Current Events > I wanna start FF8, is it as complicated as it seems?

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Darkninja42
07/25/21 10:28:59 AM
#1:


Between junctioning and draws and GFs and all that shit it seems ridiculous. I know that once you figure it all out It's easy to break the game but is it feasible to be able to do that without having to deep dive through guides and all that?

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Xavier_On_High
07/25/21 10:37:32 AM
#2:


It's more tedious than complicated. Drawing magic is the worst part, and with a little grinding early on to get Refinement abilities that becomes a non-issue

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The Popo
07/25/21 10:42:08 AM
#3:


Xavier_On_High posted...
It's more tedious than complicated. Drawing magic is the worst part, and with a little grinding early on to get Refinement abilities that becomes a non-issue

This. Junctioning is super simple if you understand the absolute basics of it.

You dont have characters who learn spells and then use MP to cast the spells. Instead, each character has their own separate inventory of spells, like items. They can even exchange spells amongst each other. And you can junction a spell to a stat to make it stronger. Like you can junction Life to your HP, causing your max HP to go up.

Some spells are better at junctioning with specific stats than others, and the more units of a spell that you carry, the stronger the junction effect is. So its beneficial to keep a stock of 99 spells on a character to maximize the junction effect.

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monkmith
07/25/21 10:46:48 AM
#4:


you're going to spend at least an hour in the open field outside the school fighting monsters just to draw magic for junction, a pattern that repeats itself throughout the game. and because of the way it works you're discouraged from using said magic since it weakens you as you use it.

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J03can
07/25/21 10:47:03 AM
#5:


Tedious. The story starts strong in my opinion and keeps going strong for 2 discs. I'll leave it at that.

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ROOTFayth
07/25/21 10:53:22 AM
#6:


not complicated at all, didn't feel that tedious to me either
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lilORANG
07/25/21 10:57:03 AM
#7:


Nah, it's a weird but fun game. Easy af to cheese
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TheOnionKnight
07/25/21 10:57:50 AM
#8:


It's easy. Just don't try to level up as your primary way to get stronger, because the enemies level up with you. Most of your power comes from junctioning magic spells to different stats. If you play the card minigame, you can convert cards into magic spells. You can get some pretty powerful stuff this way.
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visiny
07/25/21 11:00:16 AM
#9:


It's actually not (only) junctioning that you need to know. It's triple triad.

FF8 is actually a card game wrapped around a jrpg
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Squall28
07/25/21 11:07:24 AM
#10:


You can get to disk 4 without knowing how junctioning works. There's a boss at the beginning there that ended many people's FF8 journey lol.

That said, it's really not bad at all. Draw any new spells you see from enemies. If anything, it makes seeing new bosses and monsters exciting because you can be upgrading your characters. It's like oh snap he has Thundaga *rubs hands together*

Just imagine that instead of spells, these are new pieces of equipment on your enemies that you can steal from them.

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Darkninja42
07/25/21 11:10:39 AM
#11:


Doesn't sound too bad, though I am not looking forward to grinding, but I guess that's part of the JRPG experience.

visiny posted...
It's actually not (only) junctioning that you need to know. It's triple triad.

FF8 is actually a card game wrapped around a jrpg
Yeaahhh....I've heard about the nightmare that is triple triad. Is it really essential, because I was gonna skip it if I could

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TetsuoS2
07/25/21 11:13:01 AM
#12:


it's not a nightmare, too much overstatements here. Drawing during combat is almost completely unnecessary too.

Triple Triad is literally just my number is bigger than yours game.

But also:
https://twitter.com/GaoRush/status/1397433378530541569

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The Popo
07/25/21 11:20:24 AM
#13:


Darkninja42 posted...
Yeaahhh....I've heard about the nightmare that is triple triad. Is it really essential, because I was gonna skip it if I could

I personally didnt like Triple Triad, but I felt like I was outside of an overwhelming majority on that. The card game was something that most people loved about FF8.

At its core, the game is super simple. You have cards, and each card has a number for each corresponding side of it (top, bottom, left & right). If a card is placed on a board next to the opponents card, the touching numbers determine who takes over both cards.

