Shaded Resolve - RPG Completionists Guides: Final Fantasy VIII

In this last chapter I'm going to cover my preferred character and Guardian Force setups along with a few other notes to wrap up 100% completion of the game.

Seed Rank: A

We'll start with obtaining the SeeD rank A and maintaining it. As you more-than-likely already know, there are 30 SeeD tests Squall can take in the tutorial section of the main menu. With each passed one, equal to Squall's current level, you can grow your rank to 30 easily, however, once you have completed test 30, you are no longer able to use the tests to increase your rank and you will need to use the game's SeeD experience system to proceed to the next, highest level, A. Saving these tests (I recommend no less than 10) until the very end of the game can help you easily manage the A rank without your rank decreasing through lack of battles (In towns and side-quests, for example).

How does the SeeD rank experience work? It's fairly simple: With each monster you defeat, which Guardian Forces kills do not count for, you receive +1 SeeD experience. Then, once Squall is payed his salary, his new rank is determined after -10 experience is deducted from his total amount. Squall is payed after a set number of steps, so it is actually harder to raise your rank than you may think. If you haven't defeated at least 10 enemies before being paid, your rank is in danger of decreasing. In fact, with rank A, specifically, if you don't defeated 10 enemies before Squall is payed, you WILL be reduced down to rank 30, again.

So, besides using tests, what is the best way to go about raising your rank? Since number of steps is used to determine when Squall is payed, we need a high encounter rate and a large number of enemies in each one, and the huge discrepancy in the encounter rate between dungeons and the world map makes this a no-brainer. The encounter rate on the world map is considerably higher than dungeons, so we will be using that. In my opinion, the absolute best place to easily raise your SeeD rank is in the screenshot above. West of Deling City, if you hug the nearby mountains (Not on the mountains, just running around close to them), if you stay within Deling City's darkness, the most-common encounter here are three Geezards that are easily dispatched. The second most-common encounter are two Funguars, then finally, you can find two Geezards and one Funguar in a battle. This guarantees at least two, but more-commonly, three, kills per battle. If your rank is below 20, you should easily be able to increase your rank by two each time, if you are persistent with battles. Once above 20 and start towards 30, you'll need to grind a little bit more to increase your rank, which is why I recommend saving at least 10 of the tests for the end of the game. Hopefully this information helps you obtain the A rank for your save file.

Item Completion

On the final page (18), you should only be lacking six items, or seven if you traded the Girl Next Door for the Shiva card. Two of these are for the Magical Lamp and Solomon Ring you have no choice but to use to obtain the Diablos and Doomtrain Guardian Forces. However, the other four: Chocobo's Tag, Friendship, Ribbon, and Mog's Amulet can only be obtained via the PocketStation, not available outside of Japan. So, if you are only lacking those six items, congratulations: you have obtained every item possible.

Guardian Force Compatibility

Next, let's take a look at obtaining maximum compatibility for your Guardian Forces. Having completed the CC Group side-quest, this is easily achieved. The Chubby Chocobo card, which you could have obtained from the Queen of Cards quest, or from the Queen of Cards herself or the left-side Diamond player onboard the Ragnarok on disc 4, you can use Quezacotl's Card Mod ability to create 100 LuvLuvG items from. Each one of these used on a character increases compatibility with ALL Guardian Forces by 20; with no reductions. You should only need to use around 30 for each character to reach maximum compatibility. Once you've used all 100 of the LuvLuvGs, simply re-win the Chubby Chocobo card back from the left-side Diamond girl, refine it again, and you can complete this infinite amounts of time to maximize all of your character's compatibility. Keep in mind that once you begin to summon GFs again, your compatibility with other GFs begin to drop, so it's always best to leave this until you are ready to create your completed save file.

Guardian Force Setup

Onto Guardian Forces, now. What Guardian Forces should you give which characters? That's a hard determination to make and is ultimately a personal decision based upon your goals. Do you want each character to have a GF or divide all them between three characters and switch their junctions around? Do you want to to have the maximum amount of abilities accessible to all three characters? I'll try to guide you along in the best way I can, but you'll need to make a decision for yourself and the goals for your save file.

