Edea (boss)

Edea is a boss in Final Fantasy VIII'. She is fought twice in the game; the first time after the sorceress parade, and the second in Galbadia Garden.

Before fighting Edea, Squall faces off against his rival, Seifer, alone. After defeating him, Rinoa and Irvine arrive to help Squall, and Edea takes the stage.

Battle
The evil sorceress is no pushover during your first encounter with her, particularly if your Junctions are lacking. She casts all three -aga level spells at you, easily dealing over 300 damage per pop, and can cast Dispel to rid you of any positive statuses--Protect, Shell, Reflect, etc.--you might cast.

However, there is a trick to beating her, and once you know it, you can't lose. Just previous to this battle, you should have fought a pair of Iguions that were attempting to savage Rinoa. If you Drew the GF Carbuncle from either one of these Iguions and Junctioned it to somebody (preferably Rinoa) before fighting Edea, you can continually summon Carbuncle to cast Reflect on your party. If you are Reflected, then Edea must either waste turns Dispelling your Reflect shield or settle for using her Astral Punch physical attack (which does about 12 damage, if she's lucky).

Essentially, as long as you have Carbuncle Junctioned to Squall, Rinoa, or Irvine and continually summon him, you cannot lose this battle. Just be sure to Mug Edea for an Elixir before you finish her off.

If you do not have Carbuncle, you're in for a much tougher fight. Junction Thunder magic to your Ele-Def-Junc beforehand to protect against Thundaga, which is her most commonly-used -aga spell, and Junction some heavy-duty magic to your Strength. Edea has a very high Spirit stat, so most magic and GFs will prove unhelpful against her. Boost your own Spirit stat, preferably with Shell magic, and equip a couple HP+ abilities from the Brothers GF if you can. Then whale away at Edea with physical attacks. She has Cura and Life for you to Draw, so you should be able to keep yourself alive long enough to finish her off even without Carbuncle.

Should Edea defeat you, the game still goes on, but you lose out on 20 AP.