Best of the bunch and one of the best RPG's ever made. Discuss, and disagree if you want me to tell you you're wrong.
Played part of it, but couldn't continue because the disk froze. Stupid Asian bootlegs. It was solid. Liked VII better though.
You're wrong 7 and 12 are better, it's in a race for 3rd with IX I didn't get into the series until 7, so it's hard for me to judge the earlier games in retrospect. You usually have to play a game in it's original era to really appreciate it. 7 to me is the greatest RPG ever, and on the shortlist of greatest games ever. and 12 had the best combat gameplay of them all. I remember the graphics for 8 were astounding when the game came out, first one to use properly proportioned characters. But i found most of the characters lazily written, i hated the draw system, and the GF's simply played too huge a role. Still a spectacular game, but final fantasy's are held to a high standard.
I didn't think IX was too bad, I have VII and couldn't play it for more than 15 minutes. Mostly because I like the more realistic characters in VIII which I played first/
Omg, totally agree...Although I did like 7, whenever I told people I preferred 8 they looked at me like I was r****ded... I wish they would remake 8 for ther newer platforms, amazing game.
Well it looks like most of you here are coming through. I would always get the same stares when I'd say VIII was BY FAR the best of the series.
Honestly, the games aren't even in the same genre; I would think it's all but impossible to like both Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy; one has a nameless, faceless, blank slate protagonist and an open world that makes it all but impossible to feel invested in an overarching, dramatic plot, while the other has the position of "character designer" credited on the title screen and is one of the leaders in presenting the player with the illusion of choice when they are actually tightly scripted, singularly linear narratives. Neither approach is inherently better, it's a matter of personal preference. Back on topic, I did enjoy FFVIII quite a bit, and really appreciated the story more when I replayed it in college vs when I played it as middle-schooler. The main romance plot is vastly underrated as a slow burn that is pretty satisfying, especially in comparison to Bioware's way of making every late 20s NPC in your party throw themselves at your character and swoon when you compliment them. Gameplay-wise, Triple Triad was one of the greatest minigames of all time. The draw system was pretty poor, though, the GF attacks were unskippable and underpowered by the endgame, and limit breaks were way too easy to accomplish and overpowered. Honestly, I'm shocked I actually finished this game back in the day, but I'm glad I did. It was a rewarding experience, one that I remember and do reference frequently as an example of engaging story in a game.
VIII is the best by far, one of my favourite games ever, and I really played most of RPGs since SNES. The characters, art, gameplay, storyline are unmatched imo, this game has the total package and there'll never be a RPG that touches me as VIII did. I really couldn't stand the design of VII or IX.
I gotta say that VII is the greatest rpg of all time. After that i'll say IX was next. Before any of those it was the original Metroid and Legend of Zelda.
Weird... I consider myself a fan of the series. I've played every installment released in the US, and even one that wasn't. I've had the game for over a year and I still haven't finished the 2nd CD. I think the characters are okay but not enough that I really feel drawn to them. Mostly I find the gameplay to be tedious. I've been stuck in a couple of rooms with like 20 fights to get through, and each fight seems to take 5-10 minutes each. I make some progress, and then I just bored and turn it off. Actually I let my brother borrow it cause he wanted to play through it again, so its been a while since I've played. Maybe I'll go pick it up again if everyone is so high on it. We'll see I guess. [EDIT: I just realized you were talking about FF8, and I thought this was about FF13...... yeah I loved FF8... I thought it started slow, but the later parts of the game and the conclusion were amazing... I still think I might like FF7 more, but admittedly probably for nostalgia reasons...]
I actually need to replay FF8 at some point. It, along with FF9, is one of the few FF games I haven't really replayed. I seem to remember enjoying it. Some flaws as mentioned, but don't think they bothered me too much. Don't think it is one of my favorites, but that has mostly to do with how much I enjoyed other games.
