[SIMPLE] How to play FF8 successfully

[Caffeinated]

I'm going to keep this as straight forward and as simple as possible.

TIP 1: Read and pay attention to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tutorials, the game gives you an actual step-by-step walk through on how pretty much all of the mechanics such as the Junction system work, they make absolutely sure you get the idea of these things before throwing the story at you, if there is something you need clarified, google it, don't get 3 discs in and whine about the game screwing you over because you didn't bother to read.

TIP 2: Draw everything you can find in battles (Especially Boss Battles) thanks to the magic booster, you do not need to feel the pain of the older players by tediously drawing 100 of a type of spell for 3 characters, when you can just draw once for each character and then max it out, there are a ton of different spells and you don't want to miss some of them when they will help make you extremely powerful when junctioned to particular stats. Drawing is also useful because there are several GFs you can miss that can only be drawn from certain bosses.

TIP 3: The card game, when played well, can basically make the game ridiculously easy by refining items from cards and then refining certain magic from those items, this is an alternative to drawing, be careful about the rules, they vary from region to region and they can change drastically, there are infact guides (Google them) that will explain in great length how to manipulate the rules by removing troublesome rules from the game entirely and spreading rules that benefit you, so card games don't become a nightmare to play later.

TIP 4: Do. Not. Forget. GF. Abilities. Remember them, you use AP to unlock them, remember to select new ones to unlock once you max out a previous one, even if you aren't a GF user in battle, they all have extremely useful abilities, such as Card refining, Ability x4, and HP +80% etc. etc.

TIP 5: Enemies level up with the party, if you manage to stay close to your starting levels throughout the whole game, everything will be easy, whether you figured out the Junction system or not, if you grind to level 99 before leaving for Dollet then you're going to have a rough time, if you junction good magic spells very well, this won't really matter a whole lot as you will be prepared for the onslaught, so grind at your own risk. Additionally, as enemies go up in level, their drawable spells often change into better versions (Fire into Fira and then Firaga) or expand with entirely new spells added.

TIP 6: This is an old RPG, and a Japanese one at that, READ EVERYTHING, it's a long damn game, you're going to want to know what's happening from time to time, if you aren't the kind of player to do that then this is not the game genre for you.

That's it.

[martin_cross]

Great guide, bravo.

[LeonhartGR]

Well written! Hehe!

[Nefrarya]

will keep that in mind ^^

[Danbarrett92]

wait... i only have to draw one thing now and then magic booster it? i thought it only boosted the basic spells. Being one of the old guard means ive wasted so much time drawing ultima from the 5000 gil draw point?!

[Just Chill]

Nope.
Ultima is not part of the magic booster.
Only works for Cure, Cura, Curaga, Fire, Fira, Blizzard, Blizzara, Thunder, Thundara, Sleep, Blind, Silence, Berserk, Bio, Esuna, Aero, Confuse, Break and Zombie.

[Pragmatic Tornado]

Opprinnelig skrevet av danny_boi_1991:

wait... i only have to draw one thing now and then magic booster it? i thought it only boosted the basic spells. Being one of the old guard means ive wasted so much time drawing ultima from the 5000 gil draw point?!

Or you can play the game the way it was meant to be played... Without cheating. Seriously, drawing 100 doesn't take that long, unless it's one of the ultimate spells, which the booster doesn't work for anyway.

I really don't understand why they included a cheating tool. The game is fantastic as it is, and doesn't require any grinding apart from stocking up on some spells.

[ZNAKE EYEZ]

thanks

[LadGaga]

+1 for everything except the drawing comment.

There's no real need to ever draw magic except for a few time saving points in the game.
With or without the magic booster.

Draw GF's yeah fosho. And a few cure spells from that draw point near the garden gate maybe.
But sitting drawing magic wastes more time than simply running from every battle and playing cards for magic does.

[Caffeinated]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Viper:

Opprinnelig skrevet av danny_boi_1991:

wait... i only have to draw one thing now and then magic booster it? i thought it only boosted the basic spells. Being one of the old guard means ive wasted so much time drawing ultima from the 5000 gil draw point?!

Or you can play the game the way it was meant to be played... Without cheating. Seriously, drawing 100 doesn't take that long, unless it's one of the ultimate spells, which the booster doesn't work for anyway.

I really don't understand why they included a cheating tool. The game is fantastic as it is, and doesn't require any grinding apart from stocking up on some spells.

Let's be realistic here, as much as I love Final Fantasy 8, collecting 100 magic via drawing is ridiculous, stockpiling cards and refining them into spells is fine but drawing is just a huge pain, if they remove that, the game is automatically better, there were gameshark codes for the old PSX version that allowed you to draw 100 magic when you drew it from a monster, that's even better than the Magic Booster, as you still have to track down monsters for the spells you want but don't fall asleep sitting around for 5 hours drawing.

[Camtaro420]

Great guide. Semi-Except drawing everything. You don't waste time drawing ♥♥♥♥ you'll be able to refine from the first few battles. Also grinding is actually good, but not KILL grinding, card grinding. As for the draw thing, don't draw everything draw specific things. Demi from diablos, Esuna from Biggs/Wedge#1, Double from Evorytte, Reflect from Biggs/Wedge#2, etc. The harder to obtain early on stuff. That way from disc one to disc 4 you can 1 shot pretty much anything. And yes it takes a long time drawing 100 demis for all 3 characters in one sitting, or whatever for that matter. But you only have to do it a handful of battles and then you are set for the game.

[Caffeinated]

You guys do realize the part referring to card refining is all in there and even mentioned as an alternative to drawing, if you play Triple Triad alot, then no you'll never need to draw things, but for the newer players, who don't know how TT works or how the magic/junction system works, Drawing is the first most important thing you need to know to not get screwed over by the game.

I thought that would be easy to understand.

[falkTX]

When you get to disc 4 and have the Card Queen quest done, you can refine almost all rare cards.
That will give you 100 Thundaga, 100 Death, 100 Triple etc for everybody.
(example: 1 Three Starts gives 100 Triples).

I say it's better to wait until disc 4 to 100% complete your magic stock.
Until there, just use whatever you need to get by.

[Just Chill]

The best thing is to farm the gilgamesh card :D
Gives 10 holy war each time. Omega weapon is history with at least 40 pieces of holy war + Squall, Zell and Irvine with maximum limit breaks and HP.
Probably the easiest way to defeat it.

Waiting for the special attack which makes 9998 damage on each char then using holy war.

Let limits rain on him afterwards...

[falkTX]

btw, is there any monster that we can draw Ultima from?

Ultima seems to be the hardest magic to get by (ignoring Apocalypse).
I only see Dark Matter as a possible (good) item refinement, but that item is not easy to get.

[Just Chill]

Unfortunately Ultima can only be drawn from Omega or Ultima Weapon.
But those are bosses so no.

There is no regular monster which provides Ultima.

But you can try to farm Elnoyle and hope he drops energy crystals. One of them gives you 3x Ultima. Or you can convert pulsar ammunition 1:1 to Ultima.
Of course you need the abilities to convert such stuff to magic by your G.F.s

For Dark Matter you can farm Tri-Face in the Deep Sea Research Center or the Island Closest to Heaven. Steal Curse Spikes from him. If you have 100 you can refine it to one Dark Matter.
But as you said... That's not very easy. And of course one Dark Matter should be used to learn Quistie her final Limit Break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMjD089KQao