<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There are several elements that need to be taken into account for this system.
Magic: can be acquired a couple of different ways; you can draw it from enemies and refine it from items or cards. Any character can have between 0 and 100 points, so for example if you have 10 points of magic, you can cast the spell 10 times. The main use of the magic in this game is that it can be junctioned to increase your stats. The amount of magic and the type of magic will generally judge how much your stats increase; For example, 100 points of Thunder junctioned to your Strength stat will be less effective than 100 points of Thundera (Thunder 2) junctioned to it, 10 points of Thunder would be less effective than 100 points.
Guardian Forces: Are like Espers in Final Fantasy III, but they serve many more purposes (much more than any other summon creatures in any other game). They can be equipped on, and they kind of work like armour or relics in this case. They begin with relatively few skills, and like characters in Final Fantasy Tactics, you can pick a skill for it to learn, and it will gather AP each battle and learn those skills once the designated amount of ability points is reached (For example, Ifrit might want to learn the skill Strength +20% which requires 60 AP I think. Each battle you get some AP for winning, and when Ifrit has acquired the designated amount of AP, he learns the ability, then you go choose the next one); you can also get scrolls which when used will give your GF (Guardian Force) an ability for free, for example, if you have an STR junction Scroll, you can use it on any of your GF's to give it the STR junction ability.
There are many different abilities that GF's can learn, they include Magic junction abilities (which I will explain in a moment), Enhancement abilities, and usable abilities:
Magic junction abilities allow you to junction magic to your character to increase his/her statistics (as kind of explained above). Some of the basic ones are Str junction, Vit junction, and HP junction. HP Junction will allow you to junction magic to your character to increase HP, Vit junction will allow you to junction magic to your character to increase their vitality (which is a stat that defends against physical damage), Str junction allows magic to be junctioned to your character to increase strength. You can pick and choose what magic you want to be junctioned to each stat; so when you junction Ultima to strength, for example, all of your Ultima magic points will be used to increase your strength rating.
Enhancement abilities include such things as Str +40%, Encounter None, status attack, etc... Each character has a few slots which they can equip these abilities with (so you can only have a few equipped at a time). An example of this would be HP +80% which when equipped to your character, increases HP by 80% (Str +40% works in the same way).
Usable abilities include (among many others) Item, Defend, Draw, Recover, Revive: You equip these on to your characters (in another section different from the one used to equip Enhancement abilities. This section allows for 4 things to be equipped on for each character (so if you played Final Fantasy III, it is like Gogo). These are the abilities that you select in battle to fight with. Different GF's have different abilities, so one might have Mad Rush for example which can be used in battle (essentially when used it casts Haste, Beserk, and protection on all your characters), another might have treatment, another revive, so in this way GF's kind of act like the job classes in Final Fantasy Tactics.
You can equip as many GF's to your characters as you want, but it is wise to spread them out because you don't want to have only one useful character.
In a nutshell, essentially junctioning magic to yourself is equipping magic to enhance your stats, it is like armour and relics in previous FF games, only a lot more elaborate. Instead of just having a right arm, left arm, head, and body to have things equipped to, you have Strength, vitality, spirit, status defense, speed, etc.... and then you also have enhancement abilities and usable skills to be equipped on as well.
Another interesting thing about Final Fantasy 8 are Magazines: You gain magazines throughout the game by buying or finding them, these allow you to learn new Limit Break moves, teach you how to build new weapons (you don't buy your weapons, you make them, you require certain items to make each weapon, and you also require the magazine for it. So if you wanted the Lion Heart Gunblade for example, you would first require the magazine which it is listed in, and then you would require all the necessary parts to build it. You can acquire items through battle or by buying them, there are dozens upon dozens of different types of items (screws, pulse ammo, antidotes, tents, adamantine, etc...).
