Final fantasy 8

Final Fantasy VIII (ファイナルファンタジーVIII, Fainaru Fantajī Eito) is an RPG video game developed by Squaresoft in 1999 for the PlayStation system, although a version was later released. for PC. It is the eighth installment in the Final Fantasy video game series and the first to feature a sung theme song for the game. The game cost a total of about three billion yen to make in Japan.

Just thirteen weeks after it was released, Final Fantasy VIII accumulated more than 50 million dollars in sales in the United States. This eighth installment of the series, unlike the previous one, uses entirely realistic characters leaving partially aside the fantastic elements of the series and it is also one of the few titles that strays away from the gameplay scheme of the series as the characters increase their power through the accumulation of magic.

In addition, it does not have the magic points attribute since it has a new system for casting spells, by extracting enemies. Unlike other installments in the series, Final Fantasy VIII does not depend on leveling up to make characters stronger, but instead, as we obtain more powerful magic and equip our characters, they will increase their powers. parameters. Likewise, the summons on this occasion will also be able to gain experience and level up.

A remastered version was released on September 3, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.

Plot

In the world of Final Fantasy VIII there are certain academies, called gardens, specialized in training certain types of soldiers, called SeeD, on the continent of Balamb is the oldest and most important of the gardens, in it is the aspiring SeeD, and protagonist of the story, Squall Leonheart. The SeeD are mercenaries who carry out commissioned missions all over the world. Each garden trains its SeeD based on different types of techniques, in the Garden of Balamb the power of certain creatures called GF (Guardians of the Force), which can be called upon in combat and linked to warriors to increase their powers and abilities.

Plot Summary

The story begins when Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy are having a practice duel with their gunsabers on one of the rocky grounds near Balamb Garden. During the duel, Seifer casts a spell at Squall and when he was on the ground, it caused a deep cut on his face, which caused Squall, angry at the dishonorable and cowardly act, to attack Seifer in the same way, taking advantage of the fact that he had lowered the guard and as a result, the duel ends in a draw.

After recovering from the duel, Squall's first mission is assigned by his teacher Quistis Trepe, with whom he must go to the Cavern of Fire, and try to get the GF b> Ifrit in a certain time. After this Squall is ready for his graduation exam, with a view to becoming SeeD, Squall's team is chosen by instructor Quistis Trepe. After Squall appears with his new team, made up of Zell Dincht and Seifer Almasy (the latter as captain of the group), they go on a mission whose success depends on reaching the rank of SeeD for the equipment. Dollet, a city on the Western continent has been invaded by Galbadia the power of this continent, the mission is to land in Dollet, control the city, and eliminate the remaining soldiers from Galbadia. The group's mission is to guard the Central Plaza and wait there, but Seifer, showing off his impulsiveness, forces the team to climb the communications tower . After fighting powerful enemies, a retreat is ordered. Returning to Balamb, it is announced that Squall and Zell of the group have managed to pass the exam, but Seifer, because he disobeyed the order to wait in the Central Plaza, fails the exam.

At prom, Squall meets Rinoa Heartilly, and a mysterious young woman named Eleone. The next morning he is assigned a mission in which he must support a rebel group: The Forest Owls , in their fight for the independence of Timber . Timber is a small country, which has been subjugated by Galbadia for some time. The mission is to help The Owls of the Forest to kidnap the tyrant president of Galbadia. During the trip to Timber, Squall and his two companions, Zell and the Garden of Trabia transferee Selphie, faint and have a strange dream in which they are a group of soldiers from Galbadia, named Laguna, Kiros and Ward.. When they wake up, they discover that the three of them had the same dream, but they decide not to give it any more thought. Upon arrival, it is discovered that one of the members of the rebel group is Rinoa herself who attended the prom to convince the SeeD to assist in her rebel organization. After a failed attempt to kidnap the President of Galbadia, he heads to Timber's television studio to announce a new peace ambassador for his country. Then Seifer breaks into the television studio and tries to capture the president on his behalf, but is bewitched by the ambassador, who turns out to be a witch named Edea . Edea disappears along with Seifer.

After fleeing from Timber, Squall and his team decide to take refuge in the Garden of Galbadia, but during the journey they faint again and have another dream where they are the same three soldiers from Galbadia. Once in the Garden of Galbadia, the director assigns them a joint mission between the Garden of Balamb and Galbadia to assassinate the witch, and the sniper who will assassinate the witch, Irvine Kinneas, is introduced. from this point it will be part of the main characters. The mission turns out to be a ruse, but the group unknowingly travels to Galbadia and cooperates with General Heartilly, Rinoa's father.

