Naturally, the fandom either [[LoveItOrHateIt loved it or hated it]]. The hyper-success of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' meant that ''VIII'' [[ToughActToFollow had impossible expectations to live up to]]. The two opposing camps over the game's quality are [[BrokenBase just as vocal today as they were when the game was first released]].

Ironically, ''VIII'' followed in its predecessor's footsteps for the most part, mixing swords and sorcery with a late-'80s CyberPunk vibe (sans FantasyGunControl). This was also Square's first try at shaking up the bog standard JRPG model: For one, it's the first ''Final Fantasy'' to forgo a ManaMeter in favor of VancianMagic. Monsters use LevelScaling to beef up relative to the party average, making it entirely possible to [[OneManParty level up to Lv.100]] before the first boss and still have it pose a challenge. More infamously, characters now equip (or "junction") magic to their bodies instead of armour. Any spell in the game can be junctioned, including the [[SummonMagic summoned creatures]]. A single paltry Cure won't make much of a difference, however; players increase the effectiveness by sapping and stockpiling magic from enemies. While admittedly a bold step forward for the genre, it just substituted one form of grinding for another, while making the level system even more obligatory. Later ''Final Fanasy'' games smoothed out the "no armor" approach, most notably ''[[FinalFantasyX X]]'' and ''[[FinalFantasyXIII XIII]]''.

Finally, ''VIII'' replaced the previous game's [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer Gold Saucer]] with Triple Triad, a surprisingly in-depth (and murderously difficult) CardBattleGame featuring face cards of the main cast. Though optional, mastering Triple Triad allows you to transform rare cards into [[DiscOneNuke game-breaking items and weapon components]]. It was so popular that a (less well-received) SpiritualSuccessor called Tetra Master was included in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI XI]]''.

to:

Ironically, ''VIII'' followed in its predecessor's footsteps for the most part, mixing swords and sorcery with a late-'80s CyberPunk vibe (sans FantasyGunControl). In a logical conclusion to [=VII=]'s Materia , characters now equip (or "junction") VancianMagic to their bodies instead of armour. Any spell in the game can be junctioned, including the [[SummonMagic summoned creatures]]. A single paltry Cure won't make much of a difference, however; players increase their effectiveness by sapping and stockpiling magic from enemies.

This was also Square's first try at shaking up the bog standard JRPG model: For one, it's the first ''Final Fantasy'' to forgo a ManaMeter as mentioned above. Monsters use LevelScaling to beef up relative to the party average, making it entirely possible to [[OneManParty level up to Lv.100]] before the first boss and still have it pose a challenge. While admittedly a bold step forward for the genre, the junctioning merely substituted one form of grinding for another, while making the level system even more obligatory. Later ''Final Fanasy'' games continued to tinker out the "no armor" approach, most notably ''[[FinalFantasyX X]]'' and ''[[FinalFantasyXIII XIII]]''.

Finally, ''VIII'' replaced the previous game's [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer Gold Saucer]] with Triple Triad, a surprisingly in-depth (and infamously hard) CardBattleGame featuring face cards of the main cast. Though optional, mastering Triple Triad allows you to transform rare cards into [[DiscOneNuke game-breaking items and weapon components]]. It was so popular that a (less well-received) SpiritualSuccessor called Tetra Master was included in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI XI]]''.

28th May '13 3:56:12 PM Arha

Send Arha a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Trope has been renamed.

Changed line(s) 62 (click to see context) from:

to:

27th May '13 3:43:48 PM Astaroth

Send Astaroth a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Added line(s) 482 (click to see context) :

This list shows the last 10 events of 232. Show all.

new edits

TV Tropes by TV Tropes Foundation, LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org.
Privacy Policy