Repetitive Strategy - Summoning

[DarkShadow]

Before I go on.........I hated the gameplay of FFVIII, it was like torture.

One of the things I hated during battle......or in other words one of the things I continously did was summon.

My attacks and magic stats sucked badly.....I don't know if Square did this on purpose or if I was the only one....But I've completed the game and my average attack with Rinoa is like 400 against monster with like 6000 HP...I have drawn a lot of magic but find that boring and useless as well..........when you can just make life easier and Summon.

But problems with summoning is that it gets boring as well.....especially when you have to wait and watch the GF do its move which its done a million times before your eyes,I probably summon GF's like 90% of my battles.....the 10% I don't is when I'm against monsters you battled against in disc 1.

Did anyone else get annoyed by this.......

 

[Exoskeleton]

Okay so if you learned up on the junction system your stats probably would have been way better. If you can't handle your stats then of course it'll get repetitive because all you can do to survive is summon. Did you beat the game this way? O__O

I loved it's gameplay because you didn't HAVE to summon all the time, Heck, you didn't even have to have the ability present! I think what's annoying at all gameplay wise would be the drawing system(I could ramble on about this all day ). If I recall the summon animations were so you could level up the summons attack with the boost ability by pressing select and hitting square repeatedly...

I didn't like how long some of the summons were but then again I never really had to use them that often. To me the devour ability is more entertaining than the GF one anyway xD

 

[DarkShadow]

Yeah I did draw magic....and like you I did find it annoying as well,but still I drew magic (think it was Thundara) up to 100 juntioned it to str and it was nothing massive.

I did beat the game.....despite not being allowed to summon,on the last version of Ultemecia, I think I just casted apocalypse from her.....as well as keeping Rinoa's HP on critical so I could use her limit break,but it didnt provide nothing big.......If I was luck maybe she'd inflict 1000HP.

I loved it's gameplay because you didn't HAVE to summon all the time

But I am shocked by how you didnt have to summon all the time.....I'd inflict like 7000hp on monsters,and some of my summons were on level 100.

But on the drawing note.....Yeah that really took the piss having to draw magic,especially when there are tons of them.

 

[Æon Flux]

Thundara? uhm Id say level up more [edit] magic levels up as you do since in the begining of the game befor I got ifrit I leveld up to the Ga stages of magic just threw basic combat.
I had a massive amount of high grade spells because I spent time leveling my charecters up and getting the max amount of Pain,meltdown,ultima and a ton of other high level magics
Junctioning different magics increase your stats differently.
But all my charecters where powerhouses by the end and midway threw the game I didnt even need summons ,unless I wanted to see their animations,I pretty much fought my way threw everything.
I actually liked the battle system and thought it was fun....But im spend alot of time making sure I get the most out of a game so that includes building everything up to max levels and much hording of items

 

[Alpha Spirit]

I hated the battle system first time playing. Drawing and summoning takes way too much time. When I got to Adel, I couldn't beat her so I started all over again. Then I decided that this time I will take it more slowly and learn the battle system.

So I found out that you don't have to draw or summon. You can get magic by refining items. Playing cards helps, because you can refine them to get items. Summoning is not needed at all, because with better junctions you get stronger attacks.

All in all, I find the battle system really unbalanced, but it's fun exploring the possibilities of your junctions.

 

[Noize]

I agree. Other than drawing magic and utilizing the junction system it was a total bore in battles. my battles went along the lines of:

O-O-O limit break, O-O-O limit break throughout just about every battle....

not much strategy if you ask me.... I did enjoy collecting the mats for the weapon upgrades though.

As for summoning, It was pretty annoying for me, i barely did it (Besides

Spoiler

Carbuncle and Diablos

) and it as fun as GF's are to watch even that got annoying after a while, they're not even that strong......

 

[Martel]

I barely ever summoned past the first disc. I used Renzokuken to OHKO everything instead. Once I had sufficient magic stocked and junctioned to strength, I won every battle with Squall. I killed each of Ultimecia's forms with a single limit break

So...yeah. Not entirely sure why people found this game so difficult. xD

 

[Noize]

I barely ever summoned past the first disc. I used Renzokuken to OHKO everything instead. Once I had sufficient magic stocked and junctioned to strength, I won every battle with Squall. I killed each of Ultimecia's forms with a single limit break

So...yeah. Not entirely sure why people found this game so difficult. xD

When you say with a single Limit break you are meaning each party members limit break right? You can't kill Final form with 1 Lionheart.. lol

....Or can you? I could never OHKO he final forn..even with using Lionheart with each hit doing max damage....

 

[C i d]

I barely ever summoned past the first disc. I used Renzokuken to OHKO everything instead. Once I had sufficient magic stocked and junctioned to strength, I won every battle with Squall. I killed each of Ultimecia's forms with a single limit break

So...yeah. Not entirely sure why people found this game so difficult. xD

this.

In fact, in most FF games, I rarely summon. If you are patient in drawing magic, the game is too easy. Just cast aura on Squall (with good junctioning).

I thought that the draw and junction system was quite a good system. However, it could have been tweaked a little here and there to improve gameplay.

 

[Cathoblepas]

LoL. I think your SeeD rank went down because of summoning..there are alternative ways in defeating monsters or Bosses. Use Limit Break, Magic, Junction Attack, Items.

About that attack you had with Rinoa.. I think you did not had you attack maxed to 255. You need to max that one for you to have better attack. Use the Abilities to use Stat Up Abilities such as Mag and Str Up 1lvl. Or you can try different techniques like zombie life or zombie phoenix down. FFVIII is a fun game to play. You just need to build your own strategy to grind and make your own way to finish the game easier

The only reason why I had to use Gfs was to see the animation, and then raise the compatibility, or in critical conditions, I use Gf to save my character's life.

Play quest games and mini games such as cards to get rid of boredom

Alll of the RPGs that ive played are almost the same,its just on how you play it

 

[Exoskeleton]

When you say with a single Limit break you are meaning each party members limit break right? You can't kill Final form with 1 Lionheart.. lol

....Or can you? I could never OHKO he final forn..even with using Lionheart with each hit doing max damage....

I think what is meant here is that the bosses were weakened first and then finished off in whatever form they were in by the limit break. It can also be interpreted and continuously using Squall's limit break over and over again.

I honestly don't get why people found this game so hard either. I figured this game out when I was 9 o__o If a 9 year old can do it anyone can! Don't like drawing? Refine items from cards!(Totally got a stash of triple magic this way) The gameplay gives you options on how to play so I guess it's up to the player to make things fun...And the gameplay in most rpg battles are repetitive. I haven't picked up an rpg that changed gameplay with every battle

 

[GalaxyFlare]

I love this Im mentioned all the way through it

Iterum you seemed to have missed the point
Magic sucks full stop in this game the limit breaks involving Magic are shit compared to other FF games, Angle wing

The Flare spell does 3500+/- when you magic stat is at 255, meltdown is good for increased magic damage but also reduces physical defense which makes battle to easy, which is why in FFIX the various stat reducing skills were introduced to a ke battle more strategic.

Summoning was largely,IMO, just a way for S-E to show off but in a good way, eden was the only really effective GF it did as much damage a s limit break or 10-15 regular physical attacks would in a longer time. The lack of a break damage limit in FFVIII really killed its pace imagine if bahamut topped out at like 20000 Hp Damage for megeflare,
or Diablos could de more than the pissy amount of 9999. FFVIII was a learning curve towards FFX where S.S got it right.

So no I found the battle system on FFVIII to be very good, i found the reliance on GF to use most skills odd even having to equip a GF to use the Item Command

Very Odd.