Final Fantasy VIII's Gunblade Gets the Man at Arms Treatment

Britpoint

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iniudan said:
Britpoint said:
Well VIII is my second favourite Final Fantasy, the Junction system is the one of the best customisation systems in any Final Fantasy
I personally think it is the worse, as it push you toward not using most magic, so the game decay into pressing attack and limit break, as the GF animation just take way too long for what they do. But I don't dislike the game, as I actually enjoy the world, even if a bit dopey.
I stand by that the system is generally one of the best, BUT I do concede both your points. Discouraging you from using magic in particular was a definite weakness.
 

jamail77

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May 21, 2011
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Agayek said:
Every time I see these videos, I'm struck by an incredible urge to hunt down the people involved and throw money at them until they give me whatever they made in that video.

I may have a problem :(
You devour other living beings. Of course you have a problem.
 

Agayek

Ravenous Gormandizer
Oct 23, 2008
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jamail77 said:
You devour other living beings. Of course you have a problem.
At least I don't swap out my eyes for feet! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN5nN67EwBg]

:p
 

jamail77

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Agayek said:
jamail77 said:
You devour other living beings. Of course you have a problem.
At least I don't swap out my eyes for feet! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN5nN67EwBg]

:p
That was an accident! At least, it's not morally reprehensible like what you do.

Morally reprehensible lifestyles aside, I've always heard this Final Fantasy is the underrated one. Some say it's the true best one. Either way, the people at Man at Arms sure know how to give fans their own little...final fantasy.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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jamail77 said:
Agayek said:
jamail77 said:
You devour other living beings. Of course you have a problem.
At least I don't swap out my eyes for feet! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN5nN67EwBg]

:p
That was an accident! At least, it's not morally reprehensible like what you do.

Morally reprehensible lifestyles aside, I've always heard this Final Fantasy is the underrated one. Some say it's the true best one. Either way, the people at Man at Arms sure know how to give fans their own little...final fantasy.
I'm not sure how anyone defends it. The characters, the system, the forced tutorials, the *Snerk* plot...

Still, don't feel bad, man. You must remember that you are one of the few and proud who know...Boot to the Head. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF6zILkOOc0]
 

Arawn

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Kyrian007 said:
Ajarat said:
XenoScifi said:
I enjoyed FF8. I liked the story and the card side games were fun. I will say I did not like the draw system.
The ONLY thing I didn't like about the game was just a small aspect of the draw system... in that it took so bloody long. I've spent a vast majority of the game just on drawing, juctioning, and rejunctioning than anything else, and I'm a bit of a completionist. Other than that, the game was just fine imho.
The first Final Fantasy that I never cared much for was FFXIII... I watched a friend play it (it was her first FF) and I was bored to tears with the constant clop-clop down the same-looking hallways for days on end... THAT was no story, no fantasy, and more akin to a nightmare to play. It's almost as if Square forgot what a GAME was at that point, something to play rather than a test of patience, which I've found is lacking in Final Fantasy titles as of late, even including FFXIV which is heavily derivative of all Final Fantasy titles as if they couldn't come up with anything original besides an unholy amalgamation of all titles.
See I've never understood that point about the draw and junction system. The Junction and Draw system was to me obviously an attempt to simplify and whittle away the grind, excess palaver, and the materia system that were the only real drawbacks to VII. You had to fight a couple hundred or so fights to level up materia, and you had to do that for each piece of materia, and I had dozens of materia by the time the game was over... grind, grind, grind, grind... for thousands and thousands of combats. On the other hand, in VIII I could draw a spell 300 times in 5 or 10 minutes in 1 fight and NEVER HAVE TO DRAW THAT SPELL AGAIN. Effectively meaning you only had to A: fight creatures that had a spell you didn't, and B: you only had to fight them ONCE. Adding to that the fact that you could play the game at any pace because the difficulty scaled; FFVII not only reduced the excessive grind in VII, they very nearly ELIMINATED the tedious grind in a FF game. That turned a kids game (because only kids have that much spare time) into a game for adults with responsibilities, jobs, and social obligations.

