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FINAL FANTASY VIII U.S. VERSION
SURVIVING ULTIMECIA CASTLE
v. 3.1
by Ruk Chan
[email protected]
http://www.disc13.com
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INTRODUCTION
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[v. 1.0 September 16, 1999]
[v. 2.1 September 30, 1999]
[v. 3.0 November 11, 2000... working on FF9 U.S. walkthrough right now,
love the game... added FF8 Omega Help for those who don't have
hero drink and for those who run out of GFs for cover)
[v. 3.1 January 08, 2001] Just added a few notes, and some stuff
about Omega.
Frustrated because entering Ultimecia Castle means all your powers are sealed
off? Wanna return to the days when FFVII allowed ALL your characters to
play against the final boss without having to kill some off them off first?
Well, stop hair-pulling, read on!
CONTENTS:
I. Surviving the Castle
- items you might find useful before going in (or when you feel like
you need to go out)
II. Battling Ultimecia
- my favorite part
III. Battling Omega Weapon
- this is especially for those who do not have hero drinks
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SURVIVING THE CASTLE
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PRE-REQUISITE: Get Ragnarok in Disc 4 and re-explore the now dire-looking
world map.
To get Ragnarok, once you reach a giagantic chain bridge, you'll
see 3 windows. Choose the window nearest to the Castle by pressing X.
Thanks to Scott Ong's Walkthrough (
[email protected] -- I kinda
got an idea from there even though his Japanese version is a lot different
from the US version) for explaining where the 3 windows lead to.
You'll find yourself on the outskirts of Esthar Continent (Grandidi Forest).
Head to the north of the portal, going through the forest, until you see
a dome like mound of forest structure. That's the Chocobo Shrine where you
can get a chocobo. Ride it and head south of the map. You'll see a number
of deserted islands (one of them is the island where GF Cactuar is). Look
for the nearest docking area (or beach) in one of these desert islands. You
will find the Ragnarok there.
1. Get all the items
and magic you might have missed or are still lacking.
1.1. Recommended magic to stock up:
1.1.1. MELTDOWN - can be drawn from the Gayla, which
can be found on the snow field outside Trabia Garden.
1.1.2. ULTIMA - Since you can't go back to Shumi Village to
draw Ultima, kill Elnoyles at the Esthar City.
Energy Crystals can be converted into Ultima, the
strongest magic that you can junction to strength.
Red Dragons at the Island Closest to Hell also give
out Energy Crystals.
1.1.3. AURA - Go dragon-hunting at the Island Closest to
Hell (with GF Ability Rare-Item equipped) and they'll
give out items that you can convert to Aura.
1.1.4. DRAIN - You can either get this from the Blue Dragon
at Hell or you can get items that can be converted
to Drain from Hell, too.
1.1.5. METEOR - Can be drawn from the Red Dragon at Hell.
1.2 Recommended junctioning:
1.2.1 ULTIMA - To Squall's strength
1.2.2. METEOR - To your other party member's strengths
1.2.3. DRAIN - To ALL characters' status attack.
AURA & MELTDOWN are also good for junctioning, but since it's
better to use them, I'd rather not junction them.
Recommended junction for Aura is HP-J, and for Meltdown is
Vit-J.
2. Once you enter the Castle, you won't have to worry about not being able
to use Recovery items, the Drain junctioned to your Status Attack will do
the recovery for you. I equipped ALL GFs on my main party so I can make use
of all their junctioning abilities. You can also spread out your GFs, but
I'd rather not.
3. When you take control of your alternate party, switch ALL GF's with them.
Yeah, I know that their HP will be only half-full, but enemies you can
encounter along the way can be drained to fill your HP. They're all wusses
anyways.
NOTE: Remember to equip Move-Find Ability because Save Points are
kinda rare here.
4. BOSS BATTLES WITH ASSISTANTS. While it's better to ignore the assistants
so you can concentrate on the bosses during boss battles, the assistants
can be drained of their HP to fill yours once in a while ^^;; Doncha just
love draining?
5. UNSEALING ABILITIES. Recommended abilities to unseal in chronological
order:
5.1. Magic - So you can use Meltdown and Aura. (I usually don't
use magic 'cause they're good for junctioning but
this is when magic usage comes in handy).
5.2. Limit Breaks - For quick battles, especially with Aura in
hand.
5.3./5.4 GF Ability or Save - Whichever you want to free first
5.5. Revive (Resurrect Dead Party Members)
5.6. GF Command
5.7. Item
5.8. Draw
6. FINAL BATTLE WOES. Ok, so your party is randomly chosen. You can either
(1) choose to reset everytime the wrong characters are chosen, (2) Have an
undesirable member killed off and removed from the battle scene so the others
can replace them, and (3) spread your GFs.
If you want to get extra abilities for your GFs, make use of Eden's
GF-Ability-Med. You will also want to unlock all your abilities by
battling all the bosses inside the castle. Why? Because some of the
bosses give out GF Abilities!
NOTE: I will not list here the bosses because there are walkthroughs
for that. It's my policy not to write about what another writer has
already written in _complete_detail_. Besides, it's a good exercise to
use your brains in dungeons once in a while.
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BATTLING ULTIMECIA
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1. Make sure that everyone has ample set of magic in their inventories,
especially the magic I mentioned above. Everyone should have at least 100
of each magic that you mean to use for junctioning. Make sure that all GFs
are also spread out evenly.