First, I'll go over the abilities that are limited to specific Guardian Forces and cannot be taught via an item. To maximize the amount of abilities for your characters, you'll need to separate these GFs between characters.

Hit-J: Diablos, Cerberus, Eden
Luck+50%: Cactaur, Tonberry, Eden
Eva+30%: Cactaur, Tonberry
Mad Rush: Ifrit, Eden
Darkside: Diablos, Doomtrain, Eden
Mug: Diablos, Bahamut
Absorb: Pandemona, Doomtrain
Defend: Brothers, Cactaur
Expendx2-1: Cerberus, Bahamut
HP Bonus: Brothers, Cactaur
Str Bonus: Ifrit, Cactaur
Vit Bonus: Carbuncle, Cactaur
Mag Bonus: Siren, Cactaur
Spr Bonus: Leviathan, Cactaur
Initiative: Pandemona, Cactaur, Tonberry
Auto-Potion: Leviathan, Cactaur, Tonberry
Move-HP Up: Bahamut, Tonberry

Just to give you my personal preference, I divide my Guardian Forces like so:

Character 1: Shiva, Diablos, Carbuncle, Alexander, Bahamut, Tonberry

Character 2: Ifrit, Siren, Leviathan, Doomtrain, Eden

Character 3: Quezacotl, Brothers, Pandemona, Cerberus, Cactaur

Note: I don't use this setup to maximize the number of abilities, but it does provide the most-useful ones to each character, in my opinion, Hit-J and Luck+50%. This is just a guideline; have fun and experiment which GFs you think fit each character and the goals for your save file. As for what what abilities should be taught to your GFs, I will outline that in an upcoming section about setting up your characters, however, below I give recommendations on the abilities to teach to maximize your Guardian Force's summoning power and HP.

GFHP+30% (Gold Armor): Quezacotl, Shiva, Siren

GFHP+40% (Diamond Armor): Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Diablos, Cerberus

SumMag+40% (Samantha Soul): Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Brothers, Leviathan, Pandemona, Alexander, Tonberry

Diamond Armors and Samantha Soul's can be obtained from refining the Seifer and Quistis cards, respectively, while the Gold Armor is a much-rarer item. To obtain them, you need to defeat Snow Lions, located in the forests around Trabia Garden, to drop Silver Mails and refine five of them into one Gold Armor.

Character Junctions

We'll focus now on setting up our character's junctions effectively. Like with the Guardian Forces, this will be subjective based upon your preferences, but I will try to provide an outline for you from my perspective. Before I delve in, a few notes. When it comes to individual characters, there is very little difference when it comes to base statistics, so maximizing their limit breaks should be your focus. Below is the determining factor in each character's limit breaks.

Strength: Squall, Zell, Irvine, Seifer, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Rinoa (Angelo)

Magic: Quistis, Selphie, Edea, Rinoa (Angel Wing)

There are, however, a few jarring differences in character statistics to look out for when when setting up your characters. Rinoa, for instance, has a ridiculous advantage on every other character in terms of Strength and Magic; only rivaled by Edea in the latter, while Seifer has a near 2000 HP upside on Squall at level 100. With that said, what spells should be junctioned to each stat? Below, I will give my recommendations, the best, followed by a secondary, or third choice. Keep in mind that Squall, Seifer, and Selphie (With Strange Vision) have no use for the Hit% stat and the two former characters, Squall and Seifer, get no bonus from Luck. If you weren't sure, a higher Luck stat increases your character's chance to land a critical hit.

HP: Ultima, Meteor, Tornado, Regen (w/HP+80%)

Strength: Ultima, Meteor, Aura

Vitality: Meltdown

Magic: Ultima, Triple, Pain

Spirit: Ultima, Full-life, Reflect, Curaga

Speed: Triple, Ultima, Haste, Stop

Evade%: Ultima, Triple, Tornado

Hit%: Triple, Aura, Double

Luck: Ultima, Aura, Float

For reference, here are some screenshots of my preferences.

Note: These stats are combined with junction abilities you will see in the next section.

