Preparation Questions

I have reached (SPOILER)the point in the game in which the gardens collide and invade after a narrow victory in the previous section of the game I am worried that this could be a real pain if I reach a boss here and am unable to defeat it. Therefore, I would like to ask for a bit of advice on how to prepare for what is coming in a general way, without actually revealing what I will face.

Problems that may be resolved:

1) Weapon upgrades. I've gotten Squall's flame-looking sword, Zell's second weapon, Riona's Rising Sun, and everyone else has their initial equipment. This seems, relative to the other FFs I've played (All before VIII), that I am behind where I should be. Is this an issue? Will upgrades be of great use? I have the designs, but not the materials.

2) GFs and junctioning. Everything is always junctioned to someone. The problem is, I seem to have one set up that results in decent damage (300-500+), with everyone else floating around 100 or less. I am assuming this has something to do with both a need to draw more spells for other characters, and a need to get GFs with the appropriate commands to add to attack. What should I look for? My GF "picture chart" has no holes in it, though I am going back a few steps to recover Pandemonium, which I missed somehow, and Diablos and Brothers I got later than I should have, so they lag behind. I am assuming I need to add to Str, and look for elemental attack ability paired with a good spell or some such. If so, I'm unsure what spell to use. My "decent" damage set up uses one of the second tier elementals at 100 paired to attack. I've only enough to supply one character as such, so in any event, I'll have to go around drawing. Any advice would be appreciated, as I've a long boring process ahead of me, and would hate to waste my time on something redundant or useless.

Thanks for any advice.

I suggest you draw 100 triple from a certain optional but obvious boss coming up and junction it to squalls attack and then leave his hp in the yellow and use renzokuken. (get the others to use a phoenix down on him if he gets KOed) You don't need to upgrade your weapons at all, but I suggest you do it part of the way through disk 3 and get all the ultimate weapons. Yeah, normal attack is usually pretty useless in FF8. :D However some of the GF's can be powerful but I prefer limits. (duel is very good too if you use it right)

1) Weapon upgrades, unlike other FFs, are not necessary in this game untill the third or final disc. Don't worry about these.

2) I believe if you failed to draw Pandemona from Fujin you cannot get him again untill the final disc. The GFs you should have by now are Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Brothers, Diablos, Carbuncle, Leviathan, and Pandemona. I suggest you have your GFs set up as so:

Character 1: Ifrit, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Pandemona
Character 2: Shiva, Siren, Diablos
Character 3: Quezacotl, Brothers

You should try to have 100 of each magic, and by now you should be drawing level 2 or 3 magic (e.g. Fira/aga). I know it may seem like a daunting task, but the efforts of a few extra minutes in battle will prove a great relief to you in times of need.

I've attached a database I constructed illustrating the effects various magics have on your stats. You should be able to see here which ones are best suited to the stat you have in question. I hope it helps you.

The game is not hard enough to need to draw all the magic. You only really need to get the other important magic (aura,meltdown,ultima,meteor,reflect,flare..etc) later, and the "ga" spells are not really necessary as long as you can get 100 triple.

EDIT: Actually you don't actually need all that magic to win, it just makes it even easier.

100 Triple won't solve your elemental defence problems though, will it? For that you would need the -aga spells.
In theory you do not need any magic, but as Remnant is asking how to make it easier to proceed in the game I merely suggested a method. What I neglected to mention was that you should discard the level one magics (fire, blizzard, thunder) when you discover level two magics (fira, blizzara, thundara), and similarly with level three magics (firaga, blizzaga, thundaga). This will keep your inventory small and neat by removing all unecessay and redundant magics.

I never use elem-def (unless I'm building ultimate characters). It's not necessary even to win easily. Still, since it's his first playthrough he might want it...