The game becomes complicated due to each area of the world having specific rules to the game that alter the game slightly. And as you travel, you sorta spread these different rules, which pick up in other areas. So when you have 1 slightly different rule in place, its still easy to keep track of. When you have 5 overlapping different variations, it becomes a pain.

You can change cards into rare items. You then can use the items to upgrade your weapons to their better forms (you dont really buy new weapons like you do in most RPGs - you learn of ways to upgrade your weapons, and you need the specific items before you can do it).

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Darkninja42
07/25/21 11:28:36 AM
#14:


The Popo posted...
The game becomes complicated due to each area of the world having specific rules to the game that alter the game slightly. And as you travel, you sorta spread these different rules, which pick up in other areas. So when you have 1 slightly different rule in place, its still easy to keep track of. When you have 5 overlapping different variations, it becomes a pain.
Yeah that's the part I've heard about that seems overwhelming, not necessarily the game itself. Eh I'm not a completionist so I'm not worried about collecting all the cards or anything so if I can get by on just the bare minimums it's all good.

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TetsuoS2
07/25/21 11:31:54 AM
#15:


You can ignore the rules changing if you don't care about collecting all of them, the useful stuff like t-rex, fish, sandworm, and whatnot can all be gained in the first region with no real rules.

If you play the card group in disc 2, you'll eventually get a good way to farm the cards.

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Guerrilla Soldier
07/25/21 11:42:50 AM
#16:


it's overly complicated but it's overall an easy game
you don't really need to do any of it. you don't need to junction, or get cards, or make items, or break the game. the game isn't difficult.

you should play the game for the game. the collectables are just fluff with very little reward.

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MisterPengy
07/25/21 11:26:54 PM
#17:


You definitely don't have to play Triple Triad. It's a great source of items for getting good spells to junction, but it is not needed by any means.

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jumi
07/25/21 11:31:45 PM
#18:


Later on your GFs get skills that you can use in-battle, Revive and Recover (I think), that you can use as many times as you want for free. There is very little reason to use any spell other than Aura for late game boss fights.

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RedJackson
07/25/21 11:35:35 PM
#19:


Reading all of this makes me wanna play FF8 since Ive never played it

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TheDurinator
07/25/21 11:43:10 PM
#20:


Triple Triad is the best FF minigame.
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mooreandrew58
07/25/21 11:46:32 PM
#21:


visiny posted...
It's actually not (only) junctioning that you need to know. It's triple triad.

FF8 is actually a card game wrapped around a jrpg

Never fucked with triple triad and I did fine

To me junctioning seemed so daunting at first I tried to beat the game without it (damn near did too) but once I forced myself to learn it it wasn't hard at all

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jumi
07/25/21 11:48:36 PM
#22:


TheDurinator posted...
Triple Triad is the best FF minigame.


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bigtiggie23
07/25/21 11:49:40 PM
#23:


What system are you playing on? If it's the PS4 remaster you can at least speed up the game, makes drawing magic much quicker. And you can turn battles off too, even though there is a GF ability that does the same thing.
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Lost_All_Senses
07/25/21 11:51:38 PM
#24:


I broke the game every time without trying. Which is why it's bad. Last time I tried to force extra rules on myself, but then I can just focus on how boring and no entertaining the rest of the game is.

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Trumpo
07/26/21 12:00:59 AM
#25:


Some enemy attacks can wipe out your team even with the hp cheat in the remaster.
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weekoldhotdog
07/26/21 12:16:26 AM
#26:


TheDurinator posted...
Triple Triad is the best FF minigame.

I actually enjoyed the enhanced version of it in FF9

Fun fact, if you had the PC version of FF8 (which I still have the CD-RoM and case) there was a mini game that let you use a chocobo in a little window on your PC that looked like a Tamagotchi and it would periodically give you items while you played if you ran it in the background.

