Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII
North American box art showing the characters Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer, and Edea in the background
Developer(s)	Square
Publisher(s)	JP Square NA Square Electronic Arts PAL Square Europe (PlayStation) EU Eidos Interactive (Windows)
Designer(s)	Yoshinori Kitase
Writer(s)	Kazushige Nojima
Artist(s)	Tetsuya Nomura Yusuke Naora
Composer(s)	Nobuo Uematsu
Series	Final Fantasy
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Microsoft Windows Playstation Network
Release date(s)	PlayStation JP February 11, 1999 NA September 9, 1999 PAL October 27, 1999 Windows NA January 25, 2000 EU February 18, 2000 JP March 23, 2000 PlayStation Network JP September 24, 2009
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: B ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T OFLC: M15+
Media	4 CD-ROMs (PlayStation) 5 CD-ROMs (Windows)
System requirements	Windows 266 MHz Intel Pentium II CPU, 64 MB RAM, video card with 4 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM drive, 300MB free hard disk space, DirectX 6.1, Windows 95 operating system or above
Input methods	Controller, keyboard, mouse

Final Fantasy VIII​ (ファイナルファンタジーVIII, Fainaru Fantajī Eito^?) is a console role-playing game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and for Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, doing away with magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically proportioned characters.

The game's story focuses on a group of young mercenaries who are drawn into an international conflict, and seek to protect the world from a sorceress manipulating the war for her own purposes. The main protagonist is Squall Leonhart, a 17-year-old loner and student at the military academy Balamb Garden, who is training to become a "SeeD", a mercenary paid by the academy.

Development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997, during the English localization process of Final Fantasy VII. The music was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, series regular, and in a series first, the theme music is a vocal piece, "Eyes on Me", performed by Faye Wong. The game was positively received by critics and was a commercial success. It was voted the twenty-second best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. Thirteen weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title. The game has shipped 8.15 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2003.^[1] The game was later made available on PlayStation Network in Japan as a PSone Classics title.

Gameplay

An example of navigation on the field map

Like any Final Fantasy before it, Final Fantasy VIII consists of three main modes of play: the world map, the field map, and the battle screen. The world map is a 3D display in which the player may navigate freely across a small-scale rendering of the game world. Characters travel across the world map in a variety of ways, including by foot, car, Chocobo, train, and airship. The field map consists of controllable 3D characters overlaid on one or more 2D pre-rendered backgrounds, which represent environmental locations such as towns or forests. The battle screen is a 3D model of a location such as a street or room, where turn-based fights between playable characters and CPU-controlled enemies take place. The interface is menu-driven, as in previous titles, but with the typical weapon and armor systems removed and new features present, such as the Junction system. Also featured is a collectible card-based minigame called "Triple Triad".^[2]

Junction system

A battle against X-ATM092, an early boss; Zell will summon Shiva when the blue bar that has replaced his ATB is drained.

For Final Fantasy VIII, Hiroyuki Ito designed a battle system based on summon-able monsters, called "Guardian Forces", abbreviated in-game as "GF". Assigning ("junctioning") a GF onto a character allows the player to use battle commands beyond Attack with the main weapon, such as Magic, GF (to summon the junctioned GF and have it perform an action), and Item. While previous Final Fantasy titles provided each character with a limited pool of magic points that were consumed by each spell, in Final Fantasy VIII, spells are acquired ("drawn") either from enemies in battle, Draw Points distributed throughout the game's environments, or by refining items and cards. Spells are then stocked on characters as quantified inventory (up to 100 per spell and limited to 32 distinct spells per character) and are consumed one by one when used. Characters can also junction these spells onto their statistics—such as Strength, Vitality, and Luck—for various bonuses, provided the character has junctioned a Guardian Force.^[3] The junction system's flexibility affords the player a wide range of customization options.

