What am I in for?

An easy ride if you cards into magic and equip that properly early on. Cosy music and a decent setting. Also one of the most disjointed and poorly written stories in the FF series. Have fun.

both the best and worst Final Fantasy

>there's no reason why powering up your character should be done by junctioning magic and not leveling up.
You mean, there is no reason to make magic mechanically redundant by having you weakened from magic use. There is also no reason to force people to farm draws, which is even more mechanically retarded than level grinding.
There is also no reason for a game built around classic JRPG throwaway-fights to punish you for winning fights by having enemies over-scale your own level progression if you aren't using the opportunity to break the main grind-based gimmick.

You can do that without a retarded design like that, like Nero's swors for example.

emo squall

>a mechanically disappointing FF with masterful storytelling
Fixed yo.

Final Fantasy VIII?

A really retarded plot.

Always use Draw on bosses, and teach your GFs the goddamn refine abilities first it's just 30 AP dude you'll want it.

>FF
>ever not mechanically disappointing
I mean, FF13 was the first to have somewhat decent mechanics, but then it built the entire game around beating the fun out of the mechanics, mostly by it being the only piece of content in the game.
Even when they succeed, Square Enix find ways to make the main mechanic, combat, unenjoyable.

> FF13 was the first to have somewhat decent mechanics
Oh dear god

I agree it's fucking shit, and I had such high hopes for it
>start my usual rpg ritual by grinding a couple of levels before starting my journey
>suddenly giant dinosaur wrecks my shit completely
>grind a shitton of levels and fight it again
>it's even more difficult and my GF do jackshit
After I read again how the game worked and gave it a proper try I didn't like it.

>literally proved the post you replied to right
wew lad

They still suck, but it's less retarded than having an MP bar at all in FF10, for example.

FF7-8-9 are in the same generation dude, and FF7 and 9 have vastly superior mechanics than 8.

>9
>superior mechanics
You literally couldn't even control your limit break in 9.

Magic is a fucking flawed concept in VIII
>Magic acts like the equipment
>the more Magic you stock, the better your stats get
>so if you use said magic, your stats decrease
>so it's either enjoy not using magic and having decent stats or use your shit spells and have your stata decreased
>this applies to all your characters, each with their own Magic stock

It's fucking tedious, unfun and pointless

River Phoenix Down.

That's because you're a drawlet instead of a cardchad.

>What am I in for?

highly cozy settings
a cute love story
deep, relatable characters
GOAT soundtrack
addictive minigame
memorable settings and quests
feels

you're about to play the best game of the FF series

goat soundtrack

It can be done correctly, but Square Enix are certainly not the right company for it.

There's multiple ways:
- You draw spells, but can "lock" them in, which subtracts that amount of the spell from your inventory. So when you have locked in 99 spells, you will still be able to draw 99 additional spells and actually make use of them in combat.
- Spells are not consumed permanently when used, but rather your spells in the inventory are your spell cap. Which should be more like 20 than 99 for this idea and actually collecting them should be tied to finding secrets and progressing the story, rather than using the draw option. During battle, you can spend your spells, which will naturally reduce the boost to your stats, allowing you to buy tactical flexibility at a cost of temporarily debuffing yourself. In the next battle, your cap is refilled.

I'm sure it's easy enough to think of even more, which would be tied even more strongly to all other mechanics.

I'm fine with auto-leveling, I'm fine with magic and drawing

but why does no one mention the biggest flaw of this gaem?
pointless fillers. pointless filler cutscenes, pointless filler empty rooms you have to run through from one cutscene to the next.

literately had nostalgia googles, but droped right after you nave to go wake that bitch on the train. You spend like 10 minutes watching a cutscenes, then the devs give you a break from the stupid writing and pressing x only to make you run down an empty corridor with loading times from one screen to the next, watch another stupid ass cutscene, enter 2 names, then run back and watch another cutscene. Running an empty corridor and entering 2 names is the only interactivity you get for like 15 fucking minutes.

>here is your game design bro
no thank you. God, I don't remember any of this shit being so bad

>highly cozy settings
Correct.
>a cute love story
Only if you're below the age of 20
>deep, relatable characters
Only Squall gets a proper amount of charactization
>GOAT soundtrack
Dunno if it's my favorite, but yes, among the best
>addictive minigame
TT is all right, the changing rules suck.
>memorable settings and quests
We've already done setting above
>feels
If you really like the music, I guess?

>you're about to play the best game of the FF series
And that's a big yikes and no.

Yeah VIII has one big flaw and it's that you only really get to play the game on the world map because most locations don't have battles.

Reminder FF8 was intentionally sabotaged by Sakaguchi by poaching the combat director for 8 to work on 9 because he was still bitter DQ was out-selling FF in both sales and titles. 9 then proceeded to have the lowest sales since 4 causing both Sakaguchi and the Director to quit and never to return.

It’s a great game with 10/10 art direction (specifically backgrounds) and music. The plot is disjointed but awesome up until the end and then it really falls apart so take it with a grain of salt. It’s super comfy and the 2nd best FF on PS1.

comfy game full of soul

I thought Sakaguchi quit because he spent all of Square's money on Spirits Within and almost got the Enix merger cancelled because the movie bombed.

> 9 then proceeded to have the lowest sales since 4 causing both Sakaguchi and the Director to quit and never to return.
Spirits Within is what made him resign his management position and ultimately leave the company. IX is also his favorite production and his true vision of what he wanted FF to be, so he got what he wanted out of it at least, lol.

I love the anti-FF8 fags because they always bring the exact same fucking retarded arguments showing that they indeed have a sub 100 IQ.

>there is no reason to make magic mechanically redundant by having you weakened from magic use.
This for example. Like a clockwork that you idiots bring this absolutely retarded and wrong statement. Because it's not like you spent dozens of spells in a single fight. The stat difference makes almost no difference if you have 100 or just 90 of that spell. Unless you are an absolute dork (which I know you are) and spend Thunder on an enemy weak to Ice you would never have the problem of getting weaker due to magic use as you can easily replenish the few spells you expand. That you often times don't even need to do because 1) you can draw and immediately cast good spells from enemies against them and 2) the game is piss easy anyways.

>There is also no reason to force people to farm draws, which is even more mechanically retarded than level grinding.
The second retarded "argument" you troglodytes have against 8.
The game nowhere forces you to farm spells. It's so laughably easy that you never need to do that. Just make a single mage (for your stupid brain: go into junctioning > optimize > magic and the game does it for you) and have that mage draw spells while the other two kill the enemies. That way and combined with the tons of spell converters you get (I bet you didn't even know about them or were too retarded to just use them) you get more than enough spells to junction without ever having to farm for the spells.

>[..] punish you for winning fights by having enemies over-scale your own level progression if you aren't using the opportunity to break the main grind-based gimmick.
This is actually a new one, but still as retarded as the other arguments. The enemies never really outscale you on a level that the game suddenly becomes difficult. It's a piss easy game throughout.

FFIX was pretty comfy, at least from the parts that I've played.
The intermeshing of story and combat system during the intro was also quite well done.

>spend Thunder on an enemy weak to Ice
General question: Are there any FF games where type weaknesses are not hidden behind obscure spells? Like, having actual fucking feedback when you use the right type?

So your argument is basically that the mechanics are shit, but the game is so easy to cheese that it doesn't matter?

Batshit insanity
Also Drawing

Yeah I like IX. Not my favorite but I can see why Sakaguchi would feel that way about it. It's a strong callback to the games he directed in a more modern (at the time) system. I think the story/characters/setting are all well done. Just wish the battle transitions and animations weren't so goddamn slow.

