Weapons
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Guardian Forces
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Struck First - The enemy has a head start on your party, and can attack or run away first.
Back Attack - Either your party or the enemy has sneaked up on the other, giving them a shot at their opponent's backs. Any attack against a character's backside causes twice the normal damage.
All these situations are random. You can increase or decrease the odds with certain Guardian Force abilities.
When a character's HP is reduced to a fourth of his or her normal amount, the gauge will turn yellow as a warning to heal your characters. Also, when the gauge is yellow, you have the option to use Limit Breaks. In Final Fantasy VII, you had a gauge increases everytime you get hit. This is different in Final Fantasy VIII. You have to wait until your HP is one-fourth the amount before you can use Limit Breaks.
If you keep a character's HP in the
yellow, that character can almost use his or her Limit Break every turn.
If not, try pressing the Circle button a few times until you can use it
for that character. Every character has a different Limit Break.
Also, you are risking death if you keep your character's HP so low.
Here is a list of the various types of abnormal status effects that can be
afflicted on your party and on the enemy:
| Status Effect | Symptom | Cure | |
| Silence | Victim
can no longer use magic or summom GFs |
Echo Screen (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Confusion | Victim
loses all sence of reality and begins randomly attacking any target,
even itself |
Remedy (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Poison | Victim
loses HPs each time it performs an action during battle |
Antidote (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Berserk | Victim
loses control and goes into a mad rage, character can only use
physical attacks and cannot pick targets. Attack strength and
speed is slightly increased |
Remedy (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Slow | Victim's
speed is cut in half |
Remedy (item), Esuna (magic), Haste (magic) | |
| Blind | Victim
loses sight, and hit rate is reduced |
Eye Drops (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Slow Death | A
counter appears over the victim's head. If it reaches zero
before the end of the battle, the character is knocked out |
Dispel (magic) | |
| Petrify | Victim
is turned to stone |
Soft (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Zombie | Victim
becomes an undead creature |
Holy Water (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Slow Petrify | A
counter appears over the victim's head. If it reaches zero
before the end of the battle, the character is petrified |
Soft (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Sleep | Victim
is put to sleep and cannot act, HPs are not restored |
Esuna (magic) | |
| Curse | Victim
cannot use Limit Breaks |
Holy Water (item), Esuna (magic) | |
| Defense Cut | Victim
receives double damage from physical attacks |
Esuna (magic) | |
Other things to know about battles:
You can escape from battles by holding down the R2 and L2 buttons. You cannot escape in some battles.
Pressing the Circle button skips a "ready" character so that you can get to another character whose ATB (Active Time Bar) has filled.
Holding down the X button will automatically select the attack option and target the closest enemy.
You can remove an enemy's positive status effects (such as Haste, Regen, Double, Reflect, Triple, Protect, Shell, and Aura) by using Dispel magic.