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Final Fantasy VIII was released 15 years ago
- Thread starter Tizoc
- Start date
I'm another who class this as their favourite FF; I was 15 when it came out - I played it solidly and completed it in just over two days. You can complain about the Junction system and Squall being a tosser all you want, but the story and other characters more than made up for it 
How does that weak old geezer Cid get a babe like Edea?
CountBlack
Member
One of my favourites. Who did you guys use in your main party?
My team was: Squall/Zell/Rinoa
My team was: Squall/Zell/Rinoa
d00d3n
Member
My favorite final fantasy game. I probably preferred VII back in the day, but I did my first playthrough of VIII without understanding the basic systems such as junctions, guardian force abilities, refining and playing triple triad (summoned guardian forces to beat bosses ... lol). The game has endless possibilities when you begin to understand the interlocking systems. Sure, the battles get very easy when you start manipulating the game mechanics, but the real challenge in the game is really to use the advanced systems to their fullest potential. You feel so damn smart when you outclass your opponents through almost sequence break-like procurement of high level abilities and magic. All at level 1 one course ...
PumpkinPie
Banned
Same. I like them because their colours all go together. Quistis, Irvine and Selphie's colours match so they become team B.
Also, never forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2LCSzmjPj8
Acquiescence
Member
The best thing about FFVIII for me was that it was the follow-up to my favourite game of all time, and my expectations were so immense that the game had no chance of meeting them. And yet, it didn't disappoint. It wasn't as good as FFVII sure, but it delivered all the same, and was another game I could happily class as a masterpiece to cherish for the rest of my days.
Exploring Balamb Town with this music playing in the background... ahhh bliss.
VIII
Exploring Balamb Town with this music playing in the background... ahhh bliss.
VIII
inches
Aeriscloud
Banned
He gave her the SeeeeeeeeeD.
Chicken Wuss
Squall/Rinoa/Irvine. Zell/Quistis/Selphie.
Makoto Yuki
Banned
Zell, Squall, Quistis
A.K.A. Armageddon Fist, Renzokuken, and Mighty Guard/White Wind/Degenerator
Zell was replaceable, with almost anyone though. I was happy just spamming Renzo. Quistis' Blue Magic utility spells were super useful.
His Garden was named after the sound of his john thomas hitting the floor when he unzips.
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
My favourite parts of FF VIII arw the opening video as that is still one of my all time favourites.
I loved the battle between Balamb and Galbadia garden as well. I just felt so pumped to go and kick their ass.
I loved the battle between Balamb and Galbadia garden as well. I just felt so pumped to go and kick their ass.
Fattony12000
Member
And ファイナルファンタジーVII was 15 years ago, two years ago!
Here's a little thing I wrote to commemorate some thoughts and feelings on the matter:
Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/final-fantasy-vii/3030-13053/forums/festive-final-fantasy-vii-572321/
With regards to VIII, I can't say that I've ever gotten past the first one or two hours of the game. Despite having picked it up and played it probably a dozen times over the years. Now that's not due to any major fault of the game (at least in terms of anything I specifically remember disliking), it looks and sounds gorgeous, starts off well enough with its introduction to the setting and the characters. I just didn't get grabbed by it at the time, or ever since. Maybe next year I'll sit down and force myself to put some time into it, I'm given to understand that it's a pretty good Final Fantasy video game.
KojiKnight
Member
I agree with you 100%, though our opinions are mostly unmirrored in the majority of the gaming community. More interesting combat system (though sadly easy to manipulate to be broken fairly early on, destroying the game's difficulty), an actual english translation (versus FF7's which is distractingly bad...), and had 3D models that didn't look like something I made (noting I have no experience with modeling OR am very artistic in general)
lightchris
Member
That's why he proposed to render them again at a higher resolution.
Even though I'm a big fan of the PS1 FFs i wouldn't buy such a version though. Not a fan of remakes like those.
Yeah same. The game is very playable now, I'd rather they didn't end up messing with the art. They wouldn't just render them at a higher resolution, we've seen SE do some horrible things to original artworks.
KojiKnight
Member
It always baffles me that so many game companies didn't keep their original assets/code. I guess for a lot of systems back in the day it made sense (you didn't "port" code from (S)NES to master system/master system, you completely rewrote games which is why you have the same games on different systems often being completely different) at least for the source code... but even then you'd still have to release the occasional new version of a cart with bug fixes (see FF3 SNES)
Chrono Helix
Member
Yeah, apparently Sega lost a ton, yet have a vault of old things. No idea why old sources and assets shouldn't be there too.
Phenomenal soundtrack and stunning visuals for the time, the junction system was ...different, and easy to abuse if you knew how, and time consuming early on.
I still can't decide which game between VIII and XIII has the worst cast of characters and most discombobulated plot.
Still, I can replay VIII, for what it is, and enjoy it. I'm actually going to try my first replay of XIII to see if I feel differently about it at all.
Also "Find Your Way" is the best song, its true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn0T6Xh5VXY
I still can't decide which game between VIII and XIII has the worst cast of characters and most discombobulated plot.
Still, I can replay VIII, for what it is, and enjoy it. I'm actually going to try my first replay of XIII to see if I feel differently about it at all.
Also "Find Your Way" is the best song, its true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn0T6Xh5VXY
Yeah, I hope SE won't start messing with the art, it sure looks just fine right now...
I recently installed my old pc ver of FF8 and IMO it's unplayable on new displays.
It looked ok on CRT monitors but when you upscale the game to 1080p you can't see shit in the backdrops. The battles and characters look ok, but those background desperately need to be rendered at a higher res.
Now I really want to replay it...
Every time I start, I stop early into Disk 2... but there is so much good stuff yet to come.
