. WW: September 3, 2019Mode(s)Final Fantasy VIII is a developed and published by for the console. Released in 1999, it is the eighth main installment in the series.
Set on an unnamed fantasy world with science fiction elements, the game follows a group of young mercenaries, led by, as they are drawn into a conflict sparked by Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time. During the quest to defeat Ultimecia, Squall struggles with his role as leader and develops a romance with one of his comrades,.Development began in 1997, during the English localization of. The game builds on the visual changes brought to the series by Final Fantasy VII, including the use of and, while also departing from many. It is the first Final Fantasy to use realistically proportioned characters consistently, feature a, and forgo the use of for spellcasting.Final Fantasy VIII was mostly well received by critics, who praised its originality and visuals while criticizing some of its gameplay elements.
It was voted the 22nd-best game of all time in 2006 by readers of the Japanese magazine. The game was a commercial success; it earned more than US$50 million in sales during its first 13 weeks of release, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title until, a multi-platform release. A port followed in 2000, with the addition of the Chocobo World minigame.
Final Fantasy VIII is one of the few games that support a PocketStation. Other few games that support PocketStation includes Metal Gear Solid Integral, Monster Rancher 2 etc. The US Final Fantasy VIII supports PocketStation as well but you need to import a PocketStation directly from Japan, which is quite expensive. Jun 11, 2019 Coming in 2019, FINAL FANTASY VIII Remastered marks the 20th Anniversary of its original release with a new visual refresh and brings the game’s beloved story to PS4. With overhauled visuals.
Final Fantasy VIII was re-released worldwide as a PSOne Classic on the in 2009, for and, with support for in 2012. It was re-released via in 2013. By August 2019, it had sold more than 9.6 million copies worldwide. A remastered version was released for, and in September 2019. Contents.Gameplay Like the Final Fantasy games before it, Final Fantasy VIII consists of three main modes of play: the, the field map, and the battle screen. The world map is a 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, train,. The field map consists of controllable 3D characters overlaid on one or more 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 -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 called 'Triple Triad'. A battle against X-ATM092, an early; Zell will summon Shiva when the blue bar that has replaced his ATB is drained.For Final Fantasy VIII, designed a battle system based on summoned 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 have a junctioned GF perform an action), and Item.
Previous Final Fantasy titles provided each character with a limited pool of that were consumed by each spell; in Final Fantasy VIII, spells are acquired ('drawn') either from enemies in battle, Draw Points distributed throughout the 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 (equip) these spells onto their —such as Strength, Vitality, and Luck—for various bonuses, provided the character has junctioned a Guardian Force. The junction system's flexibility affords the player a wide range of customization.These expanded mechanics for summons were a departure for the series; in previous titles, summons were relegated to a single action during battle. The junction system also acts as a substitute for armor and accessories, which were used in earlier games to modify character 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.As in Final Fantasy VII, characters in Final Fantasy VIII have unique abilities called 'Limit Breaks', which range from powerful attacks to support spells.
While the characters in Final Fantasy VII receive Limit Breaks after incurring significant damage, in Final Fantasy VIII, Limit Breaks become available only at low health under normal circumstances. 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, albeit more frequent.
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. Successfully completing an interactive sequence increases the potency of the Limit Break. An example of navigation on the field mapFinal Fantasy VIII features an (EXP) system quite different from previous titles. The essentials remain unchanged: characters gain EXP after defeating enemies, which are typically encountered randomly throughout the game's environments. Earning a set amount of EXP causes the character to gain a level, which increases their overall statistics. While previous titles feature an EXP curve that increases with each level (e.g.
Getting to level 2 requires 200 EXP, level 3 requires 400, etc.), characters in Final Fantasy VIII gain a level after accumulating a flat rate of 1000 points. Enemy levels are based on the party's average level; in most RPGs, enemy levels remain stagnant.
Some bosses have level caps to prevent the main quest from becoming too difficult. 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 to maximum Level 100 before even beginning the plot, though this will result in far more powerful enemies.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. Story Setting and characters.
Main article:Most of Final Fantasy VIII is set on an unnamed fantasy world. The setting is highly in design and features a blend of modern and futuristic locales. The planet contains five major landmasses, with Esthar, the largest, covering most of the eastern portion of the map. Galbadia, the second-largest continent, lies to the west, 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, the island on which the game begins.
The remaining landmass is small 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. The southernmost landmass includes an of broken sections of land that have drifted apart. Islands and marine structures flesh out the game world, and a handful of off-world locations round out the playable areas.The six main protagonists of Final Fantasy VIII are:, a loner who avoids vulnerability by focusing on his duty;, an outspoken and passionate young woman who follows her heart;, an instructor with a serious, patient attitude;, an energetic with a fondness for hot dogs;, a cheerful girl who loves trains and pilots the airship Ragnarok; and, a marksman and consummate ladies' man. All but Rinoa are members of 'SeeD', an elite military force based out of futuristic installations called Gardens.
