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| Thread: Final Fantasy VIII | |
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Iris
Responsible
Supreme Hero
of Typos
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posted July 20, 2006 12:01 AM |
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Final Fantasy VIII
Okay! As DS pointed out, we've been randomly spamming threads with our FFVIII talks. So... let's make a topic and throw everything in here. 
The only thing I'm kind of worried about is having this thread turn into a flamefest. Even the most civil people have problems keeping a level head when discussing FFVIII. As I mentioned somehwere (can't remember where), this is perhaps the only game in the series to have as many fanatics as haters. So, just as a precaution, please do not spontaneous explode if someone disagrees with you! 
***Also, this thread will most likely contain spoilers, so read at your own expense!***
Okay, DS, come talk to me now. Mr_Niceguy, I'm also waiting for you! And Consis, you too! 
...Or maybe I should start with something. Hmm, junction system. What are your thoughts?
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mvassilev
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted July 20, 2006 12:15 AM |
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Aculias
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
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posted July 20, 2006 12:54 AM |
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Quistis was sexy with her glasses & the way she machine gunned that machanic spider  .
She loved Squall be he wanted none of that .
"Come on I am the instructor here & you have to do exactly what I say" .
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Dreaming of a Better World
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted July 20, 2006 01:02 AM |
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Junction System:
Absolutely hated it! Materia's linking in the previous FF game was the best system ever invented for a game. It had the user-friendly appeal of a Bill Gates microsoft operating system.
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Roses Are Red And So Am I
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Iris
Responsible
Supreme Hero
of Typos
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posted July 20, 2006 01:25 AM |
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Hmm, I was hoping for a little more discussion. Maybe that was a lame topic. Let's try this:
The FF series has a record for coming up with awful final bosses. FFVI and FFVII were the only two games to have the main villain as part of the final showdown.
FFVIII's final boss seems rather pointless: a sorceress from the future who wants to compress time. Pretty random. However, there is a rumor/theory going around that Ultimecia is actually Rinoa's future form. Has anyone heard this? Any thoughts?
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arkm1
Adventuring Hero
Cube Monkey
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posted July 20, 2006 01:42 AM |
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Edited by arkm1 at 01:43, 20 Jul 2006.
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Quote:
FFVIII's final boss seems rather pointless: a sorceress from the future who wants to compress time. Pretty random. However, there is a rumor/theory going around that Ultimecia is actually Rinoa's future form. Has anyone heard this? Any thoughts?
See this would explain so much about where Ultimecia came from. Sorceresses are supposed to live forever. Adel kept alive pretty well. That would also explain Griever more other than just saying she drew him out of Squall. I'm not quite sure they actually went this angle because they usually make this stuff more obvious, but I think you should apply for a job to write for Square .
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Dragon_Slayer
Honorable
Supreme Hero
toss toss toss
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posted July 20, 2006 09:23 AM |
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I actually liked the junction system in FF8. Once you learnt how it worked you were easily able to junction magic to various aspects of your character. It was good how you needed the abilities of certain GF's to junction to some stats. That was another good feature in my opinion.
The only draw back is there are so many places to junction magic on a character, but it can often be quiet hard to obtain enough of everything just to raise stats. not to mention once its junctioned, its not advisable to use that magic in battle.
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Iris
Responsible
Supreme Hero
of Typos
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posted July 20, 2006 04:47 PM |
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Edited by Iris at 00:26, 21 Jul 2006.
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Ready for a long post?
I didn't come up with that theory, you know. I just think it's interesting because it gives meaning to the final boss.
One thing at a time. First, my thoughts on junctioning. Because I am lazy, I'm just going to copy what I said elsewhere.
I feel like a lot of people didn't give junctioning a chance and just blew it off as being ineffective and time-consuming. This is one of those systems that if you know what you're doing, it's incredibly easy, but otherwise, it's incredibly hard. As DS mentioned, using Magic could lower your stats, depending on where it's junctioned. A friend of mine had Flare on his Magic Parameter in the final battle, and since Magic was his strongest stat, he kept casting Flare on Ultimecia, which resulted in lowering his stats after each cast.
However, if you've played with it a bit, you begin to see a pattern of what spells should go where. With the exception of Ultima, there is one spell that was meant for each parameter. For example, Meltdown drops the target's Vitality to 0, and coincidentally, it gives the biggest boost if junctioned to your own Vitality. Reflect deflects Magic, and gives the biggest boost if junctioned to your Spirit (Magic Resistance). Similarly, Triple gives the best stats to Speed, and Blind gives one of the best increase to Hit/Accuracy, etc., etc.
