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ladyirisreviews · 18 days ago

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Final Fantasy 8 - Review

We finally arrive at the infamous Final Fantasy 8. Before I played it, I was under the impression that it would be the worst Final Fantasy game in most aspects, but the reality is more complicated than I expected.

Like, no doubt this game has very obvious problems you can't just overlook, but behind all of the problems there were ideas that could have been executed better and would have resulted in a much better game, I like the base ideas of this game a lot, but it misses the mark is such obvious ways it's kind of sad.

This game has the most complicated plot so far in the series, with the most reveals out of any game for sure, but I'll try to keep the summary just to the starting incident.

You follow Squall, a student in a military school called Balamb Garden, as he is about to undergo a field test to become a SeeD, an operative that does jobs for people and organizations from various parts of the world that commission the garden to do so, with the garden acting more or less as a mercenary group.

The field test turns out to be a mission to protect a kingdom called Dollet, from an invasion from the republic of Galbadia. Squall's rival, Seifer, is assigned the captain of his team, consisting of them both, and Zell, a hyperactive martial artist, Squall and Zell follow orders, but Seifer decides to act on his own, forfeiting his chances at passing the test.

Squall and Zell pass the test, alongside a transfer student called Selphie, and they are immediately assigned on a mission to aid a resistance group called the Forest Owls, who oppose the Galbadian occupation in the city of Timber. it's in this mission that Squall and his team learn the true nature of the Galbadian army and their recent hostilities.

So the plot in this game is kind of all over the place, even more so than in Final Fantasy 7, there are a lot of early mysteries that make the game very confusing on the first pass, and there's also a lot of unsatisfying answers to these mysteries and reveals that don't quite make an impact.

But even if I have a lot of issues with the game's plot, it does still have good moments and character interactions, with some flashback scenes being my favorite parts of the game, and the character pairing being actually genius in my opinion.

Squall is a lame character, he is ultra-serious and doesn't communicate properly with people or let them know how he is feeling, which contrasts with how unserious the rest of the main cast is, with some of them regularly making fun of him for putting such a tough exterior, so on the surface I do like the characters a lot, but it's towards the end of the game and with the numerous reveals that they kind of muddle the relationship between the characters and makes things complicated for no reason.

The same criticism goes for the plot in general, there are a lot of unnecessarily complicated things in it that make it less compelling than it could be. Most of the ideas are actually very interesting and if done well, this could have been one of the better plots in the whole series.

Not only do I think the plot is flawed, but the gameplay also has its fair share of flaws.

Once again, the main battle system is the ATB, with 3 characters active in your party at most, just like in Final Fantasy 7.

The limit break system is back but with a big change, instead of limit breaks having a gauge that fills as you take damage, when you hit around 30% health you will have a chance to use your limit break, the lower your HP is the higher the chance, making them a matter of luck instead of something consistent, through most of the game anyway.

Instead of learning magic you collect it and equip it to your characters, each can have a maximum of 100 copies of any spell, and upon casting the spell you use up a copy as if it were an item, MP is not a thing on this game.

The big systems this time are the Guardian Force system and the Junction system, the Guardian Forces, shortened to GFs, are summons you can equip to your characters, you are free to use the summon on every fight as many times as you want without using any resources, also characters can equip as many GFs as they want.

GFs can level up by gaining EXP at the end of combat, dividing the EXP the character gained by the number of guardian forces it currently has equipped. GFs can also learn new abilities by gaining AP at the end of combat, which is not divided like with EXP, everyone gains the same amount of AP.

One type of GF ability is being able to Junction a spell to a certain stat, boosting the stat considerably, different types of spells boost stats by a different amount, and each copy of it a character has increases the stat by the same factor.

The stats you can Junction vary from GF to GF, so you need to equip multiple on every character to be able to Junction most stats at the same time.

Another GF ability that only a few have is being able to transform enemies into cards, the lower the enemy's hp the more likely they will be transformed into cards, also enemies transformed into cards won't give you EXP, but they will give you AP, the same goes for enemies turned to stone.

