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Huh...

Although, in retrospect, I didn't mind the game much on the first playthrough. Try replaying it.

Wasn't the camcorder scene lovely?  In my opinion, those last few minutes encapsulated all of the characters' personalities better than it ever did in the entire game - without them saying a single word!

I can't imagine anyone (or anyone else) not being aware of FF8's plot at this point, but in case you're not, the following is highlighted in white for your spoiler-free convenience:

-What was your take on the final ending sequence, after the credit roll?  I thought it was pretty obvious that Squall survived Tme Compression and was reunited with Rinoa, but some people believe that Squall really did die, and all Rinoa was seeing on the balcony of the Garden was a spirit image of Squall. 

-If you were to believe my theory, then this might be the only Final Fantasy where nobody dies.  Wow.

-Zell's fetish for hotdogs, was, in actuality, bread in the Japanese version.  Still, the camcorder scene can get away with that; we can assume what he's scarfing and choking on are hotdog rolls.  ^_^  Speaking of Zell, I thought it was neat how they showed the girl who liked him with him.  Sarah, was her name?

-The Fisherman's Horizon concert scene; what musical conbination did you end up with?  The arrangement of Eyes on Me or the Irish ditty?  Or something a little more.....  jumbled? ;)

-You do know Laguna is Squall's father, right?  Aside from a specific plot point I just can't remember right now, it was hinted as much from Kiros and Ward on the Ragnarok late in the game.

-It blew my mind when Fujin actually spoke near the end of the game. o_O

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The game just didn't do it for me like other FF games did. I thought it was the worst out of all the ones released here, but I am glad you found something in it that caught your heart.

You're right about the music. Definitely some great music in that game. I also really liked some of the boss fights, as I told you in my email.

So you've beaten it to death, and loved it. Is this going to be incentive to play more FF games? I thought FFIX was really underrated.

Man, I have a couple older RPG's on backlog, and reading your thoughts makes me want to go and clear out that backlog. Time to load up Vagrant Story and Front Mission 3!!

Spoilers!

What a coincidence. This is one of two Final Fantasies where I wish everyone would die ^_~ (The other being VII, but I think I got my wish there). If you want to stretch it, though, didn't Rinoa's mom die tragically in some manner?  I seem to remember that "Eyes on Me" was released posthumously.

Also, I must once again reiterate how unbelievably creepy it is that Squall and Rinoa fell in love considering their parentage. The Esper/Human love in VI has nothing on the near-incestuous love in VIII.

I have two words for you: Almighty Mix.  Best dance remix of a videogame theme song ever. Granted, there aren't exactly too many dance remixes of videogames theme songs, but it is better than the Planitb remix of "Hikari" or any version of "Real Emotion."

Agreed. IX was a nice return to the series' roots. I think it was the only PS1 Final Fantasy where I actually got involved in the story. That is, until it started to get uber depressing near the end of Disc 3. And while the main gameplay is a little bland compared to VII's or VIII's, the minigames are lots of fun and super addictive. I think I spent over 20 hours on Chocobo Digging alone o_O

Actually, the existence of Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, both of which take place years after FF7, means that you got shafted on your death wish twice.

More spoilerifficality commences!

Also worth noting, at least from what I got out of it, was that Laguna missed the boat with Raine as well, and used Time Kompression to give himself another chance to propose. Which would mean that Squall and Laguna conspiring to trigger Time Kompression led to Squall being around so that he and Laguna could conspire to bring about Time Kompression. Great jumping gigawatts, Marty!

Another theory in the story, presented to me by Kurt, is that when Edea, possessed by Ultimecia, impales Squall at the end of Disk 1, he actually dies and creates a time paradox. At the moment of his death, an alternate reality starts on Disk 2 (where he has no marks from the fatal wound, remember) that continues until time is Kompressed, and both realities merge. The resulting timeline from the Kompression starts at the end of Disk 4, with the transfer of powers to Edea, and continues to his point of death on Disk 1, whereupon he wakes up without the wound on Disk 2. The ultimate temporal cut-and-paste. Savvy?

Sorry 'bout that, Datschge.

You know we are on a rather advanced board now so you could encapsule your spoilers in nice little color=white tags instead screaming spoiler and adding a dozen line breaks while still showing spoilers in clear text.

Do it just like this: it's really easy and really worth it (highlight to view), thanks. ;)

So Conn, think you'd go for FFIX next?  Suddenly I'm in the mood to discuss Zidane and gang. ^_^

I still have to replay that game. Never before has an optional boss given me that much trouble.

With that said, I think Ozma would look AMAZING on next gen graphics, with top half bright colours swirling into the bottom darker ones . . . looking like a tiny planet. He (it?) has always intrigued me. Did anyone actually beat him without being utterly rocked by Meteor, or his casting of Curse twice in a row?

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I love FF8, absolutely love it. I was pretty much obsessed with 7 from it's launch and waited eagerly for 8 to turn up on these shores. When it did I buried myself in it. 12 days and 85 hours of play later I'd finished it, and I immediately started it up again to try to find everything I'd missed. Squall didn't bother me any more than any moody teenager would - it was part of his character. I liked pretty much everything about it. The plot lurched about from time to time, but the way I saw it was - if you were just a small part of a big world you wouldn't neccessarily know the whys and wherefores of every event.

