>Game so bad people have to headcanon the game as being a hallucination for it to make sense

>Thread so bad OP had to make a situation in its head for it to make sense.

>>11911512
>Anon has never heard of the Squall is Dead theory

>>11911519
What will happen when Quistis meets Simon Belmont?

>>11911504 (OP)
What will happen when past Ultimecia meets future Rinoa?

>>11911871
She eats him and gets holy water blue magic.

>>11911519
Its annoying because I don't like the theory... but considering the cutscene that kicked the theory off it does make sense. Still, its not the case, but if they ever did a remake I'm almost sure they'd account for it.

>>11911504 (OP)
Ff8 is not about the plot (which is shit) or the characters (which is shit outside squall rinoa seifer). It's about the sandbox. The game breaking. The playing with GFs your first playthrough and thinking game is mediocre then trying it with full junctions and blue magic and having fun and then doing a full triple triad only run and having a fucking blast.

Top 3 sandbox games all time. They should make a mod to fix triple triad rules in all regions and you're set.

>>11912009
I was expecting some BDSM plays, not vore.

>>11911504 (OP)
Square was so lucky they struck gold with seven because if this was the first Final Fantasy on PSX it’d be a dead franchise today.

>>11912018
Breaking 7 with materia combos was even better.

>>11912096
True but good materia combos only came way late in the game (ff7's biggest mistake but I guess that's the only way you don't easily break early to mid game with insane combos)
The materia combos system was so beautiful wish they did more with that or another game adopted it with more richer options.

>>11912018
This. VIII gives you so many options and lets you play the game however you want. You can moderate the amount of random battles as early as disk 1. You don't have to give a fuck about level grinding, ever. You don't need to summon GFs even once if you don't want to. You don't need to spam the draw command.

And if you ask me the triple triad run is the way to go. I get enc-none as soon as possible, turn off all random battles halfway through disk 1, stay low level and up my stats by modding cards into items and items into magic. There's still plenty of fixed encounters so combat is still relevant but it takes all the monotony out of it.

And if you're autistic enough you *can* fix the triple triad rules through spreading and abolishing, its just more trouble than it's worth most of the time. I finished the Qiueen of Cards quest in my most recent playthrough and I didn't even really try manipulating the rules, just got lucky enough to abolish random in Dollet. As long as you don't spread it you can live with it being the default in a couple places. I usually don't bother completing the queen's quest even during card-based playthroughs because it's not even necessary. You can still break the game easily enough without the ones she gives you.

>>11912194
Yeah, I think materia was probably the best jrpg magic system they came up with.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. VIII is one amazing game. I hated it on release, played it again when the remaster came out for some nostalgia and I keep learning new ways to play it. It just keeps getting better the more I play it, 500 hrs in and I want to replay it again with even different strats. That's fucking amazing.
The story has asspulls and conveniences galore and I don't care. The chicks are hot, I want quistis or matron to sit on my face. I like the French countryside aesthetics, the gothic european designs, the music, and how you can get fucking rekt by certain random encounters at any level when you get complacent with the easy ones. I just wish there were a few more towns.
I think it's as good as VII, for different reasons.

>>11912207
>I usually don't bother completing the queen's quest even during card-based playthroughs because it's not even necessary.
It's strange that the other card sidequest (Card Club) utterly renders the Card Queen moot, considering Club Diamond holds every unique card in the game. And it's far less tedious.

>>11911504 (OP)
quistis + rinoa = quinoa

>>11912207
But all that shit is so fucking boring.
Especially since the level scaling makes it so it doesn't really matter what you do.

>>11911512
/thread

FF8 living rent free in people's heads for 25 years and counting

>>11912495
I bitched about the level scaling for years.
I played a "fight all encounters unless farming a specific mug or drop" last time and the level scaling actually works and makes sense. There are so many different ways to overcome the scaling. Enemies get new draws and even abilities and attack patterns at certain levels which keeps things interesting and backtracking doesn't mean running into lvl 5 enemies over and over like every other game. The only downside is that it can be exploited for low level runs, but I've done plenty of those and they aren't very fun esp if you know the story already.

>>11912018
You forgot the weaponized nostalgic coziness of the balamb garden theme. You can smell the empty afterschool hallways on that track. Shit hits millennial brains like white lightning.

>there's so many ways to play!
*spams limit breaks*
>so many builds!
*junctions strongest magic to STR*
>so many summons!
*only casts cerberus because the rest get way too boring way too fast*
>so many magics!
*uses only meltdown, the other spells are underpowered as hell and using them makes his party weaker*
>so many commands!
*keeps spamming limit breaks and normal attacks*

>>11912514
Literally every command is useful, although Mad Rush and Darkside are technically just flavorful attacks. Also how the fuck could you forget Aura.