No 9 does nothing new, it's just a retread of the classical stories. Even the team working out thought it was a spin-off until mid-development. That's why so many chibi spin offs share a similar artstyle to 9.

Just use scan dude.

Garbage, like the rest of the series.
>>so if you use said magic, your stats decrease
There's zero reason to use magic to begin with, ever.
The only spell that actually does something mildly useful that you also can't do by spamming limits is Meltdown, which is coincidentially one of the many useless spells to junction, there's no magic worth casting in the entire game outside of that.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Scan is unwieldy as fuck as a game mechanic.

Sometimes I wonder whether Square Enix are even aware that they are making something people play and not just a movie with grind-based filler.

>not just a movie with grind-based filler
XIII in a nutshell

Yeah, FFXIII is certainly the epitome of that fucked design philosophy.
But at least even Square Enix realized that they might finally want to put some more effort into mechanics with that game, considering how those are the entirety of everything in it.

I wish there was a way to just cheese it and avoid all the fights. I'm roughly halfway through and I can't get myself to continue.

>enc-none ASAP

This way you can just cruise from boss fight to boss fight while enjoying the story with no hindrance.

You can break the game on the first hour due to how retardedly broken the card game/card mod is.
The guy who watches the entrance of Balamb Garden will have high level cards from the get go, that can be made into final tier magic spells.

>Sometimes I wonder whether Square Enix are even aware that they are making something people play
They do, it's called SaGa.
But you people still keep pretending all Square does is FF and KH.

I could not bring myself to finish XIII either. Just too dull, nothing to break me away from the hallway and battles. No immersion in the world whatsoever. Story not presented well enough to motivate me to press on.

vi and x are good

>choices have advantages AND drawbacks

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Meltdown is the best Vitality junction.

>No immersion in the world whatsoever. Story not presented well enough to motivate me to press on.
I actually love the visuals of the hallways, at least after the first three or so chapters where everything was monochromatic and I could barely distinguish the features of the landscape.
I'm also somewhat invested in the story and like the music.

But fuck everything else.

By the way, is FFXIII-2 more of the same? I got both games for like five bucks and I wonder whether playing the sequel will be less painful than trying to finish the first part.

>SaGa
Actually never heard of it.
So it's basically FF with better gameplay? Like, imaginative settings and shit?

X has garbage gameplay. It uses the open-world mechanics that have been in FF since 3 or so (when they switched away from the vancian magic system), but is entirely linear. That mismatch clashes horribly.
The level up system also results in all characters being the same at the end, effectively. It seems like quite a few FF games have that issue, for whatever reason.
FFXIII did the right thing by getting rid of meta-management of combat resources (MP, HP) to synergize with its linear gameplay. But then it also removed all of the quirks that made FFX's horrible gameplay bearable, like having actual fucking NPCs to interact with.

Doesn't matter in a game where attack values and speed are the only worthwhile stat investments, there's also very little to fear when you can just junction Ultima to your magic defense and being suddenly healed by everything that isn't non elemental, and there's barely any strong non elemental attack in FFVIII unless you count Omega, which by the time it's available can also be absurdly cheesed by Hero's Medal spamming.

The real problem is that magic isn't powerful enough, but since VIII doesn't operate on MP there's no real way to balance magic if it was made powerful. People who bring up the stock forget that elemental magic is quickly overtaken by other spells for junctioning, and you can cast the better endgame attack spells from stones, which can be refined just as freely as magic stock.

That's not how resource use works in videogames, dipshit.

Tying permanent bonuses and temporary resources together has always been fucking retarded all games. They should always depend on separate resources, otherwise you suck the fun out of the game by softly locking immediate reward (engaging gameplay) through a long-term reward (better stats for a more optimized build).
It's the same shit as those armor upgrades in Dead Space.

The best way to describe FFXIII-2 is: it feels like playing the final disc of a Final Fantasy where you're going around doing sidequests but there's no plot driving you so after one day of not playing you just kinda forget your save and when you come back to it weeks or months later you have no idea what the fuck you were doing or where to go.

So kind of similar to X-2, but with less fanservice

SaGa's the specular opposite of FF, or an alternate universe FF mainline if you want to look at it in a different way since FF2 was pretty much the rough prototype.
Play SaGa Frontier and see for yourself, most people begin with that nowadays, if you played the old FFL games on the gameboy you already know a bit of the series, those are SaGa games rebranded for the west.

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You can easily hit the 9,999 damage cap with physical attacks. Limit breaks are also stupidly broken because they are unlimited use during low health.
Magic is utter trash in this game.

I thought the sphere grid was fine but ok. I enjoyed x for its setting, music, and characters more so than gameplay

>it's not fun if I have to make a choice

Yes what I'm saying is it's boring as fuck.

Grade A kino that normies will never be able to comprehend.

FF8 doesn't have any kino moments.

or it could be you just don't really understand these games very well

And to make it worse elemental magic is more useful junctioned to Elem-Atk than it is being cast in battle even if you have 255 magic.

Based normie.

Did you not find the NORG vs Cid section so compelling?

>Robin Williams: WOULD YOU PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
>Jabba: BUT MONEY THO
Truly kino of the highest caliber

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Meh game, 10/10 minigame

Triple Triad mobile game when square?

In one of the garden battle FMVs a balamb student clotheslines a galbadian off his motorbike with a big sword
That was pretty sweet

>have 9 pages of magic
>have 4 pages of junctions
>use the magic you didn't junction
I thought the under 100 IQ meme was exactly that, a meme, but I was wrong.

seifer BTFOing odin was pretty kino

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>Seifer talking shit at the first battle with Edea
>Gets BTFO in a single hit because I already got Lionheart and junctioned Pain to Atk

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Oh hey it's one of these posts

>Force people to farm draws
Magic refine. The only things you draw are sleep to make a fight in disc 2 easier (assuming you're not avoiding xp), meltdown, and full life. if you're a turbo autist, ultima from ultima weapon. Nothing else.
>enemies overscale
Enemies scale to keep up.
1) Almost all bosses had stat and level caps. The few that didn't are literal gimmick fights, one of which being Ifrit who will always be level 6
2) by design enemies can't overscale you
Random encounters have enemies with stat limits that are many times lower than your own. A buel will only ever have at most 7 defense and almost the only enemies in the game that even get close to 50% of the max speed is Ultima weapon and a single form of Ultimecia.
3) AP game by bosses is linked to 0 experience from bosses ensuring that your relative power will always be over the relative maxes and finally
4) Enemy drops scale with level and the better drops can be refined into much more powerful magic at as low as level 30.

tl;dr
Grinding by drawing 99 times from every enemy are done by people with smooth brains and the level scaling limits on bosses as well as the scaling stat caps for enemies ensure that the only thing enemies can do is keep up with you.

>have more pages of magic than you have slots to junction
>the difference between 80 and 99 of a single stock of magic is insignificant.
>refine skills mean you can replenish back to full any character after a fight.
Hmm.

It's not "easy" but you can angel wing meteors and hit the damage cap with each one which just delete both weapons.

That already happened. Technically twice. If we count fan games then that's happened thrice.

Thanks senpai, I'll take a look.

I already got a setup for playing PS1 stuff, so I'll be making use of that.

>By the way, is FFXIII-2 more of the same?
Better gameplay wise, but the game loses all focus about 25% of the way through and 75% of the game afterwards is an actual fetch quest scavenger hunt with no direction or pacing. Much like 10-2 but even less focused. Each zone might as well be a self contained story that resolves itself but doesn't necessarily tie into the metanarrative that the game is about.

