FINAL FANTASY 8
SPEED FAQ/WALKTHROUGH
BY: Meh1 and Edman
VERSION: 1.0
This is a guide to help you play the game in an easy, quick manner.
It's fine for first-time players and veterans of the game. Note
that the focus of this guide is to make the game very easy, so you
won't find things like optional quests or collecting rare items.
It just tells you how to breeze through the game. I will also skip
any basic instructions that you can find in in-game tutorials or
the instruction manual. So if you don't understand something, check
those places first. If you still have trouble, e-mail me and I'll
help you. I'll also add those things in on my next update.
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COPYRIGHT
This guide is copyright (c) Meh1 (
[email protected]) and Edman
(
[email protected]). All copying, including digital formats is
prohibited and is a break of the copyright. If you wish to use this
guide on your site, you must ask permission first. After you have
been granted permission, you can post it up. Neither of us won't say
'No', the only thing we require is a kind email from you.
Feel free to email us with questions and feedback.
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CONTENTS
I. Explanation of Levels and Junctions
II. Doing a Speed Game
III. Disc 1 Walkthrough
IV. Disc 2 Walkthrough
V. Disc 3 Walkthrough
VI. Disc 4 Walkthrough
VII. Credits & others
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I. EXPLANATION OF LEVELS AND JUNCTIONS
The levels in Final Fantasy 8 work completely differently from most
RPGs that are around, and it's different than any other Final Fantasy.
The level of your enemies depends on the average level of your party.
So, if you have 3 party members at levels 30, 28 and 32, then your
enemies level will be around 30 (but not always exactly). From this
you have to remember 1 thing - the higher will be your level, the
higher will be the enemy's level.
That's why it doesn't matter wether you finish the game at LV10, or
at LV100, the difficulty doesn't really change. In fact, one could
argue that the difficulty under LV100 is higher than under LV10,
because the enemies stats on level ups rise more than yours.
However, no matter what, your enemy's stats will always be better
than yours. The only way top stay ahead of your enemies, is to use
the junction system. If you don't know how the junction system works,
check either your manual, the tutorial in the game, or another guide.
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II. DOING A SPEED GAME
As most of this guide is just a simple "Easy Game Walkthrough", and
all it really does is to tell you which junctions you should have
at what time, and in which places you can save time (which is all
Meh1's doing), I just had to write up an extra section to help people
who really want to do what this guide is saying - finish the game as
fast as possible. These are just some tips:
--> Don't try this if this is your first time through the game. It
can get a little bit frustrating. Just follow the walkthrough
and you will finish the game with as much fun (almost - if you
have fun doing side quests, then try another guides, like Scott
Ong's one) as possible.
--> Read this walkthrough!!! I'm serious, OK? It really does help.
The usual mistake of any person playing FF8 is to overdo with
either the junctions (that is, to equip junctions that are far
too good for that part of the game, which involves a lot of time
and is completely useless. Heck, some people try to get really
good junctions before you go on the SeeD mission to Timber in
disc 1, and then they never change their junctions until the
end of the game. Getting very good jucntions at that point of
the game is very time consuming) or the card game (the card game
is usually linked with junctions, as modding cards simply
is the best way ot get very good spells early in the game.
However, the card game takes a lot of time).
If you follow this walkthrough, you will only get the cards that
you need to get to finsh the game as quickly as possible, and you
will only get the junctions you need to finish this game as
quickly as possible.
--> Some things aren't necessary to do. If you have played FF8 for
ages, it simply seems impossible that you don't have to go
there and there. The first time I played speed game, it was really
strange for me that I didn't have to go and get Odin. Or that you
don't have to go to Dollet right after Timber mission. Try finding
the parts of the game that can be left out.
--> Restart! That's right, if you wish to finish this game with as
little time on the clock as possible, you will have to restart
a LOT. Simply, play through a part of the game. Save in 2
different slots, find out the things that took you the most time,
play again and try to do those things again. See if you have
improved on your time. Keep on improving until you are sure that
there is no way anyone can do better then that. Progress onto the
next part. No need for me to say, is this only for people who just
have to get to Ultimecia with the least time on their clock as
possible.
--> Save in different slots! So if you find out how one thing could
have been done faster, you don't have to restart the whole game,
just the bit you played before.
--> Level up as little as possible [read: run if you get into a
random battle].
--> Remember that to beat this game, you don't have to have 3
characters perfectly junctioned - if you have just 1 with very
good junctions, it will be enough. It saves time to junction
only 1 character.
That sums it up. With these guide lines, you should finish the game
in less than 14 hours. However, that's 14 hours of gameplay, not
14 hours in your life...
