Why is FFVIII So Underrated?

[Sailor Suit Barret]

FFFVIII was the game that got me into the final fantasy series, and for that it will always have a special place in my heart. But when most people list their favourite Final Fantasy VIII just doesn't seem to have any presence on any of those lists? Am I missing something? I've always considered it to be one of the better Final Fantasies, it doesn't seem to have any glaringly obvious flaws. Maybe it's simply considered to be an okay game, not worthy of comment, but I've always listed it in my top 3.

There's nothing dreadfully wrong with the plot, the battle system is pretty standard (fine the limit breaks were a bit unbalanced and the Junction system either made the game very easy or very hard depending on your grasp of it) and it looked so much better than VII. So why does it have such a bad reputation?

Any thoughts? Do you think VIII is a bad game?

[lolita]

A bad Final Fantasy, imo.

I don't really like the modern or future-like settings. The battles weren't enjoyable because I HATED the draw system, had to upgrade weapons otherwise attacks are useless and junctions were annoying. Oh and ennemies leveling up too? That's not only annoying but it defeats the purpose of leveling up. Gameplay is the weakest part of the game, imo and it is the most important thing to me in any videogame.

The story is okay, I guess, but I don't find the love between Squall and Rinoa very convincing.

The one and only thing I enjoyed in it is Laguna. He is hilarious and he kicks ass. I love him. Plus his theme battle is one of the best FF battle music ever. *Laguna fangirl forever*.

This is very subjective and there's no right or wrong... It's just I guess most people felt the same way about the game as I did. But it's a gem for you (and some other people--looking at you Matt) and it shouldn't matter if others don't like it.

[matt1912]

yep looking at me >.>, <3 final fantasy 8 my 2nd favourite true final fantasy after 10, so i dont know why its underrated XD, in all fairness the only person i know that doesnt like it is lolita, so i wouldnt really call it underrated, just underrated compared to the overratedness of final fantasy 7 XD

[Xifres]

i played it and i liked it, but ... the story was interresting in the beguinning but since ultimecia was jumping from sorceress to sorceress i got annoyed with that, and omega weapon as a hidden boss i was expecting more. It was easy for me, maybe i was lucky, dont know. But i liked everything else and i LOVE Ragnarok, I think that it is one of the best machines in FF series if not the best

[Sailor Suit Barret]

It's fair to say that even the optional bosses are pretty easy if you're overleveled, but the game can get hard at points if you haven't been careful with your junctioning and levelling early on. It could be argued that it is the easiest final fantasy to finish completely, optional bosses and all.

[Xifres]

i really dont remember everythink but one i think that the only hard think that i found was Marlboro in the island when i was leveling up with his breath attack

[legend]

I really don't like FFVIII. I mean i really don't like the characters. I dunno but its not my favourite

[Seprith]

Well VIII is my 2nd favorite under VII but I can understand way alot of people hated it so much.

1) The level up system, That you level up with the enemies I just find if your enemies level up with you it makes leveling up at all pointless and when I fought Adel I was a level 52 so it toke me three hours to kill her because her health was so damn high.

2) The love story concept, Personaly I like VIII and this was one of the main reasons but alot of people hate love stories or they just refuse to say they like them so if the say "I like FF8." it will sound as if they like the love story.

3) The limit breaks, because face it only being able cast them when near death, every idiot that has ever played an RPG knows if your health gets that low heal. So I guess that is why I have never seen an FFVIII limit break.

[Xifres]

i remember that u could use Aura to raise the probability of doing your limit breaks with high hp

[Sailor Suit Barret]

I really rather liked the limit break system, having Squall on critical health and loads of phoenix downs stocked for the other two characters to revive him was a good strategy to win most battles. I also really liked that you had to fire the gunblade, it added something extra to the battles, rather than just attack, attack, attack, repeat.