~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ ,
FINAL FANTASY VIII ,- - ,,
------------------------- _||_ ' _ ||
UNOFFICIAL STRATEGY GUIDE ' || \\ \\/\\ < \, ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || || || || /-|| ||
Zena's definitive guide |, || || || (( || ||
for Final Fantasy VIII. _-/ \\ \\ \\ \/\\ \\
In this here guide you _ ,
will find a wealth of ,- - ,
information on Final _||_ _ || _
Fantasy VIII, some of ' || < \, \\/\\ =||= < \, _-_, '\\/\\
which you won't find || /-|| || || || /-|| ||_. || ;'
anywhere else. |, (( || || || || (( || ~ || ||/
_-/ \/\\ \\ \\ \\, \/\\ ,-_- |/
Disclaimer, health (
warning, credits, feed- _ -_-
back rules and frequently - - _- _-_, _-_, _-_,
asked questions are in the )- ) // // //
bottom chapter. )___) || || ||
~)___) ~|| ~|| ~||
See below to see latest up- ) ) || || ||
dates. The rest of the version /-_/ _-_, _-_, _-_,
history can be found in the
introduction chapter.
-----------OO-----------------------------------------OO----------
|| Title: Final Fantasy VIII ||
|| Guide type: Unofficial Strategy Guide ||
|| Author: Zenalasca ||
|| E-Mail: ze_faq@yahoo.com.au ||
|| Began: 26th December, 2004 ||
|| Last Updated: June, 2008 ||
|| Version: Alexander (11.0) ||
-----------OO-----------------------------------------OO----------
Latest Version Updates
----------------------
11.0: - Added the fact that my Dragon Quest VIII guide was just
put on GameFAQs.
- Added quickie FF8 walk-through.
- Did work on the refining trees; not complete yet!
------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION I00 The name says it all, man
------------ --- --------------------------
Guide Introduction I01 Intro of this epic masterpiece
About the Authoress I02 A little about me, myself and I
Version History I03 The long path to this version...
FF8 Introduction I04 Intro of this epic masterpiece
BASICS II00 The ABC, 123, doe-re-me of FF8
------ ---- ------------------------------
Basic Info II01 Things you should know ...
Glossary II02 What all the stats, etc. mean
Controls II03 Default PS and PC controls
Menus II04 Brief summary of the menus
Battle Tutorial II05 All the basics of battle
Triple Triad II06 TT for beginners and experts too
SeeD II07 How to be a good little SeeD ...
All About Magic II09 Miscellaneous magical info
Junction Tutorial II10 Your step-by-step,in-depth guide
PocketStation II11 For Chocobo World (PSX version)
GF Management II12 How to make your GFs love you
Dialogue Tutorial II13 Deciphering dialogue standards
Character Managing II14 Summary of getting the best team
FF8 Version Changes II15 ... and differences with FF7
WALKTHROUGH III00 The BEST ... or your money back
----------- ----- -------------------------------
Balamb III01 Beginning-of-walkthru-bonanza
Dollet Field Exam III02 The Dollet practical exam
Balamb II III03 Surviving post-test Balamb
Dream World Prt I III04 Laguna the tall dark stranger
Timber III05 A glimpse of what is to come
Dream World Prt II III06 Laguna the bumbling fool
Galbadia Garden III07 A new mission
Deling City III08 Between a rock and a hard place
Dream World Prt III III09 Laguna the family man
D-District Prison III10 Jailbreak [from the] rock!
Missile Base III11 Tactical espionage action!
Balamb III III12 Much ado about nothing
Fisherman's Horizon III13 The calm before the reel storm
Balamb IV III14 Balamb's occupation
Trabia Garden III15 Reaching a mutual understanding
Centra III16 War of the Gardens
Edea's House III17 The Sorceress' stories
Dream World Prt IV III18 Laguna the movie star
White SeeD Ship III19 A reunion of sorts
Great Salt Lake III20 Polluted outskirts of Esthar
Dream World Prt V III21 Laguna the Politician
Esthar III22 Shopping capital of the world
Lunar Base III23 Ground control to Major Tom
Ragnarok III24 Resident Evil in Space
Lunatic Pandora III25 The Henchman of Ultimecia
Ultimecia Castle III26 Final frontiers
Quickie Walk-Through III27 Complete FF8 in 240 steps!
SECRETS AND SIDE QUESTS IV00 Walkthrough essentials
----------------------- ---- ----------------------
The Magical Lamp IV01 Be bedazzled with GF Diablos
Dollet Revisited IV02 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
Tomb of da Unknown King IV03 The King of the Thralls
Winhill Revisited IV04 Quest of the broken Vase
Shumi Village IV05 Learn more about Laguna & NORG
Chocobo Catching IV06 Earning chocobos' trust
Chocobo World IV07 Adventures of Boco the Chocobo
Odin IV08 Another test, another dungeon
Tonberry IV09 Earning Tonberries' loyalty
The Solomon's Ring IV10 Offerings to a GF demigod
Cactuar Island IV11 Cactuar fun under the hot sun!
PuPu the Alien IV12 Tear jerking, heart moving ET :P
Card Club Group IV13 Climbin' to the top of the Pack!
Queen of Cards IV14 Squall's poker-face may help
Obel Lake IV15 Black Shadow and Grumpy Monkey
Bahamut IV16 King of GFs, and of dragons
Ultima Weapon IV17 Have you met your match?
Omega Weapon IV18 You're in [bad] Luck!!
Challenges IV19 How to waste your time
Tips and Hints IV20 How to save your time & get money
Glitches IV21 Summary: Loopholes in the system
APPENDICES V00 What can't fit anywhere else
---------- --- ----------------------------
Character Info V01 Characters' battle statistics
Bestiary V02 Monsters, meet your makers!
Cards List V03 Complete card listing
Card Players V04 What's hot in the TT world
Magic List V05 Where to find and how to use
Status Junctions V06 One-stop spot for Elem/ST-J
Guardian Forces V07 Each GF has their own run-down
GF Abilities V08 Run-down of GF abilities
Timber Maniacs V09 Where and when to find them
Weapons V10 Weapons and ingredients needed
Items V11 Strategies on hard-to-get items
Locations Index V12 My version of a world map
Game Shark Codes V13 Have your cake and eat it too
Refining Tree V14 How the items are related
Boss List V15 Boss' Vital Stats
SPECIAL FEATURES VI00 Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!
---------------- ---- -----------------------------
Common complaints VI01 ... concerning FF8
Character Analyses VI02 Explicit, yet with few spoilers!
Song Lyrics VI03 Final Fantasy VIII sing-along?
The Dream Saga VI04 A sci-fi, humanistic novel
Media references VI05 Other places FF8 made its mark
Classic Themes VI06 Classic Final Fantasy concepts
All about Moombas VI07 Raise your hand if you know not
German Version of FF8 VI08 Names in the German FF8
Real-Life Galbadia VI09 Germany or the USA?
Ultimecia theories VI10 Spoiler filled run-down of Ulti
Story Analyses VI11 Not yet finished!
Game's history VI12 It's all in the past
Encyclopaedia VI13 What's in a name?
Selphie's parents VI14 Who are they?
Selphie's powers VI15 ... But she's not a sorceress!
Tonberry King VI16 Where did he come from?
European or Japanese? VI17 Is Rinoa meant to be Asian?
Party time for Quisty! VI18 Where was she at the SeeD dance?
Squall's parents VI19 I can tell you who they are
Eden myth busted! VI20 Who or What is Eden?
Creepy events VI21 While playing FF8
Survey VI22 What do you think?
Xbox 360 review VI23 Love it or hate it
Battle advice VI24 From me, you, and whoever else
FF8 movie VI25 How would you direct it?
Unsolved mysteries VI26 Some of which are partly solved
OST list VI27 Official soundtrack list
Zena's FF8 Novelisation VI28 A teaser of the full thing
ENDING STUFF VII00 Things a guide can't do without
------------ ----- -------------------------------
FAQ VII01 Frequently Asked Questions
Feedback VII02 Rules to go by when you e-mail
Acknowledgements VII03 Shout-outs to all who helped!
Disclaimer VII04 You have been warned.
Ending Words VII05 My conclusion to this affair
Author's Notes
-------------- (just some pesky little things we have to get out
of the way before we begin our epic journey)
- Most word processors and internet applications have a "Find" sy-
stem. Using this you can type in the co-ordinates to find their
designated destination. "Find" can usually be located in the
application's "Edit" menu. There are two different sets of co-
ordinates for each chapter. One on the left, and one on the
right. Say you wanted to get to the beginning of the walk-
through. You would type in the number on the left, or the code
in the right, which is, in this case III19 or III. Include
"ff8/" at the beginning of these codes to get to your destin-
ation. If somehow it didn't work, check that there are no spaces
in the code.
- The guide is best suited to the following fonts (in order of
personal preference): Monaco, Courier New, Andale Mono, V100.
Some of the formatting may be a bit weird but that's because I
use an Apple computer. You can fix the problem by choosing a
Macintosh Encoding/Character Set.
- If you don't want to read any spoilers I suggest you steer clear
of the section entitled "Special features and other articles of
interest". You know, the section with that's riddled with game
discussions, shameless plugs and all that nice, creamy spoiler
material! You know you want to! (but I'm in no position to be
egging you on now, am I?). Other than that, I don't think
there's a huge risk of finding any spoilers - the walkthrough is
designed to focus strategies rather than how I would like you to
play the game (and if I do indicate a preferred style of playing
it's easy to skip).
- The finding system is similar to the Game Genie FAQ by Albert
Tran, Final Fantasy VIII FAQs by Scott Ong and the Gran Turismo
3 Cote D'azur FAQ by Conquerer. To use it ...
a. Select "Edit" and choose "Find" or press Ctr+F. You should
be able to see the "Find" window.
b. Say you wanted to get to "Basic Info". The co-ordinates
for this section is "VI78", but you'll have to add "ff8/"
as a prefix.
c. Type it in and press enter/return or choose "Find Next".
- If this is a new version you're looking at and you're unfamiliar
with any changes made, there is a version updater log at the top
of the document and version history after this very chapter.
This is meant first and foremost for the PAL version of Final
Fantasy VIII, meaning players for from Australia, New Zealand,
and the United Kingdom. As the PAL version is basically the NTSC
version anyway, it doesn't really matter. If there are any
differences in the NTSC and JP versions, I'll mention them (but
I'm in the dark about the petty HP changes that some enemies in
the game go through, I'm afraid you'll have to refer to Absolute
Steve's walk-through for that one).
- There are some abbreviations which will appear in this guide.
Final Fantasy: FF Final Fantasy VII: FF7
Final Fantasy I: FF1 Final Fantasy VIII: FF8
Final Fantasy II: FF2 Final Fantasy IX: FF9
Final Fantasy III: FF3 Final Fantasy X: FF10
Final Fantasy IV: FF4 Final Fantasy X-2: FF10/2
Final Fantasy V: FF5 Final Fantasy XI: FF11
Final Fantasy VI: FF6
- If you want to publish part/all of this guide on your web site
or magazine or whatever e-mail me first! The following web sites
can host this guide:
o Game FAQs - www.gamefaqs.com
o Super Cheats - www.supercheats.com
o Neoseeker - www.neoseeker.com
o 1up - 1up.com
o FANTASYSQUARE - www.fantasysquare.com
==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
-= INTRODUCTION [ff8/I00] =-
==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
==================================================================
Introduction the Guide [ff8/I01]
==================================================================
Final Fantasy VIII is the black sheep of the series in many ways.
This guide is also unusual, as it features everything you would
want to know about FF8 (barring a few things I would just be copy-
ing from other guides), things you wouldn't want to know about it
and even some things you didn't know you wanted to know about.
