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Final Fantasy Articles
Final Fantasy Tactics (Not FFT!) [ Author: Norco
]
Part Two: Final Fantasy 8
I chose to do this Final Fantasy first, quite simply because it’s
what I’m
playing at the moment. The FF8 battle system is also quite complex,
and through
clever junctioning, can result in some powerful characters.
So, for those who don’t know, or have trouble understanding
Quistis’ tutorials,
I’ll explain briefly about the junction system.
In FF7, you used materia on a weapon or on armour to affect character
stats, or
to give new abilities. If you removed the materia, the status
/ abilities were
lost. Final Fantasy 8 is actually not that different. Instead
of magic itself,
the battle system revolves around Guardians Forces. By attaching
a GF to a
character, you give that character new abilities, and the opportunity
to
junction. The way your GF grows (what it learns, etc) will determine
how you can
change your character’s stats.
So, what is junctioning? Junctioning is the process of attaching
a GF, and then,
magic or abilities to a character. When you junction a GF, any
stat-junction
abilities that particular GF has learnt will be junction-able.
You can attach
magic to increase those stats. You can also set new command abilities,
such as
<Draw>, etc. This isn’t a lecture or explanation of
the Junction system, so I’ll
keep moving.
By junctioning correct GF’s to your characters, it’s
possible to seriously power
up your characters with some powerful magic. The best way to go
about this is to
use the <Auto> command. It certainly beats setting magic
one, by one. And if the
system sets up a certain magic somewhere, where you don’t
want it, just remove
it, and replace it with the next best thing. Nothing could be
simpler. Have a
play with the system, learn what sorts of magic can be found where,
and WHEN you
can get your hands on. The heart of the junctioning system is
that it allows for
precision tuning of your characters stats. You can change how
far it goes up or
down, depending on the amount and type of magic you junction.
A really good example is right before you fight Ifrit in the Fire
Cavern. Head
down the beach, and kill those fishy things. The experience isn’t
too bad, the
AP is pretty good, and you can kill them pretty easy. Have Shiva
learn Ice
Mag-RF, Boost, and STR-J. Once all that is completed, you should
have about 5 of
the item Fish Fin. Refine these into 100 waters, and junction
it to Strength.
Voila, you now have a seriously powerful character for your first
big battle.
See what I mean? Clever use of the junction system can save your
hide. In the
current game I am playing, I used a technique similar to this
(maxing out
strength and HP with high level magic, usually Water and Zombie
respectively,),
and currently, Squall and Zell, at about level 16, have HP of
around 1600-2000,
and strength of around 50-70, I can’t exactly remember. Now,
that may not seem
like much, however, at Deling City, where you fight Seifer 1v1,
here’s what
happened. Seifer’s attack did about 80 damage; Squall’s
did around 600, and thus
killed him in two hits. Easy work indeed! Of course, as the game
progresses,
you’ll stop relying on advanced magics, that put you ahead,
because you’ll be
already ahead, and the magics you need (Curaga, Ultima) are easily
made, or
found.
But when it comes to HP, Selphie is the biggest hitter in my team,
with well
over 2200, at just level 15. Add to that a high magic stat, and
I have a
seemingly well balanced team, a good combination of magic and
physical strengths
(Zell is the all rounder character, with even magic and strength.)
It’s interesting to note, that if you start your game off
this way, your
characters will already have a distinct advantage all throughout
the game.
As I stated in the General Tips, a good attack strategy is flexible
enough to
attack the opponent, and deal with any problems that may arise
in your team,
I.E, status changes, low HP, etc. It should also be flexible enough
to deal with
unusual enemies, which have certain properties, such as high vitality,
or
spirit.
Using the opponent to your own advantage
The most obvious form of this is drawing magic from the opponent.
Since most
elemental magic that can be drawn isn’t really all that good
against the monster
you’re drawing from, so, stock a little of that. Some of
the best magic you can
draw, is status changers, specifically, benign status changers.
Here’s an
example of a battle that I just pulled out of my head. (This is
no monster I
know of, it’s just something I made up, and will serve as
an example)
Let’s say, we have an opponent, with 3500 HP, no particular
elemental
likes/dislikes. What we can draw from this monster:
-> Blizzara
-> Haste
-> Fira
-> Regen
Now, I’d start off by having all characters Draw -> Cast
-> Regen and Haste,
thus giving us a massive advantage. With my characters set up
as I mentioned
before, this battle would be a bit of a snap. Okay, so I’ve
cast Haste and Regen
on my characters. I’d probably be able to knock off about
1000-2000 damage after
initial casting, and any damage the monster would cause while
I was drawing, and
after I’d done the damage, would be healed by the hasted
regeneration. Another
quick round of attacks would finish the monster up, and I come
out with perfect
(or near perfect) HP, depending on the monsters. But, generally,
that’s how it
can go. (Of course, you should have some haste on hand, it’s
a wicked spell.)
With the exception of the Ruby Dragon, all other enemies in FF8
are stupid. They
are stupid, and easily defeatable if you know how. Enemies that
rely heavily on
magic attacks, or those who heal themselves repeatedly, are great
targets. I
again draw the example as the Deling City mission. (I use this,
simply because I
just completed disc 1 in my game :) You will fight Sorceress Edea,
who has no
physical attack, and therefore relies solely upon magic. Don’t
think about using
Silence, it won’t work. However, if you’ve drawn Carbuncle
from the Iguion
attacking Rinoa, you’ll be fine, and able to come out unscathed.
