UPDATED: I replayed the game with the Remastered version, so I’m overhauling this page.
Requirements
Broken Limit: Reach level 100, learn all limit breaks, and obtain ultimate weapons for anyone who finishes the game.
Guardians of the…Gardens?: Level all (16) Guardian Forces to level 100 with all their abilities learned.
Slow Learner, Aren’t You?: Defeat Omega Weapon.
Character screenshots
I’m going to do things slightly differently to illustrate something – namely, one likely reason many people playing the game for the first time hated it immediately. FFVIII has a unique progression system in that the enemies level up with your team. While not problematic in and of itself, the enemies gain more stats per level compared to you, meaning if you’re not careful with leveling up, you could make the game harder and harder as time goes on. To alleviate this, your stat growths must be optimized, which involves getting specific Guardian Forces with specific abilities before you gain any levels.
Here is a comparison between Edea, a temporary party member whom I leveled to 100 without optimization; and Irvine, a permanent party member I leveled to 100 ensuring that every level had a bonus skill from Guardian Forces:
Requirements
Broken Limit: Reach level 100, learn all limit breaks, and obtain ultimate weapons for anyone who finishes the game.
Guardians of the…Gardens?: Level all (16) Guardian Forces to level 100 with all their abilities learned.
Slow Learner, Aren’t You?: Defeat Omega Weapon.
Character screenshots
I’m going to do things slightly differently to illustrate something – namely, one likely reason many people playing the game for the first time hated it immediately. FFVIII has a unique progression system in that the enemies level up with your team. While not problematic in and of itself, the enemies gain more stats per level compared to you, meaning if you’re not careful with leveling up, you could make the game harder and harder as time goes on. To alleviate this, your stat growths must be optimized, which involves getting specific Guardian Forces with specific abilities before you gain any levels.
Here is a comparison between Edea, a temporary party member whom I leveled to 100 without optimization; and Irvine, a permanent party member I leveled to 100 ensuring that every level had a bonus skill from Guardian Forces:
See how much of a difference it makes in stats? Junction appropriate spells into the stats on top of that and you’ll be in proper shape throughout the game. Now this isn’t exactly hard to figure out or do, but FFVIII is the only game in the series where leveling up has special considerations, so you can imagine how irritating a veteran of the series finds this system upon playing for the first time.
I was no exception in the summer of 2007 when my friend sang the game’s praises and told me to play it. Three years later, I decided to give it another go, and found that I actually liked the game once I got over the leveling quirks. Beyond that, I found the game continued to grow on me as time went on (for…whatever reason?), so I decided to replay the game with FFVIII Remastered in 2023.
Let’s start with the main character, Squall Leonhart…
I was no exception in the summer of 2007 when my friend sang the game’s praises and told me to play it. Three years later, I decided to give it another go, and found that I actually liked the game once I got over the leveling quirks. Beyond that, I found the game continued to grow on me as time went on (for…whatever reason?), so I decided to replay the game with FFVIII Remastered in 2023.
Let’s start with the main character, Squall Leonhart…
Before we continue, I’m going to omit the Junction screen because I used the same Junction setup with all my characters:
HP: Full-life
Strength: Meteor
Vitality: Meltdown
Magic: Pain
Spirit: Reflect
Speed: Triple
Evasion: Tornado
Hit: Aura
Luck: Ultima
Elemental Attack: -
Elemental Defense: Flare, Shell, Life, Protect
Status Attack: Drain
Status Defense: Holy, Confuse, Death, Esuna
I’ll note exceptions as they come up. For example, Squall doesn’t have a Hit junction, since his gunblade never misses.
Beyond the stat optimization and junction setup, I farmed some stat-ups in an effort to make the characters a bit more unique. For Squall, I maxed his Vitality (with junction) because as a standoffish, closed-off guy, he’d probably excel at physical defense. He doesn’t have maxed Spirit because his biggest weakness is…
HP: Full-life
Strength: Meteor
Vitality: Meltdown
Magic: Pain
Spirit: Reflect
Speed: Triple
Evasion: Tornado
Hit: Aura
Luck: Ultima
Elemental Attack: -
Elemental Defense: Flare, Shell, Life, Protect
Status Attack: Drain
Status Defense: Holy, Confuse, Death, Esuna
I’ll note exceptions as they come up. For example, Squall doesn’t have a Hit junction, since his gunblade never misses.
Beyond the stat optimization and junction setup, I farmed some stat-ups in an effort to make the characters a bit more unique. For Squall, I maxed his Vitality (with junction) because as a standoffish, closed-off guy, he’d probably excel at physical defense. He doesn’t have maxed Spirit because his biggest weakness is…
Rinoa Heartilly becomes a sorceress during the game; thus, I maxed out her Magic and Spirit. And by that I mean she has maxed base Magic and Spirit, meaning she has no Magic or Spirit junction.
Rinoa is one area I think the developers and writers dropped the ball. She’s extremely important to Squall’s character development but has little in the way of her own role despite multiple opportunities for the developers to give her one. For example, there’s a sequence where Selphie leads a strike team to infiltrate a Galbadian missile base to stop a missile launch. It would’ve been so cool to have Rinoa as a required member of that team because her dad is the head of Galbadian military, meaning the game could’ve had her swipe credentials from her dad to access the base’s systems. As it stands, Selphie just lucks her way in and fails to stop the missile launch because she doesn’t have the password required to access the system fully.