Please remember that unlike some games, like Final Fantasy 9, there
is no prize, apart from bragging rights, for finishing the game as
quickly as you can.
Just for the record, Meh1 in his "Speed playthrough" finished the
game in 14 1/2 hours.
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III. DISC 1 WALKTHROUGH
A. Fire Cavern
--------------
The start of the game is pretty slow. Just get through the text, any
of the choices you make here won't really affect the game.
After you gain control of Squall in the classroom, check his computer
terminal. You'll get the first two GFs in the game, Quezacotl and
Shiva. Junction one of them to Squall. It doesn't matter which. Make
sure you choose 'Draw', 'Magic', and 'Item' for his commands. Now go
to the GF section and change the abilities you want your GFs to learn.
Here is the order you need to learn them in.
Quezacotl:
--> Card
--> Card Mod
--> HP-J
--> T Mag-RF
--> Vit-J
--> Mag+20%
--> and Mag+40%.
The rest doesn't matter.
Shiva:
--> Str-J
--> I Mag-RF
--> Vit-J
--> Vit+20%
--> Vit+40%
--> Spr+20%
--> Spr+40%
Again, the rest doesn't really matter.
NOTE: Some of the abilities do not appear unless you have learned a
pre-requisite. For example, you must learn 'Card' before you can learn
'Card Mod'. The same with Mag+20%, which if you learn, opens up Mag+40%.
So let Quezacotl learn Card and Shiva learn Str-J. Now talk to Quistis
and then leave the classroom. You'll bump into a girl. If this is your
first game, you should show her (Actually, you'll be showing yourself the
Garden) around. Otherwise, it's up to you. Make sure you talk to the
guy by the elevator, who'll give you 7 cards. Take the elevator
downstairs and go to the library. Here, check the bookshelf for an
'Occult Fan I'. If you go to the upper corner, there's another screen
with a draw point. Draw Esuna and leave the library. Exit the Garden
through the front. You'll pass by a Cure draw point on your way out.
Draw it.
Once you get to the exit, Quistis will give you a tutorial. Pay
atention if it's your first game. Otherwise, use the cancel button to
exit the tutorial. Now junction the other GF to Quistis. Give her the
same commands you gave Squall. If you want, you can go to Balamb first,
but you might find it as a waste of time. Just follow the road. There
is a Thunder draw point in Balamb, and you get some nice conversations
with NPCs. When you're ready, go to the Fire Cavern, which is to the
east of the garden.
Upon entering, Quistis will have an optional tutorial about your
gunblade trigger. The trigger allows you to deal an extra 50% damage
if you press the R1 button at the right time. The timing is roughly
when Squall cuts down in his attack motion. If you have Vibration on,
you'll know when you succeed due to the shock. Otherwise, look for an
explosion.
Choose the 10 minute time limit when given a choice. The Fire Cavern is
extremely linear. Draw some Fire from the draw point if you wish. You
can kill all the enemies in one or two hits except for the Bombs. So run
away from them if you want to save time. Actually, you can run away from
all of them if you want. It won't make much of a difference. Just don't
take too much time because the timer's running.
Eventually, you'll get to the end and fight the boss, Ifrit. He's
ridiculously easy. Draw some Cure spells at the beginning. Then use
normal attacks. If you need healing, cast Cure from your magic stock.
Why? Because if you Draw/Cast Cure, the amount you can heal for varies
greatly. So it's more reliable to cast from your stock. Oh, and if you
can't kill him before the timer expires, it's Game Over. Remember that
the timer still runs while he keeps on talking, so you will have to do
the final hit when the timer shows 40 secs. So don't mess around too
much.
After you defeat Ifrit, he'll join you. Now make sure one person has
Quezacotl and Shiva, while the other character has Ifrit. Ifrit should
learn in the following order.
--> HP-J
--> Ammo-RF*
--> F Mag-RF
--> Str+20%
--> Str+40%.
*Ammo-RF will only appear when Ifrit reaches level 10. This won't be
for quite a while, unless you really like to level up. But once he does
reach level 10, learn it immediately.
From now on, I suggest Ifrit be always junctioned ALONE to someone
until he reaches level 10. This is because GFs share EXP when
junctioned on to the same character. So having Ifrit alone gives him
the most EXP. Ifrit is the only GF that you need to worry about levels
for, so don't bother doing this with other GFs. Ammo-RF is quite an
useful ability, but hardly necessary. So don't bother if you're lazy.
Exit the Fire Cavern, fight battles if you want. Go back to Balamb
Garden and Quistis will leave you.
B. SeeD Test
------------
Go to your dorm and change up. Go back to the front of the garden for
a very long scene. Eventually, you'll get a car. Drive it into Balamb.
