Differing ratings in rare armour..

[Silverthornne]

Well, the do little changes for each game, yes. The biggest changes was the transition from 3 to 4. FF3 had a turn based system as first seen in the original FF, and 4 was the first to introduce the "ATB" system used from 4 through 9. Number 10 was the next big battle system change (but I haven't played it since I don't own a PS2 so that's why I didn't mention how it ranks on my FF list). I think what I hated most of the change they did to 8 was the way magic was handled. I eventually got to gripes with the 4 command limit, but I never did with the magic system. Draw spell, cast it. Stock it. Draw draw draw nonstop when you find an enemy with a big spell (like Curaga). Then if you cast the spells, your stats suffer since you had them junctioned. And maybe I just never found it, but I don't think there was a way you could get rid of spells you didn't use, and it was extremely boring to burn 100 level 1 cure spells when you needed space for stocking some Firaga's or whatever else. Oh and the 1000 point, level up, all the time consistently thing was also a pet peeve of mine.

[[wcip]Angel]

You could always upgrade your spells.. 5 cure = 1 cura.. 5 cura = 1 curaga (roughly speaking, I don't remember the specifics)

[Silverthornne]

You can't when you already have 100 of ALL which was my problem =p

Since magic was limited, and you needed it to junction your equipment for better attack/protection, I had 100 of ALL spells. So when the upgrade ones started coming in, I had to waste whole fights just getting rid of spells or using some characters as trash bins. That wasn't fun.

[[wcip]Angel]

You could have used the two girls.. Quistis and whatshername... Not Rinoa, but the third girl.. I finished FF8 start to finish about 3-4 or times, and I never used these in my main party.. Too crappy "limitbreaks"..

[Silverthornne]

And hence the "trash bin" characters =p

And bah I gave up, I really did NOT have fun with FF8. Wasn't worth the trouble. I need to like the main character of a Japanese RPG like that to enjoy it, and I found Squall to be a total bore. Laguna was cool, but you didn't get to play as him often enough. And the damn game was so stupidly written that if you started sorting through the help section, it would tell you the story before you really uncovered it in the game itself. I remember learning that the surname of the woman that Laguna was hitting on was "Heartily".. Rinoa's surname. Then that she died on a car accident some years ago, that she had married Rinoa's father... ahh so the Laguna thing happened in the past? Yup, confirmed after playing some time afterwards. That was umm.. stupid =p.

The only part of the game that I actually enjoyed was the end of the first CD I think it was? The festival where you get the assignment to snipe the sorceress. You move your characters while the CG background is this amazing caravan cinema. That was jaw dropping. But take away impressive moments like that and you get a pretty boring game.

[[wcip]Angel]

Hehehe, yeah that WAS cool. But there's a better scene. When the two gardens crash and the ensueing fight.. especially right after you've saved Rinoa.. you run in the foreground and in the background is this epic war.. immensely cool.

Hehe.. Last time I played FF8, I hooked my psx up to my VHS, and I recorded every FMV on a video-casette

What about the music? Either you're not a fan of the music, or you must've been playing with mute on .. "The Landing" "The man with the machinegun" "Eyes on me" etc .. there are about 10-20 great songs from ff8..