Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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shivan128

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Welcome to the Japanese niche games deals and discussion thread!  Feel free to talk about local and import Japanese games here.  Our goal is to maintain a thread dedicated to active deals on niche games including RPGs, Visual Novels (VN), Shoot'em ups (Shmups), Musou, etc.  Also maintained are pre-orders for standard, limited and collector's edition games with key release dates provided.

I've wikified the thread to make it more friendly and open to others that can actively update with important information. You can find the wiki post directly below this one.

NOTE:  Please, leave the censorship discussion away from this thread.  It's common for japanese games to have questionable content outside of the country.  We want to keep discussions to the game itself and not about cultural/societal tolerance.

A message from Thorbahn:

Our CAG Japanese Niche Games Thread also has a community on PS4, where you can interact and game with other members of the thread.

Our moderators are: Draekon, Las_Hole, and Waffleswanton

You can basically friend any of our members, or any moderator, and you will be able to request to join the community under "Communities friends are in" tab, and a mod will approve your request.

You can also leave your PSN ID in the thread, saying you want to join, and we can invite you directly as well.

As always, have fun and enjoy your stay!

 
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shadowysea07 said:
https://www.videogamesplus.ca/product_info.php?products_id=27885 here's another back up option for you ^_^

Ha I see I wasn't the only one who knows of videogamesplusca. Yeah And with conversion rates its usually cheaper to order through them too. The only issue is shipping can take a while and tracking disappears after it enters the us.
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Tothoro said:
The last three times I've ordered via VGPlus (all in the past six months) I've just gotten a USPS tracking number that's worked through delivery.

Worth noting that their site is suspected to have security issues, though. As long as you pay via PayPal you'll be fine - just don't enter your credit card info on their site.
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Yeah, I haven't order from them in awhile, but the last few times I did, they shipped from NY, as it was stated that way on their site if memory serves correctly. All my orders had full tracking as well from start to finish, and arrived in solid shape each time, not that they used any amazing packaging, I just didn't have an issue.

Found it, see link and go down to "New USA Shipping Rates" and it's stated in the first sentence. https://www.videogamesplus.ca/shipping_faq.php

 
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A bunch of games in stock at GameStop right now. It looks like they might be converting to preowned too because so far, nearly everything I’ve gotten looks brand new.

PS4

Metal Max Xeno Preowned
Labyrinth of Refrain New
Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded Preowned
Atelier Firis Preowned
Fairy Fencer F Preowned
Anima Gate of Memories Preowned

Switch

Travis strikes again Preowned
 
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super1upqueen said:
Not niche, but start placing your bets:

My most wanted characters are Rex/Pyra, Elma from Xenoblade X, Adol Christin, Estelle Bright, Saber (with a Nero skin because why not), ANY Zelda character (BoTW Impa may be likely, due to her being featured in the new Hyrule Warriors), Sophitia or Mitsurugi, a Monster Hunter (for my husband, since he loves that series) Lloyd or Yuri from Tales, Spyro, Noctis (because I'm one of those evil FFXV fans), and Asuka from Senran Kagura (which will NEVER happen lol).

So, it's probably gonna be Crash :???:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Jve_qWnpc

shk8ahU.gif


 
CheapAssDragon said:
A bunch of games in stock at GameStop right now. It looks like they might be converting to preowned too because so far, nearly everything I’ve gotten looks brand new.

PS4

Metal Max Xeno Preowned
Labyrinth of Refrain New
Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded Preowned
Atelier Firis Preowned
Fairy Fencer F Preowned
Anima Gate of Memories Preowned

Switch

Travis strikes again Preowned
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it's just the stock checker is finally working after being broken for about a year. Originally it was showing everything as -1 so unless a store had multiple copies it wouldn't turn up as in stock. At least that's what I understand from the gamestop thread.

 
CheapAssDragon said:
A bunch of games in stock at GameStop right now. It looks like they might be converting to preowned too because so far, nearly everything I’ve gotten looks brand new.

<snip>

Switch

Travis strikes again Preowned
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If anyone is looking for Travis Strikes Again, it's $14.99 new over at BestBuy. Not a big savings, but I was getting Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch) for $20 (it's sold out now) for my son and threw this game in the same order. Nice knowing it wasn't opened. I think it (Travis) has a code inside for the DLC season pass.