I personally have never had much trouble obtaining spells. I only drew on Disc 1. I get the rest of my stuff by refining (yay Menu Abilities). Another thing that people tend to dislike is the length of the summons and the dependence on GFs earlier in the game. Not true! If you junction correctly, you'll never need to summon again after the battle against Ifrit, which is... what, 5 minutes into the game?
Play the game right and you'll breeze through everything. My Rinoa had a raw strength of 175 (no, I didn't use Devour ), so with 100 Meteors junctioned to Strength, she's maxed out at 255.  Good fun.
Now a little about that theory. I didn't like it much when I first heard it, but over time, it sort of grew on me. It gives more depth to the story and does not render the final boss meaningless. I'll try to summarize the points of the theory:
Rinoa is a sorceress by the end of the game. It is implied in the game that sorceress do not age (look at Edea vs. Cid), and they either have prolonged life (Adel) or will be immortal until they pass on their powers (Ultimecia). If this were true, this would also apply to Rinoa, which means she will outlive all her friends, family, and her Knight.
If her grief-stricken state remains with her, it is likely she will go insane, and it would not be unlikely for her to use her powers to try and change the past (it worked when Ellone took Squall into Rinoa's past while they were in space). This would explain why Ultimecia (if she were Rinoa) wants to compress time, so that the present, past, and future will be one, and her Knight could once again be by her side. Further "proof" to this is Rinoa's words on the Ragnorak. "I don't want the future. I want the present to stand still. I just want to stay here with you..."
Another thing to note is the location of Ultimecia's Castle. It is anchored at the orphanage, the very place that contained the flower garden where they promised to meet at.
Finally, Ultimecia summons Griever in the final series of battle. If you remember, Squall gave his ring (Griever, or whatever you wanted to name it) to Rinoa during the game, and assuming he never asks for it back (), she should still have possession of it in the end. And assuming she never gets rid of it, it would explain how Ultimecia was able to summon it to battle.
Now, the intuitive questions would be, "If she wants to be with Squall again, then why would she try to kill him during the final confrontation?" As the theory goes, she would most likely be driven insane at this point, and would not remember Squall or why she wanted to compress time in the first place. Kind of a weak defense, but it could happen.
Of course, there are some other references, which I found to be weak, but I'll mention them anyway. In the final FMV, Ultimecia's face flashes over Rinoa's multiple times, and there are some similarities between their features. If I ever find that image, I'll post it. It does look quite convincing, but then again, most of the girls in the game have similar features, so not much of an argument there.
Another thing is the angel wings. Rinoa has white wings. Ultimecia has black wings. In the opening FMV, Rinoa starts with white wings, but there is a scene toward the end where the feathers have turned black, the same color as Ultimecia's wings. However, I think it was just done to contrast the white background.
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mr_niceguy
Famous Hero
of power
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posted July 21, 2006 10:13 AM |
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I enjoyed the junctioning system, it allowed someone to become insanely powerful without mass training 
something i would like to discuss however is peoples opinion about what happened in the prison, where Squall is in the basement, and zell is flooded with enemies, then Squall apears to come from a height and down killing all the enemies. How did he jump from a higher floor when he was on the lower floors?
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a stich in time saves nine... what the hell does that mean?
If u enjoy telling ur friends of how uve never been beaten with ur own legs, u'd rethink making a comment
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arkm1
Adventuring Hero
Cube Monkey
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posted July 21, 2006 06:23 PM |
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Quite frankly, magic was never that useful in FFVIII. There are some really good spells like Meltdown and Aura, but most of the time you just got by without them. Casting cure grade spells is needed, but they're so easy to refine there's no reason to spend a lot of time drawing them.
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Aculias
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
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posted July 21, 2006 08:46 PM |
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Dragon Slayer looked like the Spynx after I spanked it in Ultemecias castle
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Dreaming of a Better World
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grunancross
Famous Hero
King of the Underdark
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posted August 05, 2006 10:54 PM |
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This final fantasy game was prolly the worst of all.
Any game where there are not massive amounts of weapons and armor is not gunna be very entertaining. With that fact and a alot of needless talking. bah
Got to have alot of killing, alot of gold alot of items <weapons armor ect> and alot mopre killing.
Not a bad story tho, Jap. and US. versions both easy to beat.
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orbvius
Adventuring Hero
Oblivious
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posted August 09, 2006 07:40 PM |
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Quote:
This final fantasy game was prolly the worst of all.
Any game where there are not massive amounts of weapons and armor is not gunna be very entertaining. With that fact and a alot of needless talking. bah
Got to have alot of killing, alot of gold alot of items <weapons armor ect> and alot mopre killing.
Not a bad story tho, Jap. and US. versions both easy to beat.
I think Final Fantasy X is a worse game.
VIII isn't that bad though.
As long as you abuse Final Fantasy series games hard and complete it fast enough its fun, or at least thats what I can think of.
