Lets Play: Final Fantasy VIII (Blind)

[hardcoretyphoon]

Hello! Welcome to my Final Fantasy VIII blind LP!
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In this thread I will play through Final Fantasy VIII on the PSX for the first time, while posting occasional updates. I'm playing on original hardware on my trusty Xstation, so no save states and yeah, the footage is gonna look a little crusty.
I've already played like 2 hours in so ill do my best to sum up the beginning (I spent most of it lost in the beginning area >_<)

Feedback is appreciated, but please don't spoil me!
I'm alright with gameplay tips and story refreshers.
But if you're going to mention anything that takes place throughout the game's story,
make sure to it!

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The Game starts with a super cool FMV cutscene, So far my favorite thing about the game. There's this guy I later learned was named Squall (I'm using the default names) he likes this girl I guess, and he doesn't like this asshole guy (named Seifer) who cuts him in the face. Cool intro but no clue what to make of it. Judging by how the logo consists of Squall and that girl hugging, I guess that's the main crux of this game, not sure how though.

Squall wakes up in what first seemed to be a hospital but later I learned was some type of school. The students are training for something called a SeeD exam. We'll learn later what's that for.

​

So our first mission is to go to the [Fire Cave]. Guess I gotta fight a god for this exam.
I should have told the teacher I was sick today.]

Oh oops! You're right!
I forgot to bring my girlfriend! Wherever could she be?​

Onward! To the [Fire Cave]!

(Note: I didnt get any screencaps of this dungeon so take an artists' depiction)

After we beat Ifrit, the exam was through. A bunch of shit happens and we're on our first mission. Seems like this school is some sort of military school, so into the warzone it is.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Make sure to play triple triad because it had benefits.

 

[χKai]

Don't set yourself up for disappointment expecting it to be as good as Final Fantasy VII, like I did.

Hope that's not too much of a spoiler!

 

[PSVitaForever]

My first and only playthrough has been with the official guide: it was also my first real videogame (after Tomb Raider 2) and I'm sure I would have miss LOTS of stuff without guide, and of course being one my first games it's also a very good memory!
Since you're already experienced with FF, maybe you'll enjoy it anyway going blind: best of luck and enjoy the journey!

 

[SpcDaicon]

Hey, look! Its the Final Fantasy with the-best-looking-guy-here™

Hope you enjoy your playthrough! Junction can be a bit messy and frustrating but once you understand it, you can break the game.

Play Triple Triad

 

[Arudama]

Ah man, this is a game to play with a couple asterisks.

First and foremost, pay attention to the GF tutorial, and if you are somehow confused even after going through it, feel free to ask questions here; or read up about it a bit online. Its fairly straightforward, but for the life of me: this is one of the primary factors that fostered the notoriety the game has received to this day. -- Well that, and gamers mostly want a guided, straightforward experience with their games; that strictly adhere to the genre and/or franchise conventions from now, until the end of time, with only the most frivolous of novelties to suffice.

DO NOT grind on either axis for this game! The conventional means of grinding levels will effectively soft lock you; and the unconventional means of grinding via Triple Triad will effectively turn the game into a mash confirm simulator. The fine line to walk here is that you ought to engage in doing both in moderation, as ignoring one or the other leads to a worse game experience. This is a genuine flaw with the game, which could have been mitigated by having more guardrails on what you can junction with GFs; having consequences related to overloading a GF stat at certain intervals of the game; and most contentiously, by removing the concepts of levels from the game entirely (I'm sure this was proposed, and was effectively denied cos Square knows how ornery gamers can get!).

/rant Nice screenshot! Curious if that's a particular shader; or if you took a good pic of your physical display.

 

[SwaunyJones]

I actually really enjoyed this Final Fantasy. Makes me want to replay it

 

[medisinn]

I hope you like the game. It's certainly very different from the other FF games, but I appreciate them trying new things. You may want to spend some time absorbing spells from enemies. It's tedious, but you can absorb a spell indefinitely, you just get a random amount each time. Thus you can do it without needing to grind experience, and having a ready made selection of spells usable without worrying about MP is pretty fun.

 

[Guinea]

Well crap, since you already left Balamb I got nothing. It would've been a huge benefit for you to spam enemies on the beach near Balamb Garden and drawing 300 magics from the enemies, so you'll have OP stats for the next part.

 

[hardcoretyphoon]

Hey, look! Its the Final Fantasy with the-best-looking-guy-here™

View attachment 132154

Hope you enjoy your playthrough! Junction can be a bit messy and frustrating but once you understand it, you can break the game.

Play Triple Triad

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:22 PM

I hope you like the game. It's certainly very different from the other FF games, but I appreciate them trying new things. You may want to spend some time absorbing spells from enemies. It's tedious, but you can absorb a spell indefinitely, you just get a random amount each time. Thus you can do it without needing to grind experience, and having a ready made selection of spells usable without worrying about MP is pretty fun.

How does absorbing spells work? Do i have to junction spells to defense?

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:24 PM

Well crap, since you already left Balamb I got nothing. It would've been a huge benefit for you to spam enemies on the beach near Balamb Garden and drawing 300 magics from the enemies, so you'll have OP stats for the next part.

Ah i see. I have a bad habit of going exactly where a game tells me to go without exploring first, sometimes. FF7 was pretty linear so i assumed the world map wasnt super useful yet

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:25 PM

I actually really enjoyed this Final Fantasy. Makes me want to replay it

Makes me happy to hear someone wants to replay from reading my thread! All the feedback is making me wanna play more too.

 

[PSVitaForever]

Ah i see. I have a bad habit of going exactly where a game tells me to go without exploring first, sometimes. FF7 was pretty linear so i assumed the world map wasnt super useful yet

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:25 PM

Your habit may have saved you from a painful, sudden and unexpected game over in one of the areas inside the garden :D (I got it because I remember I started exploring carefully every branch of the garden and I probably forgot to save).
I won't say anything else because you said earlier that you don't want spoiler. I don't remember when you can get back to the garden, if you will explore around you will understand.

 

[hardcoretyphoon]

Your habit may have saved you from a painful, sudden and unexpected game over in one of the areas inside the garden :D
I won't say anything else because you said earlier that you don't want spoiler. I don't remember when you can get back to the garden, if you will explore around you will understand.

Right!! I left that out of my LP because it wasnt the right way to go and i didnt take screenshots. I got absolutely destroyed by those plant monsters and was so confused why what i thought was supposed to be the first fight of the game was so hard.

 

[medisinn]

How does absorbing spells work? Do i have to junction spells to defense?

I forgot the name of the battle command, it's Draw. When you draw magic in battle you get I think 1 to 9 of a given spell. You can do it indefinitely and get up to 99 of a spell. I can't remember if you need to do it for each character or if they share a pool of spells. Tough enemies or bosses might have hard to get spells, so it's worth trying out Draw on them. You can junction magic to your stats, yes, that is part of the uniqueness to the game. Which stats you can junction varies based on the GF I think, though your GFs learn abilities over time so you may have more stat options with that GF later on.

 

[PSVitaForever]

Right!! I left that out of my LP because it wasnt the right way to go and i didnt take screenshots. I got absolutely destroyed by those plant monsters and was so confused why what i thought was supposed to be the first fight of the game was so hard.

In that area you can find something even more difficult O.O After watching some video right now it seems maybe you can beat it, but when I did it I had no idea how to survive so I came back much later. Also, I never knew about levels and grinding, I beat the final boss with everyone level 99 and 99 elixirs that makes you unbeatable in the items (won with the Gilgamesh card, if I remember correctly... I know, maybe I was crazy, in fact we spent a whole summer just playing this game).