For my first outing into the guide-writer's world I certainly
aimed high, but the FF8 guide has encouraged me to go start proj-
ects I would have never otherwise dreamed of.
I put a great deal of pride into the quality of my work, but the
quality of the game I'm writing about and thus I have put my whole
heart and soul into making a guide for my favourite game of all
time. I would never write a guide for a game I didn't actually
enjoy, and if I didn't like it as much I wouldn't put so much eff-
ort in. And if it isn't in this guide, there are references to
other great Final Fantasy guides on the net in the chapter entitl-
ed "compulsory stuff."
Upon its first release, this guide was already so big that it
had countless faults and deficiencies, but they are being smoothed
and filled out over the years to create something that could rival
those official books that are so rare and expensive. I can safely
say that guide a must for any fan of Final Fantasy VIII, whether
they be novice or expert.
As is typical, I describe the basics of the game first then go
onto the walk-through, then the side-quests and the other append-
ices; between those and the guide's tail end lie the special feat-
ures, a thing most guide-writers will be hard-pressed to add. An-
other unusual thing is that I don't give you all the super-detail-
ed data (which can be found in the game if you are observant any-
way), but tell you how you can finish the game and do it how you
want to. I have received many e-mails from people saying that they
got back into FF8 because of my guide and that has to count for
something.
Back in late '03 when I first got into this game I never thought
I'd invest so much time and effort into writing a guide for it,
hell, I didn't even know people could do this without being paid.
But now I've gone and done it; even now, after four years of work
I'm pouring work in, mostly to do with the finer points of the
game like how you can squeeze the most out of every little level-
ling up or item/magic/card/GF scoring opportunity...Oh, and the
in-depth analyses and over-embellishing of a somewhat mediocre
story that I felt had loads of potential...Hey, I'm not getting
paid so I deserve a little artistic freedom don't I?
==================================================================
About the Authoress [FF8/I02]
==================================================================
There are three published authors in my family including myself
(this guide for FF8 is a published item is it not?). It was my
father, Matthew Mason who fostered a love of reading and writing
to which I will thank him for to the end of my days.
So it fits that my family is Mason, only we craft words instead
of stone. I find myself drowning amidst of my own repertoire of
articles, stories, poems, reviews, letters, diaries, notes, game
guides, the beginnings of books or story series or factual theses
and god knows how many trees that were sacrificed to endless notes
written in bone-tiring long-hand...or energy money given to the
unending hours I spend on any Mac I can [the only reason I give
Microsoft the time of day is because its more popular and there-
fore has more gamez].
My guides on GameFAQs:
- Final Fantasy VIII walk-through
- Dragon Quest VIII walk-through
- Alpine Racer 3 strategy guide
My reviews on GameFAQs:
- Britney's Dance Beat for GBA
- Back to Stone for GBA
Unpublished games as guides include: Final Fantasy I, III, IV,
V, VI, VII, IX, X & X-2, Final Fantasy Ultimate encyclopaedia,
Catz, Dark Cloud, Harvest Moon, Phantasy Star II, Star Ocean,
Xenosaga and Dragon Quest VIII.
==================================================================
Version History [FF8/I03]
==================================================================
I know in the past I've put down people who've done version histo-
ries and it's hypocritical of me to do it considering I've said
that... but I'm a flexible person and over the years have realised
that a version history his its uses in any guide.
The story of how I got Final Fantasy VIII is rather interesting.
It was the beginning of the millennium and I had already played
Final Fantasy VII When I first saw Final Fantasy VIII, but whereas
FFVII only held my attention for a brief time I was totally entra-
nced by a game that appeared to actually have aesthetically pleas-
ing AND captivating story in one unit! My mother was none too
pleased about what I had chosen for my ninth birthday and one of
her friends wanted to play the latest Final Fantasy. I had five
wonderful minutes of playing my "expensive" $30 gift and was
persuaded to trade it for "3D Pacman" and "Monster Truck Racing"
after I wandered into the training centre, met a T-Rexaur and met
a quick death. As I was totally new to RPGs I was floundering on
the simplest of things. I thought Balamb Garden was a city. So in
the intervening time my father rented FF8 and gave up on it just
like he had with FF7. I could only play the FF8 demo disc and when
that got wrecked I could only watch the beginning movie.
Mum persuaded me four years later to ask for it back, and that's
where my addiction to Final Fantasy VIII began ...
Alex owned an official strategy guide, so I wondered if I could
get some information for Final Fantasy VIII on the internet. I did
find one guide via Google search but it wasn't all that good. I
thought I could definitely do a better job. I found out about Game
FAQs from a magazine, and despite finding some very good guides
there I continued writing my own. It wasn't all that special,
because I had only taken stuff from other guides. It helped me
learn how to do it. I finished the guide in one year and it was
another year before I finally managed to submit it to Game FAQs.
Quezacotl
1.0: - My FF8 files were originally ClarisWorks documents
translated to AppleWorks, but I decided to forget them and
do my work on TextEdit. By the time the guide reached
"version 1.00" I had formatted the guide in the GameFAQs
approved way and already finished the walkthrough, but
there was still much work to be done.
Shiva
2.0: - Worked on the basic format, style, information and so on
of the guide. Even the simplest things were of great
consternation to me, and I was constantly changing things.
- Finished a shell of the walkthrough and many other things.
Ifrit
3.0: - This version released in 2005 and ONLY 868 KB. A lot has
changed since v1.00. Like v2.00 I only changed small
things.
- The beta version of Dad's book, The Dream Nemesis was
released and I added an article about it.
- Added information to "About the Authoress."
Siren
4.0: - Added submitted contribution from Ninjatsu about the PC
version of FF8 (memory card and PocketStation details).
- Added submitted contribution from Ninjatsu about the PC
version of FF8 (soft reset).
- Edited "How to get Magic", adding a contribution from
Ninjatsu.
- Added more contributions from Ninjatsu to "Fast Facts
about levelling up and learning abilities
- Added Ninjatsu contribution to "Tips and Tactics".
- Ninjatsu pointed out some MAJOR mistakes, so I basically
tried to sort things out. I had to totally rewrite the
SAME, SAME WALL, PLUS, and COMBO tutorials, as well as the
guide on how to manipulate rules.
- Added "Getting Paid" and "Getting to Level A in disc 1."
- Added contribution from Ninjatsu to "How GF learn
abilities."
- Added "Types of Fighters" and sorted the section out.
- Added contributions from Ninjatsu to "For the
Perfectionists."
- Modified "Map of the Scenario," and added a contribution
from Ninjatsu.
- Added contributions from Ninjatsu to the sections about
giving the passphrase and getting Angelo's card.
- Added contribution from Phuc Bach to "Kashkabald Desert
(s)". He has found a way to get to Cactuar Island in disc
two ... without going to Cactuar Island ...
- Added contribution from Ninjastu about being able to draw
Triple from Odin.
- Totally rewrote some sections.
- Added more characters and manual's introduction for
Squall.
- Gave the section a table of contents and organised it a
bit.
- Added the "Glitches" section.
- I got rid of the index at the back and change the order of
things a little.
Brothers
5.0: - Got rid of Differences/Simularities Final Fantasy VIII
has with Final Fantasy VII.
- Got rid of "Changes from the Japanese version to the US
version" and integrated them into a new chapter "Changes
in FF8."
- Added "Scanning equivalents of stats."
- Added "What each spell does."
- Added "How to get to Trabia Garden."
- Added Andrew Noteling's tactics for defeating Adel.
- Added to "The CC Members in Disc 4."
- Added multiple player challenge.
- Added NTSC Game Shark codes for Brothers, Cactaur,
Alexander and Bahamut.
- Added codes I got from ffnet.org and Final Fantasy
Extreme.
- Sorted the characters in chronological order and added a
few things about some of the GFs (not all).
- Since I last updated this section was entitled "The Dream
Nemesis" because that was what the book was called.
Because it was so long it was divided into two sections,
"The Dream Master" and "The Dream Nemesis"; the book was
given an overall title; "The Dream Saga".
- Changed format and added a few references.
- Added info on Ribbon and Dark Matter.
- Added mystery about Card King in disc 4.
- Added this section after getting (somewhat shoddy FF8
music downloads). Have vowed to get real OST when I can.
Added more game and story questions.
- As a result of the dissolving of the chapters "Interesting
Points and Misc." and "Discussions", instead of getting
rid of the contents altogether I made new sections for
them. I have also relocated already existing sections to
"Special Features". I moved "Similarities between FF8 and
other games" from "FF8 version changes" to "Media
References".
Diablos
6.0: - Details for Job Class game refined on the request of
Ninjatsu and someone else (can't remember).
- Changed the format of this section to make it easy to
understand.
- Added some things to Characters.
- Improvised the Final Fantasy VIII review and had to
relocate "Common complaints concerning Final Fantasy VIII"
because my computer froze the first time (its got only 400
MHz, and I'm working on a file over 1,000 KB that's on my
iPod Shuffle!).
- Added "Updates Overall", which are a summary of recent
changes to the guide as a whole.
- Added the section "German Version of FF8" to Special
Features.
Carbuncle
7.0: - Improved the information in this section.
- Added a Diablos strategy from Trev.
- Totally changed the whole list; totally rewrote it to make
it easier to understand and more useful.
- Traditionalised the history update system.
- Improved the cards list.
- Changed some formatting in the guide.
- Wrote a list of SeeD questions and answers at the bequest
of a reader who noted that my previous SeeD test answers
were wrong.
- Added a submission from Ann concerning playing against the
Card King in disc 4.
- Added summary of player stats and improved the section on
character management.
- Updated info about FF12 and the latest gaming consoles in
frequently asked questions.
- I finally sorted out the mess with the table of contents
and now all the co-ordinates are correct.
Leviathan
8.0: - Added information about Nida to the Encyclopaedia.
- Thanks to a very studious person named Ian (who made a
point of my complaints about other guides having bad
spelling) I have changed "Librali Fitali" to "Liberi
Fatali," which is in fact the spelling that Square uses --
therefore the right one.
- Added information about versions 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00 to
Version History.
- Added the old footer from v3.00 and 4.00.
- Changed the profile for elixir in the chapter about items.
- Added Refining Tree, an artical that shows you chains of
three or more refining operations.
- Began magic ratings lists in the Status Junctions chapter.
- In an earlier version of the guide I wrote the histories
of certain characters, and now I have reinstalled them.
- Added a sample chapter of my FF8 novelisation, the first
time any of it has appeared on the internet.
Pandemona
9.0: - Added L.M. Montegomary quote to secrets and side quests.
- Spent three hours on the refining tree section and polish-
ed things up a bit overall.
- Added something about Edea's name.
- Added some things to the walkthrough.
- Added notes on levelling up at the beginning of the walk-
through and gaining stats.
- Modified my FF8 guide for PlayStation for PC so I could
put it in GameFAQS' "PC" category.
- Added some to "Character Analyses" and "Disclaimer," as
well as fixing some problems with the search engine.
- Added magic order of rank in giving stats.
- Added Quick Index of GF Abilities Learned in Default
- Finished off boss' stats.
- I was alerted to the fact that I hadn't mentioned the
Shadow Stone in the Shumi Tribe side-quest. How odd... I
thought I had added it at some point and didn't think it
was that important anyway. Small things like this some-
times get lost to the wrong file, so I apologise for any
grievance.
Cerberus
10.0: - Updated the following boss battles: Abadon, Adel, Bahamut,
BGH251F2 (both times), Biggs (both times), Catoblepas,
Cerberus, Diablos and Edea (both times), Elvoret, Raijin
& Fujin (1st fight).
- Patched up some things that were amiss.
- Posted more chapters of the FF8 novelisation.
