Insane Difficulty: An FF8 class-based playthrough - Insane Difficulty

Hi all. This is something I posted on the GFAQs FF8 board a while ago. Figured I'd repost it here, maybe someone'd be interested in trying it out. Such a brilliant game, too bad calling it Extremely Super Easy is an understatement.

Note that this isn't INSANELY difficult - it's a more balanced, harder but very managable, gameplay setting. A veteran should seek out the extra rule mentioned in the junction limitations.

Making the game actually hard would require imposing dire restrictions on the player (not to mention forced leveling to make the enemies stronger) and I, for one, prefer my mods/challenge runs/etc to be fun first and hard second (like 1.3 easytype, love that mod <3).

1. An explanation of spell mechanics
2. You will be given a list of jobs and which characters are eligible for which job
3. There will be a list of junctionable spells and how they can be junctioned
4. Special restrictions to prevent breaking the game too much

Weapons may be upgraded at will with one caveat - final weapons may not be unlocked before Disc 3 (this includes the Lionheart, Exeter, Strange Vision, etc).


SPELLS

I will divide spells into 3 tiers: tier 1 is the strongest, tier 2 is middle, tier 3 is the weakest. Any spells not mentioned in this list are banned from being junctioned. Meltdown and Meteor in particular are also banned from being cast via the Magic or Draw-Cast commands. You can still cast the other spells like Holy, Flare, Ultima, Triple or Full Life, but we'll get to those and their restrictions later.

Tier 1:
Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Curaga, Tornado, Quake, Regen

Tier 2:
Water, Aero, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Cura, Life, Double, Zombie, Death, Haste, Stop, Demi, Drain, Reflect, Bio, Pain

Tier 3:
Cure, Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Break, Scan, Confuse, Berserk, Slow, Esuna, Dispel, Protect, Shell, Esuna, Silence, Sleep, Float


JOBS

Each job will have a set number of junctionable stats, commands and other stuff as noted.

Paragon - Squall

Let's start with the special "hero" class, open only to Squall. As the team's leader, he is a multi-talented warrior capable of holding his own in any situation. He's also a bit more capable than the others (that's why he's the leader, I guess). I'm using a Points Allocation system for stats - Tier 1 is worth 3 points, Tier 2 is worth 2 points, Tier 3 is worth 1 point.

Attribute Junctions - 12 points:

Tier 1 - 1
Tier 2 - 3
Tier 3 - 3

Elemental and Status are handled arbitrarily.

Status Def - 3
Status Atk - 1
Elemental Def - 3
Elemental Atk - 1

For character commands, I'll give you a list of how they should look like in the character screen. [Commands] in brackets like that may be used to replace the starting command, but they can only replace the command I listed them next to. Paragon (example below) may replace Draw with Magic and Summon with Absorb at any time, but may not use Absorb in place of Draw or Magic in place of Summon. In that same vein, Item and Card are interchangeable.

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [Magic]
Summon [Absorb]
Item [Card]

I forgot to mention about the Paragon - you can freely choose which stats are tier 1, 2 or 3 for Squall, within the limits I posted (only 1 stat can be Tier 1, etc).

Characters other than Squall have several class options, which you may choose at the start of the game. Once a class is chosen, stick with it.

Character class reference:

Squall has his special class. Zell and Rinoa have two to choose from. Irvine and Selphie have 3, Quistis can be any class besides Paragon.

Paragon - Squall
Fighter - Quistis, Zell, Irvine
Trickster - Quistis, Selphie, Zell, Irvine
Red Mage - Quistis, Selphie, Irvine
White Mage - Quistis, Selphie, Rinoa
Black Mage - Quistis, Rinoa


Fighter

A class focused on physical attacks and durability.

Attribute Junctions - 10 points:

Tier 1 - 1
Tier 2 - 2
Tier 3 - 3

Tier 1 stats - STR
Tier 2 stats - HP, VIT
Tier 3 stats - SPD, LCK, EVA

Status Def - 1
Status Atk - 0
Elemental Def - 2
Elemental Atk - 1

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [Darkside]
Defend [Mad Rush]
Item


Trickster

This class focuses on agility, with a variety of tricks up its sleeve.