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mooreandrew58
07/26/21 12:17:34 AM
#27:


Oh tip but you'll have to look it upif you wanna know cause spoilers. But iirc there is a summon and dungeon you effectively get fucked out of if you reach lvl 99 cause of a enemy that tends to get first attack and one shots your whole team. Unless there was some way of dealing with that I was never aware of.

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jumi
07/26/21 4:52:09 AM
#28:


mooreandrew58 posted...
Oh tip but you'll have to look it upif you wanna know cause spoilers. But iirc there is a summon and dungeon you effectively get fucked out of if you reach lvl 99 cause of a enemy that tends to get first attack and one shots your whole team. Unless there was some way of dealing with that I was never aware of.

Junction Death to... Defense I think? Status? HP? One of those.

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DeadBankerDream
07/26/21 5:04:12 AM
#29:


Triple triad absolutely is a nightmare. A fun nightmare, but a nightmare none the less because of rule transferences and losing valuable cards if you fuck up.

And people who say that drawing isn't an issue because you can just refine cards are... let's just call them silly. Card refining is basically a thing you do with a guide next to you, or if you are just that into the card game you might get enough of a surplus to do it consistently.

For a first time player it's nearly unviable as a consistent strategy to avoid the draw grind. You get a decent amount of cards you can use for the process as you fight battles and get loot, but

1) People cannot see the future
2) Chances are that a first time player doesn't find all the summons and doesn't bee line for their refining abilities

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#30
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TheRadiant
07/26/21 5:26:47 AM
#31:


Don't forget to get the magic lamp from Cid like I did the last time I played FF8 lol

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Darkninja42
07/26/21 10:57:11 AM
#32:


bigtiggie23 posted...
What system are you playing on? If it's the PS4 remaster you can at least speed up the game, makes drawing magic much quicker. And you can turn battles off too, even though there is a GF ability that does the same thing.
Yeah it'll be the remaster on game pass, I'll probably start it up tonight since I didn't get a chance to yesterday.

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bigtiggie23
07/26/21 5:26:48 PM
#33:


Darkninja42 posted...

Yeah it'll be the remaster on game pass, I'll probably start it up tonight since I didn't get a chance to yesterday.

Cool. I'm playing through the Final Fantasy 9 remaster right now. Cheating a bit but only until I get a huge level advantage.
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Tom Clark
07/26/21 5:38:40 PM
#34:


I never found it too complicated tbh, but full disclosure - when it came out I was doing my A-Levels so I had fuckloads of free time and minimal responsibilities, so I was able to throw a lot of time into diving into the junction system.

It's still my favourite FF game to be honest (though 6 runs it staggeringly close), and aside from the HD characters standing out too much against the blurry background the PS4 rerelease really holds up.

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Cokewave
07/26/21 5:43:38 PM
#35:


Def easy to break, I was 1-2 shotting bosses on my first playthrough as a kid.

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BlockAddition
07/26/21 5:44:45 PM
#36:


If you're spending more than 30 minutes in a single playthrough drawing magic you're doing it very wrong

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PrettyBoyFloyd
07/26/21 5:56:33 PM
#37:


The card game was fun.

Anyway I never bothered with the Junctioning stuff.

I just hammered and beat whatever I was fighting to death and hope I didn't get killed myself.

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Will_VIIII
07/26/21 5:57:50 PM
#38:


I mean 8th grade me figured it out so you're probably fine

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Tyranthraxus
07/26/21 6:07:55 PM
#39:


PrettyBoyFloyd posted...
The card game was fun.

Anyway I never bothered with the Junctioning stuff.

I just hammered and beat whatever I was fighting to death and hope I didn't get killed myself.
There's no fucking way you made it past the first disc without junctioning

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Tom Clark
07/26/21 6:10:26 PM
#40:


Will_VIIII posted...
I mean 8th grade me figured it out so you're probably fine

I think one of the pitfalls of the functioning system is that it isn't actually complicated, but any attempt to explain it in words invariably makes it sound complicated, if that makes sense.

If you just sit down and get on with it rather than reading up on it, it clicks very quickly I feel.

