The Garden trains its students to fight, and its SeeDs are sent into battle in warzones across the world. Galbadia is seeking to expand into Dollet; word has it that a sorceress is on their side; and two of Balamb Garden's most skilful students are crossing swords, each leaving the other with a scar across the forehead. In the not-too-distant past a man wandered the world; but why are his experiences entering a SeeD's dreams? And what will that SeeD do, when his life as a lone wolf begins to unravel, and something in the future threatens to do... who knows what?

The chequered destinies of two men who repeatedly plunge their mighty souls into battle

With Final Fantasy VII Square¹ had switched formats, taken their flagship role-playing game series into the third dimension, and created a story that bewitched players the world over. Having gained experience with the PlayStation hardware², and with how it could be used to realise their visions, Square were ready to refine the process, and to experiment further. The result was one of the most controversial of the Final Fantasy games.

To begin with, there was the aesthetic: the new look that broke with the established traditions of Final Fantasy. Then there was the overhauled and perhaps too experimental gameplay system. As for the story... its focus on adolescent angst wasn't to everyone's taste, and it has been quite fairly criticised for focussing on the romance at its core at the expense of important details elsewhere; nonetheless, it's said that Final Fantasy VIII is the most popular source of fanfiction in the Final Fantasy series, with works based on it ranging from an amateur novelisation (according to rumour, at least) of its story to the... interesting Mickey-take Squall Leonhart and the Seven Shumi.

Like every Final Fantasy game before it, Final Fantasy VIII is set in a world created specially for its story. In its world there are three Gardens in which soldiers are trained; those who pass their exams become SeeDs, elite mercenaries sent to fight where wars have broken out. Though the world is one of high technology, if anything even more advanced than that of Final Fantasy VII, its politics is more Nineteenth Century than Twentieth³: a world of expansionism and warring states. Of the former Powers of Dollet and Esthar, the former has shrunken and the latter closed its borders years ago, maintaining total silence ever since. The new dominant Power is Galbadia.

But this is Final Fantasy, and its plot is not limited to squabbles between states. In the world of Final Fantasy VIII, magical powers — said to be fragments of a creator being known as the Great Hyne⁴ — have been passed down from sorceress to sorceress throughout history, making sorceresses powerful — and feared. It was after a conflict known as the Sorceress War that Esthar closed its borders; and now a sorceress is said to be in league with the Galbadian government. And the world is dangerous in other ways: monsters, fallen from the moon or transformed from animals in a phenomenon known as the Lunar Cry, roam its surface. A Lunar Cry occurs every few hundred years, and the event is not properly understood.⁵

In such a world, there is ample need for fighters, and hence for someone to train them. Large portions of the game take place within the Balamb Garden Military Academy, in which the martial themes that have existed in Final Fantasy games from their beginning merge with a pedagogical environment. This enables Square to draw on the life experiences of players everywhere, but particularly on those of its native Japanese audience. (Education is hugely important in Japanese society — which helps to explain why so many manga and anime plots involve school or college life — and a lot of pressure is put on people to study hard until they graduate from high school at eighteen, so that schooling can dominate their lives⁶.) With most of the playable characters in Final Fantasy VIII aged seventeen or eighteen, the setting enables Square to take the Final Fantasy series further away from the Western-style fantasy settings it began with; Final Fantasy VIII is closer to what its players know as the real world than any of its predecessors.

And so, when Square created a technical demo based on Final Fantasy VIII to showcase Sony's PlayStation 2 at its unveiling, showing that it could create images in real time that on the PlayStation had to be pre-rendered, they did not choose to replicate its landing on the embattled Dollet beach, or its famous introductory swordfight. They chose its ballroom scene, a dance between the hero and heroine:⁷ a demonstration of how far the Final Fantasy series had developed from its 'swords-and-sorcery' roots. Not that Final Fantasy VIII particularly lacks either swords or sorcery...

