Replaying this

Those who talk to me on Facebook will see I have been replaying this!

I'm currently playing it on the PS Vita and I must say, on that tiny screen it looks and plays gloriously! I'm really enjoying it and have clocked 8 hours play time so far. I just completed the Timber Owls mission, and the gang are about to take to the Dollet Comms tower to see what's going on!

Pheesh (Squall) has just met up with Fury (Rinoa) again after the dance, and even got to meet Galuf (Angelo). The team is filling up now, we're just missing everyone's favourite out of place shotgun sniper.

I've also been naming my GF's after Eyes on members!!

Shiva - Jinx
Quezacotl - Shauna
Ifrit - Psychotic
Siren - Freya
Diabolos - Skyblade


I've been trying to run this playthrough with as minimal summoning as possible. So far, I've used Jinx twice in the fire cavern, and Shauna once against XATM in Dollet.

I also set myself the challenge of running the Fire Cavern in 10 minutes. Smashed it!

Also smashed the Diabolos battle just after obtaining the lamp! This game is sooooooo easy to break. I haven't hit a game over yet. Really enjoying it! :)

I hope I destroyed that XATM.

I replayed this and cheated like a mothersmurfer using my emulator.It was so fun!!!! :bigsmile:

Then I decided to protest outside Square Enix HQ and demand a FF VIII-2 or I will rant and whine on social media like a boss! :mad2:

I replayed this a couple of months ago. I got all my characters and GFs to level 100, and got every card :D

Definitely my 'ultimate' file of FFVIII.

I've always loved this game and it is my second favourite FF, beaten only by VII, but it's a hugely close call.

I know I don't post here too often, but I would love to be one of your GFS :D

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Originally Posted by Night Fury

This game is sooooooo easy to break.

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Step 1: Draw 100 fires from the first enemy in the game
Step 2: Never have any further difficulty in the entire game

I'm actually almost done with VII in my marathon and I honestly can't wait to be done with it and get on with this game! For all it's failings, I'm pretty sure this game actually has a consistent level of narrative throughout (as opposed to VII where disc 1 is really good and disc 2 is pretty bad, and then disc 3 is just the final dungeon), but that might just be the nostalgia talking. We'll see!

I do remember junction being one of the most fun system's I've ever encountered in a game, so I'm really looking forward to that!

Good luck with this, NF!

It is ridiculously broken. I actually really enjoy breaking it though. I love being all-powerful!

Once you've got Siren's L-Mag-RF. you just buy 10 tents and refine them into 100 curagas. Stick it on Squall's HP and that's pretty much game over.

The game doesn't help itself though. I mean you can refine offensive -aga spells after the 4th boss in the game. What was the point of including -ara spells? xD You can just skip over them entirely.

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Originally Posted by Bubba

It is ridiculously broken. I actually really enjoy breaking it though. I love being all-powerful!

Once you've got Siren's L-Mag-RF. you just buy 10 tents and refine them into 100 curagas. Stick it on Squall's HP and that's pretty much game over.

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That's exactly what I did!

Then throw in the card mod ability and you can pretty much go ham.

When I played FFVIII, I spent 10 hours gamtime at the start drawing magic and playing triple triad.

So many wasted hours getting 300 tornado spells for +40 to their attack stats at level 10

I like to:

Get the Quistis Card from Balamb Garden
Learn Card, then Card Mod
Refine the Quistis Card into 3 Samantha Souls
Get Diablos and learn Time Mag-RF
Refine the Samantha Souls into 180 Triples
Junction to Strength, dividing up as you like

Along with Curaga junctioned to HP from refining Tents, and Ifrit's Strength +20/40/60% the game is utterly broken before you go to Timber if you're happy to battle for AP in the Training Centre/out on the World Map.

Just in case it's not broken enough, be sure to get the Laguna TT card along the way and as your TT cards won't be useful after the last dungeon, item refine them into 100 Hero Potions and spend the entire final dungeon invulnerable. Bonus points for getting yourself to low HP first so that you have endless limit breaks.

No update for a while. I reckon she's given up on account of the ludicrously high difficulty.

And to think I got stuck on the game in my first playthrough. Could not beat Adel for the life of me.

I AM PLAYING THIS NOW! MY BODY IS SO READY! UNF!

Pahahaha, I actually haven't been playing it because I've been TOO BUSY ON POKEMON.

I also started a job this week so have been doing that.

I never refined cards. I just did a low level challenge and waited until I got cactuar GF to raise my stats for each character. Turning two in your group to stone helps. Really what I did was got all the cards, didn't level up for most the game. When I got cactuar GF I went to Ultima Weapons/Bahamut lair where there was almost an endless supply of barriers and cursed spikes. I turned the cursed spikes into dark matter I believe cause those refine into luck-J abilityx4 etc. Barriers turn into status defx4. You can't do much without Eden but stock up and level up there and you'll do yourself a favor. Also I only learned Angelo search so I could confused a closed up tripod and let Angelo come in every 10 minutes or so. Pressing triangle helps him appear. The only thing I gave up on was collecting enough silver mails to make elemental def x4. You need 1000s of them.

I need to play this again. I need to see Biggs and Wedge, man. Best soldiers 2016.

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Originally Posted by Night Fury

I've been trying to run this playthrough with as minimal summoning as possible. So far, I've used Jinx twice in the fire cavern, and Shauna once against XATM in Dollet.

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The Tonberry are going to love you.

