First time player!

[Psychotic]

The Eyeball is Jeff. He is a giant floating Eye that flies about the skies looking for his partner Claire. Will he ever find them? Will they be reunited with Montgomery the nose? KEEP PLAYIN' TO FIND OUT!

Also also I hated the love story in VIII because it ruined Squall. He was this asshole in a world full of idiots and I took great pleasure in him not giving the slightest of smurfs about all of the stupidity around him. He just was not having any of it. Then he became all sappy and talkin' 'boot FEELINS and it ruined him

Also also also Quina does not serve any purpose. It is a joke character designed to provide a little bit of levity to situations. I think FFIX's story focuses on the first four (plus Eiko) a bit too much and Freya, Amarant and Quina are mostly there to make up the numbers.

[Ayen]

Also also I hated the love story in VIII because it ruined Squall. He was this asshole in a world full of idiots and I took great pleasure in him not giving the slightest of smurfs about all of the stupidity around him. He just was not having any of it. Then he became all sappy and talkin' 'boot FEELINS and it ruined him

Moral of the story: love ruins people. You heard it right here on EoFF.

[Shorty]

As of me typing this, I believe what I saw was Garland or whatever his name is inside the skeyeball, perhaps operating it, and defying Kuja's request to destroy the city. If I recall correctly.

So I boarded the Blue Narciss and said "smurf you guys I'm not going to the Black Mage Forest". Instead, I went to the west and landed the first beach I came across. What first two creatures do I encounter upon entering into battle? A Gigan Octopus and a Zombie Whale! A+++ favorite enemies ever. So pleased. Especially since they gave me an assload of XP and especially since I can take out a Zombie Whale with Life easy like Sunday morning.

And then I got my ass annihilated by a Grand Dragon. I died atleast four more times by those smurfing dragons before I managed to kill one in a pure stroke of luck in critical health with one single party member left (this has happened many more times since - 35k XP, woo!). Those smurfers are hard!

PS, I've abandoned the card game. If there's no in-game reward, I don't care to continue playing it. Not worth it.

Time to max out everyone's levels!

[Relena Peacecraft]

The best part is that Quina can brutally slaughter Grand Dragons with Lv. 5 Death.

I'm not sure the card game has any real reward at all. It's one thing I never really bother with except at the one time you're forced to.

[Shorty]

Eric mentioned that earlier. I suppose I could put Quina in the party and rotate everyone else out. I've just been trying to level up my main party and were going to switch them all out after, but I guessssss I'll test it out now (thank you)

Also, I keep running into the damn Gimme Cat! I want to be friends with it but I don't have a smurfing Diamond to give him! And why the trout does it have a rat tied to its tail. Why.

[Pumpkin]

Listen to me.

DO NOT

give him any Diamonds. This is important. Just kill his butt.

[Shorty]

oh man are you serious D: I was wondering about the music that plays when he appears on screen! It isn't that cute whimsical Ragtime Mouse music, it's battle music! Hmmmmmmm.

I am super curious about what happens when you give him a diamond, so please tell me what happens and I will kill him next time he appears.

[Pumpkin]

He will run away and give you nothing. NOTHING!!

I've heard if you use a non-damage dealing skill like Steal, he will fight you without using Comet, but I've never tried. Comet wasn't so bad anyways.

If I recall correctly, he doesn't give the greatest amount of points. But giving him a Diamond is just kind of... pointless. There are better things to do with your Diamond than give it to him and have him skip town.

[Shorty]

What a trouthead I haven't encountered him yet so I will be sure to destroy him once I do.

This Quina Lvl 5 Death business is almost not even worth it. Quina isn't leveled up enough to withstand a Thundaga attack, and Garnet barely is. In order to make this trout worth it, everyone has to be alive in order to receive the XP. I'm wasting too much damn time trying to keep Quina and Garnet alive and I keep going in circles and it's just all horsetrout. I'm getting so fed up with it.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I don't ever think I messed with the lvl 5 Death stuff when I played. Then again, I never really used Quina all that much. Those Great Dragons are nasty things, though.

[Pumpkin]

I used all of my characters equally, but Quina is my second favorite from the game.