==================================================================
Introduction Final Fantasy VIII [ff8/I02]
==================================================================
Final Fantasy VIII Review
-------------------------
Final Fantasy VIII is unique; controversial. You love it or you
hate it. If you play it, you soon realise what kind of games you
like.
The story of Final Fantasy VIII has many aspects to it, so it is
difficult to know there to begin. Like all of the other Final
Fantasies magic, friendship, tyrannical rulers and the battle of
good and evil each significant roles in the story.
Squall and the other characters are involved with a mercenary
organisation called Garden, training its soldiers with the power
the GF, SeeD. Galbadia has its sights on conquering the world,
and SeeDs are deployed all over the world to fight against the
Galbadian invasions. Yet there is more to it than there seems.
Behind Deling there looms an even greater threat to not only to
the world as it stands, but time itself. Everything is not what it
seems at first glance. What's more, Squall and the others have
been brought together to fight evil by more potent forces than
simple chance (although the game would have you believe other-
wise).
When I say "Squall and the others have been brought together
together," I do not mean it in the really corny way where a group
of people join forces to take on their challenges in a perfect,
flawless way; and have big arguments over unlikely things. Every
person has their good points and bad points, and the game deals
with it in a realistic way. In games it's so unusual to find
characters who are truly real in this way -- they may have
"problems," but they are minor compared to what people suffer in
their everyday lives. The characters in Final Fantasy VIII are not
perfect.
They are teenagers, and the game does not try to hide that fact.
Is this a bad thing? No way! The majority of people who play Final
Fantasy the most are probably in this age group. Therefore, I
believe this element of the story has some value. The characters
have great responsibilities placed on them but because they are
not perfect they end up making terrible mistakes. That's character
building stuff. What doesn't make sense is that the SeeDs are usu-
ally so young, even if they do have GFs to help them. Unfortunate-
ly all video games seem to have rather large holes in their stori-
es, and FF8 is not excluded from this. Like many of the Final Fan-
tasy stories, FF8's story has potential.
There are various undercurrents in the story that seem to carry
you away before you even realise it. Things don't make sense at
first, then after a while, one by one, they click into place. Like
Harry Potter, there are some seemingly "throw away" comments,
which turn out to be clues to the story ahead.
Out of all the Final Fantasies, Final Fantasy VIII is the most
philosophical. If there were ever classics in games as there are
in movies, Final Fantasy VIII is a gaming classic. Out of all the
games I have seen, the music seems to be the most popular in the
non-gaming community.
Story and characters are the prominent aspects of Final Fantasy
VIII, but the story is not without it's faults. It's like a rough
diamond -- beautiful, but not quite refined. There isn't much of a
"fun factor," so I wouldn't suggest playing this game if you were
feeling like you just wanted to get your mind off things.
It's the kind of game where it'll set you brooding over some
puzzle or theory, contemplating the actions of a certain charact-
er and even philosophising things that may have never crossed your
mind before! Perhaps that is the reason Final Fantasy VIII is
described as the "black sheep" of the series.
Without exploring other possibilities in gaming, the later Final
Fantasies would get repetitive. Square keeps the gaming purists
happy for a while with the tried and true, but every now and then,
a totally revolutionary game is made. People accept some of the
aspects of the game, which are instituted in the later Final
Fantasies.
The graphics are fantastic for their time and console. The CGIs,
in my opinion are even better than the CGIs in FFX. The characters
in them are more expressive. The world map and character graphics
look grainy in Final Fantasy VIII, but that's nothing to jump up
and down about; it just looks bad when you have a large TV screen.
Overall....................................................(10/10)
________________________________________________________________
| Game Information |
|________________________________________________________________|
Title: Final Fantasy VIII
Series: Final Fantasies I to XII, and spinoffs
Developer: Squaresoft
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Difficulty: It depends, I think on how hard you find the
Junction system. I don't think being a hardened
RPG player would help much, either.
Age Group: MA 15+ (PAL: Mature Audiences + 15), Teen (NTSC)
Platform: Sony PlayStation
Size: 4 discs, 2359.5 MB in total (608.1, 575.5, 599.1
and 576.8 MB for discs 1 to 4 respectively) or
2.3 GB, which is a bit over half the size of FFX
Memory Card: 15 blocks per card
Analogue: Yes
Vibration: Yes
PocketStation: Yes
Platform: Windows PC
Size (approx.): 5 discs (2.4 GB)
Memory Card: Not Applicable, game gives 2 slots with 30 saves
each
Analogue: Not Applicable
Vibration: Not Applicable
PocketStation: Not Applicable, Chocobo World game comes with
FF8 for PC, nothing required to play it
Prices
------
Japan: 7800 Yen
Australia: $30
USA: $20
Release dates (PSX)
-------------------
Japan: February 2nd, 1999
USA: August 31st, 1999
Europe/Aus/NZ: October 27th, 1999
Release dates (PC)
------------------
Japan: N/A
USA: December 31st, 1999.
Europe/Aus/NZ: Somewhere in the year 2000.
________________________________________________________________
| Extracts taken from the back and the manual of the game |
|________________________________________________________________|
| Final Fantasy VIII - The journey of a lifetime |
| |
| The member of an elite military team, Squall is forced into a |
| conflict beyond imagination.To survive, he must contend with a |
| desperate rival, a powerful sorceress and his own mysterious |
| dreams. Realistic, detailed characters and background graphics |
| enhanced by a breaktaking musical score. An epic story of |
| love, hate, war and peace, set in a massive new world. New |
| Junction System allows characters to be customised with |
| awesome magic spells drawn from enemies. Stunning motion- |
| captured CG cinema segments seamlessly integrated into |
| gameplay. |
| |
| In FINAL FANTASY VIII, the player will assume the role of |
| Squall and Laguna to advance in the story. At times, Squall is |
| known to fall into a "dreamlike" state. It is during these |
| periods that he encounters Laguna. |
| |
| Squall Leonhart |
| |
| Laguna Loire |
| |
| What destiny awaits these two characters? |
| |
| At what point does the story between the two cross? |
| |
| Who is Laguna...? |
|________________________________________________________________|
Note on FF8's Age Group
-----------------------
You could hardly call any of the Final Fantasies violent or even
sexually explicit. Who cares about a bit of red paint and a few
references to "naughty magazines?" FFIX and X have far more MA+15
rated stuff than FFVIII does. At leas tit's not illegal for people
under 15 to play game in any case. FF8 is one of those games where
you'll have to be fairly mature to want to play the game anyway.
I don't know any 9 or 10 year olds that are even interested in
playing it. I've always been interested in FF8, but the first time
I played it, around my ninth birthday, only ten minutes of play
had totally stressed me out; I was literally shivering from head
to toe and haven't been that agitated since my first drive through
peak hour city traffic in a manual 4WD. Then again, I'd had a
history of wildly dashing behind sofas to hide from scary things
on TV and feeling weird thoughts in the dark. Even now I think of
horrible things I've seen on TV with a rekindled sense of dread.
FF8 may be stressful to a nervous little girl who knows nothing
about RPGs, but other than that has nothing scary, dreadful or
disgusting about it really. The Deep Sea Research Centre is eerie
when you're playing in the dead of the night in a remote mountain
chalet with all the lights off, but honestly, what timid nine year
old is going to do that?
.~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~.
/============================================================\
| THE BASICS [ff8/II00] |
\============================================================/
.~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~. .~~.
I have found that when playing a game you want to spend as little
time as possible reading the basics, therefore, having a manual
that is an inch thick can be daunting. Luckily, no manual or inst-
ruction book for FF8 is THAT long! If you don't have a memory like
an elephant, leave tracks like one. Taking notes will reduce the
amount of times you have to spend here.
O================================================================O
| Basic Info [ff8/II01] |
O================================================================O
------------------------------------------------------------------
How to use your PlayStation: for Dummies
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Look at the instruction manual of your PlayStation 1 or 2. It
is usually to be found in the box which your PlayStation 1 or
2 came in. I'm a nice person, so I'll give you a short overview
of what you need to do. It's pretty damn easy. All you need is
any type of screen which has AV in; you should have an audio/
video cable which connects from the PlayStation to the audio/
video inputs. The yellow cable is the video and the red/white
cables are audio. You also need a power cord so the console
will actually play (duh). You might also need adapters of sorts
to adjust to your particular system, etc.
2) Make sure all 4 discs are intact. You can only play an NTSC
game on a PAL PlayStation) if you own a Mod-Chipped Play-
Station. There are people who advertise themselves as being
able to put mod chips in PlayStations and XBOXs. Always play
the game on the right side. The picture on the disc should be
facing you. Whenever handling the disc hold it by the edges and
middle. If you have to put it down be careful of the sensitive
side (the one with the picture). While the dark side can be
rubbed of scratches, the side with the paint cannot be repaired
if scratched. Keep the game in a cool dry place. Not directly
in the sun or near a raging fire ;). Do not use the disc if it
has been cracked, warped or cleaned with adhesives.
3) Make sure you have a memory card with enough memory on it. You
can delete unwanted save games from the PlayStation browser.
4) Insert the disc that your FF8 save is in. If you have no FF8
data insert disc 1. If by chance you get sick of FF8 and want
to play a different game, press the Reset button and change the
discs - do not turn the console on and off.
------------------------------------------------------------------
How to begin
------------------------------------------------------------------
After the official logos you will come to the credits screen. If
you are playing a copy of FF8 which has not been pirated then you
will not see the credits screen, so you won't have to worry about
pressing X or O to skip it. The credits is quite nice, with black
and white pictures of the cast and scenes in FF8 and reasonable
music. At the end of the credits there'll be a screen saying
"FINAL FANTASY VIII". Press Start to come up to the title screen
(it has the following options):
New Game: Start from the beginning of the game.
Continue: Continue from a Final Fantasy VIII save file. Choose a
memory card slot which has FF8 data in it and continue
where you/or someone else left off.
The only way you can continue from a save file is if you make
that save file on the memory card (you do not need one if it is
the PC version). You could never complete Final Fantasy VIII in
one sitting.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Saving
------------------------------------------------------------------
To save, step on one of those flying ring thingies, and enter the
main menu with the X or O button. The save command is there. You
will have to choose a memory card slot and make a new file or
save over an old one. You will need to make sure there is enough
room in your memory card before playing. By the way, you can also
do this on the world map.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Continuing from Save Files
------------------------------------------------------------------
After starting your adventure and saving your data, when you turn
off the game and play it again, the saved data will exist (unless
you've deleted it of course). After choosing "Continue" from the
title menu you will get a choice of memory card slots. Choose the
slot with the memory card that has the save file you want to load.
After the loading bar fills up, you will see a list of save games
you have made and a little information about that save game (your
party, no. of hours spent playing the game, location, etc - don't
let a parent / partner see it ! ^_^). Press X/O on the save file
you wish to open, and continue where you left off!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory Card Icons
------------------------------------------------------------------
Once you have made a saved game, if you view that saved game from
your console browser the save will show a different picture
depending on what memory block it was saved on. This list of
the block numbers and their corresponding pictures was copied
from Part I of Scott Ong's FAQ.
