Replaying FF8/FF9

[Sculptured]

It's funny, when you face Krysta, you're pretty much force to use GFs. I remember first time getting stuck on him since I over-leveled and his counters were way too much for me to handle. Little did I know, you use GFs on the guy and he doesn't counter attack. That was probably the first time I ever had to spam GFs.

[ReiaVasilis]

What you need to decide right off is whether you just want to play ff8 for old time sake and for fun, or if you want to create a game where your characters are ultra powerful.

Do not power level in ff8, as people have already mentioned here enemies level with you.

I actually equipped my GF's to Seifer (one at a time) in the dollet exam and had him level them up while I killed Zell and Squall off. So I could get the GF's to level 100 and learn all their abilities while preventing my main party from leveling up.

So I got them and Seifer as well to level 100. I won't lie it takes some time to get 3 GF's and Seifer to level 100. But because he leveled so did the Galbadian soldiers meaning their fire, thunder and blizzard spells leveled up as well. So I drew the 3 levels of those spells, traded them to another party member, drew again then traded etc until Zell, Squall and Quistis all had them

Then I revived Zell and Squall, finished the mission because you gain no experience from boss battles, and everyone had 100 stocked of those plus the healing spells etc. Then you junction lvl 100 Ifrit to Squall, place a lvl 3 element spell like Blizzaga on his strength and watch him destroy things on lvl 7 or 8 for the entire game.

(Actually there are two times in the game that you can do this, equip your GF's to a non-essential party member, whilst killing off the main party and leveling the GF's. Once as I said in Dollet and then again in Eshtar with Edea in the party)

The idea is to run from battles while only fighting bosses for the no experience thing. Although if you are opposed to running using the card-mod ability will prevent experience gain for everyone but GF's while still winning the battle. Then on disk 3 once you have the Ragnarok go to the island closest to hell equip the stats bonuses, stock up all the powerful spells.

SAVE. Then use Quistis's degenerator limit to kill the enemy and her level will skyrocket with the stats bonuses from the GF's you acquired throughout the game gaining her a a plus 1 to each stat with a bonus equipped each time she goes up a level. Get her to level 100 junction exchange to someone else and then repeat the use degenerator while gaining experience for the new party member.

And then if you are really determined to max out the stats you can devour monsters and gain stat bonuses that way as well.

[Ca0 Pi]

In Final Fantasy VIII it is easy to draw off that have cure, cura, or curaga. They usally have powerful magic that you can also draw. If your health gets low while drawing just draw and cast cure on yourself and allies. If you want Ultima very early in the game. On disk 2 travel to shumi village and pay 5,000 gil to use the draw point its best to have Rinoa draw because she will get 9 or more most of the time.

[MidniteSKYE]

Transatlantic Airship

I've started up a collection of FF games (thanks to my new PS2 and the PSN) and have decided to replay FF8 and FF9.

+Any tips for these two games in particular? (characters to use, items to get, etc)
+Are ultimate weapons easy/fun to obtain (unlike FFX ): )
+Anything relevant

Also, for added discussion, which of these games did you like more? Think was worse?

For FF8, just remember:
"The forests of Timber sure have changed..."
"...but the Owls are still around"

Lol its been almost TEN YEARS since I played FF8 but I remember that line!
And Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is a baller in FF8 with his line, "Where is the dimensional interval" as he walks away/vanishes like a boss.

As for my favorite? Well those were my favorite two FFs, but I liked FF8 a little better.

[ShikiTohno04]

I've played VIX and it was fun.

[Open-minded-Person]

If you decide to get strat guides offa amazon or ebay. 8 will help ya, but 9 you are better off using something like gamefaqs or something if you are into collecting 'everything'. You can get the game and still get a good amount of optional stuff, but... Whose bright idea was it to have 'go to playonline.com' for half the freckin' book.

[s_eternity]

Sculptured

It's funny, when you face Krysta, you're pretty much force to use GFs. I remember first time getting stuck on him since I over-leveled and his counters were way too much for me to handle. Little did I know, you use GFs on the guy and he doesn't counter attack. That was probably the first time I ever had to spam GFs.

Who's Krysta? I don't remember that enemy in the game. Or is that an optional enemy?

[Skanktits]

FF VIII - People keep saying to not power-level, but it truly doesn't matter. The enemy difficulty will be the same whether you are level 20, and level 100. Enemies level up with you, so the difficulty SHOULD stay the same. It's frustrating going through the game with level 30 characters. It's more personally pleasing with level 100 characters. I waited till Disc 3 to level up to 100. I went to the Island Closest to Heaven/Hell and junctioned Death into Status Attack. One hit kills on most of the enemies and they each had 1000-2000 EXP. A level a battle.
For Ultimecia's Castle, I used Squall, Rinoa, and Zell. With all my stats maxed out, Rinoa's limits were incredible, Zell's Duel was strong, and Squall's Lionheart killed MOST of the Ultimecia bosses in one limit break. Stock up on Aura's the FIRST chance you get. The second I did that, I barely used my GF's. Do every side-quest because the side-quests are more fun than the actual game at times.. I.E. Bahamut and Omega Weapon - good stuff. If you're the type of person that likes a perfect game, then do all that. If you're the type of person that wants to beat the game, then don't bother power-leveling, or getting Bahamut, Eden, Cactuar, Tonberry, or Doomtrain. Most of them take time. Eden you can draw at Ultimecia, Bahamut is actually really easy.. Doomtrain is annoying because of the Malboros, and Cactuar and Tonberry are just annoying.

