FF VIII (re)visited

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Imperial Knight
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Imperial Knight »

In an odd way, this topic is reminding me that I want to revisit FFIX. That is, my experience with FFIX is somewhat similar to Werefrog's experience with FFVIII. I never finished the game and at the time decided that I disliked it, but I suspect that I would enjoy it more now. Looking back, I think a lot of my problems weren't so much with the game but with my expectations. I went into the game thinking what I wanted was an "old school" RPG because I decided that getting away from that was what was disappointing me about the RPGs I had been playing. Looking back, however, the problem was really that I had been playing almost exclusively Square RPGs and was getting burned out on Final Fantasy. I wasn't actually looking for something old school but rather something different, I just didn't understand it at the time. It's all good because this caused me to give Lunar a try which in turn rekindled my interest in the genre, but I'd really like to go back and play FFIX with an open mind.

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Shiva Indis
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Shiva Indis »

The major complaints I make about FFVIII I can also direct at FFIX just as easily -- the interesting storytelling is all on the first disk and the rest of the game seems bland and unfocused; the late-game plot twists defy credulity -- but the subject matter and tone of FFIX suits my taste much better than FFVIII. And that made a lot of difference at the time.
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Werefrog
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Werefrog »

I enjoyed IX! It's been a long time since I played it, and I don't remember where disks begin and end. At what point did they abandon having several different parties each with their own story? When I played it at the time, it seemed super interesting following the different stories. It also made me appreciate each character more both in and out of battle. I sort of remember all the twists being on the last disk... Some twists were more successful than others.

I'd like to replay that game. If only for the music and ambience. This is obviously completely subjective, but I find the world of FFIX more beautiful than the worlds of FF VII and VIII. VII is an eye sore. The world of VIII really just isn't my style even though I enjoyed the game.

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Alunissage
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Alunissage »

Shiva Indis wrote:The major complaints I make about FFVIII I can also direct at FFIX just as easily -- the interesting storytelling is all on the first disk and the rest of the game seems bland and unfocused; the late-game plot twists defy credulity ...
This seems to be the case with a lot of games I've played (not that I've played many, to be honest). They start out with an interesting, fleshed-out protagonist/party and culture and all that, then stretch thinner, as if all the good ideas had been used up -- or too much time had been spent on the beginning to leave enough for the later parts. I remember particularly feeling this with the Bard's Tale for PS, where there were lots of character interactions and funny dialogue and such at the beginning, while the last third or so was a slog through dungeon after dungeon with very few NPCs and such. I felt somewhat the same when my husband played Grandia, with the intriguing piratey past of whatshisname's mother who never shows up in the game again after he leaves his hometown.

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Imperial Knight
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Imperial Knight »

I can certainly think of many times I've played a game and had it overstay its welcome. You play enough games where he first 75% is great and the final 25% is a bit of a slog and you really start to appreciate the adage that you should leave your audience wanting more.

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Alunissage
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Alunissage »

True. I know that at least some of the "slog" is self-inflicted, in the form of completism and doing all of the sidequest and collecting-type things just before the last dungeon, to the point where I get bored and forget the storyline leading up to it and such. There are a lot of games where I've stopped there. I've finally started giving myself permission to not finish a replay of a game if I don't feel like it -- for example, I tend to feel that I'm "done" with a Zelda game once I've collected all the pieces of heart, treasures, etc. I don't actually need to fight Ganon if I'm happy after getting, oh, the Red Mail. But this is definitely a problem when it's a game I haven't finished (or don't remember the ending to) and my compulsiveness kicks in demanding that I get All Of Treasures and that requires levelling up or waiting for random drops or something. I think that's what happened with Final Fantasy 2 for me. Probably not the fault of the game.

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Imperial Knight
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Imperial Knight »

There have definitely been times when I've gotten tired of doing side quests and it's making me want to give up on a game and then I have to remind myself that I don't have to keep doing the side quests and can continue with the main story.

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Zero
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Re: FF VIII (re)visited

Post by Zero »

I like FF VII, VIII & IX all on pretty much the same level. I've actually been thinking of playing VIII again lately. It's going on 9 years now since my second playthrough of it. The graphics form the PSX era don't really bother me, especially if there's some fantastic music and gameplay to hold it up. I'm also a bit of a nostalgia-tard, though, and playing old games sometimes takes me back in a good way.
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