It's fun, and the creature recruiting is alright as well as the gambit system, but it's pretty easy. Far easier than 13. LR is pretty damn good gameplay wise. The story however...

>refine Quistis card
>put 100 Triples on Zell
>win game
There, no need to upset your pea brain with drawing magic.

How is it not easy?
Even some easy to get spells like Tornado increases your attack power to insane levels.
You also don't even need to level up in this, so these junctioned spells are being used against low level monsters.

Why would you use Magic in the first place? If you want elemental spells you can just Junction them to your weapon. If you want Haste just Junction it to your Speed. Hell, you can draw most of the spells you'll ever need from the bosses themselves and cast them instantly rather than stocking them.

The problem is people play VIII like a regular JRPG when instead the only use of magic is to pump your stats to ridiculous levels.

Having to make choices and think about tradeoffs upsets autists. I say this because it somewhat applies to myself too, I had a real hard time not going full OCD whenever I had to use a spell and would not rest until I had everything at 100 stock.

>The problem is people play VIII like a regular JRPG when instead the only use of magic is to pump your stats to ridiculous levels.
In this case, it would help to have some kind of tutorial.
Especially if that tutorial didn't consist of twenty screens of text before you even got your first fight.

>Having to make choices and think about tradeoffs upsets autists
It's only a choice if you have the required information.
This works in a speedrun, because you know the game inside out. It does not work on an actual playthrough, as you cannot see the future and thus do not know what is essential to keep and what can be used.
Again, using separate resource pools removes this issue.

Enemies and bosses in particularly have higher overall caps to SPR so you'd need to meltdown. You'd then need to do a tiny bit of manipulating so that your magic-berserk Rinoa ONLY casts meteor. Then you'd need to junction her shit up to 255 and preferably her speed as well.

By easy I mean relative. It's far easier to just buy 99 fast shots, stick some ultimas on Irvine, and blow any boss right the fuck away.

I like games where you can't get 100% on any playthrough

Hey now, a level 100 Bite Bug is fucking UNBEATABLE. I can't deal 2510 points of damage no matter how hard I junction!

>In this case, it would help to have some kind of tutorial.
How about you just experiment with the systems and see what works for yourself you absolute dumbass?

This statement is so vague as to be meaningless.

I would if the game wasn't so obtuse in its presentation of data.

Play it blind, SaGa games are made with exploration, mechanical depth and replayability in mind, using a guide ruins that as it will spoil all the content you end up missing due to taking alternate routes, it's fun to see where your own decisions lead you in these games and how it changes your playthrough.
Remember that these games are also non linear and all the MCs you can choose have their own campaign, especially in Frontier where they all have their own different final bosses too, and don't play as Lute first, go with either Emilia or Red first as their campaigns are better suited for beginners, characters like Asellus or Emilia also have multiple endings depending on how you play through their campaign.

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>teach your GFs the goddamn refine abilities first

This like a million times

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>it would help to have some kind of tutorial.

Oh my god the absolute state of brainlets

What do you even find fun about playing a game if you can't even manage to PLAY with the game and figure shit out yourself?

I'm still not sure what they were thinking with how limit breaks work, they could have had it just be you get one chance for the limit to come up per ATB bar and it wouldn't have been as bad
Also not letting you get Curaga for 3000+ HP in the first town

>In this case, it would help to have some kind of tutorial.
That's your fault. Those shitty tutorials were added for stupid westerners and people were STILL too stupid to understand the junction system. On the topic of tutorials specifically, the game gives you an in game manual and has the SeeD exam quiz you on nothing more than actual game knowledge. Knowledge that can then be applied to the game.

There's also the actual game manual that I guess smooth brains either can't read or don't have access too.

And I hate when people say some shit like "how was I supposed to know the console exists". You can't even GET Quetzalcoatl NOR Shiva without accessing it and they tell you to do so at the start of the game. The game rewards experimentation sure but it flat out shoves this information directly into you.

Somebody that sees this shit
>Q. By using F Mag-RF, you can refine 5 Fires from 1 M-Stone Piece.
And still has no fucking clue how the refine system works is too simple for gaming.

I'm pretty sure the ability to spam swap for unlimited attempts to trigger it was a design flaw they didn't anticipate. Given the formulas they use for everything including Limitbreak, I don't doubt that for a second.

>magic is really strong and useful
>is also used for powering up
brainlets can't understand that FF VII had a version of this too.

Final Fantasy VIII is like the Neon Genesis of FF titles or like a good book: love it or hate it. its the whole experience, soundtrack, feeling etc. that makes it wonderful. combat systems are shitty in all ff titles. it probably has the most complex story people are still philosophing about nowadays since there are unanswered questions - unlike some of the more hyped-flat titles 7 or 10.

look I like VIII, but no. The only thing people theorized about was the now long since debunked fan theory that Ultimecia is Rinoa. It's about on par with that long since debunked fan theory that Necron was Soul Cage. The story is good and has it's moments, but it has it's weakness as well. It's not some timeless flawless masterpiece but it's easy to understand why it, like every other game in the series, has it's fanbase

Whatever

>renzokuken has a custom animation for every boss

it's the little things

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every story has its weaknesses, there is no ff title which hasnt

there were much more theories, forums were full of them. you may remember some youtube stuff.

but let me put it better instead of philosophing: the psychology. its what makes a shinji/nge and squall interesting and different to any other ff game.

a game with some questionable mechanics and a poorly executed romance to the point where it's the second worst romance of the series

How the fuck do you get renzokuken before the spider boss fight?

>second worse
Yuna and Tidus
Snow and Serah
Rosa and Cecil
Whatever the fuck that shitshow was in Crisis Core with Zack and Aerith/s
Locke and Cecile
Rinoa and Squall
Pick your fucking shitshow

The only good romance in this entire series is Laguna and Raine. And if you're in this thread you already know how that ended. Everything else is an irredeemable clusterfuck. Yes including that one from your favorite FF.

Literally just hit it with ice and heal. Don't just constantly spam your commands, sometimes you have to wait out his attack then get a cure off so he can't double up on attacks later before you can heal.

The giant dinosaur he's talking about is the one that they specifically warn you to avoid fighting at in the only path leading to him. As well as the only fight where they tell you exactly what you need to junction to trivialize it.

It's sleep, by the way. One of the 3 things you should draw to max on one character. And what do you know, the training area has plants that let you draw that shit from level 1.

Are you talking about the dinosaur that they specifically warn you about and tell you to either run or cast blind on it?

High level T-Rexaurs will fuck you up until you leave Balamb and start acquiring more GFs and spells. You didn't make a "mistake" by leveling up, your real mistake was trying to fight a legit tough enemy with limited tools.

Will you believe me that the WORST romance in the FF series is not even on your list?

There's even worse than that?

Noctis/Luna

Jesus fucking Christ. I completely omitted XV from memory and now all that shit's flooding back to me. You're right, that is the worst. And it's not even close.

Dogshit gameplay
Fun card game
Pretty cool story with some stupid moments in between
One of the most heartfelt ending in FF

why did they let him get away with it?

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I literally did not know you were not meant to fight the dinosaur and I still had no trouble beating it. Took forever to kill but it's a very simple fight.

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Early on it's not a problem. Later on during the forced one it can actually gameover you if it tail whips your entire team twice and you're playing as "straight" of a playthrough as possible.

But for that user who's talking about a blind playthrough, you don't actually have opportunities to fight it without somebody in your team or in the general area to tell you to fuck off.