1: Squall 4: Quistis 7: Seifer 10: Kiros 13: Fujin
2: Zell 5: Rinoa 8: Edea 11: Ward 14: Cid
3: Irvine 6: Selphie 9: Laguna 12: Raijin 15: Angelo
------------------------------------------------------------------
The debate rages on: What kind of memory card should you use?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Reportedly Sony is the best--any other memory card has the chance
of being corrupted. Aha ... well I happen to have one Sony memory
card and one Futuronics memory card. The Sony one is a little old
and corrupted Alex's game while he was in disc 3, but the new
Futuronics still works perfectly on FF8 to this day.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Minimum system requirements for PC
------------------------------------------------------------------
- Windows 95 or higher
- 32~64 MB RAM
- 8~16 MB 3D Accelerator Graphics Card
- 8x Speed CD ROM
- DirectSound
- DirectMusic Compatible Sound Card
------------------------------------------------------------------
All about Selecting Names: A Diagram and other useful advice
------------------------------------------------------------------
_______ .-Help------------------------. This is a diagram of the
| | | Name the character | name selecting screen.
| | '-----------------------------' Characters can have up
| | .-Name------------------------. to 7 letters while GFs
| | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | can have 10. By select-
|_______| '-----------------------------' ing "English" you see
.---------------------------------------. the top section of the
| English | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N | diagram. By selecting
| Symbols | O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | "Symbols" the middle
| Space | | part is displayed. The
| Confirm | a b c d e f g h i j k l m n | bottom part can be seen
| Delete | o p q r s t u v w x y z | always. Press the
| Default |-----------------------------| confirm button on any
| | ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? | character and it will
| | ? ? ? ? ? | become part off the
| | | name. By pressing the
| | ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? | cancel button or
| | ? ? ? ? | choosing "Delete" you
| |-----------------------------| go back a space.
| | . , - : ? ! _ - ( ) | "Default" changes the
| | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | name back to its
|_________|_____________________________| default. By the way, if
you press Start, the
If you want to rename a GF you will have cursor will go directly
to use a Rename Tag on them. If you wish to the Confirm option.
to rename Angelo, use a Pet Nametag. You
can only rename Squall or Rinoa if you You can choose the names
have a game enhancer. of Squall, Rinoa,
Angelo, and the junction
Note: The ?s denote what couldn't be -able GFs. Note however,
translated from Mac to Windows except that their card's names
the actual "?" that was supposed to be will remain default.
there regardless.
------------------------------------------------------------------
RPGs: The General Idea
------------------------------------------------------------------
Being and RPG, Final Fantasy requires you to go around talking to
people, getting items, exploring, and fighting battles. FF8 is a
tough, hardcore RPG with side quests requiring the mental
dexterity and curiosity of a magician (which is why most of us
look to the on-line guides ^_^). The tough things about this game
are: Finding what you need to do next, the junction system, how to
play Triple Triad, battles, side quests, and the shear complexity
of it all ... No need to fear, the hero's here!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Examining Things
------------------------------------------------------------------
At times in the game you may need to examine switches or ladders.
You can also pick up items or get the opportunity to draw magic
from draw points by examining things that seem out of place. You
can check things like radios or maps too. It can be an intuitive
process ...
------------------------------------------------------------------
Climbing Ladders and Opening Doors
------------------------------------------------------------------
Examine to ladders to start climbing. If you're having trouble
climbing ladders which can happen) go directly UP or DOWN.
You don't need to examine doors to open them. Just walk through
them. Of course, there are some doors you cannot access (like a
fridge door ;)).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Shops and Services
------------------------------------------------------------------
The world of FF8 is one where there are people hurrying about
doing things for you for your money (well it's not quite like that
... you have to go to those people ...).
Hotel: A place where you can pay money to have a rest.
Most hotels have a Save Point and Timber Maniacs
magazine.
Rent-A-Car: Here you can pay 3, 500 to rent a car. When in a
car you encounter no enemies! But beware, once
you enter a town or city the rent is terminated.
Train Station: Pay 3, 000 gil to go to a designated destination.
Timber has about 4 stations all up!
Item Shop: Buy essential items like potions and phoenix downs
here. Produce varies.
Junk Shop: Here you can upgrade your weapons (if you have the
right items and enough gil).
Pet Shop: GF items are bought here. There are pet shops in
Timber and Esthar only.
Book Shop: A magazine retailer. There's only 1 in the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Items
------------------------------------------------------------------
During battle:- Outside of battle:- Save Points:-
The character must have Use from the 'Item' Items that can
the "Item" command menu. You cannot use only be used at
equipped. Items that items that would save points or on
can be used in battle give you a greater the world map
are medicinal things advantage during such as Tents,
such as potions or battle, but you can Pet Houses,
things that will give use medicinal items and Cottages.
you a greater advantage for humans and GFs,
in battle such as Hero compatibility items,
or Protect Stone. ability items, etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Upgrading Weapons
------------------------------------------------------------------
In FF8 you cannot have armours and have to upgrade your weapons
at Junk Shops. What you need to upgrade your weapons are:
- Items required for the weapon. Get them from various enemies.
- The cash to pay a Junk shop to put all the pieces together.
- Weapons Monthly magazine. It is possible to upgrade to a
weapon without a Weapons Monthly Mag though.
Unlike normal items, weapons cannot be sold, and are displayed
in the Status menu rather than the Item menu or a Weapons menu. As
your characters modify their weapons, their Attack and Hit rate
increase.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous character information
------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Name Age Height DOB BT Weapon
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Squall Leonhart 17 5'8" (176 cm) 23-08 AB Gunblade
Rinoa Heartilly 17 5'3, 1/2" (163 cm) 03-03 ? Pinwheel
Quistis Trepe 18 5'6" (170 cm) 04-10 A Whip
Selphie Tilmitt 17 5'1, 1/2" (156 cm) 16-07 B Flail
Zell Dincht 17 5'5" (167 cm) 17-03 B Gloves
Irvine Kinneas 17 6'0" (182 cm) 24-11 O Rifle
Laguna Loire 27 5'9" (179 cm) 03-01 B Machine Gun
Ward Zabac 25 7'0" (213 cm) 25-02 A Harpoon
Kiros Seagill 23 6'2" (191 cm) 16-07 O Hand knives
Seifer Almasy 18 6'2" (188 cm) 22-12 A Gunblade
------------------------------------------------------------------
Renting a Car
------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find car rental shops in most cities and towns. They are
easy to find, as they can all be accessed after entering the towns
from the world map. It costs 3500 and you can get different types
of cars depending on the place. No monsters are encountered while
travelling in a car but you cannot enter forests or any dwelling
that does not have a car rental. The lease on the car ends when
you enter a city with a rental shop. Free fuel is provided with
each car, but you have to have enough Fuel in your inventory or it
will run out. When it runs out it will become slower than walking
speed (are the characters are trying to push the car?).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Catching a Train
------------------------------------------------------------------
You can catch a train if you are at a train station. The stations
are found in these locations around the world.
Balamb - Near the gift and junk shop.
Timber - Train stations leading different places are
found all over the city.
Dollet - On the world map, when you enter Dollet country.
Deling City - See the appendices for the map of Deling City.
FH and Esthar - Abandoned.
Galbadia Garden - Near the Garden, on the world map.
It costs only 3000 gil to rent a room in train and you don't
have to bring a fuel with you. SeeD get special compartments (that
can only be used once in the game courtesy of Zell).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Riding a Chocobo
------------------------------------------------------------------
You can ride a chocobo after completing at least one Chocobo
Forest. After doing a Chocobo Forest properly the chocobos at that
forest will always be ready for you when you come in.
With a chocobo, you can go through shallow waters and forests.
They are your only way of getting to the Chocobo Sancuary.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ragnarok's Auto-Pilot Function
------------------------------------------------------------------
You can get the Ragnarok to go to any destination as quickly as
possible simply by choosing your destination from one of the maps
(press Select two times). For information on how to control the
Ragnarok as well as other vehicles and vessels, see the "Controls"
chapter.
O================================================================O
| Glossary [ff8/II02] |
O================================================================O
Ability
-------
"Abilities" are not "Limit Breaks, as they are a special power
given by GFs (if the GF knows the ability, in which case if it
does not have a certain ability it can learn it by gaining AP or
using an item that teaches the ability). The abilities come in
different types, some that act passively and some that are used
actively, and a character can only benefit by an ability by
junctioning GF who has that ability.
Ability Point (AP)
------------------
These are required for GFs to learn abilities. At the end of
every battle (even bosses) the GFs junctioned will all learn a
certain amount of AP each. Say the game says something like "GFs
got 20 AP", all of the GFs get 20 AP each.
Active Time Bar (ATB)
---------------------
All battle participants have an ATB. They cannot do anything
until it fills up. The Speed stat influences how fast the ATB
fills up for each fighter. GFs also have ATBs in a way, except the
ATB has to empty from full before the GF will come; affinity with
the character who junctions the GF will determin how fast the GF
arrives.
Draw
----
An ability given by GFs. You can steal magic from enemies or
obtain magic from draw points. To be able to draw from draw points
at least one character will have to have the Draw ability
equipped. To see more info about the Draw ability, go to the GF
abilities section.
Evade (Eva)
-----------
How often a character evades enemy attacks. Can counteract a good
Hit stat. Even a seemingly low Evade stat can make a character
dodge attacks (especially from heavyweights like Omega Weapon).
Kiros is good example, as he has the best evasion out of all the
playable characters.
Experience (EXP)
----------------
After gathering experience from damaging enemies, a character
gains levels. To learn more about experience and levels, see the
battle tutorial.
Guardian Force (GF)
-------------------
Powerful creatures who give your characters the ability to use
magic and other commands including one that summons them into
battle for their signature attack. They learn abilities with AP
and earn their own EXP. More information about GFs can be found in
the GF management section and appendices.
Hit Rate (Hit %)
----------------
Accuracy of physical attacks. Also depends on the enemies' Evade
Rate. If the hit rate is at 255% the character will hit every
time even while under Blind status. Hit Rate largely depends on
the character's weapon.
Hit Points (HP)
---------------
How many times a character can be hit (their life force). A
character cannot participate in battle when their HP is at zero.
Novice RPG players can make the mistake that HP is the most impor-
tant stat, but what really counts is your fighting style; you must
adjust your battle statistics according to battle strategies --
and most importantly, actually have battle strategies! This is a
strategy guide, so naturally it is filled with strategies.
Junction (suffix, -J)
---------------------
A system of equipping GFs, magic and abilities. To learn about
using the junction system, go to the section on that subject.
Limit Break
-----------
When in a dire situation where death is imminent (or in other
words, only 10% of total HP left), a character can draw on a super
human reserve of personal power. Limit Breaks are easy to use, as
all you have to do is press to the right on the "Attack" command
when the arrow appears (you sometimes have to press Circle repeti-
tively to get the arrow).
Luck
----
Luck ... is this a physical attribute? No! Having a high Luck stat
will give you the upper hand in battle, increasing the chance of
unusually good things happening, like when the enemy does
something stupid, or some force nature comes and blows the
opponent of its feet, or if you get a critical hit, or if a rare
item is obtained; things like that. Quite amazing and strange
things can happen when you have the luck.
Magic (Mag)
-----------
The Magic stat effects any "magic" orientated activity. I'm not
sure if it effects magical limit breaks or not, but it effects
abilities like Magic, Draw and Devour. The effect of any magic,
even healing magic such as Cure will increase depending on your
Mag.
Magical Attacks
---------------
Attacks used with magical force. Magical attacks can be protected
against with Shell, Reflect and the Spirit stat.
Physical Attacks
----------------
Attacks used with a weapon, claws or fists. Protected against
with Protect and the Vitality stat. Some spells can be protected
against with Protect magic as well.
Speed (Spd)
-----------
How fast a character's ATB fills. Haste can make the ATB flow even
faster. Bear in mind that a character may not be needing more
speed than they have. Like in FF6, you can actually have such a
high Speed stat that it is too fast for the game itself. My Squall
for instance has an ATB that will fill in two seconds at most. He
is not the speediest he can possibly be, but fast enough. In fact,
when afflicted with Slow, Squall's ATB fills at a normal rate.