The character designer of the Guardian Forces, Tetsuya Nomura, felt they should be unique beings, without clothes or other human-like concepts. This was problematic, as Nomura did not want them to "become the actual monsters", so he took great care in their design. Leviathan was the first GF, created as a test and included in a game demo. After it received a positive reaction from players, Nomura decided to create the remaining sequences in a similar fashion.^[4] The use of summoned creatures for anything other than a single devastating attack during battle was a significant departure for the Final Fantasy series. The junction system also acts as a substitute for armor and accessories used in previous titles to enhance the characters' statistics. Moreover, where earlier titles required weapons to be equipped and tailored to the character, each major character in Final Fantasy VIII features a unique weapon which can be upgraded, affecting its appearance, power, and Limit Break.^[5]

Limit Breaks

Characters in Final Fantasy VIII have unique special attacks called "Limit Breaks", as in Final Fantasy VII. While the Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII are triggered after sufficient damage has been received, in Final Fantasy VIII, the availability of Limit Breaks depends on a character's current health—a Limit Break is more likely to be available to a character with low health. The magic spell Aura increases the probability of Limit Breaks appearing, regardless of a character's remaining hit points, while various status afflictions can prevent Limit Breaks. They are similar to the Desperation Attacks of Final Fantasy VI, as they are randomly triggered when a character is near death.^[6]

Final Fantasy VIII also introduced interactive elements to complement Limit Break animations. These interactive sequences, which vary between character, weapon, and Limit Break range from randomly selected magic spells to precisely timed button inputs. Successfully completing an interactive sequence increases the resulting attack's potency.^[7]

Experience levels

Final Fantasy VIII used an Experience point and level system quite different from previous games in the series. While EXP is awarded after battling and defeating enemies, who are predominantly encountered randomly, and contribute to the continued strengthening and level-gaining of the characters, here the similarity ends. While previous levels required ever-increasing amounts of EXP to surmount (eg. getting to level 2 might require 200 experience points, level 3 required 400, etc), FF8 characters gain a level after accumulating 1000 points. Enemies around the world, furthermore, remain on equal level with the characters, as opposed to most RPGs where enemies from previously-visited locations in the game/plot are weak and easily defeated. Higher-level enemies are capable of inflicting and withstanding significantly more damage, may have additional special attacks, and carry additional magic spells, allowing for Junctioning bonuses which themselves far exceed the bonuses imparted by level-gain. The game's unique EXP and level system allows a player to grind to maximum Level 100 before even beginning the plot; conversely, abuse of certain skills will allow the player to pass through the entire game without earning a single experience point.

In addition to gaining levels, Guardian Forces earn Ability Points (AP) after battles, which are automatically allocated to special abilities that Guardian Forces can learn. When a Guardian Force has learned an ability, that ability becomes available for any character or the character party, as is the case with field abilities. These abilities allow characters to attack more efficiently, refine magic spells from items, receive stat bonuses upon leveling up, access shops remotely and use additional battle commands.^[8][5]

Plot

Setting

Most of Final Fantasy VIII is set on an unnamed fantasy world with one moon. The planet comprises five major landmasses, with Esthar, the largest, covering most of the eastern portion of the map.^[9] Galbadia, the second largest continent, lies to the west,^[9] and contains many of the game's locations. The northernmost landmass is Trabia, an Arctic region. Positioned roughly in the middle of the world map lies Balamb, the smallest continent,^[9] the island on which the game begins. The remaining two landmasses are smaller and mostly desolate, riddled with rough, rocky terrain caused by the impact of a "Lunar Cry", an event where monsters from the moon fall to the planet.^[10][11] The southernmost landmass includes an archipelago of broken sections of land that have drifted apart. Islands and marine structures flesh out the rest of the game world, and a handful of off-world locations round out the game's playable areas.

As part of a theme desired by director Yoshinori Kitase to give the game a foreign atmosphere, various designs were given to its locations using the style of internationally familiar places, while also maintaining a fantasy atmosphere. Inspiration ranged from ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture, to the city of Paris, France, to an idealized futuristic European society. Flags were also given to some factions, their designs based on the group's history and culture.^[4] In contrast, in an interview with the Official UK Playstation Magazine, Kitase stated that Triple Triad was added to the game because cards were a popular hobby in Japan.^[12]

In an interview with Famitsu, art director Yusuke Naora described that the game was generally designed to be a "bright, fresh Final Fantasy".^[13] The designers felt a need to invert the atmosphere of previous games in the series, which had feelings of "light emerging from darkness".^[13] This decision was easy for the developers to make, because most of them had worked on Final Fantasy VII and felt that a new direction was acceptable.^[12] The world designs were also developed with the knowledge that most of the staff were now used to computer graphics, which was not the case with Final Fantasy VII.^[13] The developers also noted that with Final Fantasy VIII, they attempted to "mix future, real life and fantasy".^[13]

Characters

The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy VIII are Squall Leonhart, a loner who keeps his focus on his duty to avoid vulnerability; Rinoa Heartilly, an outspoken and passionate young woman who follows her heart in all situations; Quistis Trepe, an instructor with a serious, patient attitude; Zell Dincht, a martial artist with a passion for hot dogs; Selphie Tilmitt, a cheerful girl who loves trains and pilots the airship Ragnarok; and Irvine Kinneas, a marksman and consummate ladies' man.^[2] Temporarily playable characters include Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zabac, who appear in "flashback" sequences, and antagonists Seifer Almasy and Edea Kramer.

