Final Fantasy VIII

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Final Fantasy VIII
Developer	Square
Publisher	PlayStation JPN Square NA Square Electronic Arts PAL SCE Europe Windows (PC) NA Eidos Interactive EU Eidos Interactive JPN Square
Designer	Hironobu Sakaguchi (executive producer) Shinji Hashimoto (game producer) Yoshinori Kitase (game director) Yoshitaka Amano (image illustrator, title logo designer) Tetsuya Nomura (character designer) Kazushige Nojima (scenario writer) Nobuo Uematsu (composer) Yusuke Naora (art director)
Series	Final Fantasy
Released	PlayStation JPN February 11, 1999 NA September 7, 1999[1] EU October 27, 1999 AUS October 29, 1999 Windows (PC) NA January 25, 2000 EU February 18, 2000 JPN March 23, 2000
Genre	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Ratings	aDeSe: +13 CERO: B (12+) ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T (Teen) OFLC (AU): M15+ SELL: 12 USK: 12+
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Microsoft Windows
Media	PlayStation 4 CD-ROMs Windows (PC) 5 CD-ROMs
System requirements	Windows (PC) 266 MHz Intel Pentium II CPU, 64 MB RAM, video card with 4MB 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 1999 console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation video game console and Windows-based personal computers as a part of the Final Fantasy video game series. 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.

Thirteen weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales,^[2][3] making it the fastest selling Final Fantasy title. Additionally, Final Fantasy VIII was voted the 22nd-best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu.^[4]

Final Fantasy VIII departed from many traditional standards of the Final Fantasy series. It is the first game in the series to consistently use realistically proportioned characters, the first to feature a vocal piece as its theme music, did not have a Magic Point-based system for spellcasting, and one of the only titles to deviate from the series' traditional means of increasing a character's power.

[edit] Gameplay

An example of navigation on the field map

Like Final Fantasy VII, 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".^[5]

[edit] Junction system

This new system designed by battle designer Hiroyuki Ito revolves around "summonable" monsters, called "Guardian Forces" ("GF"). A character must have a GF assigned ("junctioned") to them before he or she can do anything in battle besides "Attack" with their weapon, such as "Magic", "GF" (summoning), and "Item". While previous Final Fantasy titles provided each character with a limited pool of Magic Points (MP) that were consumed by each spell, in Final Fantasy VIII, spells are "drawn" (obtained) from enemies, Draw Points distributed throughout the game's environments, and usable items. Spells are then stocked on characters as quantified inventory (up to 100 at a time) and are consumed one by one when used. Guardian Forces allow characters to "junction" these spells to their own statistics—such as Strength, Vitality, Evade, and Luck—for various bonuses.^[6]

A battle with an early boss, X-ATM092; to summon Shiva, Zell's ATB gauge is replaced by a blue bar which triggers the summon when it is depleted.

The flexibility of this system makes it possible to build a powerful party early in the game. This alternative use of such summoned creatures was a significant departure for the Final Fantasy series, as they were previously used almost exclusively to deliver a single devastating attack during battles. Furthermore, the system replaced the equipment system of previous games with a permanent, specialized weapon for each character; each weapon can be upgraded several times, which increases its power and alters its appearance. For example, Squall begins with a gunblade called the Revolver, but after fully upgrading it, it becomes the Lion Heart.^[7]

[edit] Limit Breaks

As in Final Fantasy VII, each character has unique special attacks called "Limit Breaks" ("Special Arts" in the original Japanese version). Whereas Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII are triggered by filling the Limit meter through taking damage, in Final Fantasy VIII, they are randomly available every turn when the character's health (Hit Points, or HP) is below 32% of its current maximum, and influenced also by the negative status effects the character is afflicted with. This system is similar to the Desperation Attacks from Final Fantasy VI, which are triggered on rare occasions when a character is near death. The magic spell Aura increases the probability of Limit Breaks appearing, regardless of a character's remaining Hit Points.^[8]

Another change is that most of the main characters' special techniques feature interactive elements, ranging from a slot machine design to fighting game-style button inputs. These elements, which are dependent on the character and the nature of the Limit Break, can be used to increase the potency of the attack.^[9]

[edit] Experience levels

Experience points are awarded following successful battles against randomly encountered enemies. When a character accumulates a certain amount of experience points, he or she gains a "level", which increases that character's base statistics. Unlike previous Final Fantasy games, however, randomly encountered enemies have no set level—their levels increase alongside those of the playable characters. Higher-level enemies are capable of inflicting and withstanding significantly more damage, and may have additional special attacks. Statistic increases from "leveling up" are minuscule compared with those that are available through the Junction system.