Spirit (Spr)
------------
A lesson in Spiritual Awareness: the more Spirit your character
has, the more he or she will be able to stand against magical
attacks. However, there are some spells that don't actually cause
magical damage, like Meteor and Quake.
Statistics (stats)
------------------
Basic attributes in a fighter. Hit Points, Strength, Vitality,
Magical Power, Spirit, Speed, Luckiness, Hit Rate, Evasion,
Experience and levels are all stats a character can have.
Stock
-----
A Draw command which allows you to store magic to use later. The
more you draw, the more spells you will get.
Strength (Str)
--------------
Power of physical attacks. Strength can be increased temporarily
by casting Berserk or Mad Rush (the recipient will not be able to
control their actions). Weapons effect Str a great deal.
Vitality (Vit)
--------------
Defence against physical attacks. Vitality can be raised
temporarily by casting Protect or equipping Auto-Protect.
Scanning equivalents of stats
-----------------------------
Intelligence (Int): Magic (Mag)
Dexterity (Dex): Hit
Defence (Def): Vitality (Vit)
Everything else: The same
------------------------------------------------------------------
Symbols
------------------------------------------------------------------
Term Note Symbol
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Berserk Status (purple) "" bubble
Darkness Status (purple) Eye
Death Status (purple) Coffin
Curse Status (purple) Unhappy face
Fire Elemental (green) Flame
Earth Elemental (green) Rock or stone
Holy Elemental (green) Light
Ice Elemental (green) Ice crystal
Petrify Status (purple) Diamond shape
Poison Elemental (green) Bubbles
Poison Status (purple) Bubbles
Silence Status (purple) "" bubble
Slow Status (purple) Clock
Stop Status (purple) Hand
Thunder Elemental (green) Lightning bolt
Wind Elemental (green) Tornado
Zombie Status (green) Human skull
o================================================================o
| Controls [ff8/II03] |
o================================================================o
Field Screen
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons:- Move south, north, east or west
Left Analogue Stick:- Move around in any way you like
Square button: - Talk/challenge character to a game of cards.
X button - Examine / talk / confirm.
Circle button - Enter the menu screen (see below).
Triangle button - (While moving around) you go into walk mode.
Start button - Pause (vibration can be turned on/off here).
Menu Screen
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons - Move cursor up, down, left or right.
Left Analogue Stick - Move cursor.
Square button - Assorted functions (see Menus section).
X button - Confirm selection.
Circle button - Exit menu screen (if at main menu).
Triangle button - Cancel selection.
L1 button - Scroll character/GF screens to the left.
L2 button - Scroll character/GF screens to the left.
R1 button - Scroll character/GF screens to the right.
R2 button - Scroll character/GF screens to the right.
Battle Screen
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons - Move cursor left, right, up or down.
Left Analogue Stick - Move cursor.
X button - Confirm selection.
Circle button - Switch to next available party member.
Triangle button - Cancel selection.
Start button - Pause (you can toggle vibration function).
Select button - Hide command menu.
L1 button - (While choosing target) see in list form.
L2 button - (With R2) escape the battle.
R1 button - Gunblade trigger (while the gunblade hits).
R2 button - (With L2) escape the battle.
Whilst using Scan Magic
------------------------------------------------------------------
L1 button - (while going up) Zoom in.
L1 button - (while going down) Zoom out.
L1 button - (with left/right) Move target around screen.
R2 button - (with L1) Make target run. Enemies cannot.
World Map (walking)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons - Move south, west, north, or east.
Left analogue stick - Move around.
Right analogue stick - Move camera angle.
Triangle button - (Press down) walk mode.
X button - Confirm action.
Circle button - Enter menu screen.
Start button - Pause (change vibration settings here).
Select button - View maps (there are three in total.
L1/L2 buttons - Move camera angle.
R2 button - Change POV (Point Of View).
Travelling in a Car
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons - Turn around.
Left analogue stick - Turn around.
Right analogue stick - Accelerate forwards/reverse vehicle.
Square button - Accelerate forwards.
Triangle button - Reverse.
X button - Get out of vehicle.
Flying the a Ship
------------------------------------------------------------------
Directional buttons - Turn around.
Left analogue stick - Turn around.
Right analogue stick - Accelerate forwards/reverse.
Square button - Accelerate forwards.
Triangle button - Reverse.
X button - Get off.
Circle button - Enter cockpit.
Soft Reset
------------------------------------------------------------------
Soft reset. As you'll be resetting a lot, prolong your Reset
button's life by performing the soft reset. Press Start + Select +
R1 + R2 + L1 + L2 all at once.
Default PC Controls
------------------------------------------------------------------
X: Talk, examine, or confirm a selection.
W: Cancel selection or return to field screen.
A: Challenge a person to cards.
D: Bring up the menu screen.
C: Scroll to the right.
Z: Scroll to the right.
F: Toggle maps on the over world.
E: Gunblade trigger for Squall and Seifer.
S: Pause game. You cannot pause during some scenes or while
in the main menu.
Ctr + R: Soft Reset.
o================================================================o
| Menus [ff8/II04] |
o================================================================o
Introduction
------------
The main menu can be accessed by pressing Circle outside of cut
scenes and battles. Below is a representation of the main menu.
Current party members are listed in the 'STATUS' screen, while
inactive characters are listed below. To change battle formation
move the cursor to the active party and switch your party members
round with the X button. The maximum party members are three; in
battle, the top party member will be on the right side, while the
bottom one will be on the left side, and it's pretty obvious where
the middle one will be. You will be able to navigate the character
screens in most of the menus with the L1/R1 buttons.
_____________________
Help-----------------------------------| Status |
|_______________________________________| Junction [1] |
|STATUS [14] | |
| | Item [2] |
| Zell Lv 13 HP 335/ 750 | |
| | Magic [3] |
| Squall Lv 18 HP 740/ 959 | |
| | Status [4] |
| Selphie Lv 10 HP 201/ 559 | |
| | GF [5] |
|______________________________________| |
| | Ability [6] |
| Quistis Rinoa | |
| Lv 15 HP 201 Lv 13 HP 246 | Switch [7] |
| ===----- ====---- | |
| | Cards [8] |
| | |
| | Config [9] |
| | |
| | Tutorial [10] |
| | |
| | Save [11] |
|______________________________________|_____________________|
_____________________________________ | PLAY 4:15 |
| | | [12] SeeD 10 |
| Timber Hotel [13] | | Gil 5000 |
|_____________________________________| |_____________________|
NOTE: Commands you cannot use at the present time are displayed
in darkened fonts.
Reserve party members have red gauges depicting their current
health. I've found that these gauges can fill up by themselves.
------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] JUNCTION
------------
This game is made heaps easier with the junction system. It enabl-
es characters to power up and use abilities. To learn how to use
the junction menu, refer to the Junction Tutorial.
To learn all the terms used, refer to the Glossary section of
this guide.
[2] ITEM
--------
When "Item" is selected in the main menu, the cursor automatically
switches to "Use". Press Triangle to make the other sub-commands
available to you. Explanations of all the items are provided in
the "HELP" window.
The maximum amount of each kind of item you can have is 100. Any
items more than that will be discarded, which you should keep in
mind when battling or refining.
Use: Use the items in your inventory, like Potions, and
read magazines. Some items cannot be used; this is
because they are junk items that can only be used for
upgrading and refining or because they can only be
used during battle.
Rearrange: Organise items. Pick up an item you want to move
elsewhere, then press X again to drop it where you
want it!
Sort: Automatically arranges all items in order of potion-
type items, battle items, save point items, GF
medicine, ammunition, junk items and magazines.
Battle: Organise the items you can use in battle. Pick up an
item you want to move elsewhere, then press X again to
drop it where you want it! In battle the Item command
needs to be equipped before an individual can use
items.
How to get items: Defeat or Mug enemies, and refine abilities such
as 'Card Mod', and 'ST Med-RF'.
_________
| <!> TIP |____________________________________________________
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| Stock up on items every time you can, just in case you run |
| out of Magic. |
|______________________________________________________________|
__________________________________________________________________
A KEY OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ITEMS IN FF8
__________________________________________________________________
__
|| Potion type items. They can be used to heal HPs or status
/__\ ailments and can be used inside or outside of battle.
_/\ Items that can only be used in battle, or, if they can be
/__/ used only in the item menu they have a special purpose.
Magical Lamp, Solomon's Ring, Rename Card and Pet Nametag
are good examples.
__ Save point items. Items that can only be used while on the
/\ \ world map or while standing on a save point. The only
/__\_\ items that fall into this category are Tents, Pet Houses,
and Cottages.
__ GF related items that heal a guardian force or teach it an
|| ability. You can even make it forget an ability with
/_GF Amnesia Greens.
_____ Ammo needed for Irvine's Shot limit break. The types of
'---.| ammunition are: Normal, Shotgun, Dark, Fire, Demolition,
|| Fast, AP, and Pulse. They can be bought or made using
Ammo-RF.
_ Items that serve virtually no purpose except to get other,
/ \ more valuable items/cards/weapons. They are generally
| | useful for (1) refining into better items, (2) upgrading
\_/ weapons, (3) teaching Quistis Blue Magic abilities.
___ Magazines. What are they useful for? Well, for one thing,
|---| you can read them! These are the magazines that are
|___| available (they each come in a series): Weapons Monthly,
Combat King, Pet Pals, and Occult Fan. There's also Girl
Next Door (a naughty mag which you're not allowed to read)
which there's only one of. Combat King and Pet Pals will
teach Zell and Rinoa new limit breaks respectively, but
there's a catch - they only "learn" these limit breaks
AFTER you look at the specific magazine. Same goes for
the Weapons Monthlies. You won't see a particular weapon
at a junk shop unless you have the ingredients for it
already or have "read about it" in a magazine.
[3] MAGIC
---------
Magic does not consume MP, but like items, magic is a one-use
thing, so when you use up all your magic, you have get more again
using the 'Draw' command on enemies or draw points (purple wisps
of liquid streaming from points in the ground).
There are about 50 spells all up. It is a form of energy called
"para-magic" to be exact, and can be used to your advantage
through the Junction system.
Before you can cast magic, you need to get it with the draw
command. Find out how to use magic in the Battle Tutorial.
To find out about all the different types of magic, and what they
all do, see the section "All About Magic".
Use: Use magic possessed by a party member. Only Cure,
Cura, Curaga, Life, Full-Life and Esuna can be used
outside of battle. Reserve characters (those not in
the main party) cannot use any of their magic. Plus,
a GF must be junctioned to the character in question.
The Magic command does not need to be equipped.
Exchange: Swap magic between characters. A character can give
all of their stock of a certain spell, or split it up
between them and the other person.
All: Swap whole sets of magic with other characters.
Rearrange: Organise magic manually or automatically.
To discard magic, press Square on the magic you want to get rid
of and a message will pop up asking if you want to discard all of
that magic.
[4] STATUS
----------
View up-to-date character information including how much experien-
ce the character has, how much they need to level up, how many
levels they have, current statistics, junction information and
limit break settings.
Hit X once to bring up the status / elemental defense / atk
screen. Hit it again to view compatibility between the character
and GFs.
Hit X a third time to see the list of GFs and which ones are
junctioned by the character (a symbol next to the name) and
compatibility ratings.
Hit the X the fourth and last time to see the characters' limit
break screen. You can also bring it up quickly by just pressing
Square.
With Squall and Zell you can set their limit breaks to "Auto",
where the computer puts in the commands for you, but not perfectly
every time.
See the Glossary for information about what certain terms mean.
[5] GF
------
Use this menu to view your GF's status and abilities. You can
choose an ability you want your GF to learn, and once it has
earned the required amount of APs (Ability Points), you will be
able to use the ability.
