Games: What games are you currently playing? [OT!]

[Cataferal]

Fair enough. What parts did you see?

[Xellos]

First 5 hours or so.

[Templar Zeratul]

I don't think 9 is anything like 7. If anything its different. FF7 was more serious, real world stuff. FF9 was alot more lighthearted.

Currently playing Mario Kart Double Dash (or will be tomorrow ^_^)

[Cataferal]

Yeah, FFIX is good stuff. Underrated like hell though...not to say that hell is underrated, but you know what i mean. Its like a tribute to all the FF's preceding it (with remixes of previous FF music, the "crystal" theme of the game, and a lot of references to previous games). I liked it a lot.

[Templar Zeratul]

Yes. Having played so many of the old Final Fantasies, 9 was a dream come true. The return of Dragoons, Red Mages, 4 Member parties, etc...oh it was grand! FFXI is way underrated and FFVII is way OVERRATED. Final Fantasy Tactics is an awesomee game too that if often overlooked. I am so looking forward to Crystal Chronicles. Me and my friends have GBA's armed and chracters already planned out! Only 3 more months till paradise.

[mrwiseman]

Like I did with Suikoden 3, I'm going to write a 1st hour (actually, first 5 hours) review of FF8 which I started yesterday late at night:

Graphics: Even though I had seen images and FMV of the game and I perfectly know which kind of technology this game uses, I was a little surprised by a few effects (like turning the background into FMV which moves the camera and the game updates the camera of the still realtime characters in it). The special effects are very good. Overall, graphics are great for a PSX, both technically and artistically-wise, and I haven't found annoying things. Oh, and the FMVs are brilliant. Great job.

Sound: Music and sound FX are above average, but it's too early to tell. I'll only say that the intro FMV music is great. No voices.

Gameplay: The world map rocks. Stages are ok, the camera is fixed but I can live with this. The combat system is simple (=bad thing), and the worst thing in it is that you need to use a lot of summons which take a lot of time. Fortunately, I have tuned up my ePSXe to run the game at maximum speed for when I need to call them. I have estimated the speedup to be about 4X, so annoying 30 second summons are now done in under 8 seconds. Contrary to what I thought, the junction system is fun, though I fear it'll be a pain to setup later in the game (when I have half a dozen usable characters, a dozen aeons, and tens of spells to distribute).

Intro: Great intro FMV which puts me in a good mood to play the game. Huge artistic value and great animation.

Characters: So far, so good. Squall is our typical RPG antihero with our typical RPG hair and our typical RPG start (a woman wakes him up, he's in bed). Though he acts gay a couple times, he doesn't look too gay (as Ryo Hazuki) for now. He's not nearly as fun as Ryudo though. Then there's Rinoa, I have seen her only once besides the intro, but I like her already. What a nice girl. Then there's Quistis, my favorite character so far. I don't know why but I love her. Maybe it has somethying to do with being so **** hot. LMAO. Finally, we have Seifer the sucka. He's a stupid moron and seems to be more words than action actually. He's always saying he likes battle but then I'm the one who risks his ass against da boss. Hopefully, Quistis hates him and he'll get kicked out of the Garden for being such a dickhead. And if I got to hate a character and love some others in just 5 hours, characters are definitely good.

Story: The story looks great so far! I hope it doesn't lose gas after a great start, like Chrono Cross. For now, I'm pretty interested on it. Though things are calm for Squall, I get the feeling that a lot is going on, and
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,sans-serif">spoiler (click to view):</font><hr size="1"><div class="spoiler" id="PVLY6O">These teachers with the Vietnamese hats are so suspicious. There's something funny about them, and they seem to control the director who looks like a puppet ("Now, director, there's no time. I'll just say that x, y and z, which is what the director meant. Now, director, come. Bark. Sit. Good doggie."). And I bet this strange girl who has similar clothes to Yuna and knows my name wants to tell me something, but these ninjas "escolted" her. Finally, that communications turret, pointing to the moon, is obviously an important part of the plot.</div><hr size="1"></blockquote>
So I like it.

