Every bad part of every final fantasy is still a good part of final fantasy because they are legit being creative at every level, down to the fundamentals of the game and genre, with each new mainline game.

VIII > IX > X > VII

Yes, I said it (and I love VII).

I wouldn't say it got so much wrong.

Everything except the overpowered draw mechanic was pretty amazing, in my opinion. And that could be countered by just choosing not to cheese it.

Easily my favourite of the PSX era trio (although 7 is of course classic)

FF8 is a flawed game, no argument from me. But to me what makes the game great is that it's the game where squaresoft was at its most experimental. Guardian forces was an attempt at making summons be genuine characters rather than a simple simulation of the idea of summoning. The leveling weirdness was an attempt at solving the problem of level grinding endemic to the genre. The story was an attempt to go beyond the usual heroes of light just saving the world. Did these attempts land perfectly? Not at all, but they had interesting permutations.

I think it's amazing that squarsoft even in that time tried to do so much different in just that one game. They were challenging standard tropes of the genre.

I genuinely question this writer claiming they played the game many times when they pretty much ignore the existence of Laguna when trying to find character depth and background. Really you have to remember the game in its moment in 1998, and this reads like someone playing it well after the fact. And then wondering why the game doesnt do things as well as the games that came after.

I really disliked how leveling up made you weaker. Things scaled with your level faster than the stat gains empowered you. Completely stupid design.

The card game is also too rewarding and too obscure. Without a guide, you'd never catch on to stuff like "lose this card to this unnamed person, then win a better version back from this other unnamed person". Also various "everything is on fire! You wanna play cards?" moments really hamper the pacing and tone. But you want to play it, because it gives a ton of power.

Discouraging you from actually using magic was an interesting experiment, but I don't think it was fun. Maybe it could have been rebalanced, but as-is you just stocked up on magic for the stats.

I don't remember the story very well. I remember getting locked out of a lot of content because I went past a point of no return without realizing it.

The demo was fire, graphics were so cool. Who doesn't love a gun blade? Feels like they attempted to take final fantasy 7's formula but missed the mark. I agree with all your points the story seems half hazard and missing depth. FF7 a least did well with going mad and questioning reality and FF9 had great characters (save Amarant) FF9 did go off the weird rails at the end though. In my opinion Final Fantasy 8 does feel like a committe designed game attempting to extract the success from 7. 9 feels like a going back to basics focusing you on story immersion rather than flashy graphics and gun blade tech.

I've played FF8 more than any other FF and it's partially for what the author is complaining about.

I can see complaining about the battle systems because they're pretty loose, but personally I think it's fun to play anyway.

The complaint about the characters not having a much of a story I guess is technically true if you compare it to the hamfisted diversions from the main story a lot of rpgs do to force a story arc for a character, but all of the characters feel like they are part of the group for a good reason because of their back stories and they all grow during the game.

I would just have to disagree on the writing. The story is why I play the game every few years. In fact, counter to the author's claim that it is incoherent, almost everything you do has to do with the sorceresses and history of the garden, without ever feeling like you got sent on an inconsequential side quest in the middle of a crisis.

I loved FFVII and my older brother loved FFVIII so naturally I gave it a go. The draw skill broke the game for me and I gave up shortly after I realized I had drawn 99 of everything I came across and it seemed to remove the challenge (I know over grinding any game kills it a bit).

That being said, my brother loved that game.

It's my fav FF.

I don't think the author gets it anymore. Like they've played many JRPGs since, got pigeonholed, went back to FF8, and compared it. FF8 does not feed the narrative. It's a PS game using every trick in the book to create a huge world, cultures, and with expanse in the adventure.

Just going down the road is supposed to feel like you're well into a long adventure into a big world of many different things, stories, and cultures. It's not disconnected writers, lol.

And they don't know what GFs are for. There are so many different ways to play the game. You lock into your main party characters because that's the play style you're going for and it's like building a deck. You can play the game a completely different way again. You can pick your main party at random before starting and have a hoot forcing yourself into a play style you've never thought to give a go before.

They lost the magic. When they first played it, they were creative and imaginative. Now they're playing it again, they're used to RPGs doing that all for them.

My Favorite FF game because of Triple Triad