[6] ABILITY
------------
Most abilities have to be activated in the Junction menu to be
used, but GF and Menu abilities start coming into effect as soon
as they have been learned. In the 'Ability' menu you get to use
Menu abilities.
[7] SWITCH
----------
Because you can only have three party members, the rest of the
available party members are in the sub-party. While you are on the
world map or a save point you can choose your party here. Press
Square on the characters to see what you have junctioned to them.
Switch: Choose three characters who will be in your
party.
Junction Exchange: Switch the junction details of one character
with another. Magic is also exchanged.
[8] CARDS
---------
View the cards you possess by pressing the directional buttons.
After losing a card, it will be displayed in darkened fonts,
showing where you lost the card (location of card player you lost
it to, where you can get it again or 'Squall', confirming that you
refined the card).
To get cards you can: Card a monster in battle, defeat it
(occasionally), or defeat other card players in a card game.
If you want to find out how to play the game there is a tutorial
in this guide.
[9] CONFIG
----------
Customise your preferred game settings here.
Sound: Stereo or Mono.
Controller: Default or Customise. To customise controller
settings select "Customise" with the confirm
button. In the PC version configure the
controls by opening FFVIII Config from the
windows Start menu or FFVIII dir (file).
Cursor: In battle, when set on Memory, the cursor
goes back to the option you last used until
the battle ends.
Battle Mode: In Active, the ATB continues filling when
commands are being chosen. In Wait, the ATB
stops filling while commands are being
chosen.
Scan: Initial only gives detailed enemy information
when casting scan once. Choose Always to view
detailed info every time you Scan.
Camera Movement: 0% to 100%.
Battle Speed: Slow to fast.
Battle Message: How long it takes for a battle message.
Analogue Input: Sensitivity of the analogue sticks on a Dual
Shock controller.
Vibration Function: Turn ON or OFF.
[10] TUTORIAL
-------------
Basic Operation - Default button configurations for the field,
battle, world map and menu screens.
Battle Operation - About fighting in Final Fantasy VIII.
Card Game Rules - How to play Triple Triad. If you find this
tutorial confusing, there's another one in
this guide.
Online Help - Hand-holding tutorials about junctioning and
using characters' status screens.
TEST - Once you've become a SeeD you can take tests
where you will be asked YES or NO questions
about the game. If Squall's level isn't the
same or higher than the test level, you
cannot take the test. If you get 100% in a
test, your SeeD level will rise, meaning more
pay.
Review - You can take SeeD tests again here. Your SeeD
level isn't affected be test reviews.
Icon Explanation - Explains all the status and element icons.
Information - Miscellaneous information. Game basics, GF
and magic lists, as well as background info
concerning the game's places and characters
can be found here. There are also some things
that can only be unlocked by doing certain
things.
Information:
Places/people - Information about places is only available
after you have visited them or if they've
been mention in conversation, so if you see a
character mention a person or place you
aren't familiar with, it should be in the
tutorial.
Battle Metre - Talk to Cid again at the SeeD inauguration
ceremony. He'll give a device that can record
information.
Character Report - While you're in the D-District Prison,
there's a prisoner who will give you a Battle
Metre upgrade if you defeat him in a game of
cards (he won't talk to you if you haven't
already got the Battle Report though).
GF Report - From disc two onwards you can get this from
a man in Balamb Garden. He appears randomly
in the Training Centre and sells items. You
can get the GF Report from him by defeating
him in a game of cards.
Proof of Omega - Obtained only by defeating Omega Weapon. It's
nothing special really, just something to
show your friends when they don't believe
you've defeated the toughest monster in Final
Fantasy VIII.
[11] SAVE
---------
Record your progress. Final Fantasy VIII requires a PlayStation
Memory card, and at least a block of memory. The save option can
only be accessed when on the world map or standing on a save point
(they look like floating rings). Up to 15 save files can be made.
You might need to delete save files from other games if your
memory card is full.
[12] TIME AND MONEY
-------------------
How much time you've been playing from the beginning of the game,
and how much gil you possess. These come hand-in-hand, so to
speak. When you have played over 100 hours, the timer will start
back at 00:00, but this time in red.
[13] LOCATION WINDOW
--------------------
Tells you where you are at the moment. Great for when you're on
the world map.
[14] STATUS
-----------
This window shows your active party. To change the order of party
members simply place the cursor on a party member and use the
confirm button to rearrange your party as you please!
O================================================================O
| Battle Tutorial [ff8/II05] |
O================================================================O
Introduction to RPG Battle
---------------------------
Battles are rather unique in RPGs like Final Fantasy. Instead of
seeing an enemy and bashing at it with your weapon, you choose
from a list of commands and can control up to three characters in
one battle at the same time. At the end of the game there will be
six permanent characters to choose from.
Health is defined by Hit Points (HP), and there are various
attributes that define what kind of fighter you/the enemy is. GFs
are a very important part of battle, but each character has an
individual "Limit Break" that can be used when their health is low
enough or they are under the "Aura" status. When junctioned to a
character from the Junction menu, GFs earn AP (which some enemies
give more than others) to learn abilities, most of which you can
use for battle directly and indirectly.
Battle is a very intricate and multifaceted thing in FF8 and as
yet I've only scratched the surface. It may prove to be a bit of a
learning curve, but if you know how to play FF8 well you can play
any RPG well, maybe even Final Fantasy XII.
FF8's downfall was that it didn't have any light-hearted mini-
games, which is probably why most gamers prefer FF7 (though FF7
can be very annoying even to the avid RPG player, believe me!).
Nevertheless, the battles can be fun for the strategy and explora-
tion involved.
How FF8's Battle System is Different to Other Final Fantasies
--------------------------------------------------------------
- Enemies don't tend to have fixed experience levels.
- Magic and GFs can be drawn from opponents.
- Magic may only be used via GFs or limit breaks.
- There is no "Equipment" menu where weapons, armour and access-
ories may be chosen for battle. Each character has one single
weapon which can be remodelled at junk shops for a price if you
have the right ingredients. Things like Aegis Amulet are
usually items that teach GFs abilities.
Random Battles
--------------
You don't "see" random battles. Most of the time, it's an
invisible enemy. You're just walking along and suddenly you enter
a battle! You can use Enc Half or Enc None to block out a lot of
random battles, but they can be useful; by fighting randomly
encountered monsters on a regular basis you can: -
- Get rare items (the more levels your party has, the better a
chance you will have of getting rare items).
- Get LOTS of magic. Monsters will be your main source of
getting the stuff, especially early in the game when you don't
have so many refine abilities.
- Get useful cards REALLY EARLY in the game.
- Get your GFs to learn those abilities.
- Increase GF compatibility.
- Get a better SeeD level.
- Get experience. Boss battles only provide you with AP.
In short, by fighting many random battles you can make all the
non-random battles very easy. Some times you will be forced into
a non-random battle where you fight a normal enemy, but they are
usually very easy.
Of course, if you dislike battles, but don't mind cards, you can
get around that problem...
- Drive a car.
- Ride a chocobo.
- Catch a train.
- Walk on tar sealed roads.
- Equip Diablos' Enc None or Enc Half abilities.
- Use a GameShark.
- If you do get into one you can escape.
You cannot avoid bosses. They are just part of the game. Some
bosses are optional. Most bosses are immune to 99% of all status
ailments.
Active Time Battle (ATB)
------------------------
________________________
| Zell 544 --------- | A status window showing the
| Squall 486 --------- | character health, and ATB is
| Selphie 489 --------- | displayed on the battle screen.
|________________________| A party member can execute an
action only when their ATB has
___________ filled up. When it fills up and the character is
|COMMAND | ready for action you will see a list of equipped
| Attack | commands they can choose from. Refer to the
| Magic | Junction tutorial ([1]) how to junction abilities.
| GF |
| Item | Sometimes when you enter a battle you will see
|___________| 'First Strike' or 'Back Attack' in which you or
your enemies will get the first strike in battle
respectively. 'Initiative' and 'Alert' are both
good in giving you an advantage where this is
concerned.
Enemy statistics
----------------
Enemies level up with you, meaning, that the enemy party will have
the same levels as your party!! As your enemies level up, becoming
more intelligent, they acquire new abilities, items, magic and
battle strategies just as you do.
Damaging to your enemy
----------------------
The damage you cause to your enemies with your attacks depend on
the opposing stats. For instance, the damage your character causes
to the enemy with their attack depends on their Vitality and your
Strength.
Str (physical damage you inflict) - Vit
Mag (potency of the magic you cast) - Spr
Hit (accuracy of physical attacks) - Eva
ST Atk (status ailment caused when you attack) - ST Def
Elem Atk (elemental bonus caused by attack) - Elem Def
One of the best ways of exploiting your enemies weaknesses is
elementary. There are total of eight elemental attributes: earth,
wind, water, fire, ice, thunder, holy and poison. Each element has
its own strengths and weaknesses. Enemies can be strong or weak
against certain element/s, and most of the magic spells affiliated
with one or more of the elements. One of those types of magic can
be used with junction abilities such as Elem Def-J or Elem Atk-J.
The more the magical strain, the more effective that magic will be
(100x Firaga would provide over 100% defence against fire attacks,
meaning you would absorb the damage).
________________________________________________________________
| Elemental Chart |
|________________________________________________________________|
| Types of enemies Weaknesses Examples |
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| All | Non-elemental | Laser Eye, Ultima |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Fire | Ice | Diamond Dust, Blizzard |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Ice | Fire | Hell Fire, Fire Breath |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Water | Thunder | Thundara, Eletrocute |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Thunder | Water | Tsunami, Water |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Desert | Water | See other Water entries|
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Human | Poison | Pain, Bio, Bad Breath |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Zombie | Holy | Holy Judgement, Cure |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Machine | Thunder | Thunder Storm, Thunder |
| | Water | Water Breath |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Oil | Fire | Flame Shot, Firaga |
|--------------------+------------------+------------------------|
| Flying | Wind | Aero, Tornado |
|____________________|__________________|________________________|
Statuses
--------
In battle there are many kinds of statuses, both bad and good,
that change the way your characters fight. In short, Elixirs,
Megalixirs, ST Defence and the Treatment command cure any status
ailment. Remedy+ not only cures negative status change, but gets
rid of good ones too. Mighty Guard bestows nearly all positive
status changes except Reflect while Runaway Train (Doomtrain)
and Bad Breath inflict every status ailment. Dispel gets rid of
any positive statuses.