Lastly is the Triple Triad game, a card game which you can play to win cards, cards can be collected or refined into items and items in turn can be refined into magic. But it's late, I'll explain this later.</div>
Magic: can be acquired a couple of different ways; you can draw it from enemies and refine it from items or cards. Any character can have between 0 and 100 points, so for example if you have 10 points of magic, you can cast the spell 10 times. The main use of the magic in this game is that it can be junctioned to increase your stats. The amount of magic and the type of magic will generally judge how much your stats increase; For example, 100 points of Thunder junctioned to your Strength stat will be less effective than 100 points of Thundera (Thunder 2) junctioned to it, 10 points of Thunder would be less effective than 100 points.
Guardian Forces: Are like Espers in Final Fantasy III, but they serve many more purposes (much more than any other summon creatures in any other game). They can be equipped on, and they kind of work like armour or relics in this case. They begin with relatively few skills, and like characters in Final Fantasy Tactics, you can pick a skill for it to learn, and it will gather AP each battle and learn those skills once the designated amount of ability points is reached (For example, Ifrit might want to learn the skill Strength +20% which requires 60 AP I think. Each battle you get some AP for winning, and when Ifrit has acquired the designated amount of AP, he learns the ability, then you go choose the next one); you can also get scrolls which when used will give your GF (Guardian Force) an ability for free, for example, if you have an STR junction Scroll, you can use it on any of your GF's to give it the STR junction ability.
There are many different abilities that GF's can learn, they include Magic junction abilities (which I will explain in a moment), Enhancement abilities, and usable abilities:
Magic junction abilities allow you to junction magic to your character to increase his/her statistics (as kind of explained above). Some of the basic ones are Str junction, Vit junction, and HP junction. HP Junction will allow you to junction magic to your character to increase HP, Vit junction will allow you to junction magic to your character to increase their vitality (which is a stat that defends against physical damage), Str junction allows magic to be junctioned to your character to increase strength. You can pick and choose what magic you want to be junctioned to each stat; so when you junction Ultima to strength, for example, all of your Ultima magic points will be used to increase your strength rating.
Enhancement abilities include such things as Str +40%, Encounter None, status attack, etc... Each character has a few slots which they can equip these abilities with (so you can only have a few equipped at a time). An example of this would be HP +80% which when equipped to your character, increases HP by 80% (Str +40% works in the same way).
Usable abilities include (among many others) Item, Defend, Draw, Recover, Revive: You equip these on to your characters (in another section different from the one used to equip Enhancement abilities. This section allows for 4 things to be equipped on for each character (so if you played Final Fantasy III, it is like Gogo). These are the abilities that you select in battle to fight with. Different GF's have different abilities, so one might have Mad Rush for example which can be used in battle (essentially when used it casts Haste, Beserk, and protection on all your characters), another might have treatment, another revive, so in this way GF's kind of act like the job classes in Final Fantasy Tactics.
You can equip as many GF's to your characters as you want, but it is wise to spread them out because you don't want to have only one useful character.
In a nutshell, essentially junctioning magic to yourself is equipping magic to enhance your stats, it is like armour and relics in previous FF games, only a lot more elaborate. Instead of just having a right arm, left arm, head, and body to have things equipped to, you have Strength, vitality, spirit, status defense, speed, etc.... and then you also have enhancement abilities and usable skills to be equipped on as well.
Another interesting thing about Final Fantasy 8 are Magazines: You gain magazines throughout the game by buying or finding them, these allow you to learn new Limit Break moves, teach you how to build new weapons (you don't buy your weapons, you make them, you require certain items to make each weapon, and you also require the magazine for it. So if you wanted the Lion Heart Gunblade for example, you would first require the magazine which it is listed in, and then you would require all the necessary parts to build it. You can acquire items through battle or by buying them, there are dozens upon dozens of different types of items (screws, pulse ammo, antidotes, tents, adamantine, etc...).
Lastly is the Triple Triad game, a card game which you can play to win cards, cards can be collected or refined into items and items in turn can be refined into magic. But it's late, I'll explain this later.</div>
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
