Professor RPG: Final Fantasy VIII Junction Basics

Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy VIII is one of the more divisive entries of the series. Up until its release, the series had remained fairly consistent with deviations being slight and building off of the previous game. Magicite evolving into the materia system as an example. Final Fantasy VIII surprised fans right out the gate with a  setting that was far more modern, and in some areas futuristic, much more than the series had seen previously. Farming hamlets replaced with technologically advanced flying schools, and castles replaced with grand metropolitan cities with vast amounts of technology. There were of course still numerous series staples that longtime players could find comfort in. Chocobo’s still went “Wark!”, the ATB returned, and your party could still hurl spells and summon majestic creatures to lay waste to foes. Square decided to take that magic and summon system people had fallen in love with and inject it with so many steroids that it would make a puppy look like a towering behemoth.

These steroids were in the form of the “Junction” and “Draw” systems that were intrinsically entwined with the Final Fantasy VIII experience, and one of the bigger issues player had with the game. The “Junction” system specifically, is an incredibly powerful tool that has the potential to make your teenager’s-with-attitude SpecOps team into gods incarnate. Unfortunately, though, it was a bit convoluted for new players and some series veteran’s to wrap their heads around (myself included back in the day). Magic was no longer a skill that used a resource to cast, instead, its use was re-defined and made into a commodity system, in the same vein as any other item. Absorbing uses of spells from enemies and points around the world, this process is the Final Fantasy VIII, exclusive mechanic, “Draw”.  The Junction and Draw systems were tied together and in order to take advantage of one, you would also have to use the other. As such, this article will give you the knowledge and help that will clear up these systems and let you take on any sorceress that may cross your path!

BASICS:

Junction, as defined by the Webster Dictionary:

noun

1. an act of joining; combining.
2. the state of being joined; union.
3. a place or point where two or more things are joined, as a seam or joint.

 

Junction, as defined by Professor RPG in terms of Final Fantasy VIII:

Equipping Guardian Forces (summons) and magic spells to a character to increase stats.

 I don’t know about you, but for me, outside of when I speak about this game, I never use the term “junction”, so for starters, just think of the term as “Equip” for spells, summons, and abilities. Easy, right?

JUNCTION = EQUIP (for spells, summons, and abilities)

 

STAT EXPLANATIONS:

HP (Health Points):

• • Impacts how much health a character has. When it reaches zero, that character will be knocked out and have to be revived. The higher the value means the character can take more punishment before they wuss out.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO HP: Full-Life

 

STR (Strength):

• • Impacts the amount of damage a character’s physical attacks do to enemies. The higher the value of your STR stat, the more damage you will do.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO STR: ULTIMA

 

VIT (Vitality):

• • Impacts a character’s defense against physical attacks. The higher the value of your VIT stat, the less damage you will take.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO VIT: MELTDOWN

 

MAG (Magic):

• • Impacts the amount of damage a character’s magic attacks do to enemies, how much healing their magic does, and increases the number of magic spells drawn from an enemy when using the “Draw” command. The higher the value of your MAG stat, the more damage you will do, the more life you will restore when you heal a party member, and the more spell-uses you will obtain from an enemy.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO MAG: METEOR

 

SPR (Spirit):

• • Impacts a character’s defense against magical attacks. The higher the value of your MAG stat, the less damage you will take.
    • IMPORTANT TO NOTE! The higher of SPR stat you have, the less healing a character will receive via healing magics such as Cure, Cura, or Curaga! This does NOT apply to when healing via an item.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO SPR: REFLECT

 

SPD (Speed):

• • Impacts how fast a characters ATB (Active Time Battle) bar fills during combat. The higher the value of your SPD stat, the faster a character can act in combat.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO SPD: TRIPLE

 

EVA (Evasion):

• • Impacts the likelihood a character is to dodge a physical attack. The higher the value of your EVA stat, the more likely the attack will miss.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO EVA: TORNADO

 

HIT :

• • Impacts the likelihood that a character’s physical attacks will land. The higher the value of your HIT stat, the more likely your attack is to connect.
    • Squall and Seifer’s HIT stat is naturally maxed out and won’t miss. When afflicted with darkness though, they will be unable to use the gunblade trigger when using their physical attack.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO HIT: AURA

 

LUCK :

