/vr/ - Retro Games

Who are you quoting?

The draw system was a really cool idea and I wish they would make another game where they implement it a bit better. Something like for every ten fire magic you hold you can use it once per battle. There were serious problems with the games design and its far and away the easiest game to beat the super boss even without breaking the game but I still really like it.

>>4663579
it's not that punishing if you know where to buy items to refine
the only part that really bugs me is that you can't fit one stack of each spell in a character's inventory
>>4663583
I think it'd be really cool if they made a spiritual successor (like what saga is to 2) where they ironed out some of the mechanics (ie limit breaks are less broken, GFs can't be missed and unable to obtain until disc 4, get rid of draw points and focus more on item refinement and drawing from enemies)
knowing squenix though, this will never happen so the most we can hope for is an indie game or fan project that remakes / takes inspiration from FF8

You can cast spells by drawing them from enemies, thus not using your own

You can refine item drops into spells

You can refine cards into spells

You can find spells in 'fountains' all around the world

You can draw spells from enemies, up to 9 per character turn

You can do a bit of everything and never feel the impact of the spells you use

>>4663618
Getting magic was never a problem but in-game usage is. You have powerful/useful spell that you want to use. Said spell provides several benefits to stat junctioning. You can either A) not junction it and use it to lesser effects due to your character being weaker or B) junction it and not use it in order to not get weaker in battle each time you use it.

Enemies have 4 spells at most, and it may happen that you don’t have a need for the spells they have. Also casting spells from enemies provide a more random effect than using them from your own inventory. What happens is that you end up with 3 melee builds at the same time because it’s the most effective and less headache-inducing plan. One way to improve the use of magic would have been delaying the stat decrease effect of using junctioned magic after the battle.

>>4663657
Who would have known that video game players hated thinking?

>>4663657
>you end up with three melee builds
you can still create magic builds for selphie/quistis/rinoa and use their limit breaks whenever they're running low on magic

>>4663579
If by punishment you mean performing maintenance every dozen battles as you would with MP in every other RPG.

It's the problem of having your cake and eating it too. Have optimal stat configuration or play the stupid game; decisions decisions.

>>4663860
>junction full-life to HP because it's the best spell for that stat
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him
>now my HP is 9920 instead of 9999
>omega kills me with a 9998 hit
truly a fantastic system

>>4663884
>Not Spamming Holy War / Invincible Moon.
>Not saving all the Uber Items for 1 boss fight at the end.
>Not using Consume to max out stats.

>>4663884
>Super Bosses are hard

Oh noes

>>4663884
Use the Revive command instead. Does the exact same thing. Also Aura, Ultima, Meteor and Flare are all available as stones

>>4663884
>omega kills me
>He doesn't oneshot omega with Selphie

>>4663884
who would have imagined that the hardest boss in the game might require some finagling to beat

Did you guys call?

Don't you talk shit about FF8.
This game warms my heart when I play it.
Everything about it is cozy, the music the story the characters the visuals.
The junction system is unique, clever and I liked it. Also you don't get punished
for using spells , that's absurd, you can do this. >>4663618
Also you don't have to rely on spells all the time, that's what the GFs are for.

>>4663919
>>4663925
>>4663931
>>4663957
>>4663972
I was using a made-up example, I can't believe you are so autist. The only acceptable punishment for using magic in RPG games should be losing MP. It's incredible that /vr/ seems to be the only place that can't recognize that the system is flawed. Maybe is the usual contrarianism, who knows.
I really wonder why there isn't a single game since FFVIII with a similar system. Maybe it's because it was shit?

>>4663995
>tfw you will never visit fisherman's horizon
life is pain

>>4663995
Nothing's wrong with the game, people are just discussing the gameplay of it, IE the least important element of an RPG by a long shot. Autists like to talk about minutia such as these.

>>4664026
>game is different from other games
>this is inherently bad
swing and a miss milord

Gave this game a small playthrough again.

Like it more than 9 nowadays since 9 is so slow and 8 is aesthetic as fuck.

If you want to play a good FF8 just play SaGa

>>4664520
Let's go to balamb together

>>4664961
>ywn go the Balamb Garen SeeD-dance with your gf

>>4663884
>junction full-life to HP because it's the best spell for that stat
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9999
>guy in the party dies, use full-life on him again
>now my HP is 9920 instead of 9999
>should've had more stacks of full-life
>omega kills me with a 9998 hit
truly a fantastic system

>>4665338
>Junctioning full-life instead of more efficient spells
>Fighting Omega

You got what you deserved, scrub.
GIT GUD

>>4663884
>having to plan ahead and consider the consequences of your actions in an RPG is a bad thing

>>4665406
>getting weaker by using magic is a totally acceptable system
>it's perfectly fine having 3 melee builds at the same time, and it's fun!

