This topic is to discuss anything related to the Triple Triad card game.

are you gonna play that game at all.

Hmm... If you gonna play some TT.
I would suggest playing some games with the Card Queen until you get
the "Full"-Trading Rule. So getting a lot of cards in the beginning is easy as hell.

This is a repost from the Pre LP discussion topic

Basically, show the person he can play to get the card. Maybe show off the first battle, or whatever, then edit out the rest of the battles, then show the battle where the person uses the card and he wins it.

Unless it's one of the people you can get the Boss cards from. He could just show the person, then edit everything out and show off the completed card set.

Whether or not he uses Card Mod is up to him.

Don't use the All rule. It's crap and you'll end up with Direct EVERYWHERE.

Diff is good enough. Don't be greedy.

CC group Quest and Card Queen Quest would be great but I think you should limit Card Mod if you plan to use it

I'd actually like for him to stop for an occasional card battle or two, would add a little more fun to the game

I'd only recommend showing a few of the battles really as a demonstration. Maybe have a bonus episode where you just play the game as a special or something.

The Pupu card can only be obtained once, and NEVER again if you Card Mod it. I think you should mention this, if you're going to be using Card Mod a lot, because some people may want to eventually collect the cards they modded on Disc 4.

The world seems to have two kind of people... Those who love FF8 and those who can't stand it. There also seem to be two ways of playing this game. Integrating the card game as an important aspect of game play and ignoring it all together. Talks with friends leads me to believe there is a strong correlation between these two play styles and the overall enjoyment of the game. The later of both ideas seem to coincide and Triple Triad is really what makes this game stand out as one of my favorite.

I was definitely scared when you mentioned you considered skipping much of the card game during your run, but equally relieved when you decided to include it. Definitely go for all the rare cards and it might be good to show how to build a strong deck at the beginning of the game, e.g. carding bombs in fire cavern and a few grats then playing people who hold Lv 7, 8 cards like Dr. Kadowaki etc.

Card mod is where this game gets its awesome so don't be afraid to use it. You will get very overpowered but in the long run I think it would be a better LP if you show off the intricacies and secrets that give you that power opposed to actually giving the challenge of a blind run, it will be much more interesting to watch. Plus it is not difficult to feign weakness in RPGs. So really don't be too afraid to go all out.

You certainly don't need to go for meltdown and tornado early but even that I think would ultimately be more interesting, and allow you to avoid refining one of a kind cards until you fight Omega (100% card collection would be great to show off). I also would definitely show the entire game when you actually win a rare card but obviously cut the video until then after the first couple card games.
But your judgment is rarely incorrect and the card game is very fun, so I'm sure we'll have as much of a blast watching it as you have playing it.

P.S. I'd be interested to see how you handle card games at Edea's house. She outplays me almost every time. I've yet to see a non-NPC play the "same" and "plus" rules to their advantage.

Are the starter cards missable? I usually get them when I first see the guy but I was wondering if it is possible to get to a point in the game where its impossible to get those cards.

They're just basic cards, all/most of them are level 1. I'd still get them for a few free cards, and the Gayla alone is 10 Meltdowns :3

To get started on the card system straight away if you are going to get 100% of the card variations get Quezacotl to learn Card and if your not bothered about junctioning spells to stats at the start of the came probably card mod too obviously work on whatever you want with Shiva or at least thats how i work it if you like the idea feel free to use it

Diff is actually the best trade rule. All one needs to do to figure that out is watch Episode #26 of my FF8 LP where I fall victim to the Achilles' Heel of the 'All' trade rule. With 'Diff' you can still get all of your opponents cards as long as you win 8-2 or 9-1, and you'll only lose 2 cards, instead of 5, if you manage to lose 6-4.

Greedy is bad, smart is good. :)

I don't know why many people diss TT, I thought it was a great addition to the game and spent many time playing it.

Back when I played, I didn't use any guides or anything like that and had to figure out who had the best cards. Eventually I copped on to the fact that usually important plot characters that you can play cards with possess good cards.

I remember farming cards from the guy in the prison that charges gil per game, the guy with the high level cards of course.

Whenever I got the random card I just modded all my crap cards, all you really need to win a game is about 2 good cards, and you don't even need that is the plus/same rule is involved. Gotta have the open rule combined with same/plus otherwise you can get some nasty surprises though.

The items you get from modding though are highly overpowered.

The card game is great, I recall spending 20 hours or so playing it immediately after the fire cave one playthrough. I remember having some complex plan about how to get a specific component for the Lionheart... I think it was something like turning 10 Elnoyle cards into an energy crystal, then turning the energy crystal into pulse ammo?

It can easily get pretty repetitive though, and while it would still be fun to play, probably not so much to watch.

I actually quite enjoyed the card game. I know I spent many hours playing it and getting some of the good cards. Or raging about losing one of those good cards and I HAD to play until I got it back. Fun times for sure.

I always found the card game to be very tedious. I recall challenging Zell's mom to a card game about 15 times in a row before she played Zell's card. But the game is only a tedious as your cards' quality and the current rules. I've restarted many a time due to forgetting to use card mod when the random rule was in effect.

This video pretty much sums up what I think of Triple Triad (strong language advisory!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwyb8_s63Sw

That's hysterical!