During the game's pre-production, character designer Tetsuya Nomura suggested the game be given a "school days" feel. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima already had a story in mind in which the main characters were the same age; their ideas meshed, taking form as the "Garden" military academies. Nojima planned that the two playable parties featured in the game (Squall's present day group and Laguna's group from the past) would be highly contrasted with one another. This idea was conveyed through the age and experience of Laguna's group, versus the youth and naïveté of Squall's group.^[4]

To maintain the game's theme of a foreign atmosphere, the characters were designed to have predominantly European appearances. The first Final Fantasy VIII character designed was Squall. Desiring to add a unique angle to Squall's appearance and emphasize his role as the central character, Nomura gave him a scar across his brow and the bridge of his nose. As there was not yet a detailed history conceived for the character, Nomura left the explanation for Squall's scar to Nojima. Squall was given a gunblade, a fictional revolver–sword hybrid that functions primarily as a sword, with an added damaging vibration feature activated by use of its gun mechanism,^[14] similar to a vibroblade.^[15] His character design was complemented by a fur lining along the collar of his jacket, incorporated by Nomura as a challenge for the game's full motion video designers.^[4]

With Final Fantasy VIII came the inclusion of some designs Nomura had previously drawn, but had not yet used in a Final Fantasy game. These were 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 the Turks characters in that game, it was felt that Fujin and Raijin were unnecessary. Nomura had designed Edea before the development of Final Fantasy VII, based on the style of Yoshitaka Amano.^[4]

Story

Final Fantasy VIII begins as Squall duels with Seifer in a training session outside the Balamb Garden military academy. Meanwhile, the Galbadian regime invades the Dollet Dukedom, forcing Dollet to hire assistance from the Balamb Garden branch of "SeeD", Garden's elite mercenary force. SeeD uses the mission as a final examination for its cadets;^[16] with the help of his instructor, Quistis, Squall passes its prerequisite and is grouped with Seifer and Zell. Seifer disobeys orders and abandons his team, forcing Selphie to accompany Squall and Zell for the duration of the mission. After the mission, SeeD halts the Galbadian advance; Squall, Zell, and Selphie graduate to SeeD status while Seifer is disciplined for his disobedience.^[17] During the graduation party, Squall meets Rinoa, whose personality is apparently the opposite of his.^[18] When assigned with Zell and Selphie to help Rinoa's Galbadian resistance, Squall learns that a sorceress named Edea is behind Galbadia's hostilities. Under orders from Balamb and Galbadia Gardens, Squall and his comrades—now joined by Rinoa, Quistis, and Irvine—attempt to assassinate Edea.^[19] However, the sorceress thwarts the attempt, and the party is detained. Squall's party also learns that Seifer has left Garden to become Edea's second-in-command.^[20]

After the team escapes, Edea launches a missile attack on Trabia Garden. Fearing that Balamb Garden is the next target of Edea's revenge, the team splits into two units. Squall's group returns to Balamb to warn of the attack, but must first stop an internal conflict incited by NORG, SeeD's financier.^[21] Selphie's team travels to the Missile Base to stop the launch, but fails. Squall inadvertently turns Balamb Garden into a mobile fortress, allowing the facility to evade the missiles; however, he loses control, and Garden collides with the docks at Fishermans Horizon.^[22] While local technicians repair the Garden, Galbadians invade in search of a girl named Ellone,^[23] who had been staying at Balamb Garden until recently. Ellone eventually escapes to Esthar, the world's technological superpower. During Squall's meeting with Ellone, he learns that she had been "sending" him and his allies into flashbacks set seventeen years in the past in a vain effort to alter the present.^[24] The scenes center on Laguna and his two friends, Kiros and Ward. During the flashbacks, Laguna changes from a Galbadian soldier to the defender of a country village, and then from leader of a resistance movement against Sorceress Adel to president of Esthar.^[25]

