who spread those bullshit Triple Triad rules was you. Yes, YOU!
There is actually an extremely simple way to make avoid spreading the worst rules:
But first a tip of efficiency:
-Play in Balamb.
-When you encounter the Queen of Cards for the first time, make sure you engage her multiple times, as in Challenge -> Choose Yes -> See the Rules on the first page -> If the Trade Rule is not ALL then hit cancel and repeat from the beginning until you get it -> Stop pestering her.
-After this point ALL becomes part of the Balamb Ruleset.
Now, moving on to how to not spread those nasty Rules like "Random" and such:
-Challenge someone to a children's card game [http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Children_1d496d_1335368.jpg].
-They tell you by what regional Rules they want to play (Timber, Galbadia, etc.).
-Hit cancel and challenge them again.
-Repeat this a few times and they should stop asking for their local ruleset and ask for a game in Balamb Rules.
-Choose yes.
-Congratulations, you just replaced the local Rules with your very own Balamb Rules (Which at this point should be only Open and All), meaning you never have to worry about those pesky local Rules in that region anymore.
-Rinse and repeat in all other regions when you get there for maximum profit!
(Disclaimer: Sometimes it takes quite a while for the NPCs to drop their own rules, as I remember having to ask Ellone 50+ times, but it works and it's worth it, so don't get discouraged.)
That's all folks, lecture is over.
As of his FF XIII review: Not anymore it's not.RikuoAmero said:
I played this on the PC. Up to then, the three games I'd sunken a lot of time into were Red Alert, Jane's US Navy fighters and GTA (the first one). And I was blown away by the awesome cutscenes. The other games I'd played had some end-of-mission cut scenes that sorta explained the story, but I barely remembered it once it had finished. To play a game where the story and characters were really a part of the game, and not something you could easily ignore while playing, was a new experience for me.
I won't pretend I wasn't dissapointed by the ending, and looking back the game has its flaws. I also remember getting stuck a long time, because I had no idea where that other SEED ship was hiding out on the world map, and starting the game over from scratch once I reach the final boss, my party was always got a 1 hit-KO from Griever's Shockwave Pulsar. I went through a lot of trouble to get Rinoa's "make the whole party invulnerable" limit break, only to find out that I no longer needed it, because the second time I knew what I was doing, and my characters had enough HP to survive the blast.
I didn't try FF VII until years later, and I just couldn't get into it. The out-of-combat character models were hideous, the audio and FMV encoding on PC were primitive beyond belief (I honestly didn't mind FF VIII's music quality on PC) and everything felt clunky. I did pick it up in a Steam Sale, but I haven't gotten around to trying it again.
No, actually. If it was easy it would have been modded in already. The reason it is not is because the game runs on an archaic PS1 era engine, made with Japanese developer tools and packaged in a way that was never intended to be unpacked and modified ever again. The best we could hope for would be some texture or character-model enhancements, because you can arguably inject those into the engine without breaking much (see the FF7 mods of this kind), but modifying actual game mechanics and minigames would require the original developer tools, and I am quite sure they don't even exist anymore.BanicRhys said:I had to go through that whole song and dance during all of my other play throughs, modding it would be so much easier.GabeZhul said:Protip: The one who spread those bullshit Triple Triad rules was you. Yes, YOU!
There is actually an extremely simple way to make avoid spreading the worst rules:
But first a tip of efficiency:
-Play in Balamb.
-When you encounter the Queen of Cards for the first time, make sure you engage her multiple times, as in Challenge -> Choose Yes -> See the Rules on the first page -> If the Trade Rule is not ALL then hit cancel and repeat from the beginning until you get it -> Stop pestering her.
-After this point ALL becomes part of the Balamb Ruleset.
Now, moving on to how to not spread those nasty Rules like "Random" and such:
-Challenge someone to a children's card game [http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Children_1d496d_1335368.jpg].
-They tell you by what regional Rules they want to play (Timber, Galbadia, etc.).
-Hit cancel and challenge them again.
-Repeat this a few times and they should stop asking for their local ruleset and ask for a game in Balamb Rules.
-Choose yes.
-Congratulations, you just replaced the local Rules with your very own Balamb Rules (Which at this point should be only Open and All), meaning you never have to worry about those pesky local Rules in that region anymore.
-Rinse and repeat in all other regions when you get there for maximum profit!
(Disclaimer: Sometimes it takes quite a while for the NPCs to drop their own rules, as I remember having to ask Ellone 50+ times, but it works and it's worth it, so don't get discouraged.)
That's all folks, lecture is over.
On the other hand I know at least one save editor that can edit regional Rulesets, so if one really wants to avoid all the hassle then he could just set them all to Open + All and be done with it for the rest of the game. P
Ugh, I have a serious love/hate relationship with FF VIII...
On one hand:
- It creates u huge, vibrant world with its own unique identity (like most FF games).
- The story is one of epic proportions.
- There's tons of stuff to do.
- It has some great music (like virtually any game composed by Nobuo Uematsu).
- The Junction system offers a lot of customization - especially the fact that you could assemble your own Command List was great.
On the other hand:
- I don't care about any of the characters.
- The story (while epic) can get from "pretty confusing" to "nonsensical" to "bat-shit crazy".
- It has one of the worst Chocobo mini-games ever (as opposed to FF IX which had the best and most expansive one ever).
- The end game (fourth disc) sucks balls, you can't do anything anymore and if you don't have Tonberry's Call Shop, you screwed.
- Some of the Lost Forevers and side-quest offer so little info that I still don't understand how some people found out about them.
- There are way too many ways to exploit and break the battle system (most notably: Aura + Limit Break).
- The Triple Triad card game breaks the regular game once you get get the Card Mod and finish the CC quest.