Then hop onto the ship. Don't talk to anyone if you want a high score
on the test. But it really doesn't really matter much.
After a long scene and yet another fabulous FMV, you'll arrive at the
Dollet beach. Spread your GFs so everybody has one. Now follow Seifer.
You'll get into some forced battles, all of which are easy. Note that
Seifer can use the trigger too. If you want to level up Ifrit but not
your party members, kill off Squall and Zell. Then just have Seifer(a
temporary party member) take all the exp. Do note that this strategy
is a little risky, because if Seifer dies, the game is over. Make sure
you draw some thunder and cure spells from the soldiers if you don't
have many. 20 of each is more than sufficient. When Seifer asks you
to check for enemies, go to the right side of the screen for a battle.
Then you'll get a mundane scene. After a while, you'll see some
Galbadian soldiers sneaking around. Seifer wants to follow them and
Squall will agree.
If you use Seifer only, you must remember that your
GFs will still gain EXP on dead characters. What this means, is that
you should leave your junctions as they were - 1 GF per person,
otherwise your GFs will share EXP.
In the next part, there's a chance you'll meet two anacondours in a
battle. They can be pretty hard, so run away if you want, but then
again, this would be nice EXP for Ifrit and no EXP for your party.
Eventually, Seifer will go on ahead by himself and you meet Selphie.
After she jumps down, you have a choice to follow her or walk down.
Jump after her will get you penalized on the exam [read: your SeeD
grade will be lower]. But saves some time. Oh, and make sure you
heal Zell and Squall if you killed them earlier. Once Selphie joins,
junction Seifer's GF to her (she will have all Seifer's magic
transferred to her).
Save at the Save Point and take the elevator up. You'll get into a
boss fight.
BOSS: Biggs & Wedge, Elvoret
****************************
First you'll face Biggs. If you want, draw some Esunas from him. But
it's hard to draw it right now. Just hit him with regular attacks
and Wedge will show up. Now concentrate on hitting one of them.
Eventually, Elvoret will blow them away.
Elvoret is pretty intimidating, but not difficult. He has a fixed
attack pattern. He'll use either a physical attack or a simple
attack spell for two turns, then a powerful Storm Breath(~160
damage) on the 3rd turn. Elvoret will repeat this cycle for the
whole fight.
First draw Siren from him. Then just attack or draw Cure from him
if you need some. Make sure you remember when Storm Breath is
coming up, and heal if necessary. Note that if your HP drops to
yellow (usually after Storm Breath), you can use limit breaks
(Squall and Zell unleash attacks, Selphie use Full Cure). Doing
so will speed up the fight dramatically. Due to his high HP,
this will be a long fight. Don't worry, bosses will be
significantly easier later in the game when you've powered
yourself up.
After some more scenes, take the elevator down, junction Siren to
someone, and change the abilities for her to learn.
GF Siren:
--> L Mag-RF (VERY, VERY important ability)
--> Move-Find
--> Mag+20%
--> Mag+40%
The rest aren't important, so choose whatever you want.
Now you will have to fight the only fight in the game where you are
not supposed to win: XATM082 or the "Black Widow". Simply use
Quezacotl to beat him down on his foot, and that will give you the
chance to run away.
After this, the chase will start. You will have 30 minutes to run
to the beach. Once you have managed to get over XATM082 the first
time, you don't have to fight it again, if you walk correctly.
In the second screen, keep the the pad pushed "down" and he won't
catch you. Before the third screen loads, keep the pad pushed left,
and XATM082 will just miss you. In the fourth screen, walk instead of
running. In next screen, simply run as fast as you can. The sixth
screen will be the bridge. You should run forwards, until you hear
XATM082 jump over you. Then run backwards and he will jump back.
Once you hear him jumping back, run forwards again and you will
just escape it. Once you are in the next screen, remember to save
the dog (talk to it to make it run away). Then simply run.
Once you are back in Balamb, simply walk back to the garden, talk to
Seifer, and wait for your test results in the Garden's 2nd floor.
Once you have gotten your SeeD results, I advise you to take the
SeeD tests. However, this isn't really necessary, as you will gain
enough money by selling the 'Occult Fan I' and 'Girl Next Door'
magazines.
You will have to go on a walk with Quistis. This will mostly be
some dialogue (where Quistis is told to talk to a wall...), but
there will be one boss - Granaldo and 3 Raldos. These guys really
are a joke, but you should draw some Blind spells from it. Also,
some Protects and Shells wouldn't hurt, but you don't have to get
them. Once you are done with the fight, you should go back to your
dormitory.
C. Timber Mission
-----------------
You will be woken up by Selphie. Get the magazine that is on your
desk (not that you would want to remodel weapons... but you can
sell it for more cash).
