Back in April I made a thread about wanting to play other Final Fantasy games after I got FF13 and really liked it. Based on reccomendations I got FF12 (decent), FF10 (great). Then I was given PSN vouchers for my birthday recently, I'm not a big playstation gamer, so I don't have many games for the PS3, I'm not interested in many PSN games either. But I saw FF7, FF8 and FF9 on PSN so I went ahead and got all three of them.

FF7 was an excellent game, so far so good. It took a while to complete and the side missions, extra's were fun, story had a hook all the way through, characters and villain were compelling. It was worth the money.

Then I started FF8...oh the horror. Fine it starts of with a flashy CGI sequence, great music. But many hours in the plot I realised that it lacked any kind of hook, it felt like going from loosely related events to the next one. The characters are awful, and what the hell is wrong with squall, such people won't be classified as mentally sane from where I come from, neither would Rinoa.I almost just gave up when I found out Laguna was a man, not a girl, but it turns out he's a good character so I continued. The game is just so boring. And the writing is awful, I thought FF10 and FF13 had terrible sappy scripts, this game was much worse.

Next the gameplay was awful, the entire idea of having to fight enemies to be able to get magic is annoying, not to mention how boring it is to just fight and spam draw on enemies and then kill them. The junction system, hell the menu's in the game are convoluted as hell. The summons take ridiculously long to attack and are overpowered. The materia system was perfect, there was no need to make the system so stupid. The entire system makes no sense whatsoever, and if this game is meant to be a love story its even more ridiculous, there is no connection between squall or rinoa yet.

So I hate the plot, characters and the gameplay is terrible. I am on disc 2 at the moment. Does the game get a hell of a lot better, I mean a hell of a lot better? Or should I move onto FF9? FF9 better not be anything like this.

Continue playing.. otherwise you will never know why some, like me, hate number 8... it's not a bad game.. it's a bad FF... just be prepared for a lot more "WTF that doesn't make sense!" moments...

i never actually finished 8. mainly because i found it boring like you are. ff9 is my favorite in the series so i would say move along! :)

Lol, FF8 is a good game imo also. just the story telling isnt that great. the junction system is actully quite good when you adapt it to your fighting sytle etc. the characters arnt too bad imo, just too much squall and rinoa. and theres a really good reason for playing the game alone and thats... triple triad. i enjoyed collecting cards late in the game, or you can do it early.

to be honest it seems to me like you'll enjoy FF6 & 9 the most (maybe 7 also), so if you finish 8 you may appreciate those a lot more. FF12 is a completely different bred of game, its easy to dislike, the story dosent pick up til at least half way into the game, but i loved it when i understood how complex and mature the game was, nothing like FF13 or 10.

I am reluctant to give up on it because I wasted £8 on it.

@mtcla66

I look forward to FF9 then, sounds like its not similar to FF8

@A203D

Thanks, what would I need to try FF6 out? I heard its very old. And FF8 has already made me appreciate the other FF's I played a lot more haha.

FF8 is among my favourites, i really liked it and think it's worth finishing.

It sucks. Move on to FF9.

Since the draw system is so bad you will end up using the GFs all the time. And you have to sit through the long ass animations every time you summon.

None of the characters are memorable. The main protagonist in an unlikable emo b*tch.

Worst game in the series.

FF8 has one hell of an awesome ending but getting there is a drag.  I beat it twice, back in the day because the first time, it seemed like a huge portion of the weak story was missing.  I just walked into a town and Rinoa was being carried by Squall like she was injured in battle but the set up never happened.  Even the second time I played through it, I couldn't figure out what was wrong with Rinoa.  And there were so many moments that made me think the story was written by a twelve year old (I won't spoil it but damn.  Amnesia is one hell of a cop out).  Sometimes, I see these old games that I beat a long time ago and just the thought of playing them again stresses me out because they were so aggravating.  FF8 is one of those games.

you could get it for game boy advance or PS1, so if you have a PS2... or you could stumble* across a game boy advance emulator, and get the 3 roms, FF4, 5 & 6. 6 being the best of the 3 no doubt.

Move to IX, it´s better game. Or try some games outside of FF family.