As for the game mechanics themselves... I found the Junctioning system to be completely compelling. Yes, it was fairly easy to utilise it to quickly make a nigh-on invincible party, but not without prior knowledge (my first play through was as tough going as any RPG I'd played). I love those customizable systems in games (and that's a large part of the reason I consider Vagrant Story the very finest offline RPG I've played). FF8 is one of the few games in my life where I've 'done everything'.

Also, let's not forget the greatest sequence of end boss themes Uematsu has ever produced.

If you're thinking of tackling 9 next all I can say is... I hope you enjoy it because I certainly didn't. I even played it through to completion twice to make sure it wasn't just me in the wrong frame of mind for it at the time. I just found it completely without charm, I loathed the characters and their stories - particularly Steiner. Why oh why would they think it fun or funny to saddle your party with such an annoying personality? Graphically it seems a step back from 8, the score is unmemorable (to this day I can only ever remember the theme song and the Lindblum theme).

Yeah, Zidane -- and the rest of FF9's characters, for that matter -- can be a bit of a culture shock after coming off of FF7 and FF8; instead of moody and serious, you have light-hearted, and, a lot of times, goofy.  I love it, really.  ^_^  Which isn't to say that the story doesn't have its dark, dramatic, and somber moments; Vivi's backstory, for instance, left me heartbroken for the longest time.

Sabreman thinks differently, but I feel the characters - both main and NPC - are generally better developed and more personable than FF8.  They left a genuine impression on me, especially since many of them do have specific backstories devoted to them.  I like the "system" in FF9 better, since characters are again separated by individual class, and abilities earned are kept permanently.  Musically, FF9 ranks a close second after FF8 as being my favorite Final Fantasy score.  Whereas FF8 has a closely-knit sense of cinematic progression, FF9 pegs the large and varying world with its memorable thematics.

Do give it a try.  I'd be interested to hear your contrasting opinions on the game. :)

While I do have a number of issues with FF9, the game is worth it for one reason: Beatrix.  Definitely one of my favorite characters in the series - she's really interesting and well developed as an antagonist.

FF9 is just FUN whereas FF8 was one big burden to me. Mind you, FF9 does start to fall apart near the end but while the plot holds up, it's great fun.

I keep meaning to revisit it because honestly I can never understand why it left such a negative impression on me. I've found every single FF game to be at least enjoyable, so I'm always convinced I just happened to try to play it at a time when I wasn't that into RPGs, and revisiting it with a fresh mind would make a heck of a difference (I have a tendency to shift completely away from interest in particular genres, though right now I'm back in an RPG groove for the first time in years).

Me too, actually. Lately, I just haven't been into RPGs. I've been going off and on with DQ8 but the game has just been amazingly boring to me. I have plenty of other RPGs I could be trying but I ignoring them in favor of action-based games like the GBA Castlevanias and Metroid Prime 2.

I find that everyone I've talked to that is into Final Fantasy either loves VIII, and hates IX, or loves IX and hates VIII. Personally, I'm in the latter group, but I can see where you're coming from. FFIX was a step back in terms of complexity, and a lot of fans were dissatisfied with it.

I truly disagree with your statement regarding FFIX's cast, however. I found it to be better developed than either VII or VIII. Vivi, in particular, was an absolute joy to behold. And Steiner? How can you disagree with him? The way his armour clanked when he walked, his stoic, taciturn, and outrageously high amount of loyalty almost seemed like a parody of the whole "knight" class in RPG's. He was hilarious! Come to think of it, there wasn't a single character in that game that I disliked.

I compare these to Squall and company. The fact that they shared a common background eliminated much potential character development, and in itself, was a lame plot twist. I felt that Zell and Selphie were a blast of fresh air, and I'll be the first to admit that I only really liked Quistis only because I have a thing for females with pale skin (No, that's not a racial comment. Don't even go there!), everyone else just seemed supplementary.

Yeah, I realize that FF8 seemed to be designed for a mature audience, with it's theme of love and whatnot, and while FFIX's plot was surprisingly dark at certain parts for a game of it's nature, I still loved the lighthearted atmosphere that the game exuded as a whole.

Yes, but I'm going under the assumption that (spoilers follow) since 7's ending takes place hundreds of years after those events, Cloud and company get wiped out eventually..

I definitely appreciated IX's light-hearted tone after the drama-fests known as VII and VIII. A shame they couldn't keep it up during the whole game, though. Don't get me wrong; I loved how Vivi's story panned out, but, well... (spoilers in white):I honestly can't believe how many towns they destroyed in IX. Add to that Eiko's isolation, Zidane's insanity and Dagger's overall moodiness, and you get one heck of a depressing storyline by the end.