Cid will give you the mission instructions. Don't forget to talk
to him after he does so to receive the Magic Lamp. Now go to Balamb,
to be safe, buy some 5 Phoenix Downs, save and use it. You'll get
into a fight with Diablos.
For the Diablos fight, make sure you blind him ASAP(may take a few
tries). Then it's an easy fight, as his rush attack will likely
miss once blinded. His spells can't kill you, so don't worry about
them. If you run out of blinds before he's blinded, reset and try
again. Or try to fight him the hard way if you want. Note that
he'll heal you with Curaga if you cast Demi on him from your
magic stock. However, your magic stat should be pathetic right now
so this is not a viable strategy.
After you get GF Diablos, let it learn Time Mag-RF first. Then
Enc-Half, Enc-None, Sta Mag-RF, and Mug. Now buy some (the numer 30
comes to mind - remember to sell the Occult Fan I and any other
useless items you might have. If you still don't have enough money,
wait until you will get the 'Girl Next Door' magazine that you can
sell for some cash) tents, which you can convert into Curagas using
L Mag-RF. If you haven't learned this ability yet, you're not
following the guide. But don't worry, go to the beaches by Balamb.
Now kill or card the enemies there until you learn it. All active
characters should have 100 curagas each as soon as you can afford
the tents. For now, buy as many as you can afford, but keep 3000
gil for the train ticket you need soon.
Take some time off to play card games. You have Ifrit and Diablos
card now. Go to the Fire cavern and Card 2 Bombs. Now start playing
cards in Balamb Garden. Save first. If you're not familiar with the
game, check the tutorial. Also, the card FAQ by Sister is very
helpful, although nobody can teach you how to play the game - you
learn it by practicing. When you're ready, play the following people:
a) Cid: He's on the 3rd floor. Play until you get the Seifer card.
b) Any of the Trepies: One is in the cafeteria and 2 are in the 2nd
floor classroom. You want the Quistis card.
c) Zell's Mom: She's in a house in Balamb. Play for Zell's card.
When they're not playing with the above cards, you should try to get
Gayla, Tonberry/Tonberry King, or Grand Mantis/Death Claw cards.
Priority in the order I gave you. Gayla cards can be modded into
mystery fluids and then Meltdowns using Sta Mag-RF. The other cards
give you items which can be refined into AP Ammos using Ammo-RF.
If you have either T Mag-RF, I Mag-RF, or F Mag-RF learnt, refine the
16 wizard stones from the Granaldo fight into 80 Thundagas or Blizzagas
or Firagas. Junction them to someone's Strength, preferably Squall or
Zell because of their limit breaks. Now Card Mod your Gesper card (from
the guy at the beginning of the game) for a black hole. Give it to
Quistis to learn Degenerator. Degenerator instantly kills just about
all non-boss enemies.
Once you have done that, get on the train to Timber. The first Laguna
scenario will start, but this one is mostly dialogue, so there isn't
anything difficult.
Afterwards you will have to do a little train mission for the Timber
resistance group. It's not difficult at all, and you should get your
SeeD rank raised by 1. Once you are done, you will have to fight
another boss - Gerogero. To take out the fake president, simply use
physical attacks. Gerogero can be killed using 2 Curaga spells.
Afterwards you will have time to explore Timber. As you can meet
random enemies in this place, I suggest you leave the exploring and
do what you have to do - head to the Timber TV Station. On the way is
the Timber Maniacs building, which has the 'Girl Next Door' magazine.
Remember that you don't have to go into the house to see what the alley
looks like (I just did it! I'm so used to doing it, that I did it
although there was no need for it...). You will have to fight 2
soldiers that you can't run from, but they go down easily.
The whole TV Station scene is very easy, just get through the text
and you are done. Once your are on the train, don't bother going to
Dollet and simply get out on the first station.
In Laguna's dream in the woods, make sure you push the rock that
opens up a cure draw point. This is important later in the game.
When you've learnt Time Mag-RF(I did so around this point in the
game), Card Mod your Quistis card into 3 Samantha Souls. Then
turn them into 180 Triples using Time Mag-RF. Squall should now
have the following junctions:
HP: 100 Curaga
Str: 100 Triple
If you don't like Squall, use Zell (and later Irvine) for similar
effects. Other party members' limit breaks aren't as powerful
damage-wise, so they're not good candidates. Do note that for
convenience sake, the rest of this guide will assume that you
used Squall. If you used someone else, just subsitute his name
where I wrote Squall. ^_^
Other junctions aren't important. You should now keep Squall's
HP in 'yellow', or critical. This way he can use limit breaks
easily. However, don't kill non-boss enemies if you can help it.
