My favorite game.it ca be yours.
Contents
Gameplay
Final Fantasy VIII is a further development of the RPG engine seen in its series predecessor Final Fantasy VII, and comprises three main modes of play: the world map screen, a fully 3D visual display where the player may navigate freely across the scaled-down game world; the environment field map screen, consisting of one or more 2D pre-drawn backgrounds that serve to represent a location such as a town, with overlaid 3D characters under player control; and the battle map screen, a fully 3D visual of a discrete location such as a street or room, where a fight between the player and enemy parties takes place. A menu-driven interface drives the mechanics of the game, and it is in these that various departures from previous Final Fantasy games become apparent, most notably in the lessened emphasis on traditional weapons and armor, and in the Junction magic system. Final Fantasy VIII was also the first game in the series to introduce a collectible cards-based minigame, known as "Triple Triad."
Junction system
This new system revolves around summonable monsters, called Guardian Forces (GFs). A character must have a GF assigned to them ("junctioned") before he or she can use several standard Final Fantasy battle command abilities, such as "Magic" and "Item"; only "Attack" can be performed otherwise. While previous Final Fantasy titles used a pool of magic points (MP) consumed by each spell to limit magic use, in Final Fantasy VIII, spells are "drawn" from enemies and special Draw Points distributed throughout the game's environments. Spells are stocked as quantified inventory and consumed one at a time when used. GFs also allow characters to "junction" these spells to their own statistics — such as "Strength" and "Vitality" — for various bonuses.
Because of the flexibility and depth of this system — combined with the capability to draw unlimited quantities of a spell from a single enemy — it is possible to build one's character party up to significant levels of power fairly early into the game and allow them to — in most cases—inflict much more damage than the GFs themselves are capable of rendering. This alternative use of GFs was a significant departure for the series, as summoned creatures were previously used almost exclusively to deliver a single devastating attack. Other notable changes were present, as well, in that "stat junctioning" replaced the equippable weapons and armor of previous Final Fantasies, and while each character does retain a specialized weapon, that weapon cannot be unequipped, unlike in previous games. However, a limited number of upgrades can be performed on each character's weapon throughout the game, increasing its power and efficiency, as well as altering its appearance.
Limit Breaks
Rinoa's second Limit Break, Angel Wing.
Enlarge
Rinoa's second Limit Break, Angel Wing.
As in Final Fantasy VII, every character has a unique special attack called a Limit Break that is only available during battle under certain conditions. Where the system differs from the previous game's use of Limit Breaks, however, is that they randomly become available every time a command is issued during battle, provided that character's current health (hit points, or HP) is below 32% of their current maximum health. As a character's health drops below 32% of their maximum, the probability of accessing that character's Limit Break increases. Alternatively, the magic spell "Aura" increases the probability of Limit Breaks appearing regardless of a character's remaining hit points.
In the original Japanese version of the game, these moves were called "Special Arts"—shortened to "Special" in the Status Menu—and were renamed "Limit Breaks" in the North American, European and Australian versions.
Experience levels
As in most role-playing games — and in most previous installments of the Final Fantasy series — experience points are awarded following successful battles. If 1000 experience points are accumulated by a character, that character gains a "level", which increases that character's base statistics. Unlike previous Final Fantasy games, however, the levels of randomly encountered enemies are calculated based on the current levels of the player's characters. In other words, the higher the levels of the player's characters, the higher the levels of the randomly encountered enemies the player battles. Higher level enemies are capable of dealing out—and receiving—significantly more damage, and may have newer and stronger attacks available as well. It's notable, however, that increases in a character's stats as a result of "leveling-up" are minuscule in comparison to the stat boosts available through exploitation of the Junction system. Some players take advantage of this fact to avoid leveling up, allowing their characters to get stronger as better magic and Junction abilities become available while enemies remain weak.
