So i am beginning to play FF8 again and I was looking at the various Challenge guides for FF8 and I concluded something.

A pure No Junction walkthrough is the most boring idea in the history of anything.
So you use physical attacks and magic stones...and that''s it? Some people even don't use Limit Breaks.

There's a fine line between challenging yourself and just punishing yourself. I could ram my head into a wall to see how many times I could do it until I passed out but that's not a challenge. And that actually sounds more fun than no junctions at all.

My initial idea was simply not to use any summons in battle and not to junction my stats. However I'm thinking it be more fun if people here suggested handicaps for me.

As I pointed out, I flatly refuse to not Junction at all. That's just too frickin' dull. I also would like to avoid a single character playthrough because then it just get repetitive.

So I welcome your imput.

Current plans:
No junction stats
Two characters
No summoning in battle
No Inns
No Card game or card-modding

No refining materials? Only draw and buy everything. Or no card game/card usage at all.

I can add a few to the list.

-You MUST fight in ever random encounter

-You can only attack and save in the game (which means, you can't use spells or items whether you're in a battle or not and no abilites you learn from GFs whether your in a battle or not)

-The use of inns is prohibited

make sure your characters have Cerebral Palsy and Down's Syndrome.

-You MUST fight in ever random encounter

I planned to do that anyway. Didn't even think it counted as a rule.


No refining materials? Only draw and buy everything. Or no card game/card usage at all.

I'd like to refine items but I already planned to avoid that godawful Triple Triad minigame anyway. So no card-related crap.


-You can only attack and save in the game (which means, you can't use spells or items whether you're in a battle or not and no abilites you learn from GFs whether your in a battle or not)

Sorry, that's too close to an NJ game. I'll be confined to just physical attacks for a long ass time till I get other commands. And that's just not fun.


-The use of inns is prohibited

Who needs Inns? You get so much Gil in this game you can heal just fine without them.


make sure your characters have Cerebral Palsy and Down's Syndrome.

That's a default characteristic of all FFVIII characters, though.

Junction elements on your weapons that your enemies are strong against =P

Who needs Inns? You get so much Gil in this game you can heal just fine without them.

Okay, you can't use any items, spells, or commands (only Recover and Revive you can use) whether you're in a battle or not. But like Argus Zephyrus said, you can junction magic to your Elemental Attack, you just can't use spells. You can even do Status Attack if you want. But you can't do anything about either Status or Elemental Defense.

And because your gil will almost be useless, not being able to go inside any inn (or any place that will restore your HP) makes gil very hard for healing purposes.

And one more I just thought of:
-You MUST do every side-quest in the game (which includes Ultima and Omega Weapon)

Does the Queen of Cards count as a sidequest? I don't want to do anything with Triple Triad.

This challenge is about mximiizing the fun. Triple Triad drains fun to zero.

Gil will just be used on healing items, duh.

And no commands or using spells just, again, brings it back to a boring NO game. I might go crazy if I have to just sit and watch Squall run and slash monsters for like 40 hours or something.

How about we compromise and say I can't use a type of magic in battle? Like I can only use Status Effects or I can only use elemtnal magic, etc..

So here we go:
-No Stats Junction
-No summoning GF in battle
-No using Inns
-Two characters only
-No Card game or card modding
-no running from battles

I might go crazy if I have to just sit and watch Squall run and slash monsters for like 40 hours or something.


-Two characters only


How bout using two characters, one of them NOT being Squall. Rotate the others in and out, and just kill Squall or just take no action with him, ever. Also, Junction him with a couple GF's so that enemies won't one-shot him everytime.

I've done this for parts of rpg's before, mainly when I'm bored. I just let one person sit there and laugh when he/she gets owned. Good times.

You could try a no level up game in a version where you do junction to stats and do play cards.

It's really not hard at all, you just get the Card ability from Quez. by defeating Ifrit, the guys at Dollet (with Seifer only), Biggs and Wedge, Elvoret, and XATM092. Then cruise through the game carding every monster you fight. That way, you gain AP but no EXP. It's a hell of a lot of fun, I tried it and it was more fun than the regular playthrough. Only problem is you need to do quite a bit of card playing for Meltdowns to junction to Vit, but other than that, it's really a lot of fun. Hope that helps!

You could try a no level up game in a version where you do junction to stats and do play cards.



Thats the only problem I see with the challenge you posted. VIII's leveling system is that that enemies level up with you. You can technically beat the game at lvl 1 and have the same difficulties that you have with a lvl 100 party.I really don't like it, but it'll always be there.

I do like the idea of carding EVERYTHING, sounds fun since I personally liked the card game in VIII.

As for another idea, you could not upgrade any weapons (I don't remember this being said already) that way you'll always be at the same power level as your opponents, depending on how/if you junction.

Upgrading your weapons is useless in this game anyway. Save for Squall gaining Lionhart, obviously.


You could try a no level up game in a version where you do junction to stats and do play cards.

It's really not hard at all, you just get the Card ability from Quez. by defeating Ifrit, the guys at Dollet (with Seifer only), Biggs and Wedge, Elvoret, and XATM092. Then cruise through the game carding every monster you fight. That way, you gain AP but no EXP. It's a hell of a lot of fun, I tried it and it was more fun than the regular playthrough. Only problem is you need to do quite a bit of card playing for Meltdowns to junction to Vit, but other than that, it's really a lot of fun. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the advice but I just really don't want to play Triple Triad. And I actualy WANT to level up. It seems like it should be harder and more itneresting if I level up but don't junction anything to my stats because my enemies will be getting lots and lots harder.

Anyway, I've started the game with the rules I put in my last post. I've added in a stipulation that only one character can use elemental magic and one can use restorative/status magic.

So say my party is made of Squall and Selphie...with some other character always KO'ed.
Squall will have Elemental Attacks and use elemental attack magic but that's it.
Selphie will have Status Attacks and can use Healing/Status magic

I plan to have a lot of fun with this.

Well upgrading weapons is supposed to 'give you the edge' in battles. But looking back on it, like you said, I really only upgraded Squalls'.

I like that one elemental, one white mage with status effects setup, let us know how it plays out!

Yeah, elemental magic works. And since you can't use healing spells, if your elemental defense has a green star next to an element, you can heal yourself that way.

But then you can't use commands of any kind if you decide to use only elemental spells. And I think the only limit break you can use is Zell's :D! Because I think he has the weakest one.

And since you don't want to play Triple Triad (one of the best minigames in the series), then you don't have to do the Queen of Cards quest.