This topic is for discussing the game while I'm making the LP episodes. As such, I've closed the older topics. To somewhat keep it organized, I will close this topic and create a new one upon reaching each subsequent disc.

I am also allowing spoilers here, as opposed to my YouTube comments section, where I remove such comments. Just a fair warning.

Most importantly, have fun!

P.S. I lied. I will be uploading episodes, starting tomorrow.

Ooh, the episode is up? Gonna watch it now then <3

Alrighty then. I'll try to stay tuned (school exams this week T.T)

It'll be fun hearing all the negative comments xD

It's one of my favorite games and I somewhat like the battle mechanics, but I do agree that they're heavily broken. I just think of it like Disgaea - you can overpower yourself if you want to, play the way you want xD

I can say this. Any game that allows you to get the most powerful weapon (and by extension, the most powerful attack) in the game at disc 1 definitely has a broken battle system.

Ok i need the game soon then

The fact that HC's usually pretty calm and mild-mannered makes it that much funnier when he dips into more adult language.

Except in FFVIII it isn't intentional...

Honestly, I never really noticed the broken battle system until I got older. When I was younger playing it, I just enjoyed the game and didn't pay much attention to details as I do now.

Well, me neither. But I got to say that I was really confused when I first played it. Even the manual got me confused, because IX being my first I thought that every FF was set to ye olde medieval times and when there were guns and cars in the manual I was all lolwut?!?

lol. "What madness is this?!?!"

I don't really remember how well I understood the game. I don't remember my first time playing it, all I remember is always skipping the tutorial because I knew what I was doing.

In celebration of the #000 episode, I thought I'd share this with you HC.

I think it's very fitting.

You're finally doing a LP on FFVIII! I'm going to play along since it's been around 4-5 years since I last played and for nostalgia and HCBailly. Back when I was in middle school, this game was a big deal solely because of the graphics and how popular the FF series got after VII. So, in my neighborhood, we were all graphics whores.

Based on the opening episode, I'm calling this now: There is going to be some kind of adult language at the orphanage scene.

Haha somehow i knew you will be starting tomorrow XD
I'm really looking forward for this LP :)
I'll help where i can :D
Allthough i think im not that helpful. Well we'll see :)

As the LP Career of HCBailly gets older, so does it get darker.. JUST LIKE ANYTHING THAT THRILLS THE PUBLIC!!

BEWARE MERE MORTALS, DARK HCBAILLY WILL BE SPAWNED BEFORE THE END OF HIS CURRENT LP!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!~

But really, I can't wait to hear the criticism of this game and to see whether or not you've decided if you're going to play/take advantage of the card game.

Sounds like this'll be an interesting LP, slightly different from your usual one. I feel pretty much the same way about FF8. I like it, but I can't ignore gigantic gaping flaws in various aspects of it like I can in other games.

if he does abuse the cards, i at least want to see some epic triple triad games :)

I'm looking forward to HCs criticisms of the game. I love good-natured and logical ribbing of this game (like Spoony's review) so this should be fun. What I don't like is when people get on the game's case for other reasons that have little or no basis, like someone disliking the game because it's not FFVII or because the love story plays a really large role in the story (yes I've actually heard both before). The game may not be my favorite but I have to agree with what HCBailly said in the opening video, Nobuo Uematsu is really incredible throughout the game.

I wonder how many people will get banned over the course of this LP due to their own stupidity ("Th15 G4m3 5UC1<5" equals stupidity in my book)... *grabs Sword of Trollslaying +5*

Anyways, personally i like all FF games. Well, almost all. FFXII wasn't all that good in my opinion because it felt too slow for an active battle system a la Tales of-, but too fast for a classic turn-based system. Also, i didn't really like how you had to 'program' your characters. Especially at the start of the game, you just have too little options to really do that effective, but then again, almost all games have that problem at the start... Meh, it's not a bad game, i just didn't really like it. (Yeah, i know i just said the most standard points in the book, but it's just my opinion of the game.)
Also, FFXI barely counts in the numbered series in my opinion just because of the fact that it's online. (Note that i'm only saying that it shouldn't be numbered, NOT that it's a bad geme or anything. I can't judge about it's quality since i've never played it)

Also, since 'Disc 3 Discussion' was locked, i had to put a qoute i wanted to react on here:

I know what else ^_^. A Flying Continent-airship, outfitted with a garden where you can store dragons :D

While I totally agree with you that it's not exactly your run-of-the-mill FF, I think that FFXI is one of the best final fantasies in the series. You do have to overlook the MMO part of it a little bit, but the story is vast and the NPCs are quick to gain my love. I played it pretty avidly for almost 6 years, and then I got hacked. Enough about that! This is an FF8 discussion~ silly me and my tangent, you just reminded me etc. etc. anywho

I don't remember much about FF8, other than the Gunblade, the GFs, Quistis, Irving, and that magical chick who shoves ice spikes through your chest at the end of disc one. Then I stopped playing, and my brother moved to Texas and I never got to play again. I remember having insanely over leveled GFs and 1 hit KOing all of the disc one bosses for the most part. I think I'll just avidly watch HCBailly play it, especially since I don't own it, and it'll be probably three times as entertaining. I also remember magazines to order new gunblades or tell you what you need to craft them or somethig, and then Zack I think his name is, and the chick who uses the nunchuk tonfa things. It's been so long. Doesn't your academy get to fly at some point? I'm pretty tired while typing this, can't sleep for whatever reason, so my thoughts are all jumbled and random.