The Guardian Forces themselves also gain levels and win Ability Points (AP). AP is allocated to allow Guardian Forces to learn special abilities. When a GF has gained the required amount of AP to learn a specific ability, that ability becomes available for any character — and, in some cases, the character party as a whole — to use. Also of note is that when a GF is frequently summoned by the same character, it will take less time for said character to call the GF in the future. Additionally, when GFs that have learned the "Boost" ability are summoned, the player will be given the opportunity to increase the potency of the GF's attack. By holding down the "Select" button on the PlayStation controller while rapidly hitting the "Square" button, a number in the lower right hand corner of the screen will increase, representing the inrease in the power of the GF's attack. Note that not all
Story
Seifer knocks Squall to the ground with a Fire spell during an early duel
Enlarge
Seifer knocks Squall to the ground with a Fire spell during an early duel
The ever-growing hostilities of the nation of Galbadia have begun to be felt by the rest of the world. Galbadia's president, Vinzer Deling, is expanding Galbadia's territories, and — some seventeen years after a previous war shattered peace between the nations — the balance of power is about to shift once again. The world will soon be consumed in an even greater conflict.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In response to a plea calling for mercenaries to help in fending off a Galbadian invasion, the Balamb Garden branch of the elite mercenary force known as "SeeD" dispatches its members and several graduation-eligible SeeD cadets, including Squall Leonhart. SeeD temporarily succeeds in halting the Galbadian advance, negotiating a brief cease-fire, and Squall — recognized for his exemplary skills in leadership, strength, and focus — graduates to SeeD status.
Shortly after graduating, Squall meets a young woman named Rinoa Heartilly, one whose attitude and approach to life are apparently the opposite of his own. Assigned to help her Galbadian-resistance on his first mission, along with fellow graduates Zell Dincht and Selphie Tilmitt, Squall learns that a sorceress named "Edea" is the mastermind behind Galbadia's rising violence. Edea soon kills Deling and takes direct control of Galbadia, turning it into an imperial dictatorship. Squall and his comrades, along with his former instructor, Quistis Trepe, and sharpshooter Irvine Kinneas, attempt to assassinate the sorceress, but are defeated and imprisoned.
Students from Balamb Garden battle Galbadian soldiers
Enlarge
Students from Balamb Garden battle Galbadian soldiers
During their failed attempt to assassinate the sorceress, Squall's party learns that his longtime rival from his cadet days, Seifer Almasy, has defected from Garden and joined with Edea as the leader of the Galbadian army and her personal second-in-command. After escaping from their imprisonment, Squall's group must work to save Garden — and the world — from Edea's wrath, as well as unravel the mysteries surrounding a man named "Laguna" and his charge Ellone, whom Edea is seeking. Meanwhile, Squall himself must come to terms with his rival, his ever-growing feelings for Rinoa, and his own loner-based philosophy on life.
As time passes, Squall begins to abandon his shell to become the leader of SeeD and protect the woman he loves. Soon, the full forces of the Galbadian army and Balamb Garden — SeeDs and cadets alike — meet to engage in a devastating conflict, and it is revealed that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined: Edea is merely a tool for a greater sorceress known as "Ultimecia", who resides in the future and wishes to achieve Time Compression. This spell would grant her dominion over all time and space, and it is for this reason she has sought Ellone, for Ellone is the key to this goal.
Squall and Rinoa embrace
Enlarge
Squall and Rinoa embrace
The subsequent battle with Edea forces Ultimecia to transfer Edea's powers to Rinoa, allowing Edea to cling to life but leaving Rinoa frozen in a deep coma. Squall — his hard exterior finally shattered by Rinoa's condition — becomes obsessed with waking her. However, Ultimecia possesses Rinoa and uses her to free Adel, the sorceress responsible for the war seventeen years past, while also ordering Seifer to incite the Lunar Cry, a rain of monsters from the moon. This simultaneously brings Adel's containment device from space to the planet's surface, and leaves Esthar — the world's most powerful nation — swarming with monsters and unable to prevent Ultimecia's plot to use Adel as her host for the final stage of her plan.
Rinoa, now herself once more, is left to die alone in space, and Squall, determined to save her if he can, dives into the abyss after her. Rescued by a derelict spaceship floating in the planet's orbit, Squall and Rinoa return from space, only for Esthar to lock Rinoa away, fearing her new sorceress powers. Squall then risks the safety of the entire universe to free Rinoa, kill Adel, and travel through a now time-compressed universe to confront Ultimecia in her own era. With their friendship serving as their bond to reality, Squall and his friends manage to immunize themselves to the effects of Time Compression, defeat Ultimecia and put an end to her schemes.
