Final Fantasy VIII, a 1999 role-playing video game by Squaresoft, features "SeeD", an elite group of mercenaries, as well as soldiers, rebels, and political leaders of various nations and cities. Thirteen weeks after its release, it had earned more than US$50 million in sales,[1] making it the fastest selling Final Fantasy title at the time.[2] The game has shipped 8.15 million units worldwide as of March 2003.[3] Additionally, Final Fantasy VIII was voted the 22nd-best game of all time by readers of Famitsu in 2006.[4] The game's characters were created by Tetsuya Nomura,[5] and were the first in the series to be realistically proportioned in all aspects. This graphical shift, as well as the cast itself, has received generally positive reviews from gaming magazines and websites.[6]
The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy VIII are Squall Leonhart, a loner who avoids vulnerability by focusing on his duty; Rinoa Heartilly, an outspoken and passionate young woman who follows her heart; Quistis Trepe, an instructor with a serious yet patient attitude; Zell Dincht, an energetic martial artist with a fondness for hot dogs; Selphie Tilmitt, a cheerful girl who loves trains and flies the airship Ragnarok; and Irvine Kinneas, a marksman and womanizer who uses his charm to mask his insecurities.[5] Temporarily playable characters include Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zabac, who appear in "flashback" sequences; SeeD cadet-turned-antagonist Seifer Almasy; and sorceress Edea Kramer. The main antagonist is Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time.
In Final Fantasy games, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima stresses the dynamic of the relationship between the player and the main character; thus, he puts significant thought into how that relationship will develop. With Final Fantasy VII, protagonist Cloud Strife's reserved nature led Nojima to include scenarios in which the player can select Cloud's responses to certain situations and dialogue. With Final Fantasy VIII, which also features a reserved lead protagonist in Squall, Nojima wanted to give players insight into what the protagonist is thinking, even while other characters remain uninformed: this led to Squall's inner dialogues throughout the game.[7]
Character designer Tetsuya Nomura, while exchanging e-mails with director Yoshinori Kitase between development of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, suggested that the game should have a "school days" feel. Nojima approved of the idea, as he already had a story in mind in which the main characters were the same age. Thus, they created the concept of military academies, called "Gardens", in which students would train to become "SeeD" mercenaries. Nojima also planned for the two playable parties featured in the game—Squall's present day group and Laguna Loire's group from twenty years in the past—to highly contrast with each other. Laguna's group consists of a close-knit group of battle-hardened friends in their late twenties, while Squall's party is young and inexperienced and Squall himself does not initially understand the value of friendship.[8]
Kitase desired to give the game a foreign atmosphere, with "foreign" being in relation to Japan, ultimately deciding on a European setting. The first character Nomura designed specifically for Final Fantasy VIII was Squall,[9] initially giving him longer hair and a more feminine appearance. However, Kitase was unsatisfied and asked Nomura to shorten his hair and make him appear more masculine, which led to his current design. When designing Cloud, Nomura gave him distinct spiky, bright blonde hair to emphasize his role as protagonist. With Squall, Nomura wanted to try a unique angle to establish his role, giving him a characteristic gunblade scar across the bridge of his nose. At that point, the complete history of Squall's character was not yet conceived, so Nomura left the explanation for Squall's scar to Nojima. Squall's design was flourished by a fur lining along the collar of his jacket, included to challenge the game's full motion video designers, who were also developing at the time. This is but one example of the demands he has consistently extended to the programmers of the series as technology has advanced.[8]
Most Final Fantasy games include summons: creatures who are brought into battle to attack enemies or support the party. In Final Fantasy VIII, summons are called "Guardian Forces", or GFs. Nomura felt they should be unique beings, without clothes or other human-like concepts. This was problematic, as he did not want them to "become [like] the actual monsters", so he took great care in their designs.[8] Ramuh—an old wizard summon from earlier Final Fantasy games—was replaced; other human-like designs were re-imagined as nude figures or with creature-like elements. Nomura, also the director of the Guardian Force animation sequences, wanted to create a greater impact than the summon cinematics of Final Fantasy VII. Leviathan was created as a test and included in a game demo. After this garnered a positive reaction from players, Nomura decided to create the remaining sequences in a similar fashion.[8]
In a Famitsu Weekly interview with Kitase, Nomura, and Yuusuke Naoi, the team agreed that Final Fantasy VIII reflects Nomura's preferred technique, as opposed to VII, which featured characters that "weren't really his style".[9] The team also decided to use realistically proportioned characters. The higher level of full motion video technology would have otherwise created inconsistency between the in-game graphics and the higher definition full motion video graphics. Additionally, Kitase explained that the main logo of the game—Squall and Rinoa embracing—was inspired by the team's efforts to express emotion through body language.[9]
The world of Final Fantasy VIII is predominantly occupied by humans. Another prominent race is the "Shumi", a small tribe of creatures with yellow skin and large arms that lives in an underground village on the Trabian continent.[10] The Shumi frown upon showing off their large hands; NORG, the owner of Balamb Garden, was exiled from the tribe for his ostentation. All Shumi undergo a biological metamorphosis at some point in their lives; a qualified Shumi will become an Elder while another may become a mute "Moomba". Moombas are covered in red fur, which the Shumi attribute to "the passionate ingenuity in their hearts".[11] [12] Additionally, Moombas have appeared in several Final Fantasy spin-offs, including Chocobo World and Chocobo Racing.
Chocobos—large galliform birds that appear throughout the Final Fantasy series—are featured in the game. In the game, Chocobos are generally undomesticated and can be found in various forests throughout the world. Each forest has a minigame where the player must corral baby Chocobos to locate the mother. If the player catches a bird, a Chicobo, a baby Chocobo, named Boko will follow the player around.[13] Boko has his own game, Chocobo World, that can be downloaded from the PlayStation disc onto a PocketStation game unit.[13] [14] Nobuo Uematsu created two Chocobo themes for Final Fantasy VIII: "Mods de Chocobo" and "Odeka de Chocobo".[15]
Final Fantasy VIII also features an array of common real world creatures, such as cats and dogs.[16] The game also includes numerous monsters, many of which have appeared earlier in the series. Popular recurring monsters that appear in the game include Adamantoise, Behemoth, Bomb, Cactuar, Iron Giant, Malboro, and Tonberry.[17]
See main article: Squall Leonhart. is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII. He is a young student at Balamb Garden who is identifiable by the scar on his face that a fellow student, Seifer, inflicted. He rarely speaks and has the reputation of being a lone wolf.[5] As Squall's story unfolds, he becomes fascinated with and falls in love with Rinoa,[5] despite never outwardly expressing his love until the ending.[18] Squall is characterized by forlorn memories of standing out in the rain at the orphanage where he grew up, wondering where "Sis" went.[19] [20] Squall wields a gunblade, a sword that uses components of a revolver to send vibrations through the blade when triggered.[21] His Limit Break is Renzokuken, a series of sword strikes.[22] It is later explained that the "Guardian Forces" (GF) which the SeeDs use in battle, causes memory loss, which is why Squall does not remember Ellone, Edea, and his past in the orphanage.
See main article: Rinoa Heartilly. is the primary female protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII. She has black hair with brown highlights. She is the 17-year-old[5] daughter of General Caraway, a high-ranking officer in the Galbadian army, and Julia Heartilly, a successful pianist and singer. She is a member of the Forest Owls, a resistance faction seeking to liberate the small nation of Timber from Galbadian occupation.[23] [24]