Is there some kind of lore explanation for CARD MODDING?

Mister Goober

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Hello dear friends.

Lots of things, if not most, in Final Fantasy 8 make perfect sense. For example, we get the concept of guardian forces. Religious and spiritual thought in the real world speak of higher beings that influence the course of human events. There's also the concept of exams being done by students like the Fire Cavern exam and the 'real mission' exam that Squall, Zell, and Selphie underwent during the very early parts of the game. There's even the concept of salaries as soon as the party becomes officially employed mercenaries.

But the card game (Triple Triad) is a bit tricky. Yes, it's easy to imagine it being a legitimate side activity among the main characters. After all, real card games exist in the real world. What is unreasonable, however, is the card modding and the special 'elite' character cards and even the mere GF cards. Firstly, there's that question of what makes all cards convertible to items. If that really is the reality of them, what is stopping the Trepe Groupie from outright sacrificing his Quistis card to Squall for the sake of its magic ability? What is stopping the CC group from sacrificing their special boss cards to SeeDs who actually in fact need good stuff to card mod? Are these cards something mystical and could only be obtained through a GF's card ability? Considering how there is no "Card Factory" in the game, it's reasonable to think that they are. Either way, the game didn't explain the lore behind cards and their combat utility.

I gotta know this stuff because I wanna write a Final Fantasy 8 fanfiction and I need to know this aspect of the game.

Please help. Thank you, dear friends.
 
To be honest it seems like the game developers didn't think this part out very well :lew: It doesn't even make sense when you transform a monster into a card (and they disappear/presumably die) but characters like Rinoa, Squall, Seifer, etc are still alive.


I'm not super into the lore of FF8, so my next paragraph may be flawed (and honestly just sound like thinking out loud,) but I suppose I have a tiny bit of a theory?

Quezacotl's Card ability turns monsters into cards. What if the magic behind it is utilizing the target/monster in some way where their life-force (and perhaps memories) is junctioned onto a card, where you/your GF is then able to Card Mod (Draw) out the magical items that are contained within that card. I saw someone refer to it as transmuting, and I think that's kinda interesting, like you're drawing the partial life-force/memories from the Laguna card and transmuting that into 100 Heros.

Utilizing a life-force and junctioning it onto a card makes sense since it could potentially kill a monster (taking their lifeforce) since they are weaker, but not kill someone who may be stronger and/or have more complex memories? The quality of the life-force could be what determines the card numbers & elements as well as the items you're drawing out. Whatever it is that is being junctioned to the card would be in limited quanitity, which is why you can't have duplicate cards for higher tier individuals, like your party members.

Perhaps other people's GFs are also able to make Cards and utilize the memories (that belong to the person they're junctioned to) of the people they want to make a card of. Like if Rinoa junctioned Quezacotl, used her memories to make a Squall card, and then was able to further draw out the magical items behind it. Perhaps cause some memory loss? 🙃 I dunno!


Just some general musing, again I'm not super into the lore, but maybe someone has a better theory or could use mine to better refine/work off of. :lew:
 
To be honest it seems like the game developers didn't think this part out very well :lew: It doesn't even make sense when you transform a monster into a card (and they disappear/presumably die) but characters like Rinoa, Squall, Seifer, etc are still alive.


I'm not super into the lore of FF8, so my next paragraph may be flawed (and honestly just sound like thinking out loud,) but I suppose I have a tiny bit of a theory?

Quezacotl's Card ability turns monsters into cards. What if the magic behind it is utilizing the target/monster in some way where their life-force (and perhaps memories) is junctioned onto a card, where you/your GF is then able to Card Mod (Draw) out the magical items that are contained within that card. I saw someone refer to it as transmuting, and I think that's kinda interesting, like you're drawing the partial life-force/memories from the Laguna card and transmuting that into 100 Heros.