______________________________________________________________
| Status Symptoms - Cause * Cure |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| Aura | - Limit Breaks are easier | - Aura. |
| | to get. | - Aura Stone. |
| | | - Mighty Guard. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Berserk | - Strength is raised. | * Esuna. |
| | - The victim attacks the | * Remedy. |
| | enemy in a fit of rage. | * End battle. |
| | you lose control of it. | - Berserk. |
| | | - Mad Rush. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Confusion | - Victim makes completely | * Esuna. |
| | random actions in a | * Remedy. |
| | dizzied state of | * Physical hit. |
| | confusion. | * Time Lapse. |
| | | * End battle. |
| | | - Confuse. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Curse | - Blackish tinge to skin. | * Remedy. |
| | - Inability to use limit | * Esuna. |
| | breaks even with Aura or | * Holy Water. |
| | low HP. | |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Defend | - Attacks do not damage. | - Defend. |
| | | * Confirm action|
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Darkness | - Attack accuracy is | * Eye Drops. |
| | considerably dropped. | * Remedy. |
| | - Black cloud over head. | * Esuna. |
| | | * 255% Hit rate |
| | | nullifies the |
| | | effect of |
| | | darkness. |
| | | - Blind. |
| | | - Acid. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Doom | - Victim is 'executed' | * End battle. |
| | when the counter reaches | * Remedy+. |
| | zero. | * Elixir. |
| | | * Treatment. |
| | | - Doom. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Double | - Cast one or two spells | - Double. |
| | at once. | - CounterRockets|
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Haste | - ATB fills quicker. | * Time interval.|
| | | - Haste. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Invincible | - Impervious to any attack.| - Hero-Trial. |
| | | - Hero. |
| | | - Holy War-Trial|
| | | - Holy War. |
| | | - InvincibleMoon|
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| KO, death | - KO stands for Knocked | * Life. |
| | The victim will be lying | * Full-Life. |
| | on the ground. If your | * Phoenix Down. |
| | whole party gets knocked | * Revive. |
| | out it's Game Over. | * Mega Phoenix. |
| | - KO'd characters miss out | - Death. |
| | on experience. | - Doom. |
| | | - Zantetsuken. |
| | | - Degenerator. |
| | | - LV? Death. |
| | | - Rapture. |
| | | - The End. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Petrification | - The victim is turned | * Soft. |
| | stone. They can't do | * Remedy. |
| | anything. | * Esuna. |
| | - If your whole party gets | * Treatment. |
| | petrified it's Game Over.| - Break. |
| | - Petrified party members | |
| | miss out on experience. | |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Poison | - Victim slowly dies from | * Antidote. |
| | damage caused when they | * Esuna. |
| | take action. | * Remedy. |
| | | - Bio. |
| | | - Acid. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Protect | - Reduces the damage of | * Dispel. |
| | physical attacks by 1/4. | - Protect. |
| | | - Protect Stone.|
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Reflect | - Reflect most magic onto | - Reflect. |
| | enemy party. Ultima and | * Dispel. |
| | Meteor cannot be | |
| | reflected. | |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Regen | - Small amounts of healing | - Regen. |
| | at set time intervals. | * Dispel. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Shell | - Reduce the impact of | - Shell. |
| | magical attacks by 1/4. | - Shell Stone. |
| | | * Dispel. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Silence | - Cannot do anything that | * Echo Screen. |
| | involves using your | * Esuna. |
| | voice, like cast magic | * Remedy. |
| | or summon GFs. | - Silence. |
| | - "...." bubble. | - Silent Voice. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Sleep | - Victim goes to sleep. | * Esuna. |
| | You cannot use them. | * Remedy. |
| | - Magic will not wake them | * Physical hit. |
| | up. | * Time lapse. |
| | | - Sleep. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Slow | - ATB slows down. | * Esuna. |
| | | * Remedy. |
| | | - Slow. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Stop | - ATB stops flowing. | * Esuna. |
| | | * Remedy. |
| | | - Stop. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Triple | - Cast two or three spells | - Triple. |
| | at once. | - CounterRockets|
| | | * Dispel. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Vit 0 | - Skin turns a pinkish | * Remedy. |
| | colour. | * Esuna. |
| | - No defence against | - Meltdown. |
| | physical attacks. | - Acid. |
|---------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| Zombie | - Skin turns green. | * Remedy. |
| | - Victim is damaged by | * Esuna. |
| | curative items/magic. | * Holy Water. |
| | | - Zombie. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|______________________________________________________________|
Using Magic
-----------
Magic is an ability all GF have, and before you can use it you
have to draw it from an enemy or draw point (equip the "Draw"
command). To use it in battle, the character in question has to
have the 'Magic' command equipped.
_______________________
|MAGIC P.1 NUM. | To use Magic, select one spell and
| Fire 50 | choose your target.
| Thunder 50 | The number next to the stock is
| Blizzard >> 50 | indicated next to the magic spell's
| Cure 50 | name.
|_______________________| The >> indicates that the magic is
junction to a character's stats.
Drawing Magic
-------------
___________
|COMMAND | 'Draw' extracts magic from enemies.
| Attack | _________ _________
| Magic | |CHOICE | |CHOICE | Choose a target, and
| Draw |>| Fire |>| Stock | magic, then Stock or Cast.
| Item | | Thunder |>| Cast |
|___________| |_________| |_________| The success rate of your
draw depends on how often
Stock stores the magic for future you draw. Meaning, the
use while Cast automatically casts more you stock magic, the
the magic without having to store it better your chances are of
in your inventory (only one spell at getting 9 spells in one
at time though, and in a less potent stock!
version). There is no limit to how
much magic you stock from an enemy You can stock up to 100 of
but each character can only carry 32 types of magic. The
maximum amount of magic for
each draw is 9.
Some magic cannot be drawn unless a enemy is at a certain level or
above. Enemies carry different magic as they level up. Some magic
will become unavailable as an enemy levels up. To learn what you
can draw from each monster at each level, refer to the Bestiary.
If you want to change the enemies' level use Tonberry's LV Up/Down
abilities.
According to Ninjatsu: "The success rate of your draw depends on
your Magic Stat. The higher your characters stat the more
chance they have of drawing a magic, and the more chance they
have to draw 9 spells at once."
Using items
-----------
_______________________ "Item" is also an ability all GF have,
|ITEM P. 1 NUM. | and items are won from enemies, bought,
| Potion 10 | or refined from other items. To use
| Phoenix Down 10 | items in battle, the character in
| Remedy 10 | battle, the character in question has
| Potion+ 10 | to have the "Item" Command Ability.
|_______________________|
Summoning guardian forces
-------------------------
_______________________ 'GF' summons a guardian force junction
|GF HP | to that particular character. Select a
| Quezacotl 600 | guardian force and it's target.
| Shiva 596 |
| Ifrit 610 | The number next to the guardian
| Leviathan 2698 | force's name shows it's health. GFs
|_______________________| can be cured by resting (you need to
walk around) or with special GF
curing items. GFs can only be cured in
battle with the 'MiniMog' command (you
need a PocketStation for that).
Using limit breaks
------------------
___________
|COMMAND | ____________ When running low on health, an
| Attack |>| Combo | arrow may appear next the 'Attack'
| Magic | | Angel Wing | command. Press the right
| Draw | '------------' directional button on it to reveal
| Item | a character's limit break.
|___________|
Limit breaks are even more
Each character has the own powerful than the average attack.
individual limit breaks. Each character has their own
unique limit breaks. The Luck stat
NOTE: Limit breaks are more is important for success with
common when under Aura status limit breaks.
(your HP doesn't have to be
at critical to be able to use
a limit break).
Overview of Limit Breaks
------------------------
Squall There is a gauge with flashes going through. If you
[Renzokuken] press the R1 button when the flashes go over a
certain point, Squall will inflict more damage with
each blow. When this is finished, a random finishing
move may be executed. New finishing moves are
learnt by upgrading Squall's gunblade.
Seifer "No Mercy": Seifer casts Fire on his opponent and
[Fire Cross] hits him with the whirlwind affect of his gun blade.
Zell There are a list of moves on the screen which you
[Duel] must press the right combination of buttons for
(like a dancing game - or Xenosaga) the attacks. If
you chain the right moves together before the timer
runs out, you can use damaging finishing moves. Zell
will learn new moves after looking at Combat King
magazines in the item menu.
Quistis When Quistis has learnt a type of Blue Magic she can
[Blue Magic] use it whenever her limit break it activated. She
can learn abilities by using certain items on her.
Selphie Choose "Do Over" and you will get a random spell.
[Slot] If you find a spell you want to cast, choose "Cast".
There are some spells only Selphie can cast. Once
Selphie has cast a special magic ability or reached
certain levels, she be able to access it more
easily.
Irvine Choose the type of ammo you want Irvine to use and
[Shot] R1 to shoot the rounds. Be quick as there is a time
limit! It's like the Trigger Happy ability in
FF10/2.
Rinoa This limit break involves Rinoa's dog, Angelo. He
[Combine] choose a random ability out of the ones he knows, so
if you don't want him to use a certain ability,
don't teach it to him! You have to look at a Pet
Pals magazine from the item menu and activate it
from Rinoa's status menu if you want him to learn it
though.
Stealing items
--------------
After learning Diablos' or Bahamut's 'Mug' ability, you can steal
items from your enemies while attacking them too. Unlike with
dropped items that the enemies give you when you defeat them,
stolen items do not vary with the level of the monster. So if you
want to get an item dropped by a specific enemy do not mug it.
Receiving items
---------------
Items are usually dropped enemies. Enemies drop different items
depending on their levels, but Tonberry has abilities that can
temporarily change the level of (though not on bosses, as they do
not drop different items at varying levels)! Later on in the game
GFs Eden and Bahamut will have the 'Rare Item' ability, which
increases the chances of getting items such as Bomb Spirit.
If your level is low and you're not getting very good items from
your enemies, you can try carding them, then turning the cards
into items with 'Card Mod'.
Ending a battle
---------------
A battle can end in a variety of different ways:
- You lose (all your party being Petrified or KO'd). You'll see a
Game Over screen and have to continue from your last save.
- You win (deplete all of the enemies' remaining HPs). You will
receive items/EXP/AP.
- You escape the battle (see controls section). EXP is
determined by how much you damage the enemy.
Fast Facts about levelling up and learning abilities
----------------------------------------------------
- A character doesn't earn experience if: (1) They didn't take any
action in battle, (2) are knocked out or petrified when the
battle is over, (3) if the last enemy was Carded or Petrified,
(4) the enemy is a boss.
- Experience points are gained even if you escape, as long as you
attacked the enemy.
- The party members/guardian forces who dealt the finishing blow
get the most experience.
- You get different EXP from every enemy as you level up (and they
level up).
- Whoever deals the finishing blow gets the most EXP, but if all
the party members had equal blows, equal EXP is shared.
- After earning 1000 EXP points from damaging enemies (none is
earned from bosses), a character levels up, their stats may
increase as a result.
- All enemies (including bosses) give AP to the junctioned GFs,
but if a character takes no action in battle their GF receives
no AP! But I'm not entirely sure ...
- The level of your enemies depend on the average level of your
party, therefore their stats are different all the time.
From Ninjatsu:"
- Unlike FF7 characters not participating in the battle will not
gain exp.
- Characters in battle will gain experience even if they did
nothing. Unless they are k.o or petrified, or all the monsters
got carded/petrified.
- Killing 1 monster then carding the second in a battle vs 2
monsters will give you exp for the first monster.
- Whoever deals the finishing blow per monster will get more exp
for that monster, different level monsters give different
finishing blow experience.
- The more damage done to enemies increases exp gain. Killing a
70hp monster with a 9999 blow will give you the exp for the 70hp
monster. Hitting the 70hp monster for 60hp then curing it to
full health then killing it gives more exp.
- All enemies give AP, including carded enemies(not sure about
break). All Gf's currently alive and junctioned to the
characters in the battle will gain exp and AP, even if the
character they are junctioned to is k.o(not sure about break).
- Enemies levels are "roughly" the same as your average party(The
3 characters currently in battle) level. When there are more
than 1 enemies in a battle they may have different levels, use
different magic, and give different exp, while allowing you to
draw different magic too."
Tips and Tactics
----------------
- Time is of the essence. Abilities such as "Auto-Haste" and
"Initiative" will ensure you get the advantage over an
enemy. Or you can totally thrash your enemies by having
these abilities AND casting Slow or Stop on your enemies.
They won't know what hit em'!
- Meltdown is fantastic because it decreases the victims'
Vit to 0, ensuring physical blows will deal maximum damage.
Physical limit breaks such as Shot, Renzokuken, Duel, Blue
Magic, and Combine are greatly enhanced by the Vit 0 status
ailment.
- Later on in the game Mighty Guard will be invaluable, as
it casts a whole bunch of protective spells onto your
party such as Protect, Shell, Haste, Float, and even Aura!
Although they don't sound much, protective spells such as
Shell and Protect are very useful.
