Final
Fantasy 8Secrets
SeeD Test
The ranking tests are a very good way of gaining more money. Back in the Tutorial at
the beginning of the game, you are given the option of taking a SeeD test. This option
also shows up in your menu screen, under the next to last menu, Chartreal (sp?). Accessing
the Chartreal menu will bring up a menu that will answer various questions to the game,
and a Test menu. If you answer all the questions in a test correctly, you will go up 1
SeeD rank.
At the stage of a level 5 SeeD ranking at the Graduation ceremony. I gained one rank at
the train scenario, and the 5 more with the tests. The maximum ranking that you earn at
the Ceremony (so far) seems to be Rank level 7. I will post a chart that gives an idea how
to get to what rank at the Ceremony later
Answers to the tests, levels 1 through 30:
| 1 |
Y N Y Y Y N N Y N N |
| 2 |
Y N Y Y Y N Y Y N N |
| 3 |
N N Y N Y Y Y N Y N |
| 4 |
N Y Y Y N N Y Y N N |
| 5 |
N N N Y Y N N Y Y Y |
| 6 |
Y N Y Y N N Y Y N Y |
| 7 |
Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y N |
| 8 |
N Y N N Y Y N N Y N |
| 9 |
N Y N N N N N N Y Y |
| 10 |
Y N N N N N N N Y N |
| 11 |
Y Y N Y Y N Y N N Y |
| 12 |
N Y N N Y N Y N Y N |
| 13 |
Y N N N Y N N N N N |
| 14 |
Y Y Y Y N Y Y N Y N |
| 15 |
Y Y N N N N N Y N Y |
|
| 16 |
Y N N Y N Y N N Y N |
| 17 |
Y N N N Y N N Y N N |
| 18 |
Y N N N Y N N N N N |
| 19 |
Y N N Y N N N N N N |
| 20 |
Y Y N Y N Y Y Y N N |
| 21 |
Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y N |
| 22 |
N N N Y N N N Y Y N |
| 23 |
Y N N N N Y Y Y Y Y |
| 24 |
Y Y N N Y Y N N N Y |
| 25 |
Y N Y Y Y N N Y N N |
| 26 |
Y N Y Y Y N N Y N N |
| 27 |
N Y N N N N Y N Y N |
| 28 |
Y N N Y Y Y N Y N N |
| 29 |
N N N Y Y N N N Y N |
| 30 |
N Y N N N N Y N N N |
|
Fighting in Timber
In Rinoa's home town of Timber, use fire magic on all the enemies for maximum
damage.
Strengthening your Guardian Forces
When confronted by an enemy who has magics that you haven't seen before, draw them 100
times, especially the stronger ones, and stock them. This may sound tedious, but it can
vastly increase your Guardian Force's strength.
This will help you get abilities such as Power Junction and Magic Power
Junction and assign them magic.
Draw early, Draw often
The only way your characters will increase in power is through drawing more powerful
magic. If you don't take the time to draw from your enemies, you'll find yourself
hopelessly outclassed. The number of "uses" per Draw is determined by both the
strength and rarity of the spell, as well as the Drawing character's magic power. If you
have to, find a weak enemy and Draw repeatedly from him - he won't run out. It's no
cheesier than fighting Ogres and Creeps for hours on end to buy silver armor, now is it?
Draw from bosses
Bosses, especially early in the game, often have spells you've never seen before. Draw
from them to learn the new magic. Also, many bosses have rare Guardian Forces that must be
Drawn out of them. If you kill them without Drawing, you will miss the Guardian Force (and
feel really lame when your friends start talking about how cooool Alexander is, and how
they can't believe the Pandemonium summon! And you didn't get either).
Fighting in Timber
In Rinoa's home town of Timber, use fire magic on all the enemies for maximum
damage.
UFO and getting a Rare Item
When you are moving around world map, later in the game you can see a UFO (Unidentified
Flying Object). Even if you have set the ablity "Encounter Nothing", you can
meet it. There are four places where you can see them:
1. In the desert in the south of Esta.
2. In an island to the east of Trabia Hiades peninsular.
3. In the seashore near Timber.
4. Near Winhill.
When you have seen all of them, you can have a battle against a UFO in a highland to
the north of Esta, and when you have defeated it you can meet Koyokoyo in the plain near
the place where Balamb Garden was. He asks for five elixers, and if you give them him,
he'll give you a card. If you then beat him, you have a nice rare item!
