Just finished the game and want to write a short feedaback. Maybe it would help people to decide whether they want to give this mod a shot or not.
Gameplay
Basically this mod turns ff8 gameplay into more traditional jprg gameplay with leveling, classes and gridding. Game still keeps core elements, so you can adjust your characters as you want and not stick with the provided class system. You can still shuffle all the GFs and magic between characters, so you won’t have a problem to build a tank-Selphie if you want.
Difficulty
I would say the difficulty in this mod is reasonably challenging and difficult. It’s challenging where it needs to be, but it’s not Dark Souls either (although there are some bosses that will make you sweat a lot). I had more difficulties in the beginning (Ifrit kicked my ass multiple times and so did some other bosses on disk1) but once you progress and get more different spells and commands game gets easier.
Some bosses will be very annoying since they can attack 2 or 3 times in a row. You will need to adjust your party and strategy for those fights.
The only boss that I couldn’t beat in a fair fight is an overpowered Geezard and I really think he is the most difficult boss in this mod, I had no trouble with Virtuoso Weapon and Omega Weapon (the last one was super-easy for some reason, felt like his hp were cut), but this dude kicked my ass multiple times. Virtuoso Weapon is sick though, his skills combo can kill you fast, had to adjust my status defense, first time he got me with berserk on the whole party. It’s very very impressive how he is programmed and the whole idea of skill combo is great.
Content
There’s plenty of new content – new quests, new bosses, new items, new spells and abilities, but a lot of OG content was removed – most of the GFs were cut and some magic and commands are not usable anymore (this however is done to keep the balance and favor the new gameplay and mechanics, but it is little bit sad).
Should you play it?
If you want to re-play ff8 in an un-orthodox way and you are looking for a challenge, then this is might be your cup of tea. The amount of new content added is insane and the new scenes/dialogues don’t even feel like a fan-fiction or anything like that, they are super-organic and really feel like og game.
Thank you for your effort, I had a truly awesome experience.