Meanwhile, Squall confronts his personal anxieties fueled by ongoing developments,^[26] such as Headmaster Cid appointing him as SeeD's new leader,^[27] and his increasing attraction to Rinoa. While investigating Trabia Garden's wreckage, Squall and his comrades learn that they, along with Seifer and Ellone, were all raised (with the exception of Rinoa) in an orphanage run by Edea; they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces.^[28] It is also revealed that Cid and Edea had established Garden and SeeD primarily to defeat corrupt sorceresses.^[29] After these revelations, the forces of Balamb Garden and the Galbadian army, led by Squall and Seifer respectively, engage in battle above the orphanage. After Balamb defeats Galbadia, the player learns that Edea is merely an unwilling tool for "Ultimecia",^[30] a powerful sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time into a single moment; it is for this reason she has sought Ellone.^[31] Edea loses a decisive battle against the SeeD, forcing Ultimecia to transfer her powers to Rinoa; Edea survives, but Rinoa enters a coma. Squall becomes obsessed with waking her and goes to Esthar to find Ellone, as he believes that she can help save Rinoa.^[32]

While Rinoa is being treated on Esthar's space station, Ultimecia uses her to free Sorceress Adel from her orbital prison. Ultimecia then orders Seifer to activate the Lunatic Pandora facility, inciting a rain of creatures from the moon that sends Adel's containment device to the planet.^[33][34] Having selected Adel as her next host, Ultimecia abandons Rinoa in outer space. Squall rescues her, and they return to the planet on a derelict starship. Upon their landing, delegates from Esthar isolate Rinoa for fear of her sorceress abilities,^[35] forcing Squall to rescue her. President Laguna apologizes for the incident and announces Dr. Odine's plan to let Ultimecia possess Rinoa, have Ellone send Rinoa (and thus Ultimecia as well) to the past and then retrieve only Rinoa back to the present, enabling Ultimecia to achieve Time Compression, as it would allow Squall's group to confront Ultimecia in her time.^[36] To do this, Squall's team infiltrates Lunatic Pandora, defeats Seifer and Adel, and has Rinoa inherit Adel's sorceress powers.^[37] Time Compression is thus initiated; Squall and his allies travel to Ultimecia's era and defeat her.

With Ultimecia defeated, the universe begins returning to normal; however, Squall is nearly lost in the flow of time as he witnesses the origins of the game's story. When a dying Ultimecia travels back in time to pass her powers to Edea, Squall informs Edea of the concepts of Garden and SeeD that she will create.^[38] Afterward, he is able to properly recollect his memories and was able to regain consciousness and thus return to the present. The ending cinema depicts the events after Squall's return to the present. Seifer is once again reunited with Raijin and Fujin; Laguna visits Raine's grave (and recollects his proposal to her) along with Ellone, Ward, and Kiros; and a celebration takes place in the Garden, with Squall and Rinoa kissing one another under the moonlight.

Development

Development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997 during the English language translation of Final Fantasy VII.^[13] As with much of the production of Final Fantasy VII, series creator and veteran Hironobu Sakaguchi served as the executive producer, working primarily on the development of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and leaving direction of Final Fantasy VIII to Yoshinori Kitase.^[39] Shinji Hashimoto was assigned to be the producer in Sakaguchi's place. From the beginning, Kitase knew he wanted a thematic combination of fantasy and realism. To this end, he aimed to include a cast of characters who appeared to be ordinary people. Character designer and battle visual director Tetsuya Nomura and art director Yusuke Naora strove to achieve this impression through the inclusion of realistically proportioned characters—a departure from the super deformed designs used in the previous title. Additionally, Naora attempted to enhance the realism of the world through predominantly bright lighting effects with shadows distributed as appropriate. Other measures taken included implementing rental cars for travel in-game,^[13] and the use of motion capture technology to give the game's characters lifelike movements in the game's FMV sequences.^[12]

Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima has expressed that the dynamic of players' relationships with the protagonist is important to him. Both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII feature reserved, quiet protagonists in the form of Cloud Strife and Squall. With Final Fantasy VIII, however, Nojima worked to give players actual insight into what the character was thinking; a direct contrast with his handling of Final Fantasy VII, which encouraged the player to speculate.^[40] This approach to Final Fantasy VIII is reflected by the frequent use of dialogue that takes place solely within Squall's mind, allowing the player to read his thoughts and understand what he is thinking or feeling even when he keeps those thoughts to himself.