FF IX - My ALL time favorite Final Fantasy. Hands down. I always got questioning looks as to why I used certain characters in different parts of the game. Whenever I come in contact with Eiko, I always stop what I'm doing, and train her, Dagger, and Vivi. Because you only have access to them anyway. Most people don't like Eiko because no matter how strong you are, there she is at level 16 or something. Level her up and you won't be upset. By the end of the game, my party had an average level of 70. Pair Eiko with Half MP, and use Holy every turn - 12 MP - 9999 damage. Dagger - Keep all your gems because the more you have, the stronger Summons. Stock up on Amethysts because Atomos can deal 9999 to enemies that are affected by Gravity. You have to have Zidane in your party, so just level him up and get his strength through the roof. Get his Ultimate Weapon through Chocobo Hot and Cold (Seriously, do this in Disc 1,2, and 3 because it will make the bosses seem like Goblins.) Freya - GET her final weapon. I always Jumped her because if there was a fatal attack, she's in the air and avoids it. My battles were boring towards the end because it was the same thing over and over.
Zidane - Attack until trance.
Eiko - Holy - When dead character - Full Life.
Freya - Jump
Dagger - Summons/Eidolons till the party needed curing. Curaga - R1 on the whole party.

I mean, I had fun playing the games, but explore them for yourself. I finally finished all the FFIX side-quests, and absolutely EVERYTHING that I could and my time counter is at 82 hours. It's an amazing game with countless fun times. And the characters are incredible. (:

[ManicShadow]

Never played FF9. But all I can say about FF8 is this:

******** Rinoa. She's about as useful and exciting as bowl of soup. Last time I played, while all my other characters' levels were in the 60s, she was still level 20, because of her tendency to faint and get herself kidnapped every 10 minutes. I just wasn't interested in catching her up to everyone else.

[Marrionette89]

Get all of the GFs in FFVIII.

If you don't, you will be seriously disappointed at the ending after the hard work you did in beating the game. HUrrhurr emotion_awesome emotion_awesome

[Aromaticgrassitem]

FF8 is great and deserves spin-offs/sequels,
Thats what I say... mmmhm.

[sealstar90]

FF8

You don't have to kill the monsters to end the battle, just draw whatever magical spells you desire and then just leave.

Learn Card Mod from the Quetzalcoatl summon ASAP. It's one of the most important things in the game.

Have Rinoa in your party even if she ends up sort of annoying you. Her limit breaks are really powerful and extremely deadly. Maybe even the most powerful within the whole game.

Don't get Odin till about CD 3 because he's a random summon and if you don't want to LV up he can ruin that extremely easily; he can be a right pain in the butt.

Try and become a expert at the Card Game. You can get rare magic and 100 magical spells if you get and Card Mod rare cards if you manage to defeat the right people in battle. Always save before challenging people; so if you mess up you can just restart the game.


FF9

If you struggle with a boss, always try and cast a Tent on it. A Tent during battle can cast poison and silence on a boss; but do it first thing because you could end up healing the boss.

Always steal during boss fights. Most of the best weapons you can get earlier in the game if you steal from them.

Always try and Zidane's trance CLOSE to the end before a boss fight. If you can't defeat a boss, save and fight monsters till you get his trance pretty close to the end. Then unleash the fury.

I find the best characters in battle to be Eiko, Steiner, Freya, Quina and Vivi.

During the last dungeon you don't have to have Zidane in your party so try and use that to your advantage because some of the last bosses work better without him in the party.

[Silly Pudding]

In FFVIII make sure to play the cardgame a lot early on. Speak to the guy by the elevator shortly after meeting Selphie, his set will get you started. In the Garden you can then challenge a lot of students for better cards. The Card Mod ability (from Quezacotl I think) helps in getting handy items early on. Then learn the various skills from GF's that turn items into magic/status spells. It helps you get 100 deaths, and when junctioning (equipping) them to status attack then it's often a one hit kill on normal enemies.

Use the magical lamp right after obtaining it (save before that), and draw Demi from Diablos (never try to cast it right away, never works. First try and stock it, that's hard enough). The one casting demi will then be healed by Diablos. Use Selphie's limit break to heal the entire party when needed. When demi starts doing less than 500 damage or so then it's time to switch to physical attacks to defeat him.

Getting 100 ultima equipped to elemental defence will make you absorb elemental spells if I'm correct.

For a good seed rank, avoid using gf's. When you get aura magic (or stones) then rely on limit breaks all the time. They deal more damage than gf's, especially later on.

Try to get Odin early on, his surprise attacks wipe out the enemy before the battle even starts, it's a great help.

[Daggger]

I've never played FF8. I really want to though.
FF9 is my most favorite game ever. See username.

For FF9:
Do as many side quests as you are able. Collect all the stellazio coins and do the Chocobo side quests. You get all the best items from those. Make sure you learn all the abilities, support and main.
My favorite character to use was Dagger. She could do a large amount of damage with her summons and still heal a lot.
My least used character was Eiko. She was really weak and was prone to dying just because her HP is never high. But her Full Life spell and her summons were pretty good.
Don't even both getting a strategy guide either. Go here: http://www.ffinsider.net/. It's where I went for most of my questions and problems. I used it so much I finally just started making my own guide. And it has info on other FFs too, although I don't know how useful those are. If you can't find the answer there, usually you can somewhere else on the web. Good luck!

[cmdood]

Personally, I HATED 8. 1 dimensional characters, boring fight sequences, and odd story. Haven't played all the way through 9 yet though, but it's fun so far.
Tip for 8: absorb magic from every possible boss and even enemy.