Final Fantasy VIII
Most Final Fantasy critics say it's one of the worst, if not the worst FF to hit the market, but personally, it's my favorite and I love this game. There's a style to FF8 that just isn't in the others and I think part of the reason why I like it so much is that your basic cast of playable characters aren't over the age of 18. This makes it easier to identify with them no matter what your age, because you've either been there, or you're feeling their angst while you're playing it.
Reasons why I like this game so much:
Base set experience. I loved not having my experience to gain go over 1000 points.
The critters level up as you do, gaining more powerful skills and magic.
No frickin MP to deal with, grr, draw rules.
Guardian Forces, their animations are beautifully done and they give the characters a personal edge that is completely adaptable to any situation or environment.
Triple Triad, I've spent countless hours just playing cards, even after obtaining every card there is to be had.
No hidden characters, one of my main pet peeves about FF7 was that the coolest character in the game was 'hidden', albeit fairly easy to obtain, but still hidden. I like having my playables right where I can get to em.
The world itself. The cities in this game are so well done that everytime I go back and play FF7 for the umpteenth time, I keep looking around the background wondering where the heck all the cool scenery is.
Human looking characters! A lot of people had a major tizzy over the look of the characters, but personally, I loved it, they had real hands, people, real hands-not cut off at the wrist.
Believable weapons, Cloud's big ass sword was cool, but come on, really...it would take a behemoth to lug that thing around.
Garden. I loved the idea of my characters being in 'school', call me crazy, but I thought it was a nice touch from the random hero that saves the world.
Irvine and Quistis. My list of favorite FF characters reached an all time 4 with these two following Setzer and Vincent-and they're both from the same game...*boggles*
Remodeling weapons. This doesn't seem like a real big deal and some of the materials are hard to come by, but I liked the fact that everyone's weapons were simply remodled in this game rather than having to simply go out and buy the next best thing-I found it refreshing to have to work for an upgrade rather than fight my way through to the next area where a stronger one was for sale at.
Side quests. This game has a ton of em, and makes it more interesting for me to play-it's not an all out rush to take on the ultimate evil at the end, you can take a leisurely stroll through the game by playing through it's numerous side quests. FF7 didn't really have em, the only one that was really interesting in FF9 was Chocobo hot and cold, but FF8 is riddled with neat little secondary quests that make it's replay value all the more intriguing to me.
Heh, take the lil trivia game I came up with. There are 15 questions in all, all pretty easy, nothin special, but interesting all the same.
