FFVIII Advice & suggestions.

[G.SummonerBWM]

I just got my shipment of FFVIII & I'm feeling like playing it right after I check up on things in fiesta. I really want to know all of your ideas & advices to see how do you really like the game & what do you want to tell me that I should know. It would be very much appreciated.

[Desert Warrior]

Here's some advice:

1. Don't level up. The enemies will level up with you, becoming stronger and making it more difficult.

2. Avoid using spells. You can junction spells to you, making you stronger. If you use spells, just draw from the enemy and cast from there.

3. Draw from every boss. They may have a GF. If you miss drawing a GF from a boss, you wouldn't be able to get that GF until disk 4.

4. To easily obtain AP for your GFs, go to the southernmost continent when you get a vehicle that can do so. On that continent is a desert. In the desert, you can fight Cactuars. Cactuars give off 20 AP, and very little Exp.

5. You can upgrade your weapons without finding the proper magazine. Just get the required materials.

[G.SummonerBWM]

Thanks. Oh yea! Is it true that I can get Squall's strongest weapon in disk 1? That what I heard & read anyways.

[Desert Warrior]

Yeah, it's true.

[G.SummonerBWM]

Um. Why that's a bad thing? I don't want to stay level 1 forever & I'm one of those people who be leveling real fast. I like to fight a lot of enemies to improve my characters anyways.

[Desert Warrior]

You won't be at level 1 forever. It's impossible to stay that low a level. I believe the lowest level you can beat the game at is 6.

And you don't want to level up because the enemies will level up with you. They become stronger. And when you level up, the stat changes aren't very good. Just know this now: Leveling up doesn't really improve your characters. Your main source of stat raising is through junctioning. Which is why I said don't cast your own magic. Through junctioning, you can make your characters awesome quickly. You junction magic to a stat to raise it. And the more uses of that magic you have, the better the stat raise is. Heck, on my current file my characters are around level 10 and the enemies barely do any damage at all.

[G.SummonerBWM]

I was playing the game as Squall at level 7 at the beginning & when I started, I found it very hard for me to slow down the leveling, seeing that I be drawing a lot of spells & be wanting to have my G.F's learn abilities. I got the junction down real good, but I was having a real hard time winning the card game because I kept on losing & didn't understand it until yesterday. What should I do? Should I slow down my leveling some & to slow down on the G.F ap gaining or should I just turn the enemies into cards more often?

Right now, I just left Dollet & had defeated that Machine. XD That FFVIII demo was what helped me a lot with him, so I really didn't have no problems. I be using my G.F's a lot, especially when I was using Squall in the training area against this big dinosaur. I almost kept on dieing to him somewhere around 6 & my G.F.'s be saving me back there & I see that I'm more of a magic G.F. summoning player. Shiva is more of my main because she do a lot of damage. Right now, Squall is lv 21, Selphie is lv 12 I think & Zell is lv 13 or 14 & Quistis is lv 10. Any advice & suggestions is appreciated from everyone.

[Desert Warrior]

Get Diablos. You get him in that Magical Lamp Cid gave you. To easily beat him, draw and cast Demi. It lowers his health very quickly.

Diablos is incredibly useful. An ability he learns is mug, so you can attack enemies and get those items required to get better weapons.

And to stop leveling up, run away from every fight you can. You can still get AP from boss battles. And once you're on disc 2, you'll get something to cross the ocean with. Then go to the southernmost continent and find the desert (Yes, there will be some walking included). Once in the desert, fight Cactaurs. Each killed Cactaur gives off 20 AP. So kill two, and get 40 AP. The main problem with Cactuars is that they run away. So what I do is in another battle, attack Squall until his health is yellow. Then against the Cactuars, use his Renzokuken. It will kill off any Cactuar.

To use it, wait till Squall has an action. Then keep on pressing triangle until a little arrow pointing to the right appears next to attack. Hold right, and select the action. That works for any character's limit break.

And for gaining GF abilities, I prefer to learn boost, then every type of juction the GF has first. And get Quetzicotl's (sp?) Card Mod ability. It can turn your cards into items. Extremely helpful.

Boost is great. During a GF's attack animation, hold down select and press square as many times as you can. It will make the attacks stronger.

[dualblade]

Its been a while since I last played,but I would suggest getting as many Aura spells as possible.I dont know what their junction function is (hehe),but they make using your special attacks way easier

[G.SummonerBWM]

I had already got Diablos when Cid wanted to send me off to Timber. I'm still on Disc 1 at Galbadia & Squall is lv 33 or 34 I think. Shiva is almost lv 40 along with Quezacotl & Ifrit. Diablos is lv 13 I think & Siren is in the lv 20's. I've been refining a lot & I just now got Rinoa's & Quistis 2nd weapon. I've been drawing a lot of spells & be making those 1st lv spells go up to the 2nd lv spells. I find it impossible to take Squall out of the party since he's the main character throughout the whole game.

I also be turning monsters into cards & make those cards into items. If I ever need more, I just go on & win some more. That's how I was able to get Rinoa & Quistis' 2nd weapon. I'm thinking about going right back to either Dollet or Timber to play some card games but I really don't like the rules like Random. I decided to level up a whole lot more so I will be able to have the G.F. activate new abilities & they level up way quicker than the characters. I already had the boost ability for all of my G.F except Diablos for some reason. He don't have it. The card mod ability, I had went & had him activated that at the very beginning of Disc 1 while I had Squall fight in the training area. I'm still having a little more problem with having Rinoa & the others able to level up because it seems that Squall is leveling up 2-3x as fast than them. Quistis is level 18 because of the Laguna past thing & Selphie is level 17 like Quistis because of the Laguna past thing. Is that what makes Squall level up so fast or what?