The more exp you get, the less powerful this junction setup
becomes. But if you like fighting, go ahead.
The whole scene in Galbadia Garden is really text-only, so nothing
difficult there. Once you are done, just head for Deling City.
D. Assassination Mission
------------------------
Go inside the Deling city. Walk left to get to Caraway's mansion.
The guard will tell you to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King.
You can also pay up 5000 Gil to get the location displayer, but
if I were you, I would just read on and save some of your cash.
The Tomb of the Unknow King is to the East of Deling City, on a
small strip of land. There is a save point at the entrance, so
save.
Go inside the tomb. Check the student's ID and memorize it. Now,
keep on going straight until you reach the first crossroads. Then
go right. Then go straight, then right, straight until you meet
Sacred. It is a boss fight, but you should be able to take the guy
down in one hit. Get out of the room. On the first junction go right,
then straight, then right. You will come to a place where you just
have to touch some stuff on the wall to let the water flow out. Then
get out of the room. On the first junction, go right, then straight,
then right. Again, you just have to touch some stuff until the water
levels change. Then get out of the room. Walk straight until the SECOND
junction where you should walk right, then, at the next junction, turn
left. After that go straight, walk over a bridge until you get into a
room where you will meet Sacred and Minotaur - the two BROTHERS.
Against Brothers, use Squall's limit to kill Sacred and Minotaur in one
hit each. Then Mod Sacred card into 100 Dino Bones. Refine them into
Quakes (Time Mag-RF) for everyone in your party. Squall's junction should
look kind of like this:
HP: 100 Quake
Vit: 100 Curaga
Str: 100 Triple
Mag: Not important
Spr: Not important
With the above junctions, the rest of the bosses on disk 1 should be a
joke.
Irvine's Limit requires Ammo. If Ifrit hasn't learned Ammo-RF yet, just
buy Normal and Shotgun ammo from stores. Otherwise, you can refine AP
and Demolition ammos, which are better. AP ammo is VERY good, as it
ignores defense. Quite useful throughout the game.
Now go back into the Deling City, and do all the stuff General Caraway
tells you to. It is not a difficult misison, and with these junctions,
the bosses (Iguions (Make sure you draw GF Carbuncle from the Igunions.
I didn't find Carbuncle that useful in terms of abilities, though.
Learn it's Mag-J and HP-J first. And then it's your choice), Seifer and
Edea (now, she's real crap for the 'sorceress bent on ruling the
world')) will seem very easy.
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IV. DISC 2 WALKTHROUGH
A. Getting out of Prison
------------------------
Although the disc will start with yet another Laguna scenario, it is
so easy I won't go into any detail. I suggest you run from all the
enemies.
You will wake up in the prison. Remember to junction Zell before you
go to beat the crap out of the poor soldiers.
After Zell gets everyone's weapons, you get a chance to junction your
characters. Take the time to give everyone the best Magic junction
possible. The best magics you have right now are Quake and Triple.
Try boosting magic with abilites like Mag+20% and Mag+40% if you
have them.
You then fight Biggs/Wedge. Have everyone draw 100 Reflects apiece
from Wedge, for a total of 300.
After the fight, you should have the following spells on each stat:
HP: Quake or Curaga
Vit: Curaga or Reflect
Str: Triple or Quake
Mag: Not important, but Quake would work.
Spr: Reflect or nothing
I know your all characters don't have a complete set of junctions
yet. But don't worry about that. Just junction what you can.
I usually get Enc-None at this time in the game. Put it on if you
you want for less hassles.
The prison is also straight forward. Once you get out, simply go up,
find Squall, then you will go down with the arm, but somehow will
finish up in the middle floors with Irvine and Rinoa. Then you will
have to climb up, and Irvine's party will have to go down. Simple,
right? You will have to fight a boss at the end, but it's a joke.
When you choose your party after getting out of prison, make sure
Irvine(or Zell if you can use his limit break) is in Selphie's
party. If you have AP Ammo, definitely choose Irvine.
B. Saving the Garden
--------------------
Before heading to the Missile Base, take a detour to Caraway's
mansion in Deling city. Play cardz with Caraway. First make sure
you have 4 crappy cards and Ifrit. Now purposely lose. He'll take
your Ifrit card. Play him again with your best hand until you get
his Rinoa Card. Note that Caraway will not play with Rinoa card
until you've forked over the Ifrit card.
The Missile Base is straight forward, just make sure that every time
you have the choice, always try to get through without fighting. You
don't want unneeded EXP.
