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Final Fantasy VIII (8) Discussion


phxofgrn

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  • 2 weeks later...

I liked 8 alot more then, and still do. i still think about the characters, i still love the trppy vibe of the world, the scene where the SEED academy is being invaded makes me want to go replay this again right now. if there were a version with trophies id have litterally no excuses left not to buy again. (i still have my guide somewhere)


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  • 5 years later...
  • Koby changed the title to Final Fantasy VIII (8) Discussion
  • 2 months later...

"Remaster" just updates character models and blurs the original backgrounds. As a result:

40b22985c8.jpg

Looks very weird seeing blurry Cid amongst sharp Squall and Quistis

4749c27d1d.jpg

The remaster with updated character models really makes it apparent which characters are actually there and which are just drawn on the background as they remain very low quality and blurred.

But the new models do look much nicer:
FF8-Remastered.png

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1 hour ago, PhantomKnight said:

Just downloaded my copy of FF8, it will be my first time playing it

I played FF8 quite a bit back on the PS1.

 

Bought the Remaster on Steam, but I intend to apply some fan mods to improve backgrounds and such once they're out.

 

I played about 30 minutes of the remaster just to get a feel of how much different it was. Quite a bit of NPCs were apparently just drawn on the backgrounds so they're just a blurry mess. The backgrounds just had a Gaussian blur effect applied to them to get rid of the pixelation and choppiness, but it still looks very choppy in places where the character goes behind a small portion of the background where angles are involved.

 

Game seemed stable for me though. No crashes or bugs cropped up and the menus, loader, and configuration were all capable of being done with a controller, so controller support has definitely improved over the original Steam release. Also unlike the old one, the Remaster does not require a Square Enix account to play. Also saves from the original can be copied over to the game folder and work fine.

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  • 8 months later...

A lot of fan mods just dropped for the "Remaster" in order to update the game further graphically.

 

Here is some comparisons between the official remaster as-is and the fan mods created for it.

 

some enemy battle models

official (before) vs. fan mods (after):

https://imgsli.com/MTYyODU

https://imgsli.com/MTYyNjk

https://imgsli.com/MTYyNjY

click the link and use the slider to go back n forth... fan mod is extremely more detailed.

 

and then some background comparisons

official:

1n6eQ7e.jpg

fan mod:

NmrYPY7.jpg

 

official:

o9W0KY7.jpg

 

fan mod:

KEV8uPX.jpg

 

official:

hfs2may.jpg

 

fan mod:

dnKXtDs.jpg

 

Full size them of course to fully see the difference.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 years later...

Final Fantasy VIII is probably my favorite game, although I liked IX more for a lot of years. The other contender for favorite would be The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. That's besides the point though. I'm not sure how much I can add to the discussion 17 years after the thread was opened, and most people are already settled on their opinions of Final Fantasy VIII, so maybe it's best if I talk about my experiences more than the general fan reception? I'm well aware that VIII can be considered the black sheep of the series (along with a few other entries) because its new mechanics were so divisive. I see it a bit like The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, in the way that the changes were very jarring at the time, but have come to be better understood over time. Then again, plenty of people HATE the junction system and never looked back!

Unlike XV & XVI, I think VIII managed to differentiate itself without throwing away the soul of the series. The action combat in XV & XVI just feels like a completely different series to me and takes me out of the whole experience. The same argument could be made for XI & XIV, since they're MMO's, I suppose....but they still strike me with the FF series 'flavor'. 

Instead of talking any more about people's complaints surrounding FF VIII, I'm proud to say that I love it with all my heart. I saw a lot of myself in Squall as a kid and looked up to him, for better or worse. I have fond memories playing the game on the living room floor, asking my Mom to come help me understand words I didn't know. I recall calling her into the room when Headmaster Cid is arguing with NORG & he says "son of a bitch", to which my mom explained he was using "bad language." hahaha.