The Game

Gameplay

A criticism sometimes levelled at Final Fantasy VIII is that its 'Junction' system was too complicated: that it introduced a horde of new menus, thronged with statistics and far-too-similar icons. And this is a fair criticism (albeit perhaps more a reflection of Western console gaming tastes than a universal idea); certainly Square moved to a simpler (though not shallower) system for Final Fantasy IX. The principle was sound enough; according to the PC version's manual (which devotes ten A5 pages to the Junction System):

The newly created Junction System makes its debut in Final Fantasy VIII. Its purpose is to enable the player to customise their characters freely. How will the player combine the GF necessary for character development, and how will the player Junction abilities and magic to stats? How will the player distribute the magic that is obtained during battle? Will the player use magic during battle, or will the player stock the magic to increase the character's power? Perhaps the player will distribute them evenly. Success and failure are based on the player's judgment; his or her ability to manipulate the different variables of the Junction System will determine how well the characters accomplish their goals in the game.

As in other Final Fantasy games, a party of characters (one to three in Final Fantasy VIII) moves around the game world, talking to people, trading at shops, and — when in enemy-infested areas — getting into fights, usually at random intervals, whereupon the game cuts from exploration on the 'field' screen to a combat screen. However, unlike in other Final Fantasy games, by default characters have only basic physical attacks; there isn't even the usual option to use whatever items the party may possess. To acquire other battle abilities you need Guardian Forces.

Summonable creatures have long been a staple of the Final Fantasy series, but Final Fantasy VIII incorporates them far more closely into its core gameplay system than before. Give one or more Guardian Forces (GFs) to a character, causing the GFs to take up residence in the character's brain, and the abilities known by the GFs become available to the character. GFs can learn new abilities as the game progresses, of various types; like characters, GFs gain experience from battles. Some provide commands which characters can use in battle, such as Item (use items) and Magic (cast spells); each character can have up to four commands available on the battle command menu at a time. Some GF abilities affect characters' statistics while the GFs with those abilities are Junctioned to them, some let items be 'refined' into magic or other items, and some have more exotic effects, such as reducing prices at shops in the case of the Haggle ability.

One battle command available to a character with a Junctioned GF is the GF command, which is basically a summoning command. The process is more elaborate than in previous Final Fantasy games: when a character summons a GF, that character's hit points (a numerical representation of health) are replaced on the screen by the GF's, and any damage done to that character while summoning harms the GF rather than the character. GFs, like characters, can be knocked out when their hit points reach zero; when this happens they become unusable. The more compatible a GF is with a character, the faster it will be summoned; compatibility increases when characters summon GFs and use spells of their elements — fire spells for Ifrit, for example, since he's a fire elemental GF — and decreases when GFs go unused. When the summoning time ends, the GF appears and performs a spectacular and rather lengthy sequence that damages the enemy or aids the party in some other way. The length of these sequences is the source of numerous complaints, however; in Final Fantasy VIII summoning can be a far more common event than it was in previous Final Fantasy games, and consequently having to sit through repeated iterations of a protracted GF summoning sequence can become irritating. There is a GF ability, Boost, which gives players something to do during these sequences — pressing a button repeatedly to build up a GF's power, being careful not to press it while an X is visible lest the power drop back to its base level — but this is about as exciting as it sounds.

With a GF Junctioned, a character can use magic, but first it has to be acquired. A standard command that a GF can bestow is Draw; magic can be 'drawn' from Draw Points scattered throughout the world (the time taken before they are restocked with new magic varying from Draw Point to Draw Point), or from enemies encountered in combat. When magic is drawn from enemies it can be cast straight away or stocked for casting later. In a few battles it's possible to draw new GFs from enemies; on other occasions GFs themselves have to be fought before they'll join the party.

Magic that has been stocked can be Junctioned to the statistics that represent characters' capabilities, assuming that the character has a Junctioned GF with the ability to let magic be Junctioned to the statistic in question. For example, Junction Cure magic to a character's hit points and that character's maximum number of hit points will be higher; the greater the number of stocked Cure spells, the greater the effect. Some combinations are more appropriate than others. It's also possible to add various magical effects of physical attacks, and to improve characters' defence against them, by Junctioning magic; for example, Junctioning Sleep magic to 'Status Attack' makes it possible for physical attacks to cause enemies to fall asleep, and Junctioning Fire magic to 'Elemental Defence' reduces damage from fire-based attacks on the character in question. With various statistics, multiple characters and numerous magic types, the Junction System is versatile, but can easily become confusing.