Elemental attack and defense is a little easier to decide upon. The above setup I use for all three of my characters and I highly recommend it. You can junction Ultima here to absorb the rest of the elements as HP, but in my opinion, this is a waste of your Ultima stock. If you'd like to take Full-life out for another stat, you can get some benefit from Protect in its place. For elemental attack, I leave mine un-junctioned unless facing a particular situation.

Status junction is a mixed bag and mostly situational. There really is no sure-fire way to set this up; you will always be vulnerable in at least one area, but the above screenshot is what I use for two of my three characters. Arguably, the most dangerous status, besides Death, is Berserk. It is frequently used throughout the game and, because of this, I always keep Berserk in my magic stock to switch out with Death for facing a Malboro, for example.

For my magic-based character, I prefer to use Pain instead of Reflect, to completely null the chance of being silenced, while plugging Reflect into their Spirit junction. Pain can also make an excellent addition to your status attack, but, in my opinion, this spell is best junctioned elsewhere. Drain, as well, is a good choice for your status attack: just make sure to be wary if you are facing an undead enemy. If you're curious, my third character is using Slow for their status attack.

Character Abilities

With the statistics taken care of, what commands and abilities should round your characters out? Again, this is ultimately subjective, but I will give you my opinion. When it comes to commands, honestly, there is not much use for anything outside of Magic, GF, Draw, and Item; the basic commands. Early in the game, commands such as Treatment, Recover, and Revive are useful, but by the end, with the ability to buy Remedies, X-Potions, and easily refine Esuna and Full-life spells, in my opinion, there is little use for these anymore. Outside of the basic four, Darkside, with the ability to triple your attack power at the expense of losing HP from it, could be a nice choice, but which command would you replace it with? I, myself, can't justify its use over one of the others, but you make the call for yourself.

Lastly, we take a look at character abilities. These are all about how much you want to offset your character's statistics. Below I will give a listing of the abilities I recommend you take a look at.

HP+80% (Gaea's Ring, Diablos, Brothers)

Str+60% (Hyper Wrist, Bahamut)

Vit+60% (Adamantine)

Mag+60% (Royal Crown, Bahamut)

Spr+60% (Magic Armlet)

Spd+40% (Rocket Engine, Cerberus, Pandemona)

Luck+50% (Cactaur, Tonberry, Eden)

Counter (Monk's Code, Carbuncle)

Return Damage (Hundred Needles)

Auto-Protect (Steel Curtain, Bahamut)

Auto-Shell (Moon Curtain, Doomtrain)

Auto-Haste (Accelerator, Cerberus)

For how to obtain all of the above items, head back to Chapter 21. Below are screens of the commands and abilities I prefer to use.

Increasing Character Statistics

There are are a few ways available to players to permanently increase their character's parameters (255 being the maximum) without the need for spell junctions or abilities. Those being: items and the Devour command. For the items, see Chapter 21 on how to refine them. Below I will list the enemies and their locations you can use Eden's (Or Hungry Cookpot) Devour command to increase statistics.

Ruby Dragon: HP+10 (Forests outside Edea's House, First screen of Deep Sea Research Center)
Adamanotise: Vit+1 (Beaches outside of Dollet)
T-Rexaur: Str+1 (Forests outside Balamb area, Island Closest to Hell)
Behemoth: Mag+1 (World Map near Tears' Point)
Malboro: Spr+1 (Grandidi Forest, which is due-north of Esthar)

My Statistics

In this final section, for those that may be curious, you can view the various statistics that I managed to compile in my game whilst writing this completionist guide. It took a long time, trust me!

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you on my next completionist project!

Friday, October 2, 2020

Final Fantasy VIII - Chapter 22: Ultimecia Castle

The party splits into two group as they approach the gates of Ultimecia Castle. Judging by the aerial view of the Castle, it's going to be a long road to the finale: are you ready?

Inside, you'll be greeted by a message that your abilities have been sealed by Ultimecia's servants; leaving you only with the Attack command, for the moment. If you've made through all of the side-quests and spent some time on junctioning your stats well, you shouldn't have any problems, but you may consider junctioning Drain to your status attack as a way to heal yourself until you can unseal your ability to cast magic or use items. Of course, you'll need to be wary of any undead enemies using this strategy.