I never bothered fighting those dragons either until I was leveled up enough to withstand the attacks. There's other ways to get EXP :P

[Jowy]

What a trouthead I haven't encountered him yet so I will be sure to destroy him once I do.

This Quina Lvl 5 Death business is almost not even worth it. Quina isn't leveled up enough to withstand a Thundaga attack, and Garnet barely is. In order to make this trout worth it, everyone has to be alive in order to receive the XP. I'm wasting too much damn time trying to keep Quina and Garnet alive and I keep going in circles and it's just all horsetrout. I'm getting so fed up with it.

Silk Shirts from the beginning of the game offer 50% Lightning damage mitigation while simultaneously being the weakest armor in the game. Thundaga is your biggest threat in this encounter and by the beginning of Disc 3 you will have enough HP to survive it. Three hours of killing dragons will net you 9999 damage on demand with Dragon's Crest if you steal it from Ark or buy it in Bran Bal.

Personally, I killed Ark in four turns with Trance management. smurf that boss.

[Loony BoB]

If you get a couple of good skills on Quina, then Quina is a beast during many fights. Personally, I see Quina as a Red Mage role - able to hit decently, able to do cast decently and able to heal decently. I would use Steiner/Zidane/Garnet/Quina whenever I was able to.

Quina is also kind of hilarious and/or sweet due to how simple Quina is.

Skills I felt worth getting...

LV5 Death - Obvious spell is obvious. MP cost 20.
LV4 Holy - Ditto. MP cost 22.
Aqua Breath - Quarters enemy HP (50% accuracy). Good for high HP enemies. MP cost of 14.
Mighty Guard - Protect & Shell on entire party. MP cost of 64, but still worth it in some battles.
Matra Magic - Reduces enemy HP to 1 (20% accuracy). Great for Eat. MP cost of 8.
1,000 Needles - 1,000 damage. It has it's place. MP cost of 8.
Pumpkin Head - Damage to a single enemy equal to the difference in Quina's Max HP and current HP. I've used this to great effect on occasion given it's very low MP cost of 12.
White Wind - Recovers HP to all targets equal to 1/3 of Quina's Max HP. MP cost of just 14 makes this really useful.
Angel's Snack - Uses four Remedies from your inventory on the four players of your party. This has an MP cost of just 4 and if you're like me and stack up on Remedies etc. due to the over-abundance of gil in the game, then this is a no-brainer during fights that use a lot of status effects on all of your party.
Frost - 30% chance of giving an enemy the Freeze status. Cost of 8 MP.
Auto-Life - Target is auto-revived the next time they get KO'd. MP cost 14. Not majorly useful but like many of the above, it has it's place.

Not to mention Quina is pretty strong for most of the game when doing standard attacks, although for some reason in my playthrough Quina's attacks struggled near the end. Not sure if that was my fault or not.

[Slothy]

The more I play this game, the more I remember echoes of haters berating FFVIII for its love story. I don't get it. Of the games I have played - VII, VIII and IX, it seems like the love story is pretty prominent in all of them.

The problem I had with the FFVIII love story wasn't really one of prominence so much as not finding it believable. You spend much of the game with Squall being a dick and Rinoa throwing herself at him because, well, not really sure why. Apparently she finds cold and distant assholes who display no interest in her attractive. Then all of a sudden he can't live without her. It just felt like a complete 180 degree turn in his feelings for her with no real build up to it, making it feel as convoluted as the GF's cause amnesia plot twist.

[Loony BoB]

The more I play this game, the more I remember echoes of haters berating FFVIII for its love story. I don't get it. Of the games I have played - VII, VIII and IX, it seems like the love story is pretty prominent in all of them.

The problem I had with the FFVIII love story wasn't really one of prominence so much as not finding it believable. You spend much of the game with Squall being a dick and Rinoa throwing herself at him because, well, not really sure why. Apparently she finds cold and distant assholes who display no interest in her attractive. Then all of a sudden he can't live without her. It just felt like a complete 180 degree turn in his feelings for her with no real build up to it, making it feel as convoluted as the GF's cause amnesia plot twist.

I dunno, I find that to be a pretty accurate summary of many relationships in the world we live in.