Sins Oblivion ¤ Women of Power » Final Fantasy VIII

Playing Rules

• Open

Both players must play the game with their cards face up.

This can be a very useful rule. Meaning if you're playing someone you can actually look before you set a card down and see if they can or can not defeat that certain card. This is very useful if you are trying to get rare cards.

• Elemental

Elemental symbols will be on the field when you play.

There are a lot of cards that have little elemental symbols on the top right corner of them. When the Elemental rule is in use, element symbols will be placed at random on the field. For example; if there is a free spot on the board with a Thunder symbol on it, try to place a card that has a Thunder symbol aswell. By doing so the numbers on all sides of the cards will gain a +1 value. If you place a card that does not have the thunder symbol on that place the numbers will be affected aswell. The value will go down 1 point in value on all sides of the card for the rest of the card game.

• Sudden Death

Incase there is a draw, the game will continue until someone wins a match. Both players continue with the cards which were in their possession at the end of the last round.

Basically it isn't possible to have a "Draw" while using this rule. You'll play with the cards you "won" so to speak, so be careful because the computer tends to use your good cards against you if they have them in their possession.

• Random

The cards you use are randomly chosen from your card inventory.

This rule has go to be by far the WORST rule ever! You cannot choose your own cards. It's all randomly chosen, which can really put you in a bad position. I suggest before you play with this rule that you save your game just incase you get one of your good cards with a bunch of your horrible ones! If you must play with this rule, which I really don't recommend because you might be able to spread the rule to other regions, you can refine some of your weaker cards. Unfortunately it's not always possible to refine them all because some of the weaker cards require more then one card to make an item.

• Same

If a card has two numbers equal to the numbers of two surrounding cards of the opponent, they will be flipped.

This rule is pretty useful, but at the same time VERY dangerous. If the numbers on more than one card match the same rule will flip over those cards, meaning you could lose three or four cards if they match in every side!

• Same Wall

In addition to the Same- rule, all sides of the playing field have the value A.

Basically all of the "walls" on the side of the board will have the value of A. This can be either very helpful or really annoying if you use a lot of the cards that have A values on them. Thankfully this rule is very rarely seen.

• Plus

If a card is placed down that adds up to the same value on two or more adjacent cards of the opponent, those cards are flipped over.

This can be a pain of a rule! Mostly because the Plus rule is usually combined with the Combo or Same rules. The only way this rule could actually be helpful is if the Open rule is in use aswell. You could have the greatest hand in the world when you start your game and when the last card gets laid down the computer could get a Same, Plus and Combo bonus and you lose the game!

• Combo

All cards which were turned over by the Same or Plus rule can turn over surrounding opponent's cards if they have a greater value.

This rule is pretty much a chain-effect of the Same rule, which is why it is often combined with it. If you like or are used to playing with the Same rule and place your cards in the safest places you should be alright, but if you don't and start placing cards at random you could easily lose the game!

Trading Rules

• One

The winner can choose one of the opponent's cards which was used during the game.

This is the most common trading rule. This rule is the only rule in Balamb (unless you mix rules for that area) so you might want to play against a few people in Balamb first. In case you accidently mix rules in Balamb, go to the man who is sitting at the water in the harbour. He will reset all rules in Balamb to the One rule. It's good for beginners because it's not very tragical when you lose. Keep in mind that your opponent will always choose your best card though.

• Diff

The winner can take the difference of cards of the cards which were in his and his opponent's position at the end of the game.

Okay that short discription kind of sucked, let's try again... It means that for example you won 7:3 (at the end of the game there were 7 cards in your possession and 3 in your opponent's possession), you can win 4 of his cards (7 - 3 = 4). If your score is higher, you win all of your opponent's cards. Cool huh?

• Direct

Everyone wins the cards that were in his possession at the end of the game.

This is a HORRIBLE rule! Someone playing with the Direct rule is the worst that can happen to you, the better your hand is, the worse is this rule. If your hand consists of character and/or GF cards only, don't play with this rule because even if you win you could lose your best cards! Basically I would not use any of your good cards unless you absolutely must!

• All

The winner receives all of the cards his opponent used in the game.

I really like this rule! It's a really quick way of earning cards! You should be sure to have a lot of good cards before spreading this rule though (and make sure you don't spread Same/ Plus/ Combo together with this rule!), but once you've done so, you'll gain a lot of good cards in no time. To spread the rule in Balamb, go to the Card Queen at the balamb train station and ask her for a game until she wants to play with the full rule. THEN start the CC- subquest and receive a nice cardshower.

~Thanks to the people at RPG Classics for help with this! I couldn't really find anything in the official guidebook that had the rules on it, and I was too lazy to start my game and look! ~Dj