Do you dislike FFVIII? Let me know! And don't forget to subscribe for weekly JRPG/Final Fantasy content!

I don't. It's always been my favorite.

The main reason is that it came after FF7.

Final Fantasy VIII was my very first FF game. I was blown away by the opening FMV, I was impressed by Squall's coolness, the awesome music also swept me away in the game. It will always hold a sentimental place in my heart, but I can understand how this may not have reached universal popularity like FFVII did. The biggest factor I'd say would be the Junction system. It's incredibly unintuitive, and the tutorials didn't help. As a dumb preteen who only thought leveling up was the way to get stronger, my first playthrough in FFVIII was a nightmare. I kept running into brick walls like Diablos who kept one-shotting me no matter how high my level, and boss fights were full of GF animations. As beautiful as they are, you are going to get bored of Shiva's Diamond Dust when you do it ten times or more during a fight. In the end, I just gave up after switching to Disc 3. But once I got a little older, and had access to a Gameshark, I soon had access to lots of magic, and with that, I learned how Junctioning works, and the importance of learning GF skills. From that, I learned how Triple Triad works, how nasty the Random rule was, and that leveling up was not a good thing at all. Once I comprehended how the Junction system worked, then everything was smooth sailing for me. Subsequent playthroughs were a breeze to me. Really, though, the game had a very tough learning curve. It's still one of the best games.

I just don't see why some people hated *Final Fantasy VIII.* If you ask me, it's one of THE Best Underrated FF Gaming Masterpiece. I Absolutely Love this game from my Childhood Years.

I've always kinda hated the "FF VIII is too technological" argument, when series darlings VI and VII were both clearly industrial and post-industrial settings. Going all the way back to the original on the NES, and you still have submarines, spaceships, and robots. The series has always been about the intersection of magic and technology.

It's funny. People claim that 8 is one of the most hated, or at least one of the most divisive. But, every time a "favorite FF" poll is done, 8 consistently comes in 4th, behind only 7, 10, and interchangeably either 6 or 9.

I think the biggest problem is drawing and junctioning magic. It takes a long time to draw spells (even if you can pull 9 at a time). Then, you don’t want to cast spells as it both reduces stats and means more drawing (or refining). The Remaster really helps with that as you can hit the 3x speed and draw spells in minutes.

This is my first Final Fantasy game, I will never hate it. I didn't really get what's the story back then since I was only 10, but once I re-play the game few years ago, I still like it, not as much as I like 7 (my second FF game) or 9, but it's pretty good for my liking. The graphic back then was really really good. The music? AMAZING. I'm still listening the Balamb Garden theme often, especially when I need to relax, chill, and feel a bit nostalgic.

You have to do things very specifically, when this information was hard to get, punishes you for leveling (incorrectly), plot pumps the brakes as soon as the hard to understand twist happens

The hate is mainly because it was contrary to expectations of ff fans. Ffvii was huge and a lot of people new to the series were expecting more of the same. I remember thinking that myself. It took me a few years to love it. But I think I’ve clocked more hours on viii than any other in the last 10 years as once you’re into it, it’s so addictive!

The only thing I didn't like was drawing magic and then not being incentivised to use it because of the junction system. Other than that it was a fine game.

For me, the Junction system makes the game maddeningly complicated. I don’t really enjoy games with a lot of micromanaging elements. When I play a game, I just want to have fun and be transported to another world, not do math or chores. 😂

i wonder if there's a connection between people who don't have an inner monologue and people who can't relate to squall. i relate a lot to squall, but i can imagine it being difficult for someone to understand the struggles presented as internal monologue if it's not something that they have ever personally experienced.

It's been a long time since I've played FF8, but I always remember enjoying it overall. It's not my favorite in the series by any means, but was still a solid entry. I do remember being confused by the story and not sure I really understood what was going on. I was also not a huge fan of Squall with his whole loner brooding attitude, but I generally liked the rest of the cast and even Squall gets better over the game. I can understand why people don't like the game, but it's never been one I've disliked.

It’s so odd how the perception of this game has shifted. As kids back in the late 90s-00s a lot of us loved it equally or in some cases more than FFVII, and I don’t think anyone ever complained about the characters, music and visuals. But the most contentious point, even as kids, was always the story and how it was told between Squall and Laguna, and how difficult it was to maneuver menus and junctioning. I adore the game, but my friends biggest complaints often revolved around “junctioning was lame” and “its a great love story but its horribly convoluted”. Fascinating stuff. But one objective truth: The Gunblade and Triple Triad are absolutely beloved.

I loved ff8 but i will admit that i was pretty early on the internet scene and when i had trouble with junction, i read an online faq essentially explaining the concept of not leveling and just getting stronger through drawing and refining spells. Then i just bought tents from stores, turned them into curagas, and basically i became invincible for all the early portions most people had trouble with while learning.

My only problem is the story. Pretty much everything from the orphanage onward is just a mess

I enjoyed the function system, although I can understand why many have an issue with it. I appreciated Squall's development from a loner into someone who opens up and values his friends. The story definitely gets convoluted like you said, but I think the strength of the characters really helps push the game along...would love to see what they could do with a remake!

FF8 on PC does have the benefit of player made mods that modify the gameplay. The Raganarok mod probably being the most notable with it rebalancing a lot of the game including removing the enemy level scaling, giving characters more built in stat gains from level ups and removing the cap on drawing spells.

The problem is that nothing mattered despite the game pretending otherwise. Didn’t matter that we were SeeDs, Irvine pretended to have memory loss for no reason. The mysteries such as Squall maybe dying or what the deal was with the Sorceress went nowhere. Even Laguna, who was cool, basically amounted to “he was almost a movie star, and now he’s just a deadbeat dad who runs Wakanda”. Also, In case you ever end up stranded in space without a ship, or a way even move, there will be a dragon zord you can borrow.