After organizing a plan to take down Edea, both the general and the group members exclude Rinoa, claiming that she is weak from the failure in the previous mission that caused serious mistrust between the SeeD and the revolutionary group. She decides to act on her own and tries to trick the witch into putting on the Odin's Bracelet that was used to defeat the witch Adel in the past. But Edea discovers her and leaves her in a hypnotic state. After this, the witch is presented by the president in a grand parade, but she shows her thirst for revenge and assassinates the president in front of everyone, after which, she proclaims herself the governor of Galbadia. Despite this, the parade continues. The witch summons some gargoyles to attack Rinoa, so Squall and Irvine go to save her. Irvine, after being convinced by Squall, fires his rifle at the witch, but she creates a force field that disintegrates the bullet without any difficulty. After the failure, Squall uses his plan B: personally fight the witch Edea and Seifer, who is now the witch's knight. After defeating Seifer, he begins the fight with the witch, who eventually injures Squall, impaling her right shoulder with a crystal. Here he ends disk 1 .

Squall returns to the dream again where he is a soldier from Galbadia named Laguna. Waking up, Zell, Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis are being held in a cell in the District D Prison and Squall is being tortured somewhere in the same prison. While torturing him, Seifer tells him that Galbadia has missiles prepared to destroy Balamb's garden and Trabia's garden for being against the witch Edea. He also asks about the true purpose of the SeeD. The rest of the group manages to escape and rescue Squall, before sneaking out of the prison. Unfortunately the Trabia Garden is hit by a hail of missiles. Squall makes the decision that they split into two groups. One goes to the Galbadia military base to prevent the launch of the missiles. Meanwhile, the other returns to Balamb's garden to warn the director, Cid Kramer, of the danger.

The group going to the missile base manages to slightly delay and deflect the launch of the missiles, as well as activate the base's self-destruct mechanism which triggers a countdown. When they try to escape they encounter a powerful machine that slows them down, the group fails to get out of the base before it self-destructs and is apparently killed in the explosion.

Squall's team meanwhile, arrives at Balamb's garden and finds that the garden is divided into two factions, some supporting Director Cid Kramer, and others looking to kill him. After searching the entire garden, they find Cid, and he says that the key to saving the garden is in the basement. Squall and his team go down to the basement and activate a mechanism that transforms into an amphibious ship that avoids being hit by the missiles.

The garden is thrown out of control sailing into the ocean, and collides with the small town of Fisherman's Horizon. After looking for how to repair the garden, soldiers from Galbadia arrive looking for Eleone. After defeating them, the missile base machine appears, upon defeating it, the missile base team comes out, who survived the explosion by hiding inside the machine. When the garden is repaired, he exits the Fisherman's Horizon and Squall is made a SeeD commander in the war against the witch Edea.

While the garden sails across the ocean, Squall meets Eleone again, only to discover that it is she who makes him have these strange dreams, which also turn out to be from the past. Eleone explains that her gift is to send people's consciousness back in time into other people's consciousness. Squall asks her to leave him, but she tells him that he's the only one he can count on. After that, he leaves the Garden.

They decide to go to Trabia's destroyed garden to gather clues about the witches. After being there, they all begin to remember their childhood and since they were all together in the same orphanage, Irvine comments that the use of GF erases memory and that is the reason why they did not remember that they all knew each other since they were children. They also remember who took care of them and that they called her Mama Ede, the same witch Edea. Which also turns out to be Edea Kramer, wife of the director of the Balamb garden. Then they decide to go to Edea's house on the South Continent.

Approaching Edea's house, Galbadia's garden is seen to be in the way. Squall prepares the entire Balamb Garden for the supposed final battle with Galbadia. When the two gardens come into contact, the long approach to the Galbadia garden begins, which ends with the battle against Seifer and Edea. Upon defeating Edea, something weird happens, and Rinoa appears to be possessed. That's the end of disc 2.

When they wake up, they head to Edea's house, where they find her and Cid. She is affectionate towards everyone, explaining that she was possessed by a witch from the future named Artemis, who controlled her for a long time. Artemis's goal is to compress time and merge it into a single timeline, so that only she exists, and for that she needs to find Eleone to travel further back in time. Squall looks for a way to save Rinoa, but Edea says there's nothing to do. Now they must find Eleone who is the ship of the white SeeD. Squall is with Rinoa in the infirmary, and is again taken to the dream of the past, where he is the soldier Laguna de Galbadia. In this dream Edea appears.