>>11912535
True, but that's included in the *spams limit breaks* point

>>11911504 (OP)
Regarding level scaling, it never occurred to me, I just played the game as any other.
>>11912512
Well said lol

>>11912536
Renzokouken and Duel make the game more engaging and tense.
Just don't use the cheat ones like degenerator and the end. Also, summoning unless required to in a FF game is for literal children.
Yes, you have to handicap yourself a little to make the game balanced and fun just like every other jrpg, boo-hoo.

>>11911504 (OP)
"Headcanon" is something dumb kids say because they're inarticulate.

>>11912541
>Renzokouken and Duel make the game more engaging and tense.
Anon, Duel can one shot Omega. Degenerator is worthless outside of random battles, and The End is unreliable.

>>11911504 (OP)
>IQ is so low you have to rage about a straightforward story to internet strangers 30 years later

>>11912548
>Calls it a straightforward story
>Probably believes in R=U

>>11912474
They didn't want people getting locked out of important stuff in disk 4 which is why you're able to go back to the Ragnarok and access the world map again. But IIRC there was some technical reason why they couldn't have all the towns still available as well. So since you wouldn't be able to complete the QOC quest without town access they gave her cards to the card club as a way of not locking you out of those, either. I guess they figured if you finished the CC quest and were at the endgame anyway they didn't need to gatekeep stuff so hard. VIII is a pretty generous game. They wanted you to have most of this stuff.

And yeah, it kind of renders the whole sidequest redundant but if you do the queen's quest you gain access to all those cards much sooner so it's not completely pointless. Some of the rare cards will give you very OP shit so getting them sooner rather than later is very beneficial if you're trying to break the game. Also, the queen can be useful if you want to change trading rules in a region (although like the rule changes, that's a double edged sword because you can end up with direct, which fucking sucks).

I never hated the idea of the Queen of cards quest. It's a nice bit of worldbuilding and almost kind of fun, it just coexists badly with the way the card game rules work. Trying to lose a specific card with the random rule in place just doesn't work, and getting rid of the random rule in all the places she could possibly go is so tedious most people won't bother. I think they knew that but figured since she's not the only source of those cards they could leave it as it was let and make it an optional thing for the most turbo of autists. I distinctly remember arguing with myself about why I bothered doing it. But I had to do it once because otherwise I'd have beaten the game but not *completed* the game. You guys know what I mean

>>11912560
>But IIRC there was some technical reason why they couldn't have all the towns still available as well.
Lack of space due to the ending cutscene

>>11912560
True, Kiros card gives you Auto-Haste on everyone in like Disc 2 which is insane.

>>11912593
You know what's really crazy? I get the Kiros card on disc 2 and still don't mod it until the endgame anyway because I like to wait until I have enough GF's to give everyone their "final" setup and only then start using ability items. If I gave 3 people auto-haste in disk 2 I'd just have to slap it on whatever GFs I had at the time and I'm not willing to do that.

Like I said, autism.

>return damage
>Junction best magic to HP
>Don't junction anything to vitality
>Let the enemy kill itself

God i love FF8

>>11912645
>enemy is undead
game over

>>11911504 (OP)
FFVIII is good though

>>11912662
>first jrpg with a realistic humanoid protagonist
Revolutionary even

>>11912662
Not really

>>11912018
>>11912207
Well is it an RPG or a fucking card game then? If the most optimal way to play the game is to spend hours on Triple Triad then it's shit. The music and visuals are also tepid and vomit-inducingly bland.

>>11912620
Makes sense. I find Pandemona/Tonberry/Cactuar the best ability targets since they have the only three Initiatives in the game.

>>11912000
Argue who have big cup size.

>>11912645
>>11912649
>Junction 100 Deaths to status attack
>1HKO 99% of enemies
>get hit with confuse
>1HKO 100% of allies

>>11912679
It's an RPG where you have the OPTION to replace hours of endless grinding for levels with playing the card game instead. Do it how you want.

>>11911871

Quistis is actually Squall's mother. The don't show it, but before they went into the cave to fight Ifrit, Squall did a Lionheart on Quistis pussy flaps with his cock

>>11912721
>OPTION to replace hours of endless grinding for levels with playing the card game instead
Great design to be honest

>>11914110
except that you'll spend a similar amount of hours doing Y instead of X. It's no shortcut

>>11914118
Yep. It's a choice.