Temporarily playable characters include, and, who appear in 'flashback' sequences; SeeD cadet-turned-antagonist; and sorceress. The main antagonist is, a sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time.Plot Squall and Seifer spar each other while training outside Balamb Garden. Meanwhile, the Republic of Galbadia invades the Dollet Dukedom, forcing Dollet to hire SeeD. The school uses the mission as a for its cadets; with the help of his instructor, Quistis, Squall passes the mission's prerequisite and is grouped with Seifer and Zell. Selphie replaces Seifer mid-mission when the latter disobeys orders and abandons his team.
SeeD halts the Galbadian advance; Squall, Zell, and Selphie graduate to SeeD status, but Seifer is disciplined for his disobedience. During the graduation party, Squall meets Rinoa, whose personality is the opposite of his. When assigned with Zell and Selphie to help Rinoa's in Galbadian-occupied Timber, Squall learns that Sorceress Edea is behind Galbadia's recent hostilities. Under orders from Garden, Squall and his comrades—joined by Rinoa, Quistis, and Irvine—attempt to assassinate Edea. During the effort, Squall's party also learns that Seifer has left Garden to become Edea's second-in-command.
Edea survives the attempt, stabs Squall in the shoulder with an ice shard, and detains the party.After Squall's party escapes, Edea destroys Trabia Garden in a retaliatory missile strike and prepares to attack Balamb Garden. Selphie delays the launch while Squall's team returns to Balamb Garden and activates its mobile functions to evade the missiles.
Garden cannot be controlled, however, and it crashes into the docks at Fishermans' Horizon. While Garden is being repaired, Galbadia invades the town in search of a girl named, who had been staying at Balamb Garden. Before leaving, Ellone reveals that she has been 'sending' Squall and his team into flashbacks set 17 years earlier in a vain effort to alter history. The scenes center on Laguna and his friends as he evolves from Galbadian soldier (where he shared a crush with Rinoa's future mother Julia) to village protector (where he served as caretaker to Ellone alongside a bartender named Raine) to leader of an Estharian resistance against.
Ellone eventually escapes to Esthar, the world's technological superpower.Meanwhile, Squall confronts his personal anxieties fueled by ongoing developments, such as appointing him as SeeD's new leader and his increasing attraction to Rinoa. Squall and his comrades learn that they, along with Seifer and Ellone, were all raised (except for Rinoa) in an orphanage run by Edea; after eventual separation, they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces. Cid and Edea had established Garden and SeeD primarily to defeat corrupt sorceresses. After these revelations, the forces of Balamb Garden defeat the Galbadian Army, led by Seifer, aboard Galbadia Garden. Edea is also defeated by SeeD; however, the party learns that Edea is merely an unwilling host for Ultimecia, who planned to use Ellone to help achieve time compression.
Ultimecia transfers her powers to Rinoa; Edea survives, but Rinoa enters a coma. Squall travels to Esthar to find Ellone, as he believes that she can help save Rinoa.While Rinoa is being treated on Esthar's space station, Ultimecia uses her to free Adel from an orbital prison. Ultimecia then orders Seifer to activate the Lunatic Pandora facility, inciting a Lunar Cry that sends Adel's containment device to the planet. 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 and share a romantic moment; Ellone is captured by Galbadia shortly thereafter.
After landing, the party encounters Laguna, now President of Esthar; he reveals Dr. Odine's plan to allow Ultimecia to cast time compression on their terms so that Ellone can send SeeD into Ultimecia's time period. At Lunatic Pandora, Squall's team defeats Seifer, rescues Ellone, and kills Adel; Ultimecia possesses Rinoa and begins casting time compression.
Ellone sends Squall's team into Ultimecia's era, where she is defeated in a fierce battle before time compression can be fully achieved.A dying Ultimecia travels back in time to pass her powers to Edea, but Squall inadvertently informs Edea of the concepts of Garden and SeeD that she will create. Squall is lost in the flow of time as he witnesses the origins of the game's story, sporadic apparitions of Rinoa, and a faceless portrait of himself. Rinoa manages to find Squall, but he is unresponsive. In the end, a repentant Seifer reunites with Raijin and Fujin, Laguna and his friends visit his lover's grave who turns out to be Raine, who died giving birth to their child, hinted to be Squall. Laguna thinks about the moment when he proposed to her. The SeeD celebrates at Balamb Garden, and it is revealed that Squall did, in fact, survive the time compression. Squall and Rinoa share a kiss under the moonlight.