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For an academy that is used to train kids to be blood thirsty mercenaries, it is very cozy.

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No more hugs Will

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>can't unhear Balamb Garden theme

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We get a release date on the remaster yet?

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Pretty fucking objective truth right here.

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Nope, and no idea if they'll rape the backgrounds either.

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Renzokuken is just the nomal limit break

Do you mean Lionheart? Cheating

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Chad gets away with anything he wants

Not like incel chickenwusses

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It's already been rated by the ESRB, so it's release should be any time now.

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Holy shit what a tasteless retard.

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It does have a few but overall it's easily one of the most bland FF titles in the series.

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I'm not sure how you define bland, but I disagree

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>WAH! I don't know how Junction works!!!!

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people knew how to junction, it's that getting spells is a pain

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Said no one ever. The fact that it's so easy to exploit is the problem.

Some kino music and set pieces, especially in Disc 1. The junctioning/GF system seems really confusing at first but ultimately ends up being really easy to break. It was Square taking a risk to try something new and it didn't work. The plot is all over the fucking place and you'll probably end up hating it the more you think about it.

>Junction
>Help: Junctioning

>Alright guys, let's ship the game, they'll figure out that they have to junction the shit out of everything instead of leveling like in every other rpg

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The sales of FF9 certainly weren't helped by the fact that the PS2 was around the corner. Anyone that plays the game can tell the last half was rushed to get it out for release before any chance of profit was lost.

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>doesn't have any kino moments

youtube.com/watch?v=XL_tyPrx9Xs

The thing about FF8 is that the academy stuff does try to teach you about junctioning, but the game basically doesn't hold your hand on how to actually use it worth a damn. Anyone that approaches the game casually will thus not know that junctioning your shit isn't just a customization gimmick like all the FF games had at that point, but an essential mechanic and integral part of gameplay that you need to manage to stay ahead of the level-scaling curve - something else the game doesn't really warn you about. It's expecting the player to put two and two together and toss aside their usual JRPG experience every other FF game taught them, and that can be polarizing.

Don't get me started on the mechanic to avoiding the Random rule in Triple Triad, by accepting duels and then quitting out of them until they offer to change the rules. If you don't do this to rules that put you at a disadvantage, they'll spread, and the game doesn't lend a single hand in figuring out how to prevent it.

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>In this case, it would help to have some kind of tutorial.
Ifrit's Cave is the tutorial and walks you through these concepts though

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A game for intellectuals

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A game with very annoying characters, a weird nonsensical plot, yet for some reason you find yourself in tears at the end

There's hundreds and hundreds of background stills that really aren't any bigger than 400x400. I really hope the Remaster either sources those images to better quality (they can't) or don't try to do anything to mess with it.

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Honestly the game will either look like highly-detailed characters on highly pixelated backgrounds, which we already know looks like ass, they'll add a blur filter which will make it look like ass, or they'll try to upscale backgrounds and also make it look like ass. AI upscaling can do some wonderous work, especially at a professional level, but I don't expect any miracles here.

Honestly the fact that I'll never attend balamb garden still hurts to this day

If only Square loved their games as much as the fans do.

There's just...one thing...

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>need IQ of 120 and above to appreciate a cheesy, not greatly written teenage love story
Ok

They lose all their originals
They outsource anything to cheap studios to make "remaster" profits
They take 20 years to make an actual re-make which is split between episodic games that will take another 20 years to complete
They can't code their own games worth crap to other systems

It's rough.

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Squaresoft was the underdog for a long time so they had to put in a shit ton of effort to try and break into the Japanese market. They worked really hard and produced amazing games. After the merger of Enix, they realized they didn’t have to care as much so they stopped producing quality shit

> All this bitching about the Junction System

That is why stat max without it. Fucking scrubs.

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youtube.com/watch?v=a5x7OFQ2dys

>X has garbage gameplay. It uses the open-world mechanics that have been in FF since 3 or so (when they switched away from the vancian magic system), but is entirely linear. That mismatch clashes horribly.
>The level up system also results in all characters being the same at the end, effectively. It seems like quite a few FF games have that issue, for whatever reason

Finally someone with some sense

>I thought the sphere grid was fine but ok. I enjoyed x for its setting, music, and characters more so than gameplay

This is the biggest issue with X and why people will defend it to the death because it gave them feelings

A pretty good FF game. My advise? play it without knowing how to break it first. There are really many self inflicted handicaps you can use later if you want to replay it and enjoy it. Breaking the gameplay does work both ways.

The OST is fantastic. One of the very best.
The characters, as in any FF, are half and half. Half of the cast is relevant while the other half are just there to fill the blanks.
The story is pretty good and not really as convoluted as it seems. It only seems that way because the narrative doesn´t really hold your hand and admitedly it could have used some work to clarify stuff. 20 years later and there are still silly theories floating around.
Minigames, except for triple triad that is great, where pretty dense and overall not worth the time for the rewards you got out of them (except offcourse getting all the GFs)

SeeD rank goes down if you abuse enc none though.

Most noticably with the original FF14 which they knew was garbage but released anyway.

Then the lord and savior Yoshi-p came in and turned FF14 into something that actually resembles something with heart and soul.

He's right. Idiots just don't understand that something can be other than all good or all bad, so they tend to think that everything in the game is bad because the game is, overall, bad.
You see it in life too, people tend to think people or ideas are all bad or all good because they're too stupid or lazy to actually think about things.

>Then the lord and savior Yoshi-p came in and turned FF14 into something that actually resembles something with heart and soul
>Wow clone subscription game with a cash shop getting most of its content from nostalgiabait
>heart and soul

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Shadowbringers is genuinely the best FF since FFX, it's mad. On the one hand, I wish they let Yoshi do FFXVI. On the other hand I want him to stay in charge of XIV. The guy has the charisma, vision and leadership skills to save FF as a whole.

>WOW THIS GAME NEEDS A FUCKING TUTORIAL
>THE ONE THAT IT HAS DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE IT'S BORING
>WHY CAN'T LATE 90s JRPGs HOLD MY HAND BETTER

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I'm not talking about the business model of MMOs. I'm talking about the world, story, characters, atmosphere, locations, soundtrack, classes, gameplay.

I want to live in the world of FF14 as much as I always wanted to live in FF6, 7, 8 and 9.

Tutorials are tutorials. Intrusive text that doesn't even appear in the same context that it's teaching is not a tutorial. It's a manual page that you won't be able to use for reference once its content becomes actually relevant.

Normal developers already knew that in the late nineties. The Japanese somehow hadn't figured it out yet.

Why wouldn't you wait for the remaster later this year?

Are VIIItards capable of arguing without extreme amounts of strawmanning?

nostalgiabait? The optional raids yeah, they have a ton of nostalgia content.

But the world and characters of FF XIV is all original. It's everything I want out of a FF game. Unlike FF13, I can actually explore cities and meet up with friends both real and NPC. Unlike FF12 the story doesn't make me fall asleep. Unlike FFXV the story and characters are genuinely well developed. And Zenos and Emet-Selch are the best villains since Kefka, Sephiroth and Kuja.

With Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers the game is insanely huge. It's literally like 4 games in one. admittedly ARR starts off slow. But HW, SB and Shadowbringers are every bit as good as the best FF stories.

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>I'm talking about the world, story, characters, atmosphere, locations, soundtrack, classes, gameplay.