>ff9
>disc 1
>have all the summons
>need 10x your mp limit to summon them
>disc 2
>lose all your summons
>just equip accessories to relearn them
>disc 3
>finally able to stop using garnet because she's shit
>also becomes an unusable cripple on this disc
>completely forget about summons unless you're a chad eiko user

>ff6
>you can now equip espers to learn magic
>include a detailed tutorial explaining this
>press up in the magic menu to summon your equipped esper
>don't bother mentioning that in the game
>limit breaks are also a thing
>don't mention that either

>ff7
>get chocobo summon materia
>try it
>mediocre.jpg
>just battle normally
>pick up more summon materia
>don't even bother trying it
>get to the end game
>use hades on ruby weapon
>use knights of the round on emerald
>no idea what the other 17 summons do

>ff8
>new game
>here is your gf
>name your gf
>here is how you equip your gf
>in battle you can summon your gf
>your first job is to get another gf
>remember to equip your new gf
>you will get more gf
>we all grew up in an orphanage
>Irvine only remembered because he had no gf

>>11911504 (OP)
Thinking of replaying the game, but with some restrictions to make it less braindead. Haven't played it in almost 20 years.
Biggest mistake I made the first time through was raising my stats too high with magic junction, and spending too much time drawing magics to 100. And since I was focused on stats, I'd almost never use magic.

Also, does the game become easier or harder on low-level runs? I know the enemies scale with your level, but not quite sure if they scale slower or faster than you.

It really fucking sucks how games like ff8 or ff10 require so much planning to make them moderately challenging to play. This gets especially bad in ff10, when you have to restrict yourself from abusing broken mechanics, and you have to know what your stats should be to make each Arena or Dark Aeon fight just the right level of challenge.

>>11914214
>It really fucking sucks how games like ff8 or ff10 require so much planning to make them moderately challenging to play
Just run through the games instead of grinding. Focus on completing the game as fast as possible, if that keeps you away from optimizing all the challenge away.

>>11914214
I did a very half-assed low level run years ago which went pretty well until I reached Bahamut who is fixed level and completely wrecked me.

I tried again a few years later with more preparation and it went so much better it didn't even feel like the same fight.

>>11914271
Running away from every encounter in ff10 eventually leaves you underpowered to the point where you have to abuse mix, items or summons to beat the bosses. So still, you have to tiptoe around the fine line of getting just enough power to keep the fights doable but not too annoying.
This is why I rarely ever play turn based games anymore. Too much planning needed to keep them fun.

>>11914118
>It's no shortcut

Who said it was? It's an alternative way to acquire items and magic, not a speedrunning strategy. It's better to be able to spend a few hours doing x and a few hours doing y at your discretion than just be forced to do x and nothing else.

>>11914214
>>11914327
>I did the equivalent of grinding to level 99 before the first dungeon and the game was too easy after that
>then I didn't level up at all ever and the game got too hard

Have you considered the issue isn't that the games are badly balanced but you just seem determined to play them in the most unsatisfactory way possible. Stop going to extremes, progress normally, and you'll have a better time.

And honestly these games were intended to be more immersive experiences than brutal challenges anyway. I wouldn't go so far as to call them braindead but they're supposed to be manageable if you just put in the time and learn proper strategy. If you want to get your shit pushed in on a regular basis there's always Wizardry or other such games. FF is not a difficult series

>>11914327
>Running away from every encounter
For fuck's sake, how about you don't do that?

>>11914508
>seem determined to play them in the most unsatisfactory way possible.
Yeah this.

Sometimes I can't believe the mind of some individuals here.

>>11914516
>individuals
Law enforcement, or just a good goy by choice?

>>11914508
Which part of "haven't played it in almost 20 years" did you speedread through? I wonder how intelligently you approached vidya when you were in your early teens. Oh right, you probably still are. At least mentally.

>>11914516
You said "just run through the games" yourself lmao and I took it literally.

>>11914813
To say it accurately, focus on the main story. No unnecessary battles, side content, grinding, or equipment/material gathering.

You'll find FF 10 to be fairly well balanced for that.

>>11914214
Just do what I did and
>Junction best magic to Squall's HP
>enter "critical HP" during battle
RENZOKUKEN FOREVER

It's still risky; he's close to dying, you know? Very engaging, though.

>>11914110
you don't have to do hours of endless grinding even if you ignore playing the card game, you can just refine the items and cards you get as drops into magic instead

>>11914812

>>11914925
>auto-renzokuken
Disgusting, although at least it's not auto-Duel.

>>11915282
>auto
I don't know what you mean by that. I've only ever played the PS1 release of FFVIII, and "auto-renzokuken" was never such an option; I always pressed R1 on time... so I assume you're referring to some sort of "mod."

If you are, to be fair, this webm was made by a guy who, while using a PC mod version, wanted to show everyone all of Squall's Renzokuken attacks. He made several webms many years ago.

>>11915327
There are options for limits on the player status screens. The "auto" option randomly does R1 for you during renzokuken. The other option for Squall turns off the trigger indicator altogether so you have to do it as he strikes which is probably what's used here.

Zell has an auto option too, and Rinoa has all the Angelo abilities to learn. None of the others have anything meaningful.