News Flash: Final Fantasy VIII sucks
Please infer the sarcasm implied in the title; there’s nothing new here. It simply strikes me how repeatedly this opinion seems to pop up from time to time. Back when the game first came out, I thought I was the only one who didn’t like it. The general opinion of the public at large seemed to be to the gist of “OMG FFVIII RULEZ”, and while occasionally I found other freaks who hated it too, I always felt like I was in the minority.
By the time I hit the Final Fantasy Online forums a few years later, there was much more of a concerted movement against FFVIII, but what mitigated its’ impact was the fact that on FFO every FF sequel had its’ own faction of angry fanboys that hated it. As much as I hated VIII, there were those who argued vehemently for it, and those that hated VII, VI, and IX just as much. It makes sense that there was so much controversy, given how much each FF sequel rearranges what was done before…after all, no installment ever shares world or cast with any previous games.
However, over the years, the criticisms of the other FF sequels quieted down, and as I proceeded to gaming discussion in other corners of the internet (like 1up) and with my friends at college, the criticism of FFVIII persisted and stood out as a very prevalent point of view. Nearly all of my gamer friends at college see VIII as either a weakest link in the series or the point where the series went downhill and never came back. On 1up, I almost never see complaints about the other FF’s, but I see criticisms of VIII very frequently in the forums, in peoples’ blogs, and most recently in the new Curse of the Sequels article.
To some extent, I still do wonder what it is about FFVIII that turns people off so much. Again, a series that tosses out the entire cast and rearanges the battle system with every installment is bound to cause dissent among fans…Many of the negative things people say about FFVIII could said of some of the other FF’s as well; for example people complain that Squall is angsty, but so were Cloud, Terra, and Cecil.
One of the things mentioned in the Curse article which I think is a big factor is the fact that FFVII brought the series so much into the mainstream compaired to other titles. For many, VIII was the first time they had loved an FF game then had its’ sequel toss out the world of the previous game and introduce a completely new cast and re-aranged battle system. As much as I criticize VIII, I have to admit that a good amount of my fellow haters are not even real fans of the series, didn’t play I-VI, were only attracted to VII by its graphics, and once they saw what VIII was like, never played another FF again.
I don’t think “sequel shock” for the FFVII n00bs is the only cause of FFVIII hate though. I was a longtime fan of the series, having played all the US releases since FFI prior to VIII, and VIII felt particularly out of place to me compared to the reinventions of all the previous sequels. I have talked to many people who began the series with IX or X…even VIII itself, and after playing backwards to VII or VI still cite VIII as the weakest link.
So, there must be some objective truth to the criticisms that Squall’s angst is misplaced, the supporting cast is weak, the game’s world is too “real”, and summoning, drawing, and junctioning turned gameplay into a tedious chore rather than a fun pastime. I could go on for paragraphs detailing all of the negative aspects of the game, and I have…but I don’t wish to spend any more time on it. I simply wished to point out that it seems that time has revealed the ugly truth about Final Fantasy VIII.
I’d be remiss to admit this but, I never finished FF8. I fully intend to, but it just didn’t grab me by the ears like all the other ones did. But that’s not saying it’s “bad”. But, considering the eclectic fan base FF has, it’s not surprising to see some dissent. Good blog.
Yup, it’s kinda sad really. Personally, I love FFVIII, but I do think it is easily the most hated game in the series. Like most FF fans I started with VII, but keep your “Aha!” to yourself. I grew up playing NES and SNES but I just never was interested in RPGs. So after playing VII I went back and played the most of the first games just to play anything Final Fantasy. After playing what I could get my hands on, I would have to list the FF Series in this way:
1.) VI
2.) VIII
3.) IV
4.) V
5.) VII
6.) I
7.) II
8.) IX
9.) Mystic Quest
I have yet to play III, X, XI, X-2 or Crystal Chronicles. Call me whatever, but I just fell in love with FFVIII from the moment that “Liberi Fatali” started. I enjoyed the story and the gameplay to the greatest extent and I found that the gameplay for VIII reminded me mostly of VI, which is probably why I liked it so much.
But that’s not the point. I work in a technical support center so needless to say I am surrounded by nerds. The topic of “Favourite FF game” has come up many, many times before. And I have found that the majority of gamers are all over VII and detest VIII. I don’t really know why this is, nor do I really care. No amount of arguing each aspect of the game will make me stop playing it.