The purpose of these cards is to play a minigame which I'll describe later, and to transform into items and spells with other GF abilities.

Finally, there's a command called Draw to steal spells from enemies, the spells you can steal depend on the enemy and the level of said enemy, the amount of spells you draw also depends on the user's magic stat and no more than 9 spells can be drawn per character on one turn.

That was a lot, but it was needed to explain it all to properly explain my issues with the general gameplay. As you can notice, everything links back to the Junction system and the GF system, and to me, the weak link of it all, that makes the gameplay be frustrating and grindy, is the fact you lose spells when you use them.

Spells are tied to your stats, so using spells that are junctioned immediately reduces your stats, so right away you are discouraged from using your spells, not to mention that to even get good stats you need to grind for the spells, so getting to the 100 cap for a spell takes longer if you are using them in between you grinding for it.

The grinding itself is also quite slow, forcing you to spend several minutes on a single encounter to max out on the spells they offer. In some situations, you can't even replenish your spells due to you getting them from a boss fight or card and item synthesis, and these stronger spells rarely come up on random encounters, so these stronger spells are even more of a no-go and should be limited to only junction to a stat.

All of this makes using magic in combat feel like something that should be avoided, and to only rely on your normal attacks or GF summon, which makes the battles stale, not to mention the summon animations are kind of long, the draw command also can immediately cast a drawn spell, making it not cost anything and letting you continue with your arsenal maxed, but you are limited to the spells the enemies have, which most likely they will resist, and when you cast spells in that way they are considerably weaker, so it's not even worth it most of the time.

The game also punishes you if you play the game as if it were a normal RPG, leveling up shouldn't have a negative connotation but in this game it does, leveling up not only increases your level but also increases the levels of the enemies you encounter, meaning everything grows stronger alongside you, so ideally you actually want to avoid leveling up.

To avoid getting EXP you need to either turn enemies into stone or turn them into cards, which adds an annoying layer to the combat, not every enemy is susceptible to being turned into stone, but turning them into cards can be very tedious, you need to be careful to not be so strong that you kill the enemies in one hit, but also deal enough damage to make them close to death, and then have luck on your side so they actually get turned into cards.

This makes the gameplay loop boil down to:

Holding back against random enemies.

Spending minutes drawing their magic if you don't have it already.

Turning them to stone.

Attempting for minutes at a time to transform them into cards if you can't turn them to stone.

Checking if the cards can be turned into a strong spell or item that can be transformed into a strong spell.

Not using the cool spells because they are more useful being junctioned to a stat.

And repeat endlessly.

And like I mentioned, most of the frustration is because spells are lost when used, it would still be frustrating if that wasn't the case because of the leveling system, but at least you would be free to experiment in battles without worrying about your stats and having to replenish used spells.

The leveling situation is also the reason limit breaks are useless unless you are fighting a boss, using them on normal enemies will just make the game harder so there's really no point, and even on bosses it can be easily abused. Because there's a random chance you will get to use it when your hp is low, you can constantly press the change character button to reroll that chance to guarantee it every time, or use a late-game spell that lets you do them no matter what, an exploit that wouldn't exist if the gauge worked like in Final Fantasy 7, and even if the exploit was not a thing, depending entirely on luck to unleash your best attacks feels lame to me.

This shows the reluctance of the Final Fantasy team to reuse concepts and polish them, they always want to add a new gimmick, which is respectable, but it sadly means they almost never get to polish already established systems, and in this case, with such a flawed, but interesting system, it's sad to know it was never picked up again.

There's also the card minigame, each monster, and all major characters have cards, and each card has a number for each side, the way the game is played is on a 3x3 board, with a player randomly selected to go first playing a card wherever they want, followed then by the other player, if upon setting a card, it touches an opponent's card, the game checks if the number in the side of the card that was played is higher than the side of the card it touched, and if it is the card is flipped, changing its color to that of the player that flipped it, this goes on until all 9 spots on the board are filled.

Upon victory, you can pick one of the cards you flipped, but there are special rules in different parts of the world, which you can then spread to other parts of the world, which is a confusing process to me, but it can make winning cards way faster, there's also some special rules to the game itself that can also spread.

