Final Fantasy 8 - I hated it when it came out

[isiolia]

I don't get whythe junction system is getting more hate than the materia system. They work under the same principles, only instead of collecting stones that improve your stats via your equipment, you collect magic that improves your stats via your GF.

You don't wind up sitting there drawing magic over and over and over with materia.

[Blu]

I don't get whythe junction system is getting more hate than the materia system. They work under the same principles, only instead of collecting stones that improve your stats via your equipment, you collect magic that improves your stats via your GF.

You don't wind up sitting there drawing magic over and over and over with materia.

Right but you have to grind in a different sense to level the Materia up. If you're junctioning the Materia correctly and do some of the side quests, you eliminate most of the grind. If you don't mind the random encounters and drawing a bit, it's not a bad thing. That or if you found it tedious, you can always transform the Triple Triad cards.

I honestly found Final Fantasy VIII to be my favorite on the PlayStation. Part of it is largely nostalgia, but on the flipside it was very impressive graphically at the time, had a great soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu, and a compelling story. I really enjoyed the limit breaks that incorporated some skill into it; Timing the gunblade during Renzokuken, I chaining Zell combos over and over within a time limit. Oh, and his fondness of hot dogs.

[dunpeal2064]

I never found myself "grinding" materia. Also, your materia does not run out. Sure, it may make you weaker when you equp it, but the way VIII did it, it made me never want to use most of my magics, as their amount was directly tied to my stats.. I honestly could not tell you what any of the "aga" spells look like in that game, as I never once used one.

I don't think that alone is enough to make it a bad game, its definitely still enjoyable, but I think the junction system is FAR more broken than the materia system, to the point where they aren't even comparable. You could NEVER grind materia, and it would still get stronger. You can't NOT draw magic in that game and still get magic.

[jfrost]

Grinding to level up Materia was much worse than drawing magic.

I really wanted to give all my characters a Master Materia, but that took ridiculous amounts of time.

[dunpeal2064]

Grinding to level up Materia was much worse than drawing magic.

I really wanted to give all my characters a Master Materia, but that took ridiculous amounts of time.

Not if you know what enemies to kill. If you are really a stickler to leveling all of your materia to max, you definitely want to farm the little mole dots and magic pots in the Northern Cave. Use the X-Item trick to max out Elixers, and feed those magic pots away.

Of course trying to give every character every master materia is going to be ridiculous, but thats like calling FFX flawed for it being difficult to max out the Sphere Grid for every character. At that point, you are going far beyond what any enemy requires to be killed. Heck, if you want extra Master Materia, you have to kill what is easily the hardest fight in the game.

However, I do not think that leveling Materia at a normal rate is anything worse than leveling characters in any RPG. Unless you are skipping a ton of fights, or not using any of the gear that boosts the rate of materia growth, I don't know how you could not max out almost every materia while just playing the game normally and never grinding.

I just find that drawing magic feels so seperated from the actual gameplay, especally when the most effective thing to do is to equip Diablo's "No Encounter" and walk around on the Island Closest to Heaven/Hell, drawing max amounts of all the strongest magic in the game without fighting anything... which you could then follow up by instant killing the T-Rex's with Quistis Detonator blue magic skill. If you use Quetzacotl to give her initiative, then you are completely broken and can max out every character, in every aspect, without ever actually fighting anything.

Still, I do enjoy the game, but in my opinion it is completely broken, even moreso than VII.

[Retrogamer0001]

Grinding to level up Materia was much worse than drawing magic.

I really wanted to give all my characters a Master Materia, but that took ridiculous amounts of time.

Not if you know what enemies to kill. If you are really a stickler to leveling all of your materia to max, you definitely want to farm the little mole dots and magic pots in the Northern Cave. Use the X-Item trick to max out Elixers, and feed those magic pots away.

