- Pronouns
- He/Him
Please enjoy this blast from the past, originally written in late 2020.
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So if you want the personal, somewhat boring experience I had with this game before this run check out the spoiler.
After 12 years, multiple attempts, and a lot of reading, I finally was able to cross this game off the backlog and more importantly the personal Final Fantasy checklist. It was a long time coming and marks the end of an era for me in some ways. Needless to say I am still thrilled, almost 24 hours after first beating the game. Although the TV has changed over the years, the whole journey took place on a black PS2 Slim with the same PS1 copy.
Disc 1 for my money is the highlight of the game. While it does start slow, the action picks up rather quickly. The train heist is a fun action sequence. Going through Timber and the TV station while it was under seige was exciting. Eventually getting to the assassination attempt was a blast, even if the preparation in that scene was slightly bloated.
Disc 2 was a bit of a slog. It felt like mostly dialog/cut scene then big boss fight. Rinse and repeat. The NORG fight/scenes didn't add much to the story. The missle base scenes with the party fake death wasn't much of a sell, but I'm guessing that the developers weren't going for that anyway. That isn't to say there wasn't any fun parts. The Fisherman's horizon area was probably my favorite scene of the disc with the pacifists interacting with the main cast and others. The Balmba/Galbadia fight was very entertaining and a fun way to end the disc. Disc 2 is also where the majority of my card games took place.
Disc 3 was pretty fast story wise, although things finally opened up with the full world exploration. The space station was a fun experience. Stealing Ragnrok was a little tricky but not too hard to figure out. I did take some time to level up GFs towards the end of the disc. I basically went to Cactur island and kept taking out the enemies at 20 AP a pop. That moved up my characters' abilities really fast. I also spent a lot of time drawing spells. By the end I had a ton of 100 spells in stock and was ready for anything. I wish I could have spent time drawing Ultima and Meteor, but it didn't matter in the end.
By the time i had reached disc 4, my party was pretty OP. I had to change my strategy a little bit for the epic fight with Adel, but after three tries she was down for the count. Ultima's castle felt like a cool reminder of old school JRPGs where the final dungeon was a bunch of big bosses right before the grand finale. I worked to get about 2/3rds of my powers back and then I took on Ultima. It took three tries as I was thrown off by the random members at the start of the fight, but my strategy was pretty simple. Limit break Riona with Angelo Wing and just keep her alive. She basically just kept meteoring the boss and it went pretty smooth, although the end was a little close since I put Shell on her, which hurt curaga efforts a bit. After the boss the time compression scene was pretty trippy.
Story wise it was really good for its time, but not an all time great. The main characters that you play as were great, but sorely underdeveloped. It was pretty clear by the middle of disc two that it was all about Squall and Riona and everyone else was just along for the ride. Quistis had a compelling story early on, but then it pretty much dropped and she was just a side piece. Zell was charismatic, but one dimensional and didn't contribute all that much to the story after disc 1. Sophie and Irvine were great additions along the way but nothing more than conversationalists. The Squall/Riona story was one of the better story lines I have played in a Final Fantasy game. I think the one thing that could've really made this game better would have been if the other four characters were better integrated into the story. Laguna and Co was a nice side story that integrated into the main story. As for supporting characters Seifer was really under played/developed. Early on the game tried to build up the Squall/Seifer rivalry but I never got behind that as the game went on.
One part that I really got into this time around was the Triple Triad card game. In previous playthroughs I ignored the game for the most part. This time though I gave it a try and wow did I get addicted fast. I picked up a pretty strong team early and just started mowing down the competition. Disc 2 was where I really went to town, collecting all of the level 6 and level 7 cards from two NPC's. Unfortunately I screwed up my game around disc 3 and suddenly every game was set to random. After a a few tries I pretty much game up on the mini-game, which probably isn't the worst things in the world considering I still had a campaign to finish. I would definitely play a full blown Triple Triad game with all Final Fantasy characters if given the chance.
At the end while watching the credits I sat back and thought about the 12 years that lead me to this point. This game was the white wale of my collection and part of me thought I would never make it through. Needless to say this is one of my best personal accomplishments in gaming.