>>4664539
>I play RPGs for their tired cliched story that is repeated time and time again!
>yes I know you spend 70% of the time fighting foes and delving into the mechanics but that isn't an important aspect at all! I grind for hours just to get to the next story segment!

>>4664026
>Maybe it's because it was shit?
Or maybe it's because every final fantasy mainline game uses a new system since FF5 onward.

>>4665413
>having to grind in ff8 to beat it

>>4665446
he (you) was talking about RPGs in general, keep moving the goalposts

>>4663579
Ok; the game doesn't punish you for anything. Because:

Stat and elem junction abilities, in conjunction with a high str stat makes almost all spells obsolete.

So for example, i can junction drain to my stat junction, and raise it up to 100%, and heal myself by several thousand HP every time i attack. The spell itself can never be this useful. So only a moron would use the spell.
Fire on elem atk beought up to 200% will let me fucking RAPE enemies weak to fire, and do far more damage than even the best fire spell.
I could go on...

Besides that, you only lose stats by using junctioned spells. There is, at any given time, 90% of your spells just sitting there, unjunctioned.
And furthermore, even if you use junctioned magic and lose stats during battle, you can easily refine more of almost every spell.

So let's say it's early game and i have water junctioned to str. Then, like an idiot, i use it in battle once (causing my stat to drop very slightly. Well lookit that! I have enough fish fins to refine thousands of fucking waters any time i want. So my stat goes right back up.

It's risk vs reward at worst. The game only punishes you for being stupid. Which is why so many of you fuckwits hate it so much.

>>4663884
>he junctioned full life to HP
you can easily max HP with other spells that you don't need to cast like Regen

you're just a retard

Also Omega Weapon is a joke if you're remotely competent. Rinoa alone will destroy him if you manipulate her magic library and give her high speed with auto-haste.

>tfw replaying FF8
>have insanely high stats without using up my cards
>could max everything if I refined cards
>refuse to do it because getting them back on the Ragnorak is such a pain
>they have no use at this point anyway
>tfw autism
In my defense Rinoa only has 2 pages of magic because I use her for Angel Wing, otherwise I wouldn't use Full Life for HP, but since she can't cast it anyway it's fine.

>>4663972
>spam Renzokuken and Quick Shot during the safe parts of Omega's attack cycle
>the pattern repeats exactly every time so it's impossible to lose
>hardest boss in the game

>>4663667
desu I've never played the game and reading all the way through that explanation was too much for me. i'm going to go watch cartoons and eat glue.

>>4665513
Wtf is up with that font? Disgusting

>>4665558
it's way better than the steam version default

>>4665513
>dat high textures mod
i came

>>4665513
>lvl 100 with maxed stats
>Ultimecia is lvl 65 and a total push over
grats on grinding for nothing

>>4663579
Tbh the final battle against Ultimecia made up for almost the entirety of the game for me. That shit was so fucking cash and Maybe I'm a Lion was dope as fuck.

>>4663579
VIII is pretty gay, if you ask me

I hate ff8

>>4665981
but the Ultimecia fight was a joke and the worst part is it was translated so poorly

>>4663579
One thing been bothering me since I finished FF8.
When I played it I junctioned every hi level spell to a stat and never used them to not thin my stack.

But what if I never junctioned anything?
What if I used the spell to gain advantage over enemies that are obviously harder and beat them.
Would the game become more strategic?

What if I junctioned only half of my spells to balance difficulty and tactics.

What if FF8 is a game that allow you to get as dumbed down and casual game mechanics or actually deep and hardcore challenge depending on your gaming style and I never even tried.

>>4665513
>tfw no Rinoa GF

>>4667331
Most people who play seem to do what you did. I went through the game twice and both times used way more magic than in most Final Fantasies never with any issues and both times were a breeze.

Which is a real shame because so many people convinced themselves junctioning means you shouldn't use magic at all and it's probably a big part of why they find it so boring.

>>4668064
Does FF8 have the best female cast in the whole franchise? The answer is yes.

>>4668073
>people convinced themselves junctioning means you shouldn't use magic at all and it's probably a big part of why they find it so boring.

Nothing weird about it, people are wired to try and make the best decisions almost subconsciously and doing it like this made game a breeze.
Sadly efficiency had nothing to do with fun in this case, same as scout rush in VC.
Yeah, gameplay wise it was attack and renzukoken over and over, never used my summons more than once to see the animation because regular attacks still outpowered everything else.

