Help me play this game!

I've almost finished my (nearly) perfect playthrough of FFVII which was a treat, and want to move on to a game I've never actually finished - FFVIII. I always get to disk three and just cannot stomach it anymore, but not this time. I just need some inspiration, tell me what you enjoyed about it - anything.
I'll start off with the one thing that kept me going most of the way through, which is Triple Triad. One of the best minigames in any final fantasy.

So, my friends, tell me what makes this game GOOD. Only good points (amusing hate comments also welcome).

Esthar
Ragnarok
Can finally upgread weapons reasonably
Lunatic Pandora is an awesome name
Cactuar with a mustache (yep I got the cactuar summon :) )

I agree, on my last playthrough I got up to disk 3 also, than stopped playing.

I love how the GFs look, particularly Alexander and Bahamut.
Apart from that, the scene with Gilgamesh, and completely abusing
the Junction system by fighting a certain Dinosaur for Dino Bones before
leaving for timber, That was funny.

Face it, it's not one of the best (To some), but outside the abuse the
junction system gets on a daily basis and Squall's constant depressive behavior lies a great game!

Oh - and Ultima Weapon, that rocked twofold!

What I enjoyed... oh man.

Squall, Rinoa, Squal AND Rinoa, the storyline, the music, the fact it was close enough to FFVII to get me into it, but far enough away from VII to be stand alone, the fact it manages to be unique without being to unfinalfantasylike, Future Esthar...

I just liked FFVIII :p

Junction. It is a system that let's you get really immersed, but it' still actually optional. The way you can tweak the game to your needs thanks to this system is one of the it's biggest merits :D

Do not look down on the awesomeness that is Ultima Weapon! Omega might have around 9 times as much HP, but Ultima Weapon's look, atmosphere and sheer badassness far surpasses that of Omega! Plus Ultima got a huge freaking sword. Omega does not. :greenie:

...besides, Omega is a pushover as well. Every single enemy in FFVIII is thanks to the broken junction and limit break systems. :greenie:

I find myself able to enjoy the game more appropriately if I use a Gameshark code to alleviate some of the more tedious aspects of the game like drawing magic from enemies or learning GF abilities. I tend to finish the game at a much more lower level that makes sense to me rather than leveling up right outside of Balamb Garden at the start of the game.

I enjoy that it's a more modern/sci-fi take on the series, with cars, nuclear bases, etc.

The Junction system is cool as well, if you like breaking things and having tons of lists of stuff.

The first two discs are actually really interesting - probably some of my favourite Final Fantasy ever.

Some of the towns are really, really nice. Winhill, for one. Fisherman's Horizon, too.

But yeah, I'm not sure I'd be able to manage a full playthrough again right now. For one, I've played the game through to the end about four times in my life so it basically has no secrets for me and I'd just be going through the motions. For two, I just don't have the patience to play through any game that isn't, well, really good. If I'm going to procrastinate I better damn well be playing completely worth while. It's a shame, too, because I used to love re-playing the SNES-PSX era FFs. Just this week I deleted my current FF9 file, just before leaving for Burmecia. I know a lot of people love 9 around here, but smurf if that game doesn't just revel in taking up absolutely every minute it can.

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Originally Posted by Ultima Shadow

Do not look down on the awesomeness that is Ultima Weapon! Omega might have around 9 times as much HP, but Ultima Weapon's look, atmosphere and sheer badassness far surpasses that of Omega! Plus Ultima got a huge freaking sword. Omega does not. :greenie:

...besides, Omega is a pushover as well. Every single enemy in FFVIII is thanks to the broken junction and limit break systems. :greenie:

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Actually Omega could eat your face no matter how you were junctioned. You had to make yourself immune (IE holy war trial, hero drink, invincible moon) to avoid LV5 death (unless youre deciding to fight him with charas that arent lv100 for some reason). Also, if he went before you were able to protect yourself, he could decide to kill your whole team.