Now I only have four mainline Final Fantasy games left to play. V (I have GBA), VI (Will probably play on the mini since I don't think it is coming to NSO any time soon if ever), IX (PS1), and X (I have the PS2 and PS4 but I will probably go with the PS4 version). I think I will take on V next after a little break. As for where this ranks on my personal favorite Final Fantasy games I am still deciding. It is definitely in the top half, probably top 3 along with VII and XII.
Anyone else have fun memories with this game? Or do you have a game where like me it took a long time to play through and finish?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So if you want the personal, somewhat boring experience I had with this game before this run check out the spoiler.
So back in 2007/2008 I started to get more into gaming besides mostly sports games. I knew a little bit of the Final Fantasy series before and wanted to give it a try. I actually had a goal of playing through the whole series before XIII came out (didn't even come close). After doing some research I saw that VII was the hot game to play. Well that was before the game was available on PSN so prices were pretty high ($50+ on ebay) so I had a hard time getting a copy being a freshman in college. Well I saw that Final Fantasy VIII was much cheaper so I decided to give it a shot.
I started around late 2008 on my slim PS2 and right away it was fun. I remember feeling nostalgic for some reason even though this was the first Final Fantasy game that I played. I think it had something to with my loving video games from the 90's. Anyway I played a good chunk of the first portion but fell out. I'm pretty sure that I got pulled into a different game which was very common for me at the time. Well a year or two later I sat down and played it again. This time I made it through disc one and onto disc two. One day I went to turn it on and the file was corrupted, stupid third party memory card. Well I swore off the game for a couple of years after that. You would too if you lost ~15 hours of playthrough haha. Anyway I am pretty sure I touched the game briefly at one point but it wasn't until 2014 where I had my biggest playthrough yet.
Well in my last playthrough I was rocking through the game. Once I collected the Ragnarok I was flying all over. Well, I got to the end of disc three and barely beat Seifer. Then I made it to the first fight with Adel and got smoked. Well with Riona being held hostage all I kept doing was hitting her with my GF attacks. Well it turns out I was playing the game all wrong. I read somewhere prior that enemies leveled up with you and that you shouldn't level up except for boss fights. Well I pretty much ignored the draw and junction system the whole time and it cost me dearly. After some more research and asking I was pretty much told that I was SOL and that it would be better to start over. Well at this point I was pretty frustrated to say the least and told myself I didn't want to see the game for at least five years.
And so that brings me to December 2020. Same PS1 discs, same PS2 Slim
I started around late 2008 on my slim PS2 and right away it was fun. I remember feeling nostalgic for some reason even though this was the first Final Fantasy game that I played. I think it had something to with my loving video games from the 90's. Anyway I played a good chunk of the first portion but fell out. I'm pretty sure that I got pulled into a different game which was very common for me at the time. Well a year or two later I sat down and played it again. This time I made it through disc one and onto disc two. One day I went to turn it on and the file was corrupted, stupid third party memory card. Well I swore off the game for a couple of years after that. You would too if you lost ~15 hours of playthrough haha. Anyway I am pretty sure I touched the game briefly at one point but it wasn't until 2014 where I had my biggest playthrough yet.
Well in my last playthrough I was rocking through the game. Once I collected the Ragnarok I was flying all over. Well, I got to the end of disc three and barely beat Seifer. Then I made it to the first fight with Adel and got smoked. Well with Riona being held hostage all I kept doing was hitting her with my GF attacks. Well it turns out I was playing the game all wrong. I read somewhere prior that enemies leveled up with you and that you shouldn't level up except for boss fights. Well I pretty much ignored the draw and junction system the whole time and it cost me dearly. After some more research and asking I was pretty much told that I was SOL and that it would be better to start over. Well at this point I was pretty frustrated to say the least and told myself I didn't want to see the game for at least five years.
And so that brings me to December 2020. Same PS1 discs, same PS2 Slim
After 12 years, multiple attempts, and a lot of reading, I finally was able to cross this game off the backlog and more importantly the personal Final Fantasy checklist. It was a long time coming and marks the end of an era for me in some ways. Needless to say I am still thrilled, almost 24 hours after first beating the game. Although the TV has changed over the years, the whole journey took place on a black PS2 Slim with the same PS1 copy.