Waking up, he returns to Edea's house and asks her where to find the white SeeD ship. After finding it, he discovers that Eleone is not there, and that she is possibly in Esthar. Squall manages to reach Esthar. There, he searches for Professor Odine, a genius who develops advanced machines and artifacts to neutralize witches. Odine explains that Eleone has been hidden in the Esthar space station. While Squall travels into space with Rinoa and another partner, Edea, Zell, and the rest of the team stay behind on Esthar. So, the Galbadian army attacks Esthar and they get the Lunatic Pandora.

It turns out that the Lunatic Pandora is an ancient weapon hidden by Esthar at the bottom of the sea. It is an immense metal box capable of floating in the air thanks to some devices, and inside it is hidden something called The Great Monolith, an object capable of causing the Tear of the Moon. The Tear of the Moon is a phenomenon that occurs every 500 years. It is about the creation of a strange gravitational flow between the Earth and the Moon, in which thousands of monsters live. When this phenomenon occurs, the flow attracts a large number of monsters to Earth. This phenomenon was the one that destroyed the continent of Centra and its civilization.

The team on Earth tries to stop the Lunatic Pandora from reaching Tear's Point, the place where Esthar scientists believe the next Tear of the Moon will fall, and which possesses devices to attract the Moon. themselves, but they can't. Meanwhile, Squall takes Rinoa to the moonbase, but once there, she is possessed by Artemis and frees the witch Adel, who was captured 17 years ago by Esthar's army, ending the Witch War. This witch ruled Esthar, and she dedicated herself to kidnapping girls to find a worthy successor. One of those girls was Eleone. Laguna, who loved Eleone very much, along with Kiros and Ward, rescue Eleone and confine Adel in a niche that drains her powers and sends her into space.

When Adel is freed, the Tear of the Moon drags her to the Lunatic Pandora and Rinoa ends up lost in space. After saving her, Squall discovers that she is now a witch, and that she has Edea's powers. Upon returning to Earth, they discover that Galbadia has kidnapped Eleone. Squall and his are hired by the president of Esthar, to kill Artemis. Professor Odine explains to them that Artemis is using a machine to send her consciousness back in time, and that to kill her they must travel to the future.

After explaining the plan, the team travels to Lunatic Pandora, rescues Eleone and defeats Seifer, but Seifer recovers and kidnaps Rinoa. Seifer takes Rinoa along with Adel, who merges with her, absorbing her powers.

After defeating Adel, Rinoa absorbs her powers and is possessed by Artemis. Then, Eleone sends Artemis and Rinoa's consciousness back in time, to Adel's mind. The time compression begins and the team travels through the time stream to the time of Artemis.

Once there, they defeat Artemis's monsters, who had stolen their powers. Finally they fight the witch. After a long fight, Squall is thrown back in time. There, he discovers that they are in Edea's orphanage. She appears and asks for explanations, but before she can give them, Artemis reappears, dying. Squall decides to attack her, but Edea explains that witches cannot die without transferring her powers. Edea, who already had the witch powers of her mentor, accepts Artemis's powers so that the rest of the girls in the orphanage will not become witches. Artemis disappears and then the Squall from the past comes out of the building. He looks at the Squall present and asks Edea who he is. She is, she replies: "Don't worry." There can only be one Squall at this time, and that's you. After those words, Squall appears alone in the middle of a strange desert.

After walking a lot, she starts to forget things from using GFs too much. At the end, And when she's forgetting about Rinoa and, through tears, she faints. but he is found by Rinoa, who using his witch abilities revives him.

Then at the end there is a long scene where several of the characters from the game appear, including one by way of filming during a party in Balamb where everyone is partying at the end, in the last scene separately, Squall is seen together alive and apparently with all the memories together with Rinoa, seeing a shooting star on the balcony of Balamb's garden.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy VIII is a Japanese role-playing video game, with a turn-based based combat system. In a fight you can handle up to three characters. The scenes are pre-rendered backgrounds, while the objects are 3D models. The system is called ATB, Active Time Battle and in Spanish it was translated as BTC, Continuous Time Battle, which consists of each player having a bar that fills up at a certain time. time, and when it is full, you can perform an action. Each time you perform an action, the bar empties to refill, and so on for the duration of the battle. That bar therefore represents the speed of the character, the sooner it fills up, the faster it is.

