Hey, all I said to start with was "please don't act as if maturity and worldliness are all that separates those who like the story from those who don't"

9.85/10

9/10

+ I liked the characters
+ Found the Battle System interesting and playable
- Story was meh

10/10

It was my first FF so it has a special place in my heart lol

I'd also like to point out that I love all main FF titles, I'd rate all of them above 9/10.

Its all ermmm Rol's fault!

So. From what I've read in this thread.

Is character customization the only redeeming quality of the gameplay in FFVIII?

Seriously, I want to give you an example of a system that has incorporated advanced character customization without turing it to an abstract mess like FFVIII did. But I have only played four JRPGs and I don't think any of them have a system that is as complex as FFVIII. (fortunatley not as abstract and messy as FFVIII though.)
The ones I have played are: Phantasy Star II, Final Fantasy VIII, Secret of Mana, and Tales of Symphonia. And Pokémon if you count those. And unless the EXsphere system is advanced enough for you, the only thing I can compare the FFVIII system to that rivals it in complexity would be good old pen and paper RPG (If that is even valid-_- I'll try though).

Pen and Paper RPG is by far the most complex with all of the skills you put experience points in and how your age, the weight of items, and so on so on.
Now what pen and paper RPG does right, that FFVIII does horribly horribly wrong is how nothing in the FFVIII system makes sense. I wouldn't complain if there was at least a pseudo realistic explanation for how everything in FFVIII works. When you set the age of your character and add + and - stats when taking stuff like profession and race and items that you have and lots of other factors, you don't just customize your stats, you customize the feel of the character.
In FFVIII on the other hand, since junctioning spells drawn to enemies doesn't represent anything like age or anything, you're stuck with just customizing numbers! You might as well do your math homework if you think only numbers are that fun! Becasue that's all the FFVIII system gives you, numbers and nothing that the numbers represent!

If you say customization is what makes the FFVIII system good then I can't agree in any way. I will simply have to agree to disagree. Square failed horribly when they made the system. Why? Because they sacrificed too much to add the complexity.

I ask you this. What if the things that you junctioned to your stats and weapons wasn't magic drawn from enemies but items that also had a place in the story, and if magic used a complex mana system instead and you actually did learn spells, perhaps you learned a spell if you drew it from an enemy enough times, and you couldn't abuse draw magic because it cost mana too.
And if they made the use of items and other stuff not dependant on the GF becasue that's just retarded but let the GF alter the stats of the character depending on what GF is junctioned to who.
It would be just as complex as the FFVIII system and offer just as much customization, but the difference is that my system actually makes some kind of SENSE.
There you go, I just came up with a better system than the development team at Square.

I dare anyone to find a dissadvantage in my system compared to the FFVIII one.

How about this.  Compared to previous FF games (and many that came after), FFVIII had better character interaction, customization and gameplay.  And despite your views, it was still a fun game.  I can name dozens of RPGs that had better customization, character interaction and etc than FFVIII.  But it still doesn't mean FFVIII was horrible in and of itself.  Sometimes you just need to look at a game without trying to compare it to everything else ever made.

That's all there is to it.

FFVIII wouldn't be a horrible game if it wasn't for its system. It's simply a pain to play.

I have no complaints about story like other people in this thread, I actually liked it. I also really like the music. But when I got stuck I just didn't feel motivated to keep playing because I just didn't want to suffer from the stats system anymore.

I'm sure FFVIII had better character interaction. As I said, the story was fine.

As for customization and gameplay, I think Phantasy star II or even pokemon has a much better system when it comes to pure fun. I'm getting FFVI because I want to try it out, and I might get FFVII someday because I want to try it too. Remember what you said about FFVIII having better gameplay and customization than the games that came before it, because I will hold you to your word :P

As for people liking the game. Go ahead and like it then. I think I have a decent picture of why now, and I simply don't value the sme things as you. But I still came up with a better system than square did.... And I will keep reminding you of that.

6/10

I didn't feel the fantasy with the 8, which is rather bad for a final fantasy...