OK, as some of you might be aware I'm currently playing through FFVIII for the second time, to see why exactly people rate a game I was so unimpressed by. I'm currently approaching the end of the second disc (big fight between the two Gardens), and much to my surprise I'm finding myself enjoying it, despite the fact that I had almost nothing positive to say about it the first time I finished the game. It's not as good as VII, but I now like it more than X and IX (but I think I'm going to play IX again after this just to make sure). My thoughts:
- The SeeD Ranking is a silly idea. Having a system in a FF game that penalises you for exploring and talking to people just doesn't make sense.
- The whole 'Hey, didn't we all grow up in an orphanage together?' segment is really stupid, the fact that the only reason they could come up with for their memory loss was the flawed 'it must be the GF's fault' excuse makes it seem like even the developers didn't really know how to handle it. Obviously it was supposed to bring another dimension to the battle with Edea, making them all reluctant to fight her but it was just handled badly.
- Zell and Quistis have had absolutely zero personality thus far, no story has been specific to them, there's been little or no personal history and no development to their characters. Part of that is of course due to the oprhanage angle, it limited what could be done with the characters but there should still have been something by now.
- Selphie (a character I found quite annoying before) is actually pretty cool. The crappy orphanage revelation had made me forget about her behaviour just prior to it, where she was being cheerful and reassuring to all the folks at Trabia even though she was real upset, and basically showing a whole new side to her character.
- Laguna, Ward and Kiros are all cooler than most of the party you get to play with, both story-wise (Zell, Quistis, Edea), and with regards to their fighting style (Zell, Quistis, Edea, Selphie). The sense of comradery between the three of them, the whole world-weary 'been around the block' angle was very cool, and it's a shame you don't ever get to integrate them properly into your party.
- I'm only near the end of the second disc, but already I have most of the spells that I can remember being in the game. I'm missing Meteor and Holy, and don't yet have 100 of Aura, Ultima or Full-Life. That's it.
- Raijin is pretty cool, it's a shame you don't get to play as him. There was a lot of potential to his and Fujin's story, and Raijin's weapon had some groovy possibilities.
- The Junction system is fairly good, being able to take a low-level character and transform them into a strong, healthy fighter with a couple of clicks is great, though it does mean there's little need to level up anybody who isn't in your party.
Well those are my thoughts so far, I just thought I'd share them with y'all. I'm not being as negative as my comments suggest, I'm pleasantly surprised by FFVIII and am looking forward to the rest of the game. Reading through my post though I don't think I'm coming across as positively as I intended. Oh well..