The story is linear, though there are numerous subquests and one-off stories. The dialogues do not have voices, although the game is fully translated into Spanish.

As in all role-playing games, the characters gain experience that improve their abilities and attributes. However, this Final Fantasy has a feature that sets it apart from the rest of the saga: the ability to link magic to attributes, and thus modify them. For example, if Revitalia magic is attached to the Vitality attribute, the character's hit points are greatly increased. The game, having autolevel, did not reward leveling so much, so the game allowed the game to end at very low levels, simply concentrating the player on extracting magic that boosted the statistics.

The typical invocations are known in this installment as Guardian Forces (GF), in Spain translated as "Guardian Forces& #34;, who are in charge, so to speak, of protecting in combat. These guardians are summoned and attend the call after a short wait similar to that of the attack time, when the time ends, the guardian will come to execute his special attack that can arrive in certain cases (like the one of the GF "Eden& #34;) to hits over 40,000 health. As with magic, GFs can be linked to characters to give them new abilities. In the case of Diablo, unlocking the no encounter ability allowed the player, removing final bosses and Bahamut's secondary dungeon, to go through the video game without random combat, and since the game had the previously mentioned autolevel, the player did not suffer any consequences..

On the map there are 2 locations where you can find GFs that are naturally not in the "path" from the game, examples are Odin and Bahamut. Odin is a special GF, since it cannot be invoked; the summoning of him is random at the start of each battle (but he never appears during a boss battle). If you get it before DC4, he will then be replaced by Gilgamesh. His method is almost the same as Odin's, but he has 4 attacks (including death as Odin) and he can spawn against bosses. Bahamut is found in the Deep Ocean Research Center.

A card minigame has also been added, the Triple Triad, which has turned out to be quite popular among fans of the saga.

Magic

Final Fantasy VIII introduces a new concept in the use of magic. In the previous and later games of the series, the characters have access to spells that are used by consuming a resource usually called MP Magic Points. In Final Fantasy VIII each character can store 100 spells of each type that exists in the game. Using them decreases the amount stored by one. Spells are obtained by "mining them" from enemies or special points on the map, or by creating them through the conversion of materials or cards. Once extracted in a character, these spells can be transferred to another character in a complete or partial way, functioning more like collectible items.

The magic of this Final Fantasy is classified into several groups:

• Black magic: They are spells intended to cause magic damage to enemies based on the elements.
• White magic: Ichizos that are used for the healing of allied states and the restoration of the VIT, among others.
• Space-temporal magic: It is used to create various states, positive or negative, based on time and space. This group also belongs magics based on the Gravity element.
• Support Magic: Miscellaneous spells based on causing positive effects on allies to increase their parameters such as physical defense or magic defense.
• State magic: Miscellaneous spells based on causing negative effects on enemies, such as blindness, curse, zombie or mute.
• Blue magic: These are spells based on enemy techniques. This type of magic can only use Quistis with its limit.
• Prohibited magic: They are a set of spells that are theoretically forbidden throughout the world of Final Fantasy VIII due to their high power.
• Special magic: It is the set of spells that can only use certain characters, such as the Maelstrom of Edea or the The End of the Selphie limit. They also belong to this group magics that cannot be framed in previous categories and other types of spells.

List of magic in Final Fantasy VIII: Black magic

• Pire: It causes a little damage of element fire.
• Piro+: Cause of fire element damage.
• Piro++: It causes a lot of fire element damage.
• Ice: It causes a little damage of cold element.
• Ice+: Cause damage of cold element.
• Ice++: It causes a lot of damage to the cold element.
• Electro: It causes some damage of lightning element.
• Electro+: Cause lightning element damage.
• Electro++: It causes a lot of lightning damage.
• Aqua: Causes damage of water element.
• Aero: Causes air element damage.
• Tornado: It causes a lot of damage to the air element.
• Seism: It causes a lot of damage to the earth element.
• Sanctus: It causes much damage to the sacral element.
• Fulgor: Causes harm not elemental.
• Drainage: Absorb vitality of an enemy, which uses to increase its own vitality.

