Heh...I was wrong.
 

I used to be one of the biggest Anti-FF8 supporters in the world. I was of the opinion that the game had awful characters, a giant hole for a villain, a story that wouldn't make sense to a pothead, and the shittiest skill system in the history of RPGs. I was wrong. Well, I was wrong about everything execpt one of those things, but I'll get to that later.

I recently finished this game in its' entirety. I did just about everything there was to do in the game, with the exception of any of the Card Game sidequests. I still think that Triple Triad is a horrible mess, and that opinion will never change. But, after having played through it again, I can honestly say that Final Fantasy 8 is a really good game.

The characters are a real departure from the rest of the series. Much more realistsic than past games. While I honestly prefer the more outlandish, fantasy-inspired characters, I have to give the writers credit for making the characters in this game work so well together. I also used to criticize the living hell out of Squall for being a complete asshole until the very end of the game. He wasn't an asshole, he just had more internal monologue than dialogue with other characters. It was interesting to see a hero that acted in a fashion so different from past FF heros. He's not my favorite by a longshot, but I honestly have a hard time deciding whether I like him better than Cloud or not.

The story actually makes perfect sense. My only gripe with it is that Lunatic Pandora isn't really explained very well, but in all honesty, it's not tough to figure out what the hell it is and why it's in the game.

The villain issue is still a bit bothersome on the surface, but really not that big a deal when you think about it. Technically, all of the evil shit Edea did was actually Ultimecia's doing, therefore she wasn't pulling a "Zemus" by not having any involvement in the game until the very end. You just didn't meet her in person until the final battle.

The one problem that I still have with the game is the Junction System. It's awful. It's way too fucking powerful, and it turns magic into a tool. Magic in FF8 isn't the all-powerful destructive force that it's supposed to be. It's a stat-boosting item. That still pisses me off.

All in all, though, it's a much better game than I remember it being. Still my least favorite of the five that I've beaten, but certainly not the ungodly mess I used to accuse it of being.

I really liked Triple Triad from FF8. There was (is) an online version of it that I played a lot actually. (It's very unreliable now as there's not much interest in it. The servers are down lots and there are few players.)

I liked the introverted Squall. At least he spoke sometimes, unlike Cloud ;)

Cloud really didn't have much of a personality.

Hate to say, but I told you so. Bitches.

Never said I hated it, bitch.

I have to agree with you on the junctioning. It's just plain retarded. Otherwise, I've always liked ff8 quite a bit.

I have always liked the game. Its pretty good and I do like Squall more than Clloud. He's just alot better in pretty much everyway.

The only problem I've got with the game is, not meeting Ultamecia to the end. I would've liked to meet here before that.

Did anyone notice how the most powerful sorceresses are freaky looking? (Adel and Ultameica)

I always assumed that their evil power twisted their looks.

Cloud just has a BIGass sword, which makes him A+ in my book of... stuff.

I guess that makes sense.

What's Triple Triad? I probably know what it is, but I don't know it by name.

The card game from FF8

Oh. It was gay.

I don't know why, but I never really liked any of those side-games like card games. Blitzball was alright, but I only played it for a while.

The ff9 card game rocked. I played it like an addict. I'll be playing that a lot of playonline when FFXI comes out.

I liked the FFVIII and FFIX card game.

Nope, Chocobo breeding was gat.

I hated blitzball.

Tetra Master (FF9 Card Game) was significantly better than Triple Triad. It didn't have all the lame ass extra rules like "Random" and all the fucking annoying combo rules.

I still think FFVIII is the worst out of all the Final Fantasy games on the PLaystation systems. The gunblades and the various love scenes are what I hate most though.

The worst in the series would have to be FF4 IMO because I totally hated it, but a lot of people loved it.

FF8 is okay, in my opinion. I have to agree with SoldierX on his opinions, and the whole draw magic thing was stupid to me. Other than those things, the game was alright.

FF4 was fucking awesome. Palom and Porom rul3.

Agreed. Although Tellah owns both of them.

Tellah was the only good thing from FF4...

I'll have you publicly executed for that, KA.

I always wondered why you couldn't use a soft on the twins in FF4... I was more concerned about them than Aeris.

(partially because I didn't give a shit about Aeris)

Aren't they rescued in the end anyways?

Aye, 'tis true.

I was just comparing it to everyone's complaint about using a Phoenix Down on Aeris.

Here's my explanation for the whole "Phoenix Down" argument. When a character goes down in battle in an FF game, they don't die. They are knocked unconscious. They black out and the only thing that can instantly revive them is a Phoenix Down. In the "tutorial" segments of the FF games, they never once say that Phoenix Downs revive a character from "death." They always say that Phoenix Downs revive a character from "unconsciousness." And there is a big difference between being knocked unconscious and being put to sleep with a sleep spell.

As for the Soft question, I always assumed that Palom and Porom couldn't be healed because they turned themselves to stone in order to save everyone. It was their choice to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, and a simple curative item would have been incapable of altering the strong wills of two human beings.

Only fault in that argument (the second, as I don't give a damn about Aeris) is that the only way they could have turned into stone is by casting petrify. They couldn't have simply willed themselves into stone.

If you try it on yourself in battle, I'm sure a soft will easilly fix the problem.

No, you misunderstood what I said. They did cast "Stone." In fact, as I remember, they both shouted the word "Stone" before becoming petrified. The difference is that they willingly did it to themselves in order to save their friends.

When a person is petrified in battle, they are turned to stone against their will, even if it is done by an ally. Therefore, if you use a Soft in battle, they invite being de-petrified because they didn't want to be turned to stone in the first place. Palom and Porom didn't want to be changed back because they sacrificed themselves to save the lives of others. They were the only thing preventing that room from collapsing, and if they were suddenly cured, the whole room might start caving in again, endangering everyone. They didn't want that to happen, so they used their willpower to "supercharge" the spell, making it nearly impossible for anyone to cure. I hope that was a bit clearer.

So, in battle, if they turn themselves into stone, they wont be able to be depetrified?

I think not.

Well, there wouldn't be much emotional weight to that, would there? They turned themselves to stone in order to save their friends. If they just suddenly cast Stone on themselves in battle, that would be pointless. Plus, it wouldn't technically be the characters petrifying themselves. It would be the player's fault.

Oh well, Tellah is way better than them anyway.

Yes, yes he was. But Golbez kicked his ass into next week.

Golbez was just a kid with too much power and not enough girls.

Golbez was the man. He was brutal. And he was probably the most badass-looking villain in the series.

Kefka owns Golbez. As a matter of fact, Heidegger owns Golbez.

Heidegger was just annoying, and Kefka does own Golbez.

But, Tellah owns them all.

Rofl. Kefka owns nobody. I thought he was the pussiest of any FF antagonist ever.