Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

The Junction system is why I can't get into the game no matter how hard I try.

Junction System isn't that bad and complicated.
It just only a system to connect your Magic type & quantity to your attributes or your attack type or your defensive type.
I quickly grasped with the Junction System gameplay and I can make ultimate team.
The hardest thing to junction is getting Ultima magic as much as possible as it will give very high boost to your attributes or attack / defense but you will not wasting Ultima magic once you get a lot of them.
The key of success in playing FF 8 is using the right commands for every GF Junction.
Some of the GF will give you free MP cost command like Recovery from Leviathan, Revive from Alexander, etc that you will depend on those command rather than wasting the already junctioned Magics.
Don't Junction Aura magic as you really need Aura magic to trigger the character Limit Break quickly. And if you dare and lucky enough, you can use Rinoa's Invisible Moon to make all the party members vanished or using Selphie's The End for Instant KO to any Bosses.

TBH I think I prefer FF8 to FF7 also - but only really for the setting. I'm willing to admit the game's flaws, particularly in the junction system and how wacky the story gets later on. It's definitely the most flawed of the PS1 trilogy.

There's a bit of fun in how broken the junction system is, but I totally understand if it completely puts someone off the game. There's definitely something wrong if the optimal strategy is to draw out battles for 30 minutes drawing magic from your opponents / focus so much of your time on the optional card game, only to never actually use the magic and instead junction it to your stats to repeatedly hit things using standard attacks.

Yeah I like the junction system too. It feels good to stay level 1 for the whole game and grind spells to be overpowered. Add to this a low health Squall for the limit breaks and it becomes even more enjoyable. Definitely one of the strenghts of VIII, you can make the game very easy or harder.

I never played Final Fantasy for the gameplay though. Only for the music, atmosphere, setting and story. And I think VIII is the best one. The vibes are just so good and Squall is really cool.

Edit: If I would replay them now, I think IX might become my favourite. In the end VII-X are all masterpieces, which I love very dearly and this is all that matters.

@Buizel The fact you get punished for using magic is exactly why I don't like it. Why are stats easily to ruin just because you want to make the fights go faster?

@VoidofLight This is true, but tbh avoidable if you use magic more sparingly and focus on standard attacks as I suggested. But this basically turns battles into mindless button mashing which I agree is no fun.

Tbh the idea of being "punished" for battling is a cardinal sin in any RPG. It's why I (and many others) consider Paper Mario Sticker Star to be amongst the worst games Nintendo has made in recent memory. And FF8 is guilty of this not only with the junction system, but with its level scaling (meaning that levelling up is essentially pointless).

Knowing this I should really hate FF8. But as @Jhena says there's a lot more to a FF game, and for me "the vibes are just so good and Squall is really cool" holds true.

@Buizel For me, I can get past combat being rough so long as I jive with the setting or characters. Drakengard is a big example of games I genuinely like, even if the core gameplay is hard to enjoy. However there are some games where the gameplay breaks the game for me, even if I enjoy the story or ideas presented. I can't enjoy Ni No Kuni because of its weird combat system where you have to swap control between the familiars and the characters. Makes combat feel like a mess in the way that they do it there.

There's a degree of gameplay flaws I can deal with if the story and characters are good enough...in theory, but genuinely the only games that truly pulled that off for me were freeware RPG Maker games I played back in the day. Utterly mediocre, generic turned based RPGs, and all the limitations of old RPG Maker games, but I liked the story parts so I liked it. (Also they were free)

I know this is unlikely for me otherwise because Fragile Dreams is a top 5 video game story for me and I'd still only give it a 6/10 because the gameplay is mostly bad. If this had great gameplay, it could've possibly been one of my favorite games ever but it doesn't, oops.

@kkslider5552000 I loved rpg maker games. I can't tell if it's just because I played them as a kid and am completely nostalgic or if they were actually good.

RPG maker games depend on how good the plot is for me. Some are definitely worth the gameplay issues- just for a well written narrative imo.

@VoidofLight I feel like the fact that they are short also helps the gameplay issues a lot.

@WaveBoy I've never found it too bothersome. Different, sure, but not bad at all. All the levels in Returns and especially Freeze are designed around that sense of weight and momentum in a way that makes them easier to grasp.

Now if you want a game with heavy, unwieldly controls and levels not suited to that, I'd look to Crash Bandicoot 1.

@WaveBoy Yeah, I couldn't disagree more. The controls always just felt right to me, and the levels are pretty well designed for it. It makes the platforming very deliberate, which I enjoy.

@N00BiSH Crash 1 is so horrid it isn't even fair. I've had people say it's a good game- but I genuinely don't understand that given how horribly slow the jumping abilities are.

Yeah I can't get behind Crash 1 either - although I think I did have a slightly better time with the N-sane version than the original. Crash 2 is definitely a lot more tolerable and I've not played enough of 3 to comment. I'm honestly baffled by how the first game was as popular as it was, but I guess there weren't better alternatives at the time.

It's popularity was definitely due to being one of the PlayStation's big 3D platformers in a time where that was becoming all the rage, as well as the marketing - you probably know about the Crash mascot on Nintendo's parking lot.

On the subject of Final Fantasy systems, my favourite system is from FFIV, which has no customization. You just level up. A lot of RPGs and later FF especially focus on customization. I find that kind of thing too distracted and often too complicated. I don't know if that's an unpopular opinion but I've never heard of it.

@Purgatorium I haven't played many Final Fantasies but I do tend to get overwhelmed when there's a lot of customisation in an RPG. I think standard levelling up can be all you need as long as there's a lot of new skills (or whatever) that unlock as you level up.

I like Dragon Quest III waaaaay more than Dragon Quest 11. People say that 11 is the best, but the music and the game design is so bland to me. III's game design is so much better, and I actually prefer the customization you get over the party. The systems click really well and fit really well. Helps that the music is also genuinely well composed.

If Dragon Quest was going to stay closer to the old RPG formula, I wish they'd go back to having fully custom parties again. That adds a lot more in terms of depth and personalization, which is lacking in modern Dragon Quest titles.

Just to clarify, are you talking about the original or remake? I've heard there is a truly massive amount of quality of life improvements in the remake.