Overall: I'm liking FF8 much more than Suikoden 3. It's true that I haven't given Suikoden 3 that big a chance, and I'm positive I'll try it again soon (maybe I stall Chrono Cross and start Suikoden 3), but for the short term, I'm much more interested in playing Final Fantasy 8.


If you have played this game, what did you think? (Please be careful with spoilers, I don't want to get spoiled any of the story.)


**Edit: fixed spoilers. I must be stupid to use [spoilers] instead of [ spoiler ] twice.

<font color="#101010" size="1">[ November 21, 2003 10:55 AM: Message edited by: -Wiseman- ]</font>

[Xellos]

My friends (2 of whom think that 8 is the best RPG ever) all agree that 8's story is so simple it can be summed up in 2 or 3 sentences [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[mrwiseman]

LOL, my characters

*FF8 spoilers!*

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,sans-serif">spoiler (click to view):</font><hr size="1"><div class="spoiler" id="ZFY3OI">
felt sleepy and I was given control of three morons, one of which is a total tard, though he's not gay for a change. Squall was suffering while dreaming with him. Probably because of the spoiled erotic dream. Then I went back to normal, and Squall was like OMG WTF what happened LOL.
</div><hr size="1"></blockquote>

**

[mrwiseman]

I've played about 10 hours of FF8 now, and I'm maintaining my early review.

I have readed others' reviews in GameFAQs, had to anticipate to spoilers and hit Alt+F4 compulsively, it was challenging. Llamas.

The thing is I don't quite understand why is FF8 considered bad by most. I have noticed the following:

- People seem to complain on characters. Well, I think- no, I'm positive I have seen more interesting characters in 10 hours than I saw in Chrono Chross and Chrono Trigger *together* for 25 hours each. Two games people doesn't bitch nearly as much for their characters.

- Some people (but not even the half) seem to complain about the story as well. I think they miss the great environment the game sets you in, being in this Garden academy and dealing with other students. I think this is a valuable experience as well. And I doubt you can describe a 4 CD RPG story in 2 lines. I've read the second half of the game has teh twists and the most interesting parts. Also, this Final Fantasy seems to be more mature, a la FF10, which is something I like.

- Another thing people complains a lot for is the Junction system. I, for one, don't dislike it. I don't know what's so hard, so confusing, or so annoying about it. I think it's an original system no worse than the praised Final Fantasy 10 board, for example. Both of them aren't orthodox, and take some time to setup. So what's up with this?

- A 20% of the complaints were like: "In FF7 we had X, but in FF8 we have Y, how crappy, I was expecting X, this Final Fantasy is below average.", then another 20% of the complaints were like "In FF8 we have Z, just like in FF7! How boring, there's no innovation, this Final Fantasy is below average.". Make up your minds, reviewers. I believe the problem here is FF7 set the standard very high, and FF8 tried to do it in a different way, and regardless if it's better or not, people don't like the fact that it's different, but they hypocritically stick to the "I like innovation" stance.

I don't know, I'll keep playing it because it looks good so far, certaily better than Chrono games did for the first 10 hours. I still like both Grandias, Xenos, and FF10 better, but I think RPG game is definitely above average, comparing the first 10 hours of all the RPGs I have played.

I'll also point out that I have seen pretty good ideas developed in this game which people seem to miss. Like when you board a train, release some wagons, do Metal Gear Solid, and other stuff. I think this part is great and unique, and this definitely adds to the overall gameplay rating.

Anyways, it's pretty late over here, I'll continue tomorrow.

[mrwiseman]

Yes, I don't like minute-long spells once I have watched them, but that's why I'm playing on good ePSXe, I can boost the game to play at up to 4.3X (4X with lots of FX). Also, I haven't noticed slowdown or anything in the game, but if I find slow parts, I can turn on the PC FPS calc to force the game to go faster when it slows down and get a constant 60/30 fps. Playing on emus has a lot of advantages; to tell the truth I have a PS2 and never played PSX games on it.

As for the plot twists, I love them. If I made a story, Bob would be bad, then good, then uber evil, then the world savior, while that guy that sings in the underground is actually the supreme evil and you were helping him till just now, when he's about to kill you but messes up and kills his father etc.... and in the end it turns out that the 33vil church was behind everything and wanted to enslave all the people in the world. I like these kind of stories ^_^ .