Slappy- Don’t feel guilty, I never finished VIII either. The first time, I found myself continually taking unintentional multi-week breaks from it, eventually working my way up to disc 2 and soon giving up. I tried to force myself to play through it a few years later and as hard as I pushed, I got to disc 3 and couldn’t bear to finish it. As much as I wanted to understand what it’s few ardent supporters saw in it, I just couldn’t enjoy the game.
Sturby- I’m sure you have your reasons, and you do have IV and VI higher on your list than the others, so I will refrain from burning you at the stake. You’re right, while I do think to a degree it’s possible to debate certain empirical aspects of the game, ultimately it just comes down to personal preference and no amount of argueing will change anyone’s enjoyment of the game.
By the way, if IV, V, and VI are that high on your list, FF Tactics could be up your ally. IMO it has the best gameplay of any FF title, and a very mature, complex story.
I played Tactics for about 1 hour and I enjoyed what I played. I didn’t actually have the game and I just never got around to playing it again. Wasn’t it re-released for the GBA or something. I think I should track down a ROM of that game and check it out. But then again, I have to battle that Time thing to free up some in order to play it in the first place.
you are the only who suck idiot
How startlingly eloquent! You should misspell things while calling people idiots more often!
Yo, dude. Can you send me a copy of one of your rants on this game? VIII is actually my favorite one, so I’m really curious abut this whole “hate-movement” thing, lol.
geez guys settle down matt spell it correctly julian stop with the snobby sarcasm and the annoying upper class insults jack he doesnt have a hate movement he only says that to sound cool plus if he DOES go to college then hes probably one of the nerds who have nothing better to do than sit down and play final fantasy games i like VIII better than the other games in fact compared to some ps2 games the backgrounds are pretty good but the people are made like they are in paint so yeah think on what i said by the way what does eloquent mean?
Nerds like you? He’s right VII does suck ass it’s to easy and boring as hell VII is way better. Btw check on your horrible spelling grammar.
To the guy above me: your spelling grammar isn’t very good either. “VII does suck ass it’s to [not TOO] easy and boring as hell VII [which one did you mean here?] is way better.” Get real.
Sorry but he is right. ff8 did suck. The mass amount of idiotic fanboys just overhype this shit.
I too view Final Fantasy VIII as the black eye of the entire series. Though it was optional the game and some of its most important items could only be found by playing a ridiculous card game that never quite made any sense to me. Having to draw magic and having enemies that leveled up as you did took away a lot of what other Final Fantasy games brought to the table.
Though its my least favorite in the series I do like the games characters and the somber tone of the game. The music is also fantastic but it just seemed to much of the game was “optional” and the parts that weren’t didn’t carry a lot of weight or meaning.
I think the best games in the series are (in no particular order)
FF IV
FF VI
FF VII
FF IX
FF X
Yeah, I never understood the attraction of the card game either. They continued it in FFIX and I never touched it, despite actually playing through and enjoying all of IX.
All in all, I think what killed 8 for me the most though was the tedious and monotonous gameplay. The battle/progression systems were really lame – it was the peak of the “customization”-based trend where characters had no individual traits beyond limit breaks and their abilities were entirely based on the items you equipped them with, which usually resulted in every character casting the same spells every turn. Also, summoning was way too prevalent, particularly considering that summon cutscenes were 30 seconds to minutes long. Ad to that enemy HP was inflated by the leveling system so that they weren’t actually strategically harder, they just required more repeated drawing/casting/summoning to beat, and playing the game was really not any fun whatsoever.
Your existence sucks. You are at the bottom of dirt. So therefore you saying FFVIII sucks, proves to everyone how you cease to exist to the world and shortly you’ll be cutting yourself from the cause of isolation from the world. I look forward to knowing that people your kind are dying. YOU YOU. Live with it.
Very interesting, IOWNYOU4LIFE…. That aside, I too found FF VIII to be one of the worst role-playing games I’ve ever played. In fact, I was a serious fan of Final Fantasy until FF VIII; after FF VIII, I never played another FF game again. (I was afraid that all FF’s > VIII would be like FF VIII; I know now that they are not.) It’s refreshing to hear that many other fans share my dislike of FF VIII. I think that the designers were experimenting when they created this game: I believe they were trying to attract girls to FF. (Indeed, I heard that many Japanese girls were attracted to the game.) However, it turned off many guy gamers. The problems included those mentioned above (the card game, the summons, drawing magic, enemies leveling up, the environments not being fantasy-enough, having to randomly find components to upgrade your weapons, etc.), as well as the story itself: it’s basically a soap opera / love story — good stuff for most girls, not so for most guys. Adventure took a back seat in this FF. (By the way, I’ve played FFs I through VII and FF Tactics.)