Disc 1 for my money is the highlight of the game. While it does start slow, the action picks up rather quickly. The train heist is a fun action sequence. Going through Timber and the TV station while it was under seige was exciting. Eventually getting to the assassination attempt was a blast, even if the preparation in that scene was slightly bloated.
Disc 2 was a bit of a slog. It felt like mostly dialog/cut scene then big boss fight. Rinse and repeat. The NORG fight/scenes didn't add much to the story. The missle base scenes with the party fake death wasn't much of a sell, but I'm guessing that the developers weren't going for that anyway. That isn't to say there wasn't any fun parts. The Fisherman's horizon area was probably my favorite scene of the disc with the pacifists interacting with the main cast and others. The Balmba/Galbadia fight was very entertaining and a fun way to end the disc. Disc 2 is also where the majority of my card games took place.
Disc 3 was pretty fast story wise, although things finally opened up with the full world exploration. The space station was a fun experience. Stealing Ragnrok was a little tricky but not too hard to figure out. I did take some time to level up GFs towards the end of the disc. I basically went to Cactur island and kept taking out the enemies at 20 AP a pop. That moved up my characters' abilities really fast. I also spent a lot of time drawing spells. By the end I had a ton of 100 spells in stock and was ready for anything. I wish I could have spent time drawing Ultima and Meteor, but it didn't matter in the end.
By the time i had reached disc 4, my party was pretty OP. I had to change my strategy a little bit for the epic fight with Adel, but after three tries she was down for the count. Ultima's castle felt like a cool reminder of old school JRPGs where the final dungeon was a bunch of big bosses right before the grand finale. I worked to get about 2/3rds of my powers back and then I took on Ultima. It took three tries as I was thrown off by the random members at the start of the fight, but my strategy was pretty simple. Limit break Riona with Angelo Wing and just keep her alive. She basically just kept meteoring the boss and it went pretty smooth, although the end was a little close since I put Shell on her, which hurt curaga efforts a bit. After the boss the time compression scene was pretty trippy.
Story wise it was really good for its time, but not an all time great. The main characters that you play as were great, but sorely underdeveloped. It was pretty clear by the middle of disc two that it was all about Squall and Riona and everyone else was just along for the ride. Quistis had a compelling story early on, but then it pretty much dropped and she was just a side piece. Zell was charismatic, but one dimensional and didn't contribute all that much to the story after disc 1. Sophie and Irvine were great additions along the way but nothing more than conversationalists. The Squall/Riona story was one of the better story lines I have played in a Final Fantasy game. I think the one thing that could've really made this game better would have been if the other four characters were better integrated into the story. Laguna and Co was a nice side story that integrated into the main story. As for supporting characters Seifer was really under played/developed. Early on the game tried to build up the Squall/Seifer rivalry but I never got behind that as the game went on.
One part that I really got into this time around was the Triple Triad card game. In previous playthroughs I ignored the game for the most part. This time though I gave it a try and wow did I get addicted fast. I picked up a pretty strong team early and just started mowing down the competition. Disc 2 was where I really went to town, collecting all of the level 6 and level 7 cards from two NPC's. Unfortunately I screwed up my game around disc 3 and suddenly every game was set to random. After a a few tries I pretty much game up on the mini-game, which probably isn't the worst things in the world considering I still had a campaign to finish. I would definitely play a full blown Triple Triad game with all Final Fantasy characters if given the chance.
At the end while watching the credits I sat back and thought about the 12 years that lead me to this point. This game was the white wale of my collection and part of me thought I would never make it through. Needless to say this is one of my best personal accomplishments in gaming.
Now I only have four mainline Final Fantasy games left to play. V (I have GBA), VI (Will probably play on the mini since I don't think it is coming to NSO any time soon if ever), IX (PS1), and X (I have the PS2 and PS4 but I will probably go with the PS4 version). I think I will take on V next after a little break. As for where this ranks on my personal favorite Final Fantasy games I am still deciding. It is definitely in the top half, probably top 3 along with VII and XII.
Anyone else have fun memories with this game? Or do you have a game where like me it took a long time to play through and finish?
