Stores can\'t get PS2\'s

Originally posted by Heretic
Poochie don\'t let Ginko the hater feed your unhappiness with VIII. Keep an open mind about the story and only draw as many spells as you think you\'ll need to use to get through the next few battles. IMO, and a lot of other folks, FFVIII is the best FF to date so don\'t give up until you\'re absolutely sure it\'s not for you.

Bah, Heretic!:P

If you plan on beating FFVIII then you\'ll have to do more than draw a little bit of magic.  Get as many summons as you can and use them often so they level up, they require quite a bit of maintenance but will make the game a little less of a hassle later on.  

As for what I didn\'t like about the game:

• Ridiculous story
• Too many characters to keep up with
• Draw, draw, draw
• Summon, summon, summon
• Repeat until done

In my oh so humble opinion of course.

Ridiculous story

I won\'t argue the point but if you\'re going to be that way about it so is every other FF. Sure IX and pre VII were a little more down to earth. Key word though: Fantasy. Don\'t step into bizzaro world then complain about how strange it is. Learn to roll with it or don\'t play.

Too many characters to keep up with

I honestly didn\'t see a problem there, probably because I didn\'t fret about keeping track of all the details.  

If you plan on beating FFVIII then you\'ll have to do more than draw a little bit of magic. Draw, draw, draw

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not to spoil anything for Poochie so I\'ll just say there are other ways to get what you need. Just one of several aspects of the game I dearly love.
 
Get as many summons as you can and use them often so they level up Summon, summon, summon

If you didn\'t like it, summoning was hardly required at all. They only need be junctioned to gain experience from battle, not summoned.
 
Repeat until done

Forest is as Forest plays. Don\'t balme the game, there was/is a wealth of other ways at hand to achieve the same goals if the same-ol same-ol bored you. It was left to the player to look for and discover alternative methods of play. The hitch being a lot of people didn\'t bother and just wrote the game off as garbage instead.

I adored the characters, story and their relationship in FF8.The only thing that was a bit boring in the game were the summons which took too much time and you could do it all the time to beat the enemies.Which means some people didnt bother use thinking.And thats why some didnt like it.I enjoyied the game depite that though

[Paul2]

I think FF8 story was kinda boring, so was FFX when it compares to FFVII.  I haven\'t played FFIX so I can\'t comment on that.

Only thing that i really, really like about FF8 is the triple triad? card games.

Originally posted by Heretic
Ridiculous story

I won\'t argue the point but if you\'re going to be that way about it so is every other FF. Sure IX and pre VII were a little more down to earth. Key word though: Fantasy. Don\'t step into bizzaro world then complain about how strange it is. Learn to roll with it or don\'t play.

Too many characters to keep up with

I honestly didn\'t see a problem there, probably because I didn\'t fret about keeping track of all the details.  

If you plan on beating FFVIII then you\'ll have to do more than draw a little bit of magic. Draw, draw, draw

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not to spoil anything for Poochie so I\'ll just say there are other ways to get what you need. Just one of several aspects of the game I dearly love.
 
Get as many summons as you can and use them often so they level up Summon, summon, summon

If you didn\'t like it, summoning was hardly required at all. They only need be junctioned to gain experience from battle, not summoned.
 
Repeat until done

Forest is as Forest plays. Don\'t balme the game, there was/is a wealth of other ways at hand to achieve the same goals if the same-ol same-ol bored you. It was left to the player to look for and discover alternative methods of play. The hitch being a lot of people didn\'t bother and just wrote the game off as garbage instead.

As I said before, imho.  Thanks anyway, Heretic;)

I have read that people either love this game or flat out hate it.
I have not given up.........yet.  I have been reading the walkthroughs on line but there is still so much I am confused about. ex:  take this item and turn it into a blah and use it as a blah.  OK well how the hell do I do that?  So I spend most of the time on line trying to figure out  what now?  
I ordered the strategy guide.  If it keeps telling me to go to playonline.com like my FFIX one did,
I will burn the guide and the game.   FFIX and FFVII were great games.

So I spend most of the time on line trying to figure out what now?

Most all the finer points of the game can be picked up and understood by taking the SeeD tests (which btw raise your rank and salary). The tests are basically a logic puzzle/mini game that you can re-take as many times as you need to. I know it sounds rather geeky but once I found them and started testing it became hard to stop.