 
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I'd call it more of a demographic-targeting move.  Makes sense for Microsoft struggling for a foothold.  Personally I'm even more unlikely to spend anything on the 2nd dlc roster now.  

 
I actually really like minecraft.  I've had a lot of fun with it over the past 9 years.  I can see this as a hugely positive move over some character only a small fraction of the market knows about and will barely sell.  That said, I've bought none of the DLC for smash, am not into abiibos, and am not the target market for this.

 
As far as my son is concerned, this was the greatest Smash announcement since sliced bread, as he's been bouncing off the walls since he woke up. I'm pretty sure he spoke to me about it for 10-15 minutes this morning while I was on the treadmill with my headphones on, and I couldn't hear a thing, but I don't think he cared. LOL

 
Yeah, I just chatted with my three sons about it over discord.  Two responded.  My youngest son (16) had watched it several times and said it was incredible.  My my oldest son (21)  was over the top excited about it and said that when his friends discussed smash he had brought up many times that Steve should be the next character.   These are kids that were playing minecraft when it was first a paid program and still to this day play minecraft when they are tired of other games.

 
CheapAssDragon said:
A bunch of games in stock at GameStop right now.
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There's also a buy 6+ at 50% flash sale that just started. Some nice finds available (for now at least) since more inventory is opened up. Grabbed the following, each under $15

:switch: Super Neptunia RPG, Steins;Gate Elite
:ps4: Streets of Rage 4, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, Persona: Endless Night Collection, Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary

 
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Problem I have with these types of games and Gamestop is their store filters don't work worth a crap. I can select 'Pick up today' and then search for Idea Factory, returning every game they have released. Then when selected I get a message saying "0 stores in 250 mile radius have this in stock". Gun Gun Pixies is another example where it will return for me on a 'Pick up today' search and then when selected shows OOS both new and preowned. Maybe my understanding of the words varies from GameStop's but at this point I don't even bother trying to look for anything that might be remotely niche on their site.

 
Photophonic said:
Problem I have with these types of games and Gamestop is their store filters don't work worth a crap. I can select 'Pick up today' and then search for Idea Factory, returning every game they have released. Then when selected I get a message saying "0 stores in 250 mile radius have this in stock". Gun Gun Pixies is another example where it will return for me on a 'Pick up today' search and then when selected shows OOS both new and preowned. Maybe my understanding of the words varies from GameStop's but at this point I don't even bother trying to look for anything that might be remotely niche on their site.
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Their filters are bad. The pick up today just means it has the ability to be picked up in store. Not that your store has it or anywhere near you. You pretty much have to go one game at a time. And if you find something you have to have compete, order 2 copies. You’re more likely to get a full game, then return the other to a store. With GameStop you can get some pretty hard to find games. A store an hour away has Danganronpa trilogy but with no case.
 
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shadowysea07 said:
it's just the stock checker is finally working after being broken for about a year. Originally it was showing everything as -1 so unless a store had multiple copies it wouldn't turn up as in stock. At least that's what I understand from the gamestop thread.
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yea this happened. Gamestop keeps going back n forth in F'ing up their stock checker.

I think they fixed it again like this past Monday or something. Was are to find a copy of crystar by me finally. Which I know must of been sitting there since they messed up the stock checker, making me unable to know who had it for months. >:(
 
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Is DeepDiscount another one of those sleazy hit or miss companies? Bought a Ryza Switch at their premium price while it was in-stock and remained in-stock for a few hours after and it is now "back-ordered" yet they never shipped anything. Doesn't surprise me, anyone else get a shipping confirmation from them for it?

 
akgamerx said:
Is DeepDiscount another one of those sleazy hit or miss companies? Bought a Ryza Switch at their premium price while it was in-stock and remained in-stock for a few hours after and it is now "back-ordered" yet they never shipped anything. Doesn't surprise me, anyone else get a shipping confirmation from them for it?
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Deepdiscount is a good site. I've ordered from them several times and have never had an issue.

What I will say, though, is if you ordered an item and it is backordered, then you're in for a potentially long wait. The site automatically indicates that it will restock backordered items but that is not always the case as sometimes those items are discontinued or Deepdiscount simply cannot find a way to order more.

