Game EXP: Final Fantasy VIII - Disc 3 & 4

Uh oh.  

Yes, uh oh.  Disc 3 is when I finally decided to refer to a walkthrough.  I had encountered an enemy I just couldn't beat.  And upon referencing said walkthrough, it became clear that there was a bunch of stuff I missed leading up to this point.  Oops.  

I could be mad about it.  It seems like a dirty trick to make so many helpful items and things something you can just completely miss and never be able to get again.  One of the earliest fights in the game has a Guarding Force that you can Draw out from the boss.  If you didn't?  -  Tough luck, you don't get it.  And in this game, the Guardian Forces are the core of what you are doing, they give you access to abilities and upgrades that are central to how you play the game.  FFVIII is a tricky game because leveling up doesn't really help you all that much - enemies level with you. It's raising your AP, learning abilities and junctioning magic that improves your stats and makes you more effective in battle.  

It is clear to me now that for my ideal play experience, I should have reviewed a walkthrough at the beginning of the game.  I don't need to follow it step by step (the walkthrough on this game is incredibly detailed), but it would have been nice to pick out a couple things, to check in every so often to see that I stay on track.  Really, I only want like 1/10 of the obscure items in the game.  

So, anyway, this has put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  I'm mostly concerned that I will at some point get stuck, and not be strong enough to finish the game.  That would be  real bummer.  Thinking about it now, I realize that's what happened the last time I played- I never beat it.  Maybe when I'm finished, I'll put together a simple outline of things to know before playing FFVIII.  It's not like I read an instruction booklet, afterall.  

The Plot of Disc 3 gets pretty convoluted.  In classic JRPG fashion, the villain is not the villain, it's someone else.  But also there's this other villain.  And weird magical technology, and space and the Moon.  And like... huge, seemingly important details (monsters come from the Moon?) that are just sort of tossed off without much care.  It's clear to me that the Junction and Guardian Force system is where most of the fun of Final Fantasy VIII lies.  While the plot isn't any more or less crazy than any other FF game, it just isn't my favorite.  

The 4th disc is similar to FFVII's third disc.  There isn't any new plot, just a final dungeon and the ability to traverse the world and tie up loose ends.  I just tried and failed to beat the final boss, so I am going to spend some time leveling up my new Guardian Forces* (they give you access to almost all of them in the final dungeon, so that counts for something). 

-D

*I haven't mentioned this, but the Summons in general in this game are excellent.  It's pretty impressive how much better they look than FFVII.  My personal favorites are Diablos and Leviathan.