I used to weigh 400 pounds, snorted crack all day, and washed my dishes in the bath tub. But thanks to you, Drew, and your amazing self confidence test, I'm the man I've always wanted to be.

May you live a long and prosperous life, my lord.

*snorrrtttt*

...Err, forget you saw that.

I connected the dots but it doesn't look like a heterosexual as your hint had suggested...

-Spud

Out of curiousity, how do you know that Titanic is a "skank of a movie" if you've never seen it? Is it fair to judge something that you have no first hand knowledge?

Etiam, delenda est Carthago.

-Caine

Ah-ha! A topic that coincides with what I was going to write about anyway. :)

First off, I will admit two things: I preordered FF8 and picked it up on the day it was released, and since then I have racked up a whopping 10 hours playing it. Granted, I have a busy life, but that doesn't explain my lack of playing. I just haven't felt posessed to play it like I did FF 7. Part of it is that I haven't found any of the characters very interesting. I'm not sure why this bothers me, since the vast majority of older console RPGs have characters with little or no personality, but so far I haven't run across any characters I care about. Part of it is that just playing the game takes so much prep time: hopefully this won't spoil anyone too much, but I'm just now at the point where Squall and co. meet up with the Forest Owls. I've spent a lot of time in random battles drawing spells just so I can get through the later battles. In comparison, in FF7 I had already reached the Midgar serpent in the same amount of play time. Speaking of time, another thing I don't care for is the amount of timed missions. Yes, I realize 8 is not the first game to have them, but getting smacked with one on top of another has put me off. Finally, this is the first game I've ever played that I felt the need to buy a hint book. There is just so much in this game that's easy to miss or just plain not understand. Normally I enjoy puzzling things out or searching for secret items, but this was just too much.

Now before you give up on me as totally hopeless, there are things in the game I like as well. I do like the junction system (now that I finally figured it out). It's nice to be able to do something beneficial with the 'summon' characters aside from calling them. :) From what I've seen of the game world, the story and background have been well thought out. I am also impressed with the translation; having taken a couple years of Japanese, I have a clue as to how darn difficult it is to translate from one to another and still have the meaning come through. Not only that, but I think they ran the translation through a spell check!

Overall, I'm not as satisfied with 8 so far as I was with previous installments of the series. However, I'm not quite ready to give up on it yet.

-Foxfire

Okay. There are only two answers to the question that was asked. And, realizing how much people seem to enjoy bashing the modern Final Fantasy games, I'll take the initiative to be the iconoclast here. I liked FF8, dammit.

Oh, dear oh my! It was modern! Yes, I liked that. What's this? It had a new magic system?! Why, yes it did. And it was a good, fun magic system. It changed how we played RPGs, if only for the span of one short game. The junction system added nicely to that. I really don't like the idea of purely customizable characters, but the usefulness of the limit breaks makes each character their own personality, much moreso than in FF7, while the junction system worked around it, adding the perfect degree of customizability.

Yeah, the love aspect of the story was hackneyed... you aren't going to find people who can deny that very forcefully. But, when you think about it, not only is it somewhat odd to see a love story in a game, but, even while banal, it's banality well done.

Final Fantasy 8 incorporates the best elements of the previous FF games, and takes away the bad parts, revitalizing the console RPG. Yeah, I know. I'm being trite. This has been said time and time again. But, all other things aside, I could call this the best FF game, if for no other reason than Quistis.

-Riffraff, who is Trepie #1, and wants his card back.

Dear Drew "Too Sexy" Cosner,

First off, I see that the only reason that you bring up FFVIII is so that you can refute my points with your incredible wisdom and leave me crying in the corner. That, and it's a topic that will easily get a big-ass debate going.

I'll start with the first thing that strikes me about this game: The graphics. In the battles, nothing beats 'em, best on the Playstation - hands down. However, I found the world map graphics to have much more of a repetitive nature than that of FFVII (Which was a much more epic, yet much more shallow experience.). Also, in towns and dungeons, the pixelated characters look very out of place among the beautifully rendered backdrops.

Next stop, the characters. To put it simply, you'll feel like these people are your best friends by disc three. (Unless you're one of those lucky people that actually have friends... feh, spoiled little brats...). Every one has a distinct personality, and you can always count on them to act true to their nature. My personal favorite character was Zell, being by far the most animated of the bunch. However, Selphie... is a different story. The character designs are also superb, except that in the cities/dungeons I found that Squall's hands look ludicrously undersized... is it just me?

The story kicks ass, in my opinion. At least it's different from all that other "Young Warrior is destined to save the world" crap that's present in just about every other RPG ever made...

Now, always the hot topic, we reach the Junction System. It is a radical... VERY radical... departure for the series. No longer are characters endowed with commands from the onset... you have to assign them using the almighty GF/Junction system. (Which, for me, was stupid at times... "You can't even DEFEND by yourself? You're a SeeD, dammit!".) Drawing magic, while mindless and repetitive, definitely adds a sense of conservation to the game. You're a little less likely to use that Ultima spell if you've only got five casts of it in the entire world. Simply put, this system beats the hell out of all the other systems out there. Gotta love it.

