The Shrine

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I decided to play FFVIII again for the....what? 4th? 5th time? I just refused to believe there was a FF I disliked so much. Anyway, I FINALLY made it to Eshtar on Disc 3(I'd usually quit trying to find that fucking White SeeD ship) and the game rocks, Junction rules. :)</div>

<div style='font: italic bold 14pt ; text-align: center; '>yeah it's the only game that gets better the more times I play it. the first couple just sucked ass but then it became fun once I got a hang of it</div>

<div style='font: 12pt "Cooper Black"; text-align: left; '>For some reason this game stranded me at the last level with no way to get out and my guys were wayyy too weak to move ahead. I suppose i could have hung around the save point and lvl'ed but i was mad that i couldnt go do sidequests to get better stuff so i quit and didnt pick it back up.

I think you have to do most side quests at disc 3 and not move onto 4 until you're ready?

Off topic, if you've ever watched the first Charlie's Angels movie, when Drew Barrymore gets shot at and falls out the window and lands in some peoples back yard with just the sheet. The kids who see her are playing FF8 on the tv but the movie shows both of the kids punching away at the controllers, there is no 2 player in FF8, FAKE!! That movie sucked.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Maybe I should pick up my old FF8 save, see if it does anything for me. My FF9 replay got stale. I might be losing patience for random battles.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>See I can't do that kinda stuff, just pick up where I left off, because when I played through FFVIII, it was like a whole new game cause I forgot just about EVERYTHING.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>After a certain amount of time, I can't pick up an old play through. During my replay of FF9, I've done the same thing - there's tons of stuff I have no memory of. I've already played through FF8 once, this is a playthrough that's on disc 2, I think.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>You can turn Random Battles off in Final Fantasy 8.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It's just up and right a bit and in sight of the Lighthouse.

On the ship, if you go back to it, you can learn some of the legend of Hyne, the God which humanity defeated a long time ago (see spoiler box for that along with some other stuff that kind of reveals important parts of the ending).

As for the junction system, I like it, the main way I go about things is I just refine as much as possible. For example, you can buy 10 Tents and refine them to 100 Curagas at the beginning of the game (assuming you know a lot of the testing material and get a huge income). It's major flaw though is that it is not balanced, you can get way too powerful during the early parts of the game, it is a fun system though. There are a lot of cool skills you can learn from GF's as well, Mad Rush is my second favourite, it essentially puts on all the protection spells, gives you haste, and gives you beserk. Card is my favourite, essentially it just turns a heavily damaged enemy into a card, and you still get any items or AP you would have normally received.You can also get Recover, Revive, Mug, Treatment, Encounter Half, and a number of other things. There are a ton of other abilities you can equip on as well that effect status, such as Str +40%, HP +80%, Elemental Attack, etc.... Making characters customizable by their GF's.

Anyways, I'm playing through the game myself right now, I just got the Ragnarok a few weeks ago and am finishing up all the side quests. The dialogue in FF8 is great too, it's some of the best dialgue ever in a videogame.

Don't forget Triple Triad either, you can get some DAMN good stuff from card refining. Even the items needed to build the Lionheart.

Also, another cool thing about FF8 are the magazines, you require a magazine first to learn how to do just about anything. I just wish they took this a step further with the magic system, in that you would require certain magazines (or some other item) before you could junction or use certain types of magic; it would have balanced the game out a lot more nicely. If they remade Final Fantasy 8 and just implemented this simple feature, then the game would, in my opinion, be the best RPG ever made.

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">It's just up and right a bit and in sight of the Lighthouse.

On the ship, if you go back to it, you can learn some of the legend of Hyne, the God which humanity defeated a long time ago (see spoiler box for that along with some other stuff that kind of reveals important parts of the ending).

