...Whatever. Let's Play Final Fantasy VIII [SSLP]

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Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Yeah, I remember when I used to aggressively defend this game on message boards; at the time, I thought there were a lot of little points in the setting that people missed.

Of course, some 15 years later, I'm a bit more jaded. I don't think I've played FFVIII since FFX came out, and I've read a lot more classic SF and Russian literature since then. I'm very interested in what this LP brings back up.

And yeah, if you're drawing 100 spells in battle, you're totally doing it wrong.

(For some reason, I thought I'd voted on the initial GF names--mainly, I wanted ColdEthyl for Shiva. Quezacotl's probably better off not using my usual name for him: "Chalupa.")

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 01:25

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:52

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Zell was the first-ever instance of that kind of facial tattoo I ever saw. When Mike Tyson got a similar one, I wondered why he was trying so hard for FFVIII cosplay.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 17:06

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Not only that, but 2 starts with war orphans barely escaping a massacre, 4 starts with the hero returning from an unprovoked pillaging of an innocent town, and 6 starts with an enslaved young woman slaughtering people on the way to steal an important archaeological find. 1, 3, and 5 were the only ones for a while that started with the heroes as unambiguously heroic.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2014 07:27

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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That's what I always liked about it. I was in high school when it came out, and I felt like I could have met any one of these people walking down the hall.

I even had a friend who was all into brooding, like Squall. I once brought the Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec album to our art class to listen to over headphones. I loved its versions of "Don't Be Afraid," "Fisherman's Horizon," and "Man With the Machine Gun"; he'd play "Liberi Fatali" on repeat.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2014 01:10

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Back in high school and college, my name for Siren was Minmay.

I was a huge dork.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2014 06:47

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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As I recall, it's Rinoa instead of Selphie who looks back at Squall as he runs toward the beach at the end. And I don't remember Quistis being in the demo at all. Was it a generic SeeD operating the machine gun, or is my memory screwing with me?

Boardroom Jimmy posted:

I know I'm the one who asked about it but wasn't the music really different too? I remember the rumor was that the track was scrapped because it sounded similar to a piece of the soundtrack from The Rock.

It was. Uematsu rewrote "The Landing" from scratch because of that. Which is too bad, because I always kinda preferred the "Rock" version.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2014 02:39

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Weavered posted:

I vote for the higher level Booyaka, Booyakaga

# ¿ Dec 23, 2014 20:31

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Blaze Dragon posted:

MarioBros

# ¿ Mar 5, 2015 22:07

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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dotchan posted:

Suddenly, I wonder if this game is not about Teenagers Being Bad At Life but a metaphor the production process at Square--everybody's incompetent (but imagine themselves to be amazing auteurs), rife with emotional/family problems, the plans suck, and just plain bad luck all add up to a great big mess. In which case Final Fantasy VIII is secretly Squaresoft staff's cry for help.

Does anybody have a link to that article/blog post/whatever it was that speculated that Kitase, Nomura, and co. locked themselves in a room for a week to brainstorm, not realizing there was a gas leak, and FFVIII was the result?

(I used to defend this game's story so ardently back in the day. I'm part of the problem.)

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 01:45

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Happy Landfill posted:

Yes!
(Pre-emptive Spoiler warning)
http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff08

Much appreciated!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 06:08

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I was a huge anime dork when I first played this, so I always went with Ruby-Ohki.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 22:30

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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FFVIII came out when I was 17, so I was the same age as most of the SeeDs. Believe it or not, this actually helped, as I thought they did a good job writing characters I could imagine bumping into between classes.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2015 05:15

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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They already named Laguna and Irvine after towns in California, so anything's possible.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2015 17:51

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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No joke, I once cosplayed as Nida.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2015 05:48

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I used to use Fishstick.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 04:39

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Make it FISHURURU and I'm in.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 20:16

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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What about the Forest Owls?

# ¿ Aug 4, 2015 01:30

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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One of VI's definitive scenes has you dress one of your party members up as an opera singer to use as bait for a womanizing airship-piloting gambler, then fight a wisecracking octopus on stage.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 21:22

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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The biggest insight I ever had about FFVIII was realizing that it was a high school manga rendered as an epic secondary-world fantasy RPG. It's the Persona of the Final Fantasy series.

