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Old Mar 3rd, 2005, 01:11 PM   #13
happy_doughnut
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Joined: Apr 2002
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Angry

When I first joined this place, I proclaimed loud and clear that my favorite game at that time was Final Fantasy 8. Now, almost 3 years later, I proclaim loud and clear that my favorite game now is... still Final Fantasy 8.

Over the time span of 3 years, I have managed to play a significant number of other games from different genres and platforms. Yet no game I have played thus far has ever intrigued me as much as this game.

This game is not as underrated as FF9, but that is simply because most of its spotlight, has, unfortunately, been in the negative light. Many proclaim that this is the absolute worst FF in the series (my vote goes to FFX and it retarded counterpart).

I think differently, though. I think that much of the unppeal of this game is both its storyline along with the junction system. I, on the other hand, think that the main appeal of this game is the storyling and its junction system. This said, I think that FF8 is either a love it or hate it type of game; there is no in between.

The story truly was a love story, but not a sappy one at that. It was a story that entwined many aspects of tragedy and despair, which again, some like, the others don't. Also, the battle system of this FF departed from the traditional MP practice. Here, you actually had to draw magic either from enemies or from draw spots scattered all over the world. Naturally, since this means that any magic can be acquired at virtually any character level, the most powerful spell were either owned by tough fiends or were in hard to reach places. Since you could junction spells to your stats, and thus uncrease them, this also meant that while in battle, you couldn't just keep using Ultima, Ultima, Ultima because if you had this junction to say, your vitality slot, then your HP would dimminish right there in battle consequently. This, of course, soon became a hated feature because it meant that while magic was able to boost your stats, it was able to lower them equally, if not more... and all in one battle! Again, I on the other hand, thought this was great because this meant that you actually had to have some sort of strategy. This means that hitting the "Auto Junction" option was not really the best way to go, but that rather the best this to do would be to sit down and take time to junction them to whatever you saw most suitting. This also meant that while in battle, you couldn't simply use your strongest spells to zap monsters even though you were allowed to carry 100 of each. It meant that your best best against monsters with a terribly high HP (Omega Weapon, anyone?), you ACTUALLY had to use elemental attributes (when possible) and that you ACTUALLY needed your summons (GFs), which were in itself, another rut, since they could take forever to pop up if you didn't have a good compatability with them. Basically, if you don't use them, when you actually need them, they are not going to come soon and when they do, it'll be likely that either them or you will be KO'd... and if THEY got KO'd, then too bad for you because that makes them unusable for the remainder of that battle... no phoenix downs, no nothing!

See? The battle system was incredibly complex, at first, anyway and quite strategic from beginning to end. So yeah, I can see why many people don't like it, but I absolutely did.

I just found it to be amazing in every aspect, from characters, plot, to timeplay.

So yes, I'll stop now. But again, my vote goes to Final Fantasy VIII. Besides, I absolutely Squall. ^^;
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