As for the junction system, I like it, the main way I go about things is I just refine as much as possible. For example, you can buy 10 Tents and refine them to 100 Curagas at the beginning of the game (assuming you know a lot of the testing material and get a huge income). It's major flaw though is that it is not balanced, you can get way too powerful during the early parts of the game, it is a fun system though. There are a lot of cool skills you can learn from GF's as well, Mad Rush is my second favourite, it essentially puts on all the protection spells, gives you haste, and gives you beserk. Card is my favourite, essentially it just turns a heavily damaged enemy into a card, and you still get any items or AP you would have normally received.You can also get Recover, Revive, Mug, Treatment, Encounter Half, and a number of other things. There are a ton of other abilities you can equip on as well that effect status, such as Str +40%, HP +80%, Elemental Attack, etc.... Making characters customizable by their GF's.

Anyways, I'm playing through the game myself right now, I just got the Ragnarok a few weeks ago and am finishing up all the side quests. The dialogue in FF8 is great too, it's some of the best dialgue ever in a videogame.

Don't forget Triple Triad either, you can get some DAMN good stuff from card refining. Even the items needed to build the Lionheart.

Also, another cool thing about FF8 are the magazines, you require a magazine first to learn how to do just about anything. I just wish they took this a step further with the magic system, in that you would require certain magazines (or some other item) before you could junction or use certain types of magic; it would have balanced the game out a lot more nicely. If they remade Final Fantasy 8 and just implemented this simple feature, then the game would, in my opinion, be the best RPG ever made.</span></div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>My first time through to disk four I had the same difficulty, I could not get past Ultimecia because I didn't have several GF's, no Lionheart, or anything like that.

Anyways:

Junction any Ultima or Flair to your attack characters attacking.
Split Aura and Haste spells between everyone (these are essnetial)
Make sure you have Meltdown as well (you can draw it from Ultimecia), that spell works on her, and will weaken her. The first thing you do is cast haste, Aura, and then use Meltdown on her. If you have the Recover Ability, equip it on to the one who will be doing the healing. Aura will allow you to use Limit breaks at any time, not just while you're HP levels are in the yellow. NEVER let anyone stay dead for very long, so always have one character handy at all times (that means, don't just make everyone attack as soon as their action meter fills up, leave one ready to use life magic at any time, preferably your healer, as sometimes a Recover is all you'll need, though there is a Revive ability as well that you can use).

There are four final bosses: Ultimecia is the first, Griever is the second, Ultimecia/Griever is third, and Ultimecia in God form is fourth. Then there is the ending, and it is possibly the best ending in videogame history, and certainly by far the most relevent ending to an RPG that I can remember (unlike most Final Fantasy titles). Of course, if you haven't played the game in years, you probably won't understand a lot of the stuff that is going on in the ending, it ties deeply into the plot of the game. Final Fantasy 8 is very much the Fight Club of the Final Fantasy series, it is one of those games you'll have to play again (possibly a few times) before you can catch the significance of all the events that happen, the whole story ties together quite well.


Oh yeah, and if you are wondering, the only time I ever draw magic is when I have nothing else to do with a character in a fight, or occaisionally from bosses who have rare magic that I just can't pass up.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Spd-J is the key to win anything. Aura + Meltdown is pretty cheap too, though.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>I do that too, but for a different reason: I'll usually stop playing after I finish the game.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Yep, sounds about right, but I always throw haste on as well =)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>I just picked it up-- can SOMEONE explain to me how the fuck junction works? I mean I watched the freakin tutorials but I still don't really get how to make use of it</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>For example Ultima adds around 1 point of stat to any stat so if you've 100 charges of Ultima junctioned to strength, you get +100 strength. This number goes down as you use it of course

The most important stat to get is Str-J because high strength > anything. Magic is useful since it lets you draw faster. Everything else is secondary, except Spd-J but you don't get that until a while.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>what about the aeon-thingies? (forget their names) CF? They say only to use one at a time or they'll level too slow</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Guardian Forces. They teach you abilities or you can summon them, but all of their power pales compare to Meteor or Ultima Str-J. Just get the basic stat-J out of the way first, then learn whatever's useful (encounter none, recover, revive, etc.)</div>