Of course trying to give every character every master materia is going to be ridiculous, but thats like calling FFX flawed for it being difficult to max out the Sphere Grid for every character. At that point, you are going far beyond what any enemy requires to be killed. Heck, if you want extra Master Materia, you have to kill what is easily the hardest fight in the game.

However, I do not think that leveling Materia at a normal rate is anything worse than leveling characters in any RPG. Unless you are skipping a ton of fights, or not using any of the gear that boosts the rate of materia growth, I don't know how you could not max out almost every materia while just playing the game normally and never grinding.

I just find that drawing magic feels so seperated from the actual gameplay, especally when the most effective thing to do is to equip Diablo's "No Encounter" and walk around on the Island Closest to Heaven/Hell, drawing max amounts of all the strongest magic in the game without fighting anything... which you could then follow up by instant killing the T-Rex's with Quistis Detonator blue magic skill. If you use Quetzacotl to give her initiative, then you are completely broken and can max out every character, in every aspect, without ever actually fighting anything.

Still, I do enjoy the game, but in my opinion it is completely broken, even moreso than VII.

Materia leveling is also SO.DAMN.FUN. It's such an awesome feeling when you see that "Lightning LVL up" tab pop up at the end of a fight!

[jfrost]

But we're talking about maxing out junctioning as opposed to maxing out materia.

It's clearly worse to max out materia. You don't really need to draw 100 of each and every spell in the FF8.

[dunpeal2064]

But we're talking about maxing out junctioning as opposed to maxing out materia.

It's clearly worse to max out materia. You don't really need to draw 100 of each and every spell in the FF8.

In this case, maxing out materia is only worse because doing ANYTHING in VIII is far easier. You may as well compare the difficulty of fighting a big hall of badguys to taking a stroll through the park. Actually, we ARE comparing fighting a bunch of dudes to walking around doing nothing but mashing the draw button.

And yes, you don't NEED to draw 100 magics, and you don't NEED to grind every single materia to max. However, you do need to draw at least a decent amount of magic, to the extend that at some point, you will be grinding for draws. Whereas in VII, you do not need to grind materia, ever.

I was never trying to compare completely maxing out EVERYTHING, as in that case I would also count having max items, every weapon and armor, and in VIII's case, every card, and every GF at max compat, not to mention making sure that every character can junction every stat, including elemental and status.

In which case, VIII is clearly much more of a pain in the ass to max out.

[ZeroAX]

Still, I do enjoy the game, but in my opinion it is completely broken, even moreso than VII.

Remind me which Final Fantasy game couldn't be broken? Then again we love having the ability to do that right?


I don't know guys, I think J-RPGs can always end up into tedious grindfests, either you call it leveling materia or drawing magic.

What I liked about FF8's system, is that on every time I play through the game, I learn more about its system, which can be broken quite early in the game, and so I don't have much difficulty winning battles as I did the first time, nor do I waste time drawing magic.

So for a series which, let's be honest here, most people enjoy for the spectacle (probably the biggest "blockbuster" titles in gaming in the late 90s if you ask me), being able to use tricks to breeze through the game is a nice bonus.

I do find the battles themselves enjoyable, but since all Final Fantasy battles pretty much play the same, the only way they can make themselves different is in the leveling system.

At the end of it I like both, but I prefer 8's more.

[dunpeal2064]

Hey, I never said any of the FF games weren't broken! They all are in some way. The main difference for me is that, in VIII's broken-ness, instead of breezing through fights, you just skip them entirely.

What I should have said was, "In a series well known for its broken systems, VIII far exceeds them"

I think the combination of "No Encounter", the unlimited GF summons, and having pretty much an unlimited supply of Limit Breaks just pushed it too far into the "I could never ever die" region. I do like feeling powerful, but some challenge would have been nice.

I could go on about VII's flaws too, and it holds the most nostalgic value for me, so don't think that because I'm going on like this, that I dislike VIII. I still enjoy it, I just have no problem looking its flaws in the face.