I remember back then, FF8 was such a huge visual jump. regular sized characters, polygons with texture, and great cut scenes. I didn't mind the Junction system. One game which people changed opinions on is FF13. A lot of people hated it, but now there's a lot of love for it

where do you get the character art for your thumbnails?

FF8 was my first Final Fantasy, and as such, I grew up on the incredibly easy to break but confusing and not greatly explained junction system. I only really struggled with the gameplay for a little bit before figuring it out. It still has drawbacks though, since you're essentially encouraged to never use magic as if they're items because they're finite and will lower your stats. Nowadays I focus on my gripes with the plot, not the gameplay. Turn based games like this tend to be my jam regardless of being good or bad, so that's harder to judge without bias. My main gripes were that Squall and Rinoa both stole the plot relevance and also their relationship was, not unrealistic since they're teens that both can rush a relationship (Rinoa) and also be in denial of their own feelings (Squall), but messy to the point I didn't want to suspend disbelief for it and put up with it. If you're not Squall or Rinoa, you are not relevant past disc 2, and possibly even during disc 2 itself. Selphie and Irvine stick out most, but Zell and Quistis don't fare much better. Even Zell's Disc 3 leadership mission and exposition dump feel pointless because A. he failed the mission and B. we literally saw what he's talking about while Squall was in space, and Laguna exposits the same info 2 cutscenes later anyway. As for the romance, even if you pick the options that make Squall nicer and limit the amount of squabbling between him and Rinoa, it still feels forced. Special mention goes to the end of disc 2 into disc 3, where Squall, who's really, really busy trying not to get the students killed with bad leadership, is forced by the other party members to save Rinoa because they can't do it themselves for some reason and aggressively bitch at you to go do it, then when he does he points out in his thoughts that everyone else is so obviously trying to hook them up, then she winds up in a coma and Squall immediately takes an emotional 180. Not helping is if Rinoa was sent to the missile base, rendering her role and the relationship building lost since most of it happens while the Garden is lost at sea. Also not helping is how many times Rinoa needs rescued (once per disc) and how avoidable each one felt (even the coma one since the team already had a reason to go to Esthar thanks to Edea's guidance). I can see the potential in a romance between opposites, but it doesn't work for me here. I think some people (myself included) play FF8 with 2 specific mods for both plot and gameplay, Martial Law for gameplay, and Succession for story, since they're meant to remedy the common complaints. Not sure if you'll play it like that, but I thought it was worth bringing up.

i love ff8, it was my first final fantasy game. i regret that i haven't complete it, but not a long ago we bought a copy of ff7/ff8 pack for nintendo switch, and i've played it till Ultimecia's castle, so i hope, i would finish it some day :) thanks for the video

Erek loving all the new content. You've become one of my favorite content creators. FF8 was my first exposure to Final Fantasy and RPGs as a whole, even though FF7 was the first one I actually played. It had valid criticisms but I feel the hate is overblown. I had a friend back in the day who used to tell me it was his least favorite game ever. I never understood that but what can you do. It will always have a soft place in my heart

I too loved 8, but the critiques I can understand the most are: It’s super easy to break the game once you understand junctioning and level scaling. Card mod enemies to get AP but not EXP, turn cards into powerful magic, and you can junction your low leveled characters to be super OP’ed and breeze through the game. Now, I thought it was fun to figure this out, but some people wan the game to still be challenging even when you’re optimizing everything, so I can see why they didn’t like that. Secondly, the orphanage twist is just kinda silly. It would help if most of the info about GF’s taking your memories wasn’t in ancillary things you pick up and read (that are easily missable) until the big reveal.

I loved most of the game and I was already a young man when I played it around 2004. The only thing I didn't like was drawing magic, so I fixed it. I just changed the menu option to "save last action." I selected to draw magic, put a piece of tape on the "X" button and had lunch. I kept an eye on character health and when I was at 100 cap I ended the battle. It's a quick way to get the magic and then move on to the things I enjoyed more, like the crazy story.

FF8 is one of my favs (10,7,8 in that order). I think the loudest voices are always the haters. It’s a great game. To be fair, 7’s plot has a lot of things that are to be left up to interpretation. It’s only the compilation that has cleared up things. 8 doesn’t have that luxury. Also, for me 8’s ending was more satisfying. It was a happy ending (weird theories aside, just taking it as is). 7’s was questionable.

My biggest criticism of this game is the recurring concept of not asking questions. Don't ask questions. Don't question your orders. Do exactly what your mission or c/o says and nothing more. All the while seeming like it juat doesn't give enough depth to its conflicts and plot points.

As other comments point out, the magic draw system. It's incredibly tedious yet trivially easy to understand; it may have been designed so that players were "supposed" to just draw a couple times a fight, until you finally max out a particular magic over multiple fights, but that's inefficient. It makes more sense to make the most of each opportunity, meaning that players quickly learn to draw all they can. Meaning fights where you encounter new magics get drawn out while you spam drawing, and then in subsequent fights you just blitz past them. Meaning fights either take 10 minutes, or 10 seconds. But wait, you can junction a magic more than once... so you max draw that same magic yet again in another fight. It's just not well thought out. It's not like it's difficult either, if you know what you're doing you can just keep the enemy docile via debuffs while you draw, or you just tank and heal. It's not much of a challenge, just time consuming. Repeat for every single maxed stack of magic you want to draw, and you can see how this process is unnecessarily a waste of time. Not to mention non-combat drawing - yeah, as if a low number of draws is any kind of deterrent, that just means you need to come back to draw again later more times. It's not clever, it's just tedious. > "But drawing rare magic needs to be harder! They're supposed to be rare!" No it isn't, and no they aren't. Anyone dedicated enough could just run around repeatedly to wait for the rare draw points to regenerate. Not difficult at all, just more tedium. The game honestly needed a much better draw system. Maybe even make it a have/don't have toggle a la blue magic, and don't scale the power by quantity. Increase the power via other means rather than number of magics junctioned - after all, it's unlikely that players who care will junction partial stacks, they're almost guaranteed to be junctioning full stacks. Maybe give the GFs affinity slots, let players pick which magics they want to be enhanced the most in order of preference. The other big negative is how the Triple Triad card game region rules are dealt with. OH BOY. Getting unwanted rules removed was a huge gamble, but guess what, all it meant was you'd just reload from a nearby save point and try again - repeatedly, hundreds of times, until you got the outcome you wanted. This is a textbook example of poor use of RNG. I also have issues with how you "have" to lose specific cards to specific NPCs in order to win specific other cards (as well as the one you lost), it's completely unintuitive. Anyone with a full deck who claims to have not used a guide is lying, lol. The thing is, the actual card minigame itself is easy to understand yet tough to master, as well as being fun to play, which are signs of a well designed minigame. When you aren't being kneecapped by weird ass rules and not worrying about needing to lose certain cards, it's fun to play. Just fixing these would go a long way to removing the most common annoyances in the game.