 

I can't pinpoint what it is about the world of FF VIII that makes it so endearing to me even beyond VII or IX. IX is objectively more cozy, but I think the higher mix of fantasy elements means I can't imagine myself living in that world as easily. Likewise, VII's grit & grime is at odds with my own life experience, so it feels pretty alien to me. That's not to say that I dislike VII or IX in any way, they're both top 5 games for me. VIII just gets me invested in a way almost no other game does. The believable, modern world with sorceresses thrown in as an accepted fact of life is fascinating to me. The way

Spoiler

Adel's containment blocks wireless transmission

was interesting as well. Each party member feels so believable and real, save for Irvine who I'm not a big fan of. I spent a lot of time as a kid running around Balamb town and the other less threatening locations just imagining a life there. Timber was a favorite. I'm writing this before work, so I don't know if I have time to touch in-depth on each thing I love about FF VIII, but I'll give special mention to the Laguna segments as well. They are such a cool concept and it's really fun seeing

Spoiler

how the world of FF VIII was ~17 years in the past + the events that lead up to your current party's predicament. They added plenty that didn't need to be there, such as Laguna holding his sword in a weird way while shooting a movie. Seifer grows up watching the movie and holds his sword the same way. Things like that blew my mind when I first put the pieces together. Same when I learned that the big screen in Timber has messages from Adel hidden in the jumbled text.

Sure, lots of games do time-travel in interesting ways, and perhaps it's a burnt-out trope at this point, but at the time it wasn't (for me). I hadn't even considered it as a storytelling method outside of Ocarina of Time. Just all-around great stuff. I've played through the PS1 release countless times, and I've done one 100% run through the Remastered version when it released on PS4. I have it on PC, but I only did a barebones run through. This was back at the release of the Remaster...seems like the mods have come a long way, I'd love to try them. Do you recommend any in particular?

Sorry for the ramble/blog post. FF VIII is perhaps my most passionate topic, and it's likely that I'll return to write a lot more if time permits & if this gets any engagement.

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My opinions may or may not have changed through the years. I didn't go back through the thread to read my old statements, but FF8 to me these days is a lot better than most of the FF games that came after the Square Soft & Enix merger. It does actually make it into my top 5 of the series but just barely as my favorites in order are: 4, 9, 10, 3, 8.

 

I don't mind the Junction system to be honest. I just dislike the way it was implemented in terms of how using your Junctioned magic resulted in weakening your stats and needing to go find a spot to draw more of it. And the whole system of enemies scaling with your level just killed the desire to grind at all and actually made the game easier if you intentionally didn't level up; which is a lot easier with modern quality of life additions such as being able to turn off random encounters entirely.

 

Squall remains my absolute favorite main character though of all the mainline Final Fantasy titles.

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On 1/12/2024 at 2:29 PM, Koby said:

My opinions may or may not have changed through the years. I didn't go back through the thread to read my old statements, but FF8 to me these days is a lot better than most of the FF games that came after the Square Soft & Enix merger. It does actually make it into my top 5 of the series but just barely as my favorites in order are: 4, 9, 10, 3, 8.

You were fairly positive on the game. Preferring 8 over 7 (me too) and your only real complaint was the salary system, which I can understand. Coming out as an FF8 fan in 2006 was brave, I'll give you that. I get the feeling that discussion surrounding FF8 is undergoing a similar transformation to Windwaker's, but more about the gameplay than the art. People are warming up to it, and over the past 2 or 3 years I've seen increasing speculation and hope for a remake. I have no clue if that's just wishful thinking, but I hope for it as well. If the remake sucks then I'll go back to the original. I'm incredibly curious what Squeenix would do with a remake of something as experimental as FF8. If I haven't already listed my top 5 yet, here they are: 8, 9, Tactics, 7, 10. If Tactics isn't 'mainline' enough, then put 11 on the end at 5th place. 

 

On 1/12/2024 at 2:29 PM, Koby said:

I don't mind the Junction system to be honest. I just dislike the way it was implemented in terms of how using your Junctioned magic resulted in weakening your stats and needing to go find a spot to draw more of it. And the whole system of enemies scaling with your level just killed the desire to grind at all and actually made the game easier if you intentionally didn't level up; which is a lot easier with modern quality of life additions such as being able to turn off random encounters entirely.

