Today’s game is Final Fantasy VIII (technically the Remaster). I picked this, IX, XIII, XV all up recently with a sale. What’s with the sudden interest in final fantasy? I’m a big fan of Symphony’s. I think they’re a highly under appreciated and really important form of Public Art that’s slowly vanishing (Seriously, if it’s in your budget go check out your local Symphony. They might have something that interests you). Earlier this year I took my friend to see Distant Worlds at our local Symphony for his birthday. He’s a big Final Fantasy fan. Especially XIV.
I’m sure where people can see where this is going, i heard Not Alone and was moved too tears (for IX), I saw the opening too XII and was interested, and XV I saw you get too push a fucking car and was sold (not even joking). So then you might be wondering “what about VIII?”. Well. I remember when I was little I always heard the “Squall is Dead” theory. Suffice to say I remembered that while picking some out and it piqued my interest in picking it up. Is it a stupid reason? Probably. But It sold me.
As for the actual game, I have mixed feelings. Combat only seems to run at around 15 FPS for me. Which isn’t great. I’m not a big “I need 60 FPS at least” guy. But 15 FPS is way too choppy. I was legitimately starting to feel a little sick. Overworld seems fine though.
Setting wise though I love the setting. Academy settings are really interesting to me and this seems to have that covered. Tying back to the “Squall is Dead” thing, it does actually make me wonder how the hell things escalate (even if he isn’t dead). Because I want to know how we go from “Academy” to “Holy fucking shit. He just got impaled with an iceberg 2x the size of his own head”.
Anyways. I got Ifrit, named him Greg, and I’m planning to settle in for a longer play session tomorrow. I’m not expecting a long game, especially because I’ll be making use of the boosts to avoid spending too much time grinding experience. I’m hoping I enjoy this and didn’t waste 5$.
8 is a hard one for me. I WANT to like it because you can make some crazy combos and there’s so much side content to chew through. And I find the setting fascinating.
But the main story is a fucking mess. And I hate treating magic like items. Drawing for necessary stuff sucks and put me off of it until I realized you can smelt items for magic. But there’s still a handful of spells (like triple) that are such a pain to get 99 of. Also switching junction setups is clunky for the amount of times they force you to character swap.
With the junctions, the whole tutorial went in one ear and out of the other. I had to read an external tutorial to understand them
Seriously, if it’s in your budget go check out your local Symphony
That’s the problem with symphonys, they are priced for rich folks. No normal person is going to go pay $200 for lousy seats one night at the symphony. I wanted to go see Back to the Future with live symphony last summer and it was more than that, insane.
Damn. I knew they could get pricey but not 200$ pricey. My local one usually prices them 75$ for something mainstream, with smaller shows being around 40$-50$
FFVIII is probably one of my top three. Something about the characters, setting, gameplay, and even the mini game triple triad tickles my fancy.
The “squall is dead” theory really was one of those playground spread rumors that I loved too.
I’m currently on a quest to get all achievements for every FF game. It’s real interesting seeing the changes from game to game, enjoy IX when you get there
I grew up right when playground rumors started kind of dying, but “squall is dead” was one of the first I remember.
My friend I went with has been trying to do the same with all the achievements too. He started with 1, and he’s now on I think 5? It’s really cool to see even though I barely understand what it’s going on.
How long has your friend been working on it? I’m on 4 myself. Had a lot of free time over the holidays to blast through the first three, but now I’m hoping to finish one every few months
Since maybe January? I was trying to check his achievements for 1 to get an idea of when but apparently the Steam Mobile app doesn’t show date and time of achievements so I’m not sure exactly
So about the same as me, solid. Wish him luck on his Bestiary hunt and Lightning dodges.
Nice, I recently replayed 8, 9, and 10. FF8 is definitely the odd one out in some ways, but it has a special place in my heart as the first FF I ever played.
9 is what I’m most excited to get too after this, if only for the soundtrack. It was really good when I heard it, and it’s been living rent free in my head for a while
I’ve never really got into FF as a series. The only ones I actually completed were just the FF3 DS remake (I barely remember anything about it) and 9 on the Switch that I got because it was the one that looked the most “fantasy” to me. It was nice, had its moments.
The rest is mostly stuff I’ve abandoned. Started XIII, got bored in the long beginning corridor, stopped playing. Never could get through FF6 either, I just can’t care about its characters and disjointed storytelling.
Everything I get from the most “Nomura” episodes by pure cultural osmosis, especially everything around FF7, tells me I won’t enjoy it.
That’s what my main fear is. It took a while for me to get hooked on 7’s remake, and with 8 being a more traditional RPG rather than 7’s hybrid thingy it has going on I’m a little nervous I’ll get bored. I’m glad I picked it up on sale at least. I know the people in my family sharing at least will get some use out of it
