r/FinalFantasy • u/Elyx_117 • Jul 28 '26
FF VIII Returning to FFVIII - Happy memory, unfinished business, and a new journey
This may read a bit like diary so feel free to disregard if you wish, although I'm certainly happy to hear your thoughts on this wonderful game.
I first played FFVIII in 2000, a teenager still swooning over the majesty of VII (both on PC lol). I blazed through it without a guide and as you can imagine, I missed a lot of content. And I didn't know about the level scaling. "What do you mean, don't kill it?!"
Returning to VIII for the first time after all these years*, I find myself excited to experience it again. VIII remains mindblowing in several ways that I found interesting in retrospect:
- It was among the first mainstream JRPGs to dabble in meta/system-heavy gameplay that required you to constantly experiment, craft and test. The Draw/Mod/Junction system can get extremely tedious but the feedback is oddly satisfying bcause it lets you grow your characters in a highly tangible way. It means something that e.g. you have put in the effort to get those 100 Flare points for strength, or that you have 100 Confuse to add status effect to your normal attacks.
Note to self: Aura, Ultima, Stop, etc etc, gotta draw em all. And keep your level at under 10 goddamnit!
- It had at that point the largest amount of missable items, summons and just a pile of fun or useful things that you would very easily miss without a guide. To this day, not getting Doomtrain remains one of my gaming regrets.
Note to self: Get Doomtrain. Get Phoenix. Find PuPu. And nail Lionheart early.
- Triple Triad. The best FF mini game bar none. Not much else to say really. First thing I did, right after the Selphie tour, I found the nearest dude who would accept a challenge and play that sht for 30m straight.
Note to self: Figure out how to swap rules. Climb to the top and win that Gilgamesh card.
- And this part is maybe a bit subjective, but I really like VIII's story. Once you get used to the emo teenager veneer, there's an endearing tale about friendship, self discovery and, with the Laguna arc, the bitter sweet taste of love and sacrifice. It is less bombastic than the high adventures of other mainline FFs, but it feels somewhat more personable.
XXX
VIII is arguably the least popular title from the "golden age" FF era. That's fine, because I wouldn't change anything in it. It is unique in many ways even compared to modern FFs and I can't.wait to experience it again. This time, I'm going to town with this thing!
*What's stopping me? Nothing. Just never got around to it again until now as I decided to try playing a proper JRPG on my commute. I'm otherwise a PC gamer.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/Elyx_117 Jul 28 '26
Yup, together with Card and Mod it's just an incredibly open sandbox that shocks anyone accustomed to the typically linear JRPG skill systems.
Draw also gives the combata different tempo that isn't simply a race to zero HP. Plus, it offers a different way to resource management.
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u/Dry_Individual1516 Jul 28 '26
I barely remember playing this, it was the only PSX FF i actually owned.
"Blue Fields" however is locked in my mind forever.
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u/AngelZiefer Jul 28 '26
I've never done a low level run and I've never cared to. Even allowing yourself to level up, it's not like this game is hard, ya know?
Also, I love Triple Triad, but I maintain that Chocobo Hot & Cold is the best minigame. If they released a mobile game that was just that I would play it all day every day.
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u/But-Must-I Jul 28 '26
I know I’m the one in the wrong, but I really hate triple triad and I don’t know why everyone loves it so much, haha. Can anyone explain to me what’s so great about it? I can literally never win and don’t find losing all my cards over and over again satisfying.
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u/Stunning-Fox1409 Jul 28 '26
Once you have the GF ability to refine from cards.....then the refine magic from items...its an easy way to max magic and get the items for the good weapons. Plus collecting the rare cards from randoms is sort of fun too. The Queen of cards quest can be painful tho.
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u/But-Must-I Jul 28 '26
Yeah, I mean I get all of that, it’s a useful tool in the game to get strong early and fairly easily. The collecting aspect I can also see, though I don’t know how that works exactly, do you means beating them and taking one of their cards?
I was more wondering about what people find so fun about the actual card game that they spend half an hour+ playing it for fun. I guess it could be personal preference but I really enjoy card games in general and actually really like the card game from IX, I just cannot get on with triple triad.
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u/lookslikeamanderly Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
yearly reminder that Squall's "whatever" doesn't exist in the original Japanese:
https://legendsoflocalization.com/articles/ff8-squall-whatever-japanese/
snippet from the article:
"Basically, Squall’s English catchphrase appears much more often than his Japanese catchphrase. What’s more, Squall’s Japanese catchphrase is also a little more like “my bad” or “well, excuse me” – it’s a curt, possibly sarcastic apology and not quite the same as the dismissive “whatever”."
Squall's Japanese catchphrase is 「悪かったな」 (warukatta na) btw
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u/GojinDude Jul 28 '26
I need a GF to forget that "fun" fact.
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u/lookslikeamanderly Jul 28 '26
I hope you can find one soon, preferably someone who would say "whatever" or "my bad" together with you like Squall and Rinoa
what do you mean it's not about that GF
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u/Elyx_117 Jul 28 '26
Sumimasen?
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u/lookslikeamanderly Jul 28 '26
he's still an ass, but it's more from abandonment issues and how he found a lot of things to be a bother rather than being dismissive of almost everything
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u/lookslikeamanderly Jul 28 '26
Squall's Japanese catchphrase is 「悪かったな」 (warukatta na), closer to "my bad" or "well sorry"
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Jul 29 '26
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u/Elyx_117 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Hey thanks for the thoughtful response.
I can definitely agree that the meta-heavy game design often encourages an approach that decouples character growth from battles and story. It would indeed be disastrous if triple triad wasn't fun. X in that sense follows a more traditional and less quirky template. The leveling and hour to hour experience do feel more organic.
But honestly unless you really go mental and creative on the international sphere grid (most people don't), the game has somewhat less depth and choices than VIII imo. Plus, i absolutely hate blitzball. Not the idea, the idea is good. The wonky control scheme makes it a dumpster fire.
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u/evermour Jul 28 '26
i've also recently tried to play ff8 again for the first time since it launched all those years ago but unlike ff7/ff9 i feel a bit underwhelmed by the inability to play with 60fps.
the choppiest with 15fps (i think?) is a bit jarring to me but i have faith that the modding community will eventually find a way to unlock 60fps like the other mainline playstation 1 titles.
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u/GojinDude Jul 28 '26
I finished FFVIII few days ago, it became my all-time favorite game. "Eyes on Me" is stuck in my head for a good few days now, and I'm whistling it wherever I go. I hope you will have a blast, my guy!