Development Development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997, during the English-language translation of Final Fantasy VII. As with much of the production of, series creator and veteran served as the, working primarily on the development of and leaving direction of Final Fantasy VIII to. Was assigned to be the producer in Sakaguchi's place, while the game and battle system were designed by Kitase and, respectively. One of the development difficulties encountered was having three real-time characters exploring an environment at the same time. The card game Triple Triad was conceived and implemented by programmer Kentarow Yasui. The concept was derived from which is a popular hobby in some parts of Japan. Triple Triad was meant to keep the player's interest during long stretches without cutscenes.
Originally, it was simply about collecting cards but Yasui considered this too disconnected from the main game and 'begged' for the inclusion of an ability to transform cards into items. The game's total development costs were approximately 3 billion, which equated to around 16 million without inflation. The staff consisted of about 180 people.Following the turbulent development of Final Fantasy VII, there was a shake-up of Square's localization process. Final Fantasy VIII was the first title to have extensive communication between the Japanese and North American teams during the process. Lead translator wrote a text parser that would automatically convert text from English to Shift JIS format required by the game engine's compiler, streamlining the translation process dramatically.
The game was the first major project of, who would later earn acclaim for his work on. Smith stated that due to a lack of communication with the development team, they were surprised that an IT employee used to access text files for localizing to Western audiences. The translation was finished by September 1999. The game's European release was delayed due to necessary graphical changes; the cited example was the removal of a -like uniform. Visual design.
Main article:Regular series composer wrote the soundtrack for Final Fantasy VIII. He tried to base the songs on the emotional content of the scenes in which they would be played, asserting that expressing the emotions he desired was more important than improving skills: 'I think it will be a shame if we won't be able to cry as we play our own game'. He could not determine a character's emotions solely based on the plot, instead using images of appearance and attire—'It's important to know when their emotions are at their height, but it usually takes until a month before release for them to finish the ending dialog.!' When IGN Music stated that the music of Final Fantasy VIII was very dark and perhaps influenced by the plot of the game, Uematsu said 'the atmosphere of music varies depending on story line, of course, but it's also my intention to put various types of music into one game'. The absence of character themes found in the previous two games was due to Uematsu finding those of Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII ineffective.
Uematsu considers it reasonable to have character themes if each character has a 'highlight' in the game, but he found Final Fantasy VIII only focused on Squall Leonhart and as a couple, resulting in the 'Eyes on Me' theme.The original soundtrack was released on four by in Japan on March 10, 1999, and by in North America as Final Fantasy VIII Music Collection in January 2000. It was republished worldwide by Square Enix on May 10, 2004. An album of of selected tracks from the game was released under the title Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec Final Fantasy VIII on November 19, 1999, by DigiCube, and subsequently published on July 22, 2004,. The pieces were arranged and conducted by for a live orchestra. A collection of arrangements performed by Shinko Ogata was released under the title Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VIII by DigiCube on January 21, 2000, and subsequently re-published by Square Enix on July 22, 2004.The score is best known for two songs: 'Liberi Fatali', a piece that is played during the introduction to the game, and 'Eyes On Me', a serving as the game's theme, performed by Chinese singer. Near the end of the production of Final Fantasy VII, the developers suggested to use a singer, but abandoned the idea due to a lack of reasoning based on the game's theme and storyline. However, Nobuo Uematsu thought a would closely relate to the theme and characters of Final Fantasy VIII.
This resulted in the game's developers sharing 'countless' artists, eventually deciding on Wong. Uematsu claims 'her voice and mood seem to match my image of the song exactly', and that her ethnicity 'fits the international image of Final Fantasy'. After negotiations were made, 'Eyes on Me' was recorded in Hong Kong with an orchestra. The song was released as a in Japan and sold over 400,000 copies, setting the record for highest-selling disc ever released in that country at the time. 'Liberi Fatali' was played during the in during the women's synchronized swimming event.The music of Final Fantasy VIII has appeared in various official.
These include 2002's 20020220 Music from FINAL FANTASY, in which the played 'Liberi Fatali', 'Don't Be Afraid', 'Love Grows', and 'The Man with the Machine Gun', the 2004 Tour de Japon series, which featured 'The Oath', the Dear Friends series that began that same year and included 'Liberi Fatali' and 'Love Grows', and the 2005 More Friends concert, which included 'Maybe I'm a Lion'. More recent concerts include the Voices – Music from Final Fantasy 2006 concert showcasing 'Liberi Fatali', 'Fisherman's Horizon', and 'Eyes on Me' and the international Distant Worlds concert tour that continues to date, which includes 'Liberi Fatali', 'Fisherman's Horizon', 'Man with the Machine Gun', and 'Love Grows'.