i like the story and game mechanic, card game, junction system. i have replay ff8 several times. My ranking : 1- FF8. 2 - FF10. 3 - FF9

And here I'm just wondering why everyone hates on XIII so much. I know why VIII is my least favorite of the series.

Its just a trend , ff8 is a great game, have problems? Sure ff7 also have and 6 and so on , people just love to hate

I loved FFVIII, but the reason people hate it is the junction system. You have to actually grind monsters for magic spell to buff your stats, which dissuades you from using said magic because you don't want to lose your buffs. The magic system was unforgiving. That is pretty much THE reason people always gave me for not liking the game.

The biggest problem with the junction system/level scaling was that enemies gained all their stat boosts from the level gain, while your party members barely get anything, because they're expected to be junctioning spells. Grinding isn't just ineffective, the player actually gets punished for it (and you barely get anything from equipment upgrades, either). Story-wise, yes, the entire orphanage thing came out of nowhere. The memory loss was briefly hinted at in a couple of easily missed NPC dialogues, but nothing else until Irvine hits everyone over the head with it. And regardless of the memory loss being set up or not, the idea that such a wide range of important characters, whom you meet throughout the course of the game in many different places, all "coincidentally" grew up at the same orphanage is ridiculous. The theme of FF VIII was supposed to be romance, but the romance itself was very poorly done. It doesn't help matters that this is one of the few Final Fantasy games where almost every major character is an immature teenager--up to and including Quistis "Don't Stand So Close To Me" Trepe--with characterizations to match their age. Squall is the only one with a coherent character arc in the game; growth for anyone else is spotty, at best. (And don't talk to me about Rinoa. Don't even get me *started* on that pathetic caricature of a romantic interest.)

Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite video game, period.

I have zero nostalgia for the PS1 era FFs. My parents never bought them for me when I was that young. So I've been making my was through them as an adult. I completed OG FF7 back in January and FF8 in March(I'm starting 9 soon). I truly believe it's insane levels of Nostalgia goggles for this era. I fully respect what they did for RPGs, but I fail to see the nuance people find in them. You'd think they were Shakespeare to people. To clarify: I ONLY mean with information as PRESENTED IN GAME. No outside sources. So no interviews, Ultimanias, or other games. ONLY in the base game. As for 8, I felt the least for this party. Especially Squall. No matter how great his design is, the Gunblade is one of my favorite weapons of all time, he was not written well. He almost out of nowhere loves and cares for Rinoa. When prior to the attack on Balamb Garden he ignores and is rude to her. I get that its her breaking down his walls, but its SO instantaneous for Squall. From "whatever..." To "We need to save Rinoa!!! Where is she?!?! i cant live without her!!!" I did not like Junction with the draw system in particular. Having to sit in a fight for extra time just to draw was obnoxious. Also, to be strongest you only Basic Attack or use skills, not Magic because of Junction. Then also not having control of your Limit Break is also annoying (which I hear is also a thing in 9...yay). Triple Triad was a lot of fun, if not a bit obtuse on getting the best cards and rules. Still a very fun card game.

This game holds a special place in my heart it's memories I cannot explain but the music the feeling of being a teen in love giving characters names of those who meant the most to you final fantasy created a way to open your heart!😭

People hate it because it has depth. People want their hand held. They want automatic magic spells, automatic strength, automatic everything. They don't want to have to go into a menu screen and set stuff up manually. They just want to watch pretty cutscenes, press a few buttons and follow a story.

I prefer FF8 over 7 anyday.

Grinding is extremely important in ff8 not just the characters but also for ap and summons abilities

I like very much Final Fantasy 8. Final Fantasy 8 was my first final fantasy and also for me personally was the best final fantasy that I ever played. FF8 is not only beautiful as a final fantasy but also very deep as a game. Its plot is really wonderful and very deep. The beautiful, wonderful and fantastic love story between the two protagonists of the game, Squall and Rinoa is too epic and very deep as a love story. In my opinion, this final fantasy deserves to be played and I repeat that at least in my opinion this final fantasy was both the first and also the best final fantasy I have ever played.

Now i actually want to clarify the biggest criticism regarding FFVIII orphanage scene. First of all i don't think plot contrivance are necessarily a bad thing. Story are always written with contrivance to begin with. The issues that people have are usually the fact that it came out of nowhere and how convenient. Does it came out of nowhere? No!!! All the story elements about GF are explained in the game if you actually go around and explore the world. A lot of dialogue talk about GF drawback. Yes some of those dialogue can be missed if you just ignore everything. Is it convenient? Kinda but that's also kinda the point. Even in the orphanage scene. Irvine mention how fate might be a set stone. The end of the game we learn how everything is part of the loop. A big grand of fate. I will say this I think FFVIII story issue is that's it's trying hard to be subtle. Which is why the game is so divisive. As people who try to understand the story love it while people who just give it glance just wrote it off as being bad!!!

Its very simple. There are 2 reasons. 1. The Junction system makes Magic unusable. 2. GF memory loss insults the audience.

