Ooooo Final Fantasy VIII. This really is the big one, huh? I don't mean the most famous or the most talked about or anything like that. No, no, no. Final Fantasy VIII is the big one because this is probably the most divisive title in the franchise. Some will argue vehemently that this is the best Final Fantasy title of all of them while others will argue just as passionately that it's the worst. Let me tell you right now, it's not the worst. Opinions are one thing but there is no way anyone could convince me that Final Fantasy VIII is worse than Final Fantasy II by any standard.
Eh-hemm... anyway... The storyline, characters, etc. aren't the issue here. The thing people get hung up over is the gameplay mechanics. That is to say, ALL the gameplay mechanics. No matter what side of the fence you fall on FF VIII, you can't call it simple. In fact, this is probably one of the most complicated JRPGs to come out in any gaming generation. So many differing systems all working together, altering each other. It's a lot to handle. Hell, even the game thinks it's complexity is worthy of the games first tutorial mode accessible from anywhere and even tests to confirm that you understand the material. Let me try and break it down for you.
While there are a ton of systems in FF VIII, they are almost all actually just evolutions of previous games systems that you've seen before. Most of the games mechanics revolve around GFs, FFVIII's summon system. Remember the Espers from Final Fantasy VI and how you'd equip them to different people to give them different abilities? GFs are like a way more complex version of that idea. Each GF learns skills in the same way that Final Fantasy Tactics works. You pick one skill from a list to learn and as you win battles, you get AP which is EXP for skills. Skills can do various things like create skill junctions (more on that later), increase passive stats or give new in-battle abilities, amongst other things. As GFs level up, using traditional EXP and levels, and gain more skills, they help to improve the person they are equipped to.
That's simple enough, right? Well, the way a GF increases a party members stats is actually something the player controls through a system called Junctioning. You can Junction both GFs and Magic, both of which work in a different manner. Junctioning a GF just means you equip it to a person, like the Espers in VI or like armor or weapons in any other game. Once Junctioned, you can choose which active abilities you want to equip to the party member which the GF has learned. Magic Junctioning is where most people get tripped up. One of the types of skills a GF can learn is stat junctions. This basically means that once learned, you can junction magic to a specific character statistic like strength or HP. Junctioning magic means you pick one of the magic spells that the character has learned and you use that spell to increase the stat sort of like equipment specifically for one statistic. If that sounds confusing and complicated, it's because it is. Each magic spell can only be designated for one stat so while the beginning is fairly light, by the end, when most stats are junctionable, balancing which spells will have the best effect for which stat becomes a huge hassle. Fortunately, this can be automated by picking a priority like Attack or Defense. It wouldn't be as bad except that you rarely will be able to maintain one setup for very long whether because a character leaves your party, joins your party, etc. So even people who understand how Junctioning works still get annoyed by it because it requires near-constant upkeep and micromanagement.
Oh but that's not all, not by a long shot. So you've got your GFs equipped to people and you've got your stats all worked out but how do you get those magic spells you Junction to your stats? If you said "like any other Final Fantasy" I'd smack you and ask again how it works since that's no damn answer at all. If you then were to say "by leveling up and getting new spells" well, you wouldn't get smacked but you'd still be wrong. No, Final Fantasy VIII is the only game in the franchise to use as system like this. Basically, Magic is treated like an item but not something you buy in stores. Instead, it's found in enemies and throughout the world in special Draw points. In order to access it, you need to have the active ability Draw equipped to a party member from your GF. You then draw it out of enemies or the drop points sort of like pulling from a well. A successful draw may net you 8 Cures or Thunders. Every enemy has different spells which may or may not be known to your character depending on whether you have knowledge of that enemy or not. There is no MP either in this game, instead every time you use the spell, it uses up one cast of that spell. If you run out, no more casting it. Not only that but you also have to have at least one in order to Junction that spell to a stat for a party member. You seeing the complexity ramp up here? Not only do you need to maintain this magical stockpile but it's unique for each character so you have to spread the Draw love around and make sure everyone has access to the spells he or she needs for both Junctioning and casting.
Are we done yet? NO! Of course not! Next we get to deal with Limit Breaks. These work similarly to how they do in previous and subsequent Final Fantasy games where it's a character-specific super move meant to be used when you're in trouble. Unfortunately, like everything else in FF VIII, they decided these needed more complexity, too. Each character is different but all require some level of management whether it's a system choosing whether to automate or even activate a Limit Break at all or learning new Limit Break abilities in the same way GFs learn new skills, there's always some level of customization you can inflict on yourself.
Now, what else could they possibly make more intense? How about equipment? Actually, some people may consider it simplified but the fact is, equipment works differently than in other JRPGs so it's just one more thing to figure out. There is no armor or defensive equipment at all in this game. All of that is dealt with in Junctioning. Weapons, however, are upgraded through a crafting system. Before you even have the option to craft a weapon upgrade, you have to learn about it from a magazine. Magazines are located all over the place, sometimes out in the open, sometimes not. These give you new options for when you go to weapon stores. When at the weapon store, you can choose which upgrade you want but if you thought all you'd have to do was pay for it, well, you clearly haven't been paying attention, have you? Nope, you need special items for each upgrade in order to craft that particular enhancement. These aren't common items either, they all come from monsters in one way or another. If you're fortunate, the items come from a drop but if you aren't, you're gonna have to use that Steal action that you rarely ever touch in RPGs because it's a pain in the ass to constantly waste turns until you finally wind up taking a potion 20 hours into the game. And how do you Steal? Well, you have to get a GF that can learn that active ability, of course.
If, after all that, you've decided that the game just doesn't have enough depth for you, Squaresoft kindly added an optional card game that I JUST CAN'T FIGURE OUT!!! Basically, you can collect monster cards by battling monsters or GFs which have various stats like in a collectible card game such as Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic the Gathering. You can then battle various NPCs throughout the world at this card game. Here's the thing, they couldn't have possibly just made a simple card game. No. They decided to make it more realistic. You know how with popular games, people often come up with their own house rules? That's how this works too. Different regions, people will play under different variations on the basic rules. These can affect anything from the way you win to how many cards the winner takes from the loser. But wait, there's more! These aren't just static rules, either. In fact, the more you play under certain rules, the more those rules can spread throughout the world as they become more popular. Honestly, many players play FF VIII just to master this card game. It's absurdly deep and has actually been ported to several other devices as a stand-alone game. Final Fantasy XI offered it as a packaged option but also, it was just recently brought to the Japanese-only Final Fantasy mobile hub as it's own game.
So, where do you fall on all of this? Obviously that's a ton of stuff to take in but some players crave the complexity. The more inaccessible, the better as it enables constant learning of new tricks to eke out those extra few points of damage. These are the players who will thrive in FF VIII. Others would rather have simple mechanics that offer more general tweaking or just allow them to get on with the game without menu surfing every few seconds. Neither way is wrong but it's extremely polarizing, especially in such a main line franchise like Final Fantasy.
Let me know in the comments what you think and as always, game on!
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