Once you have set up the missile base self-destruct system, choose
10 or 20 minutes for the timer, so you can use the door in the
control room. You will also get a higher SeeD rank if you choose a
lower time limit. Give Irvine (or Zell) Squall's junction and have
him in critical condition before the boss fight. Now pummel the
boss with limits quickly so you won't run out of time(assuming you
chose 10 minutes). Keep the two other characters at full health,
because this boss can deal some pretty hefty damage. However, if you
are quick enough, you can kill it even before it does it's first
attack.
The scene will switch to the Balamb Garden. You will have to free all
the garden sections before you can progress on with the storyline.
I suggest you free them in a clockwise direction so that you can get
a Mega - Phoenix at the library. Then you will meet Xu, talk to her
and you will get on with the storyline.
You will have to go and save the Garden. You will have to go to the
bottom of the Garden (MD level). If you have encounter none, this
place is straight forward.
Against the Oilboyle bosses, Quistis' Degenerator works(the
only time Degerator works against a boss). Otherwise, it's the same
old limit breaks with Squall. Afterwards, the graden will just
escape missiles.
C. More Adventures...
---------------------
Next morning, you will have to take Rinoa for a walk (did that
sound like taking a dog for a walk? Whooops!). At one point a
Garden Faculty will come to you and ask you to go to the B1
level. There you will have to fight Norg.
Make sure you draw Leviathan from Norg. Leviathan will alow
everyone in your party to have Spr-J. Have it learn Supt Mag-RF.
Everything else is up to you. Oh wait! I forgot the boss strategy!
Well, guess what? Just use one limit break! This game really is
easy...
With your first 8 GFs, you should be able to let everyone have
junctions to HP, Str, Vit, Mag, and Spr. Go ahead and adjust your
junctions so this is the case. If you haven't learned enough
junction abilities yet, start doing so now. Note that it doesn't
matter if one person has 2 GFs while another has 4, or something
like that. You don't have to worry about GF levels, except
make sure Ifrit reaches level 10.
After that scene, your dear garden will run into the Fisherman's
Horizon, with the funniest scene of the game, featuring the Master
Fisherman. This part of the game is, again, easy. Just run to the
center of the town, talk to the Mayor, and then try to leave. The
town will be attacked by Galbadians. Run to the right of the centre
of the town, just keep on running, and you will run into a boss you
have met before. The only real differnece is the fact that he
has less HP... afterwards the party will be united again and
you can get on with the story.
After some more text-only scenes, you will be free to go and
check out the world with the garden under your control. First, you
should go to Balamb. You will see that the town is occupied. Talk
to the guard again and he will let you in. Go to the hotel and talk
to the guards there. Then go to the docks (furthest screen) and talk
to the guard there (lots of talking to guards...). Then go to the
train station and talk there. Afterwards go to Zell's house, talk
to Ma, rest, save and then go to the train station again. Lastly, go
to the docks, talk to the dog and follow him to the train station.
Afterwards the dog will wake up the captain, who actually is Raijin.
Go to the Hotel and two consecutive boss fights will begin, one with
Raijin and two guards, and another one with a stronger Raijin and
Fuijin.
The battles themselves are really easy. Make sure you draw Pandamona
from Fujin. This is VERY important. Pandamona should learn Spd-J
first. Then it's up to you. Spd+20%/40% and Initiative are helpful
but hardly necessary.
After this scene, go back to balamb and play cards with the guy in
front of Balamb Hotel. Get Pandamona card. Mod it. Now use T Mag-RF
to turn the Windmills into Tornados for everyone. Your junctions
will look something like this:
HP: Quake
Str: Triple/Tornado
Vit: Curaga
Mag: Tornado or best available
Spr: Reflect
After this, you should head for the Trabia Garden. This another text-
only scene in the game, so no help necessary. Make sure you draw Aura
from the hidden draw point in Trabia Garden. Use Siren's Move-Find to
see it.
After you are done with the Trabia Garden, it's time to show those
Galbadian's who's the boss. So go to Edea's house and run into the
Gabaldian Garden. Make sure you equip encounter none, so you don't
have to fight those random battles. There will be just one fight
that you will have to fight, it will be with 4 soldiers and is really
easy. Afterwards, you will have to save Rinoa.
Later in the game, make sure you draw Aura from the hidden draw point
outside Galbadia Garden(the screen where you named Griever).
Make sure you beat up Cerberus in G Garden main hallway. If you
have the Mug ability, steal a Spd-J scroll from it. Now mod your newly
acquired Cerberus card. The lightweights you get can be refined into
hastes. Make sure everyone has 100 of them. Have Cerberus learn
Spd-J first. The rest doesn't really matter, but Auto-Haste, which
you need Spd+20% and Spd+40% to unlock (so you really won't get it...),
is quite nice.
Note: If Pandamona has learnt Spd-J now, put 100 haste as the junction.