The Junction system isn't even hard, as a kid I understood how it worked. From what I've heard a lot of people don't like the game once you split up into the Squall led party and Irvine led party as people don't realise the enemies are scaled to your average party level and Squall is normally like 10+ levels higher than everyone else at that point so when you switch to Irvine it becomes very hard as the enemies are quite above your party level. Triple Triad is the best.

I just replayed it on my mainline run. I haven't played it in over ten years. But this time around I actually liked it a lot better. I think understanding the game mechanics really help. Really nailing down the junction system is crucial, which is something I didn't truly grasp the first time. I also think the story was always pretty good. Maybe a little convoluted at times, but as a whole I liked it. The characters are pretty solid. The relationship between Squall and Rinoa is strong. It's a departure from other entries for sure. But I think if you stay with the status quo too long, you run the risk of fans getting bored. Innovation is important. It still felt like a Final Fantasy to me which was the most important thing.

As an OG gamefaqs user and main opinion was the game was designed around having a guide. Online was a novelty and the SEO was going to launch soon. They wanted to seek guides and FF8 was a major factor for that.

I always see FF7 as being FF8 for kids, while FF8 is for grown ups.

I don’t actually personally know anyone who hates 8, only people who love it. Me though, I’m a 13 defender 🤷🏽‍♂️

I have a big love/hate relationship with 8. It was the game that got me into the FF series and made me buy my first PS thanks to those over-the-top commercials for it. For me, the junction system was fine at the time but now I see why its more disliked by at least some since it can be annoying to 'play the way you want.' Story-wise, I didn't mind it until the end of disk 3 and honestly it was because I never bought Rinoa as a 'main' cast member. She felt fine as someone the others were helping get through some stuff but she felt so forced past that and just never felt like she didn't fit in (of course that's explained in the story, but it still felt forced). Plus Quistis is the best girl and I'll fight anyone on that.

My issue with vii is the whole "We all grew up together in an orphanage but lost our memories because of using magic. Except of course that one person who never used magic and thus remembered everybody, but pretended to not know anybody because everybody else acted like they didn't recognize her." I also didn't like the grind to upgrade your gear.

Is it? I like it better than 7, in fact its a cult favorite.

Truth: Many people love FF8 and some are just indifferent.

Junction system really isn't that big hurdle to understand: "Stronger magic -> bigger boost, more of that magic -> even more boost" Its biggest crux is its drawing system. It is very dull way to become stronger which doesn't really offer that much risk or tension. Usually the idea is that there is action which is riskier but brings bigger rewards. There is the chance of failure, but yearn for challenge and overcoming the odds can surely make a difference. Drawing system only requires time. Enemies aren't really that threatening and even if you just draw the weakest spells they can offer signinficant boost when capped. If gaining spells required a system which perhaps required bit more risk and engagement from the player so they can balance taking heavier chances but being rewarded with better spells without dull draw-waiting game, junction system could perhaps be base for very good leveling system. The draw-back of "no sequel"-policy was that system which were innovative but had some crustier parts didn't get to be polished in later titles.

I'm playing it now, and the largest plothole by far is at the beginning of CD2, "Why is Irvine not in prison with the rest"? Also, I went in blind to the orphanage scene. I kid you not, it's so forced that I though that Edea or Eleone were messing up with their memories, or maybe altering them indirectly by altering the past. But nope, we are just rolling with it. It was very experimental, technically impressive, it has so many good things, it's extremely influential (see X amd XIII) but it's a weak entry on its own. It's not only overshadowed by VII, but also by IX.

What I don't get is people hating on the characters. Someone below said there was "low character development". Seriously?!!! The internal monologue makes it a much more thoughtful game than any other in the series, and the depth of characterisation is so much more ambitious than any other entry. Maybe that's why people don't like it? Part of me thinks that the game explores experiences of immaturity, weakness and confusion and people who are immature, and feel weak and confused, and prefer to just close off thinking about all that, react negatively as a result.

Final Fantasy 8 is a classic, no matter how many people want to hate on it. I respect players who says FF8 is not their cup of tea, or feel dissapointed after VI or VII. But I absolutely disqualify your opinion as gamer if you call it trash or something. There is this Jared youtuber, who talks major nonsense in his ”reasoning” of games bad quality. And others. I will not go truly deep with my reasonings in youtube comment section but I think it is silly when people dramatizes FF8s so called negative aspects. Like the story, it has some bad plot points true, but what JRPG is actually masterclass of storytelling hmm? Even the nonsense of them being from same orphanage, is explained in games themes as them being the children of fate. Sloppy? Yes. Fun and exciting, even as adult? F yeah. Really cant understand why people keep bitching about the leveling or the junction system. You can do ANYTHING with it, yeah tutorials are hard to take in, but even I understood most nuances in my teens, as a european with limited English. Yeah, there are flaws but calling game trash is just silly. You COULD BREAK the game if you like to. Okay, show me any of these critics who actually did it? You need to play the game couple times before you are even remotely in the know of doing something like that. OS sorry, there are other peoples opinions who you can reflect upon, Sorry. Biggest silly downtalk is the whole drawing of magic and junctioning of it. Every, I mean every critic is the same. You HAVE TO draw 100 of each spell. And you CANT USE any magic. Because, here is the big plot twist, your stats go down. Oh nooooo! How cruel. Seriously that is always such an insight, that I want to smack my head to the wall. You for one dont need to draw anything if you feel like it, or you can do with 10-50, if you choose so. You can get every spell pretty much later on in MANY ways than drawing. It is insane that people continue to say this is a huge minus when they make their issues of the matter themselves. Second thing the stat decreasing. Like wtf, you can get those magic back, anyday if you want when you learn the game a bit. And when those stats drop like couple numbers, from using some of those ”magic items”, wt actual F is the difference? There is no need to play the game all stats maxed. You dont do it in any other jrpg presumably. I have played this game from 14 to now almost 40 years old. Still think it is just as big of jrpg giant, as 7 or 9. Those both games has issues, but only 8 gets the hate from players, and I do admit it, very reasonably so. Game is not simple, and it has some issues, but hardly as breaking as some critics make it out to be. Oh, I did not even start on the positives. So…

