Setting and Characters:
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. 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 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.
The six main protagonists in Final Fantasy VIII are Squall Leonhart, a loner who keeps his focus on his duty to avoid vulnerability; Rinoa Heartilly, an outspoken and passionate young woman who follows her heart in all situations; Quistis Trepe, an instructor with a serious, patient attitude; Zell Dincht, a martial artist with a passion for hot dogs; Selphie Tilmitt, a cheerful girl who loves trains and pilots the airship Ragnarok; and Irvine Kinneas, a marksman and consummate ladies' man. Temporarily playable characters include Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zabac, who appear in "flashback" sequences, and antagonists Seifer Almasy and Edea Kramer.
Plot:
Final Fantasy VIII begins as Squall duels with Seifer in a training session outside the Balamb Garden military academy. Meanwhile, Galbadia invades the Dollet Dukedom, forcing Dollet to hire assistance from the Balamb Garden branch of "SeeD", Garden's elite mercenary force. SeeD uses the mission as a final examination for its cadets; with the help of his instructor, Quistis, Squall passes the mission's prerequisite and is grouped with Seifer and Zell. Seifer disobeys orders and abandons his team, forcing Selphie to accompany Squall and Zell for the duration of the mission. After the mission, SeeD halts the Galbadian advance; Squall, Zell, and Selphie graduate to SeeD status, while Seifer is disciplined for his disobedience. During the graduation party, Squall meets Rinoa, whose personality is apparently the opposite of his. When assigned with Zell and Selphie to help Rinoa's resistance faction in Galbadian-occupied Timber, Squall learns that a sorceress named Edea is behind Galbadia's recent hostilities. Under orders from Balamb and Galbadia Gardens, Squall and his comrades—now joined by Rinoa, Quistis, and Irvine—attempt to assassinate Edea. However, the sorceress thwarts the attempt, and the party is detained. During the attempt, Squall's party also learns that Seifer has left Garden to become Edea's second-in-command.
After the team escapes, Edea launches a missile attack on Trabia Garden. Fearing that Balamb Garden is the next target of Edea's revenge, the team splits into two units. Squall's group returns to Balamb to warn of the attack, but must first stop an internal Garden conflict incited by NORG, SeeD's financier. Selphie's team travels to the Missile Base to stop the launch, but fails. Squall inadvertently turns Balamb Garden into a mobile fortress, allowing the facility to evade the missiles; however, unable to control the Garden, it collides with the docks at Fishermans' Horizon. While local technicians repair the Garden, the Galbadian Army invade in search of a girl named Ellone, who had been staying at Balamb Garden until recently. Ellone eventually escapes to Esthar, the world's technological superpower. During Squall's meeting with Ellone, he learns that she had been "sending" him and his allies into flashbacks set 17 years in the past in a vain effort to alter the present. The scenes center on Laguna and his two friends, Kiros and Ward. During the flashbacks, Laguna changes from a Galbadian soldier to the defender of a country village, and then moves from being the leader of a resistance movement against Sorceress Adel to the President of Esthar.
Meanwhile, Squall confronts his personal anxieties fueled by ongoing developments, such as Headmaster Cid appointing him as SeeD's new leader, and his increasing attraction to Rinoa. While investigating Trabia Garden's wreckage, Squall and his comrades learn that they, along with Seifer and Ellone, were all raised (with the exception of Rinoa) in an orphanage run by Edea; they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces. It is also revealed that Cid and Edea had established Garden and SeeD primarily to defeat corrupt sorceresses. After these revelations, the forces of Balamb Garden and the Galbadian Army, led by Squall and Seifer respectively, engage in battle above the orphanage. After Balamb defeats Galbadia, the player learns that Edea is merely an unwilling tool for "Ultimecia", a powerful sorceress from the future who wishes to compress time into a single moment; it is for this reason she has sought Ellone. Edea loses a decisive battle against the SeeD, forcing Ultimecia to transfer her powers to Rinoa; Edea survives, but Rinoa enters a coma. Squall becomes obsessed with waking her and goes to Esthar to find Ellone, as he believes that she can help save Rinoa.
While Rinoa is being treated on Esthar's space station, Ultimecia uses her to free Sorceress Adel from her orbital prison. Ultimecia then orders Seifer to activate the Lunatic Pandora facility, inciting a rain of creatures from the moon that sends Adel's containment device to the planet. Having selected Adel as her next host, Ultimecia abandons Rinoa in outer space. Squall rescues her, and they return to the planet on a derelict starship. Upon their landing, delegates from Esthar isolate Rinoa for fear of her sorceress abilities, forcing Squall to rescue her. President Laguna apologizes for the incident and announces Dr. Odine's plan to let Ultimecia possess Rinoa, have Ellone send Rinoa (and thus Ultimecia as well) to the past and then retrieve only Rinoa back to the present, enabling Ultimecia to achieve Time Compression, as it would allow Squall's group to confront Ultimecia in her time. To do this, Squall's team infiltrates Lunatic Pandora, defeats Seifer and Adel, and has Rinoa inherit Adel's sorceress powers. Time Compression is thus initiated; Squall and his allies travel to Ultimecia's era and defeat her.
With Ultimecia defeated, the universe begins returning to normal; however, Squall is nearly lost in the flow of time as he witnesses the origins of the game's story. When a dying Ultimecia travels back in time to pass her powers to Edea, Squall informs Edea of the concepts of Garden and SeeD that she will create. Afterward, he is able to properly recollect his memories and thus return to the present. The end cinematic depicts the events after Squall's return to the present. Seifer is once again reunited with Raijin and Fujin; Laguna visits Raine's grave (and remembers his proposal to her) along with Ellone, Ward, and Kiros; and a celebration takes place in the Garden, with Squall and Rinoa kissing one another under the moonlight.