Terra_Ex
Member
Does anyone know if Square kept the original FF8 assets and source code, I know that many devs
purpletentacle
Member
My favorite Final Fantasy - haters be damned.
I still remember how blown away I was by the train level or the later Garden battles.
Or that one hockey rink where players you fought gave you insane XP.
I still remember how blown away I was by the train level or the later Garden battles.
Or that one hockey rink where players you fought gave you insane XP.
U n i o n 0015
Member
fuzzyreactor
Banned
FFVIII > FFIX
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Thread needs more Edea.
Wow, she looks amazing.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
The Garden battle is still the best setpiece ever made in gaming to this day.
One of my most hyped games. For years I watched small two inch videos at IGN, humming along to the music, enjoying the Leviathan summon demos etc.
Its release actually came as a surprise because I was in the midst of puberty (15 years) and busy with new discoveries. One day (probably release day, some friday fall 1999 Europe) I came upon it in the store and took it straight to the counter. Called my best buddy which took a bus for a couple of hours and stayed at my place for the weekend. Non-stop FF8 gaming.
First half-an-hour was actually a disappointment(!) because of the graphics. In those two inch videos and magazine shots it looked SO clean but it was jaggied PSOne visuals which mixed badly with it's new-found realistic look.
I quickly got over that however and it became one of my favorite games of all time.
Its release actually came as a surprise because I was in the midst of puberty (15 years) and busy with new discoveries. One day (probably release day, some friday fall 1999 Europe) I came upon it in the store and took it straight to the counter. Called my best buddy which took a bus for a couple of hours and stayed at my place for the weekend. Non-stop FF8 gaming.
First half-an-hour was actually a disappointment(!) because of the graphics. In those two inch videos and magazine shots it looked SO clean but it was jaggied PSOne visuals which mixed badly with it's new-found realistic look.
I quickly got over that however and it became one of my favorite games of all time.
I'm actually thinking of buying a PSP (the first one) to play some PSone classics. Are there any disadvantages of this solution? Does the PSP manage to play the games at the original frame rates? How are loading times?
The Successor is sooooooo good. It fits the scene perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeuzZsGj45E
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
I had just started high school when this game came out. That makes me feel fucking old.
He was asking why Squeenix hasn't used the source assets to create higher-res backgrounds, not why Squeenix hasn't recreated everything from scratch at a higher resolution.
Sub_Level
wants to fuck an Asian grill.
There's a lot of things I've taken an issue with FFVIII about, from the story to the easily breakable gameplay.
But the nostalgia is too strong to resist. This will always be one of my all-time favorites.
Most atmospheric areas in the game:
- Dollet
- Galbadia Garden (both visits)
- Deling City
- Tomb of the Unknown King
- Missile Base
- The grand daddy of them all: Ultimecia Castle
Disc 1 of FFVIII is a classic. Disc 2 is heartwarming and has tons of exciting moments. Disc 3 has so much sidequest shit and exploration you can do. Disc 4 concludes the play magnificently.
But the nostalgia is too strong to resist. This will always be one of my all-time favorites.
Most atmospheric areas in the game:
- Dollet
- Galbadia Garden (both visits)
- Deling City
- Tomb of the Unknown King
- Missile Base
- The grand daddy of them all: Ultimecia Castle
Disc 1 of FFVIII is a classic. Disc 2 is heartwarming and has tons of exciting moments. Disc 3 has so much sidequest shit and exploration you can do. Disc 4 concludes the play magnificently.
i've been playing it on steam ... first time i've played it in about a decade.
something about it sticks out with me, i don't know why but it's one of my favorite FFs, if not the favorite. but at the same time i think this game was the fulcrum that lead to a more streamlined and "j-pop" FF and paved the way for garbage like FFXIII. but there's no use in going into where the series went wrong, its been discussed enough
i think it could've been hands down one of the best FFs but it seems somewhere in the development cycle they were running out of time and they just condensed their story boards and wrapped things up. ... like, what was the point of seifer, really? it seems like they were setting him up for something, but he just sort of fades into the background. what's the deal with Laguna, what was it that he had to tell Squall that was so important. i extrapolated that Laguna's his dad, or something? just seems like there were alot of half baked ideas all around
that said, it's probably the last great original FF (loved FFIX but it was more of a tribute to classic FF)
something about it sticks out with me, i don't know why but it's one of my favorite FFs, if not the favorite. but at the same time i think this game was the fulcrum that lead to a more streamlined and "j-pop" FF and paved the way for garbage like FFXIII. but there's no use in going into where the series went wrong, its been discussed enough
i think it could've been hands down one of the best FFs but it seems somewhere in the development cycle they were running out of time and they just condensed their story boards and wrapped things up. ... like, what was the point of seifer, really? it seems like they were setting him up for something, but he just sort of fades into the background. what's the deal with Laguna, what was it that he had to tell Squall that was so important. i extrapolated that Laguna's his dad, or something? just seems like there were alot of half baked ideas all around
that said, it's probably the last great original FF (loved FFIX but it was more of a tribute to classic FF)
lightchris
Member
Okay, there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding.
If they still had the original assets (as in model data etc., not the already rendered backgrounds), they could rerender them at higher resolutions.
Yes, but if the texture data isn't conducive to higher-resolution renders there's not a lot Squeenix can do outside of applying some sort of awful upscaling algorithm or recreating the backgrounds from scratch.
American Dream
Neo Member
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lightchris
Member
The textures may not look up to date but are far from being the main problem imo. Just rendering the scenes at higher resolutions would help significantly.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Not sure about FFVIII but in the case of FFIX the backgrounds were matte-painted (at target resolution) by 2D artists in addition to rendered. They weren't just computer-generated 3D renders.