Before we move on, a couple of notes about Ultimecia Castle. First, you no longer need to use Squall, if you'd prefer that. While Squall has to lead one of the two parties, you can use the alternate party to accomplish everything in the Castle; including fighting Ultimecia herself. You can switch parties via the green circles you find throughout the dungeon. Second, nearly everything monster, including a few old bosses, are located somewhere within the Castle; in fact, every screen you enter has a different set of encounters. However, their levels are randomly generated, as opposed to the usual being based off the average level of your active party, and thus it almost-always results in lopsided battles and very little experience gain. Enemies that don't appear in Ultimecia Castle are: the ones specific to Laguna's dreams, like Elastoid and Gespers, and the Galbadian soldiers, Slappers, and robots. Third, regarding Edea and Seifer, except for one instant I will note coming up shortly, they work fine inside of the Castle, as long as you follow the general rule of using them in the third party member slot. However, you should be careful with the non-Squall led party as if you place Seifer or Edea in the leader position (The first slot, not middle) your party will disappear from the map and be unable to move. With all that said, climb the red-carpeted stairs to find the first of Ultimecia's servants.

Even with only the Attack command, this is simple. You can steal an Elixir, or if you hold off, the boss will drop a Megalixir. You'll more-than-likely finish it quickly, but note that it can summon allies, of which one is a Forbidden. If a Forbidden is summoned, ignore it and continue your attacks on the boss. If you attempt to whittle down a Forbidden's HP, it will begin to use an instant-death attack, that cannot be avoided, and with no ability to revive our allies right now, could prove disastrous.

With each one of Ultimecia's servants you defeat, you will given the option to unseal one of your abilities. If you are using Drain on your status attack, I recommend unsealing GFs first, if not, you may prefer Magic. There is, however, a reasoning for players to choose Draw. Going forward, each servant you encounter will possess a different Guardian Force you can draw if you happened to miss your chance to obtain them earlier on in the game. Remember: even though your Item and Save ability is sealed for now, you can always leave to use a Tent and save at the save point at the gates of the Castle.

Continue up the stairs and through the door at the top to enter a room with a giant chandelier. Do NOT proceed if you have Edea or Seifer in your party; swap them with a normal character first. Attempt to cross the chandelier to the other side and it will fall and crack open the rusted cellar door on the floor in the room below. If you have Edea or Seifer in your party when the chandelier falls, the game will lock up.

In the room the chandelier fell into, you can encounter the Grat enemy. This is only of note due to being unable to return to the Balamb Garden Training Center, which was the only place to encounter the Grat. You can farm Silence Powders from then again, if need be. With the chandelier having broken it open, you can search the doors on the floor to enter the wine cellar of the Castle and find next boss.

Tri-Point is quite a bit of jump in difficulty from the previous boss, but if you junction Thundaga to your elemental defense, you should be fine. Tri-Point will counter each of your attacks with Mega Spark, which inflicts heavy lightning damage on the entire party, but should heal you instead with 100 Thundagas junctioned to your elemental defense. Watch out for when he casts Scan on a character, which will follow with a powerful physical attack, but Tri-Point shouldn't pose much of a threat, otherwise. You can draw the Siren GF during this battle and will receive a Rocket Engine item upon winning. I recommend unsealing either Magic or GF; whichever you didn't select previously.

Inside the wine cellar, between the two stacks of wine barrels, you can find a hidden Aura draw point.

Climb back out of the wine cellar and step inside the green circle nearby; you will get a message that a lever has been depressed. I recommend switching to your secondary party and bringing them here to the circle. From the entrance of Ultimecia Castle, go through the door on the left-side and cross the passageway to reach the chandelier-fall room. Have the secondary party depress the lever, switch to your primary party, and you can now cross the chandelier to the next boss without it falling.

Cast Meltdown on Krysta, summon Cerberus to Triple status your party, then follow up with both Protect and Shell. With that in place, Krysta can be beaten into submission easily. Like Tri-Point, it will counter each of your attacks with a powerful physical attack of its own, and then will cast Ultima upon its defeat; hence the reason for Shell and Protect. You can draw the GF, Carbuncle, from Krysta, as well, if you missed it earlier on in the game. For winning, you receive an Elem Guard item. Draw or Item is recommended for your next unsealing.