Gameplay:
Like any Final Fantasy before it, Final Fantasy VIII consists of three main modes of play: the world map, the field map, and the battle screen. The world map is a 3D display in which the player may navigate freely across a small-scale rendering of the game world. Characters travel across the world map in a variety of ways, including by foot, car, Chocobo, train, and airship. The field map consists of controllable 3D characters overlaid on one or more 2D pre-rendered backgrounds, which represent environmental locations such as towns or forests. The battle screen is a 3D model of a location such as a street or room, where turn-based fights between playable characters and CPU-controlled enemies take place. The interface is menu-driven, as in previous titles, but with the typical weapon and armor systems removed and new features present, such as the Junction system. Also featured is a collectible card-based mini game called "Triple Triad".
Junction system
Final Fantasy VIII uses a battle system based on summon-able monsters called "Guardian Forces", abbreviated in-game as "GF." Assigning ("junctioning") a GF onto a character allows the player to use battle commands beyond Attack with the main weapon, such as Magic, GF (to summon the junctioned GF and have it perform an action), and Item. While previous Final Fantasy titles provided each character with a limited pool of magic points that were consumed by each spell, in Final Fantasy VIII, spells are acquired ("drawn") either from enemies in battle, Draw Points distributed throughout the game's environments, or by refining items and cards. Spells are then stocked on characters as quantified inventory (up to 100 per spell and limited to 32 distinct spells per character) and are consumed one by one when used. Characters can also junction these spells onto their statistics—such as Strength, Vitality, and Luck—for various bonuses, provided the character has junctioned a Guardian Force. The junction system's flexibility affords the player a wide range of customization options.
The use of summoned creatures for anything other than a single devastating attack during battle was a significant departure for the Final Fantasy series. The junction system also acts as a substitute for armor and accessories used in previous titles to enhance the characters' statistics. Moreover, where earlier titles required weapons to be equipped and tailored to the character, each major character in Final Fantasy VIII features a unique weapon which can be upgraded, affecting its appearance, power, and Limit Break.Final Fantasy VIII's cinematics and character devolopment were the top of its game in its time. The CGI movie sequences evolved so much from VII that characters actually looked like real people. While the characters still were not extreamly defined during the gameplay sequences you can see the evolving of in game graphics as well.
This game continued to feature the same elements, summons in the form of GF (Guardian Forces), equipment and items. Magic, although magic had a different role, magic was actually used via the junction menu to up the characters stats, while the characters also gained experience and levels from winning battles.
Each character like VII had there own individual weapon which could be upgraded.
Squall's weapon, a Gunblade, a hilt like then handle of a revolver including the trigger and a blade like a broad sword attached where the barrel of the gun would be. I loved the design of this weapon. When fully upgraded players received the ultimate weapon for Squall, the Lionheart, I still to this day love the design of this weapon, there has been none like it, not even Clouds Ultimate Weapon from VII can compare.
Rinoa used a chakram that was shot off a launcher attached to her left arm, another weapon that followed her everywhere was her dog Angelo.
Zell being a martial arts expert wore specialized gloves a lot like Tifa of VII.
Quistis using a very deadly whip.
Irvine using a shot gun.
Selphie using a Nukchau
Squall's rival in the game Seifer Almasy, also used a Gunblade, his hilt looking like the more modern handle of a mafia like hand gun, and the blade extending from it a little thinner and shaped more like a Katana, Seifer is a fan favorite of those who liked FFVIII.
Mode of transportation remaining mostly the same, car, Chocobo, on foot. At one point Balamb Garden the fortress of SeeD headquarters where Squall is stationed becomes what I would kind of consider the only actual Airship in the game, a literal floating fortress. And a space ship the Ragnarok, is what takes the place of the actual airship.
Summons in this game take the form of the Guardian Force, or GF. Include fan favorites such as:
Ifrit
Shiva
Quetzecotl
Odin
Bahamut
Carbuncle
Leviathan
Gilgamesh (who was never a summon before but a mini boss in a previous title)
Boko (who if we remember was Bartz companion from FFV)
Pheonix
Mini Mog (the only moogle to appear in the game)
Alexander
And new summons such as
Cerberus
Doom Train
Cactuar
Siren
Moomba
Eden (the most powerfull summon in the game with the longest cut scene)
Tonnberry
Pandemona
Angelo (who would appear at random only if Rinoa was in your party and make an attack against the enemy)
This game also included a limit break, but as weapons were upgraded for the characters they learned new ones that could all be used in conjunction with one another. My fave and if performed correctly every time would cause 9,999 damage, was Squall's Lion Heart limit break which could only be gained by upgrading his Gunblade to the Lionheart.
This game also has a very intricate story line, the romance between Squall and Rinoa, has to be one of my favorites in the series.
There is a remembered scene in which Rinoa and Squall are drifting through space, and Rinoas air tank is depleted and Squall is trying to reach her in time to activate her reserve tank. Its a beautiful scene and immediate relief floods over you when he finally reaches her, pushes that button, and she opens her eyes.
The Cinematics in this game just rival VII, its so much more advanced then sevens were its just amazing how far they came in one title.
Next up the forgotten title Final Fantasy IX the last title for the PlayStation before the revolutionary Final Fantasy X.
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