If you remade FFVIII...

[The Twilight Mexican]

Explain why the final boss is a fusion of Ultimecia and Squall's ring.

It was explained by Ulty during the battle and by using Scan on Griever, but the English translation didn't convey it well. Griever is the image in Squall's mind of the most powerful force in the world. Ulty pulled that image out of his mind (the same way she can pull out the spells you've stocked) and gave it form.

Psychological warfare.

 

[Shademp]

Draw 100 Magic Every Time.
It removes all the tedium from the game. Perhaps makes it too easy, but on every playthrough I wind up doing the draw-draw-draw-flee for like a full work week despite my efforts not to break the game.

I would argue this should not be the case for more potent/useful magic such as Aura, Ultima, Meteor and Curaga though.

Instead, I'd simply change the values. If I recall, when you increase the correct character stat, they can draw up to 10 or 11 of a certain magic. No matter how much this stat is increased, you can't draw more than 10 (or 11, I don't remember which) at once. That SUCKS. The cap should be 100. At the beginning of the game, even with starting stats, have 30-40 Cure be drawn from one enemy at once. When you know the game, you will know which character stat to increase via a GF and very quickly get to the point where you draw 100 of basic magic at once.

When we get to more powerful magic, draw limits can be more justified.

 

[Joker]

It was explained by Ulty during the battle and by using Scan on Griever, but the English translation didn't convey it well. Griever is the image in Squall's mind of the most powerful force in the world. Ulty pulled that image out of his mind (the same way she can pull out the spells you've stocked) and gave it form.

Psychological warfare.

No, not LITERALLY explain it.

Explain why someone thought that "she'll just conjure up the most powerful thing in the world WHICH SQUALL THINKS IS HIS RING" was a good idea.

 

[Octo]

"Whatever we think of - if we think of J. Edgar Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover will appear and destroy us okay?"

Like that?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

No, not LITERALLY explain it.

Explain why someone thought that "she'll just conjure up the most powerful thing in the world WHICH SQUALL THINKS IS HIS RING" was a good idea.

Yeah that's why I thought it was stupid. It's not like Griever was some already existing thing or mythology, like someone imagining Hercules as 'the strongest man in the world' and Ultimecia giving it form or whatever, it was just Griever, 'whatever that is', and for 'whatever reason' Squall thinks this lion thing he made up is the strongest force ever? It's weird and flimsy.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, we don't know that Griever isn't part of some myth, do we? They have legends about GFs (e.g. Bahamut), and apparently lions are some kind of mythological creature on their world.

Squall is shown to be knowledgeable about such things. It's not really a stretch to imagine that he might see one of those legendary GFs as the most powerful force in the world when it's his totem he associates with strength (it's on his ring, his necklace, his Gunblade).

 

[Octo]

Squall thinks this lion thing he made up is the strongest force ever? It's weird and flimsy.

MANBEARPIG!

Oh god I didn't think Squall could get further down in my estimation...

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Well, we don't know that Griever isn't part of some myth, do we? They have legends about GFs (e.g. Bahamut), and apparently lions are some kind of mythological creature on their world.

Squall is shown to be knowledgeable about such things. It's not really a stretch to imagine that he might see one of those legendary GFs as the most powerful force in the world when it's his totem he associates with strength (it's on his ring, his necklace, his Gunblade).

It may not be, but it's poor exposition just to pop something like that out at the last battle, with the only, the only reference we get is the ring we named hours earlier.

It would have been rad if say, (for example), Bahamut wasn't a summonable GF, but you hear about it throughout the game as this great mythical beast that's the subject of stories and lore, (that historians are pretty sure it doesn't exist), and it's Squall's favorite mythological tale, and then in the final battle, Ulty suddenly reaches into his mind and gives this awe inspiring childhood tale a real form.

Something like that would have been awesome, even if they replaced Bahamut with Griever itself. That sort of groundwork and buildup would have been really cool. Instead we have this thing out of nowhere that 'maybe probably could have' been a GF or something maybe.

 

[Kuja9001]

Squall thinks this lion thing he made up is the strongest force ever? It's weird and flimsy.

It goes along with his whole lion motif. He chose the Lion as an image because it represented "toughness" and it all goes back to him as a character, he's trying to be a tough guy by not relying on others and keeping them at a distance.

It was explained by Ulty during the battle and by using Scan on Griever, but the English translation didn't convey it well. Griever is the image in Squall's mind of the most powerful force in the world. Ulty pulled that image out of his mind (the same way she can pull out the spells you've stocked) and gave it form.

Psychological warfare.

No, not LITERALLY explain it.

Explain why someone thought that "she'll just conjure up the most powerful thing in the world WHICH SQUALL THINKS IS HIS RING" was a good idea.

Here's the text that Ultimecia was supposed to say but the Eng ver killed it.

“I will summon the one you believe is most powerful. The stronger you believe he is, the stronger he becomes. That will surely make you suffer. Muahaha.”

“Muahaha, Have you forgotten? (lit. Are you losing your memories?) That is not the real terror of a G.F. I will teach you the true terror of a G.F. Griever! Show them your power!”