It's a fun minigame, but the reward being cards links it back to the Junction system, which ultimately means it's an alternative grinding method, one that doesn't require you to fight at all, and if you spread rules correctly it transforms into the most efficient grinding method, which makes me feel conflicted about the game even more, a minigame being more rewarding than the actual main game is just bizarre to me.

But after all this criticism it doesn't mean the game can't be fun, bosses can be very fun, if you ignore trying to steal as many spells as possible from them, and the final dungeon is definitely the best one out of all Final Fantasy games I have played so far, dungeons are not the series' strength but this final dungeon is very good indeed.

Also if you asked me I would say this game deserved a remake more than Final Fantasy 7, not because this is a better game, it definitely is not, but because the amount of improvements they could have made is far greater.

If spells weren't used up when casting them it would immediately be a better game, if they still don't want an MP system it could be replaced with spells having a cooldown to avoid spamming, and to make random encounters not tedious they could limit the number of spells that can be drawn to just a few, making progression feel more organic rather than a grind-fest.

But yeah in short, this game is as bad as I expected and at the same time way better than I had expected, parts of the plot really stuck with me and I did have fun sometimes with the gameplay, next time I play I will be using the built-in cheats to max out spells I get, which will make the gameplay so much better to me, and will let me experience the moments I liked without it being a chore to get to them.

As for if I would recommend this game, I would only do so if you already have played most Final Fantasy games and want to see something different in the main series, you could appreciate what it tries to do with its systems but you really need to have tempered expectations, at least it is very likely you could like most characters, so that's something you could look forward to, but if you wanted me to recommend a really good game, this one isn't it.

#game review #trans creator #long post #rpg #jrpg #gaming #video games #review #square enix #final fantasy series #final fantasy 8 #final fantasy viii #ff8 #ffviii

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inthe-afterglows · 4 months ago

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Just read your answer to the anon about ATB! So excited to read the sequel whenever you decide to return to it <3

awe thank you, I hope one day I will get there as I have written quite a bit of it already but I'm waiting until it's finished or close to finished until I post <3

#atb asks

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spiriiitt · 5 months ago

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thinking atb what universities i woul apply for without knowing what my atar will be is scary lmao. I'll probably have an atar of, like. 60 something realistically. I've been looking at universities instead of studying for my mh trial exam, kinda like how when you feel fucked on a test you'll go through and count the score you'd get for the questions you HAVE answered lol but most things want a minimum atar of 70 or 80 as a guaranteed thing, even if it isn't the sole thing considered for visual/fine art degrees, and only go a little bit below that for the lowest they accepted for each year in that degree Also, I have no clue HOW to build an art portfolio.. I feel liek I should probably have more than just digital art and a sketchbook, plus like one hand drawing i did last year that took me like 30 minutes but people liked a lot bc it looks like a lot of skill I should like. Quickly start sculpting or some shit idk

#art

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zellink · 7 months ago

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LOVING atbs, can’t wait for the next chapter!

What inspires you as you write/gives you the fuel to keep going? Your work is so lovely, I’m very curious as to what influences you might have!

i’m so happy you’re loving bells anon, thank you so so much!! next chapter is coming soon! ♥️

okay so i have LOTS of things that help inspire me when it comes to this longfic. if you haven’t noticed already, the title “all the bells say” is taken from the poem “Dream Song 29” by John Berryman. it’s the same poem that the tv show Succession used for their season finale episodes. i listen to a lot of Succession soundtracks as i’m writing — while the two stories are vastly different, there are some similarities between them that i draw inspiration from: the act of trying to preserve a dying, crumbling empire, wrapped in pageantry/luxury, made so so messy by family drama.

i also draw inspiration from the tv show The Crown — they’re both about royal families after all! (again) the pageantry, the traditions, the connection to god/a higher power… it just hits!

i have lil bits and pieces of other inspos here and there, like the songs that i associate with bells etc etc but that’d be too long of a list LOL. i have a private discord server that’s just for outlining this story and to keep track of lore and inspo and such.

idk i’m just rambling i’m so sorry anon 😂 but i hope this answers your question somehow!

