The Card Club, also known as CC Group, is a school-based club of skilled Triple Triad players in Final Fantasy VIII.
Made up of Balamb Garden's students and staff members, the club members' identities are not publicly known, and the player must scour the Garden to find them. The members will only acknowledge their membership once the previous member down on the rank has been defeated. The group members interact with Squall at various times, never letting on they are a member of the club. The reward for beating the Card Club is access to its members' rare cards.
In the Steam/Remastered versions, defeating every Card Club member in Triple Triad earns the player the achievement Cards Club Master.
Starting the quest[]
The quest can be started immediately after Balamb Garden has become mobile during the Balamb Garden Revolt. The player needs to talk to Jack in the lobby after winning at least 15 Triple Triad games in the Garden (games played in the Cafeteria, Library, and 2F Classroom do not count—presumably because there are no CC members around to observe the player's success at the game). It is possible to win the cards prior to the party's departure to Timber, but the quest will not activate until they return to Balamb. The quest can also be done while playing as Irvine in Fishermans Horizon. However, it can only be completed once the player has full control of Balamb Garden following the events in FH, as Queen Heart (aka Xu) cannot be challenged before this point.
The player must win against all club members before fighting the boss at the apex of the Lunatic Pandora, or they can no longer complete the quest.
Members[]
While it is unclear how membership into the club is handled, a challenger must challenge each member by order of card value (Jack, Club, Diamond, Spade, Heart, King). Joker, as is fitting to his card value, can be challenged any time after defeating Jack, and is considered separate from the Card Club's hierarchy: beating him is not actually necessary to complete the quest.
The members of the Card Club are:
| Title | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Jack | Jack is the first to mention the CC Group to Squall. He is the first member to challenge Squall once he has considerable skill in Triple Triad. He is found in the Balamb Garden main lobby, but the player needs to wait for him to walk onto the screen. | 
|
| Knight Club | A SeeD only interested in playing Triple Triad who says nothing except "Draw..." to challenge the player. He is randomly found walking outside of the dormitories along the circular walkway. | 
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| Princess Diamond | A pair of female students found with Jack in the main lobby, walking up to and standing in front of the directory. The player needs to wait for them to walk into position at the info board. | 
|
| Prince Spade | This is the man who gave Squall his first deck of Triple Triad cards. He is found on the second floor outside the elevator. He possesses several high level cards. | 
|
| Queen Heart | This member is Xu. She holds many high level cards, including the Carbuncle card. She can be challenged on the bridge. | 
|
| Master King | Revealed to be Quistis. She holds many high level cards, including the Gilgamesh card. She challenges Squall randomly in his dorm room when he rests after speaking to Dr. Kadowaki (once Queen Heart has been defeated). Unlike all other members, the player does not get an option to back out, and is forced into a card game when she challenges Squall. However, they can still choose to quit instead of playing the game. After playing against her once, Quistis can be challenged on the bridge. | 
|
| Magician Joker | Holds the Leviathan card. He updates the Battle Meter (if the player has it) and acts as a shopkeeper in Balamb Garden's training center (and later on the Ragnarok spaceship). He appears randomly on a platform overlooking the water in the training center. | 
|
Dr. Kadowaki also mentions that she once served as Master King, but was defeated by an unspecified student (presumably Quistis) four years prior. She does not hold any rare cards.
Card Club members in the endgame[]
Xu welcomes Squall onboard.
During the endgame, the Card Club members are found on board the Ragnarok if the player completed the CC sidequest before the point of no return (See here to locate the Ragnarok). Each member resides in a different section of the spaceship's halls, waiting to challenge Squall with rules from around the world. Joker also sells items and provides weapon remodeling. Unlike all other Card Club members, he is always present on the Ragnarok to sell stuff and even play cards, even if the player did not complete the quest. If the upgrade to the Battle Meter was not obtained from Joker before the point of no return, it is permanently missed, regardless of whether the player completed the quest.
Each of the club's members provide dialogue for their take on the current situation, and can use any LV8-10 rare cards that the player does not currently have in their inventory, regardless of whether they were missed, lost, or modified into items. It is also possible to modify the rare cards into items and then win them back from the group. The cards available in the Queen of Cards sidequest are not played by most of the Card Club members; the player can find the Queen of Cards on the escape pod crash-site south of Tears' Point to win them off her.
CC Diamond.
When challenging a CC member, the game shuffles the location of each rare card, indicated by it taking longer than normal for a card game against them to start. In order for a CC member to play a certain rare card, it needs to have been shuffled to them and selected. Despite this, the left girl of the CC Diamond duo is able to play with any rare card, including the cards normally obtained from the Queen of Cards.
| CC Member | Ruleset | Card Lv | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC Joker | Centra | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Elevator room |
| CC Jack | Balamb | 3, 4, 6 | Lower level of Ragnarok, room up from hangar |
| CC Club | Dollet | 3, 5, 6 | Hangar upper level |
| CC Diamond | Trabia | 3, 4, 5, 7 | Hangar |
| CC Spade | Esthar | 3, 4, 6, 7 | Storage room |
| CC Heart | Fishermans Horizon | 3, 5, 6, 7 | Boarding ramp |
| CC King | Lunar | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Airlock[note 1] |
- ↑ Quistis must be in the party
The Queen of Cards' region and trade rule cannot be changed during the endgame: she plays with her own set of rules (which includes all rule variations except "Open") and only uses the "One" trade rule herself. However, for trade rule change purposes, the region and trade rule associated with her will be whichever ones she had before reaching the point of no return. Before this point, the Queen of Cards can be manipulated in several ways to get more favorable trade rules against the CC members aboard the Ragnarok:
- If the player wants to play the left Diamond girl for rare cards, the Queen of Cards can be sent to the Trabia region before the point of no return with the "All" rule, allowing Diamond to play with that (though she will still only use one rare card at a time).
- If the player wants to play CC Heart for boss cards, the Queen can be sent to FH with "All".
- CC King plays all card levels, so if the player is missing cards from various levels, the player can send the Queen to the Lunar region with "All" before the point of no return.
- If any region is currently using "Direct" as a trade rule, the player can send the Queen there with a different personal trade rule, allowing the CC member who plays with that region's rules to use that instead.
Behind the scenes[]
In Japan, each school has a variety of clubs ranging from the practical (sports, class-room oriented) to the mundane (anime fan groups) and traditional (tea ceremonies, origami), created and ran by the student body. As Final Fantasy VIII was designed with a school theme, this is reflected in Balamb Garden with the Trepies, the Garden Festival committee, the library committee, the Balamb Garden disciplinary committee and the Card Club.