Let’s look at Rinoa from a gameplay perspective. In the world of Final Fantasy VIII, regular people cannot use magic. They need to Draw limited quantities of spells from monsters or Draw Points. Sorceresses are the main (and big) exception – they use magic innately. Like I mentioned, Rinoa becomes a sorceress. Despite this, Rinoa can still only cast spells she has stocked from Drawing. Even in her Limit Break, her spells depend on her stock; if you have no spells in her inventory, she just attacks physically. Yeah, that totally makes sense.
It makes even less sense when we look at…
Rinoa is one area I think the developers and writers dropped the ball. She’s extremely important to Squall’s character development but has little in the way of her own role despite multiple opportunities for the developers to give her one. For example, there’s a sequence where Selphie leads a strike team to infiltrate a Galbadian missile base to stop a missile launch. It would’ve been so cool to have Rinoa as a required member of that team because her dad is the head of Galbadian military, meaning the game could’ve had her swipe credentials from her dad to access the base’s systems. As it stands, Selphie just lucks her way in and fails to stop the missile launch because she doesn’t have the password required to access the system fully.
Let’s look at Rinoa from a gameplay perspective. In the world of Final Fantasy VIII, regular people cannot use magic. They need to Draw limited quantities of spells from monsters or Draw Points. Sorceresses are the main (and big) exception – they use magic innately. Like I mentioned, Rinoa becomes a sorceress. Despite this, Rinoa can still only cast spells she has stocked from Drawing. Even in her Limit Break, her spells depend on her stock; if you have no spells in her inventory, she just attacks physically. Yeah, that totally makes sense.
It makes even less sense when we look at…
Let it be known that Selphie Tilmitt is one of the most powerful characters in series history. Her Limit Break is Slot, where the game chooses a random spell and a random number of times to cast that spell. This does not depend on Selphie’s spell inventory, meaning she can drop three Ultima spells on the first enemy she sees in the game. Yes, Selphie’s a better sorceress compared to the character the game’s plot revolves around becoming a sorceress.
Selphie’s Slot also contains four unique spells, one of which is The End. The End instantly kills any and every living thing on the other side of the battlefield, including the game’s superboss. I can only think of two other characters in the series who can one-shot a superboss, and one of them is a robot remotely piloted by a regular guy without any combat skills whatsoever, meaning as of this entry, the series really only has two characters with this capability.
So…Selphie has maxed base Magic and Spirit (no junction) befitting her status as a better sorceress than the actual sorceress. She doesn’t have a Hit junction because her ultimate weapon never misses. She has maxed everything else with junctions befitting her status as the game’s resident superpower.
Selphie canonically enters a relationship with Irvine Kinneas, something that still kind of baffles me. I’m not showing a screenshot of Irvine because I kept him without junctions, meaning that screenshot above covers his stats. Besides how difficult it is to give everyone junctions without heavily modifying the GFs, I felt Irvine would eschew using GFs because he’s the “I still have my memories” guy in the party.
Moving on…
Selphie’s Slot also contains four unique spells, one of which is The End. The End instantly kills any and every living thing on the other side of the battlefield, including the game’s superboss. I can only think of two other characters in the series who can one-shot a superboss, and one of them is a robot remotely piloted by a regular guy without any combat skills whatsoever, meaning as of this entry, the series really only has two characters with this capability.
So…Selphie has maxed base Magic and Spirit (no junction) befitting her status as a better sorceress than the actual sorceress. She doesn’t have a Hit junction because her ultimate weapon never misses. She has maxed everything else with junctions befitting her status as the game’s resident superpower.
Selphie canonically enters a relationship with Irvine Kinneas, something that still kind of baffles me. I’m not showing a screenshot of Irvine because I kept him without junctions, meaning that screenshot above covers his stats. Besides how difficult it is to give everyone junctions without heavily modifying the GFs, I felt Irvine would eschew using GFs because he’s the “I still have my memories” guy in the party.
Moving on…
Zell Dincht has full junctions in everything and maxed Strength with the junction. Zell’s the resident martial arts character and continues the amusing implication of Final Fantasies set in more modern times, since this means Zell’s unarmed combat skills can do as much or more damage compared to things like Squall’s gunblade or Laguna’s machine gun.
I saved the best character for last.
I saved the best character for last.
Quistis Trepe holds the title of my favorite character in the series. A child prodigy, Quistis is the youngest SeeD in history and became a Garden instructor a year later. Many of her students proceeded to create a fan club devoted to her, the Trepies, demonstrating the students at Garden are men and women of culture and excellent taste. Quistis also has the most versatile role in the game. Early on, her Blue Magic can cover a variety of elements. Her White Wind offers exceptional healing. Her Micro Missiles will weaken, but not kill, the enemy, making Carding (to avoid gaining levels for stat optimization) much easier. When you’re ready to level, her Degenerator can one-shot any regular enemy. Her Shockwave Pulsar is one of two attacks in the game that can visibly break the damage limit – which it did handily given Quistis’s maxed Magic (with junction).