The new Junction System was not Square's only change; indeed, Final Fantasy VIII was a remarkably experimental RPG. In most RPGs, characters gain money by winning battles; Final Fantasy games normally follow this formula, but Final Fantasy VIII has SeeDs paid a salary automatically at regular time intervals. (The amount of money paid as a salary is based on Squall's SeeD rank, which is increased usually by gaining battle experience and passing multiple-choice written tests.) The conventional experience point system was also changed; characters still gain experience points (EXP) by winning battles, and characters still become stronger as they gain EXP, but whereas conventionally this would make the game easier (because their experience levels would increase relative to the enemies'), Final Fantasy VIII borrowed the parallel levelling system from Square's SaGa RPG series, with the result that most enemies level up as the playable characters do. This ensures that the game is always challenging, but one may wonder whether the decision was the right one for a game based so heavily on statistics and sometimes semi-random numbers, rather than players' reactions — especially since the game actually becomes harder as enemies gain more powerful abilities, which can have the effect of discouraging exploration as players seek to keep characters' levels low.

Weapon acquisition too differs somewhat from the norm; instead of finding new weapons, players find weapon components, some rarer than others. Weapons Monthly magazines can be found in the game world that contain instructions for combining components to modify weapons; find the components needed for a design, find someone who can combine them at a Junk Shop, and for a price you can have an upgraded weapon.

Limit Breaks, powerful attacks that become available when characters' health is critically low⁸, do return, but in a more sophisticated form: the playable characters who are most commonly in the party all have distinct forms of Limit Break control. See the sections on playable characters below for details.

Exploration is much as in previous Final Fantasy games: characters move between particular locations on a World Map screen, sometimes using vehicles or riding the ostrich-like yellow birds called chocobos. Square responded to some players' dislike of the random battle system by including roads, on which there are no random encounters, and cars that can be hired out and also prevent battles (although they have an unfortunate tendency to run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere). In Final Fantasy VIII chocobos are acquired for riding by wandering around in Chocobo Forests; when your special chocobo-detecting sonar indicates the presence of a chocobo, use a special whistle to cause a young chocobo to fall from the trees. When all the young chocobos in the forest have been found, their mother will come to look for them and can be caught. If you use the whistle when there are no chocobos around, it will somehow be mysteriously 'stolen', and you'll have to buy another.

Despite using four discs, compared to the three used for Final Fantasy VII, the world of Final Fantasy VIII is perhaps less expansive, less encouraging of exploration. The largest city in the game turns out to have only a few buildings that can be entered; mostly it consists of walkways linking them together. On the one hand, there are details such as working public transport, but on the other there are people wandering around some areas who can't be talked to; they're just moving scenery. However, one could argue in opposition to this this that Square was focussing increasingly on depth, rather than breadth. This view is supported particularly by the mini-games; there are only two that have more than a little detail, but those two are very sophisticated. The card game known as Triple Triad is widely played in the world of Final Fantasy VIII; many of the people the party meets can be challenged to a game, and cards won in card games or found by exploring and fighting can be refined into items with the right GF ability. Owners of the PocketStation device were even able to play a portable mini-RPG called Chocobo World, in which they could discover special items and summonable characters to bring from the PocketStation to Final Fantasy VIII. The PocketStation was never released outside Japan, but translated versions of Final Fantasy VIII still have support enabled, and the PC version comes with a desktop conversion of Chocobo World.

Graphics

The visual style of Final Fantasy VIII was a source of some controversy in the Japanese press. Final Fantasy VII had introduced some changes to the series' approach to character depiction, with character design moving from Yoshitaka Amano to the somewhat more conventional Tetsuya Nomura, but it retained the distinctively Japanese appearance associated in the West chiefly with manga and anime: large eyes, oval faces, and for much of the game the squashed, 'superdeformed' characters that had appeared in the Final Fantasy series since its beginning. In Final Fantasy VIII that all changed: characters became almost naturalistic in appearance. The problem was not that this was in itself inauthentically Japanese (there being plenty of manga that are drawn at least as naturalistically); rather, the criticism was based on suspicions that the move was inspired not by artistic considerations but by a cynical desire to increase the profitability of Final Fantasy, easing its penetration into Westen markets by removing the alien aesthetic that might scare off timid Occidentals. (Although millions across the globe were drawn to Final Fantasy VII, some were unenchanted, and the game's unashamed 'Japaneseness' is one reason cited.) In fact, it's perfectly arguable that the aesthetic changed to match the tone of the game, which took the series even further — some would say too far — in the cinematic direction than before.