If you have the Spd-J scroll from Cerberus, give it to a GF for the
character that doesn't have Cerberus or Pandamona. This way, everyone
in your party can have Spd-J.
In the fight against Edea, her Maelstrom can curse your characters,
preventing them from using limits. Make sure you cure them with Esuna.
Just whack her with limits or regular attacks. Edea has really low
vitality, so normal attacks work well. Draw Alexander if you want.
It's not very important so I won't bother with the abilities. Revive
is kind of nice, though.
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V. DISC 3 WALKTHROUGH
Make sure you prepare before fighting the dragon in Laguna's senerio.
If you have Meltdowns, use one first before attacking. It's a bit long
if you don't use a meltdown first, as Ruby Dragon has pretty high
defense. Not a hard battle, though.
The whole getting to Esthar is really easy. All you have to do is get
the letter from Edea, find the White SeeD ship, talk to evryone in the
ship, go to FH, and then go to Esthar crossing the Ice Desert. For the
boss there - it is undead, so use Curaga magic or some limit breaks.
Play Odine for the Ward card when you meet him in Esthar as Squall (not
as Laguna).
Visit Cheryl's shop repeatedly for a rossetta stone.
If you did not mug the Spd-J scroll from Cerberus, there's one available
in Lunatic Pandora. Remember the rock I told you to push in Laguna's
dream? The hole that opens up now has a Spd-J scroll. When you visit
Lunatic Pandora as Zell, get it. Give it to the person without this
junction yet. If everyone does, then it's kind of useless.
The whole scene in Space is really easy. The propagator enemies will die
from just 1 hit from Squall (although it depends on your level - the
lower your level, the easier).
Play cards with Laguna when you can. Get the Squall's card. Mod it for 3
3-Stars. Refine them into 300 triples. Also mod your Rinoa, Zell,
Minotaur, and Ward card. This way, you can teach Str+60%, Vit+60%,
HP+80%, and Spr+60% to everyone's GFs. Your junctions should now look
like this for everyone:
HP: Tornado
Str: Triple
Vit: Curaga
Mag: Quake
Spr: Reflect
Spd: Haste
Your Abilities should be: Str+60%, HP+80%, and Spr+60%.
If you used your Rossetta stone on someone, that person can have another
ability. I suggest either Auto-Haste, Spd+40%, or Vit+60%.
In addition, everyone should have some aura, meltdowns, life, and
shells. To get more Auras, go to the Western-most island on the map. Make
sure someone has Enc-none equiped. Run around the island and press X
repeatedly. You'll find draw points with some of the best spells in the
game. If this weren't a speed game, I'd tell you how to get those juicy
spells like Meteor and Ultima by the bundle. But too bad. :( Anyway, one
of the spells available is Aura. Draw some. You'll probably want 20-30
for the rest of the game, just to be safe. To get more meltdowns, walk
in the snow by Trabia garden and meet Gaylas. If your levels are high,
just draw meltdowns from them. If your levels are low, card them and mod
the cards. You'll want maybe 20+ meltdowns for the rest of the game. Just
to be safe.
Note: If you have high levels, go ahead and draw 300 meltdowns from
Gaylas. Now junction your meltdowns in place of Curagas for Vit-J.
In your 2nd Fujin/Raijin fight, take out Fujin as soon as you can
with a powerful limit. She can be quite annoying if left alive.
If your levels are high (like around lv40+), Seifer has Aura for drawing.
If he has them, draw 300 (100 per person). Seifer's easy. So you should
have no problem staying alive.
If you drew Auras from him, switch your junctions a bit. Put Aura on
Strength and Triple on Speed.
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VI. DISC 4 WALKTHROUGH
Adel can cast some nasty spells. So you should keep every character
at high HP. Use meltdown first. Then aura on your fighters to use limit
breaks, rather than keeping your characters in critical condition. This
is the first battle where you should make full use of Aura to trigger
limits. In earlier fights you can pretty much get away with keeping
Squall in critical the whole time.
In this fight, don't use any attack that can hurt Rinoa. This
includes Squall's finishing move Fated Circle and Blasting Zone. Switch
to Irvine and Zell's limit breaks just to be safe. Of course, don't use
Zell's finishers that damage all enemies.
If you're in the mood, draw 300 Flares and 300 Holys from the final
sorceress during time compression. Make sure you do it after she
starts the countdown, or she'll counterattack. When she finishes the
countdown, she'll use Ultima. This did about 1100 to my party with
Reflect junctioned to spirit and Spr+60%. Absolutely pathetic. So draw
at your leisure. However, it's not necessary for finishing the game. If
you're lazy, don't bother.
