Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Series

Rangoth said:

Ok, still playing through the FF's so I can get up to the latest.

Just finished FF7, which I did play back in the day. Overall the experience was the same and I did not bother to perfect play it or anything, just tried to enjoy the game but picking different characters than I did back when I was a kid. I was able to get beast mode pretty quickly to trivialize most of the content and I didn't even do it on purpose

Ohh well, not much to say since that is probably the most popular FF, glad to have redone it!

So now I started FF8(The remastered version if that matters) and I hate it so far. This stupid "draw" system to get magic sucks. I basically spend the entire battle NOT killing things and trying to draw as much magic as I can because it makes my summon things(GF) stronger when I link them. This also makes me not really want to cast much during battle.

Sometimes when I cast cure it heals me for 300hp and other times 70hp, I cannot figure out why. You can "cast" from a monsters pool of magic, same one you draw from but that seems pointless. I am not a fan of the graphics either. It's like they wanted to try and make it modern and the angles and movement are just off.

I'm also told that monsters level with you and leveling is basically garbage in this game. It's 100% about the drawing magic to link it to my critters and make me powerful....and of course linking the right element/status effects to the right offensive/defense for the situation.


Am I missing something?

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FF8 dropped on the first day of high school for me so I have all this deep nostalgia for it (particularly the school setting of Balamb Garden) and how the uncertainty of the characters matched my own uncertainty with not being sure if I could handle this new school. So I really love FF8 for those reasons, but if I were to step back and look at it objectively, it really is one of the weakest FFs. Probably in the bottom third of the series if I were to rank them.

All of that said, people have probably already given you a ton of info, but I'll say that it's really important to not level grind in FF8. Just level normally and avoid battles if you feel like it. The enemies level up when you do, and if you get to the endgame at level 70 or so like I did the first time, you'll be boned because the end bosses will be way stronger. The game never tells you any of this so that's great. This also means that you can go in the other direction and get to the endgame at like level 10-20 and basically gimp the finale.

If you haven't leveled too much you should be fine. I wouldn't go above 30 ever in FF8 myself. Midway through the game you get access to an Encounter-None ability (I think from the Diablo GF) and once that's learned, I just avoid battles entirely for the rest of the game.

Drawing 99 of everything is also super unnecessary, just look for the key crucial spells that really up stats. Things like Double, Triple, Flare, Tornado, etc. Can get a lot of those from refining cards if you get into the card game, or draw them later on.

First time I played the game, at the end I was level 70ish and had been relying on GF summons for most of the game, so my character abilities sucked, stats weren't great, etc, and the endgame bosses steamrolled me. I somehow won after many many tries. Second time through, about two years later, I kept my levels low, turned off encounters for the second half or so of the game, and drew 99 Triple etc on everyone for their attack stats, along with whatever else gave a lot of stat points. Reached the final bosses at like level 22 with probably better stats than I had previously at level 70, this time I steamrolled them.

Arbitrary said:

Ok, so. FF8.

Drawing sucks. What doesn't suck is playing Triple Triad for cards and refining those cards through GF abilities in to items and magic. Here's what you can do. Start a new game and run from everything in the first cave. Gain zero exp until you get put in a group with Seifer. Equip him with all of your GFs including Diablos (he's weak to his own Demi) and then knock unconcious the other characters. With only Seifer then grind until you unlock half encounter and zero encounter from Diablos. While you're doing this you'll also be unlocking Card and the different refinement skills. For the entire game you will never have a single random enounter. Boss encounters award no exp so you will never level and never have monsters leveling along with you. You can just go through the game doing the shit you want to do.

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Didn't think of using Seifer to do all the skill-learning, that's brilliant for a full power-game. Only really available early on though.

I've got an FF8 Remastered save file that's pretty early (Timber, I think) where everyone is crazy powerful from playing Triple Triad and refining. I think I followed one of those PrimalLiquid guides on Youtube that tell you how to get ultra OP early in games.

I don't think he needs to mess with Triple Triad much on a first run, or completely overpower the game right out of the gate. Just keeping levels under control and keeping a lookout for good spell draws is key. Early on, Double is the best junctioning spell, so grab like 99 of those on all 3 of your chosen characters the first chance you get. Other than that I wouldn't sit and draw 99 of anything.

There any trick to beating Diabolos early on? I always have issues with that fight. Usually fight him with Laguna's group so I can hear the rad battle theme, usually takes me a few tries. And I think I usually get it close to the end of Disc 1, because I never have Encounter-None until some point in early Disc 2. Considering most people get him done way earlier than that, I'm probably missing something obvious.

Rangoth said:

I just did that and yes, I drew the siren. Interestingly not even due to a guide, just because I've trained my simpleton brain to draw on everything for new shit.

Now I went into some training forest and fought a T-REX for at least 15 minutes(not exaggerating), probably did over 25k damage to it and it still did not die. I am level 15, so I am guessing I fucked up on the leveling shit.

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I think the t-rex is like some kind of optional early superboss type thing that you don't have to fight. Also it's weak to either blind or sleep, can't remember.