This was a noted trend in the Final Fantasy series, attributed in part to Yoshinori Kitase, director of Final Fantasy games from Final Fantasy IV onwards; he was once an aspiring film director, but ended up in game development because the restrictive nature of the Japanese film industry didn't suit him. Final Fantasy VIII, like Final Fantasy VII before it, uses pre-rendered full motion video (FMV) to showcase many of its most dramatic events. This makes for highly effective, filmic presentation; and there were efforts to overcome the non-interactive nature of FMV by improving on the device, used sparingly in Final Fantasy VII, of making it possible to retain control of characters while FMV plays in the background. The newly realistic aesthetic also made it possible to use motion capture to make characters in video sequences move in a more lifelike manner; character motion throughout the game is far more natural than it was in Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VIII also continued the move away from isometric perspectives and towards a more aesthetic choice of camera angles⁹, contributing to its more realistic appearance, though not necessarily to ease of navigation. A few areas simulate 'depth of field' effects by switching between clear and blurred versions of background and forreground images depending on where on the screen the party is. Also, Square's increasing command of the PlayStation hardware allowed them to use full texture mapping when creating characters, resulting in the increased detail necessary for the new visual style. Admittedly, this does appear to have made crowded scenes problematic; occasionally a person will be a flat element of a background rather than a three dimensional model existing 'on top' of it.

Sound

In the tradition of its predecessors, Final Fantasy VIII accompanies its action with the compositions of Nobuo Uematsu, largely in MIDI. Final Fantasy VII used a dramatic piece with Latin lyrics for one of its climatic battles, and Final Fantasy VIII opens with a similar piece: Liberi Fatali (meaning something like 'Fated Children'¹⁰). The introduction also features a vocal theme that appears repeatedly in dramatic scenes: the choral chant Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec (apparently formed by combining the song title 'Succession of Witches' with the word 'love' and producing an anagram). Moreover, Square's dream of including a fully vocal song in a Final Fantasy game was finally realised: the Chinese vocalist Faye Wong was hired to record Eyes On Me. Uematsu reportedly regards the composition for this song as one of his favourite works, although there are dissenting voices; according to Edge #92, the song 'elicited venomous user feedback' and is 'excruciating drivel unless formulaic, sub-Celine Dion love songs are to your fancy. It may only last for minutes, but its jarring assault on players' ears is at odds with an otherwise excellent soundtrack. In particular, [Liberi Fatali] is magnificent. And yet it doesn't take a genius to guess which song garnered the most column inches, despite widespread praise of the latter by fans.' (It should probably be noted that the Japanese naturally expect less from English-language lyrics than native English speakers.)

When there was talk of re-releasing Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX for the PlayStation 2, rumour had it that the Final Fantasy VIII re-release was to include Dolby Digital 5.1-compatible sound; supposedly some of the sound in the game was originally recorded in this form.

Playable Characters

Each of these characters can be controlled for some of the game. Laguna, Kiros and Ward are contollable only during 'dreamlike' visions of the past in which Squall and his companions share the expriences of these characters, who take on their statistics. Only a few shrines are listed here; for a fuller list try the Final Fantasy Shrine Finder. For a fuller list of name origin theories, try the Final Fantasy Compendium's page.

Squall Leonhart

The taciturn and reluctant hero

In Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics Frederik L. Schodt writes of a type of Japanese hero character who 'has inherited many of the characteristics of his samurai ancestors. He is usually stoic, not very vocal, and part of a group. If not part of a group, he is usually an outsider, a Nietzschean superman, confident of his own ways in an unsupportive world. This type of character holds a particular appeal to the average Japanese man, who, more often than not, is required to sublimate his own personal desires to those of the majority in the organisation be belongs to.'

Squall is such an outsider, a psychological 'lone wolf'; he'll fight in a group if the situation requires it, but he won't even pretend to enjoy the company. But while he can be confident of his abilities with the sword-revolver combination called a gunblade¹¹, Rinoa can confound him at times. Squall understands the battlefield well enough, seeing it with detachment as a conflict between two sides without any 'right' or 'wrong', but otherwise may be more naïve than he likes to think.