If you want to enjoy the game more so it doesn't feel as broken and ridiculous then I also recommend not using Zell or Irvine. My last time playing through it I used Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis. I never use items in this game even though they make fights even easier, and even with Rinoa having invincible moon some bosses can give you problems if you dont play things right (or are too slow).

I love triple triad too. It's tons better than that FFIX card game will ever be. You can use it to get Squall's Lionheart in disc 1 if you wanted to thanks to triple triad. If you want to have a perfect playthrough in this game as well then I say go for this, but if you want to be more casual then just get it whenever you want.

I loved how imbalanced it all was. I don't think it was Square's intention to make the Junction system so abusable but I take a lot of pleasure from doing all the tricks. Card Mod, Enc-None, playing the Card Queen to set the trading rule to Diff or All, playing heaps of Triple Triad, getting Tonberry King for Lvl UP, getting Lion Heart early (disc 2 after getting Garden moving is usually when I start farming for the items), setting Rinoa's Angel Wing up for maximum damage potential, only teaching Angelo Invincible Moon to increase his chances of using it, Armageddon Fist.

The only thing I haven't tried is opening the disc cover to freeze the game to look for The End.

I also loved Triple Triad. Same and Plus are fun rules and I didn't mind spreading them around (Random's still awful though).

Many players count this against the game, but I LOVE how broken it is. It's so much fun to exploit everything. It's easy to manipulate the difficulty; focus on leveling up without junctioning for high difficulty, keep your levels low and junction high for low difficulty! Triple Triad is great. Not only is it super fun, but it's essential to exploit the Junction system. You can rule the world by being really good at playing cards!

Expect no help from me, play a different game from FFVIII. Anything but FFVIII, and no that's not an invitation to play FFX-2. :sweatdrop

Oh and Cactuar Island is awesome for building up your GFs.

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Originally Posted by Kyros

Actually Omega could eat your face no matter how you were junctioned.

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Only when you have absolutely no idea how he works. As soon as you learn his pattern, he becomes one of the easiest super bosses in the FF series.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kyros

You had to make yourself immune (IE holy war trial, hero drink, invincible moon) to avoid LV5 death (unless youre deciding to fight him with charas that arent lv100 for some reason). Also, if he went before you were able to protect yourself, he could decide to kill your whole team.

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Death-protection and the Defend command are the only preperations you really need. Some speed and attack doesn't hurt though, as the battle can drag on for a while without that. Everything else is of little importance. Well, you have to choose between either having 9999 max hp, or simply using the GF command ( preferable ) too. But that's about it.:greenie:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kyros

If you want to enjoy the game more so it doesn't feel as broken and ridiculous then I also recommend not using Zell or Irvine. My last time playing through it I used Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis. I never use items in this game even though they make fights even easier, and even with Rinoa having invincible moon some bosses can give you problems if you dont play things right (or are too slow).

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Even if you go solo-Squall, FFVIII is one of the easiest FF games. Last time I played, I didn't use any junctioning other than command junctioning. And it was still pretty easy.



To add something more to the topic; yes, Tripple Triad is the best minigame ever. :greenie:

Shockwave Pulsar was killing all/most of my team last time I faced him if I didn't have invincibility up (even if I was summoning a GF he would often do enough dmg to kill that GF and the character). I had Revive/Full Life and Recover on my characters to quickly reset my team, but I guess it also made it harder that I don't use items or the Defend command. The only time I normally don't attack/limit break is when I summon Doomtrain early or I am healing, which is only vs a couple bosses occassionally.

As mentioned before, the battle system is very easy to exploit. If you focus on running away from enemies and keeping your level low, the game will be a breeze for you provided that you play triple triad and get some good card mods happening. I always wondered why we didnt get EXP for killing bosses, and now I know that its because EXP isnt such a wonderful thing in FFVIII. Also, try searching around island closest to hell and heaven for invisible draw points. Please make sure you have enc-none from Diablo equipped otherwise you will be getting in very tough battles every 4 seconds.