• • Impacts a character’s odds of triggering various effects, such as critical hits, summoning Odin / Gilgamesh, and obtaining rare items. The higher a character’s LUCK stat is, the more likely it will be for all of them to occur.
    • Squall and Seifer, due to having the trigger associated with their physical attacks, are unable to deal critical attacks.
• BEST MAGIC TO JUNCTION TO LUCK: AURA or ULTIMA

 

 

BECOMING A GOD: MAGIC JUNCTION & YOU

Through the Junction system, you are able to augment and improve your stats and add attributes to your attacks/defense by equipping spells to them. There are a few basic principles that apply to this:

1. THE MORE OF A SPELL YOU EQUIP TO A STAT, THE HIGHER THE STAT WILL BE BOOSTED
2. MORE ADVANCED SPELLS WILL BOOST A STAT MORE THAN A LESSER VERSION OF IT
   1. Base spell < Ra version < Aga version (example: Fire < Fira < Firaga)
3. OFFENSIVE SPELLS BOOST THE MORE OFFENSIVE STATS (MAG, STR, HIT) WHILE DEFENSIVE AND CURATIVE SPELLS BOOST LIFE AND DEFENSIVE STATS MORE ( HP, SPR, SPD, EVA, etc)
4. STATUS EFFECT SPELLS CAN BE EQUIPPED TO EITHER ATTACKS OR YOUR ARMOR, IN ADDITION TO YOUR STATS, TO ADD THE GIVEN STATUS TO YOUR ATTACKS OR TO HELP PREVENT THAT STATUS FROM AFFLICTING THAT CHARACTER.

JUNCTION GIANT MONSTERS = NEW ABILITIES AND SKILLS FOR YOU!

You may find that when you go into your magic junction menu to equip spells that some stats are a dark grey and you are unable to equip spells to a certain stat or our attacks and armor. In order to unlock a stat to be a booster, you will have to make sure that you have junctioned a Guardian Force (this games version of the staple summon creatures of the series) that has learned an ability that lets you.

• HP / STR / VIT / MAG / SPR / SPD / HIT / LUCK – J
  • Will allow you to equip spells to that specific stat to boost them.
• St-Atk / Def – J
  • These will allow you to add a status effect to a character’s attack or reduces the chance of that character being afflicted with that specific status effect. (Ex: Zombie, Slow, Sleep)
  • Some skills will have an “ x2” or “x4” attached to the name (example: Elem-Atk x4) will unlock 2 or 4 spots that you can attach different spells too!  
• Elem-Atk / Def – J
  • Will allow you to add a specific element to that characters attacks or give them additional protection from that  specific element
    • If a defense value exceeds 100% that character will actually absorb and gain HP whenever they are hit with an attack of that element!
  • Some skills will have an “ x2” or “x4” attached to the name (example: Elem-Atk x4) will unlock 2 or 4 spots that you can attach different spells too!  

These are just a small fraction of the skills that you will learn from the Guardian Forces through the Junction mechanic. You will also be able to learn specific commands such as Mug, which deals damages and steals an item from the enemy, and refine magic abilities which that will allow you to create strong magic by refining lesser spells into a stronger one ( 5 of a lesser spell results in 1 of the next level spell, ie. 5 Fires will refine into 1 Fira). You can also learn abilities that transform items in spells!

 

For a complete list of ALL the abilities and which Guardian Forces teaches what, check out this handy LINK

TIPS:

• Prioritize gaining AP over EXP as learning the junction abilities are vastly more helpful than gaining a level. One way you can do this is by using Quetzalcoatl’s “Card” ability to turn a weakened enemy into a Triple Triad card. This will reward you with AP but not EXP.
  • If you are in the mood for EXP grinding though, be aware that EXP is split among surviving party members, and that the longer a fight goes on, the more EXP will be rewarded.
  • Only your traditional normal enemies and mini-bosses award EXP, not bosses.
• The refining rate for one level of magic into the next higher is 5 to 1.
  • Example: 5 Fires will refine into 1 Fira, 5 Fira into 1 Firaga. etc.

 

 

Looking back, the Junction system was a unique and well crafted (albiet easily exploitable) mechanic that offered a lot ot players of Final Fantasy VIII. The departure from simply relying on grinding monster after monster to raise your level was, in my opinion, a well-deserved one. It added complexity, depth, and customization to the game while making the typical summon mechanic from pervious games and expanded them to be a more integral part of your party composition.