Having played both 7 and 8 for more than 1,000 hours each (I own every physical and digital version of both games), I feel like I can weigh in pretty heavily here. Eight suffers from something I feel is akin to the “rebound” effect in video games. Especially as it pertains to sequels or follow-ups. Following Final Fantasy VII, inarguably the single most impactful video game of the entire series, was going to present an insurmountable obstacle for any title. I mean, even if it were 9, 10 or even 14’s Realm Reborn. Nothing was ever going to be good enough. Because most people are incapable of distancing themselves from what they were accustomed to in the most recent game of the series. Now. Eight clearly has flaws. The memory issues is an enormous problem that is literally only ever explained at one particular time in the game’s narrative and is NEVER brought up again. I believe it’s referenced in a book or console early on, but it’s not part of the actual games required storyline to read that reference. So it’s easily missed. Honestly. What saves the story for me is my own personal head cannon. Which is that Ultimecia always was and always will be Rinoa from the far distant future. And that our heroes, for whatever reason never come to terms with the acceptance or inevitability of fate and its hold on our lives. If you think about it. That could explain Squall being healed after such a grievous wound. That some part of Rinoa always still existed within Ultimecia and it’s that piece of her soul that chose to save him and heal his wound. It could also explain them being able to exit the void of Time Compression. Since it’s Ultimecia that casted the initial spell, that somehow Rinoa (who, chronologically has Ultimecia locked away within her psyche by this point) unknowingly undoes the spell upon finding Squall and saving them both. Again, I know it’s a stretch. But it’s honestly a story that makes a ton of sense. I know it’s been “debunked” by the story’s writers, producers and directors. But it’s honestly the best and most compelling version of the story to me. For those who aren’t aware, at the end of the game, Ultimecia travels back in time to transfer her powers to Edea. This sets up the events to come as Edea is the one that Future Ultimecia possesses to set the stage for everything to unfold. Yet, it is also this same Edea, who has Ultimecia’s powers within her, Rinoa absorbs both Edea and Ultimecia’s powers and is then likewise possessed by Future Ultimecia. Hell, Rinoa even absorbs Adel’s powers. And she was as much if not more than a mad sorceress than any of them. So it’s perfectly conceivable that something happens to Rinoa in the future that pushes her over the edge. Causing her to hate SeeD and she begins a campaign across time and space to bring about the end of all existence. Perhaps even in an attempt to undo whatever may have inevitably happened to her Squall in her own time. Which possibly triggers the entire tragedy of our timeline doomed to repeat this same exact pattern. So there you go. That’s why I feel 8 is an incredibly powerful and important story. But primarily only due to my own head cannon.

“Perceived departure from traditional Final Fantasy elements,” nicely sums up the criticism of just about every iteration of a FF game. When I first played FF8, way back when, I didn’t enjoy it and I don’t recall why… I think I lost interest somewhere in the second act of the game. It wasn’t until later when I picked it back up and completed the entire story that I fell in love with the game. Beating Ultimecia and concluding the narrative, put the story in a perspective for me that made me appreciate the convoluted story telling that was really confusing in the first play through and made me play through it again to look for clues. Personally, I would still remember this game even without the Final Fantasy title attached to it. It was really different and the music is wonderful and I genuinely liked the main protagonist and was vested in their journey.

The draw system was the most annoying and yes, that whole “we’re all actually childhood friends” plot point was story breaking for me. It was otherwise a good game and the airship you get is the coolest in the franchise but damn, those two things ruined it for me.

I think I have been bless in the sense that it was my very first JRPG, so I had no preconsive notion of what a JRPG gameplay should be, and how a JRPG should play, since this was my first contact with the genre I was also very attentive to the explanation the game give me, and take my time reading the tutorial section (it's actually pretty helpful, especially the section that list the possible refines when you unlock the corresponding abilities), maybe that's why I have a hard time understanding why people say they struggle understanding how the Junction system works when 7 years old me with 0 JRPG experience understood it, and I even manage to break it on my own, a common critic I see is to break the game you need to play card a lot and have a guide, and truly no as a kid I broke the early game this way : -I found the fishs method of grinding AP on my own, and conviniently when scrolling to the GF abilities, the refine abilities were the one that catch my eyes, so learning the I-mag-RF I got Waters which obviously are really strong at this point. -Later on when I got Siren, I learn L-Mag-RF and watching in the tutorial, realise I could just buy Tent and refine them in Curaga.... the game didn't need to ask me twice XD, and there you go huge improvment to HP that would carry through pretty 50% of the game XD -Later on the third boss drop 16 Wizard Stones, which I simply refine into I think it was 80 Thundagas at the time, that I used and junction. -Even later I finally unlock Card Mode and needless to say all hell break luce, yet I wasn't playing the mini game that much, but I had no second thought in Modding Rare Card, the big at the time was the Sacred Card 100 Dino Bones to get 100 Quakes for everyone very strong to junction at that point, I hadn't found Zell or Quistis card at the time would have been funny XD. Anyway just being curious carry me through the game without much issues, despite that I was leveling up, didn't realise how spammable Limit Breaks were or how easily you could get Invincible (miss the Laguna Card obviously). Have to say tough leveling up and not knowing the "cheap" tactics while the game was easy for the most part, it made for a pretty intense Final Boss fight, it's easy to cheese the all game and not realising it but compare to the rest of the storyline bosses and even to some optionnal bosses, the Final Boss is actually a pretty huge step in difficulty, and was my only struggle in my first playthrough as a kid.