In 1999, the ballroom dance scene of Final Fantasy VIII was featured as a technical demo for the PlayStation 2.^[41] In 2000, a PC version was released for Windows. This port featured smoother graphics, enhanced audio, and the inclusion of Chocobo World, a minigame starring Boko, a Chocobo featured in one of the side-quests in Final Fantasy VIII.^[42] For most North American and European players, the PC version of the game was the only means of playing Chocobo World, as the game was originally designed to be played via the PocketStation, a handheld console never released outside Japan. Recently Final Fantasy VIII was added to the Playstation Store In Japan's Playstation Network.^[42][43][44]

Music

Regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu wrote 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—arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi—was released under the title FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC, and a collection of piano arrangements—performed by Shinko Ogata—was released under the title Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VIII.

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 serving as the game's theme, performed by Chinese singer Faye Wong. The latter song was released as a CD single in Japan and sold over 400,000 copies,^[45] setting the record for highest-selling video game music disc ever released in that country at the time. "Liberi Fatali" was played during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens during the women's synchronized swimming event.^[46][47]

Merchandise

In the month of the game's Japanese release (February 1999), a beginners' guide and a postcard collection were released. These were followed in March by Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, a book that features an in-depth guide to Final Fantasy VIII and interviews with the developers. A sticker album (Final Fantasy VIII Seal Book) and a pictorial transcript of the game (Final Fantasy VIII Memorial Album) were released in June and September respectively. An origami book was released in November.

On September 22, 1999, a CD-ROM titled Final Fantasy VIII Desktop Accessories was released. It contains desktop icons, computer wallpapers, screensavers, and an e-mail application. Additionally, Final Fantasy VIII Desktop Accessories features an edition of the Triple Triad minigame from Final Fantasy VIII, creating the ability to play against opponents via a local area network.^[48]

The European release of Final Fantasy VIII saw a relatively large amount of merchandise being packaged together with the game for an initial run special release at no extra cost. These were all sold in a large rectangular box which contained a Final Fantasy VIII t-shirt, a PlayStation memory card and a selection of Final Fantasy VIII stickers to put on a PlayStation memory card.

Reception

Final Fantasy VIII received positive reviews from critics and was commercially successful. Within two days of its North American release on September 9, 1999, Final Fantasy VIII became the top-selling video game in the United States, a position it held for more than three weeks.^[56] It grossed a total of more than US$50 million in the thirteen weeks to follow,^[57][58] making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title.^[59] In Japan, it sold roughly 2.5 million units within the first four days of release.^[60] More than six million units were sold in total by the end of 1999.^[61] As of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 8.15 million copies worldwide, with 3.7 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 4.45 million abroad.^[1] The game was voted by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu as the 22nd best game of all time in 2006.^[62]

Reviews of the gameplay have been mixed. Multimedia news website IGN felt that it was the weakest aspect of the game, citing its Guardian Force attack sequences as "incredibly cinematic" but tedious,^[55] sentiments echoed by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[63] They also regarded the battle system as intensely complicated, yet refreshingly innovative and something that "RPG fanatics love to obsess over".^[55] Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine claims that the game's Junction system is a major flaw due to repetitive stocking of spells,^[64] while the UK-based video game magazine Edge commented that the battle system consists of a "bewildering" number of intricate options and techniques that "most gamers will [...] relish".^[52] GameSpot praised the game's battle system, commenting that the "possibilities for customization [with the Junction system] are immense".^[54]

In general, Final Fantasy VIII has been compared favorably to its predecessors. Gaming Age cited the storyline and graphics as two major improvements over Final Fantasy VII, while considering the music "hardly a step up".^[65] Though questioning the game's lack of voice overs for its characters, Game Revolution praised its storyline and ending.^[66] For their part, Edge labeled Final Fantasy VIII "a far more accomplished game than FFVII". On the other hand, the magazine also felt that the game's length left its story unable to "offer consistently strong dialogue and sub-plots". Additionally, it found some of the story's plot twists "not... suitably manipulated and prepared", leaving it "hard not to greet such... moments with anything but indifference". Overall, Edge considered Final Fantasy VIII to be "yet another outstanding edition of SquareSoft's far-from-final fantasies", summarizing it as "aesthetically astonishing, rarely less than compelling, and near peerless in scope and execution".^[52] Electronic Gaming Monthly offered similar comments, stating that the game's character development "is the best of any RPG's" and that "Final Fantasy VIII is the pinnacle of its genre".^[63] The opening cut scene in Final Fantasy VIII was ranked second on Game Informer's list of "Top 10 Video Game Openings".^[67]

References

External links

• Official North American website
• Official European website