With the essential acclaim that it has earned, it might be churlish to say that Remaining Fantasy 8 is a foul JRPG. What it definitely is, nevertheless, is a flawed and barely controversial one, each throughout the context of the collection and with out. One of many greatest components of the sport that gamers have had points with is the junction system.
I actually began to develop my ardour for gaming in the course of the PS1 period, and so Remaining Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 grew to become the primary massive RPGs I ever dove into. I nonetheless play every of them on an annual foundation, however I’ve at all times discovered Squall’s journey to be a little bit tougher to strategy than the others. For the sport’s twenty fifth anniversary (and I really feel historical simply acknowledging that Remaining Fantasy 8 is 25 years previous this 12 months), I revisited it, decided to get pleasure from it and respect its strangeness. How? By actually embracing the junction system, Guardian Power talents, magic drawing, restricted inventory of spells and all the things else that has at all times felt just a bit bit ‘fallacious’ to me earlier than. It is not the beloved Materia system from the final sport and its remake.
What Is Junctioning Anyway?
The junction system is simply the sport’s means of dealing with tools. Every celebration member’s weapon may be upgraded a number of occasions at Junk Retailers, however apart from that, there’s no collection of armor and equipment to equip them with. To spice up stats and study particular talents, they’re geared up by way of junctioning. Guardian Forces are junctioned to particular celebration members, and by incomes AP, study the skills required to junction magic spells to explicit stats. Consider it as equipping Ifrit not solely as a summon monster, however as a fiery, livid extension of the geared up character themselves, thereby ‘awakening’ sure talents in that celebration member. It’s a bit just like the not-so-fun-loving Clive Rosfield’s expertise in Remaining Fantasy 16, however with out the cursing or such a excessive ESRB score (that poor chocobo).
With Guardian Forces geared up and the related junction capacity realized (Str-J to junction magic to Energy for example), you’ll be able to then slot any spell from that character’s stock to that particular stat. To amass that magic, you’ll must Draw it from enemies or Draw Factors or refine it from gadgets. Each processes may be lengthy and painstaking in their very own methods, as the primary requires taking a flip in battle to Draw (presumably repeating that many occasions over to get 100 of the spell in query) and the latter can consign you to numerous hours spent taking part in Triple Triad with the intention to get the precise playing cards to Card Mod into the precise gadgets for the related spells.
Sure, build up a full inventory of efficient spells for every stat can take a really very long time, as can farming all of the AP required to study these expertise within the first place. Doling out Guardian Forces amongst celebration members to make sure that no one’s lacking an important stat junction may be very irritating too, notably and not using a information as in-game tutorials solely clarify the very fundamentals. If merely grinding ranges as you may in different RPGs, you’ll quickly end up at a drawback: Enemy encounters match your degree they usually’ll sometimes have a large benefit in uncooked stats.
As we’ll see, it’s additionally all too doable to go in the wrong way and make your self extremely overpowered, and really early within the sport too. There’s an actual lack of stability and an exploitability that makes the junction system so infamous too, however you actually do should go far out of your approach to actually break your celebration. You may get all final weapons however Irvine’s on “disk one” (in PS1-speak), but when ready 15 Triple Triad matches for Dr. Kadowaki to play that darn Elnoyle card since you want yet one more copy of it (to mod into Power Crystals for Pulse Ammo, wanted for the Lion Coronary heart gunblade) appears like a drag, that’s as a result of it’s.
Beforehand, I’ve loved the sport despite the junction system moderately than due to it, because it doesn’t actually match with the way in which I are likely to play RPGs. I’m probably not a degree one playthrough participant, nor am I a lot of a grinder. I’m extra the kind that prefers to remain roughly on the ‘meant’ degree, merely profitable each battle as they come up and never typically working from any, with out rather more battle technique than spamming the Assault command. Over time, my wider engagement with the system has boiled all the way down to utilizing the Auto command to make my Energy as excessive because the obtainable magic allowed. For this massive twenty fifth anniversary playthrough, although, it was time to junction like I’ve by no means junctioned earlier than.
The Wacky Adventures Of Squall, Zell, And Selphie
Remaining Fantasy 8’s solid consists of a few of my favourite characters within the collection. The distinction between the introverted, brooding Squall and the excitable, bubbly Selphie and sizzling tempered Zell makes for some good moments. What I needed to do is attempt to categorical this dynamic in battles too, whereas placing within the time to customise character builds by way of junctioning so as to take action. Right here’s how I went about it.
As an enjoyer of self-imposed challenges, I made a decision that no two celebration members in my workforce of three may have the identical stat junctioned. This meant that just one workforce member may refine 10 Tents into 100 Curagas for an absurd early-game HP enhance, just one may refine Abyss Worm Playing cards into Twister spells for an unlimited Energy enhance, and just one may equally buff their Magic. This left two powerhouse characters, and one with way more HP than the others. It made sense, then, for the latter to be the one to extend their defenses, so Vitality and Spirit had been additionally the main target for them.
In the long run, I made Zell my bodily powerhouse, boosted by Ifrit’s Energy-oriented talents, and Selphie his magic-wielding counterpart. It’s doable to get some very potent spells comparable to Regen, Meltdown, Blizzaga and Thundaga early on via Card Mod (the Blitz card being the supply of the latter although the Dynamo Stone and T-Magazine RF for example), so I had two very completely different glass cannons. Lastly, there was Squall, with base Energy (and all the things else) however huge early-game HP, Vitality, and Spirit. His gameplan, then, is to make use of Cowl, Defend, Defend, Shell (and different property I’ve sorely underutilized in earlier video games) and in any other case assist his defensively feeble allies.
I added Doom and Loss of life to our hero’s repertoire for a enjoyable approach to take down sure enemies and circumvent his missing injury. Additionally as a result of the previous’s animation of the enemy’s soul type of leaving its physique on the finish of the countdown is way, far too steel to not respect. With Darkside too, he grew to become one thing of a Darkish Knight, an homage to the collection’ job system and an ideal match for Squall.
The top results of all of that is that I’ve a removed from sensible however tremendous enjoyable celebration setup. In each battle, I prefer to think about Zell screaming furiously (below the Berserk standing in fact) and making an attempt to obliterate enemies, Selphie enthusiastically shouting “look what I can do!” and leaping in with magic, whereas a facepalming Squall revives, defends, helps, and in any other case tries to maintain them in test. You already know, like a real squad chief.
The title’s distinctive mechanics make it tough to find out the ‘meant’ degree the celebration must be at throughout any given stage of the sport. As a substitute of worrying about that this time, as I normally would, I attempted some mild game-breaking farming (thankfully I fairly get pleasure from Triple Triad and farming AP from the Fastitocalons on the seashore close to Balamb isn’t too obnoxious for me) and tweaked the GFs and junctions to suit my theme.
The uncommon multi-hitting strikes within the sport are certain to provide me a very dangerous time taking part in this manner, with two such weak characters, however it’s all price it: I’m having fun with junctioning and Remaining Fantasy 8 generally greater than I ever have. PlayStation programs proceed to play host to some fantastic JRPGs, and even if you happen to’ve performed them earlier than, there are nonetheless new methods to expertise them.