Characters
Main article: List of Final Fantasy VIII characters
Several of the major characters of Final Fantasy VIII are students—and later SeeDs—of Balamb Garden. Chief among them—and the cast as a whole—is Squall Leonhart, who uses a gunblade as his weapon of choice. His fellow SeeDs include his former instructor, Quistis Trepe, an intellectual who battles using a whip, Zell Dincht, a martial artist, and Selphie Tilmitt, a lighthearted girl who is deadly with the nunchaku. Irvine Kinneas also joins the group, though he was trained at Galbadia Garden instead of Balamb Garden. Irvine's weapon specialty is guns, and he makes for an excellent sniper. After joining the party, he soon falls in love with Selphie. The final primary playable character is Rinoa Heartilly, daughter to a powerful Galbadian general and member of the Forest Owls — though not their leader, as is often misinterpreted — a resistance movement fighting against Galbadian rule. She fights using an arm-bound crossbow that fires projectiles with a boomerang-like effect. She enlists the aid of Balamb Garden's SeeDs in her efforts, and soon falls in love with Squall, as he does with her. The relationship between Squall and Rinoa is one of the central themes of the game.
Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zabac are playable characters in the game's "past scenes", which take place some seventeen to twenty years before the present day events. Antagonists Seifer Almasy and Edea Kramer — temporarily playable — round out the list of playable characters.
Tetsuya Nomura's designs of Selphie (left), Rinoa (center) and Quistis
Enlarge
Tetsuya Nomura's designs of Selphie (left), Rinoa (center) and Quistis
Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima has expressed that the dynamic of players' relationships with the main character in Final Fantasy games is something of importance to him, and that he puts a lot of thought into how that relationship will develop. With Final Fantasy VII, he explains that Cloud's reserved nature led him to write the story in such a way that the player would be put in the position of deciding for theirself what Cloud was thinking, something reflected by the game's style of having the player frequently select Cloud's responses to certain situations and dialogue. With Final Fantasy VIII, which also features a reserved lead protagonist in Squall, Nojima explains that he wanted to give players actual insight into what the character was thinking, even while other characters in the game were not privy to this information.[5] This approach is reflected by the frequent use of dialogue that takes place solely within Squall's mind, in which the player is able to read his thoughts and understand how Squall is thinking or feeling at any given time, even if he keeps these thoughts to himself.
Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura — while exchanging e-mails with Director Yoshinori Kitase during the period between the development of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII — suggested that the game should bear a "school days" feel, and as Kazushige Nojiima already had a story in mind in which the main characters were the same ages, the idea worked, taking form as the Garden military academies. Nojima also planned for the two playable parties featured in the game (Squall's present day group and Laguna Loire's group of seventeen to twenty years previous) to highly contrast with one another. This idea was conveyed through Laguna's group consisting of characters who were in their late twenties and had a lot of combat experience. They were also close friends who had fought together for a long time and come to trust one another. Squall's party, on the other hand, was young and inexperienced, and Squall himself does not understand the value of friendship at the game's beginning.[6]
As part of a theme desired by Kitase to give the game a foreign atmosphere ("foreign" being in relation to Japan), the objective with the character designs was to give them largely European appearances. The first character Nomura designed specifically for use in Final Fantasy VIII was Squall, initially giving him longer hair and a more feminine appearance. However, Yoshinori Kitase didn't feel that this design worked, and asked Nomura to shorten his hair and make him look more masculine, which lead to the final design of Squall seen in-game. When designing Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII's lead protagonist, Nomura gave him distinctly spiky, bright blonde hair, so as to emphasize his role as that game's main character. With Squall, Nomura wanted to try another unique angle to establish Squall's role, giving him the now trademark gunblade scar across his brow and the bridge of his nose. There was not yet a complete history conceived for the character, so Nomura left the explanation for Squall's scar to Nojima. Squall's design was completed by a feather motif along the collar of his jacket, included by Nomura for the purpose of challenging the game's FMV designers, being but one example of the demands he has consistently extended to the programmers of the Final Fantasy titles as technology has advanced.[6]