Attribute Junctions - 12 points:

Tier 1 - 1
Tier 2 - 4
Tier 3 - 1

Tier 1 stats - LCK
Tier 2 stats - STR, MAG, EVA, SPD
Tier 3 stats - HP

Status Def - 3
Status Atk - 1
Elemental Def - 2
Elemental Atk - 1

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [Kamikaze]
Card [Absorb]
Item [Doom]


Red Mage

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Attribute Junctions - 11 points:

Tier 1 - 1
Tier 2 - 2
Tier 3 - 4

Tier 1 stats - SPD
Tier 2 stats - MAG, STR
Tier 3 stats - HP, SPR, VIT

Status Def - 3
Status Atk - 1
Elemental Def - 3
Elemental Atk - 1

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [GF]
Magic [LVL Up, LVL Down]
Item [Devour]

White Mage

Primarily a caster. Has more support options than the other classes.

Attribute Junctions - 10 points:

Tier 1 - 2
Tier 2 - 1
Tier 3 - 2

Tier 1 stats - MAG, SPR
Tier 2 stats - HP
Tier 3 stats - VIT, STR

Status Def - 4
Status Atk - 0
Elemental Def - 1
Elemental Atk - 1

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [Recover]
Magic [Revive]
Item [Treatment]


Black Mage

A magical glass cannon.

Attribute Junctions - 9 points:

Tier 1 - 1
Tier 2 - 2
Tier 3 - 2

Tier 1 stats - MAG
Tier 2 stats - SPR, SPD
Tier 3 stats - HP, EVA

Status Def - 2
Status Atk - 1
Elemental Def - 4
Elemental Atk - 1

Commands:

Attack / Limit
Draw [GF]
Magic [Mini Mog]
Item [Card]

Full list of Support Abilities:


Paragon - HP+40%, Cover, Move HP-UP, Return Damage, Auto-Potion, Sum Mag +20%, GF HP+20%, Boost

Fighter - STR+20%, VIT+40%, Counter, Auto-Protect

Trickster - SPD+40%, EVA+30%, LUCK+50%, Mug, Initiative, Alert, Rare Item, Move-Find

Red Mage - STR+20%, MAG+20%, SPD+20%, HP+20%

White Mage - MAG+20%, SPR+40%, Med Data, Auto-Shell, Expend 2x-1

Black Mage - MAG+40%, Auto-Reflect, Expend 3x-1


Level Spell Junction Restrictions:

Level is lower than 50: Up to 25 spells may be junctioned to a single stat.

Level is 50 to 99: Up to 50 spells may be junctioned to a single stat.

Level is 100: 100 spells may be junctioned. This is part is optional; for the sake of a harder challenge, you may limit yourself to 50 max spells junctioned from level 50 onwards.

Banned and Restricted Spells:

BANNED: Meteor, Meltdown, Apocalypse, GF Doomtrain

RESTRICTED:

Only Black Mage can cast Flare and Ultima.

Only White Mage can cast Holy and Full Life.

Only Paragon can cast Aura.

Spell Stones have the same limitations as the actual magic spells.

Hero, Hero-Trial, Holy War and Holy War-Trial items are banned.


Reminder:

Weapons may be upgraded at will with one caveat - final weapons may not be unlocked before Disc 3 (this includes the Lionheart, Exeter, Strange Vision, etc).

Special Mentions:

You may not abuse turn skipping to get Limit Breaks.

Laguna's party is whatever junctions get transferred to them.

I am interested in your challenge! Have you played through the game with it?

If you were to rate it's difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10 where would you put it (1 being vanilla FF8, 10 being a very difficult vanilla RPG, like SMT 3, or something)

Hm, just my kind of challenge. This might be what I need to finally get through FF8. I got so close the last time, then my data got corrupted on the last disc.