With Krysta defeated, you can search for a hidden Meteor draw point on the terrace. Proceed back across the chandelier and to the room you fought the Sphinxaur. Take the right-side path to the eastern wing of the Castle.

You'll be in a room with a staircase leading down to a green circle and a rope you can pull to ring the chapel bells. We'll return to this later on, but for now, just note its location. In this room we can encounter the Creeps enemy, once more. With the time compression of Deling City and its sewers, this is the only place we can find them now in case you need Coral Fragments.

The door beyond the green circle takes us into an art gallery; no evil castle is complete without one. You'll need to search all of the paintings around the area, both down and upstairs, to add the titles to a list at the giant, unnamed, painting across from the stairs. We need to select VIVIDARIUM, INTERVIGILIUM, and VIATOR for the painting's name to reveal the next of Ultimecia's servants.

Trauma has the Leviathan GF to draw, if missed earlier. Summon Doomtrain to inflict Slow and Vit-0 on him and the battle is a piece of cake. You may want to cast Protect on the party to lessen the damage from its cannon attack, but not necessary. The Dromas it infinitely creates you can steal Meteor Stones from, which is a nice way to stock up on these, as well. Once defeated, you will obtain an Elem Attack item and should unseal either Item or Draw, whichever you previously didn't.

For the next section of the Castle, we need to juggle our two parties around a bit, so I recommend exiting the Castle to save and bring all of the characters back to the entrance. We need a "light" party, examples: at least two, or all three females, and a "heavy" party, one female and two males, or all three males. Take the "light" party up the stairs to where you fought the Sphinxaur, but take the left-side path to the west wing of the Castle this time. Take the stairs down and proceed through the door at the bottom, pass through the dimly-lit hallway, and into a room with two green circles; use the left-side circle to switch to the "heavy" party.

Return to the art gallery in the east wing and through the door there, climb the stairs to enter the passageway on the left-side of the screen and follow it to the other green circle opposite the other party. When the "heavy" party stands on the circle, it will lift the "light" party up to access the previously-inaccessible door across the room.

Inside the storage room, you'll find a glowing object, the Floodgate Key, on the floor. This, and the rest of the keys you find inside of Ultimecia Castle, aren't actual items in your inventory, if you are curious. With the Floodgate Key in hand, return to the entrance of the Castle to save and reset the parties again.

Make your way back through the art gallery once more, then take the stairs down into the dungeon area. You'll notice a lever near the exit on the left-side of the screen; search it to use the Floodgate Key and then inspect the lever again to close the Castle's sluice gate.

Take the path beside the floodgate lever to enter a dungeon, who's door promptly slams shut and locks behind you. There is a hidden Full-life draw point to the left of the door you entered from. When you are prepared for the next boss, grab the Prison Key out of the corpse's hand.

The Red Giant is hardly any different than fighting a basic Iron Giant. Summon Doomtrain for Darkness, Slow, and Vit-0, and it is rendered helpless, for the most part. You can draw and cast Demi from it or summon Diablos, which it has a special dialogue for after, to cut its HP down. Red Giant holds the GF, Pandemona, to draw, if you are still lacking it from your roster, as well. You will obtain a Diamond Armor upon winning. I am selecting Resurrection for my next unsealing, but you decide for yourself.

Head back to the area where the chandelier fell and opened the wine cellar and through the door to the north to enter the courtyard of the Castle. Having closed the sluice gate, the fountain will be drained of water and you will see the Treasure Vault Key flickering inside.

Enter the door to the north to find the Castle's chapel. A chapel AND an organ! This is an evil castle, no doubt. For now, climb the stairs on the right-side of the screen and hold triangle, or the button you have set as "cancel", to walk across the bridge and pick up the Armory Key. If you are running and the key falls, it's no big deal, though.

Having picked up the Armory Key, or witnessed it fall off the bridge, head back inside of the chapel. Since Esthar is closed to us now due to time compression, the Castle chapel is the best place in the game for us to encounter Elnoyles and farm Energy Crystals, if you still need them.