And finally, Triple Triad. I'd play more if I hadn't spread the Random rule to every town in the game... ergh...

~Cowman

FF8 is great. Each disk ends with a bang and the movies are beyond words. Though if there wasn't an Enc-None ability I probably would have quit from all those battles. Am I the only one who doesn't get tired of the GF summons?

-Spuzzz

Damn, I wish I had your sense of humor. [I think what you meant to type was "I wish that I shared your sense of humor so that I could understand what the hell you're talking about half the time." -Drew]

Anyways, FF8, though I haven't made it past the third disc yet, is stunning. The CG sequences really are integrated into the gameplay, and even though Squall is a bit of a dead fish, I like his style 'cos I can relate to him.

But one thing: Why is everyone bashing the music?! I think the music in FF8 surpasses any else in the Final Fantasy series (...'cept maybe the music in FF6). Sub-par?! Slightly short?! Ha!! I like it so much that I downloaded the whole thing in mp3 format!! (...That's legal, right?) From the slow, soft music (Where I Belong, Julia, Ami, Trust Me) to the fast-paced, upbeat stuff (Force Your Way, The Legendary Beast) to the cool dungeon-style music (The Castle, Galbadia Garden), I think it's all a masterpiece.

Even the sucky ones fit well into the game.

The Junction System rules. You can customize your characters to make them absorb certain elements without spending hours in the Northern Cave mastering scores of Elemental Materia. You can up their Max HP just by spending a few minutes getting 100 Curagas to junction. You can summon the powerful GF's at the risk of losing your SeeD rank (I think... the more I used GF's the more I found myself having to take those dumb test things to keep from losing my cash). You CAN'T just replace your ever-ready Quetzacoatl with your brand-new Siren or Brothers (like you could in FF7... When was the last time YOU used Choco-mog?) because the new ones have low compatibility and lower levels.

The weapon system (Is it really a system?) is actually CHALLENGING! You MUST know how hard it is to find those damned Energy Crystals!!

This email is too long already, so I'll wrap it up with this: Thpppppbbbbbbbbttt.

-Cid Reincarnate

Okay, just to give you an idea of how far Final Fantasy VIII has sucked me in . . .

I've played approximately 70 hours according to the clock in the game (not counting the 10-15 hours I've put in on my PocketStation). Not that bad until you realize I'm only on disk 2.

Let's just say I'm taking my time and enjoying the game.

Drew,

FF VIII, by far the most anticipated game of the year, has deviated from the previous FF's of the series. Some say it's a bit too different, but what FF has been exactly like the preceding? Hm? Each Final Fantasy has added or modified an aspect from the preceding game. For instance, Materia is a spin-off of Espers and Espers are a spin off of Summon Monsters. I think the game is absolutely FF.

Junctioning is completely different from anything I can remember. I think it's a welcome change. I didn't like the fact in FF VII that all one had to do was master HP Plus's and MP Plus's with others, then shove them into your 3 party members and all of the sudden you have an army. It was almost too easy during the latter stages of the game. Junctioning is quite confusing towards the beginning, when you have to go through all the Tutorials and such, but later on, it's a great way of customizing characters. It takes some thinking and strategy to obtain the best Junctioning that fits a particular party. The Auto command is a breeze, but if you really want the best customization, the Auto command is not the way to go, it concentrates the Junctioned magic too much in one field for my tastes. Maybe I'm anal retentive (at least I'm not expulsive....ew). Also, I like the fact that your party gets to the point where GF's aren't always the answer. Sometimes your party deals the equivalent damage without the hideous wait (unless your Compatibility is high, where the GF wait meter flies by). It's pretty much customizable to each player's taste and customizable is good (*cough* linux).

I don't know about the my emotional ties to the storyline however. I flew by disc 1 and after that, I didn't play for about 4 or 5 days. I have proceeded slowly since then...I'm just not as attached to this FF as I was in say...FFVI, when I rented it and beat it before I returned it 3 days later...now THAT game drew me in. I have not gotten far enough into the game for the 'love story' to have developed at all pretty much, but I eagerly await the time. Call me dramatic, but love stories are emotional and dramatic (imagine that!) and to incorporate one as the main theme in a RPG IMHO was a great idea.

Reality is the original Rorschach.

'til next time I have 10 minutes to waste your time

-dank

Hi Drew

Well I'll try to make this short about FVIII. The story about the witch trying to make time compression and all that isn't the best story Squaresoft ever made. But Squall's feelings couldn't be more realistic. Maybe a lot of people won't see it this way because they can't relate to it. Squall lost Ellone when he was young, which made him very sad. He tried to find her but wasn't able to. Because of all that sadness he never wanted to love someone again in fear that one day he might lose this person and feel all this sadness again. Squall isn't just trying to act bad saying I don't need anyone's help, he reject everything related to love or having to depend on others. After saving Rinoa a few times, they talk to each other more and more untill Squall can feel the feelings he once rejected starting to come back, but still won't admit even to himself that he is really in love with her.