Several of these concerts have produced live albums as well. Music from the game has also been played in non Final Fantasy-specific concerts such as the world tour from 2006 onwards, for which Nobuo Uematsu composed the opening fanfare that accompanies each performance. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered A remastered version of Final Fantasy VIII was announced during Square Enix's press conference. The remaster, which features high definition graphics and improved character models, was produced in collaboration with and, and released on, and on September 3, 2019. Reception ReceptionAggregate scoresAggregatorScorePS: 89%PC: 80%PS: 90/100NS: 80/100PS4: 80/100XONE: 82/100Review scoresPublicationScorePC: 2/59/1095/10037/40PS: 9.5/10PC: 6.7/1090/100PS: 9/10PC: 7.4/109/1010/10AwardsPublicationAwardBest RPG of E3 199920th Best Game of 2000Final Fantasy VIII received critical acclaim. 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. It was also a bestseller in Japan and the UK.
It grossed a total of more than $50 million in the 13 weeks to follow, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title. In Japan, it sold roughly 2.5 million units within the first four days of release. More than 6 million units were sold in total by the end of 1999. As of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 8.15 million copies worldwide: 3.7 million in Japan and 4.45 million abroad. As of 2009, it has shipped over 8.6 million copies on PS. By August 2019, worldwide sales were over 9.6 million.
The opening cut scene in Final Fantasy VIII was ranked second on 's list of 'Top 10 Video Game Openings', and first. Listed it as the 15th best cinematic moment in video games. IGN named the game's ending the third best of any game for the PlayStation, while named it one of the series' best and most memorable moments. Final Fantasy VIII was voted by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu as the 22nd best game of all time in 2006, and named one of the 20 essential Japanese role-playing games by, stating 'there's a lot that Final Fantasy VIII does wrong, but there's even more that it does right'. As of December 2013, it has sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide. According to Steam Spy, another 703,000 copies of the PC version were sold by April 2018.Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that 'A great game.
But from Square, from whom we routinely expect brilliance, a merely great game is something of a letdown.' Reviews of the gameplay have been mixed. IGN felt that it was the weakest aspect of the game, citing its Guardian Force attack sequences as 'incredibly cinematic' but tedious, sentiments echoed. They also regarded the battle system as intensely complicated, yet refreshingly innovative and something that 'RPG fanatics love to obsess over'. Claims that the game's Junction system is a major flaw due to repetitive stocking of spells, while the video game magazine commented that the battle system consists of a 'bewildering' number of intricate options and techniques that 'most gamers will. relish'.
Praised the game's battle system, commenting that the 'possibilities for customization with the Junction system are immense'.In general, Final Fantasy VIII has been compared favorably to its predecessors. Though questioning the game's lack of voice overs for its characters, Game Revolution praised its storyline and ending. 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'.
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.' UGO.com stated that while no other game in the series had stirred the controversy that Final Fantasy VIII had and that it was flawed, Final Fantasy VIII was a 'daring, groundbreaking game. decidedly the most original console-style RPG ever created'.
In 2002, IGN named it the seventh best title for the PlayStation, placing higher on the list than Final Fantasy VII; the publication felt that Final Fantasy VIII improved on the strengths of its predecessor. Kat Bailey, writing for 1Up.com, noted Final Fantasy VIII as the first game in the Final Fantasy series which features a love story as the game's overarching theme, calling a daring choice and symbol of the, with numerous subsequent video games adopting romantic subplots to varying degrees of success.The PC port received mixed reception. Praised the full motion video sequences as 'phenomenal', adding that while the gameplay took getting used to, they enjoyed the teamwork emphasized by it, and that the game's visual presentation added to its appeal. GameSpy stated that while the game was not a 'huge leap forward' from the previous title, its gameplay and visual appeal worked for its benefit, though that on a computer the pre-rendered backgrounds appeared blurry and the controls at time difficult with a keyboard.
GameSpot criticized the game for not taking advantage of the capabilities afforded to computers at the time, describing the PlayStation version as both looking and sounding superior, and recommending that the title was 'not worth buying period' for the PC. UGO.com also described the port as inferior to its original counterpart, adding that its presentation was in turn detrimental to the reception the game received as a whole. Praised some of the changes made to the game in light of previous titles and the inclusion of the Triple Triad sub-game, though heavily criticized the port as 'lazy' and 'disappointing', stating that it only served to emphasize the original game's flaws. Despite their complaints, they named it the twentieth best game of 2000. See also.