Squall's emblem is the leonine creature Griever. (The name sounds as though it ought to mean 'one who grieves', but that doesn't fit too neatly.) 'Leonhart' is reminiscent of 'Lionheart', and bravery is indeed one of Squall's virtues. A character named Leonheart, or Lionheart, or just Leon, was one of the heroes of Final Fantasy II. Another possible link is that King Richard Coeur de Lion spent much of his reign fighting in the Crusades; perhaps Squall, like Seifer, has something of the knight in his design. The opposition of the two knights perhaps recalls the opposition of Dark Knight and Paladin in Final Fantasy IV, but here the moral dimension is rather less clear-cut.

Squall also appears, along with other Square characters, in the company's Chocobo Racing, which also features a hidden Final Fantasy VIII-themed track. He appears in Kingdom Hearts under the name 'Leon', and in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Click here for images of a somewhat frightening Squall-based Sim made for The Sims 2.

Limit Break: Renzokuken ('Consecutive Sword'). Squall slashes enemies multiple times while a gauge appears on the screen; pressing a button at the right moment doubles damage. Various finishing blows can be learnt as Squall's gunblade is upgraded; chance determines whether they're performed.

Shrines: Antihero; Retrospect; Winged Lion (Squall and Rinoa).

Seifer Almasy

Squall's rival who causes havoc within Garden

His ego clashes with the harmony of the group at least as much as Squall's; but whereas Squall is an introvert who seeks to be left alone, Seifer is an extrovert, his skill with a gunblade overshadowed by his being ruled more by frustration than by military dicipline. But perhaps that frustration hides deeper feelings. He might have genuine leadership potential, if only he could control himself...

'Seifer' is pronounced sai'fur; a literal romanisation of the name as written in Japanese would be Saifā. Consequently a popular theory has it that his name comes from 'cypher'/'cipher', either in the sense of 'zero' or referring to encryption. In the German version of the game 'Seifer' became 'Cifer'; apparently 'Seifer' is a German surname, and that presumably has something to do with it. Does this hint at a derivation from 'Lucifer' (which, incidentally, literally means 'light-bearing')? It's an inviting hypothesis, given that this promising Garden student, like the brightest of the angels, is driven by ambition to revolt against authority and cause conflict within Garden...¹²

The design of Seifer's coat is striking: white with cruciform (or possiby ensiform) insignia, reminiscent of the arms of the Crusader knights. The 'knight' class has appeared in previous Final Fantasy games, and in the world of Final Fantasy VIII a sorceress is traditionally accompanied by her knight. Seifer, however, isn't exactly a model of chivalry.

Limit Break: Fire Cross.

Shrine: Problematic.

Rinoa Heartilly

A beautiful, spirited young woman

If Squall emphasises the head, Rinoa emphasises the heart; she's open and sincere, with exactly the emotional intelligence he lacks, but in some ways quite the ingénue. The daughter of a Galbadian general and a now-deceased singer, her own attitude towards the Galbadian military is to oppose its expansion, with zeal if not necessarily with the greatest strategic insight. She's accompanied by her dog, Sant' Angelo di Roma (recalling Shadow in Final Fantasy VI, who was aided in battle by a dog named Interceptor; although, ironically, his personality and Rinoa's could scarcely be more different).

Rinoa is associated with a wing motif (and correspondingly acquires her Angel Wing power); the game's rather cryptic introductory and ending sequences strongly associate her both with wings and feathers and with pink blossoms floating in the wind. These look like sakura, the cherry blossoms that for the Japanese are a traditional symbol of transience, as their beauty briefly flourishes, then passes as they fall from the trees.

Before the official English version of Rinoa's name was known it was commonly rendered as 'Lenore'; this rendering still appears on some Web pages dating from that period. According to the F.o.r.e.v.e.r. shrine the name has no particular meaning, but does fall into the tradition of Final Fantasy heroines with i and a sounds in their names (Maria, Rydia, Reina, Tina, Tifa, Aeris...). 'Heartilly' is thought to be derived from 'heartily', reflecting Rinoa's optimistic nature. Sant' Angelo di Roma is presumably named after Saint Angelo.

Limit Break:  Combine. Angelo can assist Rinoa in various ways, learnt from the Pet Pals magazines found in various locations; once a magazine has been read, Angelo will learn Limit Break abilities gradually as the party moves around the world. Sometimes Angelo will appear to help Rinoa without being called for a Limit Break.