2. Spreading GFs out - don't put GFs with similar rare abilities in one
person:
2.1. Separate Revive, Recover, and Treatment
2.2. Character with Revive is recommended to have the Item Command
Character with Recover is recommended to have the Magic
Command
Character with Treatment command is recommended to have
either Magic, Item, or Draw. Draw if you want to use
Apocalypse on Ultimecia.
2.3. Separate GFs with Abilityx3 and Abilityx4
2.4. Buy GF Ability Scrolls from Pet Shops, which you can use
to feed to GFs without the junctions that you need most.
3. Start of Battle: If you have Cerberus, cast him while Ultimecia is
in her weakest form. If not, cast Triple on one of your characters (if that
character has the Expend3-1 or 2-1, then better). Have that character (on
triple status) cast Triple on the two other characters while one of them
either casts Doomtrain--because first form Ultimecia is susceptible to
poison--and the other cast Meltdown on Ultimecia.
4. Once all your characters are in Triple status, have one of them cast
Aura on everyone. Wait for the next turns and then push cancel button
(circle) repeatedly until the arrow indicating Limit Break appears. Do the
same with all the characters.
4.1. Squall: Renzokuken (what else?)
4.2. Rinoa: Whatever you do, don't choose Angel Wing! Her best
Limit Breaks so far are the Invicible Moon and the Wishing
Star! (reminds me of the Omnislash, except you have a dog
with you)
4.3. Irvine: While Pulse and Demolition Ammo are great because
of the 9999 damage, AP Ammo is faster and it also gives
9999 damage per hit.
4.4. Quistis: Mighty Guard is truly awesome.
4.5. Zell: His limit breaks are great but a bit stressful if you
don't set your combo. Final Heaven is still the best
finishing blow.
4.6. Selphie: If you're a fast reader and button tapper with
great reflex control, you can make use of her Wall. Side
Effects: You can't use Recovery Magic to their fullest
capability because you are on Shell status.
5. I found this battle to be quite easy because I made full use of Aura and
Limit Breaks. Sometimes I also use GFs to distract Ultimecia (she kills off
GFs) while the others do some serious damage.
TIP! If all your characters are ready to execute a command at the
same time, don't let them all execute the command at once. Execute
one at a time, meaning after Character-1 executes his/her command,
wait until his meter starts counting again before letting Character-2
execute, and so on. That way, you can have always have one person on
standby to recover, revive, or restore
positive status (like casting Triple again) in case somebody gets
killed, hit, or affected. Ultimecia loves hitting everyone all at
once so better be prepared. This tactic applies also to all other
lesser battles in the game.
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BATTLING OMEGA WEAPON
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So far I've only seen this work once (since I only tried it once). Ok, so
for those of you who emailed me countless times about how to defeat Omega
when you don't have the ultra famous hero drink or holy war, here is my gift to all
of you.
One thing I must say, though. There is no guarantee that what I did would
also work for you, so please be vewy vewy careful.
There are 2 ways to do this:
1. At the beginning of the game, don't make Angelo learn limit breaks that he
can acquire. There's nothing you can do about the one that he already has though.
- OR -
2. Since it's almost impossible for people to realize that most of Angelo's limit
breaks are useless from the very beginning (and I bet 98% already made him learn
those other tricks), we go to the second recourse: When you meet Omega, Rinoa
should be in a super low yellow state (like if she has a 9999 max HP, her actual
HP should be around 1,000+).
Now for the back-up:
2.1. Before you go meet Omega, you must have as many Phoenix Downs as
you believe you need.
2.2. My best bet for this battle is Irvine. No, it's not because I'm in
love with him (which is only 1/4th of the reason), but because
I think his limit break is easier to control and can dish out
heavy damage.
2.3. Bring Cerberus along, and make sure he has a 1000 affinity with
Irvine (or whoever you think is better).
3. The Battle - Have Irvine cast Cerberus, for emergency purposes. Then
Have Squall cast Aura.
Then, when it's Rinoa's turn, make her do a limit break. If her limit
break arrow isn't showing up, just press triangle repeatedly until it
does. With Rinoa near death (or if Angelo blessedly doesn't know
a lot of tricks) the chances for Invisible Moon to activate most of the
time will be very high. Luck also plays a great part in this.
If Omega kills Rinoa, just give her Phoenix Down and don't heal her.
She needs to be kept at near death state.
You can use GFs to cover yourself every now and then, like most
FAQs say, if Invisible Moon doesn't want to activate (but most of the
time in my game, it did).
Anyway, just keep using Cerberus, and Aura, and everybody's limit breaks
(AP ammo worked best for me). I also kept Squall's HP at a minimum level.
I think that's what's activating Renzokuken Lionheart all the time.
If their limit break arrows aren't appearing, just press triangle
repeatedly until they do.
Note: There's another recourse to this, if you're really desperate. Just have
Selphie in your party and have her do a limit break. If The End appears
then your problem is solved (Omega is killed instantly). But the chances
for this to happen is vewy vewy slim. Got this little note from the
maintainers of Disc 13's message board (
http://www.disc13.com )
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DISCLAIMER
============================
Under no circumstances can the content of this FAQ sheet be copied. If
you want this on your page, please give me and my sources proper credit.
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http://www.disc13.com
E-Mail:
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FINAL FANTASY VIII is copyright 1999 by Square Soft Ltd. FINAL FANTASY and
SQUARESOFT are registered trademarks of Square Co Ltd. and Dolby.
