Prevents all status abnormality.
Description
Ribbon is an item and a support ability in Final Fantasy VIII. When equipped, the user is immune to status abnormalities even without any ST-Def-J junctions. Ribbon is famous for being an obscure ability, as no Guardian Force learns it natively: it can be taught to any GF with the item of the same name, originally obtainable from the Chocobo World add-on minigame, and in the Remastered, available as an extremely rare outcome of Angelo Search.
Ribbon is a recurring high level equipment piece in the Final Fantasy series that protects the wearer in some manner.
Obtained[]
In the original PlayStation and PC versions of Final Fantasy VIII, Ribbon was only available as a rare treasure in Chocobo World add-on game, playable on the Japanese-exclusive PocketStation for the PS and as a separate minigame on the PC version. When transferring items from Chocobo World to Final Fantasy VIII, the highest tier of treasure has a chance of being a Ribbon.
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered lacks Chocobo World, and the previously Chocobo World-exclusive items were made into rare finds during Angelo Search instead. Ribbon has a very small chance of being found by Angelo, and if the player is looking for one specifically, they may discover they need to search hours and days on end, such as by leaving the game on overnight in 3x speed. One handy Angelo Search trick is to initiate a battle against a Turtapod, hit it so it takes a defensive stance, and then cast Confuse on it: the battle will continue indefinitely unless Gilgamesh is summoned to end it.
Mechanics[]
Ribbon makes the user immune to Sudden Death, Poison, Petrify and Petrifying, Darkness, Silence, Berserk, Zombie, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Doom, Confuse, Curse, drain effects, and Vit 0.
Ribbon is the only inoculation against Vit 0 available.
Ribbon does not protect against Zantetsuken, Degenerator, or from blowing oneself up with Kamikaze.
Use[]
Ribbon is handy in battles against Malboros to protect against Bad Breath, but even then ST-Def-J x4 can suffice. Ribbon is good for a situation where the player does not worry about junctioning the correct spells for status defense, but takes up a valuable support ability slot: the player may simply want to use ST-Def-J and use the support ability space for something else over Ribbon. However, Ribbon is potentially available early in the PlayStation and PC versions, if the player were to get Boko at the first opportunity. Though the chance of scoring a Ribbon from Chocobo World is small, it is still far better chance than getting one from Angelo Search in Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, where the player is highly unlikely to get one without excess grinding.