Current Events > How would you improve FF8 while leaving the premise largely unaltered? *spoilers

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Jeff AKA Snoopy
07/14/20 8:46:51 AM
#1:


I feel like it had some real promise, but execution on the premise was not done especially well.

What would you do to improve FF8?

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Irony
07/14/20 8:47:17 AM
#2:


Replace the cast

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CreekCo
07/14/20 8:48:01 AM
#3:


Press x to skip summon animations

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spikethedevil
07/14/20 8:48:10 AM
#4:


Just simplify the junction system a little.

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#5
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J03can
07/14/20 8:49:48 AM
#6:


FF8 spoilers below obviously

Would explain the whole amnesia due to GF bullshit. Like have it be a reason with the whole time bullshit that yunalesca is in control of. They never fucking explain it. Fuck that game makes me mad.

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#7
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spikethedevil
07/14/20 8:52:17 AM
#8:


Oh yea and explain the GF amnesia thing better.

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CreekCo
07/14/20 8:54:41 AM
#9:


dolomedes posted...
but then u miss out on BOOST

They can map that to another button. I wouldnt care about missing boost. Those overlong animations add unnecessary hours to the game.

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yusiko
07/14/20 9:01:58 AM
#10:


@J03can they actually do explain the GF memory thing in the game but only in side content you would have no reason to ever read or look for
much like how all of selphies character is in her blog which you may never even know exists leaving her as just a bland ditz without that insight into her character.

anyway what i would do is fix the romance because once disk 3 comes along they rush it too much and it stats to feel forced.
build it up better since its central to the story
and id give more importance to the quistis, selphie, zell and irvine since they eventually just become part of the background

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saspa
07/14/20 9:04:10 AM
#11:


I dunno, all the FF games have something I would change. 8 is definitely not on the top of the list, for me it's 12, that's the one with massive unrealized potential.
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J03can
07/14/20 9:04:31 AM
#12:


yusiko posted...
@J03can they actually do explain the GF memory thing in the game but only in side content you would have no reason to ever read or look for
much like how all of selphies character is in her blog which you may never even know exists leaving her as just a bland ditz without that insight into her character.

anyway what i would do is fix the romance because once disk 3 comes along they rush it too much and it stats to feel forced.
build it up better since its central to the story
and id give more importance to the quistis, selphie, zell and irvine since they eventually just become part of the background
Really? Well that would change things a bit maybe. It also ended too abruptly.

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spikethedevil
07/14/20 9:09:15 AM
#13:


Its a boy like Zack and even more so Lucretcia in VII.

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Reis
07/14/20 9:11:26 AM
#14:


gut the entire combat system and replace it with triple triad
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spikethedevil
07/14/20 9:12:11 AM
#15:


Reis posted...
gut the entire combat system and replace it with triple triad

The topic has just been won.

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fusespliff
07/14/20 9:15:17 AM
#16:


J03can posted...
Really? Well that would change things a bit maybe. It also ended too abruptly.

"explained" as in there's a blurb on the PC in the classroom that mentions there are theories that memory loss is linked to GF usage. It's just foreshadowing

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Jeff AKA Snoopy
07/14/20 9:28:01 AM
#17:


They never really explain WHY GF's muck with your mind as far as I ever knew.

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#18
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ZeroX91
07/14/20 9:29:50 AM
#19:


Massive rewrit.....oh....uhh..get rid of Eyes on Me I guess

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#20
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philsov
07/14/20 9:33:31 AM
#21:


Simplify the junction system so it doesn't cause power loss on skill use nor the need to slather my face on a monster's junk whenever they have a new spell I'd like 100 of.

Remove enemy level scaling

Make there a little less subtlety about Laguna and his entire arc and relevance to the plot

Improve the weapon/armor system to be more relevant and require less rare mats. I think on my first playthrough I couldn't be assed to do any of it and everyone had default everything.
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The Popo
07/14/20 9:34:22 AM
#22:


Moving it from store shelves to a dumpster

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Questionmarktarius
07/14/20 10:03:22 AM
#23:


Ditch FF8, just sell Triple Triad
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spikethedevil
07/14/20 11:32:57 AM
#24:


Questionmarktarius posted...
Ditch FF8, just sell Triple Triad



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PMarth2002
07/14/20 11:39:01 AM
#25:


Get rid of drawing and use an MP system. You learn spells from your GF's directly by spending AP. You can still junction them to stats. I thought that was an interesting idea.