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mr_niceguy
Famous Hero
of power
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posted August 19, 2006 03:24 PM |
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I'm wondering what people's strategies to defeat the final boss was, my strategy was actually pretty cheap and was pretty much the lazy players way out (but i devised it without the help of walkthroughs) 
I began by junctioning everything i had to Rinoa and Squall and gave the other characters nothing because they usually didnt do alot and just die. From what i remember Rinoa had auto haste, haste junctioned to her speed and meteors as her only attack spell and 9999 health from junctioning regens to her hp, Squall had 9999 health because of junctioning too I also had 1 or 2 aura stones
Then I kept trying untill i got Rinoa or Squall in my begining party. I got Rinoa and got her to use angel wing, let my other characters die and kept her on Angel wing for the rest of the battle (re activating it when the bosses change) when Squall came out (who also had alot of hastes junctioned to him) I got him to use an aura stone on himself and continually use Renzuken (or however you spell it) and if either rinoa or squall were hurt at all i'd get him to use a mega-elixer (i had 100 from refining a card, i cant remember which)
I just continued this untill the boss finally died. I'd like to hear other peoples methods, as mine seems pretty cheap, using the easy ways out.
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a stich in time saves nine... what the hell does that mean?
If u enjoy telling ur friends of how uve never been beaten with ur own legs, u'd rethink making a comment
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Iris
Responsible
Supreme Hero
of Typos
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posted August 19, 2006 06:49 PM |
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Final Boss
Similarly, I make sure that Squall and Rinoa are fully junctioned. I don't really care who the last person is.
This is what I normally have junctioned to my parameters.
HP: Full-Life
Str: Ultima/Aura
Vit: Meltdown
Mag: Ultima/Pain
Spr: Reflect
Spd: Triple
Eva: Tornado
Hit: Double/Blind
Luck: Aura/Pain
I like to max out my characters, so all 6 of them will have 9999 HP without any of that +HP% stuff. And I make sure everyone has Auto-Haste from Kiros's card.
FFVIII doesn't work with Windows XP, so I can't take screenshots of the game anymore, so this'll have to do. This is a copy of a chart I had for my walkthrough against Omega. I guess it can be applied for the final boss, too.
So when battle starts, Rinoa goes into Angel Wing and goes crazy with Meteors. Then I go and get something drink and come back to watch the ending. Yay.
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dkolb
Promising
Known Hero
Nay Nay and Aslan Protector
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posted August 29, 2006 08:10 AM |
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"FFVIII's final boss seems rather pointless: a sorceress from the future who wants to compress time. Pretty random. However, there is a rumor/theory going around that Ultimecia is actually Rinoa's future form. Has anyone heard this? Any thoughts?"
hrm..never thought about it like that but you might be on to something.
She wasn't a very developed character though.
ah I love FF8! It's still my favorite FF, Squall is one of my fav. all time characters.
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted July 11, 2007 07:55 PM |
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Edited by Consis at 19:56, 11 Jul 2007.
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*sigh* .......Nostalgia
What a wonderful story. It's so difficult to follow along in the game. They put scenes and fight sequences where they shouldn't. It's almost as if there were two completely seperate teams: game developers and the c.g. sequences. The game developers totally focused on the gaming aspects. The c.g. sequence creators focused on making a movie. When it was all said and done the game was made and then somebody hacked up the movie and threw it into the game in horribly difficult to follow bits and pieces. The good news is people have re-assembled the movie and dubbed great music over it for the internet. It's great because people can finally watch the movie that was meant to be watched as a whole.
I just love the story of the orphan Squall meeting and falling in love with Rinoa, the daughter of a military general (or at least that's who she was raised by). I also feel I understand somewhat the behavior and feelings of Seifer: the young brash youth who tries so hard to get people to like him for his physical prowess and ends up so misunderstood. It's really sad how the young lovers can't seem to find enough time with each other. Squall simply doesn't understand women and Rinoa just laughs at him for every confusing moment he has. I just love it.
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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I
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mvassilev
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted July 11, 2007 08:05 PM |
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Quote:
I just love the story of the orphan Squall meeting and falling in love with Rinoa, the daughter of a military general (or at least that's who she was raised by).
In case you missed it, General Caraway (I think that's his name) is Rinoa's biological father as well. Remember, he comfored Julia after Laguna left on his mission (and everyone thought he died).
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Eccentric Opinion
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Homer171
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted July 11, 2007 08:47 PM |
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Quote:
Similarly, I make sure that Squall and Rinoa are fully junctioned. I don't really care who the last person is.
Now that would be Selphie whit The End ability
I doubt i ever beated Omega whitout that skill but in other FF games i beated the secret bosses fair.
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