White magic

• Cura: Returns some vitality.
• Cura+: Returns vitality.
• Cura++: It returns a lot of vitality.
• Lazarus: Revive a KO-state character with some vitality.
• Lazarus+: Reanima altogether a KO.
• Esna: Curates most of the altered states.
• Revitalia: Restores vitality at intervals.

Space-time magic

• Gravity: Reduces 3/4 of the vitality of an enemy.
• Freno: Reduces the speed of an enemy.
• Prisa: Increases the speed of a character.
• Paro: Stop an enemy. If all the enemies end with the Paro state they win the battle.
• Libra: You can see the vitality, weaknesses and strengths of monsters.

Support Magic

• Antimagia: Eliminates the effects of any supporting magic or time-space, except gravity, on an enemy or ally.
• Aura: Allows a character to use their special techniques without having low vitality.
• Coraza: Increases the physical defense of a character.
• Shield: Increases the magical defense of a character.
• Double: Allows to throw two magics in the same turn.
• Triple: Allows to throw three magics in the same turn.
• Mirror: Reflects the magics thrown on a character and returns them against the enemy.
• Lévita: Prevent a character from being damaged with ground element.

Status Magic

• Confu: Applies the state of confusion to an enemy; under this state, the individual executes random commands against enemies and/or allies.
• Pain: It causes poison, blindness and mute states to an enemy.
• Fusion: Non-Elemental Damage Cause and RST0 (Cero resistance)
• Madness: Applies the state of madness to an enemy; under this state, the individual physically attacks an enemy and cannot be controlled.
• Morpheus: Applies the sleep state to an enemy; under this state, the individual cannot apply any command.
• Death: It causes the KO state to an individual, killing him instantly. It doesn't work with the bosses.
• Mutis: It causes the state to mute an enemy; under this state, the individual cannot use magic or GF.
• Petra. It causes the stone state to an enemy; under this state the individual cannot apply any command. If all enemies end up in stone state, they win the battle.
• Darkness: Causes the state blindness to an enemy; under this state the individual sees its physical attack aim reduced.
• Zombie: Causes the zombie state to an enemy; under this state the individual is affected with objects, magics or healing commands.
• Bio: It causes damage of poison element and applies the poison state; under this state the individual sees its vitality gradually reduced every time he executes a command.

Blue Magic

• Laser Eye: It causes harm not elemental to an enemy.
• Biometralla: It causes harm not elemental to an enemy.
• Self-guided laser: It causes harm not elemental to an enemy.
• Ray bomb: It causes harm not elemental to all enemies.
• Megavibration: It causes harm not elemental to all enemies.
• Expansive wave: Severe (non-elementary) damage to all enemies.
• Electroshock: Causes lightning element damage to all enemies.
• Water vaho: Causes damage of water element to all enemies.
• Called: Causes damage of element fire to all enemies.
• Micromissiles: Causes damage of element gravity to an enemy.
• Level Death: Kill the enemies based on whether they have a divisible level with the Quistis level.
• Disintegrator: It makes the enemy disappear, not being effective against zombie enemies, or bosses.
• Acid rain: Applies various states altered to an enemy.
• Strong breath: It puts all enemies in altered states.
• White Wind: Restores vitality to all allies.
• Total Barrier: Apply the shield and armor magics to all the allies.

Forbidden magic

• Metheo: Causes harm not elementary random to all enemies.
• Artema: It causes harm not elementary to all enemies.

Special Magic

• Apocalypse: It causes massive harm not elemental to all enemies. This magic is exclusive of Artemisa, and you can extract it to use it against it but when it comes to the final combat of the game it does not give the possibility to link it unless a savegames editor is used and that magic is added (in this case you can link it as Elementary defence and will give 100% resistance to all elements.
• Total Cure: Restores the full vitality of all allies and cures their altered states. This magic is exclusive to Selphie's Roulette limit.
• Muro: Apply the magic shield and armour to all all the allies. This magic is exclusive to Selphie's Roulette limit.
• Lévita++: Makes the enemy disappear, is not effective against zombie enemies, GFs or bosses. This magic is exclusive to Selphie's Roulette limit.
• The end: Eliminates any enemy, is effective even against GFs and bosses. This magic is exclusive to Selphie's Roulette limit.
• Ultragravity: Reduces to 1/4 the vitality of all enemies. This magic is exclusive of Diablo, Ente Omega and Ente Artema. You cannot extract or link.
• Maelstrom: It causes harm not elementary to all enemies and applies to them the cursed state, under which they cannot use special techniques. This magic is unique to Edea, and only uses it when we fight it in the Galbadia Garden at the end of the second CD of the game.