In addition to gaining levels, Guardian Forces earn Ability Points (AP) after battles, which are allocated to special abilities that Guardian Forces can learn. When a Guardian Force has learned an ability, that ability becomes available for any character—and, in some cases, the entire character party—to use. Through learned abilities, they can receive attack enhancements in battle, refine magical spells from items, provide bonuses to characters when leveling up, provide access to shops, and add battle commands.^[10][7]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Setting

Main article: World of Final Fantasy VIII

A map of the world of Final Fantasy VIII, displaying some of the major locations

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.^[11] Galbadia, the second largest continent, lies to the west,^[11] 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,^[11] 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.^[12][13] 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.^[14]

[edit] Characters

Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy VIII

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 martial arts and hot dogs; Selphie Tilmitt, a cheerful girl who loves trains and pilots the spacecraft Ragnarok; and Irvine Kinneas, a marksman and consummate ladies' man.^[5] Playable supporting 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 Loire'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.^[14]

Squall's gunblade "Revolver", as seen in the game's opening credits

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,^[15] similar to a vibroblade. His character design was complemented by a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, incorporated by Nomura as a challenge for the game's FMV designers.^[14]

Nomura ended up altering each character's appearance before they reached the final design stage, which required sacrificing his original intentions. For instance, he had originally wanted Seifer Almasy to be involved in a love triangle with Rinoa and Squall. As another example, 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 wear 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 the two. Finally, when designing Rinoa, Nomura decided to avoid the temptation of FMV technology by making her "cute" and full of personality, instead of "too beautiful".^[14]

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.^[14]

[edit] Story

Final Fantasy VIII begins as Squall duels with Seifer in a training session outside the military academy known as "Garden". The two cadets scar one another's faces and are returned to Garden for treatment.^[16] Meanwhile, the Galbadian regime invades the Dollet Dukedom, forcing Dollet to hire the Balamb Garden branch of "SeeD"—Garden's elite mercenary force—for aid. SeeD uses the mission as a field examination for its graduation-eligible cadets,^[17] and with the help of his instructor, Quistis, Squall passes its prerequisite and is assigned to a squad with Zell and Seifer. In Dollet, Seifer abandons his team halfway through the mission, forcing Selphie to accompany Squall and Zell for the duration. After the mission, SeeD halts the Galbadian advance; Squall, Zell and Selphie graduate to SeeD status; and Seifer is disciplined for acting against orders.^[18]

Shortly after graduating, Squall meets Rinoa, whose attitude and approach to life are apparently the opposite of his own.^[19] Assigned with Zell and Selphie to help her Galbadian resistance, Squall learns that a sorceress named Edea is the mastermind behind Galbadia's hostilities. Under orders from the Galbadia and Balamb Gardens, Squall and his comrades—now joined by Rinoa, Quistis and Irvine—attempt to assassinate Edea.^[20] Despite a nearly flawless execution of the plan, the party is defeated and detained. Squall's party also learns that Seifer has left Garden to become Edea's second-in-command.^[21]

Students from Balamb Garden battle Galbadian soldiers.

After escaping detainment, the team splits into two units, both of which are controlled by the player in separate scenarios. Squall's group stops an internal conflict at Balamb Garden incited by NORG,^[22] SeeD's financial supporter, while Selphie's squad interferes with a Galbadian missile attack on the Balamb and Trabia Gardens. The missile launch forces Squall to turn Balamb Garden into a mobile fortress to avoid the attack, leaving the facility temporarily uncontrollable until it collides with the docks at Fisherman's Horizon.^[23] While Squall negotiates with the mayor of the town, Galbadia invades in search of a girl named "Ellone",^[24] who had been staying at the Garden until recently. Galbadia is unable to find Ellone; she eventually escapes to Esthar, the game's technological superpower. Throughout the game, Ellone sends Squall and his allies into a series of flashbacks set seventeen years in the past.^[25] The scenes center on Laguna and his two friends, Kiros and Ward. During the flashbacks, Laguna changes from Galbadian soldier to the self-appointed defender of a small country village, and then from the leader of a resistance movement against Sorceress Adel to the president of Esthar.^[26]