It goes on and on and I have to say it's simply the best character development I've ever seen in a video game. Don't we all feel like we know Irvine? Squaresoft managed to make complete characters without them being stereotypes. Sure Irvine is the ladies man, but you can see at one point in the game that he can be serious and even smart. All the characters have something that make them feel real, and I think this will help other RPGs to have more character development in FFVIII's way. I mean Laguna being Squall's father wasn't something I really expected, but I like the fact that this scene wasn't shown to us and that we just know Laguna told Squall about it after the ending. Seifer will probably want to become a SeeD if they still exist. We know the story goes on, that's another thing I really like about it.

As for the gameplay, everyone has their own opinion on it, I loved it, but I just wanted to talk about what made me love this game over everything else.

-Phil

Getting one thing out of the way right off the bat: it's a really, really solid game. I enjoyed it immensely, and I'm sure it's going to be one of the best games of the year. Not once did I feel like playing was a chore, which is a rarity in RPGs lately. There's only one "fetch quest" in the whole game, which again was a relief. It kind of goes without saying that any CRPG enthusiast should pick up a copy.

As far as the details go, FF8 is much more of a "system" game than a "storyline" one. Here's what I mean: The relative ease of FF7 let you haul through the fighting and so forth without having to worry too much about how well-equppied your party was. This, in turn, let the player focus the majority of his/her attentions on the storyline, which as far as I'm concerned was the best I've ever seen. This makes FF7 a "storyline" RPG.

FF8, on the other hand, is a very "system" game. It nearly forces the player to beef up, customize, and re-customize their party over and over throughout the game, which sounds like a major drag but is actually one of FF8's strong points. All this revolves around Junctioning, which combines magic, summoning, special attacks, resistances, statistic enhancement, menu commands, and weapon performance into one complicated-as-all-hell system. It starts off really confusing, but once you get used to it, it makes the game a lot more fun. Without Junctioning right, you could easily find yourself getting trashed in random fights, which is a first for the FF series (unless you count Tactics, of course). The Junction system is much more of a focus of the game than the storyline, if you ask me. In fact, the word "Junction" makes it's way into the script on several occassions, which is a nice touch. I'll keep my spoilage to a minimum by saying that the story itself is pretty simple, but adequate and fun (kind of like FF4). It seemed to me that it contradicted itself more than a few times; on occassion, it should have been a bit more textbook; the whole "love" thing seemed really unrealistic and tacked-on, considering how Squall starts off with a really strange but intriguing mannerism that changes all of a sudden at one point in the game, just to make the romantic end of the story work; but it was enough to keep me interested. All the loose ends are tied up during the absolutely amazing ending CG sequence, which could conceivably be the best and most appropriate ending ever.

Still, with the storyline as its only shortcoming, FF8 remains a really sweet game that deserves to be played through a couple times. It is by no stretch of the imagination the best game ever created, but it's definitely worth the price.

-Capheine

This is the topic I've been waiting for. Let the great debate begin. I, for one, thought FFVIII was an incredible game, a milestone and a testament to the advantages of change. I really like the junction system, it was just so flexible--sure, so was FFV, but if you ever wanted to change your mind on what your party would be like, it took ours of fighting to do it. However, in FFVIII, you can constantly fiddle with the system, and if you don't, you're going to get wasted. I love the fact that a moron won't even break the 3000 hit point barrier by the end of the game (not to mention the other stats), while a smart gamer can get 9999 HP well before entering the final disk. And of course you can't just gratuitously use a zillion spells and then make it all better with one of the 99 elixirs you have. Instead, you have to work for spells, and if you want to cast the better ones, you're likely going to make your stats suffer. And I don't care what people say, the system is NOT based on calling GF's a million times, by the third disk I was rarely using them.

I also loved the fact that everything was so streamlined, Square put all of the emphasis on making this game good, and not bogging it down with inconveniences. You really don't appreciate what Sqaure has done is this respect untill you play the game. Not only that, but I only counted one fetch quest in the entire game that was necessary to complete!

And now for the most important thing: the story. Here to it looks like Square was really experimenting, this game is far more character based then any other FF and I like it. While the villains weren't as fleshed out as I had hoped (and Seifer really showed the potential to be totally fleshed out), everything else was very nicely done. This game really got me involved--more so than any game before it. There were still a few plot holes (why didn't Laguna ever say he was Squall's father)? But even some of them seemed like they had a purpose. The only real downside? The music isn't all that great until the end of the game, and even then its still forgettable. But don't get me wrong, tracks like the Sorceress theme, Laguna battle theme and all the stuff at the end of the game was still very good. But why oh why was the crystla theme not in the game? Why did it not play during the "The End" screen with stars in the background?!

But in the end the emotional and personal story and the flexible, deep junction system are more than enough to put this game alongside, or maybe ahead of FFVI. And that's saying a lot coming from me.

-Justin Freeman