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Darmik
07/26/21 6:11:42 PM
#41:


I started playing through it and it's starting to all make sense now. And I wasted time on dumb GF skills.

Here's the basic summary of what you need to do.
  1. When you get GF's (Guardian Forces or basically Summons) make sure you immediately pick them to learn skills that are good. To start off with I recommend picking Refining skills. They are usually on Page 2 which is a mistake I didn't know for a while. Refining means you can refine items into magic spells. This is a significantly quicker process than drawing them from enemies.
  2. You have a GF called Quezacotl. You'll get him at the start. Immediately get him to learn Card and then Refine Cards. This means you can convert random encounter enemies to cards. Then you can refine cards into items. Combine that with Refine Items into Magic and you've now got a quick source of magic without spending the time drawing it from enemies by playing Triple Triad
  3. After you have done the refine skills done then you should start opening up the GL's junction abilities. Basically you can junction Magic skills to improve stats. You'll want each party member to have complimentary skills to junction as much as possible. To break the game is quite simple. Once you have unlocked Junction HP and Refine healing items into magic you can buy a bunch of tents, convert them into Curaga and junction that to give you quadruple the health than usual.
I think that covers the stuff I learned without constantly checking a guide. Maybe it'll bite me in the ass later but I think that covers it. Don't need to grind at all with this. Just have the right skills being learned by the GL's as you play. It's actually recommended not to level up too much due to level scaling. It's obtuse and weird but once you get the logic of it it's fine. The biggest complication is the game not doing a good job recommending which GL skills to learn by putting them on the second page.

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Kuuko
07/26/21 6:14:44 PM
#42:


Tyranthraxus posted...
There's no fucking way you made it past the first disc without junctioning
As a very dumb kid I definitely remember getting most of the way into Disc 2 just spamming summons all the time and feeling like the game was supposed to be more fun than what I was doing.

I was definitely playing the game wrong but the weird thing about FF8 is that playing the game right almost feels like you're playing it wrong too. It's too easy to make the game too easy

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mooreandrew58
07/26/21 6:53:32 PM
#43:


jumi posted...
Junction Death to... Defense I think? Status? HP? One of those.

Its not a death spell. Just enemy can hit all 3 party members for 9999 damage and usually got first turn on me. Odin/Gilgamesh oddly would usually help beat the first ruby dragon almost everytime. But not the rest

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Darkninja42
07/26/21 8:31:29 PM
#44:


Starting now. I'm one of those that started at FFX, so no voice acting is gonna be weird for me

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jumi
07/26/21 9:14:01 PM
#45:


mooreandrew58 posted...
Its not a death spell. Just enemy can hit all 3 party members for 9999 damage and usually got first turn on me. Odin/Gilgamesh oddly would usually help beat the first ruby dragon almost everytime. But not the rest

I thought you were talking about Omega Weapon.

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argonautweakend
07/26/21 9:19:02 PM
#46:


FF8 is not really complicated. It's kind of easy pretty much no matter how you play, even a lowest level game. People complain the enemies level with you, while true, doesn't actually make the game all that hard either. I level to 100 every playthrough just 'cause I can.
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mooreandrew58
07/26/21 9:28:51 PM
#47:


jumi posted...
I thought you were talking about Omega Weapon.

I think you gotta go through where im talking about to get to him or that may have been ultima weapon

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DezDroppedFreak
07/26/21 9:29:49 PM
#48:


You can turn FF8 into autopilot mode in the first two hours

also triple triad is easily one of the best parts of the game so I wouldnt skip it

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mooreandrew58
07/26/21 9:31:44 PM
#49:


DezDroppedFreak posted...
You can turn FF8 into autopilot mode in the first two hours

Sure you can but the average person without outside help will figure that out.

Never got people bashing something being op/broken in a game when the average person would figure it out.

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Rain_Dust
07/26/21 9:33:43 PM
#50:


I got to the 3rd disk without using the draw system once. I had only 3 GFs also. It was a long time ago and I was a fuckin moron. I later learned that you can get more GFs and begged my parents to buy the guide. I re-started the game and got 100%. First game I really got 100%.

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