Simply Summon
Carbuncle, thus causing Reflect on all your characters. Easy!
Although Edea
isn’t stupid enough to cast onto you with reflect in place
(it wouldn’t be very
effective, she has an insane magic defence), and she’ll waste
all her time
casting dispel to remove reflect so she can attack. Once reflect
has been
removed from two of the characters, it’s time to summon Carbuncle
again. (Cute,
isn’t it?) In my file, Irvine lost 20HP when she performed
her silly little
“Astro Punch” attack. Bah.
Reflect can also be used to give you an advantage that frees you
up. You can
cast reflect on an opponent that heals itself, and thus, deprive
it of its main
advantage, and turn it against itself. Clever, eh?
Status, Status, Status!!
FF8 has some new and improved magics, also magics that have not
been seen before in the PSX releases. With FF7, attacking in status
wasn’t particularly
emphasised, usually the magic Esuna or Remedy items were enough
to fix your
party.
Drain -> This is a kinda neat spell, but not something you’d
use on its own.
Drain will cause damage to an opponent, and then add that damage
to your HP.
Usually works pretty good, however, will cause damage to both
you and the
target! Equip a good weapon, high strength magic (100 x Ultima
is great) and
100x Drain to your ST-ATK. Now, reach out and crush somebody.
Almost every hit,
you can earn your own HP back, making for a great comeback. If
you equip all
members with 100xDrain ST-ATK, then you won’t have to really
worry about
healing, unless you revive someone, and occasionally, not even
then!
Death -> Like Drain, this isn’t so good by itself, but
best used as a junction
here. Junction 100 to you ST-ATK and about 98% of monsters will
be instantly
killed. Insta-gib! Wonderful!
Experiment with the nastier of the status magics, and come up
with a good
attack, and tell me about it.
In addition to negative statuses junctioned to ST-ATK, you can
also defend with
ST-DEF. There are several magics, when junctioned to ST-DEF, will
give a medium
defence, against ALL statuses. Although you’ll only get like
20% off each magic,
however, with ST-DEF x 4, and 4 different all-encompassing magics
can give some
great protection against status change. To fully guard against
them, I would
recommend having Siren (And/Or another GF!) learn the Treatment
command. This is
in the top 6, for the most useful commands. For the curious, those
commands are:
1. Attack
2. Draw
3. Magic
4. Recover
5. Treatment
6. Revive
In the course of your game, your major characters will be K.O’Ed
perhaps, about
a dozen times, and Revive is only necessary when fighting seriously
powerful
opponents, such as the Omega or Ultima Weapons.
Guardian Forces .. Friend of Foe?
If you were to listen to my shoulder after a length battle involving
my GF’s,
you’d find that I dislike GF’s with a passion. However,
since my shoulder
doesn’t have a mouth (I’d be quite concerned if I could
carry a conversation
with my armpit, wouldn’t you?), I’ll still tell you,
that I’m not particularly
fond of Guardian Forces.
Yes, GF’s can add variety, flavour and a massive clout when
in a battle,
especially if you boost well. However, if you’re like me,
and cause your arm to
shudder to hit the square button, sure, you’ll get some massive
boost numbers
(My personal bests for Quetzalcoatl and Shiva are 208 and 210,
respectively),
but you’ll be sore for a few minutes afterwards. Blah.
It is my belief, that like everything except for <Attack>,
GF’s should not be
used as a general rule of thumb, but rather, as an occasional
smack in the head
to your opponent. The only time you’d really use GF’s
repeatedly, is if you want
to:
a) Cause as much damage with little or no damage to your party
(GF’s absorb
the damage as they are summoned)
b) Hit the opponent with a powerful elemental affinity
In such cases, you would most probably summon GF’s frequently.
I know that, when
facing a powerful opponent, I let loose with the GF’s, and
let my shoulder
complain afterwards.
For just adding a little clout, I’d recommend summoning Bahamut,
Diablos, or
Doomtrain. Each of these has good attack power, and have a not
too long, not to
short animation.
Eden? Hell is more like it.
Yes, Eden does cause a particularly nasty amount of damage. However,
Zell,
Quistis, Rinoa, Irvine and Squall all have more powerful (and
less shoulder
intensive) than boosting Eden to the full 250.
Believe it or not, in my supreme game file (all of my characters
and GF’s at
level) Eden was the only character or GF that had not reached
level 100, quite
simply because, after beating the pants off the Omega Weapon,
I returned to the
Island Closest to Hell, to prepare my characters for a really
good fight with
Ultimecia. Eden, requiring insane amounts of experience, would
have just taken
too long to get up to level 100, so I left him/her/it at 45. Even
at level 45, a
full 250 boost causes up to 40000 damage. How much would a full
250 boost at
level 100 do? Probably not as much as a decent limit break, and
therefore, not
really worth spending a few minutes (for the animation, which
is hard to
understand), and the arm-ache. Perhaps around 60000 damage. Ooh,
guess what,
Squall’s Renzokuken can do about 70000 – 90000, not
counting the follow through.
Eden isn’t really worth it. Don’t use Eden any more
than you really need to;
there are easier ways to destroy the opponent.
Next Article
I think I’ve covered all I wanted to in the FF8 section.
I didn’t want to write
a massive game guide, more of a general and rough guide on what
I know, and what
I’ve learned.
Next time you see a Norco Article, it’ll be the FF7 part
of my rough guides.
Questions? Comments? norco@fantasysquare.com
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