The good news is that if your item doesn't ship in 30 days, it will automatically get cancelled, so if you want it, then it may be worth it to wait to see what happens. You are charged in advance, however.

 
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The frustrating thing is that I bought it while it was "In-Stock" and it even remained "In-Stock" for a long period of time after that and still doesn't appear to be shipping which is the weasily part.

 
Finished 13 Sentinels.

Story would have been really good if a couple of popular things didn't exist.

The art is really good, and I kinda want a poster of it more than anything.

The artbook leaves a lot to be desired. It's basically just character art.

Downside is all the names. There's like 50 names to keep track of, in a 30-40 hour game. As someone who's bad with names to begin with, it was really difficult for like the first half.

Overall, I guess 8/10. For someone who probably haven't played a specific game nor watched a specific movie, it'd probably be higher. The battle part of the game is ok. Gets pretty repetitive. They probably could have left it out and made it just a visual novel and it wouldn't detract from it. Or let you just skip it.

More detailed thoughts, but very spoilery:

Seriously, don't read it unless you've finished it.

Final warning.

The story is basically 4 parts Horizon: Zero dawn and 1 part Matrix.

Some person make technology, a businessman screws something up, the technology goes haywire and destroys the world. Same technology person starts a project to store DNA looked after by AI, so once things are stable, the DNA can be made into humans again. But something goes wrong due to sabotage. And while things are taking place, the humans live in pods and live in a virtual world taking place in good eras of human history, with no one realizing.

Definitely some gripes with it. If the canon reason is that they don't have clothes in the pods because that's their real bodies, then why do two of them have glasses in the pods?

How does DNA and all that machinery manage to survive 20 million years? At least in HZ:D, they run out of DNA and materials fairly fast, which is why the last of it became Aloy, and the system ends.

And are the bodies 5000 years old, or are new bodies made every loop?

I don't know. It could have been a lot more mind blowing.

Edited because I noticed that Tapatalk left parts of it out of the spoiler.

 
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I haven't touched my PS4 since beating Nier Automata, but 13 Sentinels has been on my radar since it was first announced. Still sad they canceled the Vita version but I can't exactly blame them for it. 

 
The Dead Texan said:
I haven't touched my PS4 since beating Nier Automata, but 13 Sentinels has been on my radar since it was first announced. Still sad they canceled the Vita version but I can't exactly blame them for it.
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Honestly, the Vita wouldn't have done it justice. The art is easily the best part of the game. And even then, there were a couple battles where there were so many enemies my PS4 Pro lagged quite significantly. I'm talking 500 missiles or something.

 
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There are a few used copies of disaster report 4 on switch at GameStop.com as of right now. I believe it’s also becoming scarce like the PS4 version
 
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elessar123 said:
Finished 13 Sentinels.

Story would have been really good if a couple of popular things didn't exist.

The art is really good, and I kinda want a poster of it more than anything.

The artbook leaves a lot to be desired. It's basically just character art.

Downside is all the names. There's like 50 names to keep track of, in a 30-40 hour game. As someone who's bad with names to begin with, it was really difficult for like the first half.

Overall, I guess 8/10. For someone who probably haven't played a specific game nor watched a specific movie, it'd probably be higher. The battle part of the game is ok. Gets pretty repetitive. They probably could have left it out and made it just a visual novel and it wouldn't detract from it. Or let you just skip it.

More detailed thoughts, but very spoilery:

Seriously, don't read it unless you've finished it.

Final warning.

The story is basically 4 parts Horizon: Zero dawn and 1 part Matrix.

Some person make technology, a businessman screws something up, the technology goes haywire and destroys the world. Same technology person starts a project to store DNA looked after by AI, so once things are stable, the DNA can be made into humans again. But something goes wrong due to sabotage. And while things are taking place, the humans live in pods and live in a virtual world taking place in good eras of human history, with no one realizing.

Definitely some gripes with it. If the canon reason is that they don't have clothes in the pods because that's their real bodies, then why do two of them have glasses in the pods?

