FINAL FANTASY VIII - REMASTERED

FF8 is a massive step down from FF7, and I felt that the overall experience was severely lacking. I know that FF8 is controversial because of the junction and leveling system, but that is not the reason why I disliked it. The new gameplay was a bit confusing at first, but once you got used to it, it wasn't that big of a deal. The real reason why I disliked this entry was because the writing was honestly just nonsensical. The game lacks focus on what it wants to be, there is an outlandish story that is seems like it is written by someone who has ADHD, there are convenient plot points without buildup constantly, and the crew feels very generic and cheesy often. I think the team probably wanted to come up with some grand story to follow up on FF7, but they added so much random stuff that the story ended up becoming a grand piece of poo. As someone who played the game for the first time, I'm convinced that the people who really like the story/game have massive nostalgia holding their op...

weird game, narrative issues, the junction system is problematic and annoying to go through, but fun game nonetheless, 7-8/10

Final Fantasy VIII feels like that one kid in class who tries so hard to be different. Sometimes it works and you’re impressed, other times you’re just sitting there like, “Bro… why are you like this?” Let’s start with combat. On FFVIII the enemies level up with you. And there’s the Junction system where you siphon magic out of enemies and stick those spells onto your stats to make them stronger. Sounds cool, right? And it is… until you realise using your good magic makes you weaker. So there I was, hoarding spells like a dragon with gold, afraid to cast Meteor because it would nerf my stats. Drawing magic from enemies is also painfully slow. The remaster’s 3x speed button literally saved me from quitting. Later, you learn to refine items into magic, and then it’s a breeze. In fact, too much of a breeze – you end up so strong the game becomes too easy. (Spoilers) Then there’s the story. FF plots are always kinda weird, but this one… it’s messy even ...

One of the worst RPGs I've ever played. Definitely one of the worst FF games in the series.

Aw. I need a man

with the right mods and lossless scaling, its a perfect experience

7/10 I've played this game back in the day, and it was AWESOME. Today, 25 years later, it still holds up pretty well. The story, the world, the characters, the FMVs are good. Of course, there are quite some cons: the navigation is clunky (you move in front of hand-drawn backgrounds, and you practically navigate between invisible walls), the interactive points are not shown, and even if you know there IS a point where you can interact (e.g. a ladder), it's still pretty difficult to reach the EXACT same position, where the game accepts the 'interact' command. The draw mechanics are BS (you can easily extract the maximum number of a given magic from one single enemy, you just need to be very patient and do the draw command over and over again for like 10 mins). The enemies are level matched to your characters, which makes grinding/levelling up pretty much useless, while the fights feel easy - except for the final boss battle, which is overly difficult (but it was the case for all th...

The story ends up as a bit of a mess by discs 3&4, but it's good for the first 2/3 of the game and the final stretch still has its moments. Without spoiling the Rinoa section during disc 3 is a highlight. I like the GF system, it allows for decent customisation and I love how easy it is to become OP in this game. If you rush to get the no random encounters skill from Diablos and use 3x speed whilst stocking magic you can remove all grind from the game with no downside. Bonus points for Triple Triad.

Yes. 100% Do it.

Tutorial owl: ‘Draw magic from enemies.’ Me: okay. 20 hours later: inventory full of 999 Fires, haven’t used a single one.