...And now I'm imagining FFVIII with visual novel segments and Social ~~Links~~ Junctions.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 07:22

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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If I were to redesign the Draw system, I'd make it so that instead of drawing "units" of a spell, you're recharging that spell's meter. The entire meter could recharge instantly, so you only have to draw once. Each spell would deplete at a different rate, which keeps it connected with Junctioning (i.e., if you use too much of a junctioned spell, the stat still goes down). Since magic ability still comes from GFs instead of the characters' own power, it'd make sense to leave out Ethers; you'd still have to draw or refine to recharge.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2016 19:44

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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In my files, he's Mad Yoda.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2016 22:47

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Yeah, I'm changing my vote to Nigel.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2016 08:26

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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It's weird. I remember a time on the Internet when it seemed like FFVII was the black sheep, since (a) everyone was comparing it to 4 and 6, (b) Square totally betrayed Nintendo to make it, and (c) it's Final Fantasy, not Final Sci-Fi. Then 8 came along, and everyone started comparing it unfavorably to 7. Maybe I was just hanging out at the wrong websites (it was the late 90's/early 00's, and I was a teenager, so that's very likely).

# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 08:54

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Best I've ever been able to come up with in my own files was Dorothy. Therefore, I'm voting for

[timpani]bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum[/timpani]

FeyerbrandX posted:

Mega Maid

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 06:34

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I have my own ideas for how to revise all this:

1) Only Squall, Selphie, and Irvine were at the orphanage. It doesn't really add anything to anyone else to include them. These three are the only essentials.

2) They were separated a few years later. I don't remember a lot of people I knew when I was 4 or 5, but I can still remember classmates from when I was six or seven. Being unable to remember the latter would be a lot weirder.

3) Irvine spends bits of Disc 1 trying to chat with Squall and going "You really don't remember me, do you?"

Also what FinalGamer said.

# ¿ May 6, 2016 23:05

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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ZoninSilver posted:

Dogtrio

# ¿ Jun 14, 2016 17:39

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I couldn't decide, so I literally flipped a coin.

Iskander

(Though personally, I prefer the spelling "Iskandar.")

# ¿ Jun 26, 2016 23:38

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Rudicron posted:

Metroplex.

I know DoomHouse is probably going to win, but I want to change my vote to this.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 01:58

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I'm feeling happy for Zell, so keep him in the party. Let's keep Selphie, too.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 00:43

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Irvine was supposedly named after a town in California, so I'm comfortable pronouncing it Er-vine.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2016 14:07

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Psychotic Weasel posted:

I'm pretty sure he's an ex-Nazi scientist so people are probably afraid to get near him.

"Gather 'round and I'll sing you of Doctor Odine / A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience."

# ¿ Sep 20, 2016 02:33

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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morallyobjected posted:

the Wiki says if you kill 25 of them, they stop respawning. they're also very vulnerable to 100 death on status attack junction, so there's that, too.

The latter is how I beat them the first time--I just happened to have it junctioned to Rinoa's attack, and was surprised when she kept making them explode.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2016 18:20

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Cactuar >> Pringles
Doomtrain >> Suplex Me

# ¿ Feb 15, 2017 00:07

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Rabbi Raccoon posted:

Bahamen

Because he let the dragons out

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 00:16

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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GunnerJ posted:

That's true, but Gundam was operating in a subgenre where mecha are for the most part just normal rear end military hardware. Eva was operating in a subgenre where they're rare wonder-weapons that are the unique product of some genius and designed to deal with exceptional threats. It takes that fantastical assumption and puts it in a realistic context (where e.g., suddenly people are concerned about an arms race of these things because they are more or less immune to conventional weapons).

As far as I know, Gundam *invented* that subgenre. If anything, both it and NGE are doing the same thing with the Super Robot genre, just applied in different ways: Gundam by focusing on the brutality of war, and Eva by focusing on the psychologies of its characters.

Eva also brings in some tokusatsu influence: the Evas' time limit is straight from Ultraman.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2017 16:41

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Don't forget, FF4 had save points.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2017 22:27

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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Zakrelo posted:

How does that even happen? It's Dracula backwards! Did they think that was somehow a coincidence?

It didn't even originate in Japan! It's from a 1943 Lon Chaney, Jr. movie!

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 17:11

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I've been having a lot of fun with it, but I'm a sucker for side missions and hunts.

I mostly felt like they put so much effort into building the world and battle system that they never figured out how to fully integrate it with the story. After a while they're quite literally railroading you to the end.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2017 19:10

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I tend to assume that when SE wants to make an RPG with traditional gameplay, they'll do a Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy, for better or worse, tends to be more experimental.

I certainly wouldn't mind a more scaled back, DQIX-style FFXVI.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2017 05:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:52

Keromaru5: Dec 28, 2012; Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

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I always imagined her sounding sort of like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 23:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > ...Whatever. Let's Play Final Fantasy VIII [SSLP]

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