Also as part of Squall's design, Nomura wanted to include silver accessories, which took the form of his ring, necklace and weapon. Squall's weapon, the gunblade (a revolver-sword hybrid that functions only as a sword, given a damaging vibration feature by use of the gun mechanism[7]), was also intended to offer a new way for players to control weapons in battle, though, by Nomura's own admission, he feels that the weapon bears an odd appearance.[6]
Squall's gunblade, as seen in the game's opening credits
Enlarge
Squall's gunblade, as seen in the game's opening credits
When designing Rinoa, the game's lead female, Nomura emphasized that he tried to avoid letting the possibilities presented by the recent advancements in FMV technology become the entire focus, believing that these innovations might tempt developers to make their female characters "too beautiful" and focus more on physical appearance than personality. With this concern in mind, Nomura set out with the intention to avoid making Rinoa gorgeous, and to simply make her "cute" instead. To further emphasise this, he wrote a list of vocabulary and physical habits for Rinoa's character that he felt conveyed this idea of "cute, not gorgeous," and sent them to Nojima along with the character's design.[6]
With Seifer Almasy, Nomura had originally intended him to be not just Squall's rival, but to also be at the center of a love triangle between himself, Squall and Rinoa. Though this concept was not thoroughly explored in the final version of the story, Seifer did remain as Squall's rival, and his appearance was designed to serve as a contrast with Squall's. Not only did they both have scars on their faces that ran in opposite directions, but their jackets were opposing colors (black and silver), and of opposite length (Squall's short and Seifer's long). Furthermore, both characters ended up with a gunblade for their weapon, though Squall's (based on a revolver) is particularly bulky and requires two hands to be wielded effectively, while Seifer's (based on an automatic pistol) is much lighter, and can be wielded with one hand.[6]
On the whole, Nomura ended up employing various changes to each character's appearance before they reached their final designs. Quistis was to originally be designed with a skirt, but in the end, was given a long skirt worn over pants. With Rinoa wearing a mini-skirt over shorts, this led to a conflict with the intended notion that one of the female characters would simply be wearing a skirt. A compromise was made in this regard with Selphie's design. She was originally intended to be wearing overalls, but Nomura decided that her outfit should be something of a combination of overalls and a mini-skirt.[6]
Irvine's design also gave Nomura various difficulties, as he felt that making him too handsome would overlap with Squall's appearance, while not making him attractive enough would be rejected. He settled for giving him a handsome appearance, but a laid-back and casual personality, leaving the overall expectation that he would come off as less attractive than Squall due to this. As part of this non-serious appearance, he was given goggles, but — with this being an accessory Nomura had previously given to both Reno and Cid Highwind in Final Fantasy VII — he decided to give him the appearance of an American cowboy, including the traditional hat and boots. Zell's design was achieved with the notion in mind that he would look and act like the main character from a shōnen manga (Japanese comic books intended primarily for boys), a concept reflected by how his neighbors from the town of Balamb view him in-game.[6] Their opinion of his behavior and personality, as described in the Final Fantasy VIII Official Strategy Guide, is that he's something of a "'comic-bookish' type of hero."[8]
Tetsuya Nomura's design of "the Witch," Edea
Enlarge
Tetsuya Nomura's design of "the Witch," Edea
With Final Fantasy VIII came the inclusion of three designs Nomura had previously drawn, but had not yet used in a Final Fantasy game. These included the designs of Edea, Fujin and Raijin. The latter two had originally been designed for use in Final Fantasy VII, but with the inclusion of that games Turks characters, it was felt that Fujin and Raijin were unnecessary. Edea, originally simply called "the Witch," was a design that Nomura had created prior to even Final Fantasy VII's development, a design based on the style of Yoshitaka Amano.[6]
As each Final Fantasy title included a character named "Cid" — usually being someone who is knowledgable about the game's airships or some other key element of the plot — Nomura wanted to design someone who was similar to the past Cids in Final Fantasy, but also someone who was markedly different. He decided on giving him the appearance and personality of an older, benevolent character who would watch over Squall's party and offer them advice about things which they didn't know, but with which he was thoroughly affiliated. In the end, Nojima decided that this type of good-natured, kind-hearted character would work best as the headmaster of Balamb Garden.[6]
In addition to designing all the game's characters, Tetsuya Nomura also designed all of its Summon Magic creatures. Aware that there was a type of "training" involved in their role in the game, Nomura decided to give them all features that distanced them from human beings and gave them more the appearance of mystical creatures, even in the rare cases of the game's humanoid summons.[6]
Spoilers end here.