Almost all of that was set up by Tanaka beforehand with 1.0

Yoshi just slapped some orange circles on the ground and replaced all the nice textures with garbage for PS3 parity, which is still kneecapping the game today

Have you not played FF8 ever? It literally stops you every few scenes with an unskippable tutorial on junctioning and goes ever every single feature, guiding you through the menus and showing the effects on your stats before and after, even as late as Disc 2

>best villains since Kefka, Sephiroth and Kuja

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>explaining how things work isn't a tutorial because I'm used to actions games slowly explaining the controls to me
thanks for outing yourself as a zoomer

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Oh ok. I guess he didn't save it and FF14 has been shit since he took over. Shadowbringers is shit too. You convinced me. It was much better before.

youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0yQKI7Yw4

PS3 support ended when Stormblood launched buddy

I'm not the moron who complained about a game not having a tutorial and then complaining about the one it has.

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Just another day at work. I'm part of the "rocket-motorcycle-invasion brigade" and it's like this every day.

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Oh, you didn't play Stormblood and Shadowbringers? Emet-Selch is god tier.

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And where is the upgrade in mechanics / systems / textures?

It's still a PS3 game

Yoshi does want to upgrade the graphics at some point, he said so around Shadowbringers' launch. Mechanics have nothing to do with system limitations besides how flashy you can make bosses, though.

Maybe when they end PC support and focus on PS5, they can give it a massive overhaul. Yoshi-p said if they take the time to overhaul the graphics though, it would take development time away from the 2021 expansion.

So far the only big change has been far bigger locations since PS3 support ended.

>end PC support
???

FFVIII is beautiful and the best numbered FF game.

>???
Eh?

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But that's VI

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The best art direction in the series

X took a lot of ideas from it

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>cars
>X

>art direction
>reading comprehension

How does that look anything like FFX?
FFVIII is european and futuristic. FFX is very Asian art direction-wise.

If you think SE is bad at mechanics, you're looking at the wrong games.

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Exactly. I see we agree.

So the use of a similar color palette? You can't tell me Balamb Garden feels like the wedding location in Bevelle.

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Similar shapes, colors, patterns, decorations, etc

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I think if you told someone that FF8 has the same art direction as FF10, that person would be disappointed when playing the game. Like Bevelle is never really much seen aside from one point in the story where things take place over there. And the Al Bhed's machines are outlawed. The worlds don't really feel sameish

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FFVIII new threat is gonna try something like: magic gives stat boosts that doesnt depend on how much magic you have: for example, tunder will give you +5 to X stat if you 1 or 99, fire will give you +6, and so on.

>You spend like 10 minutes watching a cutscenes
why are you playing RPG with no interests on the story?

>playing cards early turns the game into ez mode

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I really wish the new version of the game has a way to return to old models, since DotEmu is working on it.

>Cardmod junctioning
>using Card to turn enemies into more cards and avoid EXP rewards
>basically supercharge yourself while making sure enemy scaling stays as low as possible
It's a lot of unnecessary work for a game that's so easy to break in many other ways, but it's hilarious nonetheless

>Steal is an awful command
>Enemies should never "Drop" things
>Healing commands by taking other enemies' health, you know, like vampirism, is a terrible idea
>Requiring me to perform a command to perform an action is stupid
>I should just be able to enter a cutscene and be stronger when it's done
I feel you.
Have a picture of Squall drawn by Kubo Tite.

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>If I spend my money, I'm not as rich!
>Why does anything COST??!?
Gee willikers

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I like how they update the character models but why does Squall have to look so different? I prefer the PS1 hair and face. Just give us that with modern graphics. Why change it?

Because they're trying to make everything match the Dissidia version instead of the original. In general making him younger and more anime

I don't like it either, but SE never asked me

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This is what I want, as a fan of the series. Kusanagi Studios is responsible for a lot of the locations in FF7, 8, 9 and more. I'd love it if they ever let their concept artwork actually get released.

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God I love that ps1-era Squall render.
Everything about ps1 Squall is so boss.

Agreed

FF8 has my favorite cutscenes out of the series

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i actually grinded to lv 100 in this place on my first playthrough when i was 12 n shit

Kingdom Hearts Leon is the best

>but it's less retarded than having an MP bar at all in FF10, for example.
are you dense

A game that you have to cheese because you'll end up facing a wall if you try playing normally due to level scaling

The pleb filter of the Final Fantasy series

I thought FF2 was the pleb filter?

It's the Twin Peaks of vidya. Moreso than Deadly Premonition.

I'm playing a high level run right now and have less trouble than I ever did with the low-level "cheese" runs

Yoshi-P literally ripped the story of FFXIV straight from XI and the gameplay still sucks ass.

Patrician taste

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Play Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers

Don't try to rope more people into paying admission for your theme park. You don't even get paid for this

100%
Squall was the leader of the entire Garden once Robin Williams didn't know what to do anymore. And you know what? His appearance reflected that. He didn't look "barely 18-years-old," he looked like he was a soldier, calm, thinking and spoke carefully and only to people he needed to. He looked like he was the type who didn't like annoying people. He didn't want attention, he didn't like "hanging out," he had a job and a role and it was a tough one.

Later, they just made him a "3rd year high school student."

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I like Ulti, just wish she was introduced earlier

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This is the dumbest post I've seen today. Congratulations.

She was just lonely

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Ok watch Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers on youtube then. Also you can play FFZIV for free up to level 35.

You can't do shit until at least 50, so what's the point of that?

What the fuck was her accent supposed to be? Russian?

Whatever accent you think fits her best

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Haven't gotten that far in a long time, but doesn't most of the world get cut off once you get to the castle? I never like when there's a point of no return on the world map itself

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Ok. Miss out on the best FF experience since FFX.

I used to avoid XIV for years as well. I only got into it when they made the trial be playable without time limit. I know it's a lot of koney, I'm not tryi.g to sell it. I'm just saying it's genuinely the best FF since FFX. I couldn't give a crap about the XIII trilogy or the XV boyband. But XIV makes me feel like I have a place to feel at home. Maybe you'll make some friends in the trial, you can explore all the Realm Reborn areas even at level 35 (which is the cap in the trial.) But yeah story-wise and abilities-wise, the game doesn't get going until the expansions. But then it's amazing.

Shadowbringers made me really feel like I'm a huge fucking hero, more than any previous FF. If you got some friends it's even fun between expansions.

just keep a save on disc 3.

It's better than XIII

koney=money

top 3 FF mainline series pleb filters

1- FF8
2- FF2
3- FF12

>what is any video game ever made

This, why do you think its one of Japan's favourite FF games and the least favourite in the West? Average IQs solve that question. I believe the Anglosphere at the very least has been under 95 average IQ for a long time. America fucked itself when it let the wops and micks flood in, then juan finished the job

Like most games in the PS1 era, split across multiple discs for dozens of hours of graphical data, the final disc is forced to limit how much information is stored on its (comparatively) small memory space.

Yes, many stored graphical data of towns, backgrounds, enemies, text and cutscenes are not accessible on the 4th and final disc of Final Fantasy VIII.

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I’m gonna play the Switch version at my community college and pretend I’m at Balamb Garden.

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>Final Fantasy Legend 2 actually has an actual series of games it belongs to, and I never realised

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Same as with FFIX ._.

Japan loves gameplay over story. It's why they prefer V to VI. Pretty sure VIII is on a middling ground for them.

This is a complete lie. I played 14 a couple of months before it closed for the ARR refresh and then played for a couple of months at launch. The gameplay wasn't all that hot to begin with, mostly focusing on a gimmick of having to position yourself in certain directions to do certain moves, and learn where not to stand if you didn't want to die. The reboot was just dull, the concept wasn't really expanded and felt slower. More abilities got stuck to the same cooldowns and I was just hitting the same buttons over and over just like before.

