Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: The Quickening > Final Fantasy VIII > Anyone with good methods and tactics, share it in here!

the first time i played ff8 was feb this yr..,
i kinda sucked the first time around, but i got better in disc 3 , 4
the second time through it was a whiz..
and i was just trying to work out good methods and tactics to down boses, and to have more fun.....

so if anyone has any methods, tactics or advice about da game.. share it!.
i really want to read, and comment!! ^_~

[Alvin Strife]

draw, draw, draw and then....






draw again! the more spells you have, the more you can boost up your stats and abilities and make the end of the game alot easier

-Alvin Strife

[Dazlar Bynon]

I resarted 4 days ago and am preparing for the SeeD-exam. I first made Quezacotl learn the card command and got Ifrit. I card a lot of 'Glacial eyes', 'Bite bugs' and 'Fastitocolon-Fs'. This way you get a lot of AP without the EXP and 'Jumbo Cactuars' and 'Elvorets'. Chalange the Card-lady (what's her name) to get the 'trade rule: ALL' this way it goes faster, play a lot of games but always check if the rule 'ALL' is active or you could lose it again. This way you get a lot of good cards. I got the first 5 pages and more, For some reason I haven't got the 'Jumbo Cactuar' card yet.

Learn the MID-MAG-RF as soon as possible to convert your magic to mid-level-magic (cura, fira, blizara, thundara) and keep drawing. and use the CARD-MOD ability transfer cards into items and convert these items into magic, but don't convert rare cards (quistis, minimog, Ifrit etc.)

[Kimera 726]

1) Better to draw now than later...

I always begin the game by drawing all the possible spells from Bite Bugs, and the like. Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Cure are the first ones you get and they help a lot. As the game progresses you want to replace the existing magics with upgraded ones but only if they cross 50 or so.

For example, there is a draw point in Timber where you can stock about 5-6 Blizzagas. I already have 100 Blizzara, but since I only have 5-6 Blizzagas to use, I don't want to get rid of the 100 Blizzaras yet because it will lower my stats in Junction. Be sure that you have an adaquate number of spells that won't hurt the stats much before replacing it. Remember there are 50 spells in the game, and only 32 slots.


2) Designate your character's roles, then prioritize your magics...

Squall has to be in your party often, and because his R1 is so easy to execute (with practice), I make him my primary attacker. In the end, I made sure all the male characters excel in black magics, and the girls with white magic. The males attack, and the females defend and assist (a little sexist I know, but I've only beaten FF8 once and I had to find an easy way to label my characters since they're all so nice to customize).

Now that I know my characters and their jobs, next comes giving them what magics to have and not to have. For me, the guys will dominate in black magic and girls with white (so Guys have the Firagas, Blizzagas, the Demis, and the Water; for girls, they have Curaga, Haste, Double, and Holy). But they all need status defenses, so when it comes to status magic, I make sure all 6 of them have them (600 Blinds, Confuse, Berserk, Death, etc.).

There are some magics that are bewilderly good for the stats. Those I give to everybody too, so it would be like 600 Ultima, 600 Meteor, 600 Triple, 600 Aura, 600 Tornado, etc. However, I keep in mind that although White magics and black magics intercross at this point, the guys will still have more black magic spells than the girls, and vice versa.

One more thing, I do not make the guys completely dependent on girls for life. I made sure that every character knows how to defend him or herself. Guys have Full-Life and Curaga too, but the girls, as they are the white mages, will have varients too like Life and Cura (which is still pretty helpful. Guys won't have Cura though).


3) Magic is a last resort...

Magic is stocked in this game, and they do affect the stats. Where all possible, use normal attacks for offense and commands like Revive, Recover, and Treatment for healing purposes. If the battle really is out of your league, then you may use Triple or Aura and the like.

If you are near the end or at the final battle, use magic to your heart out. Better to use Haste or Protect / Shell now instead of Spoiler: having Ultimecia drain your magic from you later.


4) Know your role...

I always vary my party so that there's always at least one of each gender in my party (from the fact that the women are better healers than attackers). If the battle is tough, I don't make the women attack. Better to let Squall attack bit by bit than to suddenly lose a turn where Bad Breath could ruin us all because of that one dumb command. I don't mind long battles. It's fun, and there's less risk involved.

