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[Reid]

I'm playing through Final Fantasy VIII again and I remember having a terrible time with the last boss of the game, so I'm wondering if anyone here who has played it with relative ease can give me some tips and strategies to use as I go through it.

It would be much appreciated.

[ssjtrunks13]

Well, if you spend time to draw lotsa magic when you can that might help, last game I played when I was able to get a new spell I just drew about 99 of it for each character. I had no trouble with the last boss the first time I played through the game, but the last time(I'm at 100 and was at no more than 85 in my first game) I had a hard time, I was unable to beat her in her last form I think it was.

[kupoartist]

Originally posted by ssjtrunks13
Well, if you spend time to draw lotsa magic when you can that might help, last game I played when I was able to get a new spell I just drew about 99 of it for each character. I had no trouble with the last boss the first time I played through the game, but the last time(I'm at 100 and was at no more than 85 in my first game) I had a hard time, I was unable to beat her in her last form I think it was.

This is a decent idea. It is important to have large reserves of magic, especially massive damage / healing magics like Ultima or Full-Cure. With the correct Junction ability on a GF, you can then Junction, say Ultima, to somthing like Strength - In which case, your character will commonly do full 9999 damage at a high level. the 13 or so Attacks that Squall's Lionheart Limit Break does, at 9999 damage will topple the majority of enemies in one go.

However, getting these magics isn't easy. It'll be important to build up reserves of more common magics though... The Ultima's etc. can be found in Invisible Draw points around the world map: The Islands "Closest to Heaven / Hell" have these things in abundance, but are also home to the toughest monsters in the game. Get a "No Encounters" ability on one of your GFs before you commence with the running around these islands, whilst mashing the "use" button!

[Reid]

Would the bosses be substantially tougher due to your party having higher levels?

I think I remember hearing that FFVIII uses a proportional system so is it sort of useless to spend time leveling up?

And, by the way, thanks for the tips ssjtrunks and the_artist!

I've been drawing 100 of most magic I come across unless it's from a very inopportune enemy (like a boss) and that seems like it does a lot of good.

Is Squall's Lionheart hard to get as well? . . or worth the trouble if it is? I never attempted it the last times I played.

[ssjtrunks13]

His last weapon is definately worth it, you might wanna also get the best weapons of everyone else and find out what weapons of Squall's gives you each of his limit breaks, some weapons give you the same as a previous one so you might wanna find out what those are. As long as you keep up with your magic you shouldn't really have a problem, I beat the Ultima Weapon on the game where I couldn't beat the final boss and I made sure I had the best magics. I had about 100 Ultima per character, I think.

[kupoartist]

Originally posted by Reid
I think I remember hearing that FFVIII uses a proportional system so is it sort of useless to spend time leveling up?

There is indeed such a system, but because Characters grow in so many ways other than levels (largely due to GF growth, which leads to Stat Growth), for every level a boss goes up, your character could go effectivly seem like they've gone up 3. So being at a higher level makes the boss harder, but the ratios mean that it is still easier than at a lower level.

Lionheart is worth it, as it gives a limit-break equivilent to Cloud's Omnislash - a 13 slash technique called "Lionheart". As previously mentioned, 100 Ultimas and Lionheart will do one bucket-load of damage. When I last played, only Omega Weapon required that I used a second Lionheart attack (well, some bosses also withstand it, but they "cheat" by actually being a string of bosses - like Ultemecia / Griever etc. at the end.)

Another thing - do the Card Club quest before the end of disk 3. Get the Gilgamesh Card and refine it for 10 Holy Wars (Gives Invulnrabilty on your active party for a while). If you do it before Disk 3, you get a chance to get the card again anyway (from the same person you won it from - only they're on the Ragnarok this time), so you won't have harmed your collection, and you'll have the invaluable Holy Wars...

Final Thing I'll mention - The easiest way to get GF-Eden is to Draw it from Tiamat in Ultemecia's Castle. Ultima Weapon is obviously the difficult way.

[Brit]

rotf u can get eden from tiamat?
makes the whole ultima thing a waste of time - unless ur after the 100 ultima stones u can steal

best methods have already been mentioned above. shouldn't really be anything new except maybe the lionheart. just like fighting any other boss to be honest

[ssjtrunks13]

Yeah, those 100 Ultima Stones would do great things. Well, I had originally thought you could only get it from the Ultima Weapon, I never got to fight Omega either. So I had only got Eden when I drew it from Ultima in my last game. That's what I used for Ultima, the holy stones. Plus there was also a couple times I believe Rinoa's thing that turns you invincible popped up.

[Nelo Angelo]

Get Tonberry.

His Level Up(To get more exp) and Level Down(To make the monsters there easier) skill are helpful if you want to fight on the Heaven or Hell islands.

Stock up on the Aura spell and get Aura stones to use your limit breaks more often.

[Frozen]

Limit Breaks are definitely the way to go. I remember I used to sacrifice Quistis at the very beginning of the battle with Kamikaze, so I would take Ultimecia on one hit. Then I would be using aura stones all the way after beatin them with Limit Breaks only. Also try to time the turns in which you know Griever is going to make a Shockwave Pulse and summon your GF's so they get killed instead of you.

The best limit break I was able to use was Irvine's, there were a couple of ammo (the most powerful 2 types) whcih names I forgot, I remember I'd deal the most damage with him, and with Rinoa's Wishing Star. I never got the Lionheart

[Brit]

pulse ammo was the best

but if u had irvine on a high level with 255 strength it wouldn't of mattered wot ammo u used, coulda just used fast ammo and done a load of damage.

u guys seriously use aura magic casting? never went down that road, just kept squall on 1/4th of his health with lionheart sword, so u could open up on ur enemy on first hit. each to his own tho.

also i might add, the thing that helped me most was to only use two of squals swords, cutting trigger and lionheart. coz that way u can only do only 1 of 2 limit breaks instead of 1 in 4 limit brekas if u get the other swords.

ultimate ff8 tip tho is to fight omega. if u can beat him u can beat anything in the game, considered hardest boss in the game in my opinion, try it without the lionheart.

i personally reckon i do more damage with zells limit break than squall does with his lionheart. in 6 seconds i reckon i can do 150,00- damage, in punch rushes and dolphin blows

[BlackThornn]

I thought the last boss was kind of easy.. just refine your party to outfit them with all your best stuff, make sure you have lionheart, and refine the chubby chocobo (at least I think it's chubby chocobo) and gilgamesh cards so you can break out the ultimate limit break for Squall and have your whole party invincible from the get-go.

And Ultima Weapon was fun! You get the Eden card that way too, bwa. Omega was cheap as heck, though.. argh. Killed me more times than I care to admit.. much harder than Ultimecia's silly accented butt.