How does DNA and all that machinery manage to survive 20 million years? At least in HZ:D, they run out of DNA and materials fairly fast, which is why the last of it became Aloy, and the system ends.

And are the bodies 5000 years old, or are new bodies made every loop?

I don't know. It could have been a lot more mind blowing.

Edited because I noticed that Tapatalk left parts of it out of the spoiler.
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Interesting... I've been debating the next game to play and I'm somewhat torn between this and playing FFVIII again (haven't played it since release). Your review honestly doesn't help 13 Sentinels. FFVIII on the other hand, I never cared for but I was kid back then. It's one of the few RPGs I played as a kid that I didn't re-play as an adult.

RPGamer246 said:
There are a few copies of disaster report 4 on switch at GameStop.com as of right now. I believe it’s also becoming scarce like the PS4 version
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I don't get it, why are these games so rare? I can get the low production #s but you'd think NISA would just print more seeing as how crazy the PS4 version goes for and now, seemingly happening to the NS version too.

 
Cold Steel IV is now (finally) listed on psn.  Similar to CSIII's NA release, there's a pretty sizable ps+ discount.  I put in the preorder at $45.

Edit:  $45 was actually a price mistake, and my preorder somehow went through at the "fixed" price of 59.99  :wall:

 
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gospelman said:
Cold Steel IV is now (finally) listed on psn. Similar to CSIII's NA release, there's a pretty sizable ps+ discount. I put in the preorder at $45.
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I wasn't a fan of this for CS3 and still dislike it now--discounting a digital-only version that includes costume DLC while not including that same digital content in the $100 Limited Edition. I guess I'll have to wait for a random discount on costume bundles down the road like I had to do for CS3.

 
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Vinny said:
I don't get it, why are these games so rare? I can get the low production #s but you'd think NISA would just print more seeing as how crazy the PS4 version goes for and now, seemingly happening to the NS version too.
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Minimum order quantity is 1.5k for PS4 and 5k for Switch. If they do a reprint and aren't able to sell those copies then they're essentially burning money. These games aren't super popular to begin with and didn't really review well. Plus it's increasingly muddy how many people actually want a copy of the game compared to how many people want a copy because it's the "rare thing" of the week/month.

 
Vinny said:
FFVIII on the other hand, I never cared for but I was kid back then. It's one of the few RPGs I played as a kid that I didn't re-play as an adult.
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It's not the best game in the series, but it's very much overhated. The end of the game locking out all other locations besides the final dungeon is still unforgiveable, but as a whole I appreciated the change of pace and the attempt to do something new. With some fine tuning, it could've been pretty damn great. Junctioning shouldn't have been so cumbersome, especially since you had to requip characters when you'd switch to Laguna and back, draw farming was a bore, and the story came off as really dumb at times, but I'm not entirely sure if it was always that way or if we got a spotty translation. The visuals and music are some of the best in the series by far.

Enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than IX at least. That is one of the most overrated entries in the series for me. I don't get what people see in that game to hold it in such high regard.

 
Honestly, I always have fun playing FF8. The remake allows you to speed up the game so drawing takes a lot less time, which is the main complaint for most people. Or turn off random encounters, because the remake lets you do that too.

I actually like the junction system a ton. And it's not so hard that you can't just auto junction.

 
elessar123 said:
Honestly, I always have fun playing FF8. The remake allows..
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You probably know and just picked the wrong word, but the recent release of VIII was just a still-in-4:3 selective "remaster." But yeah it's a solid game. Still behind my favorites of 6 > 7 > 9 though.

On my recent VIII Remastered playthrough, I for the first time did all of the card quest farming / rule adjustment min/maxing. And holy cow was that gamebreaking.

 
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I had issues with FF8 even on release. I mean the long GF animations, somewhat repetitive drawing system which mattered to stats, really  stupid system for money (test system....yes I cheated on my first play through), not as well developed main character and it took a bit for the story to get going. Still it had amazing graphics at the time, still solid on gameplay, decent enough characters, and a good amount of challenge when some games can be way too easy at times. It's still a solid RPG and the remake sounds like it cuts out some of the grind. Also Triple Triad was fun and I did manage to collect every card in the game. If I play again, and I have it on Switch now, I'm sure it will be a good time. Not my favorite FF (that is FF6), but a solid game nonetheless. Would likely rate it a 7.5/10 or so.

 
gospelman said:
You probably know and just picked the wrong word, but the recent release of VIII was just a still-in-4:3 selective "remaster." But yeah it's a solid game. Still behind my favorites of 6 > 7 > 9 though.

