thecarp, I must respectfully
disagree with your assessment of FF VIII. As far as I'm concerned, it is the
worst game in the Final Fantasy
saga. You have done an excellent job outlining the major changes from previous FF games. To summarize:
So it all sounds pretty neat, right? Unfortunately,
no. The problem with FF is that there are no limits to your power. There are no default abilities, so you can put any
ability on any character. You can distribute your
power in any way, through GF junctioning. Your casting isn't even limited by
mana. And because monsters level up with you, powerful monsters don't limit your ability to
progress in the game. In fact, the ‘easiest’ way to progress through the game is to
run from every battle! Similarly, because of the new equipment/cash system, your old gear is not a hindrance and you don't need to fight battles to get new
gear.
Picture this. You're a little ways into the game. You have several GF. So, you put them all on one character and use their abilities to
boost his/her hitpoints to multiple thousands. Then you get them damaged down to 1/4 their
health, and leave them there. By killing off your other characters and repeatedly
skipping that character until their limit break comes up, you can attack with the limit break
EVERY ROUND. Limit breaks are really, really, really powerful. Because the monsters are leveling up at the same time as you, you are now capable of dispatching ANY enemy in the game in a few rounds, with no real threat to yourself.
Ok, so for some reason this hasn’t occurred to you, and you’re fighting your way through the game normally. One of your most powerful attacks is
summoning Guardian Forces. To make them do more damage, you’re supposed to
press a button repeatedly while their summon animation is playing. Permit some
cynicism here, but pressing a button doesn't take a lot of
skill or
strategy. In fact, it’s pointless and stupid that there’s even the possibility you could
win or
lose a fight based on how many hundreds of times you can press the button. Even if you can’t figure out how to
press the button, the fact that monsters level with you safely keeps you from ever having to fight a difficult
battle.
This is stupid. What you're left with is game that poses no challenge, and has a lot of pointless, skilless combat between the
story line elements. Most of the other aspects of the game are excellent, but Square totally screwed up as far as combat is concerned, and the game's
story and
characters aren't enthralling enough to stand alone without solid combat to back them up.
Without combat, it isn’t an RPG. It’s an interactive movie.
On the other hand, the
card game is neat. I think it is the single improvement over earlier installments of the FF series.