Random comments
I made most of my commentary above already, so I don’t have much more to say.
Actually, let’s talk about Omega Weapon, the game’s superboss. As I mentioned before, Selphie can one-shot him. If you don’t want to go that route and/or don’t have great luck, you can also wait until he does Megiddo Flame, which does a guaranteed 9998 damage to your party, then put invincibility on with Heroes, Holy Wars, or, with a bit of luck, Rinoa’s Invincible Moon. Then sit there spamming Limit Breaks, hopefully with Squall’s Lion Heart, until the invincibility is about to wear off, then heal to full and repeat. It’s going to be rather difficult for Omega Weapon to kill you before you kill him. He’s harder compared to the WEAPONs in FFVII, but not as hard compared to most other superbosses in the series.
Character award: Quistis Trepe
...in case my description above wasn't clear enough.
Villain rating: good
Ultimecia is a tragic villain, though a casual and/or first-time player probably wouldn’t know that. Final Fantasy VIII has a very indirect way of telling its story, something I really appreciate because I prefer that over the standard exposition dumps I often see.
Gameplay rating
The Junction system is a bit weird, but other than that the game ran well. I will say, though, the minigames are horrible. The thing where you’re in space trying to save Rinoa is rock-stupid. In the Remastered version, the train hijacking sequence has messed-up keybindings for no reason.
Difficulty rating
If you play the game normally, it can get a bit hard. If you optimize your stats, it becomes really easy. If you play cards and get 10 Holy Wars (something I didn’t do because Triple Triad bores the hell out of me), the only boss that actually stands a chance against an optimized party…no longer stands that chance. So…not as easy as FFVII, but still pretty easy.
Storyline rating: good
I think the story has a few weak areas, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I particularly liked the indirect way the game presents its plot and the fact that the main character actually has character development.
Quote award
“Rinoa…even if you end up as the world’s enemy, I’ll…I’ll be your knight…” – Squall
Squall thinks this…he never says it, just like a large portion of his dialogue is in his head. But…aww.
Overpowered award
The Holy War item, which gives your entire party around 5 rounds of invincibility. No, I am not listing The End or Lion Heart because they come up based on chance, and anything based on chance is not overpowered. There is a chance it’ll never come up. And even a miniscule chance it’ll never come up is still a chance. I have a ton of experience where something statistically “guaranteed” didn’t happen and where something statistically “impossible” happened. Depending on fate to hand you a victory is not being overpowered.
Ultimecia, who really doesn't understand how limit breaks work in this game
Random comments
I made most of my commentary above already, so I don’t have much more to say.
Actually, let’s talk about Omega Weapon, the game’s superboss. As I mentioned before, Selphie can one-shot him. If you don’t want to go that route and/or don’t have great luck, you can also wait until he does Megiddo Flame, which does a guaranteed 9998 damage to your party, then put invincibility on with Heroes, Holy Wars, or, with a bit of luck, Rinoa’s Invincible Moon. Then sit there spamming Limit Breaks, hopefully with Squall’s Lion Heart, until the invincibility is about to wear off, then heal to full and repeat. It’s going to be rather difficult for Omega Weapon to kill you before you kill him. He’s harder compared to the WEAPONs in FFVII, but not as hard compared to most other superbosses in the series.
Character award: Quistis Trepe
...in case my description above wasn't clear enough.
Villain rating: good
Ultimecia is a tragic villain, though a casual and/or first-time player probably wouldn’t know that. Final Fantasy VIII has a very indirect way of telling its story, something I really appreciate because I prefer that over the standard exposition dumps I often see.
Gameplay rating
The Junction system is a bit weird, but other than that the game ran well. I will say, though, the minigames are horrible. The thing where you’re in space trying to save Rinoa is rock-stupid. In the Remastered version, the train hijacking sequence has messed-up keybindings for no reason.
Difficulty rating
If you play the game normally, it can get a bit hard. If you optimize your stats, it becomes really easy. If you play cards and get 10 Holy Wars (something I didn’t do because Triple Triad bores the hell out of me), the only boss that actually stands a chance against an optimized party…no longer stands that chance. So…not as easy as FFVII, but still pretty easy.
Storyline rating: good
I think the story has a few weak areas, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I particularly liked the indirect way the game presents its plot and the fact that the main character actually has character development.
Quote award
“Rinoa…even if you end up as the world’s enemy, I’ll…I’ll be your knight…” – Squall
Squall thinks this…he never says it, just like a large portion of his dialogue is in his head. But…aww.
Overpowered award
The Holy War item, which gives your entire party around 5 rounds of invincibility. No, I am not listing The End or Lion Heart because they come up based on chance, and anything based on chance is not overpowered. There is a chance it’ll never come up. And even a miniscule chance it’ll never come up is still a chance. I have a ton of experience where something statistically “guaranteed” didn’t happen and where something statistically “impossible” happened. Depending on fate to hand you a victory is not being overpowered.
Ultimecia, who really doesn't understand how limit breaks work in this game