Totally agreed. VII had only a handful of characters I was interested in (Yuffie, Red XIII and Cait Sith), and VIII had, well...does Rinoa's dog count?  Selphie was mildly interesting, but felt too reminiscent of Yuffie, and Zell had nothing going for him except for that awesome hairstyle. Let's not forget about Irvine... oh, wait, lets ^_^  And about Quistis, is it possible the whip also has something to do with your fascination with her? ;)

Regarding IX, I'm surprised (okay, not really) that there's been no mention of Quina, who I've always thought was way underappreciated. Quina's story was deceptively simple, but when the scene with Quan played out, I felt a real "whoa" moment. I'm generally not one to follow or care about the meta aspects of RPG storylines, but I honestly thought Quina's story (as well as Vivi's) said more about life and mortality than VII ever did.

The only character that never truly engaged me was Dagger. I found her less annoying than the other clones (Tifa, Rinoa, Yuna), but she was still way too whiny and moody.  If I had to watch her collapse and cry one more time....

That's the only part of of IX I didn't quite like. Going back to classes did make the characters more distinct, but I ended up never using Quina, Freya or Salamander because of it.  Eiko and Dagger also ended up being way too similar. Still, IX's system was definitely much less broken than VII's or VIII's were. No more defeating the last boss in 2 hits :P

So, did anyone else spend 25+ hours on Chocobo Hot & Cold? 'Cause really, I was addicted to that.

Put me in the group that really loved FFIX but didn't care much for FFVIII. It's not that I hate it passionately (I find generally, every FF is worth playing at least once, which is what I like about the series, you can at least expect a solid game), but I'm probably not going to play it ever again. Storyline is just meh. IX is my favorite of all, actually, and I've played all except IIj & IIIj ( though somehow, I doubt those are going to bump it off #1). It just seems to have my favorite of everything: favorite cast, favorite graphical style, favorite theme (Melodies of Life), favorite game system (skills, synthing EQ, etc). It's also got the coolest mini game ever devised, Chocobo Hot and Cold, even better than Triple Triad, which was my favorite until CH&C dethroned it (Tetra Master sucks though :\). But I could play CH&C all day...sheesh, I probably did at one point :-X. It, Vivi and Beatrix alone are worth the price of admission, everything else is just icing on the cake for me!

Edit: didn't even see the post above ;p I dunno that I put 25 hrs in one playthrough, but I certainly was a fanatic! Maybe 10-15 in a single run.

Ah FFVIII - My personal Fav, I was hoplesly addicted to the card game - so much that I often had 5000hp by card-mod and abyss worm cards to make windmills which T-mag refine amde into tornados

I havent played for a few years but I played it through a good few times when it first came out. Truly an awsome game

I made it through FF8, but couldn't bring myself to get far into FF9's second disc. I guess there's an air of truth to the "hate one and like the other" theory. Although "like" might be too strong a word when describing FF8, I'll concede it's the better of the two games.

I'll take my FF with a "VI" next to it.

Concede, eh?

I love both FF8 and FF9.

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FF9 unfortunately doesn't begin to take off until late in the third disc.  I never get into the game until Garland lays things out.  I'm still not sure that it's worth it to trudge through the boredom up to that point, so FF9 to me is a game that doesn't seem to do much wrong but doesn't do much right either.  It might be more consistent than FF8, but admittedly FF8 stands out as a bit more memorable to me, so I'm not sure which I like better.  I really need to play through FF8 again to know for sure.

It's only natural.

You'll get similar complaints from almost all RPGs these days. FF is just more high-profile and hence, it gets most of the bitching. People have impossible expectations with that series. FFIX isn't a perfect game but I still find it more absorbing than something from the Wild Arms series or Tales.

Agreed, Wanderer. I've played plenty of 'traditional' RPGs in my time but for some reason the FFs always turn out to be the ones that are most memorable. In fact I'd probably say I wasn't a fan of RPGs at all, but rather simply a fan of Final Fantasy. Barely anything else seems to compare - with the notable exception of the Phantasy Stars and a couple of more original RPGs like Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile.

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I think I was a happier person back in the mid to early 1990s when we weren't saturated with RPGs and the ones that DID come to America were almost always top-notch. When I first played FF3/FF6j, I stayed up all night. I couldn't put the game down. It was like my first love (which is really a sad statement on my love life more than anything else...).

Now we get a lot of RPGs but they all seem to take the same ideas from each other. There's nothing NEW anymore. Or maybe I'm just older and more bitter.

(Conn: Play FFX. It really is a great game.)

To those with a non-Greatest Hits FFIX, I have a question: does the case only have three spindles for the four discs? I just started playing IX, and noticed that Disc 2 had no spindle. Kind of annoying, and I was wondering if I had a unique faulty packaging or if they all came this way.

Mine came packaged normally. Maybe yours is an isolated error. Did you get your copy used? If so, then maybe the previous owner replaced it because the other one broke? Only explanation I can think of.

I bought mine new, albeit from a college classmate instead of a store. It was sealed, though. I guess it's an isolated error. I'll live.

Funny, my copy of FFVII also has a unique packaging error; right when it hit Greatest Hits status, I bought a copy without the Greatest Hits logo. Or so I thought--while the front cover has no GH markings, one half of the spine does, and the discs themselves are GH (silver instead of white).