“The prelude is over! Now I will junction myself to Greiver!”

http://radiantbutterfly.tumblr.com/post/71485958945/ff8-ultimecia-dialogue-comparison

 

[Joker]

It's a really stupid idea and whoever thought of it should be flogged repeatedly.

But maybe I'm biased - Samurai Deeper Kyo did the same thing, except IT MADE SENSE BECAUSE THE FIRST PERSON EVERYONE THOUGHT OF WAS THE PERSON WHO IS IN FACT THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE WORLD

AND NOT A PIECE OF JEWELRY

 

[Blade]

I'm guessing Ultimecia was just doing the whole Ghostbusters "Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man" thing... (you know, stealing everyone's worst nightmare or whatever first popped in their heads?)

 

[Joker]

It's not the MECHANICS. The ability to DO that is not what I'm questioning.

It's why Griever, SPECIFICALLY Griever, aka the name he gave the ring he wears, is what is the most powerful thing in existence to someone who fights dinosaurs, insanely powerful GFs, one of the strongest militaries in the world, and SPACE MONSTERS.

or even the guy who gave him his cool scar that makes him especially moody-looking, who later kills - let me emphasize this, PERMANENTLY KILLS - a GF with the same type of weapon that he himself uses

no it's his imaginary friend inside his ring

because Squall is the type to have imaginary friends what with him not having real ones, right?

seriously, tell me with a straight face that it's something you would put in a video game and think it makes sense

 

[Blade]

Griever represented his Love for his Girlfriend. What could be stronger than that?

 

[Joker]

...the heart of the cards?

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

It goes along with his whole lion motif. He chose the Lion as an image because it represented "toughness" and it all goes back to him as a character, he's trying to be a tough guy by not relying on others and keeping them at a distance.

Squall doesn't know much about lions apparently Lions are damn tough, don't get me wrong, but self-sufficient they are not. Without a pride of lionesses, best they can hope for is to steal enough food from hyenas/leopards/cheetahs to get by on

 

[Novus]

I liked the minimalist side quests, the one with Raine's spirit was pretty creepy.
If I had to change anything, I would have done more with the time compressed world. Make more traps, such as being lost in a pocket of time forever and you have to reset, ect, perhaps some kind of time entities you have to defeat too (langoliers for Stephen King fans.)

And fixed any possible space/gravity gaffs in the Ragnarok sequence.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Longolier-like creatures would have been very cool, indeed!

 

[Blade]

Well if you want to get technical, the Chaos Niblets/Goblots in Lightning Returns look EXACTLY LIKE Langoliers (you see it when they open their mouths).

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It does have quite a resemblance -- sort of upside down, but, yeah.

 

[Lex]

I've got to agree with the sentiments re: side quests, there's a lot of FFVIII's world that seems to go halfway with awesome background mythology (centra continent etc) but isn't at all fleshed out. Far too many missed opportunities. The world in VIII always felt mysterious to me which was good, but the lack of exposition on that is a bit odd.

The GF memory plot and Irvine's reveal thing never bothered me. I think it's because I was super young when I played FFVIII (I was 9 or 10, got it on release day) and I just drank that potion down like any other story. I hadn't developed the cynicism to call bullshit on it yet XD. Honestly, I reacted emotionally to it. I can totally see why people don't like it now, but I honestly wouldn't change it. I guess nostalgia clouds my judgement here, but I think it's a great moment in the plot. I think I liked it because it allowed me to finally connect with the characters in some way. Up until then I don't think I liked any of them.

 

[trash panda]

Hm I know this is old but great topic, so I'll have a go.

Spoiler

+ The "I forgot everything and everyone I ever knew" plot is really terrible...the fact that four out of our six playable characters are all suffering from amnesia is irksome. What's even more irksome is that apparently Irvine knew the whole time and just didn't say anything because it was a plot device and well...he's just reading lines I guess.

+ I'd not have all of the playable characters be very pale/skinny white teenagers. I like a little bit of diversity. In fact, I had the most fun playing as Laguna, Kiros, and Ward.

+ I'd have a playable character that's not a human...maybe a moomba or something. A lot of my favorite playable characters in FF are not human (Mog, Nanaki, Quina).

+ The Rinoa=Ultimecia idea would be true/cannon because it makes Ultimecia a much more interesting character. If this was canon, It would also be ironic for her own "knight" (squall) to put her out of business. It would aaaalso make the idea of using Griever to fight more meaningful somehow.

+ I would eliminate the concept of a pocket station. How many people actually had that thing?

+ I'd completely revamp the relationship between Squall and Rinoa. She came on way too strong/annoying.

+ Last (for now) but not least, characters would have classes. Yep.

 

[XandraH]

Storyline wise I would like Rinoa to be less annoying, and to somehow make it more plausible for Squall to fall for her. I also felt very detached from most of the main characters, and the whole NORG storyline hit me out of the blue and resolved out of the blue, like what even was that? So there are definitely points that could be tightened. Also, lack of chocobos...that is obviously very subjective, but after spending countless hours breeding them in VII, there was nothing in VIII.