I meant “I’ve also played FFs I through VII and FF Tactics.” FF Tactics was my fav.
FF8 was the best! Customization rules! All of the main male characters didn’t look like women, which was a plus. Who wants your male hero to look like a buffed girl? FF9 looked like sesame street (with all those effing animals as NPCs) with swords, and the main character looked like a chick on the cover. I like being able to customize my character’ weapons so they aren’t all the same. It provides actual strategy. After FF8, the series just kind of took a plunge. They probably could have done without the card game but at least their boss was not super easy like some Final Fantasy titles.
for some reason this reminds me of how much 9 sucked, first ff game that felt like a chore for me to finish. 8 was great, not my favorite, but definitely loved playing it. You can get through the game without drawing if that bothers you.
Final Fantasy 8, imo, was the best of the FF series. Yes, just like Jesse said about customization, that’s what I loved. If you found drawing magic, the card game or even junction tedious, then that’s fine. But I found it entertaining, creating several combinations that helped resist status effects, magic or have a ton of HP. Don’t get me started on the ending, I mean dude, you get to kick the shit outta like 9 bosses, fight Ultimecia, a GF, their two forms and Ultimecia’s crazy ass final form. Hell to the yes. Ultima and Omega Weapon where actually an awesome challenge, especially when I faced them the first time
The side story was amazing too, so subtle but doing all of it opened up more of the backstory of the main character. The past and present wrapped up nicely and Squall’s development may of been cliche, but I enjoyed it.
I’m not sure what was so difficult about the card game. I mean the rule book was in the Menu. Numbers are higher than other numbers and you win. Yay. Same, Same-Wall, Plus, elements and beyond were so awesome. Dueling the Queen of Cards was always great. And the goodies you get for the cards was even more badass. 100 Megalixers, 10 Heroes… etc, etc.
Again this is my opinion. My background of what FF I played has nothing to do with liking FFVIII. It’s a gamer’s opinion on the title that furthered my interest of RPGs.
FF8 blew. I use it as a benchmark to separate the fans from the fanboys/girls. Everyone who isn’t a devoted FF fanboy/girl I know admits that FF8 is complete dreck.
The characters were barely one-dimensional. Anyone not named Squall or Rinoa were virtually forgotten after the end of the first disc. Squall is an emo, wangsty douche whose character development came entirely at the end of the game. Rinoa is a skank. Girl, at least grieve a little after you’re told your boyfriend has been killed instead of hopping into the arms of the next guy that happens to be available.
The story is incoherent and schizophrenic. Story lines are frequently added without any build up. Events happen that make zero sense in any way, shape, or form. And what happens in one scene often has little to no relevance at any point afterward. Oh, and three words: The Orphanage Scene. Could the writers get any more contrived than that?
Oh, and of course, the gameplay. Worst system ever. You could beat the game easily if you keep your party’s levels in the single digits and exploit the junction system to the fullest. Nevermind how easily the player can exploit Limit Break system, or even the fact the player could potentially get Squall’s ultimate sword on Disc 1.
You can say like that… I can see u r not a FF Fan… What others talk about FF8 is a FAIL is bulls**t!!! WE FF LOVERS CLAIMED THAT FF8 IS THE FIRST MOST ADVANCE FF IN THE FF HISTORY!
quote”"
“You could beat the game easily if you keep your party’s levels in the single digits”
–>You say… There’s no such thing like that, esp when fighting bosses, you’ll be killed instantly in 1 hit…
–>Receiving exp from bosses without fighting normal enemies will make you advanced from level 1 to level at least 37… So keep ur mouth when you only using cheats or Gamesharks ::TESTED::
“Nevermind how easily the player can exploit Limit Break system, or even the fact the player could potentially get Squall’s ultimate sword on Disc 1.”
–>Without using the Monthly Weapon 1st Issue, you can;t get it on 1st Disc… You can get Lionheart at Disc 3 and Disc 4
Ive played a few of the older final fantasies but my first was VII, materia system, summoning, just awesome, great storyline and graphics, after you go from that to VIII, there is definately a bad taste in your mouth. I never played VIII so I came back to it, 25minutes in I gave up, then I went straight into to IX, the characters may be a little gay but at least the game isnt tedious and actually plays out a lot better. FF8 just feels like a cheap ripoff that doesnt do its job, anyone ranking 8 above 7, or 8 above any other FF is mentally retarded.
to WillzPT
“There’s no such thing like that, esp when fighting bosses, you’ll be killed instantly in 1 hit…”
no you won’t.Exploit the card game and you can beat ultemecia(final boss) with the levels you start with.Read some faqs on gamefaqs.com if you don’t believe me.