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Originally Posted by FinalxxSin

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Originally Posted by Night Fury

I've been trying to run this playthrough with as minimal summoning as possible. So far, I've used Jinx twice in the fire cavern, and Shauna once against XATM in Dollet.

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The Tonberry are going to love you.

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I think on my last playthrough I made it through the Tonberry trial by just attacking everything with triple demi.

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Originally Posted by Night Fury

I think on my last playthrough I made it through the Tonberry trial by just attacking everything with triple demi.

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Not a bad strategy. Although with your current killing method, "Everyone's Grudge" is bound to do 9999 damage to your characters most used.

How do you try to balance the battle system every time you play it? As we all know VIII's many aspects are its easy to break combat system.

I need to replay 8. It's hard to describe my exact feelings on this game; there are many things about it I find very unlike any other Final Fantasy .. some of which I like, others I don't.

I never draw magic in this game. When I was a kid, this annoyed me to no end. It seems like pointless and unnecessary repetitive button mashing to me. It wasn't until I got older and learned my way around the interwebz that I really learned refining. That's more my style. I usually play cards for 10 or so hours right after the SeeD exam just collecting and refining spells. Triple Triad is easily my favorite mini game of the series.

The plot is pretty 'meh', IMO. I don't have much positive opinion on any of the characters, except Quisty. Squall is ok. Sometimes I find the equipment system (or lack thereof) very restrictive, other times I appreciate not having to be on my toes constantly in order not to miss something.

I guess all in all, this is probably my least favorite of the PlayStation games. However I still feel it gets a bad rap and is obviously a very very good game. I just have to be in the mood for its style.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

I'm actually almost done with VII in my marathon and I honestly can't wait to be done with it and get on with this game! For all it's failings, I'm pretty sure this game actually has a consistent level of narrative throughout (as opposed to VII where disc 1 is really good and disc 2 is pretty bad, and then disc 3 is just the final dungeon), but that might just be the nostalgia talking. We'll see!

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So consistent that fans had to make at least two theories to try and make sense of it all.

Considering FFVIII was what it was.

It was vastly underestimated

A great game following a JRPG classic

YOU ARE ALL TO BLAME

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Originally Posted by Example

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Originally Posted by Fynn

I'm actually almost done with VII in my marathon and I honestly can't wait to be done with it and get on with this game! For all it's failings, I'm pretty sure this game actually has a consistent level of narrative throughout (as opposed to VII where disc 1 is really good and disc 2 is pretty bad, and then disc 3 is just the final dungeon), but that might just be the nostalgia talking. We'll see!

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So consistent that fans had to make at least two theories to try and make sense of it all.

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A FF game with a plot that doesn't make total sense? Surely not!

Honestly, the story isn't that confusing and what I meant by cohesiveness was more the narrative structure than the plot itself. It's executed much better than VII's which had all the fun stuff on disc 1 and then went really weird on disc 2, while discs one, two, and three of FFVIII have a much more clean structure.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Honestly, the story isn't that confusing and what I meant by cohesiveness was more the narrative structure than the plot itself. It's executed much better than VII's which had all the fun stuff on disc 1 and then went really weird on disc 2, while discs one, two, and three of FFVIII have a much more clean structure.

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And I would still argue that, the orphanage plot twist coming completely out of left field being a prime (but far from the only) example why.

Was never bothered by it, to be honest. While it's handled relatively poorly, especially in comparison to games like Persona 2 that had a similar twist but executed much more intelligently, it was still subtly foreshadowed and didn't impact the overall narrative that still managed to consistently retain its focus on Squall's development throughout the game (which I think is great and one of the best parts of the game since it's so rare to see an actual first-person narrative in a game). This is still way more cohesive and digestible than the mind-numbing KH stupid huge materia stuff.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

This is still way more cohesive and digestible than the mind-numbing KH stupid huge materia stuff.

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What are you talking about?

Scratch the KH bit. I was on my phone :p

I still don't get what you mean. What's wrong with the huge materia?

Don't get him started...

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Originally Posted by Shauna

Don't get him started...

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:bigsmile:

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Originally Posted by Fynn

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Originally Posted by Shauna

Don't get him started...

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:bigsmile:

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Apologize.

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Originally Posted by Shauna

Don't get him started...

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No I'm genuinely curious about this.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Honestly, the story isn't that confusing and what I meant by cohesiveness was more the narrative structure than the plot itself. It's executed much better than VII's which had all the fun stuff on disc 1 and then went really weird on disc 2, while discs one, two, and three of FFVIII have a much more clean structure.

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I'm not sure what you mean about Final Fantasy VII going weird on disc two, could you explain.

I'm glad you noticed that the Orphanage stuff on Final Fantasy VIII was subtly foreshadowed. A lot of people here miss that, and I keep saying that it was foreshadowed (though I haven't done so for a while). If it had been more obvious foreshadowing in it would have looked really bad in my opinion.

yeah, it was foreshadowed, unfortunately if Square had been more obvious about it they still would have caught flack for beating you over the head with it...

In experience, Final Fantasy VII and the huge materia was bit of an overwhelm. Also drawing, junctioning etc was a little overboard too. In VII the huge materia offered every spell, or command, or summon with just one materia for each color. In VIII however, you could overload your characters with GFs or take hours to where everyone has two or three GFs at a time. So both games had an easy trade materia or junctions between characters. Hope you have fun in Final Fantasy VIII to the original poster and all else who get to play this.