#nat answers #bells tag

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darkkpastels · 9 months ago

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Stardust is interesting but are you worried about the number of characters? There is alot of people to follow, there are alot of people playing two sides in this story

I do.

We are only a few chapters past midway, trust me , it'll make sense as time goes on :)

If it helps, Hoshi isn't on any side. She's just lost and isn't aware that Jiisan has left. (oops.) :3

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vrnicky · 2 years ago

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*gasp* New friends AND the possiblity of a future confession? Who would have guessed?

Seriously though, they were all sweet.

Ehehe yep!

You had extra points by meeting Blue and Miere firsts, Hator usually don't talk to others and well, Odiseo is as friendly as blue lol

But serious now, any moment Miere could confess to you

So be ready

#asks #taco answers!#mutual interaction <3 #chit chat atb!

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wandringaesthetic · 11 months ago

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Regarding the open world, the world map, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

(no/minor spoilers, this is about world maps, I'm in chapter 9)

Gamers tend to call either Final Fantasies I thru IX or I thru X "classic" Final Fantasy. They mourned the turn-based or ATB based combat once it was gone after X, or they mourned the world map, gone after IX.

They also mourned pretty much every other change to the series before and after that, so they weren't necessarily right. Final Fantasy is a series defined more by crisis than identity and I personally wouldn't have it any other way. But the series *has* been even more difficult to define post about 2001, whereas before one could at least point to gameplay and structural similarities. Through the years, I've played and thought about Final Fantasy an amount that is probably actually insane, and my most honest answer to the question of "What makes a Final Fantasy a Final Fantasy?" is "checking most of the boxes on a list of about 50 things."

But anyway, the world map. The problem was, once it was gone, nothing really replaced it. Nothing made the gamer feel like they were trotting over the entire globe like that.

The world map was always a sort of placeholder, a conceit that was accepted because we don't have enough memory and budget to render an entire globe to scale. The map offers the illusion of being nonlinear, but isn't actually. You are driven in a certain direction in a certain order, dictated by what sort of transportation is available to you. Original Flavor PS1 FFVII offers a couple of detours that can be tackled whenever or not at all (Fort Condor, Wutai), but not many because it would interfere with the plot and with game balance.

Final Fantasy VII was the first Final Fantasy I played, the first JRPG I played, and also the first video game I had played in several years when I first played it. Midgar already felt huge. Stepping onto the world map was awe-inspiring. (Or... It was once I figured out what I was looking at. The polygons rendered Midgar as a huge but not to scale alien disc on a blighted landscape. It took some getting used to.) If you were already impressed, you ain't seen nothing yet. There is so much more. The world is your oyster.

I would argue that no other Final Fantasy has recreated that sense of scale. It's the time to world map (ttwm) that does it. You have trekked through several hours of city and reactor and slum before the game needs to resort to shorthand to render its world.

Final Fantasy Remake extends the Midgar section to its own full game, and Rebirth recreates that feeling of opening up onto something proportionately just as big.

But also, at this point in gaming history, in the year of our lord 2024, most of us have played an open world game. I am not an expert on these, since the only ones I've played are Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, but even I have done enough to feel Open World Fatigue. As soon as I climbed the first communication tower, I was putting my face in my hands, saying ohhhh noooo it's an open world game.

Or, well, is it? It's subdivided into regions and chapters. Some chapters aren't or mostly aren't on the world map, you spend a lot of time in towns and dungeons. You can check all of your boxes in one region and then advance the plot and move on to the next. It feels a bit more manageable and directed than a "standard" open world. But it does follow the "about eight different sets of things to find" format.

Is this good? Bad? Indifferent? Is this just what video games are now? I've enjoyed it, but I'm willing to extend this world and set of characters and even developers more time than I would most, since they probably literally redirected the course of my life and all. I cannot be an impartial judge, probably of any Final Fantasy but maybe especially of this one.