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spikethedevil
07/14/20 11:39:56 AM
#26:


PMarth2002 posted...
Get rid of drawing and use an MP system. You learn spells from your GF's directly by spending AP. You can still junction them to stats. I thought that was an interesting idea.

I can agree with this while still keeping the base junction system for stats.

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Banana_Cyanide
07/14/20 11:52:22 AM
#27:


You don't need to replace the cast you just need better writing.

and in that regard first I'm make the characters less whiny, Quistis is never a teacher just a normal member of SeeD because sorry she's just too young to be an instructor, Make Zell less of a fuck up, make Rinoa even less of a fuck and have her and Squall's romance not be forced, make Squall Significantly less emo, Give better character development to Selphie and Irvine, Have Ultimicia hinted at much earlier and more prominently, no need to do the same with GF amnesia becasue the orphanage twist will be removed altogether, instead they will have all been in the same class when SeeD first started and they all know it and Edea was their teacher and they all know except maybe one or two of them forgot but none of that orphanage amnesia shit.

Also maybe give Ultimecia a little bit of back story. Like maybe show that SeeD in the future is a very oppressive force that makes whole families disapear on the mere suspicion that they have a sorceress in their bloodline and with Ultimecia's specialty in time magic is looking for a timeline where she doesn't get killed by SeeD.

Now as for mechanics not much needs to change except the junction system. Bring back traditional stat level gains and make the increase in stats from GF's be like in FF6 and have junctions be for status and elemental atk and def only.

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VandorLee
07/14/20 12:01:17 PM
#28:


Honestly id add a fast forward option to a button. If im being serious id say the game has plenty of long battle animations, long talkie parts with long cinematics.

The game itself is fine but the real reason i dont replay it is due to its very slow pace.

Theres set peices that really involve just that: long talks followed by a long cutscene and you continually get long battle animations for bigger attacks later.

A speed increase function, like on Chrono Cross, would be great.

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Hambo the Hog
07/14/20 12:09:43 PM
#29:


Either get rid of level scaling or at least make it benefit the player more than the enemies. It's absurd that leveling up essentially makes you weaker. Having to end every random encounter with Card and trying not to kill anything with normal attacks is annoying.

Also work on pacing with the plot. Slip in more hints about GF-linked amnesia and give a reason for the connection. I actually did see the little mention of the GF memory loss theory during my first playthrough and I still thought the reveal later on was stupid. They all suddenly remember their shared childhood and it doesn't change a thing about their relationships with each other, their use of GFs, or their goals.

Also that romance between Squall and Rinoa was forced as hell. Squall hates her guts until the very moment that she becomes the most important thing in the world to him. Either have him come around and open up gradually or just pair him up with Zell instead.

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VandorLee
07/14/20 12:13:43 PM
#30:


Hambo the Hog posted...
Also that romance between Squall and Rinoa was forced as hell. Squall hates her guts until the very moment that she becomes the most important thing in the world to him. Either have him come around and open up gradually or just pair him up with Zell instead.

I agree but whenever i say they suck as a couple i get crap.

Cloud with either Aeris or Tifa didnt seem forced and he has a similar personality.

Squall feels like an actor that hates the girl actor they chose for his romantic interest.

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Strider102
07/14/20 12:18:39 PM
#31:


End it at disc 1.

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BLAKUboy
07/14/20 12:33:13 PM
#32:


Remove Ultimecia and keep Edea as the villain, have time compression actually bring in aspects of other eras mostly for more optional content (and change Edea's motivation in doing it to something less dumb), remove the "orphanage" plothole entirely, give Squall some redeeming qualities so there's actually a reason for all the characters to keep slobbering on his dick, give Rinoa a personality beyond "Squall's love interest", make Adel actually matter.

For gameplay I'm going to second removing drawing (and by extension turning cards into spells) and completely restructuring level scaling.

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fire_bolt
07/14/20 1:00:28 PM
#33:


Plot changes:

Remove the orphanage and every reference to it. It adds complication to the story for zero reason. The characters mesh well together as presented in the game, adding in this childhood amnesia backstory was just plot bloat.

