The Final Fantasy VIII Megathread, or ...Whatever

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Final Fantasy VIII Megathread, or ...Whatever

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

If you're not a big cards player it feels like the Queen of Cards is stalking you since the card maker makes cards based on the Queen's travels and all the good cards are you and things you fought.

I think the more charitable interpretation is when you play the game correctly and the party plays so much cards with, around, and with people who know the queen so your party and your stories are the most interesting thing the card maker has heard in a while.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2022 20:46

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# ¿ Jan 13, 2026 01:59

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

I hate Gwent and most mini games. Triple Triad isn't a mini game, it's an alternate progression mechanic.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2022 21:34

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Simply Simon posted:

I'm not the biggest fan of FF8, but it's a fascinating mess of a game to me. My first playthrough was back when me and a buddy were going through all the FFs, and he was both into breaking games and following optimal strategies, so he had a guide open and we just broke everything. It was hilarious, but it also showed how much story we thought was stupid there actually is, and how little game you have to play - Enc-None is optional, so we put that on immediately, and then it's just running from boss to boss and playing cards. And there's not even that many bosses!

I often wonder how the game was actually meant to be played. Full on 3k life from the start and limit spam with 100+ Str can't have been the intention, right? Some designer must have thought "okay, at this part of the game, the party will reach the threshold for the enemies getting better spells to draw, so we outfit these dudes with Firaga and those ones with Meteo..." etc

But I don't know what that "intended" way might be. How often would you play cards? Which abilities would you get, when would you start refining?

You can sort of see the degree of tacked on mechanic with the different forms of draw and refining. Magic is originally gated by enemy level, enemy presence, and map draw points. If you play no refine conduct, you're generally going to be fine just drawing what's in front of you and the game is at it's most balanced this way, sort of, arguably. Item refine still gives a degree of gating by presence, although it's obviously a little less thought through considering early access to big refiner payoffs like tents. Card refine guts the whole system and let's you get end game magic a couple hours in.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 13:27

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Counterpoint you don't really need an ultimate gun for Irvine to do ridiculous damage with fast or pulse ammo, just a good str junction.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 17:45

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

Ff9 has a card tournament where it pulls a "but thou must win" for a couple games, and then you play against a gimmick deck that has like a 50% chance you just win with whatever beginner cards they keep giving you because the gimmick is that the deck is bad.

E. I know what you're going to say, it's tetramaster, all the decks are bad because the game is bad. You're right but the oglop deck is meant to combo ping pong from one color to another so it's extra bad and if you go second you probably just won.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 22:12

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# ¿ Jan 13, 2026 01:59

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

That can't be right, there'd be an easily found 60million view youtube for such vore bait.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2022 19:06

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