What is the point of the Card Game?

[deberzer]

Ignoring stem achievements, what is the point of playing the card game and collecting cards? Is there anything you can eventually get from playing it?

[larSTAR]

If you dont care about having a complete set of cards you can just transform the cards into items, which you can use for upgrading weapons or GF skills or spells.

[Magga]

yeah the card game is pretty awesome e.g.

- First learn with Quezacotl the ability T Mag-RF (30 AP needed) and Card Mod (80 AP needed).

- Then play TT a couple of times and win the card Abyss Worm from any person.
- Now create with card mod the item windmill from 1 Abyss Worm.
- Then you take the 1 Windmill and make it with T Mag-RF into 20 Tornado spells...

So then, get 5 Abyss Worm cards and convert it into Tornado spells. Link 100 of them to HP and you get about 3.000-4.000 HP!
In the early time of the game with this huge amount of health you are nearly Invincible :D

[Sinister]

Basically can play the card game for fun and to collect all ze cards OR just turn the cards into items

[deberzer]

Alright, thank you. Didn't know turning cards into items can be that usefull.

[Magga]

Yes, indeed!

[Lisan al Gaib]

The point of the Card Game in FF8 is solely for one purpose: Turning them into items which can then be used to refine new weaponry for your team or developing new magicks to improve your party strength.
FF8 is the only Final Fantasy where grinding in battles is actually a bad idea. Monsters level up with you, and special bosses become almost impossible to defeat if you're level 100. The reason why cards exist is to simply break the game*.
Someone earlier in the comments pointed out on how you can get Card Mod. It's an extremely important ability because as you play more and more cards, the better magic you'll be able to refine.

Here's a short list of things you can acquire in Disc 1:
1) Lionheart (Ultimate Weapon for Squall, Lionheart Limit Break - does around 30,000+ damage). This is a pretty hardcore strategy as Elnoyle Cards which you need 20 of are quite rare in Balamb Garden (Dr. Kawasaki, Headmaster Cid, Trepe Fan No. 2)
2) Tornados from Abyss Worm Card (Combined with Ifrit, Shiva and Brother GFs Str-J, you can have 100 Tornados junctioned to Strength. This will take you into Disc 2 where you can get Triples from Odin. You need 15 Windmills.
3) Blizzaga from Arctic Lion Cards (Shiva, Brothers Spr-J). This is your main Spirit Magic Junction combined with Curaga.
4) Full Life from Regen Ring from Chimera Cards (Ifrit, Brothers, Quetzacotal HP-J). 100 Full Lifes on all your characters give you 9999 hp. In Disc 1. You'll never need to use them because you'll have that much HP. You only need 30 Regen Rings.
5) Siren L-Mag Refine. This is one of the most important refines in the game. You can synthesise high level curative magic based on a card game that takes about 30 minutes to complete 6 games. Players carry usually a base of 30-50 cards which are randomly selected, so you'll always get the same cards.
6) Flare Magic from Inferno Fangs from Ruby Dragon Cards. This endgame magic is available straight from Balamb Garden and can be junctioned with HP, Str or Elemental Defence. The Elem-Def-J is especially useful because it allows you to absorb Ice, Fire and Lightning Magic. Again, you only need 30 Inferno Fangs.
7) Meltdown from Acid from Gayla Card - You only really need 10/20 of these. Some people use them as a core Junction magic but they're way too useful vs. bosses (They work on every enemy in the game.) They reduce enemy Vitality to 0, boosting physical damage from Renzokuken/Duel/Shot.
8) You can get all but one of Quistis' Blue Magic Limits.

So I hope this answers your question. Apart from the first point, you can get all of this in Balamb Garden before going to the Fire Cavern. If you play cards, you never have to sit in a battle drawing magic ever again. I recommend you keep your party levels as low as possible (Level 8-12). Bosses only give AP and in Disc 2 there's a place called Kashkabald Desert located in the Centra Continent (south) where you can fight Cactuars for 20AP a piece. They're fast but don't worry. Squall has a hit ratio of 255%.

[Magga]

Nice summary!
Basically you are right! You CAN do all this stuff in CD 1 but you dont have to.

I think the best way is to get the pretty good magic spells or some higher spells from the card game, but you are not needed to grind one of the best spells like flare or full life.

As in point 4 and 6: (Post from Monster Zero)
To get 1 Item of both, Regen Rings and Inferno Fangs you need 10 cards of chimera or ruby dragon. 10 cards > 1 item , 1 item > 20 spells
That means for 100 flares and 100 full life spells for 3 characters you have to collect 150 cards of each chimera and ruby dragon.

You CAN do that, but for the "casual" player you are pretty fine with some "improved" spells!
=)

[Lisan al Gaib]

Agreed! They're just the maximum of what you can get in Disc 1. Realistically I'd go for Cure, Curaga (Cura is too annoying to get), Tornado, Esuna, Bio, Fira, Firaga, Blizzara, Thundaga (Dynamo Stones/Blitz >_< for X-ATM092) and then go to the junk shop and see what goodies you can upgrade with. Cards make the game's replayability.

[Magga]

yes seems like a nice way :))