Approach the chapel's organ and you will be prompted with the above screen. The idea here is you need to hit every button at one time, then finish with Start. If done correctly, taking the upper-right exit from the fountain area outside, the bars on the door in the dimly-lit passageway will be removed allowing the party to enter the Castle's waterway.

Since you closed the floodgate, the party can walk down into the drained waterway. On the first screen, containing the small ledge with a ladder, you can encounter two Tri-faces in one battle. Unfortunately, due to being a fairly rare encounter, and the randomized levels altering the amount of Curse Spikes you can steal, I wouldn't consider this a better farming area than the Deep Sea Research Center, but I am making a note of it here for those that may be interested.

On the very next screen, you will see a small box in the corner that you can pick up to obtain a Rosetta Stone. The door to the south will open the previously-sealed exit from the prison area; allowing a shortcut between the two areas.

Back inside the prison, in the area that contained the lever for the floodgate, you can now use the Armory Key to open the door to the northwest. If the key dropped off the bridge, you will see it shining, in the same room, in one of the canals.

You'll see the next of Ultimecia's servants inside, but there is a hidden Ultima draw point just to your left when you enter the armory.

The next boss will start as a basic battle with a Vysage, Lefty, and Righty, which you should immediately summon Siren to inflict Silence upon. Then, use Righty to draw and cast Protect on your party before you finish them. When defeated, the true enemy, Gargantua, will arise. Gargantua will counterattack any physical attacks with a powerful one of its own, so you may prefer to stick with GFs and magic here, but not necessary if you cast Protect. Use Esuna and/or Haste to keep your party from being berserked and slowed, and you should have little other issues. Gargantua has the GF, Cerberus, to draw, if you don't have it already, and will drop a Magic Armlet upon defeat. I'm selecting to unseal limit breaks next; only two more go.

To use the Treasure Vault Key, we need to make our way back over to the west wing of the Castle. Remember the dark passageway that led to the area we used to ascend the elevator to the storage room? In this passage, if you wait for the thunder outside to briefly light the room, you will get a glimpse of a door on the left-side of the area you can use the Key on.

Inside, there is a hidden Holy draw point right in the center-most pillar of the room. In order to reveal the boss inside, we have to shut all of the boxes in the room. To do this: Shut the first box on the far-left, shut the fourth box from the left, then the second, and finally, the third box.

The Catoblepas boss has the Alexander Guardian Force to draw, if you don't already have it, and if you don't have 100 stocked, you can draw Meteor from it, as well. Per-usual, summon Doomtrain for Blind, Slow, and Vit-0, and it'll just be a matter of time before you finish it off. Unlike regular Behemoths, he won't attempt to counter by casting Meteor, but he will use it as a final attack, just be aware of this. When defeated, he will drop a Status Atk item and you can unseal one of your final two abilities (I'm choosing Command Ability).

With one more of Ultimecia's servants left, we need to ascend the clock tower. A clock tower? This is definitely a Castlevania-like evil castle, for sure. To reach it, return to the chapel, then past the bridge where you picked up the Armory Key, and enter the door to the upper-left. On the first screen, if you equip Siren's Move-Find ability, you can reveal a useful save point in the room; even if you can can't save yet, you can still use a Tent, if you need to. Also, the clock tower is home to a former boss: Granaldo and its two Raldos. Other than the Granaldo still having the Pain spell to draw, they are of little use, but just a note of interest.

Climb the tower to the middle-portion where a bell is swinging back-and-forth. When the bell swings toward the party's side of the stairs, you can jump onto it and cross to the other side where the last of Ultimecia's servants awaits.

Tiamat only has one attack: Dark Flare, which it will use on the party once it finishes spelling it out. However, if you have fire, ice, and lighting protection junctioned to your elemental defense, you will likely null, or outright absorb, the attack as HP. If not, you can easily cast Shell upon the party to lessen the damage. You can summon Doomtrain to Slow and Vit-0 the boss, then just focus on draining its large amount of HP. Tiamat holds the Eden GF to draw, if you have yet to visit the Deep Sea Research Center, and then will drop a Status Guard item when defeated.

Unseal your final party ability, which for me, was Save, and you will find the game's last hidden draw point, Triple, in the upper-right corner of the balcony. Ultimecia awaits us across the clock tower, but before we confront her, there is one last, completely optional, boss to fight within Ultimecia Castle. We need to make a few preparations for this boss, first. Below are my recommendations.