Utilizing a life-force and junctioning it onto a card makes sense since it could potentially kill a monster (taking their lifeforce) since they are weaker, but not kill someone who may be stronger and/or have more complex memories? The quality of the life-force could be what determines the card numbers & elements as well as the items you're drawing out. Whatever it is that is being junctioned to the card would be in limited quanitity, which is why you can't have duplicate cards for higher tier individuals, like your party members.

Perhaps other people's GFs are also able to make Cards and utilize the memories (that belong to the person they're junctioned to) of the people they want to make a card of. Like if Rinoa junctioned Quezacotl, used her memories to make a Squall card, and then was able to further draw out the magical items behind it. Perhaps cause some memory loss? 🙃 I dunno!


Just some general musing, again I'm not super into the lore, but maybe someone has a better theory or could use mine to better refine/work off of. :lew:

Thank you, Miko.

I'll likely reread your theory.
 
I’ve been learning about card games and school settings as a trope in Japanese popular culture lately. An extension of a culture of competitive sports and activities within real-life schools, but with the twist of magical MacGuffins to make it so that kids can beat stronger adults, etc. I guess Triple Triad falls into the same niche, since these little pieces of card can do some pretty wild stuff if you use them for things other than playing cards.

I did try to dig some extra info on this in the FFVIII section of the Ultimania Archive. However, I couldn’t find anything on cards. I lack access to the (Japanese only) Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania which would be more in-depth and probably mentions it somewhere.

There’s a lot that doesn’t really add up lore-wise. I have never understood why character cards even exist in-game. Imagine in your youth playing Pokemon cards and then all of a sudden someone whips out a card with an image of your actual face. Or people all over the world have cards of people you know. I guess the main, playable characters are rare cards and, I think, only one exists in the world. Still pretty creepy though.

Also, why are monsters carrying cards with them? When they aren’t baring their fangs or turning people into human-basketballs are they sitting down and playing cards with each other? I guess that one is an extension of the gameplay logic problem of monsters carrying gil with them. Certain things might be gameplay mechanics with no consideration or implications for the lore.

There are also certain entities which exist as depictions in card form that the ‘average Joe’ shouldn’t have knowledge of. The Propagators were xenomorph-type aliens encountered in space by Squall’s party. They weren’t exactly common knowledge as far as I’m aware.

I think we have to suspend our disbelief with some of this, but for the purposes of your fanfiction there could be ways of explaining these things (or ignoring problematic elements).

I would suspect that there must be card manufacturers somewhere. Maybe there's magic involved in their creation which enables people to mod them and convert them into other matter. Or maybe a GF wielder has the ability to convert cards into other matter.

Possibly nothing was stopping the Trepe Groupie from converting the Quistis card or using it for other purposes. Nothing except, perhaps, his adoration for Quistis Trepe and his unwillingness to part with a bit of card with her face on it.

Quezacotl's Card ability turns monsters into cards. What if the magic behind it is utilizing the target/monster in some way where their life-force (and perhaps memories) is junctioned onto a card, where you/your GF is then able to Card Mod (Draw) out the magical items that are contained within that card. I saw someone refer to it as transmuting, and I think that's kinda interesting, like you're drawing the partial life-force/memories from the Laguna card and transmuting that into 100 Heros.

Utilizing a life-force and junctioning it onto a card makes sense since it could potentially kill a monster (taking their lifeforce) since they are weaker, but not kill someone who may be stronger and/or have more complex memories? The quality of the life-force could be what determines the card numbers & elements as well as the items you're drawing out. Whatever it is that is being junctioned to the card would be in limited quanitity, which is why you can't have duplicate cards for higher tier individuals, like your party members.

Perhaps other people's GFs are also able to make Cards and utilize the memories (that belong to the person they're junctioned to) of the people they want to make a card of. Like if Rinoa junctioned Quezacotl, used her memories to make a Squall card, and then was able to further draw out the magical items behind it. Perhaps cause some memory loss? 🙃 I dunno!
I really like this theory!
 
Yeah I think it just has to be accepted as some sort of magic that cards appear or exist to represent everything in that universe...as to how the cards are made it's just the magic of that universe that produces these things...
 
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