Final Fantasy 8 Character Building

[MyLifeIsRandom]

So, with a lot of FF titles on sale on PSN for like $5, I picked up FF8. Thing is, I have no damn clue how I'm supposed to build these characters. It seems they're all capable of having everything maxed, when I'm used to the FF9 and FF10 system of one guy being the Knight, another the White Mage, yet another the Thief and so on. Can anyone point me in the right direction for character development? I've just barely become a SeeD operative but I want to get this done right while playing.

[OrcsRLame]

Yes, every character can do everything, at least stat wise and concerning the basic commands. The character diversity comes from the various limit breaks. The male characters use their weapons and strength stats in their limit breaks. This makes it advantageous to have them set up as physical attacking characters. The female characters use their magic stat for their limit breaks, making it advantageous to have them set up as casters.

The thing that will make or break your character building is your junctions. Spells that you've drawn of course can be junctioned to stats to raise them. The amount raised depends on the stat, the spell, and the number of spells you have. For example, it's better to junction 100 fires to your strength as opposed to only 10 fires. The thing that determines what stats you can junction spells to is the GF junction abilities. For example, you need str-junction, (found on Shiva and Ifrit early game) to junction spells to strength. To build powerful characters the most important thing to do is to have lots of powerful spells junctioned to your core stats. Strength, vitality, (defense) HP, spirit, (magic defense) and magic are generally the most important stats.

Certain spells also junction better to one stat than others. For example, cure junctioned to HP will give a much bigger increase than fire junctioned to HP, while fire junctioned to strength will give a bigger increase than cure junctioned to strength. This is of course fairly easy to test and experiment with, so go nuts on it.

GFs also have passive abilities that you can equip, such as strength +20%. These apply a passive bonus to your character that when stacked, can be kind of OP. If you want to absolutely maximize your character's power, there's some very potent stat bonus GF abilities, str bonus, vit bonus, mag bonus, etc. These don't provide an immediate bonus, but rather they increase the corresponding stat by +1 per level. There's a fairly significant difference between a Squall that's never equipped str bonus, and one that's trained with it for 90 levels. Having as many of these as possible, as early as possible is one of the easiest ways to overpower everything in the game.

Now though I have some advice and words of warning. If you maximize your characters, FF8 is extremely easy. If you're the type that gets bored of easy games, don't stack your junctions too badly or you'll go around two shotting bosses and getting hit for double digit damage by the end of disc 2. The most important tip I have for any new player though is this, draw everything from every fucking boss. Some bosses contain GFs that can be drawn. While you aren't permanently screwed if you miss one of these, it will be a very very long time until you have another chance to get them, and you only get 1 second chance. The only GF you could have possibly missed by this point in the game is Siren, and thankfully Siren is one of the most worthless GFs.

If you have any questions about this game don't be afraid to ask me. I know a lot about the game, and I love talking about Final Fantasy. ^_^

[Northern Goblin]

Stat bonuses on level are the biggest reason I went back and did the most overly complex playthrough of minimising my early level gains just to obtain the right GF's to max out my squad stats.

Though you have the option to junction/GF+x%, being able to use your best spells on your caster, while using your other GF skillslots for abilities (Darkside+Leech Junction, Auto skills etc) means you can run two people (in my case Squall/Zell) as aura/haste boosted limitbreak spam machines while your caster (Quisitis/Selphie being the popular ones) as your support.

[OrcsRLame]

Stat bonuses on level are the biggest reason I went back and did the most overly complex playthrough of minimising my early level gains just to obtain the right GF's to max out my squad stats.

Though you have the option to junction/GF+x%, being able to use your best spells on your caster, while using your other GF skillslots for abilities (Darkside+Leech Junction, Auto skills etc) means you can run two people (in my case Squall/Zell) as aura/haste boosted limitbreak spam machines while your caster (Quisitis/Selphie being the popular ones) as your support.

Well, I really don't think it's necessary to do a minimum level playthrough to maximize stat gains. If you want max stats you can just grind it out with Eden's Devour command.

You probably shouldn't post mega gamebreaking strategies in a thread where someone mentions that they're a first time player. There's a difference between building an OP character and exploiting aura/haste. There is no fight in the game that's remotely hard with aura/haste.

[Somewowguy]

Stat bonuses on level are the biggest reason I went back and did the most overly complex playthrough of minimising my early level gains just to obtain the right GF's to max out my squad stats.

Though you have the option to junction/GF+x%, being able to use your best spells on your caster, while using your other GF skillslots for abilities (Darkside+Leech Junction, Auto skills etc) means you can run two people (in my case Squall/Zell) as aura/haste boosted limitbreak spam machines while your caster (Quisitis/Selphie being the popular ones) as your support.

While this is a great strat, I wouldnt suggest it for a 1st time play through. Having 2 limit spammers and a healer is pretty much putting the game on very, very, very easy mode =P

[Luneward]

Just one thing to be aware of a lot of people forget is that leveling is a bit unintuitive in FF8. It's a lot like the Elder Scrolls games. Your enemies generally tend to scale in power as you level. So if you grind a lot of levels, but don't somewhat optimize your stats and GF distribution, there are some bosses that can wreck you. Low level runs are actually easier than high level runs if you draw out a lot of spells to junction.

[Northern Goblin]

I should note as people said, DON'T do this for a first time play through.

Do it for a fifth+ when you've OCD min max tendancies like me, currently making a Level 100 thief for the Dragoon spear from Odin on FF3 atm >.>

---------- Post added 2013-02-11 at 05:12 AM ----------

Well, I really don't think it's necessary to do a minimum level playthrough to maximize stat gains. If you want max stats you can just grind it out with Eden's Devour command.

Jumbo Cactuar is much easier to get hold of than Eden though.

You probably shouldn't post mega gamebreaking strategies in a thread where someone mentions that they're a first time player. There's a difference between building an OP character and exploiting aura/haste. There is no fight in the game that's remotely hard with aura/haste.

I wouldn't say Aura/Haste is an advanced mechanic, I discovered it during my first playthrough, well Aura that is, I already knew Haste.