One of the best game in my childhood memories. The adventure and the unexpected secrets, guardian forces, maps and areas throughout the games. Keep me excited for more. It was also my first Final Fantasy game even before I started playing Final Fantasy seven and I could say that it was and still is one of the best Final Fantasy game out there, so I had no clue why people hated this game so much.

I didn’t know people hated ff8…? It was my first final fantasy, and it holds an incredibly special place in my rpg heart.

The effect that using magic has on stats adds extra dimensions of challenge and strategy that people should appreciate.

I hated it the first time I played through it...until I got to the end and then for some reason felt pulled to immediately play it again. I still love the game. Some of the most underrated music in the series too.

People back then are hungry for traditional level grinding xp rpg but ff8 put the junction mechanic and people hated it. But today every rpg has a mechanic in getting powerful so FF8 was so advance at that time.

I recently downloaded FF8 remaster on the PS5 and got the platinum. I used tonplay it over and over again during my youth from the PS1 and PS2 days. I've played FF games from 1-12, tactics, 7 remake and 7 rebirth but FF8 is my most favorite out of all.

To me VIII has aged like a fine wine as far as its mechanics are concerned. Yes the junction system is poorly explained and confusing but in the current year there is no shortage of video guides and explanations from people who have mastered the games mechanics and can get you on your way to absolutely breaking open this game in the opening levels. And honestly, that is where the game has leveled up in terms of fun factor and replayablility. Because of the junction system, levels are NOT required for your characters to advance in terms of stats, attributes and skills. And since VIII is one of the few games where enemies scale with the character, this opens the game up for some pretty inventive low level and magic attunement restriction runs. VIII also has one of the best minigames that spans the entirety of the game. Triple Triad is a blast once you get familiar with the rules in each region and learn to craft your decks carefully to take advantage of each. You also have the promotion system on the side where you try and reach maximum rank as a SEED that is pretty involved on achieving. There's also obtaining rare crafting materials to make better weapons, the chocobo and mog minigames (having been restored in the PC rerelease), and leveling up each characters unique abilities to further serve you in combat. And through all this quite possible one of the most banger OSTs in the franchise. Too many people sleep on FFVIII's soundtrack but IMO its right up there with VI, VII, IX and X's. Its also fun (if you have it on PC) to go through with mods that can spruce up the back grounds and character models with AI driven HD scaling, high quality music orchestral rips done by square's carefully selected music professionals from their various Live Tours over the past few decades, and a spruced up overworld. Of course these arent needed nor would i count them as reasons as to why VIII is so enjoyable, but they do serve to make a great game even better. The only real issue ive ever had with VIII is the story past a certain point and that not every character landed for me. But beyond that, a true diamond in the rough and very under appreciated.

At 1989 , FF8 was my first game in the franchise, i spent hundreds hours playing it I love this game alot it reminds me of my childhood

simple, every point people argue saying the game is rubbish etc is all self inflicted issues. drawing system as much as many would say otherwise is not essential, using amnesia greens and summon ability items (often found in chocobo world if you play steam og port not remaster) you can do everything the junctioning system can do bar status effects and elemental effects which unless you are fighting a malboro an item works just as well dealing with status effects as junctioning does.

VIII was my fave Final Fantasy for the longest time and i did used to wonder why it was so polarizing. and the real reason why FFVIII was so 'hated" on release is simple. it was that it was nothing like FFVII. and this cycle repeats all the time. to be clear.. VIII's gameplay was ahead of its time. you build your characters as you like, and can do so in any way you like - people keep saying draw but theres item and card mod. level sync content is so common and accepted these days. the "bad" plot twists were actually set up early on if people bothered to pay a bit more attention and is really not very different than identity plot twists of previous games. i mod the ff reddit so i've seen the whole gamut.. but every new FF game inevitably gets trashed for "not being like [my fave FF game]" even when the game is good. thats probably part of why VII Rebirth is so universally acclaimed, because it's not just good, its also similar enough to what people widely consider to be their fave FFs

"Everyone in this comment section grew up together in the same orphanage. We all forgot up until right now conveniently, I mean I remembered but just didn't bring it up... Now let's never mention it again."

Everyone I know who have played it loves it. It's the first time I have heard that people do not like it🤔 its one of the best classic ff to me! I played it last fall on switch and still had fun! I always thought that he could not die at this point because his older self already exists to fight Artemisia in the future.

I loved FF8. The characters look the same in and out of combat (fixing that Popeye nonsense from FF7), the cinematics STILL hold up to this day, the story was cool, the combat was fun, and the environments were diverse. That card game was also surprisingly fun. The issue...is nostalgia. FF7 hit us with the novelty of that cinematic multi-disc RPG odyssey. It was incredible. It set the new standard. It got imprinted onto our hearts. FF8 was technically better in every way.....it just had the misfortune of coming out second.

I'm 45, I played it to death when it came out. Everyone my age who likes jrpgs really enjoyed it. I don't know anyone who hated it.

My friends and I loved FFVIII, and I was the one that really got the junctioning system. My friends asked me to junction their characters, and they’d start complaining when I’d take Ultima out of strength and put it in defense, but then they’d start breezing through things and they’d be all ‘ok maybe you were right’

I adore *Final Fantasy VIII* . I think it’s so u under appreciated. Having it on PS1, Switch, and (soon to be) PS4, just makes me happy. One of the hardest games I have ever beaten, I actually had a Pocket Station and was able to make use of it to enhance my characters. As they were all at Level 99 when I got to the end, Ultimecia kicked my ass, until my Knights of the Round kicked in and saved me. I fought her for 6 months, and lost every time, until I finally won. It was a magical moment.