- Take advantage of your characters strong points by focusing
on their kind of attack. For instance, as Squall has a
physical limit break, you don't want his magic junctioned
to Magic. Or, like with Selphie, who is weak physically,
but is a skilled magician. You want to take advantage of
good magic rather than having average attacks, right?
- If you have the time, draw as much magic as you can from
as many different enemies. Not only does it help you raise
your stats through junctioning, it provides you with loads
of cool stuff to use against your enemies, making battles
easier.
From Ninjatsu: "Always draw when fighting a new enemy to see
what magic they have, and especially bosses."
- Use enemy weaknesses to your benefit. For instance, an
enemy might have very high Spirit, but low defence, and
have a weakness against: Thunder, earth, water. So, you
would avoid magic, and instead go for GF attacks or limit
breaks such as Thunder Storm, Electrocute, Brotherly Love,
Tsunami or Water Breath.
- To increase the power of your GFs, learn abilities such as
Boost, SumMag+10%, SumMag+20% and SumMag+30%.
- When you get a GF such as Siren or Carbuncle, who carries
a additional spell/s with their attacks or you have status
attack, casting status magic becomes pretty wasteful.
- Quezacotl's 'Mid Mag-RF' is good for raising stats early
in the game.
- Whenever you see new magic, draw as much of it as you can.
In some boss battles, you will not be able to get that
kind of magic again until you get a few more GFs!
- If you're doing a no level up game "Card" is a good attack
to use to make sure your party gets no EXP and the chance
of getting a semi-rare card. <Update> I found that if you card
a certain kind of enemy too many times you will get EXP when
you defeat one again.
- Team work is the key to easy success. Keeping all
characters' experience points level with each other
throughout the game will make it easier to defeat the final
boss.
- Fight many battles. To gain a small advantage over bosses
and gain rare items, more magic, and abilities. In fact,
monsters will give you better items depending on their
level, and you will be paid better as a SeeD.
- If you have a high compatibility rating with your GFs, you can
summon them very quickly in battle, giving you an enormous
advantage. In my first game where I had 1000 compatibility (I
can only guess that, a I was summoning them 99% of the time). I
found the battle with Edea at the end of disc 2 really easy. In
my next game, where I had well and truly become very tired of
the GF sequences, therefore not summoning them as much, I found
Edea very hard. At that point I actually discovered she had an
attack called "Maelstrom" ^_^. So, in conclusion, I suggest you
take another look at the "GF Management" section.
- If you want a random event, wait. Not doing anything for a
period of time (which can be 20 seconds to 7 minutes). After a
period of time has elapsed, something MIGHT happen depending
how high your luck stats are or whether Angelo or Gilgamesh are
with you ...
- Having trouble getting that item? Can't seem to be able to
get a Dragon Fang even with 'Rare Item'?
- Don't mug all your enemies. Some items can only be
obtained if you DON'T mug the enemy.
- Some items can only be got when the enemy is at a
certain level. This level depends on the average level
of your party so therefore varies. But this is really
annoying if your party's level isn't very high, so use
'LV Up' or 'LV Down' to manipulate the enemies' level
anyway you want!
- Maybe it's 'Rare Item' that's keeping you from getting a
Dragon Fang! The ability tends to lower the chance of
receiving junk items.
- Use any item you have nearly 100 of. Otherwise you'll ?nd
yourself discarding some of it. The refining lists in
"GF Abilities" help.
- Use Carbuncle to your advantage. I know Carbuncle, and
Reflect are possibly the most annoying things in the game,
this is how to use them to your best advantage.
1. Summon Carbuncle.
2. Cast Reflect on the enemy.
3. If you want to cast a spell on an ally, cast it on the
enemy instead. Use potions if you want to cure.
4. Summon Carbuncle once every turn if the enemy has
Dispel. That way they'll only use that on you instead
of their offensive attacks! Heheheheh ...
- Know the character's weapons and limit breaks. Information
can be found in the characters section.
- Know an enemies' element. By knowing an enemies' element,
you can determine their weakness. You can usually tell by
the magic you draw from them, or what they use to attack
you. You can also get great info with Scan. See above if
you would like to view an elemental chart.
- If you're having trouble carding a powerful enemy such as
Snow Lion, use Demi, then card it!
- Junctioning is vital to playing the game easily, so take
the time to learn it, and spend far less time later on
defeating hard bosses.
- Whenever you enter a new region check out all the enemies
who inhabit there and experiment with what they can give
you.
- Make short work of your enemies by junctioning Break,
Death, Pain, or Zombie to your status attack. In battle,
your enemies will be pretty much open to defeat (unless,
of course, they're immune to those maladies). You'll also
need 100 of those spells for it to work every time.
- The more items and magic the better! Whenever you enter a
different region stock up on items and spells. I know 100
Confuses may seem pretty useless, but it can be junctioned
to your status attack for great results, and 100 Curse
Spikes can be refined into a very rare Dark Matter. It's
far better to do this than go trekking all over the world
looking for the same stuff you took for granted earlier on.
Levelling up early will avoid backtracking too.
- Cast Double or Triple on your characters to get the most
out of your magic. A character with Double or Triple status
can cast more than one spell at a time. The same thing can
be done by equipping the character abilities 'Expend x2-1',
and 'Expend x3-1'.
- Silence or summon Siren for enemies that use magic. It's
surprising who's weak to this magic.
- The more enemies you kill, the more items you get.
- Always make sure you have plenty of Phoenix Downs and
later on -- Mega Phoenixes. Potions and that kind of thing
are also important. Although they don't sound like much,
the Recover and Revive commands will prove invaluable.
- In some boss battles there are enemies who are helping the
boss. It is generally a good idea to kill them off first,
but you only have to kill the boss to win the battle (like
in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance).
- Use limit breaks whenever you can. They can potentially be
the most powerful attacks in the whole game.
Working out Physical Damage Probabilities
-----------------------------------------
1. Take the Str of your prospective attacker and square it (i.e.
Squall at lv 1 has 8 Str, so you do a simple [8x8=64]).
2. Divide the result by 1 (i.e. [64/16=4]).
3. Add Str to result (i.e. [4+8=12]).
4. Subtract enemy's Vit from 265 (i.e. [265-27=238]).
5. Multiply the result by 376 (i.e. [376x238=89,488]).
6. Divide the result by 256 (i.e. [89,488/256=349]).
7. Multiply the result by 20 (different for non-normal attacks
such as limit breaks), (i.e. [349x20=6980]).
8. Divide the result by 32 (i.e. [6980/32=218]).
9. Double the result (i.e. 218 x2 = 436].
10. Squall will deliver roughly 430 damage per attack.
O================================================================O
| Triple Triad [ff8/II06] |
O================================================================O
Introduction: What is Triple Triad?
-----------------------------------
Triple Triad is the mini-game of Final Fantasy VIII. Did you know
they had a whole team working on this thing? Like most Final
Fantasy mini-games, Triple Triad is similar to battles, it
involves non player characters, can get you great items. It is
frustrating at first, but pretty fun once you the hang of it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
When to begin playing
------------------------------------------------------------------
You can start playing right at the beginning of the game. Talk to
the man near the elevator in floor 2 of Balamb Garden. He gives
you 7 starter cards and shows you how to challenge players. But
you can only challenge him in the CC Group side quest.
From Ninjatsu: "Not after you get the first 7 cards.... they suck
(If you are really good at cards it is possible). Beat Ifrit to
get his card, and beat Diablos to get his card. With 2 good
cards you can start beating most people in Balamb Garden."
Yes, I did fail to note that. I found that Bomb cards are good
starter cards (you can card them in the Fire Cavern). Now try
challenging the boy who wears blue and runs around the Garden.
He's easy to defeat and holds the MiniMog card. If you're feeling
lucky you can try getting Quistis' card from a Trepe Groupie, or
Seifer's card from Cid, or Zell's card from Ma Dincht. They'll be
a bit tougher to get but you'll have a good hand to start the game
with.
------------------------------------------------------------------
How to read the cards
------------------------------------------------------------------
Triple Triad cards are like normal cards in the way that they have
numbers ranging from 1 to A (ace). Only they have 4 numbers
instead of 1. The statistics of a card are directional:
3
7 2
1
Each has their own direction; in this example 3 signifies north,
7 signifies west, 2 signifies east, and 1 signifies south.
N
W E
S
------------------------------------------------------------------
How to cards work in relation to each other
------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________
| | | |
| 5 | 8 | 2 |
| 3 9--WIN->4 4<-WIN--A 6 |
| 8 | A | 9 |
|___________|___________|__________|
These are three cards that have been lined up against each other.
See how each card has four numbers? The cards on the left and the
right have both one over the card in middle, because A and 9 are
both higher than 4.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Upon Winning a Game of Cards
------------------------------------------------------------------
When you win a game of cards, depending on what trading rule is in
play, the winner will select what cards they want. The names of
the cards are displayed in colours, telling you their status:
- White. The card is currently in your hand.
- Blue. You've haven't had the card in this current game.
- Yellow. It's a card you've had once but lost all of.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Where to view your cards
------------------------------------------------------------------
To see the strengths and weaknesses of your cards go to the Card
menu. It shows all the cards you have, and even the location of
cards you've lost in card game with other people. Even cards that
you have lost or refined will be there, but it'll tell you, that
you have none of that card ... and if you refined the card you
cannot retrieve it. There are 10 pages devoted to the cards. Once
there are no more cards to know of, you'll see a star beside the
Card heading in the main menu.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Aim of the game
------------------------------------------------------------------
The game is set on a 3x3 grid, where nine cards can be placed.
Each card has 4 numbers. When a card is placed next to another
card, the adjoining numbers effect each other. If the numbers are
right, it will turn the other card over, resulting in a 1 point
gain, which may be lost if the other player gets their card back.
At the end of the game, when nine cards are placed on the board,
the person with the most points wins. That is a basic outline of
how to play the game; additional rules will change how the game is
played.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Card Layout Rules
------------------------------------------------------------------
These rules affect the way your hand is laid out the most.
OPEN is the easiest rule to understand and involves no complica-
tions.
SUDDEN DEATH is "Fight to the death". When you have a Draw with
the other player, there is an automatic rematch in which all the
cards that are won are automatically placed in the winner's card
inventory, so if the opposition managed to convert one of your
cards he is in control of it until you win it back.
In RANDOM, the computer shuffles the cards and randomly selects
a deck for you. It's quite good if additional rules such as SAME
or PLUS are active (and you know how to use those additional
rules).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Rules
------------------------------------------------------------------
These affect how you play your actual game.
SAME
----
.------------.------------.-----------. Mesmerize has 3 on E and
| 5 | 8 | 3 | Sphinxara has 3 on W and 5
| 3 3 SAME! 3 5 SAME! 5 5 | on E. Tri-Face has 5 on
| 4 | 8 | 5 | W. The numbers that "meet"
| Mesmerize | Sphinxara | Tri-Face | each and are the same set
'------------'------------'-----------' the SAME rule in play.
SAME WALL
---------
It's basically the same as SAME, only the numbers don't have to be
adjacent for the rule to work. The numbers just have to be facing
the edges of the board. So, Sphinxara wouldn't be placed on the
left side of Mesmerize, but on any of the spaces above Mesmerize!
PLUS
---- .------------. Okay, so C3 has [2] and [1]. When you
| 2 | add [2] to [4] it makes 6. [1] and [5]
| 6 2 | also make 6. So when C3 is placed on
|C1 [5] | the board PLUS comes into play.
.------------|----PLUS!---|
| 4 | [1] |
| 2 [4] PLUS! [2] 6 |
|C2 7 |C3 3 |
'------------'------------'
COMBO
-----
I don't understand the COMBO rule very well, but I will try to
inter