Limit Break 2: Angel Wing. [Details]

Rinoa Shrines: Capturing an Angel; Rebelling Princess; Winged Lion (Squall and Rinoa).

Angelo Shrine: Angelo the Angel

Quistis Trepe

A top-notch member of SeeD who serves as Squall's instructor

Despite being not much older than Squall, Quistis is the more experienced combatant charged with his training. She does her best to grapple with his coldness, but her feelings can impair her judgment at times, however calm she may generally appear. One of Garden's most gifted, she has her own fan club, the 'Trepies'. She became a SeeD at just fifteen, but hasn't been an instructor all that long.

The Minerva shrine has an interesting page on the possible origins of Quistis's name (although the suggestions that there may be links to Japanese verbs are very dubious); it appears that the 'Qui-' in 'Quistis' is in fact pronounced roughly as in French, since in Japanese it was rendered as Ki-. (But please note that the romanisation 'Kisutisu Turīpu' is preferable to Minerva's. The -u in su, incidentally, is frequently barely pronounced in spoken Japanese.) Minerva notes that 'quist' is an archaic variation of 'whist', and also suggests the Old English word kissti ('munificent') as a possible source; Precious Sting suggests a derivation from 'Quistia', apparently the name of a Lancashire witch. 'Quistis' looks rather as though it ought to be a Latin interrogative pronoun, but it isn't; and viewing it as a combination of the Latin quis ('who' or 'what') and the ancient Greek ΤΙΣ (tís, also 'who'), however tempting, would be rather outside the bounds of probability.

Minerva suggests 'trepanation' and 'trepid' as plausible sources for 'Trepe'; however, Turīpu looks to correspond to the pronunication 'Treepe'.

Limit Break:  Blue Magic. This is a term used in several Final Fantasy games for magic used mainly by enemies; in Final Fantasy V there was a Blue Mage job available for characters from early on. Blue Magic Quistis knows can be cast as a Limit Break ability; she can learn new Blue Magic from certain items.

Shrines: Minerva; Precious Sting.

Zell Dincht

A Garden Cadet with unsurpassed martial arts skills

As a martial artist Zell is a successor to the Monks in the original Final Fantasy, but he's not the contemplative sort. He can be impulsive, even reckless, but at least his ego isn't destructive in the way Seifer's is; he's no model of military discipline, but neither is he out to cause chaos. He's driven by a desire to emulate his deceased grandfather, himself once a soldier.

Like Seifer, Zell underwent a name change for the German version — to 'Xell'. Apparently 'Zell', too, is a German surname.

Limit Break: Duel. This requires the player to input button combinations in a style borrowed from the beat-'em-up game genre; getting the combination right triggers a martial arts attack, with new attacks being learnt by reading Combat King magazines, and using particular series of moves makes finishing moves available. This sort of input system was used for Sabin's Blitz attack in Final Fantasy VI, and would appear again in Final Fantasy X. Zell and Sabin share other similarities: they're blond, occasionally reckless martial artists. In another link to previous Final Fantasy martial artists, several of Zell's Duel attacks share their names with Tifa's Limit Break abilities in Final Fantasy VII.

Shrines:  Finalheaven; Zealous.

Selphie Tilmitt

A spunky young woman with a carefree spirit

Recently transferred from Trabia Garden, Selphie is cheerful and enthusiastic, another character whose personality contrasts with Squall's more cynical outlook. It's Selphie who takes over the organisation of the Garden Festival in a bid to make it a success. She also develops a certain admiring fondness for Laguna A cynical analysis might suggest that she exists basically for the sake of fan service, teasing male players with the brevity of her skirt length and making them curse the fact that she's the one character who can't be rotated vertically on the Scan screen.

A younger version of Selphie makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts.

Limit Break: Slot. This chooses magic randomly from the available selection, and randomly chooses how many times it will be cast. Thankfully, it's possible to go through the random selection process multiple times; unfortunately, time will be passing during this process. Most of the magic is generic, but there are four spells that can be cast only in this manner.

When the game data was examined, it was discovered that two incomplete unique spells for Selphie, though they could not be accessed in any normal way, had not been removed from the game files. However, they lack the visual effects of a finished Limit Break ability; a standard fireball animation is used as a placeholder.