If you did draw those spells, put Holy at HP in place of Tornado.
Flare belongs in the Elemental Defense Junction.
In the Ultimecia's Castle, you only need to unlock 4 of your abilities:
Magic, Limit Break, Resurrection and Save. The 4 bosses I suggest
you should fight are Sphinxaur, Tri-Point, Krysta and Tiamat. Those
are the 4 easiest to find. You should unlock the abilities in the
order I gave you.
Sphinxaur is really easy, he's just standing there once you enter the
castle. Just kill it with you attacks.
The next is Tri-Point - from the
place where you fought Sphinxaur, just keep on walking up, walk on the
lamp and you will fall down. Check the hatch on the floor and you will
find the next boss - Tri-Point. He is really easy, just beware of his
Counter Attack. Cast Meltdown and then just wack away with your attacks.
Afterwards, go up the stairs (back to where you were before), and walk
on the Green Spot. Swap the parties, and go into the menu and swap the
junctions. Now walk on the same lamp, but this time it won't fall down.
Go to the other side, and you will fight Krysta. This guy should (but
it depends on your level...) have less than 10000 HP, so use 1 limit
break and he will go down. At the end of the fight, he will cast a Final
Attack - Ultima. Should do no more than 1200 damage.
Once you are done with with those three, it's time to kill Tiamat.
Note: If your levels are high, instead pick Trauma as your next
boss. To find Trauma, go to the room with all the paintings (it's
to the left of the room where you fought Sphinxaur), look at all the
paintings, then chack the big painting on the wall and choose
'Vividarium', 'Intervigilium' and 'Viator'. A boss will appear, it's
very easy.
The only reason I picked Tiamat, is because he is much easier to find.
Simply go to the Ultmecia's room (head straight from where your party
that fought Tri-Point was), until you come to a spiral path. There
you will see a swinging lamp. Jump on the lamp and you will come to
a new room with Tiamat in it. He has 1 attack, called the Dark Flare,
but he is pretty slow at casting it. Use a metldown and then some
Limit Breaks.
If you wish to unlock another ability, like Item, simply kill Trauma
as I explained. All the other abilities are hardly necessary.
FINAL BOSS FIGHT: ULTIMECIA
---------------------------
I'll go ahead and give you a guide to beating her, not that you
really need one. She starts off by choosing 3 random party members.
If one of them is dead, Ultimecia will replace him/her with another
party member after a while. So if the characters you've junctioned
don't all show up at first, kill the characters you don't want.
Once your favorite party shows up, cast haste, shell, and triple on
everyone. Give someone (Squall, Irvine, or Zell) Aura and have him use
limit. After some damage, Ultimecia will summon Griever (or whatever
you named him in disk 2). Now cast meltdown on Griever and continue
whacking him with limit breaks. You don't even need meltdown if you
use Irvine's AP Ammo. When he dies, Griever will use Shockwave Pulsar.
With Shell and the good Spirit Junction I recommended, it shouldn't
be harmful. Otherwise, you'll die.
Now Ultimecia will junction to Griever. Again, Meltdown/Aura/Limit.
Incerdiably enough, you can kill her with just 1 limit...
Now we have True Ultimeica. Meltdown/Aura/Limit works again. After
she uses Hell's Judgement, one person should triple cast Curaga on
everyone, or use a mega-elixer. When she starts talking, switch to
normal attacks. After a few whacks, Ultimecia will blow up.
Congrats!! You've just beaten FF8. Now enjoy the ending, which is my
favorite out of ALL RPGs. Make sure you keep the Playstation on until
you see 'The End' on the screen.
For reference, Meh1 beat the game in 14 1/2 hours in his 'Speed'
playthrough. His final party was Irvine(lv16), Squall(lv15), and
Selphie(lv13).
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VII. CREDITS & CONTACTS
Credits:
I think 2 guides on Gamefaqs deserves to be listed on this
section. First is SOng's walkthrough, which is incredibly detailed and
helped me greatly in side quests and many things in general. The other
guide is ABrea's Power Up guide. I learned a lot about junctioning
from it. Also, a few of the boss strategies might be mutated from
reading his guide. It's been so long since I first played this game.
So my memory regarding where I learned certain tricks is certainly
quite hazy.
Edit by Edman: How could anyone forget my No Level Up guide? Of course,
it's not as though you really need a guide for a No Level Up game,
but it's as good as a walkthrough as anything. Some of the stuff I
typed out on this guide can be found in that guide too...
Contacts:
Meh1:
[email protected]
Edman:
[email protected]
Feel free to mail us questions and feedback.
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END OF GUIDE
THANK YOU FOR READING
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Guide copyright (c) Meh1 & Edman.