That said the game was far from boring, the story, setting, characters, I played it in 2011 so nostalgia was not a factor but still, it was my fav FF right of the bat.
Too bad there will never be anything like this again, cozy fantasy contemporary settings with all of my favourite tropes.
Realistic characters that are not caricatures comically overreacting, mature romance without needless drama, highschool setting with students living in adult world, swords and guns, magic and summons, ruins of old civilization with ancient monsters still lurking, very familiar looking villages and even a space level, plus comfy at every screen, not to mention great music.

Too many things went right here.

>>4668276
Oh my god, a well reasoned, balanced opinion on FF8 on /vr/ in this day and age, and one I agree with to boot.
Keep posting here please.

>>4668276
>pic
maximum comfy

>>4668154
Agreed. The whole cast is great, except for Squall, although he's a lot better with a proper translation.

>>4668154
I don't really care for them. Selfie is autistic, Rinoa is a spoiled brat, and Quistis is a non-entity.

>>4668339
>tfw no selfie cosplay gf

>>4668064
I completed 8 for the first time ever only a year ago or so, having played zone of the first disc many times since 1999. The main thing that blew my mind was that Seifer is not a 'bad guy' and is just a regular person by the end of the game. I had always assumed that he was meant to be a villain right up to the end.

>>4668339
>The whole cast is great
>Except for Squall

Reverse this.

>>4668347
>selfie is autistic
That's rude.

>>4668347
Quistis is the leggy idol they propped up as a teacher to keep the shorter attention spanned students at least tangentially focused on their studies. The fact that she's uniformly terrible at everything she does is mitigated by being the only other blonde in the school that's not on brat patrol.

>>4669884
Quistis could have had a really good arc but they just did nothing with her. FF8 is truly the perfect example of wasted potential in the whole franchise next to XIII. I really wonder what went wrong, FF8 feels like a couple good ideas just thrown together with no rhyme or reason.

>>4669884
She was pretty good for killing Adamantoise.

>>4672150
>implying XIII had any potential to waste

>>4663579
>coolest spells in the series
what's cool about them?
>game punishes you for using them
That's why you manage your shit. You don't even have to minmax with the spells, why does it matter if you have one less of a spell you needed to use?

>>4675738
The world and lore is great, but they fumbled on and getting that lore across to the player in a way that didn't make you have to rely on the datalog for some things. No towns to explore in such a pretty setting is just sad. The battle system was great, but it's locked down for 75% of the game because SE was so afraid of people not understanding it. The battle AI was fine but why the fuck didn't they just let you switch control in battle? Pulse is fun but holy shit is traversing it torture. Why only make Chocobos accessible only after beating the game? Why didn't they just give you Barty's owlship? I'd have settled for a point and click airship like X's and XII's, even.

It could have been so much better with just a couple changes to address the perfectly understandable complaints, which XIII-2 and LR went on to do. I don't think there are any bad FF games after playing each one, one after the other for myself. The hate the games get are massively overblown.

I've finished this game start to finish at least 30 times (conservative estimate) and use Squall and Rinoa, and either Quistis or Selphie depending on how I want to kill Omega. The only time you ever draw magic is at the start to get a base stockpile for Selphie going. Aside from that, you can draw 300 Aura from Seifer at the end of disc 3 if you want to but other than that everything is refined.

Is there a more efficient way to kill Elnoyles in Esthar than leaving Quistis in critical and spamming Degenerator? The answer is no.

>>4676486
>junction Death to St-Attack on everyone in party
>hold X when fight starts
Guess again.

>>4676491
It's not guaranteed though.

>>4676491
Sit there holding attack and hoping for a proc isn't as efficient as your garuanteed one hit from Quisty.

>>4676517
>>4676521
No but the chance is high and you don't need to navigate through the Limit Break Screen or deal with her dying or staying low. You don't even need to look at the screen.

>>4676537
>You don't even need to look at the screen
Can't argue with that lol.

>>4663579
one of these days I'm gonna replay this
give's me the comfiest feelings

>>4672150

I wish her outfit was just an unbuttoned seed uniform with a tanktop

>>4676948
Is Selphie the only character in the game whose regular attire was better than her alternate outfit?

>aura
>meltdown/Doomtrain
>renzocuckem

I don't remember the magic system in ff 8 at all, was going dl 9 today because i don't remember anything but the babes in it.

Will i know what i'm doing for the rest of the day, shit i even beat 8 fucking brain!