Flesh out Ultimecia significantly, both as a character and her role in the game. Drop the time travel entirely but keep her the ability to possess other sorceresses and you're good to go.

People keep saying "fix" the romance stuff but really what needs to be fixed is the characters and how they interact. Make them less caricatures and more like actual people. 90% of this would just be making Squall less edgelord. Give him a clear moment, probably right after the two Gardens battle, where he suddenly realizes how dangerous everything is and how much he cares about his team. All you gotta do is shoehorn in a realization that while he's worried about everyone its Rinoa he's most worried about and the rest pretty much writes its self.

Possibly age everyone up a bit. The whole plot makes a bit more sense if they're graduating from college age rather than graduating from high school age, and it especially helps Quistis as an instructor make sense. Possibly can leave Rinoa's age alone since she's *supposed* to be a bit of an outsider at first anyway. *googles* Ok, apparently she's 17 ingame so if we're aging most of the cast up to 22-24 then age her to 19-20 so that her and Squall don't get creepy

Mechanics changes:

Junction system is fine, the magic system is not. Easy fix though. Spells can now only be learned by refining items into spells, but spells never get weaker if you use them. Instead, stocking them increases the power of the spell up to level 100 (and once at level 100 it never goes down). Draw is removed entirely. Add new items to refine into various spells, and make sure some of the more powerful ones are still accessible relatively early in the game (such as the existing Ultima draw point available early in disc 2). Draw points, including on the world map, can be replaced with item stockpiles. Spells now cost MP. Add junction abilities such as MP Turbo, Half MP, etc into the game. Boost the overall damage of spells so that they are competitive with other commands. Oh, and probably let Ultima break the damage cap. It makes Eden less unique but in a game with so many options for multi-hit attacks spells need to do more damage to be viable.

I honestly think the equipment system is fine if you don't change the Junction system. Make getting weapons a bit less grindy by reducing the raw numbers of rare items needed.

Nerf the shit out of Limit Breaks so that they aren't the defining aspect of combat. Give them a gauge like in FF7. The Aura spell now increases how fast your gauge fills up. Restrict Zell's Limit to a certain number of attacks per use to encourage working thru combo chains rather than spamming the same two moves dozens of times in a single command. Adjust enemy HP values accordingly. This single change makes every other combat command infinitely more viable since Zell or Squall can just Limit Break everything into oblivion from the start of the game otherwise.

Remove the Hero and Holy War items entirely, or at least remove the ability to Card Mod to get them.
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Tyranthraxus
07/14/20 1:16:45 PM
#34:


  1. Get rid of the orphanage plot it makes no sense and adds nothing. Squall can still come from an orphanage, the other characters can just be normal Balamb SeeD cadets.
  2. Get rid of Selphie she is redundant with Zell personality wise. Replace her with someone completely different like Ellone who is masquerading under a fake name to avoid detection by Ultimecia.
  3. Laguna joins your party during Time Compression.
  4. Introduce Ultimecia earlier. Show us something like Squall getting some kind of vision that Edea is being controlled by Ultimecia or something.
  5. Dramatically power up magic when cast in battle so there's actually a reason to use it as it's almost always better to just keep 100 of it junctioned at all times.
  6. Option to have Squall romance Fujin instead of Rinoa.
  7. Give us a thing where we can pet Angelo.



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Questionmarktarius
07/14/20 1:25:58 PM
#35:


Tyranthraxus posted...
Option to have Squall romance Fujin instead of Rinoa.
Option to have Rinoa romance Fujin instead of Squall
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Guerrilla Soldier
07/14/20 1:27:34 PM
#36:


materia system

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Holy_Cloud105
07/14/20 1:29:39 PM
#37:


Get rid of Rinoa. Her and the shitty romance plot with Squall brings the game down. The game was a lot better in disc 1 and 2 when it was a mission and things were business only. Once disc 3 rolls around and Squall magically falls in love with Rinoa and nothing else matters anymore the story takes a huge nosedive.