It's yet another dull MMORPG that you'll only like if you're 13-18 and it's your first one or maybe you played a couple of shitty korean ones before your parents let you play a subscription MMO

So Japan has their heads on straight then, considering 5 is a masterpiece and 6 is an ugly dogshit game with a stupid edgy story that I didn't care about

A mistake. Just watch the spoony videos about it. Some fanboys seethe about them but it's all true.

Okay, you win. I fully admit to lying. Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers are shit. Don't play them. I lied about its story, characters, world and gameplay. It's not fun. I also don't have friends on there, because nobody plays it. In fact, I don't even play it. Because my parents won't pay for it.

Why are they keep bringing out new expansions every two years? Nobody knows. Because nobody plays it. Shadowbringers isn't the highest rated game of 2019, nope. Totally isn't.

>listening to ecelebs
>ever

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just remember
pic related was released after ffviii

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Lots of people did and still play WoW. The fact that a game sells well means absolutely nothing. And in the modern world suggests that it's probably a dumbed down theme park because every idiot loves games like that.

The remaster is going to be such garbage.

>Spoony Review

Well, at least we know you have the sense of humor of a 12-year old whose balls hasn't dropped yet.

You're right. About everything.

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See? Fanboys are still seething.

See what? Explain.

>metacritic
lmao look at this kid seething because he is too young to realise that MMORPGs are a garbage genre where the "fun" is just constant dopamine overload

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Dude, just get a job, then you won't have to find excuses for not playing a new FF game every two years. Just buy the DLC every two years and pay for a one month subscription. Surely you can afford it. It literally just costs you a one month subcription, cause since you're in a FF thread, I assume you'd buy a new FF game anyway.

Shadowbringers genuinely has the best FF story since FF10.
If it wasn't an MMO, you wouldn't have anything to argue, you just keep spouting random MMO cliches. You don't have to get addicted dude. Play the story and unsub.

12 and 15 have a better story than 10

Why are you so asshurt that people older and wiser than you aren't fooled by yet another MMO where the concept continues to be dumbed down? They are just mass market theme parks since WoW and will continue to be until the genre fades into obscurity

Yes, I'm sure the writing improved from the melodrama that was the ARR event and the relaunch.... You aren't even lying are you, you just literally don't know better, huh?

And it is also positively the best buncha JRPGs under the S-E holdings.

How many DLCs does one have to buy to
complete XV?

Actually, you're literally inventing stories about my age and intelligence. Like I have calmly explained to you, I came into this thread saw the discussion about XIV and added my opinion that the story in Shadowbringers was really great and even moved me. I elaborated that I enjoy the locations. And something about it triggered you. I then suggested you could watch it on YouTube. Which triggered you even more so. You keep talking as if you'll get addicted or something so I said a one month sub is enough to enjoy the story for each DLC.

I'm just responding to you. But I see you just want to fight. Enjoy your closed minded angry existence, my troll friend. Perhaps see a therapist. My sister-in-law says they really help with anger management issues.

Vincent getting cucked is most relatable and thus best for this crowd

What an asshole, just fuck off with your MMO. Let us wait for FF7 Remake, FF8 Remaster and FF16.

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>FFXV has too many DLCs
>Please play FFXIV

The absolute state of Final Fantasy

>dude don't buy dlc
>sub to an mmo instead

literally what point do you think you're making?

Now why would you pick Cowadoody of all games?

Stop talking about Shadowbringers already, this is a FFVIII thread.

Is it actually coming to Switch?

>control over a great number of 1 character
>change paradigm for attacking
>change to heal when necessary
>stagger enemy
>kill enemy
Fucking deep my man

one of the best final fantasy stories + one of the worst final fantasy combat systems

think he is saying 15 was an average incomplete pile of ass with a score in its 70s which is horrendous for a ff title, whereas shadowbringer is getting rave reviews across the board

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But I loved Renzokuken? It's the same system as any jrpg, except it had Um Jammer Lammy mixed in.

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>not that guy but I'm actually that guy

oof, big yikes my dude.

The remastered version by DotEmu is. You can also play the PS1 version on emulators, but that's illeeegal. I am hoping that there's a toggle for the original graphics. Would be day one buy.

>How many DLCs does one have to buy to complete XV?

The game isn't complete because story DLC got cancelled

>15 have a better story than 10
now that's bait.

Hou cant reason with NEETs. He's living in a basement angrily typing away at his keyboard, shouting at his mom anytime she tries to wash his clothes or ask him to change. He is angry because he cant afford 10 bucks a month for a sub. And he doesnt think games can improve. He thinks every ff game is identical in quality. ff8 is like ff9 is like ff6. so clearly a realm reborn is like shadowbringers and stormblood is like heavensward. Thats how his mind works. He doesn't understand that quality can improve over the period of 6 years. He thinks ff6 and ff10 are identical because they were released six years apart. so shadowbringers has to be like a realm reborn. its an autistic mind not being able to grasp the reality of the world outside of its own head. hes trapped in there forever. but we won't let him know.

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Kate?

>ff6 and ff10 are identical because they were released six years apart
Fucking hell never noticed that. That's one hell of a step in sophistication of graphics in less than a decade.

There's literally no point in grinding because of level scaling, which is great for a FF game and even better for a turn-base RPG.

What's your favorite FF game? You seem like a chill dude, dude.

The literal deconstruction of user's mind.

FF8 is the only one I haven't played. 9, 6, and 10 are my favorites in that order.

Would I like it?

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8 is by the same director of 7 and 10 and it has sort of the same taste for plotting/cinematography/staging as those. It also has one of the most controversial combat systems/progression systems in the entire series, so it's different in that way. It suffers from the first disc being the best, as usual in PS1 FFs.

TO ALL THE FUCKING RETARDS WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT HAVING TO DRAW MAGIC FROM ENEMIES:

-- YOU CAN OBTAIN MAGIC FROM ITEMS AT A MUCH HIGHER RATE THAN DRAWING. YOU CAN EVEN BUY SOME OF THESE ITEMS IN THE GAME'S STORES, OR GET THEM FROM CARDS. THANKS. --

Never knew of that, but I played when I was a kid with my cousin so... Are those objects available since the first stages of the game.

As usual, keep in mind this is just one user's opinion.

-- THANKS. --

Whomst?

Feed me.

>literal deconstruction of user's mind

But which user is being deconstructed? The one who that user is addressing or they themselves?

You mean my power isn't GIVEN to me when I press "Attack" on monsters???? And it's not PERMANENT????????? What terrible fighting gameplay mechanics for a JRPG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next you'll tell me if I level up, my enemies will scale in power with me! It's like I should never ever battle anything in the game ever; there'd be no point! Battling isn't fun!!

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Oh yes of course, that was my opinion, .

Wait a second, how's FFVIII's scaling? Like SaGa in which the level (in the latter case number of battles fought) dictaminates that you get to fight different versions of the same enemies by tiers or by buffing up stats for everything around you?

But even that being your opinion is merely your opinion. So maybe it isn't.

>dictaminates

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One of the worst games in the franchise with a shitty amnesia style plot and a nonsensical "love" story.

>why do you think its one of Japan's favourite FF games
Because it has sorta high school setting. Nips love high school settings.

Every time you go up a level, all enemies in the world including bosses have their stats raise as well. They don't shift forms or gain bonuses, they simply get statistically stronger, and at a faster rate than you do. You have to Junction, or else you'll be blockaded by level power walls. Problem is that not only are there really easy ways to do low level runs, but if you come to comprehend the Junction system well enough, it's easily exploitable and flips the game on its head in balance.