 

Squall remains my absolute favorite main character though of all the mainline Final Fantasy titles.

Agreed on the Junction system. I wish it didn't punish you for using junctioned magic, but I enjoy everything about it aside from that. I'm fine with Drawing, GFs, Abilities, etc. It's all really fun for me. The Junction System brought a level of flexibility, depth & customization that hadn't been seen before in FF, and it's not like anyone was -forced- to min/max their stats. I brute forced my way through the game in like 2nd grade, I don't know why we still have so many 30+ year old guys whining about the system like it's so darn difficult. I can fully understand it not being some people's cup of tea, though. I knew a guy who agreed with me on all that...but his 2nd favorite FF was 12, which I hate. The gambit system is pretty deep, but I can't stand it. Maybe I'm just biased.

Squall is my favorite too! I know he rubs some people the wrong way, but I've always felt a kinship with him and seen some of myself in his mannerisms. The thoughts he keeps to himself always hit a little too close to home for me, in a good way. With or without the Junction System, FF8 would be my favorite in the series because of how much I obsess over the characters, world & story. I find the game's precise mix of modernity & fantasy to be ideal.

 

 

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I remember my brother got a copy of 8 *looking up a bit and remembering* I'll say 2001 ish.. and watching him play along with 9 on the original platform the all-time original PlayStation. I saw him beat the game. I tried playing myself in 2007. I was at the final place of the campaign, I was too week. Probably I haven't leveled up enough, I straight up played through the stories without side mission and misc. I never changed Squall weapon at all because he has this- this thing when you hold or press R2 or something like that, while squall going to slash the enemy in a flash blink. Give a little extra damage to the enemy.  So I haven't played the game since that year. Hope to be back at it. This time, I might plan try out the Remastered Version. It's all over the place. In my case, I'll play it on the PS4.

 

I do listen to the OST sometimes while knocking myself to bed. Balamb Garden. YEE!

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Just now, Green Dragoon said:

I was too weak. Probably I haven't leveled up enough

Levels didn't mean anything in 8. With the way the scaling works in the game, it's actually easier if you don't level up than if you did.

 

Likewise, if you don't start carding every enemy or turn off random encounters... you can easily hit max level on the very first disc as well. I actually did that my first time playing.

 

Your real strength comes from the Junction system and figuring out where to draw magic and what stat to junction it to. Because while the enemies scale to your level, they don't scale to your junctioned stats.

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10 hours ago, Koby said:

Levels didn't mean anything in 8. With the way the scaling works in the game, it's actually easier if you don't level up than if you did.

 

Likewise, if you don't start carding every enemy or turn off random encounters... you can easily hit max level on the very first disc as well. I actually did that my first time playing.

 

Your real strength comes from the Junction system and figuring out where to draw magic and what stat to junction it to. Because while the enemies scale to your level, they don't scale to your junctioned stats.

 

There it is, I'm unsure how to explain. I sort of remember that my brother said something like that as well.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Do you guys feel like there's been extra buzz about FF8 recently? Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I feel like I never heard about it during the 2010's, but now it's to the point that I hear talks of a remake/sequel/revisit every few months. I don't even know if I'd want FF8 to be touched in any way, as it may taint the legacy...
For the longest time, 8 was the black sheep, but I feel like its standing within the series has improved significantly, if only due to so many stinkers coming out since. Am I just looking extra hard for mention of FF8 or caught in an algorithmic trap where the powers that be know I'll click on anything 8-related?

It's to the point where my wife (who doesn't play games) walked up to me to show me an article about how FF8 needs a remake. I suspect that a lot of this hubbub is due to hipsters wanting to have a fringe opinion for the sake of doing so. FF7 is in the midst of its revival/remake cycle, and so there are bound to be contrarians who bring up the less popular game to seem cool. That may be all this is. Am I too hopeful that FF8 will get some attention soon? (yes, I know about the interview that directly addresses the chances of a remake)

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