Before seeing anything and the discourse I've heard regarding why FF8 isn't liked: 1) Junction system is just weird and very poorly explained. If you love it you love it and can break. If you're simple or just not inclined it makes everything calculus when you just want to play checkers. 2) Draw system kinda makes combat a chore. You spend more time drawing stocks than fighting and the system actually makes you not spend spells in situations that'd be ideal to spend them. 3) Leveling is actually a punishment since enemies get stronger with you and the junction system kinda dictates your strength(at least in some ways). 4) Characters aren't everyone's cup of tea. Squall can seem kinda detached for a bit and somehow thrust into situations that don't quite fit with what vibes he puts out there. Also, as a love story, some don't buy the connection between him and Riona. Some straight up don't like Riona. Laguna is often seen as more likable and some want a story focusing on his journey 5) Plot twist regarding amnesia is considered stupid by many. Actually the general story can be hit or miss for many. And there are some plot inconsistencies and oddities that lack proper explanation. 6) FF7 & FF6 set up a very challenging high bar and FF8 was far too ambitious and experimental to meet their lofty expectations or be patient with its unorthodox design and very unique story premise. For me, I had a really bad first impression of the Junction system and the game's leveling system totally broke my grind happy brain the first time. 2nd time I didn't get as far but had a bit more fun and understood the junctioning and leveling more. Story wise I was pretty chill but honestly was hoping something would happen with Squall and Quitis. Even Selphie and Squall caught my attention only because Squall actually had options to not blow Selphie's requests off and be a jerk to her so I thought he at least likes her enough to be allowed the option to not be a dick. I didn't get those options with anyone else. Riona is fine and she seemed cool but I never got far enough to get invested in her as a character and Quitis was there from jump with Selphie as noobish as I was. Also I'm one of the weird people that doesn't like Triple Triad. The fact it's tied into a lot of systems in the game is impressive but also incredibly annoying since my completionist brain knows I'll have to deal with it when I'd rather do anything else. Also not a fan of the Amnesia plot twist, it feels convenient and kinda just stupid. Also if it wasn't there, some implications would be different and have a bit more tension but the situations feel like they'd be mostly the same but with different baggage (at least from what I recall from the 8% of disc 1 that I played.) I never got var enough to organically figure out why Laguna was a party wide hallucination for the party and honestly for a first playthorugh it just feels jarring to jump into a whole other JRPG story with the same systems but 0 context as to why. I get it's a surprise for later but it's just kinda annoying. I will say I adore the character designs and the concept behind the gunblade is genius and I wish the other party memebers had similar mechanics for their attacks and combat stylings. Also Zell is half my spirit animal and the other half is Squall. Part of me wants to goof off and eat hot dogs, but the part of me in his 30s that can't eat hot dogs, is annoyed antisocial and wants everyone to leave him alone. You shouldn't read all this, just watch the video and subscribe if you like his content.

If I were to refine the junction system I would do a couple of things. First, make it so you can attack and draw at the same time. You can can still draw without attacking if you want to(in case you want to keep the enemy alive). But having a draw-mug option would be nice. Second, when do draw magic it would be an unrefined non-elemental magic. Then use your gf to refine it into something useful. I never really liked certain spells being tied to specific cards or items.

Ok, let's do this! I recently went back to ff8 to do a no level run, which I had never done before although I've finished it multiple times since I was 8 years old (34 now😢). This time I had all that criticism in mind when going throughout the story and I do have to give credit to some of the plot issues. For example, in disc 1 Irvine behavior didn't match with his later revelations of him knowing the main cast all along due to the non use of GF. And I could add some other minor similar situations. But that could be just to hide the truth in order to make future revelations much more appealing (Didn't work btw). And I am sure that's the case considering how a central character to the story acts towards Squall. That character is Cid Kramer. The whole story revolves around the arrival of a chosen Seed that will slay Ultimecia during time compression. An event that is presented to us near the Ending of the game. And why do I point that as the most important thing ever? Because it is. From a playstyle perspective, you don't really realize this in your first playtrough. But when you start again you know that the order of the events presented, is not the beggining of the story. There are past events that define the fate of the characters. And here comes Edea. Long before the Garden's existance, she encounters end game Squall who is at the time chasing Ultimecia. Here, is Squall who tells Edea about Seeds. This is an "interestellar" moment where the future actions led to the events of the past. It is because of that encounter between end game Squall and young Edea, that She and Cid decided to create the Garden and the Seeds. And that implies that both of them knew all along that it will be their adoptive son Squall the one that will eventually end Ultimecia's life. But how is that presented during the first hours of the game? Well, it's pretty easy. Cid is always throwing Squall to the absolute danger even when he is just a recent graduate with no experience. The very first mission is a deliberate way to force Squall group to have direct contact with Ultimecia (Edea being possesed by her). And that is disc 1. Later on, in disc 2, this keeps going when Cid delivers the Garden controll to Squall because... Lol. There is no reason. There were many Seeds around. Veterans that would probably have taken better decisions. But of course, there WAS not only a reason, but an obligation from Cid's part. Yeah the game has it's flaws... Like, Galbadian soldiers using magic with no GF junctions or the lack of GF's from every other student since all of them are supossed to use them. Not even Fujin uses Pandemonium and she has him attached. It is not a perfect Game. But there are a lot of things in it that demonstrate that the story was well thought. You can like it more or less but it is not a mess at all.

I played it after 7 and pretty much when it was released. My brother and I loved it. The three FF entries on the PS were my favourite games and 7 and 9 are still in my top 10 games of all time. 8 is definitely in my top 20 and I think the "hate" for 8 is an internet thing. There were discussions back than in gaming magazines about the art style and the focus on a romance that didn't apply to everyone but in general the game was received well. The new junction system was interesting and you could easly break the game if you knew what you were doing. It was fun. Hate is a word that is used way too much these days, it's an internet thing imho.

I’ve always said. If this game wasn’t called FF8 but had its own name it would be seen as one of the great RPG for its time.

I wouldn't say I hate it but it is definitely my least favourite. Mainly due to the characters. Squall, Rhinoa, and Laguna were fine. But everyone else fell kinda flat with the shared backstory. It felt like the party members did not have own motivations as to why they are part of the team.