Shrines: Booyaka!; Booyaka; Tilmitt; How to Make the Garden Festival a Success.

Irvine Kinneas

An expert gunman and consummate lady's man

A marksman trained at Galbadia Garden, Irvine exudes confidence — most of the time. There is another side to him besides the womanising shooter, although he'll give you only occasional glimpses of it, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether his soulful periods are authentic or affected.

'Irvine' is perhaps a variant of 'Irwin' or 'Irving', meaning 'handsome' in Gaelic. Kinneas is an English surname in real life.

Limit Break: Shot. Various types of ammunition can be collected during the game; choose one, and you get a few seconds during which to fire rounds at enemies. (Yee Seng Fu suggests in an FAQ file that this may have been brought over from Xenogears, another PlayStation RPG by Square.)

Shrines: 

Laguna Loire

A passionate man whose pen is truly mightier than the sword

He's initially encountered during 'dreamlike' visions, along with Kiros and Ward. These visions show various scenes from their past lives: initially they're soldiers in the Galbadian army, fighting Esthar; Laguna's energetic but not that competent, either in war or in his attempts to talk to an attractive pianist called Julia. Never suited to the battlefield, he becomes a journalist, travelling the world and writing articles for the magazine Timber Maniacs; during his travels he get to know Raine while in her home village for a while. Perhaps he's still alive...

'Laguna' suggests 'lagoon'; perhaps there's an implicit contrast with 'Squall'. The Desperado shrine also notes a theory to the effect that 'Laguna' was intended to sound similar to 'Ragnarok', a lost Esthar spacecraft (sharing its name with Viking mythology's battle at the end of the world); rendered in Japanese they come out as 'Raguna' and 'Ragunaroku' respectively. The Final Fantasy Compendium and the F.o.r.e.v.e.r. shrine both suggest the Californian city of Laguna Beach as the source. There's a French river called the Loire.

Limit Break: Desperado.

Shrines: 

Kiros Seagill

Laguna's friend and comrade, Kiros is the one who tracks him down after he's left the army. His distinctive dress sense and dark skin give him a striking appearance.

'Seagill'... sounds like 'seagull'.

Limit Break: Blood Pain.

Ward Zabac

Laguna's other comrade, whom a tragedy befalls during a battle with Esthar's forces...

A ward can be a district in an urban area (the word being sometimes used as a translation of the Japanese ku in references to feudal Japanese towns), or an area of a hospital, or a warning; none of these meanings seems particularly appropriate.

Limit Break: Heavy Anchor

Sorcreress Edea

The dark figure in Galbadian politics; the feared, unearthly sorceress who seems to lack human feeling... Under what circumstances could such a character be controllable? It would, of course, be quite wrong to give it away...

Limit Break: Ice Strike.

Shrine: Sorcery

Other Major Characters

Of the many people who inabit the game's world, some, though not playable, still do much to advance the story.

Ellone

She appears in Balamb Garden very early on in the game, and appears to know Squall — but he doesn't recognise her. It seems she has some connection to Laguna, but who she is, and why so many people are taking an interest in her, won't be discovered until well into the game.

Shrine: Sis

Cid Kramer

By long tradition, in a Final Fantasy game there must be a character called Cid; in Final Fantasy VIII he's the aging headmaster of Balamb Garden. Dedicted to his job, he sometimes comes into conflict with the Garden Faculty.

Cid is perhaps named after the Spanish word for 'lord', or more specifically after Rodrigo Diaz (1043 - 1099), a hero in Castile known as 'El Cid' (apparently after the Arabic sayyid, 'lord').

Shrine: The Heart of Balamb Garden

Raijin and Fujin

With Seifer, they make up the Garden Disciplinary Committee. Both are in effect Seifer's followers, even if they don't always share his enthusiasm. Raijin is the muscular one, and not the brightest of characters; Fujin is a quiet, silver-haired girl who tends to speak in single, capitalised words. (Yuzu-chan and Musashi note in their FAQ file at GameFAQsthat the original Japanese script has her using single kanji — kanji being Chinese ideograms used in written Japanese; they communicate ideas in abstracto as well as being linked to the various sounds used to communicate ideas in speech — and theorise that the intention may have been to suggest that Fujin speaks some form of Chinese.)