I think it's as pertinent to include Triple Triad (or, at the very least, cards) in your Let's Play than it is to include how you go out of your way to pilfer or trap strong elements in Chrono Cross. Neither is super-essential to gameplay, but both provide great benefits earlier than normal if you know how to use them properly.

Thus, I think it's a good idea to show a little demonstration of how to play Triple Triad, provide advice on what rules to set up, and some pointers as to useful Card Mods (for both items and spells you can junction). Other than that, I don't think it's necessary to show any more of the actual Triple Triad than what is strictly required by the normal gameplay.

You should show all of the people you should play a round with in each area, and then verse them off-screen to save time, sort of like you did with Fort Condor in Final Fantasy VII, and/or the Coliseum in Final Fantasy VI.

Perhaps HC could show off a card battle every time a new rule shows up for the first time to show people how the rule works.

I agree that woulds be a very good way to do it to cut back on time

The card game was... annoying. As a completionist/perfectionist it is annoying when games put incredibly tedious and time consuming tasks. And that is why I never got to disk 4.

VShalak link made me watch all of SpoonyOne FF8 review, and it brought back bad memories of just less than 2 years ago when I got it (HCBailly knows of him, referenced him in a CC video, and was credited for something in SpooneyOne's review). Luckily I got FF9 at the same time, I beat it putting in less hours than FF8.

As for actual game advice, I would say don't spend time to complete everything (not even in a bonus video), don't refine cards you can only get 1 of, and don't spend time "farming" for cards, . At most get good cards from enemies that you just happen to run into, and refine only duplicates of those cards, and only get rare cards from people you can get easily (not anything as hard as than getting Rinoa's card, and not anything with annoying rules). I tried to get all of the cards then asked what's the point. As for farming all I farmed for Mega Potions from that enemy in the snowy area (They looked like Absols from Pokemon, I think).

What, you think this card game is annoying? Try the one from FF9, which barely ever makes sense and where weaker cards can beat stronger cards X_X
The only time this card game ever gets hard is when you either have random on, or same/plus + no open. Or even worse, both at once -.- (I'm looking at you, Queen of Cards!)

I agree that Tetra Master was really hard to understand, but still I was a grand champion in it when compared to Triple Triad. :huh: I have only tried once to play the TT in a playthrough, but if I remember correctly the rules started to pop up and I never tried it again <_<

I even tried to understand the weird card "combos", but it just went over my head.

Yep I never took the time to learn Tetra Master. The only I played was when you had to. It just makes no sense. Also, for me, the only time Triple Triad was hard, was when the random rule was there. Same, Plus and no open could be hard if you're unlucky. Same and Plus with open is pretty easy though. You just have to plan your moves and do the math before you put the card down. If you plan stuff out, nothing could go wrong, unless you made a horrible miscalculation lol

That is until you reach the strongest opponents who can activate a same/plus combo at two or more places at the same time in the next turn by laying down a single card X_X (Still looking at you, Queen of cards! I hate you...)

This is why I've never done the Queen of Cards side quest. Thank you game for giving all the rare cards to Heart on the Ragnarok on Disc 4 :D

At least I think it's Heart...which ever one is two girls.

Wait, does that include the Queen of Card cards? Even after you refined them?

Yeah. They have all rare cards levels 8-10. No PuPu though. You can't get doubles though. So if you missed a card, you can get it from them. And if you refine a rare card, you can get it back from them, refine again, etc. At least I think that's how it works. I only do that for Queen of Cards though. That side quest is incredibly annoying.

And here i thought you had to get the Queen of Cards rares form the Queen herself. I knew you could get all other rares from the people on the Ragnarok, but... X_X

It's much easier to find them from her on Disc 4 too (She has all of them regardless of if you did the quest or not), but they *can* appear with the CC club

They always appear with Heart. Plus you have to find the Queen on the map AND deal with all her rules.

Well then. Thanks for the tip ^_^

Ooh okay. Guess I forgot that part :D

I actually just found out about it too. I always thought you could only get them from the Card Queen at the space pod ruins. But on my recent play through, I got annoyed because she always picks whatever rules she wants, and you can't abolish them. Of course she always uses just about every rule, so it's annoying. The FF8 board on GameFAQs informed me that you cannot abolish her rules and that Heart on the Ragnarok has them all, plus any rare cards you modded.

@ a few posts ago asking me about Triple Triad and Tetra Master.

Tetra Master was easier for me to play. I ignored the physical/elemental numbers (how many people learned that to use to their advantage?), I just used cards cards with more arrows and higher numbers were second priority, and I almost always won. Random rules (ff8) are more complicating than confusing rules (ff9), at least with ff9 you can use a winning pattern and stick with it.


@ Queen of Cards

You may be able to get any card you want from her, but isn't it better to get the rare cards when you know you can get them instead of relying on something randomly generated? This annoying stuff is what made me quit before disk 4, so much junk (calling them sidequests imply that it is worth it) to do in disk 3 before things are dull and lifeless in disk 4.

Since I know you're not opposed to modding rare cards early on for good stuff, HC...

How early do you intend to mod Diablos to get Black Holes for Demi? The Triples and Hyper Wrists so early are pretty awesome as it is, and Diablos is a decent card.