How much did the old world maps have to do, really? They were just some scenery and random encounters as you moved from point A to point B. The "sets" of things to do in the new world sometimes feel contrived, but they give the huge areas purpose and give motivation for exploration. They make the world manageable without reducing its scale. I would be intrigued to see what an original Final Fantasy did with this format.

So is this the answer to Final Fantasy's identity problem? Is the open world the new world map? I'm a little chagrined to see Final Fantasy follow the pack on this one, and to follow pretty far behind at that. But FFVII Rebirth is so often so weird and goofy and has such a bizarre number and variety of minigames that I can't say it doesn't have its own identity. And after all, FF didn't do the world map first. It was taking cues from Dragon Quest and Ultima.

I can't help comparing Rebirth to Final Fantasy XVI, a game I overall enjoyed but have some mixed feelings about. I'm just having a lot more FUN with Rebirth. I haven't read any reviews and have avoided most coverage for Rebirth, not just because I want to be free of spoilers, but because I want a pristine mind, free of strangers' opinions on it, until I've judged for myself, but one can live under only so large of a rock. I've seen the metacritic score and a thumbnail with a bunch of 10 outta 10s on it. I gather Rebirth is being reviewed a little better, as well as selling at least a little better, than XVI. (Which reviewed and sold decently. I know subtlety is hard, but do not take the wrong message from me here, quit it with your FINAL FANTASY XVI is a WRETCHED FAILURE thumbnails)

Not speaking to the quality of FFXVI for now, I'm afraid Squeenix and maybe gaming at large is going to take the wrong message from this. More remakes, play it safe, play to nostalgia. And that SUCKS, because I can't even say Remake and Rebirth are low effort, low risk cash grabs. Rebirth is constantly doing The Most. So much more than it ever had to and possibly pissing a lot of people off by the end by changing things. (I'll find out just how much after, uh, 20 to 50 more hours of gameplay)

So what is the right message? Chop your open world into manageable chunks? Maybe what people mean when they complain about linearity is that they want rewarding exploration? Is Open World just being late to the party or is that the secret ingredient that would shut up people who have been saying Final Fantasy doesn't feel like Final Fantasy anymore for years?

#Final Fantasy VII Rebirth #Final Fantasy #video games #my writing

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harringtonstilinski · 1 year ago

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Yeah... Steve dropping Jonathan's camera... dick move

major dick move, lol

chapter three: holly, jolly

#answered #fandom-princess-forevermore #always the babysitter #atb #always the babysitter talk #atb talk

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razrrgames · 1 year ago

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tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of when i first released after the bell.

a lot has happened in the past 7 years.

i have/had an entire update planned, i wanted to rebuild the game from the ground up, especially since porting it to the steam version of 2003 fucked up the fade transitions.

but i never did.

i’ve tried starting many times, and failed every time.

i don’t think i’ve talked about it here, but im very open about this: i have ADHD and autism. the ADHD is what applies the most here.

the ADHD prevents me from doing what i want, and the RSD makes me overcomplicate things.

back when i made ATB, i was in a hyper focus state on RPGMaker. i had four ongoing projects at once: after i finished the first version of ATB, i was drafting the update, file:blue was added during a horror game jam, riitami, and one other project i literally cannot even remember the name of off the top of my head. i focused hard on these projects, mainly riitami, and then the novelty wore off. this is one of the worst parts of my ADHD. i get really into doing something for a short burst and then i get bored and can’t force myself to do it anymore.

i felt horrible for so long. why can’t i just DO things like everyone else? i need to remake ATB, i need to fix it, i need to take out the stair scene because it was in poor taste, i need to expand on the lore so i stop seeing people asking why ghosts can’t just go through the wall, i need to expand on these characters, etc etc etc. and i just couldn’t do it. i forced myself to come up with a logistical reason for not passing through walls, i rewrote and scrapped and rewrote and scrapped over and over again.

don’t get me wrong. i still do want to update after the bell. i want to remake it. i want to make it better. better maps, better art, better jokes, better characters, etc. but i can’t give you an estimate on when that will happen.

as for the lore of the game,,, i don’t want to put any more thought into it.