Questions I'd really like answered though, is what is just so bad about the battle system and such? Also, whose idea in the Square staff was it to mix a revolver and a sword? It looks cool, but it always seemed impractical to me.

So far, people have been civil in their critique of the game. The worst I've seen is "I HATE THIS GAME" and that doesn't bother me. When people start trolling, flaming other viewers, and using the gay/emo jokes, that's going over the line in my book.

Although I'm not a fan of the draw system, that is far from my problem with the game. I think I will have a fairly unique perspective.

That said, I probably won't get to really go into my critique of the battle mechanics for awhile, until we get enough GFs and party members. I was thinking about creating a topic for my in-depth critique here, because I probably wouldn't have time to discuss everything in the videos, but I'm afraid that it would turn into a troll/flame party. Let's just say that my critiques are based on fact, not personal feelings or emotions.

If your problems with the game are logical and you can build a solid, intelligent argumentation, the worst thing that could happen in here is that someone(i.e me) will start reminiscent on older titles or IX. Outright: "FINAL FANATSY 8 SUX, AND U SUK 4 LIKIN IT!!1one!1" , will be more likely to happen in YT comments.

Sorry for the 'emo' comment earlier this morning. I swear that I won't post anymore negative comments of this game. Well, maybe a few funny ones like *wink wink* Diablos (Yes, another Spoony joke)

So far, you're doing good, and I hope to pick up things that I totally never knew when I played this while watching the LP.

Note: To the people that -1 the comments about the Quistis Pronounciation, HCBailly was right all along.

Don't worry about it. It's a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people go over the top with the whole 'emo' thing. Not that you did, but I was just trying to pre-empt it degrading into a 'gay' conversation. I have no tolerance for insensitive comments with or about the latter.

It's okay to post negative comments. Heck, I'm going to do it. As long as people don't go over the top about it, I'm cool with that.

I just need to understand the draw, its more complicated than 7

I'm sure HC will explain it. It's not that hard to understand.
What I find hard to understand is: Why Square, why?

Am I close here:

My problem with the game, essentially, is that it feels like two entirely different teams developed the GF/Junction mechanics and the battles. They just don't gel at all. That's why the game always feels 'broken,' whether it's too hard for newcomers or too easy for people who know what they're doing.

I feel the same way about the story. The romance/sorceress plot doesn't fit in too well with the Garden/war plot.

Interesting how many people are saying the Battle System is broken o.o
I played FF8 about 5 times and didn't noticed anything.
Except you mean something specific xD

I find the mechanics rather interesting.
:)

The enemies leveling up with you makes the Junction system insanely breakable. You can choose not to level up and instead buff your stats like crazy, making the entire game pathetically easy. If you level up a lot (like lots of RPG players do) the game can become far too difficult without spending hours getting the proper Junction setups.

Also the enemies are, in general, very bland and seemingly use abilities that are randomly scattered on to them. It just seems very unfocused to me. You have all these options and abilities, but none of them really matter so much since you can just junction magic to HP and Strength and obliterate everything.

Limit Breaks are overpowered beyond belief, mainly Squall's and Zell's. That might kind of be the point, but it seems absurd considering how little HP a lot of the enemies have.

How do you know he's right about the pronunciation of Quistis? I'm not one to argue, but I must know how you know for a fact that it is pronounced that way.

I demand credible sources damn it!! Lol :D

Personally, once I overcame the Draw system by using the GFs abilities to change items into magic, the game became quite enjoyable. I just made sure to train stat junction abilities on GFs after their item -> magic ability :D 100 Water to Str @ beginning of the game = pwn.

PS: I think HC should also talk about his thoughts/feelings on why/about how they changed Squalls name to Leon in KH.

Japanese of Quistis is キスティス (Kisutisu). Which is pronounced 'key-su-this' (silent u).

The 'Qu' in Quistis is pronounced with a 'k' sound in most other languages. I probably pronounce it the way I do, because of my four years of taking Spanish. That said, I pronounce things that I feel like it more than the way they're probably supposed to be.

I have no knowledge of Leon in Kingdom Hearts.

Why cant they give normal names like Dave,Bob, even Cid or something

For one thing, "normal" is language and culture specific. Also, exotic names add to the feeling of fantasy. Tom and Mary fighting the forces of the evil Dave.....just doesn't have a sense of epicness :)

Having said that, using some names that are normal is a good thing: Zell, Selphie, and Rinoa are fairly normal-ish.

Ohhh yeah... Ki does make the "key" sound. That's going to take some getting used to haha

It really shocks me that they didn't have some 15-year-old obnoxious Japanese kid whose entire job was to break the game in as many ways as possible. You thought they would've learned their lesson from FF2, but nooooo.

Don't mess with the formula. It's the formula for a reason. Of course, it was the 1990s, and reviewers sneered at "formulaic" games, but I've noticed as time goes on, the issue is less the formula and more the application of it.

*begins rant about FF12/13*

I wonder why Robin Williams didn't sue Square for stealing his face?

Yes, as many people know, Cid looks like Robin Williams in this game..

HCBailly, why is it that you write in your ff8 playlist description:

"I walkthrough and comment on my least favorite, yet most technologically advanced of the PlayStation Final Fantasies."

when there is still ff9 to come?