On my recent VIII Remastered playthrough, I for the first time did all of the card quest farming / rule adjustment min/maxing. And holy cow was that gamebreaking.
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I thought the game breaking feature of 8 was the dog. You only let him learn his ultimate ability, and then you get a 50/50 chance of total immunity every time you trigger him. Keep Rinoa at yellow health, keep passing her turn until the Limit Break triggers (whatever it was called in 8 anyway) and bam.
 
Starcrest said:
I thought the game breaking feature of 8 was the dog. You only let him learn his ultimate ability, and then you get a 50/50 chance of total immunity every time you trigger him. Keep Rinoa at yellow health, keep passing her turn until the Limit Break triggers (whatever it was called in 8 anyway) and bam.
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I should try that next time. As a Trepe Groupie, I never even use Angelo.

 
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I replayed FFVIII on Switch recently and had a great time with it. The speed boosters and zero encounters really took the grind out of it (especially with how long it can take to draw all the magic you need).

I think, where the game shines the most is its soundtrack. When I first played it years ago, I felt it was one of Uematsu's weakest entries, but over the years, I've completely changed my tune (pun intended). I still feel that the soundtracks for FFVII and FFIX are a little more memorable, but the combination of booming military anthems and haunting, harpsichord-heavy tracks Uematsu composed fit the game perfectly. Everyone always remembers "Liberi Fatali", but I think "The Landing" is the true theme song of this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v6BtJaBQmo

Also, "The Castle" is possibly the greatest final dungeon theme in the whole series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqtGBR80NWw

 
Starcrest said:
I thought the game breaking feature of 8 was the dog. You only let him learn his ultimate ability, and then you get a 50/50 chance of total immunity every time you trigger him. Keep Rinoa at yellow health, keep passing her turn until the Limit Break triggers (whatever it was called in 8 anyway) and bam.
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It's not really 50/50. Infinite Moon or whatever comes out way less than Rush.

The only time you even need invincibility is against Ultima Weapon anyways. Everything else can be mowed down by one Zell limit break.

Several of them have broken limit breaks, really. Lionheart is second highest damage (after Zell, but Zell's depends on your input speed). Selphie has Rapture/The End. Quistis has black hole or whatever. Only Irvine sucks.

 
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Final Fantasy VIII is not only my favorite Final Fantasy, but also my favorite game, so I’m a bit prejudiced, but I generally try not to let that influence the way I describe or recommend games; and in spite of that, I would still recommend Final Fantasy VIII over any other core entry in the series.

Let’s start with the bad:

  • The second half of the story was notably rushed and it shows. There are several plot threads that simply don’t receive any significant development, and as a result many elements introduced in the second half feel out of place and tacked on. If you take the time to examine them, you can just about make out the shapes of some really interesting ideas (and I’m not even sure if the ones I see are necessarily the same as the ones the developers had in mind), and there are interesting little bits and pieces of lore and world-building that are still sprinkled in, but many of these sadly never got connected to anything. As such, much of the leadup to the ending, and even the final villain, feel a bit devoid of meaning. I tend to see the best in flawed masterpieces, and with some more time in development I believe FFVIII’s story could have tied everything together very satisfactorily, but it’s hard to deny FFVIII’s shortcomings in the final act.
  • The gameplay is not super friendly to veteran JRPG power gamers. Because of the way scaling was designed, you actually tend to get weaker in comparison to your foes by grinding for XP, not stronger—the best way to grow stronger compared to your enemies is actually to delay leveling up as much as possible, which is highly counterintuitive for any RPG player.
  • The junction system could have been better explained, and some extra automation options could have gone a long way. To be honest, if you aren’t power leveling and you’re taking advantage of the magic refining abilities (which also could have used a better in-game tutorial), the game is easy enough that you can get by just throwing whatever into your junction slots, but it can be easy to get bogged down in the system if you don’t read through the rather verbose tutorials in full.
  • It’s the most cinematic FF up to that point in time by a significant margin—the frequent cutscenes, the long summon/limit break animations, and the lengthy story are treats, but they certainly break up the pacing and lengthen gameplay. In FFVIII’s defense, summon animations had been getting more complicated and longer ever since 6, and in 8 you could at least use that time to attempt to boost the power, but that knowledge still doesn’t make battles go any faster.
  • Powergaming is... a mixed bag in FFVIII. I love the depth of strategy you can go into, but if you really want to push it all the way and max out every possible stat, the amount of time you have to put into mindless, repetitive action literally reaches into hundreds of hours. Don’t get me wrong, this sort of thing can easily be ignored and you can have a great time just planning out your optimal party build if you’re into that, but don’t get too stuck on reaching the full height of power the game technically allows, or you’ll spend literal weeks doing nothing else.
  • The game mechanics are pretty poorly balanced at high levels of optimization, though to be fair this is true of most RPGs of any level of complexity; but if you start powergaming, that lack of balance is going to hit you in the face hard. Optimized limit breaks just straight up trump everything else. Squall, Zell, and Irvine just have higher damage potential in their limits than Quistis, Rinoa, and Selphie. (Though Quistis and Rinoa both have some of the most useful limits in the game, and Rinoa can technically output the second highest single-turn damage in the game. Actually, both the second and third highest, come to think of it.)
All that said, I still believe FFVIII has enough going on to recommend it over other core entries in the series.

  • The main cast is wonderfully fleshed out, and for the most part do manage to complete relatively satisfying character arcs. Some secondary characters like Cid, Edea, Ultimecia, and Seifer suffer from the rushed second half, abbreviating or losing out on significant portions of their character arcs, but the main cast feel, for the most part, like real teenagers in a fantastic and trying situation. People like to hate on Squall in particular, but I don’t see it. He’s a confused, somewhat antisocial teenager, which is justified pretty heavily by his backstory. He’s thrust into a position of greater importance and authority than he ever expected, and his whole character arc revolves around him learning to accept that, to learn to rely on others, and to become someone others can rely on. It’s a well done coming of age story, and in my opinion he’s actually the most well developed protagonist in the series’ history.
  • The world design is exceptional. The level of detail that went into designing each town, making even minor characters feel distinct, and giving everything a unique but compelling look is top tier among practically any video game I can conveniently think of. Even the little animations for nameless NPCs are very humanizing, making the world feel alive in a way very few games before or since have managed.
  • The lore is some of the most interesting of any game in the series, though much of it is sadly undeveloped. The myths surrounding the sorceress, the lost civilization of Centra, the Shumi tribe, Esthar’s isolation, the Deep Sea Research Center, and several other little bits and pieces here and there all make the world of FFVIII feel like there’s more going on than just this particular fight with this particular sorceress.
  • The character and enemy design, I think, are Tetsuya Nomura at the top of his game. The character designs are still relatively grounded—he hadn’t gone all in on zippers and belts yet—, and the monster designs are suitably unique, memorable, and in appropriate cases bizarre. For me, at least, the designs of several of the series classic summons are at their most iconic in this entry, and several of the unique ones are still some of the best-looking in the series. It certainly helps (in this case) that the animations are so long, as it really gives the summons a chance to demonstrate more personality than they’d had in most prior games.
  • The soundtrack is some of Nobuo Uematsu’s best work, and that’s frigging saying something. I’d say it’s the second best in the series, right behind FFIX’s. Uematsu really just kept improving with each new FF, though sadly FFX’s wasn’t all him and he moved on afterwards.
  • The junction system is my second favorite gameplay system in Final Fantasy, after the job system. It’s honestly not that difficult to figure out if you take the time to fully read the tutorial and play around with it, and while you can mostly coast on it, the level of depth you can go into, arranging your GFs so that each character has as many junction slots as possible, retraining GFs so they have the optimal abilities without sacrificing any, and really just planning out your build can make for a near tabletop-RPG-like optimizing experience. Again, if it’s not your bag, the junction system absolutely can be coasted through just throwing whatever seems to work on and arranging GFs based on whatever criteria you like—I’ve certainly played that way without any problems. But if you want to get stuck in on the gameplay mechanics, FFVIII has you covered in spades.
  • The story, for all its faults, is still compelling in the first half—this, along with the strong character arcs and generally likeable characters, can get you invested enough to, if not make you overlook the weaker second half, at least help you forgive it.
I’m biased, I admit it, but I feel like FFVIII gets a lot more crap than it deserves for following behind the RPG that made the world reconsider what video game RPGs could be, for starring a cast of teenagers who do their maturing throughout the course of the story instead of at the beginning, for featuring some overly verbose tutorials for its unusual and almost backwards game mechanics, and for being rushed out the door before it was ready. If you give it a chance and go in forewarned about its quirks and its failings, I think there’s a lot to love about the game.