Here's my thoughts. --The Junctioning wasn't that complicated but it added a level of difficulty when deciding when and where to use magic. --I'll admit that I didn't care for the level-scaling part. --The card game shouldn't count because it's optional, and even if it wasn't it's a great mini game! (the rules can complicate things sometimes but, eh) --People shouldn't claim that the plot was difficult to follow when nowadays we have multiverses and inter-dimensional plot stories that make no sense. They escaped time-compression by defeating Ultimecia and they explained in the game that they had to use their connection to get back to their time. I guess some people weren't listening. The Squall theory is just that, a theory. --I do think that the amnesia plot was contrived and unnecessary, simply because they could have just said each kid belonged to a different 'garden' and left it at that. Squall had enough amnesia (for Ellone and Edea) to be able to confirm the GF thing.

Me, I hated 8 for specifically 2 reasons. 1 was the magic system. I hated the draw systems. 2 was the guest party members. Because if you transfer your magic that might have taken you hours to drain is then yeteed into a black hole the second they leave the party.

The lack of items armor and accessories didnt help however, This games biggest downfall for me was the horrible story, and it's horrible map. They tried to go for realism with the character models and instead just made a picelated mess. I enjoyed the junction system and the fact the game was the easiest ff I ever played.

i think it is the first playthrough that really sells the game, especially if it was your entry into the FF game series. You are on a mission driven pilgrimage through a world, that contiunuosly evolves and unveils ever more fantastic places & happenings up to the point where it becomes surreal. The whole journey constantly pushes you forward through a convincing stage play to maintain immersion. However as soon as you try to look back to make sense of everything, the world building suddenly crumbles apart over its piles of gaping lore holes.

I liked it more than 7 back in its day. The intro, graphics, atmos, music, cities.. actually I think its alongside X the best designed world visuals. Very interesting combination of european vs futuristic aesthetics. people say its broken because of the junction system but I never noticed it. I never finished it because for me it was a bit difficult.

I played the heck out of ff8 as a kid, used to do no GF runs(still used for junction), no level runs, etc. its very versatile with the junction system if you know what you're doing, oh and triple triad can help break the game quick...

Grinding helped me when I made sure my people at the stat bonus abilities on before I started grinding lol I used to go down to the beach by garden and use Card on the orange fish guys over and over until Ifrit learned str bonus lol keeping squall at level 7 while gaining AP…by the time squall was 100 he had 93 extra strength points haha did the same with Rinoa with Siren and Mag Bonus

I enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII. Honestly I didn't mind the Junction System and used triple triad to get powerful spells as a way for grinding. The thing I think people miss discussing FFVII is the story is a high school romance with a cold protagonist who gets warmer over time. That's either something you like or something you don't. I find the difference in opinion of how people feel about FF8 is if they played FF7 before. If they came on FF8 on its own they tend to enjoy it. People who played FFVII always tended to ask 'But why aren't you playing 7 instead'. I've had people correct me when I say I like FVIII by saying 'There's only two ii's in 7 you misspelled it'. I get people love VII but I think its time people looked at VIII as its own thing without comparing Squall to Cloud or Rinoa to Tifa

FFVIII was my first FF so I have a soft spot for it. That being said, its not perfect, but the fact that it doesn't have linear leveling and enemies scale with you, and you can get around drawing via the card game, always made it so much more replayable to me. It's really rewarding to learn the systems and unlock powerful things early. It always feels to me like it rewards combat knowledge which is on flavor for the story. I'd love to see a remake or a game with similar systems balanced for better pacing since you steamroll everything but super bosses by end of disc 1 (iykyk) No one could tell me its bad, but I can see where it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Great vid!

I always loved this game. And I never even got the "complex" junction system complaints. Even when I was 10 years old I found the junction system fairly easy to grasp. It was actually really quite simple. The only issue was drawing magic being kind of a pain. I was not a huge fan of levelling up being a negative tho. But that is my only significant criticism

I'm like you and grew up loving FF8 (it's my favorite of the 3 PS1 era games) but I can totally understand where people have issues with the game, especially the gameplay and story elements. I think the beef with the Junction system wasn't necessarily its complexity but how it rendered other aspects of the game, such as casting magic, redundant or useless altogether. I don't know if I agree that it's a "choice" to either use your magic as magic, or junction it because the game clearly pushes the player towards the latter and there is zero benefit by not doing it. Plus the level scaling means you can take advantage of it and "break the game" by fighting as little as possible, not leveling up your character which keeps enemy levels low and then use the junction system to increase your stats making you wayyyyyyyyy OP. People also have issues with Squall being an absolute d-bag for 90% of the game. I get the whole "dark, brooding, cool guy" thing but they definitely take it a bit too far and again, I say that as a fan!

FFVIII was amazing up until the end when after normally playing through the game didn't realize I was beyond under level and almost shocked at how I was able to get so far with such a horrific jump in difficulty.

Funny i actually liked the junction system. I also liked the enemy levelling. Draw system, not much but it's tied to mag stat so once i knew what I'm doing I'm fine. Ff8 was my 1st ff and i got hooked. After ff8 i tried other ffs and was surprised how "normal" stat levelling is on other final fantasies..

Yeah, my issues with the game are the Draw/Junction system and the level scaling. I’ll grant that the D/J is an interesting concept, but I just don’t think it worked out well. As for the level scaling, HELL NO. I have yet to see that implemented well in ANY game. Players should not be punished for choosing to spend time with your game.

Back in that day, there was a mystique to the name "Final Fantasy." Just having the name massively boosted expectations compared to basically anything else. And for me, Eight was the first game in the series to fail to measure up to those expectations. To be clear, it was NOT bad. It was not bad at all. Put any other name on it and I would have considered it pretty good. It simply failed to measure up to what I thought I was buying with the Final Fantasy name on it. Sadly, save for fourteen, every completely new number Final Fantasy game since twelve has had the same problem for me.

People complain about the Junction System as if there were obligated to junction 100 of their best magic to stats and never use them.