Other appearances
Characters from Final Fantasy VIII have made cameo appearances in five other games:
* Squall—although he asks to be called "Leon" here—and Selphie—as a child with a different personality—are encountered in Kingdom Hearts. Also it's important to know that Yuffie called "Leon" Squal, he answered "It's Leon now".
* Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin appear in Kingdom Hearts II. However Fujin and Raijin's names have been changed to "Fuu" and "Rai" respectively. Also returning in Kingdom Hearts II is Squall—still being called "Leon"—and Selphie, who is considerably older from her previous appearance.
* Squall and Rinoa are playable characters in Itadaki Street Special.
* Squall is a secret character in Chocobo Racing.
* Squall appears randomly—yet rarely—in the title screen of the PlayStation port of Final Fantasy VI.
Also of note is that Gilgamesh, a recurring villain from Final Fantasy V, reappears as a Guardian Force in Final Fantasy VIII, with a possible oblique reference to the earlier game taking place in an "alternate dimension."
Locations
Map of FFVIII's world
Main article: List of Final Fantasy VIII locations
Final Fantasy VIII takes place primarily on a large, unnamed world with one moon. The planet comprises five major landmasses, with the largest covering most of the eastern side of the map, as well as including a northern polar region. The second largest continent lies to the west, and contains a large proportion of the game's locations. Positioned roughly in the middle of the world map lies the smallest continent, the large island on which the game begins. The remaining two landmasses are smaller and mostly desolate, riddled with rough, rocky terrain, having suffered from the impact of a Lunar Cry.[9][7] The southernmost landmass is long and thin, while the other, a short distance north, is a region of broken sections of land that have drifted apart; this particular region may be most accurately classified as an archipelago. A number of small-to-large islands flesh out the rest of the game world, and a smattering of off-world locations round out the game's playable areas.
In designing the world of Final Fantasy VIII, Director Yoshinori Kitase expressed the desire to go with an international theme, giving attractive foreign designs to not just the game's characters, but also to its various locations, using the style of internationally familiar places, while maintaining a fantasy atomsphere. Inspiration ranged from ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture, to the city of Paris, France, to an idealized futuristic European society.[6]
Reception and criticism
As with other games in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VIII has been the basis for many works of fanfiction. As the character backgrounds, post-game events and political and historical settings of the game's world are not fully explored within the game or by official materials such as the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide, there has been much room for interpretation and expansion on the part of fans.
Final Fantasy VIII's reception has not been entirely without controversy, however. Its gameplay deviates from that of previous installments in the series, with such notable innovations as the Junction system and a lack of character equipment. Also, some fans disapproved of the lack of Magic Points (MP). As such, some fans of the more traditional elements of the Final Fantasy series were disappointed to find that this installment bears significant differences to its predecessors. As such, the game is one of the more polarized in terms of overall reception among fans of the series.
Within two days of its North American release on September 9, 1999, Final Fantasy VIII was the top-selling video game in the United States, a position it held for more than three weeks.[10] Aside from grossing a total of more than $50 million within the first 13 weeks to follow,[1][2] in Japan, it sold some 2.5 million units within the first four days of release[11], and during 2006 was voted by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu as being the twenty-second best game of all time.[4]
Musical score
Cover art for the Japanese soundtrack
Enlarge
Cover art for the Japanese soundtrack
Nobuo Uematsu composed and directed the soundtrack for Final Fantasy VIII, which was released on four compact discs by DigiCube in Japan, and by Square EA in North America. Additionally, a special orchestral arrangement of selected tracks from the game—performed by Shiro Hamaguchi—was released under the title FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC.
The score is best known for two songs: "Liberi Fatali", a Latin choral piece that is played during the introduction to the game, and "Eyes On Me", a pop song performed by Chinese singer Faye Wong. The latter song was released as a CD single in Japan and sold over 400,000 copies,[12] making it the best-selling video game music disc ever released in that country until the release of "Hikari" by Utada Hikaru for Kingdom Hearts. "Liberi Fatali" was even played during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens during the swimming games.