Rural Dictionary

Final Fantasy 8

A roleplaying game created by the popular video game company Square-Enix (called Squaresoft at game's release). It stands out among the other RPGs in the Final Fantasy series for its primary focus on a love story, as well as a far more futuristic world. Due to the success and hype of its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7, the eighth title has become a subject of deep controversy as to whether it is a competent game. The mass of gamers who had never touched an RPG often make their decision of the better game between VII and VIII (the Roman numerals are more often used) based on whichever they played first, and their prejudice is unwavered because of their close-mindedness and a dedication to their side of the argument.

Aside from that, FFVIII, shortened as all of the Final Fantasy games typically are, is a far more realistic take on Square-Enix's franchise.

The story, lead by the taciturn and often-dubbed "emo" main character, Squall, follows a group of mercenary soldiers in their late teens who are dragged into a battle with an evil sorceress, a battle that would likely decide the fate of the planet. Along the way, Squall's team grows: party members include Squall's instructor, Quistis Trepe, two fellow mercenary friends, Selphie Tilmitt and Zell Dincht, a mercenary from another force, Irvine Kinneas, and the leader of a half-baked rebel faction, Rinoa Heartilly. Throughout the story, the characters' histories and personalities are revealed, and their innate morals and desires are tested, thrown upon the tides of situations the world forces at them.

The games play mechanic is typical of previous FF games, including numerous side-quests, extensive conversations driven by text-bubbles to continue the story, and travel across a world map (a smaller-scaled version of the world through which the player reaches new locations). Along the way, battles are fought, most often popping up at random invervals in the well-known "Random Encounter" style of many RPGs to date. Utilizing Guardian Forces, mystical creatures with massive power, the player can attach a stock of spells drawn from enemies or at numerous "draw points" to individual stats, increasing their power in that area.

The learning curve on this "junction system" seems to be extremely wide, as many people give up on the game entirely when they cannot understand it. Meanwhile, those who pick up on the simple process of stocking and junctioning spells often also give up on the game, as the ease of obtaining extremely powerful spells and high stats breaks the difficulty, making the game extremely easy.

Despite its shortcomings and the oft comparisons to other games, particularly FFVII, Final Fantasy VIII is a strong game in its own right, with high scores in many official game reviews as well as a ferocious and defensive fanbase.

Fanboy of VII- Man, Final Fantasy 8 sucks VII, is bett!er lolz

Fanboy of VIII- squall roxors you sucks

Competent Human Being- Hmm, this definitely isn't the forum I was looking for. Wow, 500 threads about this, too.

by Typhon Took October 20, 2006

94👍 38👎

FInal Fantasy 10

A great game. Mainly about the story.

My reviews are Graphics 8/10, Cinematic 10/10, Game Play 7/10, Music 10/10, Story 10/10. I will never forget about this game because of the story. I would rate this game 100/10 for the story; it's absolutely touching. I'm not a gay type but this game really made my cry a couple of times. This game is more like a movie than a game but if this game was a movie, this game would be like 150% better than Titanic. =D

This is your chance to change the spiral of death; this is the time where you control your destiny.-Auron.

Yuna, let's go to Zanarkand together, I can show you what blitzball is like over there!-Tidus

I must defeat Sin.-Yuna

Kimahri must protect Yuna.-Kimahri

Don't do it Yuna, don't sacrifice yourself to do the final summonning!-Rikku

I am the captain of the blitzaball team. Do you wanna join our team, bro?-Wakka

It's ok, Yuna. I'll be at your side as always.-Lulu

by Anonymous January 14, 2005

179👍 84👎

Final Fantasy XII

RPG released by Square Enix on 2006 (2007 in Europe). Its main innovation is the battle system, which is most of times smooth. Enemies are actually in the map, there are no random battles. Players can also set up Gambits to automate characters' actions, thus saving a lot of manual work. To some people it feels like an offline MMORPG in some aspects, and the Gambit system might feel cheap for some. Just turn it off then, damn it.

The story of the game focuses on the war between the empires of Rozarria and Archadia. In the middle of these two empires stands the kingdom of Dalmasca, which features some city called Rabanastre in the middle of some desert. Another kingdom between these two empires is Nabradia, which is destroyed by Archadia at the start of the game under mysterious circumstances. Princess Ashe of Dalmasca is married to Lord Rasler of Nabradia, who gets killed in the war soon after the game starts, making Ashe a widow, and then orphan as the king of Rabanastre also dies when trying to sign a treaty, murdered by who was supposed to be a loyal soldier of their kingdom, Basch.

Princess Ashe fakes her death and then forms the insurgence (a word who Ashe hates and gets pissed off everytime she hears it; she is always correcting people, it's "the Resistance", damnit) against Archadia along with one of her captains, Vossler. Rabanastre falls in Archadia's hands while Ashe waits for the appropriate moment to take action, which means that she pretty much is getting a sunbath in some remote beach.

A few years after you're suddenly controlling this kid called Vaan who wants to be a sky pirate. He has a friend called Penelo, who pretty much is there. He enjoys killing rats for "training" and stealing stuff from Archadian soldiers patrolling the Rabanastre, so soon after the game starts, he breaks into Rabanastre's palace and steals some big glowing stone, who two actual sky pirates, Balthier and Fran (some tall bunny girl with huge ass) wanted to steal aswell. Then they have to flee the palace with the stone and along the way they find some girl called Amalia fighting alone against some soldiers.

Then they get caught and dropped into some jail who resembles a dungeon more than anything, but Amalia is not with them. They easily escape and along the way they encounter Basch bound to some chains inside some tiny cage. He's the traitor who killed Rabanastre's king in the past aswell as Vaan's brother, but he claims it was his twin brother who murdered them. Yeah, right. Pffft. But Balthier doesn't give a shit and they escape with him, a thing that Vaan doesn't like at all.

Then Penelo gets kidnapped by bounty hunters who are after Balthier, because her role is pretty much being there. They go to find her to some flying city, they end up in some huge ass airship where Penelo is and Amalia is held captive, who turns out to be Princess Ashe, and then they start finding out stuff to defeat the Archadian empire, which is led by Vayne, who killed his own father and seems to be obsessed about some weird shit involving some gods ruling over men's history, and he wants those gods to get the fuck off to control history himself.

The story has its moments but it doesn't have the same feeling other Final Fantasy games have. Arguably, it's not as complex, and there's no romantic involvements between the characters, despite the hints that Balthier and Fran like each other. Character development can be considered subtle.

It can also be very repetitive as there are enemies everywhere, and the distances you have to walk are extremely long in some cases.

Characters level up and can be developed with a License board who grants them right to wear certain equipment or use spells which otherwise wouldn't be able to even if you had them in your inventory.

There are many mixed feeling from gamers regarding this game. Some do not like the direction Final Fantasy is taking, others see it as fresh air. Whatever, if you buy this, it's one of those "rent first" games. A great game, yes, but not for everybody's tastes.

Final Fantasy XII cast:

Vaan: "I want to be a sky pirate!"

Balthier: "I'm the leading man!"

Fran: "I'm not a goddamn hippy!"

Basch: "I'm loyal to my kingdom despite all the shit they are throwing at me!"

Ashe: "I'm bossy and want everyone to do what I want because I'm the soon-to-be friggin' queen of Rabanastre, so I have these peeps behind my huge ass to get some stone thingies for me so I can use them against a huge ass empire which is far bigger than my lil ass Resistance. Yep, my plan rocks! It's not suicide at all!"

Penelo: "Hi, I'm Penelo"

by Banim August 18, 2007

165👍 79👎