Each character's role should also be affiliated with the stats. There are only so many status defenses you can junction, and so many commands you can have. So lets say Squall is my main physical attacker. THat would indicate that I want his strength stat at 255 where possible. For Rinoa, her magic AND spirit stats were at 255, Irvine and Zell's Vitality at 255, etc. As the healer, Rinoa, Selphie, and Quistis needs to be available whenever the time comes, so I make sure all status defenses and elemental defenses are at the go, such as junctioning Pain, Confuse, Berserk, and Death to St-Defense. A good combination IMO. For guys, all about Strength and elemental defenses. It doesn't really matter about death, because with a party with at least one woman onboard, you can heal easily.

You could also heal with one of the guys with their Full-Life spells, but I found that its not their role and Full-Life is hard to get.


5) Know your enemy...

Ruby Dragons annoy the heck outta me! Probably one of the most difficult field enemies i ever had to encounter. But luckily I found that sleep works well against it. I have Squall junction sleep to ST-attack and make it sleep. But before I do anything too rash, I do all I can against it. While sleep, I could cast Doomtrain, Eden, maybe even heal the party. Also, I do not carelessly attack the enemy. If Squall was the only one with the Sleep to ST-attack, I make sure the other characters attack first, then Squall last. This way: 1) should the enemy attack, the previous attackers (most likely a healer) will have her ATB gauge near ready to heal should problems occur, and 2) This will make the dragon fall asleep again, whereas if a person was to attack afterwards, the dragon would wake up. If you plan ahead, you can walk away from any fight with a minimum of casualties and not having it turn into a fight for your life (like it was for me and Ultimecia. I practically went in without knowing what to expect...but it was a fun 2 hours!).


That's my philosophy when I played the game. Sorry to sound sexist again, but those were my tactics and probably never let up.


Figuring this out took a long time. In the end I spent 96 hours playing the game, and IMHO 40 hours was spent on organizing my magic and stats in the Junction Menu! I had major magic upgrades after Fisherman's Horizon, after the Lunar Cry Incident, and before Ultimecia's.

[Dazlar Bynon]

The first six GF can be easilly assigned...
They work in couples Ifrit, Quezacotl and Shiva should be split up, and each assigned a partner. I think the best teams are:
Ifrit & Siren
Quezacotl & Diablos
Shiva & Brothers
3 of them have HP-junction (I think Ifrit, Quezacotl and Brothers), split them up!
Just look at their abilities, with the right teams everyone can junction a lot. Until you have these six you may want to assign them in an other way.
Squall is a fighter and should get Ifrit if I'm not mistaking.
Selphie is a magic user so she should get Quezacotl.

CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG

[Kimera 726]

Later on I prefer to have every character assigned specific GFs and elements. So Quistis would get the holy GF, Squall the Fire GF, etc. You're right I think, that the beginning GF pair are pretty good, although I would make Quazequatil his own group because he has 3 spots to fill in the stats already. Maybe Diablos too, because at that point in the game only Diablos and Brothers have HP additions (i.e. HP+20%, HP+40%, HP+80%) and in the beginning HP is EVERYTHING.

Keep in mind: watch your Spirit stats. This is, after all, a war against the sorceresses.

[Blackmage]

Personally, towards the end of the game, I just attack. But it may have something to do with max stats on two of the three peeps in the party (Quistis & Rinoa have max HP, Str, Vit, Mag, Spr with junctions & stat-boosting). *shrug*

But at the beginning of the game, I play a lot of cards to get good magic early on, like getting 100 Flares before leaving Balamb to Timber. Then I go back to my just-attack strategy.

If you're an uber twink of FF8 like me, there aren't really any tactics involved in the game; you get stats way up high and then you usually just focus on attacking.

EDIT: Once I get my crappy GeoCities website up and going, you can find out how to do such things.

[Spatvark]

1) The way to get the best characters is to NOT LEVEL. You need to wait until you get the Ragnarok in Disc 3 and then use teh Bonus abilities when levelling; especially in Vit and Spr.

2) Doomtrain is your god.

3) Limit breaks are heavenly; I always keep Squall's health down to use them straight off. But the best one in the game is Angel Wing. Here's how to use it to maximum effect:

1. Unequip all magic on Rinoa that can be cast on your opponent. That's a bit unclear, but in Angel Wing status, Rinoa will not cast spells on her allies, so you can junction Life, Esuna and that kinda stuff.
2. Get her Mag stats to 255.
3. The only offensive magic she should have is Meteor.

et voilá! That's about 30k damage per attack, as easy as pie. Virtually a necessary tactic against Omega...