Magic Junction
Without upgradable armor, and with barely upgradable weapons, this is the only real way to
improve your statistics. And boy, do they improve. The more powerful the spell - and the
more uses a character has Drawn - the greater the added effect. Two examples: A character
with 891 total HP had her HP statistic junctioned to 100 uses of Cure 2. Her HP jumped to
more than 5,000; more dramatically, her status immediately became critical! When another
character had his Agility statistic junctioned to 100 uses of Haste, he could take three
turns to another party member's one! Dramatic shifts in power are caused by Junctioning
Magic. Do not overlook the importance of this ability!
Special abilities give you the edge
In Final Fantasy VIII, enemies are always at the same level you are. It's impossible to
find "weak" enemies to beat up on for easy level gains. As in Final Fantasy V
and Tactics, the winning edge comes not from sheer statistical superiority, but from more
strategic ability matching. "Power+40 percent" will drive your point home with a
vengeance. "Auto Reflect" gets your party preemptively prepared for those tough
magic opponents. "Reduce Encounter Rate" is a Godsend for weakened parties deep
within a dungeon. Our current favorite ability is "Double Magic, Single Cost."
The only thing more painful than Ultima would have to be Ultima - squared.
Call on your Guardian Forces
For better or worse, Final Fantasy VIII is heavily skewed in favor of the Guardian Forces.
Don't summon them, and you will lose. Summon them, and you stand a decent chance of
success. The extra damage they do more than offsets the time spent summoning them. The
enemies' power is designed to withstand the GFs, though, so they still won't be pushovers.
Even though you'll be calling your GFs often, you'll still find yourself dying quite a
bit; Final Fantasy VIII is hard compared to recent titles in the series.
Always Junction every GF all the time
One-, two-, or three-person party - it doesn't matter. Always keep every GF Junctioned to
a character. Otherwise, they're just sitting in your inventory, dooting around, probably
playing the Card Battle game with each other, wondering why they're not earning
experience. If you got it, baby, flaunt it! Make sure GFs are always out on the battle
field, increasing their levels and abilities.
Don't let your GFs fight alone
Most attack GFs have a "Support" ability (called "Ouen" in Japanese).
It costs only ten AP to learn. LEARN IT IMMEDIATELY. Now, when you summon your GF in
battle, press "Select" as the casting begins. See that meter in the bottom
right-hand corner? It starts at 75; press the "Square" key rapidly to increase
the number. When the red X appears, stop! Pressing it now returns the counter to 75. When
the red X disappears, resume pressing "Square" like there's no tomorrow. The
higher the number, the more powerful the attack. My personal record is pumping an attack
up to 216 (from 75). There is a difference. In close battles, a "normal" vs. a
"pumped up" attack can mean the difference between life and death.
Card Battle
Sure, it may seem like a cheesy minigame, but it's fun ...too fun. You'll soon find that
what begins as an innocuous pastime soon swells into something more important than the
story itself; yeah yeah fate of the world blah blah blah you've got to get those Character
Cards! And later in the game, when you discover that rare and powerful Cards are required
to be "morphed" into items necessary to upgrade your weapons to a reasonably
high level ... well, you'll feel really stupid if you haven't been keeping up with the
Joneses. Everyone in Final Fantasy VIII's world loves the game. So should you.
Keeping Monsters Weak
For the less talented among you, there is an answer for keeping the enemy from becoming
all too powerful. Seeing as the enemy's level rises with yours, keep your character's
level low by using the Card ability. This will keep monsters easy to defeat at the expense
of your characters having a lower level as turning a foe into a card does not give you
experience points.
Easy Heal 3's
If you have the Guardian Force Siren, by using the ability of recovery magic
refinement, you can turn a tent into 10 Heal3's. If you buy 30 tents, you can have
100 Heal3's for each character in your party.
Easy limit breaks
Wait until one of your characters get below 100 HP, when that character's turn is up press
O untill their limit break appears. In the demo it only works with Zell and Squall. You
can also do this at full health, but it takes longer. Be careful not to press O too many
times you might miss the limit break! The lower the HP, the better chance of getting a
limit break on your turn. It's also good to do this when during a GF spell. It takes
practice.
Beat the T-Rex... The easy way
To beat the T-Rex in Disc 1 with ease, coupled with lots of experience points and AP,
simply follow these tips; Learn the ability 'Countdown to Death' by the Ice Queen (Shiva)
and draw a magic that causes blindness (from a boss).
When you reach the battle with the T-Rex, cast blindness and then 'Countdown to Death'.
The lizard cannot hit with anything, and as the numbers get smaller, death creeps up on
the fella, granting you the easiest victory you could ask for.
You get 700 experience points and 10AP. |