Whoops, could've swore that was a word. Stablishes?

When you think about it, it's kinda strange that this game even has levels to begin with.

It's not very popular in Japan actually.

I'll stablish you with my dictaminate ;)

Idk, but I want to motorboat Ulti really dam badly.

I see. Couldn't they have asked Kawazu on that? Sheesh.

Hooowoopie, EYE courdav sweared thayt wasa wurdo! HEE HEE HOO HOO

Chill bro

Why do people complain about how easy FF8 is to break when you can break any souls game in less than an hour?

Time to go to bed.

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FFVIII has just plain level scaling, you go up one level, everything does, it's not SaGa's BR since in this game things actually do scale with your levels, whereas BR doesn't.
There's still level ceilings either way, most of the enemies barely get over level 50 and honestly, the only thing level scaling does in FFVIII is giving things more HP, any other stat buff is irrelevant because you can be a literal god by level 7 and junction being broken means your character at level 7 will be barely different at level 100 due to Junction having already reached your stat cap 93 levels ago or so.
Add the fact that the combat is arguable more braindead than FF1 and you have a recipe for a disaster.

Sounds pretty fucking stupid design wise, although I could see where they were going.

It's literally one of the worst games I have ever had the displeasure of playing. I can't believe I wasted 15 hours on this before dropping it.

People seem to think "enemies" should always be relegated to "spots on a map." Once you're strong enough to beat that "enemy" you are allowed to "progress." ANY CHANGE to that basic formula is, therefore, "bad."

Instead, you have FFVIII. Your enemies are going to be generally as powerful against you as the game designers ever, ever, ever planned. No matter where you are, even if you stay in one place or go backwards. In fact, staying where you are or going backwards is actually more difficult for you, the player, than it is to simply push forward as fast as possible. The designers "punish" idiots for staying put, they "punish" idiots for not learning the system and speedrunning the game:
>staying put means you aren't going to get more junctions, you won't discover new magics, your weapon will never get better, and all the permanent "stats" you get won't make you invincible to moon monsters. You need to move forward in the game and explore.
>exploring without learning anything means your Guardian Forces won't learn anything, you won't learn anything, all the new junction slots you get will have 12 Drawn magic all with different properties, and all the permanent "stats" you got running as-fast-as-possible isn't going to let you beat the boss you just came across. You need to take your time and explore.
Even then, in both extreme cases, the game is still not difficult. People just whine that being Level 34 and equipping the 16th new weapon isn't how FF8 designed its battle mechanics. That the battle mechanics are only as easy or hard as you, individually, want it to be. Luckily, for critics, they want it to be "whatever difficulty" so they can complain it's way too "whatever difficulty."

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Of course none of this will be fixed or improved in the remaster

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You're talking with people who know their SaGa, in this case, user.

Like most FF, the scaling idea taken on its own isn't stupid, just how Junction in itself isn't stupid, the problem is that nobody actually went beyond the idea on paper and it's not just completely inbalanced, it doesn't work well with anything else, nobody does because as usual, they just wrote a bunch of mechanic designs that sound cool but never bothered to calibrate them to work well with each other.
And again, the combat being entirely trivialized by being able to spam Limit Break as much as you want (and LB by themselves being so strong and inbalanced that they invalidate anything else you can do) means your game is simply a mess, much like the rest of the series, although FFVIII is easily the most unbalanced FF game out there, I'm not joking when I say it's even easier than FFI, at least there you have to worry about elemental resistances once in a while, in FFVIII your limits are just so strong you don't even need that, you just refresh your command window prompt and spam them, maybe cast Meltdown at the beginning of a fight if you want to spam less and see less cinematics.

Well, no, it's how the game works, as breakable as it is.

It's only stupid if you get access to "ultimate magics" and "5GFsx3 active party members in order to junction ultimate magics" on disc 1. Which it is not designed to do.

And the "stupid" part is the player exploiting it, or searching for a way to exploit it for exactly that reason. Generally, for non-adult playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time, they only truly comprehend what the Junctioning system CAN do by around level 30-40, well into the 2nd disc and GFs are being thrown ALL OVER THE PLACE between Squall and Laguna and Quistis and Ward and and and you better not be under-junctioned to match the powerscaled enemies that match your level --- those powerscaled enemies don't need to junction anything to be strong. You do.

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Draw 99 Water from the enemies on the beach outside Balamb and cheese for 20 hours

Mb. Need to refine the item they give you into water

From what the user said, my comment on it being stupid is that junctioning is not related to the level scalation system in any way, which would theoretically let you go completely apeshit in the first rows of the game without restriction. Compare that to something like Romancing SaGa 2, in which enemy level scaling, the pace at which you obtain abilities/magic, the plot points and the end game interact with each other in a way that you really can't cheese/you'll be royally fucked unless you know every element intimately and do a super super specific run, or, you know, play the game properly.

I'm one of those people who were never convinced about enemy adjustment mechanics because most of the time it's just level scaling, which by itself isn't a bad idea, the problem is that nobody so far managed to integrate it right in a game.
>inb4 but SaGa
Battle Rank isn't level scaling which is exactly why IT FUCKING WORKS and it's fucking genius, because enemies or batches are scaled and/or adjusted REGARDLESS of your gains, you don't even have levels in SaGa games so it would be extremely difficult to find some character stat based parameter to use as fulcrum for the scaling, in fact they did try to use MC HP as a compass for the proto ER in RS3 and it turned out it wasn't exactly a good idea so they canned it instantly, but Kawazu, Takai and the rest of the staff are people who do care about what they do and they do learn from their past games.

I'm all about the world growing with you and not being static, there is no logical reason why those level 1 goblins or level 10 soldiers stay at that level while I spend in game months becoming the ultimate badass, it doesn't make much sense to have everything but you frozen in time, the problem is that again, outside of battle rank, nobody else figured it out, and level scaling ends up either a nuisance or a non issue with really no middle grounds, even in early TES where it can potentially become a real pain in the ass you can easily avoid it an manipulate it.

Well, your issue with the Junction system seems based on the idea (or maybe fact) that everyone will exploit it to the maximum extreme and as early as possible. More than that issue, you blame the battle mechanics team for not creating a way the prevents anyone from ever being able to exploit their system to the maximum extreme and as early as possible.

The wonderful thing about the system is that, for anyone paying attention, it's very obvious how to make yourself stronger! And, the way to make yourself stronger is really easy!...it just takes grinding to do. The not "very obvious" method of Draw grinding is Card/Item Refine from GFs, and that does take more time, exploration and its own form of grinding, as well, though.

It isn't the designers' fault that because they created a battle system that works exactly as intended, which isn't what most JRPG game purchasers spent their money on, the game FF8 didn't meet pre-determined 10/10 expectation and must be judged harshly as a result.

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The FFVIIII programmers:

>"The fundamental question is, will junctioning be as effective as a system as materia was in FFVII? And it will be, even more so. But until it is, it's going to tough to verify that I think it'll be more effective."

>junctioning is not related to the level scalation system in any way
Absolutely, I agree. You can max your stats at level 1, you can max your stats at level 97. It just matters if you have the Guardian Force, you have the magic (high or low level) and you have the right amount (2 magic or 100 magic). THAT'S what determines your stats in FF8. We agree!

