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INTEREST: Final Fantasy VIII Director Yoshinori Kitase Explains Why Remaster Was Announced Late




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tomdean



Joined: 22 Jan 2018
Posts: 125
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:41 pm Reply with quote
it would have been one of the best games of all time but the silly story development at Disc 4 completely ruined it. It was still a great game but my God...what were they thinking? Did the script writers run out of time of something?
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Siegfriedl88



Joined: 22 Jun 2017
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:45 pm Reply with quote
^^^^
its the same company at the time that made xenogears...sooo yea.

FF 8 is still my favorite FF of all time and am really looking forward too getting this remake for the switch!
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InimitableUman



Joined: 09 Nov 2013
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Who says it was announced late? Rarely do devs actually owe anything to gamers. Especially in this case, FFVIII came out on Steam in 2013. Any further improvements on it are a bonus.

I muted a guy on twitter yesterday who responded to a tweet about Mario Maker 2 saying that "the Dragon Quest hero still isn't out yet in Smash". Where do these people get off? That character was just announced. I hope they postpone them by a year just to annoy that guy.
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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1410
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:30 pm Reply with quote
InimitableUman wrote:
Who says it was announced late? Rarely do devs actually owe anything to gamers. Especially in this case, FFVIII came out on Steam in 2013. Any further improvements on it are a bonus.

I muted a guy on twitter yesterday who responded to a tweet about Mario Maker 2 saying that "the Dragon Quest hero still isn't out yet in Smash". Where do these people get off? That character was just announced. I hope they postpone them by a year just to annoy that guy.


You must be fun irl...


Regardless, it was a good decision.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2204
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:53 pm Reply with quote
tomdean wrote:
it would have been one of the best games of all time but the silly story development at Disc 4 completely ruined it. It was still a great game but my God...what were they thinking? Did the script writers run out of time of something?


Eh, even before that the story is a mess. It's really difficult to be invested in the love story the entire game depends on when the guy is a self-involved twit who treats everyone in the party like crap and the girl has no other purpose than being his girlfriend (seriously, Rinoa has no arc or story to speak of). Furthermore, there just isn't a central theme to the game. VI was about life against nihilism, IX is memory, X is a never-ending cycle, and VII has so many I could write a dissertation on it. VIII on the other hand....yeah, I got nothing. There isn't really a story, just random events firing off meaninglessly.

Compare that to Xenogears and the difference is like night and day what with its love story being the central relationship, but both characters have arcs that involve stuff besides each other, other characters are allowed to have stories of their own, and the themes and story are very clear. To be honest I really don't know why VIII is such a mess, but it's clear the story is unfinished or at least very unpolished, like a first draft.
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wilsonwilson



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 7:45 pm Reply with quote
Will I still be able to spend 20+ hours playing cards in game? That's the important question.
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unitedhybrid



Joined: 01 Jul 2019
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:41 pm Reply with quote
I'm just waiting and waiting on a port of Brave Fencer Musashi...
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Shiratori-san



Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Posts: 59
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:05 am Reply with quote
Second best FF ever, only coming short (but with a very narrow margin) to FF9. Smile
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OrdepNM



Joined: 14 Nov 2018
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:13 am Reply with quote
Their reasoning sounds abit like an excuse to be honest. I mean, of course any remaster would inevitably require an extensive overhaul of the models, textures and backgrounds, those were made with old CTR tvs in mind and look absolutely woeful in modern tvs. Somehow I still give more credence to the idea that they were having trouble working the rights issue for Faye Wong's Eyes on Me.

InimitableUman wrote:
Who says it was announced late? Rarely do devs actually owe anything to gamers. Especially in this case, FFVIII came out on Steam in 2013. Any further improvements on it are a bonus.


Granted, announced "late" is abit of a misnomer as no one ever put an ETA on a FFVIII remaster, but what the article refers to is the fact that FFVIII got skipped over in SE's efforts to remaster the FF collection, which by now has remasters for every title from FFI to XII... except VIII. It was definitely a hole in the lineup that made people wonder what the issue was. And yes I know it's avaliable on PSN (straight PSX emulation) and Steam (port of the PC version with slightly improved character models that really clash with the environment). Really not the same thing.