A party of Squall, Rinoa/Zell, Irvine
Lion Heart and Wishing Star limit breaks for Squall and Rinoa
Irvine loaded with Pulse (From Energy Crystals) and AP Ammo (From Sharp Spikes)
100 Death spells junctioned to your status defense is an absolute must
Str+60% on all characters, Bahamut has this and can learn via Hyper Wrist item
Item command with 10 Holy Wars from refining the Gilgamesh Card
At least one Meltdown spell and a minimum of 12 Aura spells
Auto-Haste equipped on the character that has the Cerberus GF or learned from an Accelerator

When you are prepared, make sure to exit the Castle to heal, save, and reset the locations of the parties.

Take the party that will be fighting the boss to the green circle just outside of the Castle chapel, then switch to your secondary party.

Remember that you can ring the chapel bells from the east wing of the Castle? This is the right-most room from the area you fought the Sphinxaur boss, if you forgot. Have the secondary party ring the bell and then quickly use the green circle to switch to your primary party.

Make your way inside of the chapel before the timer runs out to find a new menace awaiting you.

So, here's the situation: even though it's extremely cheap, we have little choice but to use the Holy War items to make ourselves invincible in order to win this battle. This is due to Omega Weapon's Terra Break attack. Even with a character's Vitality stat maxed out and Protect cast, you only have a VERY minor chance of one character surviving this attack; and that is only due to the fact it hits characters at random. If you are set against using Holy Wars, you can use Cactaur and Brother's Defend command ability to shield two characters from Terra Break's damage, but in my opinion, this just needlessly prolongs the battle and is a waste of precious resources you will have to recoup afterwards. However, if you want a challenge and to use the Defend strategy, get ready for Terra Break after Omega Weapon casts Gravija; he always uses Terra Break afterward.

At the opening of the battle, Omega Weapon will attempt to kill you instantly with Level 5 Death, but with 100 Death spells junctioned to your status defense, this will miss. For the Holy War strategy, start the battle off with one character summoning Cerberus, another casting Meltdown, and the third preparing to cast Aura on the party when Cerberus has been summoned. Once Aura is in place, have the next character's turn use a Holy War item. At this point, it's just a matter of unleashing your limit breaks until the Aura and Holy War status run out. Squall's Lion Heart will be your primary damage output, with Rinoa's Combine with Angelo, usually producing Wishing Star under Aura status, and Irvine shooting Pulse and AP Ammo for 9999 damage each shot. If you brought Zell, input any command quickly, but avoid using his finishers so you can get off as many hits as possible. Aura status will run out before Holy War; keep a watch for this and save two character's turn while the other uses a basic physical attack. Once the Holy War expires, quickly Triple Aura back onto the party, then follow with a Holy War, once again. Keep this strategy up until Omega Weapon falls.

Your reward? Besides dropping a mostly-useless Three Stars item, the above screen appears in your tutorial/information section of the main menu. In their defense, they did give you that also-useless Omega Badge from Omega back in Final Fantasy V.

All that remains is to confront Ultimecia and relieve the world of time compression. Return to the clock tower and ascend it to the top, crossing the perfectly-stopped clock hands and down two ladders.

You will find the final save point and Ultimecia awaiting inside her chambers just beyond. To ensure victory in the final battles, if you haven't already, switch your Draw command for Item, and make sure to have refined the Bahamut card into 100 Megalixirs. When you're prepared, open the doors to her dwelling.

Ultimecia doesn't much care for SeeDs and wishes them endless pain and suffering, surprise. Also, what's with the accent they attempted to give her, is that a future thing? Anyway, she will randomly choose three characters, including Edea and Seifer, to start the battle against her.

I don't think I've ever seen the battle open without Squall in it, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Going forward, if a character falls during battle, you only have a short window to revive them before Ultimecia sends them off into the void of time and space and another character replaces them. More-than-likely, you didn't get your favorite three characters, so I recommend you purposely attack and have Ultimecia eliminate your other characters until you get your favored party. As for the battle itself, summon Cerberus to add the Triple status to your party, followed by casting Protect, Shell, Haste, and Regen on all three members; and keep all of these intact through the duration of the numerous battles. Like always, casting Meltdown is an easy way to increase all types of damage and should be taken advantage of. Counter with a Megalixir when she uses Maelstrom and you should have little problems bringing the first battle to a close.