Raijin and Fujin are named after thunder and wind gods, respectively, that were taken from China and incorporated in to Japan's native Shinto religious traditions; click here for an image of an effigy of these deities. Some fans write 'Fuujin' instead of 'Fujin' in the interests of accurate romanisation (vowel lengths being very important in Japanese); however, the translated game uses 'Fujin', and this Entry follows suit. One Fujin shrine seems to suggest that the character's full name is Fujin Kazeno, but this looks suspiciously like a potential misapprehension; put it in the Japanese word order, surname first, and you get Kazeno Fujin, which could well be a misinterpretation of Kaze no Fuujin ('Fūjin of [the] Wind').

Shrines: 

Julia Heartilly

Rinoa's mother, who died when Rinoa was only a few years old. She was a pianist in Galbadia when she met Laguna; during their brief meeting she told him about her dream of becoming a singer. Later she did — in the game's world it's she who was the writer and singer of Eyes On Me — but by then he'd gone. She married a Galbadian officer named General Caraway¹³, who fathered Rinoa (although Rinoa adopted her mother's surname, presumably as a result of disagreements with her father); some time later a car accident took her life.

'Julia' is a Latin name, the feminine form of 'Julius'. A connection to Shakespeare's tragically romantic heroine Juliet has also been suggested.

Shrine: Roses and Wine

Raine

She ran a pub in a small village called Winhill, where Laguna stayed for a while. She's kind, and a maternal figure for Ellone, but perhaps not the strongest-willed of characters.

Shrine: Gentle Rain

Other Non-Playable Characters

Among the other characters who have an impact upon the story, there's NORG¹⁴, the Master of Balamb Garden (and the real power behind the headmaster); he lives in a basement students can't normally access, and operates through the Garden Faculty. At Galbadia Garden the posts of Master and Headmaster are combined, and occupied by a man named Martine.

Vinzer Deling, 'lifelong President' of Galbadia, is quite the modern politician in appearance: a middle-aged man in a grey suit. Like many politicians, he has little real personality; a more distinctive political figure is Mayor Dobe of Fisherman's Horizon, a dedicated pacifist.

In the small forest country of Timber you'll meet the Forest Owls, a resistance movement dedicated to opposing the Galbadian army's occupation. Rinoa is their 'Princess', but the group was founded by the fathers of two rather bumbling members, Watts (whose signature line is, ' "Gathering information is my speciality, sir!" ') and Zone (characterised by constant stomach pains). Watts shares his name with a dwarf in the Seiken Densetsu series.

If you ever manage to enter Esthar, perhaps you'll find out what happened to the eccentric genius Dr. Odine, whose research on sorceress powers when Esthar was ruled by the tyrant Sorceress Adel led to the development of 'para-magic' ordinary humans could use. He was also involved in researching monsters, GFs and the Lunar Cry...

Besides the human characters, there are other sentient races in Final Fantasy VIII: the Shumi, yellow seal-like people, and the Moombas, vaguely feline beings with flame-red fur. Moombas are one of the forms into which Shumi may develop over time; unlike Shumi, they can barely speak. The Moomba who appears in Chocobo World can be summoned during battle in Final Fantasy VIII; they also put in an appearance in Chocobo Racing, and Moomba dolls appear in Final Fantasy X and X-2.

And, of course, there are Biggs and Wedge, making their third cameo appearance in a Final Fantasy game (since Chrono Trigger isn't one) as a pair of hapless Galbadian soldiers.

It would give far too much away to discuss Ultimecia...¹⁵

Related Web Pages

Looking for strategy tips? Wondering whether that really was a flying saucer you saw? Unable to find the talking cat? Perhaps these sites can help.

• The Final Fantasy VIII Kingdom is a fansite that includes fora. Other sites concerning the game as a whole are Leonhart.co.uk, F.o.r.e.v.e.r. Balamb Garden and this one.

• The RPG Classics Final Fantasy VIII shrine can be found here.

• There are even pages dedicated to Final Fantasy VIII marriage prospects.

• GameFAQs has extensive coverage of Final Fantasy VIII here, and an FAQ file on Final Fantasy VIII Desktop Accessories here.

• Extensive information about the Final Fantasy series in general can be found at 'The Final Fantasy Compendium'. There is also a Final Fantasy Wiki in ongoing development.