Anyhow, good news. It was my first FF and you never forget your first. I know it probably won't happen but I wish they worked on the balance, specially with the junction system, which is really easy to abuse when you get the hang of it. I also hate how Triple Triad is really fun to play but the rewards you get from it can easily break the game right on tutorial island, which means I have to house rule it that I'm not gonna use card refine in order to have a good time.

As for the story, the core romance was fine. In retrospect, Squall is anime edgelord af but that's not necessarily a terrible thing. I also quite liked the world building they did. Where I felt it dropped the ball was in making the supporting cast matter. With the exception of a few tidbits about Zell and Selphie's hometowns, there really is nothing to these characters besides having an archetype personality, reacting to the plot and serving as muscle for the combat.
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gsilver



Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 616
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:54 am Reply with quote
While I played all of the Final Fantasy games (up to 12) back in the day, FF8 was the one that I remember the least about...

At least they are dedicated to doing a good job on this one, even if it’s late. Hopefully fans will be pleased.
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:36 pm Reply with quote
FF8 (vs FF7) to me is very similar to Cross (vs Trigger). In both cases the sales of 8 and Cross are very close to their predecessors, aka very successful financial. Also on the whole ratings across the board whether user or critic, are very comparable to the predecessor. Yet in both case the first game is viewed as some untouchable masterpiece while the second is viewed as some misfit outcast, yet the underlying data if you look at it objectively makes no sense to come to that conclusion. Personal while I like 7 and Trigger, i always preferred 8 and Cross.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 8:27 am Reply with quote
CrownKlown wrote:
FF8 (vs FF7) to me is very similar to Cross (vs Trigger). In both cases the sales of 8 and Cross are very close to their predecessors, aka very successful financial. Also on the whole ratings across the board whether user or critic, are very comparable to the predecessor. Yet in both case the first game is viewed as some untouchable masterpiece while the second is viewed as some misfit outcast, yet the underlying data if you look at it objectively makes no sense to come to that conclusion. Personal while I like 7 and Trigger, i always preferred 8 and Cross.


I agree with you about the Chronos. Cross is one of my all-time favorite games, while Trigger is just okay.

I tried playing the Steam version of FF8 recently. I use an XBox controller and have found it well-nigh impossible to figure out the code sequences during the train sequence. Never had a problem with that using a PS or PS2. Looks like the Steam version assumed people were going to be using keyboards rather than controllers. Hope this remake works flawlessly with either method.
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AmpersandsUnited



Joined: 22 Mar 2012
Posts: 633
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 3:35 pm Reply with quote
CrownKlown wrote:
FF8 (vs FF7) to me is very similar to Cross (vs Trigger). In both cases the sales of 8 and Cross are very close to their predecessors, aka very successful financial. Also on the whole ratings across the board whether user or critic, are very comparable to the predecessor. Yet in both case the first game is viewed as some untouchable masterpiece while the second is viewed as some misfit outcast, yet the underlying data if you look at it objectively makes no sense to come to that conclusion. Personal while I like 7 and Trigger, i always preferred 8 and Cross.


I don't think there's accurate to say. Chrono Trigger sold more in Japan alone than Cross' combined sales of Japan and America. 2,030,000 Japanese sales for Trigger VS 1.5 million combined for Cross. It's pretty clearly the more popular of the two by a very decent margin, and that's not even counting the various re-releases like thePS1 and DS version. Cross did sell more in America than Trigger did, but Americans were not very big into RPGs during the SNES days.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:27 am Reply with quote
I've been replaying VIII (currently at Galbadia Garden), and here a few things I hope were changed in the remaster:

- an option for short GF animations a la FFX; some of them take so long I avoid using the GF in question

- fewer boring boss battles; In particular Elvoret at the comm tower takes forever with Selphie drawing and Squall and Zell spamming GFs to move things along

- using random characters not in my party when switching to Laguna and company; takes forever to re-junction the new characters

- restore characters' health and status after a reasonable period of time; my Zell still had the same low health he had after the battle at the comm tower when the party/dance scene was completed

- getting the no-encounters ability much earlier in the game

Rinoa is one of the most forward Japanese girls I've ever seen.
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