I was in college when VII came out, and I barely had time to finish it back then. After joining the work force as an adult it would take me YEARS to invest the kind of time it would take to finish a game like VIII. Whereas I can retrogame for a couple of months and bang out a playthru of VIII.
You know that's a valid outlook on FFVIII. Like others I didn't find it that horrible of a game. The Draw system's main flaw was that you couldn't just buy magic. So rather than just killing everything you had to take the time and get characters to pull magic out of enemies. Materia could be purchased or found then linked to gear. Monsters scaled with you (or at least the main character) so gear mattered more than levels. Drops from monsters could be used to upgrade your gear, harder monsters had better drops. Some items came from the card game, and building up a good deck too time and some strategy. Getting the Rare/Super cards was alot of work. I think the real fact of the matter is FFVIII was harder than FFVII. Now I'm not saying harder is better, but it was challenging to the point of frustration for some.

Truthfully the FF game I didn't like was FFIX, and yet quite afew sing it's praises. I wasn't impressed, I wasn't drawn in, I was just bored. If FFVIII was challenging and difficult, FFIX was just dull. I don't even remember anything significant about it other than not liking it and the characters. But the FF that I hated above all else goes to FFXII. And the reason for my disdain is something totally unrelated to the system/gameplay. FFXII was probably the better looking FF game of those years (FF7-FF11). It was almost like an open world and you could see enemies on the map (aka no random battles). You could set AI for you teammates and pull off combos like the materia system of FFVII. Decent story to boot, an somewhat interesting characters/world. So why do I loathe it? Zodiac Spear. Seems the most powerful weapon in the game is a spear. Nifty right? Well yes, it's usually a super sword, so that's a nice change. Problem is the way to obtain said weapon is rather unorthodox. You see the way you access the weapon is by NOT opening 4 specific chest. I'll wait a moment while you reread that. Did you read it? Good, now read it 5 more times. Thank you. You get the super powerful weapon by not opening chest. Clever, right? But which chests? Well surprise! There is no way to know! Well there is if you have the strategy guide. There is no NPC with a cryptic message or a strange sign. Nothing to alert you of this odd condition. So like many I opened any chest I could find. It wasn't til later that I learned of my folly. So I ragequit. Hours upon hours of work. Sure FF games have secret weapons/items, but something so silly as the trigger? I recall there is a item another game that's time based, but memory is quite fuzzy on that one. Still I haven't played that game since.

OT: Squall's blade is awesome. I like the overall shape. It's almost like an enlarged combat knife when you think about it. The whole "science" behind the blade almost sound valid. But logically the vibration from firing might just wrench the weapon from the user's hand. I guess it would require a very strong grip or there's more to it. Still as silly as many may find the Gunblade, what about Silfers (sp?) the guy Squall fights in the opening movie. He has a Gunblade too, but it looks like a glock with a sword coming out the tip. I can't imagine how unwieldy that one could/would be.
 

balladbird

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SwimmingRock said:
Gottesstrafe said:
Let's not forget how laughably impractical it was to use a pistol grip as a sword hilt. My god, how does Squall not wrench his shoulder every time he attempts to swing that thing? Lightning's gunsword is WAY more practical with it's butterfly knife construction, hell even when it comes to Cloud's buster sword my only complaints were that the grip was too short for what is essentially a sharpened steel I-beam fashioned into a zweihander and that he swings it like a rapier.
Which is baffling, considering pistol swords actually exist. They could've used known, functional designs and given the weapon more variety by implementing the different kinds. But then those games are set in fictional worlds, so maybe that was a design choice.
it was. the pistol grip design was all about style over substance and rule of cool.

It can be distracting if you know more than the average person about swords and fighting with them, but as a kid I thought it was awesome, and even as an adult I can't bring myself to hate it.

Kinda describes FF8 for me, come to think of it... It has quite the sizable hatedom online, and I can't deny a lot of the problems people have with it (though some have been exaggerated to an extreme degree.) But even mindful of everything it did wrong, I love it, because for me there was more good than bad there.