I can see where a walkthrough would throw all this stuff in your face at once leaving you confussed and frustrated. Better to take things one step at a time and learn as you go instead. You don\'t need to know everything at once and it\'s not critical to finishing or enjoying the game to know everthing anyway, it\'s just that once you\'re hooked it\'d be natural to want to learn and do as much as possible.

I do hope you find a way to like VIII but just as Ginko with covered ears, digging both heels into the ground insists, it\'s not for everyone.

Nothing else to comment on here so...

Try not to get your panties in bunch, Heretic.

I won\'t argue the point but if you\'re going to be that way about it so is every other FF. Sure IX and pre VII were a little more down to earth. Key word though: Fantasy. Don\'t step into bizzaro world then complain about how strange it is. Learn to roll with it or don\'t play.

I can take fantasy and I can appreciate it.  Skies of Arcadia, FF3(6)-10, Grandia II, Xenosaga, Mario RPG, Vagrant Story, Star Ocean II, Chrono Trigger...I play for the RPG\'s and I prefer fantasy.  VIII had alot going for it until it screwed up just a few times, imo.  
[spoiler]Having a heart felt conversation not 20 feet from a war zone, not to mention they\'re on a massive floating building, had my eyes roll ALL the way into the back of my head.  There were points of the story that just didn\'t fit very well and created an inconsistency, imo.  Just to be fair I think IX\'s story fell apart once they reached the last area.[/spoiler]

I honestly didn\'t see a problem there, probably because I didn\'t fret about keeping track of all the details.

As I said, I play RPG\'s anytime I can and I usually like a big group of characters.  VIII switched out/split up characters WAY too often and the only interesting relationships were between Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis...it seemed like everyone else was just filler.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not to spoil anything for Poochie so I\'ll just say there are other ways to get what you need. Just one of several aspects of the game I dearly love.

It would have been a damn poor game if drawing was the only thing you could do.  I just didn\'t like the draw system or the junction system.  (Perhaps I should have elaborated)

If you didn\'t like it, summoning was hardly required at all. They only need be junctioned to gain experience from battle, not summoned.

If you\'d like to use the summons effectively in battle then yes, you have to use them to raise their compatability.  The more they "like" you the faster they will come.  I also didn\'t care for building them up during their animation.

One highlight I should mention is that the game has fantastic cg direction.  The entire train sequence and the dance...some of the most memorable.

No wedgies here Ginko, just trying to counter some of the gloom and mis-information you were feeding Poochie about VIII is all / :soapbox:

Oh & the CG in IX kicks the crap out of VIIIs

Sony basically stopped production on the combo online pack PS2, I\'ve heard they\'re planning to come out with several different combos in which the games will be different.  I\'ve heard one will have a racing game, another might have a game like Jak or Jak II.  Im not really sure why they slowed production, we get them in about twice a month and can\'t keep them in stock.

I found a place called Gamespot in my travels today.  They had a ton of Playstation 2 boxes stacked all over the place.  In the windows and on shelves all over the store.  Playstation 2 sale banners all over the windows.
It took me 30 mins to find a parking spot and could not get there fast enough.  Well, they were empty boxes.   I wanted to lunge over the counter at the guy and set every box on fire.  
The salesperson said that they did not have them in for over two months.  Sony just started producing them again on 8/18.

Im getting use to FFVIII.  It\'s not as bad as I thought it was last week.  What I do hate with a passion is the junction.
They switch you back and forth with characters and you have to take everything off someone and put it on the current characters and two mins later do it all over again.  It really hate it.

Soon you will have so much materia you wont know what to do with, and those people you dont use will be your mules. And also there is a command that removes all materia so theres a time saver.

[Paul2]

Originally posted by Poochie

Im getting use to FFVIII.  It\'s not as bad as I thought it was last week.  What I do hate with a passion is the junction.
They switch you back and forth with characters and you have to take everything off someone and put it on the current characters and two mins later do it all over again.  It really hate it.

you can actually transfer all of those junctions to a different character without removing it and putting it back on.

[GmanJoe]

I wonder if Sony is trying to get rid of the current world wide inventory for a sleeker and "less expensive to make" PS2 like the cream colored PS One.