Wow, this thread is still going... I'll make another entry!
Since nobody objected to my last ravings about AIs being a total crapshoot, here's my next target: Final Fantasy 8. All of it. Now, hold up, FF8 fans (if there are any here). I played this game, so I should know of what I speak.
This game is designed to be unfair by its very premise. When you go out into the world and fight, you NEVER EVER get stronger than anything you ever battle. The creatures you fought waaay in the beginning in the first dungeon are just as lethal to you 50 levels later as they were back then. This is, of course, completely backwards. If a man trains himself to wrestle alligators and he makes it through so he's a really good gator-wrestler, the gators aren't gonna go off and train to be stronger against HIM. They stay at the same level. More to the point, animals in the wild certainly don't get better at resisting gunfire, say. Completely ridiculous.
The only way to get a one-up on everything in the game are your summons and their abilities. Which...frankly, even after I CHEATED LIKE HELL in the game...didn't make the game any more fun. The setup was tedious and time-consuming, and the delivery pretty much sub-par even when I had alot of power to call on. It never seemed to be enough to just make these monsters leave me alone. When you're making sure you have the ability to NOT ENCOUNTER MONSTERS engaged in an RPG, you have failed to make this game good. Let's also point out that some of the limit breaks? They're not as useful as they look. Some of them don't work (ever), some of them are basically a crapshoot, and some of them are...quick-time events. Seriously.
Lastly, I just want to go over the fact that, at the end of the day, nearly ALL THE BOSSES HAVE TOO MUCH HP TO BE REASONABLE! This is not conjecture. This is fact. Because the game is attaching fake difficulty via everything growing in tune with your level, many of the bosses (and some mooks) ramp up their HP like crazy, with maybe a few capping off somewhere semi-decent. And the closer you are to the end, the worse it actually is. When the battles, especially the FINAL battle, just keep on going and going with it being OBVIOUS who is going to win...it's unfair by being unfair to THE PLAYER. If your boss character should've died out 20 minutes ago, it's completely unfair.
I have separate rants on the final battle, which I'm not going to go into anymore. I just decided that the whole game is this thread and was done with it. FF8 fans, feel free to curse and spit in my direction if you like, but I did not have a good time with this game.
You can go around...they want you too!