Ultimecia will summon her personal GF, Griever, to engage the party next. This is the beast depicted on Squall's necklace and ring and its name will be derived from the one you gave it WAY back during the assault on Galbadia Garden. The bosses henceforth will occasionally blow away your stocked magic. This can be concerning as whatever magic is removed, you lose from your stat junctions, as well. Because of this, you may need to adjust your strategies if you lose your junctions of strength or magic, but try not to depend on your Guardian Forces; you'll see why next. Make absolutely sure that Shell is cast on your party once the sky turns red and begins to shake. Griever is about to unleash Shockwave Pulsar upon your party and with poor Spirit and HP, this easily has the potential to wipe out your entire party.

Griever will then be junctioned onto Ultimecia for the next battle. Going forward, absolutely DO NOT attempt to summon Guardian Forces. Unless your compatibility with that GF is maxed out and you can, maybe, summon it in time, Ultimecia will instantly destroy them, and if that happens, you lose whatever abilities and junctions that GF provided to the character. She'll summon two Helix to assist her, which allows her to cast Ultima and a devastating new physical attack, Great Attractor, so it's imperative you keep Protect and Shell cast on your party. You can attempt to target the Helixs, but I recommend ignoring them and focusing your assault on Ultimecia, herself. Without GFs, you'll need to rely on your physical attacks, limit breaks, and stocked magic for damage, which, hopefully, shouldn't be a problem for you at this stage in the game.

When this form takes enough damage, her lower-half and the Helixs will be blown away, but don't get complacent, yet; she becomes much quicker and has a heavy focus on physical damage. Afterwards, she and Griever will fade away in a rain of light faeries...

Eh, she's not done, yet...This will be Ultimecia's final form, so hold nothing back at this point.

She'll always begin the battle, and then will use quite often after, Hell's Judgement that drops the entire party to 1 HP. Quickly rush to use a Megalixir, or at the minimum, triple Curaga onto your party when this occurs. Keep Haste, Shell, and Regen going and use any remaining Aura spells you have to activate your limit breaks. Late in the battle, her grotesque bottom-half will become a target and she will draw and cast the Apocalypse spell from it; which, if you have the Draw command, you can do the same. As long as you keep healed from Hell's Judgement and keep Shell up, Apocalypse should be of little concern to you. Once Ultimecia begins talking to you, she has reached her end, and is about to die. Finish her off and put an end to her reign of terror on the world.

Of course, you can't have a dramatic final battle without an equally-dramatic explosion and fade-away...

With the fall of Ultimecia, the party is lost in the void; attempting to find the way back to their own time. In particular, Squall and Rinoa in are lost and tormented, searching for one another...

Squall will end up back at the Orphanage, in the distant past. He will meet Matron and himself as a child, then witness the point in which Sorceress Ultimecia passed on her powers to Edea.

You'll be treated to videos of Squall and Rinoa searching for one another in the wastelands of time. Rinoa will finally find him, and when all seems lost, a beautiful burst of grassland and flowers will drive away the barrens and take them back to their own time.

We'll witness Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin fishing at Balamb Town and as the Garden flies overhead, Seifer will crack a smile, signifying he has finally put his demons to rest and embraced his true friends.

Laguna, visiting Raine's graveside, will reminisce on the night he asked her to marry him.

And a safe Ellone, Kiros, and Ward will join him.

The Garden will fly overhead, showering Laguna with flower petals; the world finally at peace.

The credits will begin to roll as we see a party being held at Balamb Garden and recorded by Selphie. Having made it back to their own time, your party members, including Edea and Cid, will be shown celebrating, ending with the camera cutting to Rinoa and Squall embracing out on the balcony.

With that, Final Fantasy VIII comes to a close. Thank you so much for following along with me on this journey, and I hope that you got out of the game and my writings all that you were looking for and ask that you join me on my next project!