“Without using the Monthly Weapon 1st Issue, you can;t get it on 1st Disc… You can get Lionheart at Disc 3 and Disc 4″
you do not seem to get it.
you don’t need the weapon magazines for weapon upgrades only raw materials and thats all that matters. just take the materials to the junk shop and the weapon in question is magically available.Again check gamefaqs.com if you don’t believe me.
The only redeeming feature of this game in my mind is its OST some songs are very nice the extreme,the legendary beast,liberi fatali, Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinose,Succession of Witches,Eyes On Me,Don’t be Afraid comes to mind. Others were too soft for my taste.
everything else sucked .anybody can tell me what exactly is time compression.Then there were those 3 stooges in those idiotic dreams. that was the worst part of the game.
I hear some people saying that they like the love story in the game.whats there to like about that stereotypical boy meets girl romance already tried in hundreds of RPG’s before. shallowness at its best.
the only other redeeming feature were the nicely done cutscenes alas which were wasted on this shallow and tedious rpg.
Final Fantasy VIII took everything that was wrong with Final Fantasy VII and made it worse. More FMVs, longer summons, and characters so customizable that it doesn’t even mean anything to get a new character. And of course, like Final Fantasy II (Famicom), the game’s system is so exploitable to the point of not even being fun.
And yeah, I too find it funny that the hatred of this game is a more recent phenomenon. I knew it back then, and I’m enjoying watching the rest of the gaming community catch up to this, except that now we have the hating posers who were clearly the fanboys back in the day.
Oh, and I had more contempt for Squall than any other Final Fantasy protagonist of the series. I had already had my fill of angsty male protagonists by the time this game came out, and this just made me mad. At least with earlier angsty protagonists, they were supposed to be idealistic kids. Squaresoft was trying to go for a more mature story and look, but then they give us such an insultingly immature character that you could not possibly relate to him in the context of the story.
I didn’t even like the characters designs. The proportionally correct character models (actually, they were TOO tall) may seem like a natural choice, considering that the game was going in a “mature” direction, but they were really bland to look at. Especially on a system like PlayStation that didn’t have the power to do anything really visually appealing with that style. It’s bad enough that PlayStation is one of the most difficult consoles to revisit in terms of graphic quality, but when you don’t even try to look at your graphics from a forward-thinking perspective, then you’ll inevitably create a game that is destined to not age well. And Final Fantasy VIII is one of those games that has aged very badly.
Like the person above me said, the only redeeming factor is the music. Otherwise, my opinion of this game is… “Whatever.”
Personally FF6 is the best,ff4 second and FF7 possibly third.
2 games that get way more fame than they deserve:
FF7 and FF8:
FF7 at least is playeable,i beat the game two or 3 times,its a ok game but i probably won’t play it ever again.
FF8:i tried so many times i can’t even remember how many times i tried,i keep losing interest,no matter how much i try i cannot keep myself interested in this game,worse yet is:1 step enemy gad and the horrible walk to where you get the cutscene to laguna is really long.
Ok. You made the point that most people who hate FF8 are not fans of the series at all. Well; I love the series, the later AND the earlier games, all were interesting, all were solid, playable and on many occasions fantastic games but never did I hate an RPG more than I did FF8. The story was ridiculous and on many occasions uninteresting, the game lacked minigames and replaced itself with silly and often pointless puzzles, the characters were unrelatable and nothing more than air encased in pretty and lastly the bosses were ridiculous, you’d fight them with a rather hard to get used to battle/junction system and if you failed you weren’t sure whether or not to grind or to start the game again. But in the end I enjoyed the graphics but hated the game even after finishing it though I felt the final CGI scene summed up little and was hardly worth all the effort.
FF7 was fun and amusing and all round a solid game, never cared about the hype because it deserved it on some levels as is with most and many FF games but FF8 I detested and loathed especially when I’d hear people talk about how epic the game had been. The only logical reason that I could come up with was because they’re dead romantic so they fell for the strong theme of love in this game (despite the bland characters included in those relationship) and/or they have a thing for shiny shiny graphics and maybe they jsut love anything with the words FF attatched, which I muyself am guilty of, but this was just too bad to even accept.