- The Junction System (while offering a lot of customization) is too paradoxical. First of, you should know that everything is now "equipment". Your summons? Equipment, without it, you would have no commands, passive abilities or Junction slots. Don't even think of using them in battle, because the animation takes ages and you can't skip it (also, frequent use reduces you SEEd level). Your magic? Equipment, without it, your stats would suck. Don't even think of using it in battle, because it is linked to your stats, so using all that magic you've drawn (or card modded) would make you weaker.
And what about your actual equipment? Well, that has been reduced to only being able to change the weapon of your character. And even then you can't actually buy a slew of different weapons with various effects. You just go to a shop, offer up some Gil and a specific set of items you found, then he turns your old weapon in a slightly newer weapon. It barely makes any difference and you need to find Weapon Magazines to know which set of items you need.
On one hand:
- It creates u huge, vibrant world with its own unique identity (like most FF games).
- The story is one of epic proportions.
- There's tons of stuff to do.
- It has some great music (like virtually any game composed by Nobuo Uematsu).
- The Junction system offers a lot of customization - especially the fact that you could assemble your own Command List was great.
On the other hand:
- I don't care about any of the characters.
- The story (while epic) can get from "pretty confusing" to "nonsensical" to "bat-shit crazy".
- It has one of the worst Chocobo mini-games ever (as opposed to FF IX which had the best and most expansive one ever).
- The end game (fourth disc) sucks balls, you can't do anything anymore and if you don't have Tonberry's Call Shop, you screwed.
- Some of the Lost Forevers and side-quest offer so little info that I still don't understand how some people found out about them.
- There are way too many ways to exploit and break the battle system (most notably: Aura + Limit Break).
- The Triple Triad card game breaks the regular game once you get get the Card Mod and finish the CC quest.
- The Junction System (while offering a lot of customization) is too paradoxical. First of, you should know that everything is now "equipment". Your summons? Equipment, without it, you would have no commands, passive abilities or Junction slots. Don't even think of using them in battle, because the animation takes ages and you can't skip it (also, frequent use reduces you SEEd level). Your magic? Equipment, without it, your stats would suck. Don't even think of using it in battle, because it is linked to your stats, so using all that magic you've drawn (or card modded) would make you weaker.
And what about your actual equipment? Well, that has been reduced to only being able to change the weapon of your character. And even then you can't actually buy a slew of different weapons with various effects. You just go to a shop, offer up some Gil and a specific set of items you found, then he turns your old weapon in a slightly newer weapon. It barely makes any difference and you need to find Weapon Magazines to know which set of items you need.
Ah yes, the Squall's Dead theory, a.k.a. the Indoctrination theory V 0.5 . And it's as true for FF VIII as it was for ME3: When your fans latch onto the idea that your game's ending was All Just A Dream because they consider it a more attractive alternative, you've screwed up.Agayek said:
The draw system isn't as screwed up as the monster scaling and stat growth system.
It is beneficial to you if you stay at level 1 for most of the game until you finally get the power that lets you raise your stats on levelup.
If you do that, you're a monster and murder everything with basic attacks.
If you don't, eventually every random encounter can wipe your team and there's no way of going back and fixing that.
I kinda liked how it actively punishes mindless grinding though and that you can actually beat all story bosses at level 1 anyway.
I didn't like how casting magic that isn't heal and revive is -just as in ff7- a giant waste of time once your attacks do 9999 and how summoning gfs somehow gimps your income and I believe your strength too so that is another counter intuitive trap you can fall in to make the game impossible for you.
It is beneficial to you if you stay at level 1 for most of the game until you finally get the power that lets you raise your stats on levelup.
If you do that, you're a monster and murder everything with basic attacks.
If you don't, eventually every random encounter can wipe your team and there's no way of going back and fixing that.
I kinda liked how it actively punishes mindless grinding though and that you can actually beat all story bosses at level 1 anyway.
I didn't like how casting magic that isn't heal and revive is -just as in ff7- a giant waste of time once your attacks do 9999 and how summoning gfs somehow gimps your income and I believe your strength too so that is another counter intuitive trap you can fall in to make the game impossible for you.
Soon as I saw this article, I was on Steam, clicked buy before the page had even finished loading.
Unlike FF7, I made sure to buy through Steam. The amount of hassle I had when I bought direct from the site last time was a fucking joke.
But yes, FF8. Love it. I notice that this time around they've dropped the Character Booster and left in a "give 100 magic" thing instead. Good call.
Unlike FF7, I made sure to buy through Steam. The amount of hassle I had when I bought direct from the site last time was a fucking joke.
But yes, FF8. Love it. I notice that this time around they've dropped the Character Booster and left in a "give 100 magic" thing instead. Good call.
As much as I wish for the same thing to happen, it's prolly not gonna happen. FF IX was never ported to the PC. So Squeenix would have to put in some effort, in addition to the resolution upgrades and extra content (achievements and the like). Whether that effort is gonna be covered by a 13 euro (approx 18 dollars) price tag is the question.Glaice said:
But if they do it...man...instant buy.
All I remember from this game is a Cowboy attired mercenary sniper choking up before his very first assassination... and every other mercenary around him FEELING BAD AND SYMPATHIZING.
Sometimes the Japanese just can not handle creating believable characters.
Sometimes the Japanese just can not handle creating believable characters.
Liked the game when it first came out, was young then. Played it a few years back, have disliked it ever since.
Still, I can understand why people still like it. I really liked FF9 and some see that as a crime, so there's always differing opinions.
Them all growing up together, then forgetting that fact except for one character in the group. Irvine never lost memories, but casually decides not to tell them after their assassination attempt. That broke the game for me.
Still, I can understand why people still like it. I really liked FF9 and some see that as a crime, so there's always differing opinions.