i didn’t go into that project with a real plot or world in mind. i just drew a little ghost girl and decided i wanted to make a game about her. then i made her a girlfriend and some classmates. i thought of a very simple fetch quest: getting her name. that’s all it was. nothing more, nothing less.

that said, i have new answers to things.

why can’t she go through walls?

who cares? i’m not gonna make transition events on every wall tile just to satisfy some people who can’t put their suspension of disbelief on hold for a silly ten minute game.

why are all these girls dead?

i don’t know. i just thought one character would be too lonely, so i added some more. i thought more ghosts would be better than filling the space with living characters and then dealing with whatever allows them to communicate.

and there was one person that once said in a comment that it was weird that protag’s parents had the same last name. that has always been a strange thought to me. they’re married? one took the other’s last name?

i don’t really know what i’m rambling about at this point.

in the past seven years (in no particular order), i have moved out, got my drivers license, lost my job, got another job, was ghosted out of that job, gotten a new job that destroyed my soul, fell into a deep depression at the start of the lockdown, went back to the soul crushing job once it resumed, fell out with my roommate, moved back in with my parents, quit my old job and got another job that i now love, adopted a hamster, had her until she passed away earlier this year from health complications, made friends, lost friends, started and ended therapy, got a psychiatrist, got on anxiety medication, started (trying) ADHD meds, started dating my girlfriend, saw her in person twice, was briefly hospitalized to get my first surgery (gall bladder removal), had ANOTHER surgery (septoplasty + removing polyps), went to new york to meet old friends twice, went thru multiple medications trying to find something to help me sleep at night, came out to my mother as a lesbian (she still does not know my gender identity), met some of the people who would become some of the most important people in my life, cried over dnd (positive), started writing stories again, tabled at a lot of conventions…

it’s been a long and wild road. and in those seven years, i have thought about the ATB cast. i know the game got a little traction when it was first released, and i’m a little shocked that it seems to get a lot more attention in spanish speaking communities! that’s a lil crazy to me! not in a bad way of course. i think that’s really cool. sharing our creations and experiences across different language communities is one of the coolest things in the world.

i’ve seen praise and criticism that have helped me think about my work as an artist, and some that have hindered me a bit. nevertheless, i’ve grown a lot since then. at least i hope so.

im rambling about a lot of things. sorry. my train of thought is more like a spaghetti junction, lol

at the end of the day, these silly little ghost girls were my first real journey into RPGmaker. i’d loved playing games for a long time and had made one shoddy little thing before, but ATB was my first real release. i’ve thought about these girls a lot. i don’t think too hard about their world, the lore doesn’t really matter to me; it was just a silly little game i made with no real forethought.

one day i will deliver that remake to you. i don’t know when. i love these characters, simple as they are, and i want to do right by them. im even thinking of asking for help, as i clearly have a lot of trouble moving forward; help with setting up maps and transitions is the most important thing, as i’m not very good at layouts or mapping, but i can handle all the artwork and writing dialogue myself. i also want to commission someone for custom music, as the original music used in the game was generated via online programs because i am also, shockingly (/sarcasm), terrible at music composition. or more like i have no experience with it. i’m tone deaf as all hell.

that is not financially viable for me right now, unfortunately (i owe my parents like $800 for insurance + some assistance from when bebbie passed away) and i do not want to just. not pay people for their work. as an artist i understand the value of the work that goes into these things, and i’m not about to run around asking for free help with a silly little ghost game. i want to be able to pay my help appropriately for their time and effort. that said, if you’d be interested in helping out when that time comes (paid of course, i can’t tell you when that’ll be bc as much as i love my job i don’t make a lot of money) please let me know.

i should bring this rambling to a close.

thank you for seven years of silly ghost girls. it’s been a long time, but i hope that these girls pop into your thoughts from time to time to say hello, as they do for me. i want to do them better, even if they are just a couple of silly middle school lesbian ghosts.

thank you for your patience and support. i’m sorry i haven’t lived up to be the person or developer that i wanted to be. i’m sorry i failed to bring you something to play so many times and for so long. i hope you can forgive me.

thank you, thank you, thank you.

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