And I think the second half of the story is made more interesting by the possibility that [customspoiler=not actually spoilers but maybe don’t read till you’ve finished the game]Ultimecia might be future Rinoa from an alternate timeline.[/customspoiler]

 
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elessar123 said:
It's not really 50/50. Infinite Moon or whatever comes out way less than Rush.

The only time you even need invincibility is against Ultima Weapon anyways. Everything else can be mowed down by one Zell limit break.

Several of them have broken limit breaks, really. Lionheart is second highest damage (after Zell, but Zell's depends on your input speed). Selphie has Rapture/The End. Quistis has black hole or whatever. Only Irvine sucks.
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Actually Irvine's limit break is probably the fifth highest single-turn damage you can pull off, it's just timing your button presses to maximize the number of shots he can pull off can be difficult, and replenishing his ammo after every time you use it is annoying.

Selphie has some really cool effects, but they're almost impossible to pull off on a practical level due to the way rerolling her Slot works, and the way crisis levels work.

Quistis has super useful effects in her limit breaks like black hole and micro missiles, but her highest potential damage output is abysmal.

I'd say Zell's probably the fourth highest single-turn damage you can reliably pull off, since the timing is so tight to get it to higher than Rinoa's. Is it even possible to get it higher than a fully maxed Lionheart? That's like 250,000 points of damage.

Squall's maxed out Lionheart is retarded, and it seems significantly easier to get him to pull it off relatively consistently than most other high-tier limits.

Rinoa has two high damage limits that are difficult to get her to pull off consistently. Maxed out Wishing Star does like 180K, if I'm remembering correctly, though getting her crisis level high enough to get even relatively consistently is difficult. The other requires shenanigans, and that's to max out her magic, only give her Meteor, and put her in Angel Wing, which gets her up to like 100K, I think, though you'll need to inflict Vit 0 for some enemies to get that high.

 
Souffrir said:
I'd say Zell's probably the fourth highest single-turn damage you can reliably pull off, since the timing is so tight to get it to higher than Rinoa's. Is it even possible to get it higher than a fully maxed Lionheart? That's like 250,000 points of damage.
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Easily. I consistently get 0.16-0.20 per Booya/Hell Drop, which is 600k+ damage. It's the same damage as Lionheart even if you take 0.5 second per, with 12 seconds. Even with 4-5 seconds, it's higher than Lionheart, which doesn't come out 100% anyways. AND it's available the entire game.

Not me, and it's over 1 million damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWB5jQ_nuY

And about the story,

I'm in the camp that it makes more sense if Squall died at the end of Disc 1. It's more fun to think about that way.

 
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FF8 was the first FF game I played and I still love it. The visuals and soundtrack were amazing when it came out (and the soundtrack is still great).

Got a surprise delivery today of Moero Chronicles H LE for Switch from VGP today. They never said it shipped, so I was pretty surprised when I opened the box as I didn't see anything related to VGP on the box. As was mentioned on the original item page, it even included the play asia exclusive switch case keychain (and it was definitely exclusive as it had play asia on the back of the keychain package) :)

 
elessar123 said:
And about the story,
I'm in the camp that it makes more sense if Squall died at the end of Disc 1. It's more fun to think about that way.
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I've never really thought that theory makes any sense beyond the obvious. I mean, I'll grant that point makes a relatively clean line for the tonal shift, but beyond that shift none of the rest of the game really ties into the idea. It's amusing to consider briefly, but it just doesn't seem to work in any thematic or narrative way.

 
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