Final Fantasy VIII Gameplay
Gameplay Basics
Final Fantasy games are fairly
straightforward affairs. Reach a new environment, explore the new environment,
watch the story unfold, and head toward the next environment. Fight battles
along the way to improve your characters' powers and explore the world
thoroughly to uncover all the secrets it has to offer. If you've played a
previous Final Fantasy game, you'll slip right into the eighth; if you haven't,
the instruction manual and scandalously detailed in-game tutorial should get you
off on the right foot. Here are a few of the less-intuitive gameplay tips and
strategies that will help put you ahead of the pack.
Guardian Force
The first skill you should teach a new guardian force is, if available,
boost. Speedy button pushers can now pump up their attacks to inflict nearly
twice the damage as before. Don't be shy about calling them - guardian forces
are a gamer's best friend. Literally, in fact - the longer a guardian force is
junctioned to the same character, the higher its affection rating - and the more
quickly the guardian force will appear in battle.
Evenly distribute statistic junctions to your characters (HP-J, Str-J, and so
on). Ideally, everyone can junction magic to each of the major statistics. Make
sure all guardian forces are always junctioned and earning experience in battles
- nothing is gained by leaving them on the sidelines.
Drawing System
The strength of a spell junction is directly proportional to the number of
uses of that spell a character carries - so draw, draw, draw! The maximum uses a
character can carry of a spell is 100; try to have that many of any spell
junctioned to a statistic. It's well worth the time spent repeatedly drawing.
Limit Breaks
Also, when your character falls into the critical hit-point zone, hit the circle
button continually to skip turns until his limit break becomes available. Don't
waste his hurt status on a regular attack!
Card Game
Why should you spend your time playing the card game? Simple. Quezacotl can
transmogrify cards into items. Rare cards yield rare items - and without rare
items, you can never upgrade to the strongest weapons, uncover the strongest
guardian forces, or master the game's deepest secrets. So, play cards as often
as you can against everyone you meet. Otherwise, you'll be fighting with weak
weapons, and everyone will laugh at you.
Elemental Attack
Use elemental attack and defense to your advantage. If you double your
defense and also double your attack, you've made yourself four times more
powerful. That's significant. Scan an enemy to discover its elemental
weaknesses. |
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