Meanwhile, Squall deals with personal conflicts fueled by the game's ongoing developments,^[27] such as Balamb Garden's Headmaster Cid appointing him as SeeD's new leader,^[28] and his increasing love for Rinoa. During an investigation of Trabia Garden's ruins, Squall and his comrades learn that—with the exception of Rinoa—they were raised along with Seifer and Ellone in an orphanage run by Edea; they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces.^[29] It is also revealed that Cid and Edea had founded Garden and SeeD to defeat evil sorceresses.^[30] After these revelations, the full forces of Balamb Garden and the Galbadian army, led by Squall and Seifer respectively, engage in conflict. After Balamb defeats Galbadia, the player learns that Edea is merely an unwilling tool for a greater sorceress known as "Ultimecia",^[31] who resides in the future and wishes to compress all time into a single moment; it is for this reason she has sought Ellone.^[32] A conclusive battle with Edea forces Ultimecia to transfer her powers to Rinoa, allowing Edea to survive, but leaving Rinoa frozen in a coma. Squall becomes obsessed with waking her and seeks the help of Dr. Odine, a renowned scientist living in Esthar.^[33]

Squall and Rinoa embrace after he frees her from confinement in Esthar.

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 Esthar's Lunatic Pandora facility, inciting a rain of monsters from the moon that sends Adel's containment device to the planet's surface.^[34][35] 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. However, delegates from Esthar isolate Rinoa for fear of her sorceress abilities,^[36] forcing Squall to rescue her. Laguna apologizes for the incident and announces Dr. Odine's plan to let Ultimecia possess Rinoa and use Ellone's power to compress time, as it would allow Squall's group to confront Ultimecia in her era.^[37] To do this, Squall's team infiltrates Lunatic Pandora, defeats Seifer and Adel, and has Rinoa inherit her sorceress powers.^[38] Time Compression is thus initiated, allowing Squall and his friends to travel to Ultimecia's era to 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.^[39] Afterward, he is warped back into the timestream where he is trapped until finally being rescued by Rinoa. At the end of the game, Squall kisses Rinoa during SeeD's victory celebration.

[edit] Development

Tetsuya Nomura's conceptual art for the character of Sorceress Edea

Development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997 during the English language translation of Final Fantasy VII.^[40] As with much of Final Fantasy VII's production, 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.^[41] 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 installment. 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,^[40] and the use of motion capture technology to give the game's characters lifelike movements in the game's FMV sequences.^[42]

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 Leonhart. 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's script, which encouraged the player to speculate.^[43] 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.^[44] The next year, a PC version was ported to Windows. This rerelease featured smoother graphics, enhanced audio, and the inclusion of Chocobo World, a minigame starring Boko, a Chocobo featured in one of Final Fantasy VIII's side-quests.^[45][46] 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.^[46][47][48]

[edit] Audio

Main article: Music of Final Fantasy VIII

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 Shiro 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,^[49] placing it as 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 played during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens during the women's synchronized swimming event.^[50][51]

[edit] Reception and criticism

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.^[53] Aside from grossing a total of more than US$50 million within the first 13 weeks to follow,^[2][3] in Japan, it sold roughly 2.5 million units within the first four days of release,^[54] and during 2006 was voted by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu as the twenty-second best game of all time.^[4] More than 6 million units were sold in total by the end of 1999.^[55]

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,^[56] sentiments echoed by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[57] They also regarded the battle system as intensely complicated, yet refreshingly innovative and something that "RPG fanatics love to obsess over".^[56] Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine claims that the game's Junction system is a major flaw due to repetitive stocking of spells,^[58] while the UK-based magazine Edge comments that the battle system consists of a "bewildering" number of intricate options and techniques that "most gamers will ... relish".^[59] GameSpot praised the game's battle system, commenting that the "possibilities for customization [with the Junction system] are immense".^[60]

Critics have compared the other aspects of the game to previous Final Fantasy installments. Gaming Age cited the storyline and graphics as two major improvements over Final Fantasy VII, while considering the music "hardly a step up...".^[61] Though questioning the game's lack of voice overs for its characters, Game Revolution praised its storyline and ending.^[62] 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...".^[59] 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".^[57]

[edit] Merchandise

In the month of Final Fantasy VIII's Japanese release (February 11, 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 on November 19, 1999.

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.^[63]

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 - designed for adhering to the PlayStation memory card.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Final Fantasy VIII website
• Final Fantasy VIII at Wikia; incorporates information originally found on Wikipedia