People so frequently think that obvious factor is, somehow, completely unrestricted as a Balamb Garden student entering Ifrit's cave for the first time. Or that, because they are unable to get "Firaga" when exploring Timber, they need to powerscale any enemy they come across that uses "Fire" until it can use "Firaga" and then Draw that. All this back-and-forth constant, desperate desire to exploit battle mechanics gets them so flustered (at their own choices to act this way) they simply blame the game for not being Call of Duty or FF1.

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>Well, your issue with the Junction system seems based on the idea (or maybe fact) that everyone will exploit it to the maximum extreme and as early as possible
Which in fact people do, and why wouldn't they especially when the game does nothing at all to prevent it or balance it, in fact it encourages it, what with being able to get the Lionheart in Disc 1 and all.
Not to mention, you don't even need to be optimal in junctioning your stats, you don't need to reach 255 in every stat just like you don't need 100 ultimas for your elemental defense to become pretty much immortal.
And again, couple it with the lack of basic balance in the battle system in itself and the lack of difficulty, if I were you I wouldn't say this is what the developers intended because it's a system that doesn't work at any level even if you do not try to play optimally with your junctions, it was just hastily put together because FF is more about the graphics than gameplay and has always been like that since the SNES, all FF has craters in basic game design, FFVIII is just one of those games that look like the moon's surface when it comes to that.

To be frank the deck was stacked against them from the start. I dunno how Japan received the game, but the west had VII fresh in their memory and no game prior to VIII played like VIII did, so they were kinda fucked out of the gate. Nevermind how many people thought VIII would be a sequel to VII. At least it's not a II case of a game with good ideas but horrible design, but any time you radically shift a series it simply won't be received well unless the whole game is good enough to make critical reception think twice.

>level scalation

Did you mean escalation or something? Cause that is what it feels like this is. You either escalate Squall's level or the enemies escalate.

user, your creation of a strawman at every other turn of a generic JRPG player is getting annoying, cut that, if you please.

For me? its fishermens horizon

Except it is. Junctioning allows you overpower exactly because there is enemy power scaling. You can get high level magic and thus stats regardless of how your low level is, meaning how low the enemy level is. It's not balanced at all.

A good game

Recommend using a guide though for weapon upgrade

The story is nonesense and it is genuinely so obvious that nomura just saw EVA and wanted to imitate it but isn’t nearly as strong a writer as hideaki anno.

Nomura just designed the characters.

Stop comparing this derivative trash to Evangelion you actual retard.

>Nomura wrote and directed FFVIII
Le retardation

>level scaling ends up either a nuisance or a non issue
In FF8 at least, I can say this:
I can beat mob bosses extremely easily. They aren't a threat at level 1, they aren't a threat at level 100. If anything, at level 100, I might at least stay at full health instead of entering each battle with a red hp bar.
I have a harder time against rare beasts. If I don't use healing magic or items, I can run into some trouble. I'll need to summon a guardian force once or twice, maybe the battle lasts longer than 12 seconds. I won't die, I don't need to know everything they can do, but they are more difficult. Finding a rare beast usually takes time, though, but it will give me better rewards, usually.
Singularly unique monsters give me game overs until I learn patterns against it. I need to have elementals equipped, I need to know which summons to use, which to avoid using, what magic to cast, all that.
And I beat bosses.

>level scaling
I say all that because being Level 1 or Level 100 makes no difference against any of those types of enemies (basically: there are statistical level caps on the enemies). A mob beast is easy from start to finish. I'm not fighting 30 of them because they're level 1 or because they're level 100. It's because the battle mechanics game designers designed them to be mobs of easy-to-beat monsters.
LEVELING has almost no point to FF8. It depends on how many Guardian Forces you've acquired and if you've appropriately matched magics to stats on the character. If anything, it's planned that higher leveled enemies reward you with better magics, not experience, so that when you Junction you improve, not when you gain exp.

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>it took seven years to make VI, VII, VIII, IX and X
>it took ten years to make XV
>it will take twenty years to make XVI

Why live?

>Junctioning allows you overpower
No. LACK of Junctioning makes you UNDERpowered.
Play the game at level 100 without any junctioned magics and you won't get very far.

Could also just go play some good games. FF has been worthless for the past 13 years anyway.

best soundtrack in the ff series, and Squall unironically has good character development
everyone else in the game stays static
the twist is foreshadowed at the start of the game
also ffix is shit
whatever

Hotdogs and chickenwusses

I wish they kept making games using the graphics style of VIII and IX forever. So they can just focus on story.

Well duh, junctioning is equipment in VIII when it comes down to it. What I said was that being able to junction high level magic early on breaks the game because enemies level with you. So unless you play the game like a retard, there's no reason to level at all, ever. That's not balanced or good design in my view.

>being able to junction high level magic early on breaks the game
You don't get access to high level magic early on without actively searching for it, reading a guide, or already knowing since this is a replay. You have to make the decision, "I want to exploit this Junction mechanic" to find those hidden treasures.

And, it's an easy game. You can do exactly that pretty easy. It's not meant to be designed for college degree players, it's designed for children. Assuming they want it, they'll get it. Turns out, as the young are often guilty of, finding too much of what they wanted was too much and they didn't want it. It was their choice, but "Squaresoft" or "FF8" was to blame for ever allowing them to be able to. Like it's bad parenting, or something.

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>spend an absurd amount of time grinding to level 100 rather than gathering resources to get 100 casts of one spell in like 5 minutes
imagine being this retarded

>LEVELING DOESN'T DO ANYTHING BUT MAKE YOU WEAKER IN COMPARISON, IT'S ALL JUNCTIONING!!!
>higher level enemies have better spells to draw and better item drops to refine into better spells
? ? ?
Leveling up DOES make you stronger, both directly through stat gain and indirectly through availability of better resources. Yes, you can get them in different and easier ways by cheesing, but FF8 can very much be played as a traditional "kill dudes and level up to get more strongerer" brainless RPG.

Depends on "when" you did that, user:
Did you have the "High Mag-RF" from Alexander after he had gained 60 AP for you to teach it to him?
Did you have "I Mag-RF" from Shiva after 30 AP taught, and had access 20 M-Stone Pieces?
Did you have 30 Elnoyle Cards to use Quezacoatl's Card Mod to turn into items to use another specific GF's Refine ability on to make Energy Crystals to make Lionheart?

When?
It takes time to grind, but you're 100% right, it's far easier to refine all that on Disc 3 as you fly around on the Ragnarok and have miraculously stocked all those items, cards and rarities to the maximum degree.
Problem is, you don't have those GFs that early in the game, you can't buy those items in Disc 1 shops, many NPCs that hold their GF or Character Cards aren't available to play against you yet, and low-level enemies aren't dropping great items or being Card Modded into high-level playing cards, either.

Low-level grinding is, indeed, retarded, but at the beginning of the game, it's the only possibility. "Exploitation" is retarded, regardless, if you're looking to enjoy the battle mechanics.
>In order to enjoy the battle mechanics, I'm going to exploit the battle mechanics!
>After exploiting the battle mechanics, it seems like they've been exploited, and I don't enjoy the battle mechanics!
How odd

>but FF8 can very much be played as a traditional "kill dudes and level up to get more strongerer" brainless RPG.
If you see this screen during battle, and you're in your 40s, 50s, higher...you won't win. High level enemies are FAR stronger than high level party members. The stat tradition you're referring to exists, yes, but not to the degree it did historically. It's extremely minor.
And you've already answered your example of why leveling was even brought up alongside Junctioning: to get access to better magic for more efficient -ga magic/greater quantity of magic to Junction, and not for exp or un-Junctioned stats.

forgot my image

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