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Ving_Rhames
07/14/20 1:36:36 PM
#38:


  • Get rid of the love subplot. It legitimately added nothing outside of making Squall randomly decide he wants to save princess plot device in Disc 3. If you have to have the subplot, give them some actual chemistry please. Thats a hard sell in an FF game though.
  • Make everyone but Squall a lot less fucking stupid/insufferable (Excluding Lagunas silly ass, and Krios/Wards cool asses)
  • Remove the completely unfounded GF memory erasure shit period, thats stupid as fuck no matter how you look at it. It also makes Irvine look even dumber than he already is for not saying anything for two discs. And doesnt explain why Seifer never forgot either. Just make it so they were all in different Gardens, they meet, oh we know each other haha we have this in common, okay were professionals now lets move on.
  • Ultimecia was stupid. Just make Adel more important than what she was since she already fit the bill of known psychopathic sorceress and was clearly shown to have reach far beyond what she should have been able to what with the freaky radio messages and body snatching.



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gunplagirl
07/14/20 1:37:57 PM
#39:


Give Questis some big honkerinos
Give Rinoa a fatter ass
Give Selphie a cuter outfit

That's about it

Oh, summon animation skipping, nobody needs to lose 5 years of their life summoning Eden more than once

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NightRender
07/14/20 1:41:35 PM
#40:


For everyone saying to remove the orphanage, does Edea still create SeeD? Is she still married to Cid?

Edea becomes a much more 2D character if we start removing some of these.

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Tyranthraxus
07/14/20 1:53:34 PM
#41:


Questionmarktarius posted...
Option to have Rinoa romance Fujin instead of Squall
The world isn't ready for this.

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Villain
07/14/20 1:56:01 PM
#42:


TBH I don't think I'd change much.

Maybe no random battles and have all monsters on screen like more modern RPGs have started to do.

I guess better streamline some important plot points that may have been missed it glossed over due to optional content.

I do question if maybe we didn't get the best translation either, that was the case with 7.

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Ving_Rhames
07/14/20 1:58:47 PM
#43:


NightRender posted...
For everyone saying to remove the orphanage, does Edea still create SeeD? Is she still married to Cid?

Edea becomes a much more 2D character if we start removing some of these.
\
Yeah, that's why I didn't suggest removing the orphanage deal. I feel knowing who they were going to go assassinate in the first place would have been a true test of mettle and professionalism, and would have added stakes outside of "Will Rinoa's hurt feelings be mended in time?!" to the whole Disc 1 scenario.

Alternatively, they could have had Edea go by a different name while she was the Sorceress, and had her keep her cool mask that she wore for one scene on up until the parade.Then when she addresses the crowd, she takes it off and the plan falls apart for a reason outside of Rinoa being sad/stupid, and Irvine knowingly withholding information. Its pretty cheesy, but with some touch ups/better ideas than what I just came up with off the cuff it could have actually been something tense instead of something stupid. Hell, it could also have made Seifers ineffectual stupid villain thing make INFINITELY more sense instead of just being entranced.

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Solid Snake07
07/14/20 2:11:52 PM
#44:


spikethedevil posted...
Just simplify the junction system a little.


It's pretty simple though

It just sort of sucks cause it removes incentive to use magic other than cure

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BLAKUboy
07/14/20 4:30:13 PM
#45:


NightRender posted...
For everyone saying to remove the orphanage, does Edea still create SeeD? Is she still married to Cid?
Sure, she'd be far more compelling if she was a "good guy goes bad" type who helped to create the tools that would ultimately defeat her. Just make Adel the reason it was made instead of a dumb timeloop copout.

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Ilishe
07/14/20 4:37:21 PM
#46:


Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...
They never really explain WHY GF's muck with your mind as far as I ever knew.

Yeah they should have had a section with maybe Odine or something in the Deep Sea facility shed more light on the magical bio-weapons that destroy people's brains.

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Villain
07/14/20 4:39:13 PM
#47:


I thought it was clearly explained that GFs reside in your brain, specifically the same area where memories reside.

Do we need to elaborate further than that?

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Banana_Cyanide
07/14/20 4:42:48 PM
#48:


Oh and remove what's his name that lives under the Garden while where at it and have Laguna and Esthar be a secret backer of SeeD.

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Questionmarktarius
07/14/20 4:44:14 PM
#49:


Banana_Cyanide posted...
Oh and remove what's his name that lives under the Garden while where at it and have Laguna and Esthar be a secret backer of SeeD.
If anything, a redo with NORG as the protagonist would be much better.
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BLAKUboy
07/14/20 5:06:54 PM
#50:


Also, give Moombas more screen time.

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