Elements and States

In Final Fantasy VIII there are nine elements. All of them have an opposite element except Gravity.

• Fire: It is the opposite of Ice.
  • Magic: Piro, Piro+, Piro++, Llamarada.
  • GF: Ifrit, Boko, Phoenix.
• Ice: It is the opposite of Fire.
  • Magic: Ice, Ice+, Ice++.
  • GF: Shiva.
• Ray: It's the opposite of Water.
  • Magic: Electro, Electro+, Electro++, Electroshock.
  • GF: Quetzal.
• Water: It's the opposite of Rayo.
  • Magic: Aqua, Aquatic Vaho.
  • GF: Leviathan.
• Air: It is the opposite of Earth.
  • Magic: Aero, Tornado.
  • GF: Eolo.
• Earth: It is the opposite of Air.
  • Magi: Seism.
  • GF: Brothers.
• Sacro: It is the opposite of Veneno.
  • Magi: Sanctus, Pain.
  • GF: Alejandro.
• Poison: It is the opposite of Sacro.
  • Magic: Bio, Acid Rain, A fervent breath.
  • GF: Helltrain.
• Gravity: It has no opposite.
  • Magic: Gravity, Ultragravity.
  • GF: Siren, Diablo.

There are also "positive altered states" which are actually considered support magic, it should be added that any are removed with the Anti-magic spell:

• Revitalia: Increases the VIT (HP) of the character little by little in regular time intervals.
  • It is caused by: The Revitalia spell.
  • It is eliminated with: The passage of time.
• Aura: Allows to use the limit even if the current VIT is not low.
  • It is caused by: Aura Stone and Aura spell.
  • It is eliminated with: Magic antimagia, state of curse and the passage of time.
• Coraza: Increases physical defense.
  • It is caused by: Coraza Stone and the Coraza, Armor and Muro spells.
  • It is eliminated with: The passage of time.
• Shield: Increases the magic defense.
  • It is caused by: Shield Stone and Shield, Armor and Wall spells.
  • It is eliminated with: The passage of time.
• Double: Allows to use two magics in the same turn.
  • It is caused by: Double spell and GF Cerbero.
  • It is removed with: The passage of time or the Mutis spell.
• Triple: Allows to use three magics in the same turn.
  • It is caused by: The Triple spell and the G.F. Cerbero.
  • It is removed with: The passage of time or the Mutis spell.
• Mirror: Reflects all the magics that apply to the character against the enemy, and also in favor if it is a white magic or support.
  • It is caused by: The Mirror spell or the Ruby GF.
  • It is eliminated with: The passage of time.
• Prise: Increases the filling speed of the action bar, allowing commands to run faster.
  • It is caused by: The Prisa spell.
  • It is removed with: The passage of time or spells Freno and Paro.

Negative altered states. Most of them can be removed with Esna, Full Cure, and items like Panacea and Panacea+ in addition to the Heal command; likewise, most of them can be caused with magic such as Acid Rain, Fetid Breath or the GF Helltrain:

• Ceguera: Reduces the character's aim, decreasing the probability of correctly running the Atacar command.
  • It is caused by: The Dark spell.
  • It is removed with: Colirio, Panacea, Elixir, Superelixir or Esna magic.
• Mudez: Avoid the use of magic by the affected character.
  • It is caused by: The Mutis spell.
  • It is removed with: The Iron objects of the Eco, Panacea, Elixir, Superelixir or Esna magic.
• Confusion: The character executes a random command against an enemy or ally.
  • It is caused by: The Confu spell.
  • It is removed with: Panacea, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna magic or the passage of time.
• Dream: For the action bar and the character cannot make commands.
  • It is caused by: The Morpheus spell.
  • It is removed with: Elixir objects, Superelixir, Esna magic, the passage of time or physical attacks.
• Freno: Decrease the filling speed of the action bar, so it takes more time to execute commands.
  • It is caused by: The Freno spell.
  • It is removed with: Panacea+ objects, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna, Prisa and Paro magic or the passage of time.
• Paro: For the action bar and the character cannot execute commands.
  • It is caused by: The Paro spell.
  • It is removed with: Panacea+ objects, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna magic.
• Madness: Increases the physical power and defense of the character, and causes the positive state Prisa, but this can only execute the Atacar command.
  • It is caused by: The Mad spell.
  • It is removed with: Elixir objects, Superelixir, Esna magic.
• Damn: Avoid the use of special techniques by the affected character.
  • It is caused by: The Maelstrom spell and certain techniques.
  • It is removed with: Elixir objects, Superelixir, Esna magic, at the end of the battle or the Blessed Water object.
• Poison: Reduces to regular time intervals and after running a command, the VIT of the character.
  • It is caused by: The Bio spell.
  • It is removed with: Antidote, Panacea, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna magic.
• Stone: Petrify the enemy and prevent it from performing commands.
  • It is caused by: The Petra spell.
  • It is removed with: The object Golden Needle, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna magic.
• Stone: Petrifies the enemy when the countdown reaches 0, with the effects of the Stone state.
  • It is caused by: Various techniques.
  • It is removed with: Golden Needle, Panacea+, Elixir, Superelixir.
• Zombie: Increases the physical defense of the enemy, but the effects of healing magics and objects on it are reversed.
  • It is caused by: The Zombie spell.
  • It is removed with: The objects Bendita Water, Elixir, Superelixir, Esna magic.
• RST-0: Reduces the resistance of the enemy, so it is exposed to both physical and magical attacks.
  • It is caused by: The Fusion spell.
  • It is removed with: Elixir objects, Superelixir, Esna magic or at the end of the battle.
• Condemn: It causes the KO state to the enemy when the countdown arrives.
  • It is caused by: Various techniques.
  • It is removed with: The object Bless Water, Panacea+, Elixir, Superelixir.
• KO: The enemy is out of combat by reducing its VIT to 0.
  • It is caused by: The Death spell and reducing the VIT to 0.
  • It is eliminated with: The Lazarus and Lazarus magics and the Cola object of Phoenix, Omniphenix, Ala of Phoenix.

Guardians of the Force

The Guardians of the Force or GF are powerful entities that can be summoned to perform their special attack during battles. They do not spend the characters' magic. They have abilities that can be useful to the party and provide them with certain types of action.

The more each GF is invoked, the next time it will become faster little by little, since the affinity with it will progressively rise with each invocation up to a total of 1000 points. Depending on the element of the GF, you cannot have a good affinity with certain combinations, for example if a character is linked to Ifrit (fire) and invokes it repeatedly, his affinity with Shiva (ice) will decrease. Another way to acquire affinity with the GFs in addition to summoning them is through the Bridal Ring item (LuvLuv G in the English version) but this way requires a lot of time because it is quite difficult to obtain and/or craft and it only gives 20 affinity with all GFs.

Guardians can be linked to a character in order to allow linking magic to the attributes of each character, each of them allows different links to different attributes. The stronger the magic, the higher the attributes they are linked to will go up to a total of 100%.

GFs are obtained under special conditions. Once GF is obtained, it can always be summoned and can be bound through the main menu. Some GFs help during battle, but are not linkable. GF can be obtained as follows:

• Extracting them to an opponent in battles. It is the case of Sirena, Ruby, Leviathan, Eolo, Alexander and Eden.
• Fighting directly against them. It is the case of Ifrit, Diablo, Bahamut, Cactilion, King Tomberi, Brothers, Cerbero and Odin.
• Using some special objects or a combination of them. This is the case of Phoenix, Boko and Helltrain.
• Completing a particular event. It's the case of Quetzal, Shiva and Gilgamesh.
• Getting them from Chocobo World. This is the case of Minimog and Mumba.

There are several types of GF:

• Those who can be used in the battle with the invocation command "GF". It is the case of Queztal, Shiva, Ifrit, Sirena, Hermanos, Rubí, Cerbero, Leviathan, Eolo, Alejandro, Diablo, Helltrain, Bahamut, Eden, Cactilion and King Tomberi.
• Those who, since they are achieved, call themselves in certain random battles. This is the case of Odin, Gilgamesh and Phoenix.
• Those who can only be used in Chocobo World. This is the case of Boko, Minimog and Mumba.

The GF to get throughout the game are:

• Quetzal. It's a great bird of the Ray element. His technique is called "Electrical storm"and is especially effective against enemies of element Water. It gets from the class computer at the beginning of the game or talking to Quistis before going to the Flame Caverna.
• Shiva. It's an ice goddess. His technique is called "Diamond dust"and is especially effective against enemies of Fire element. It gets along with Quetzal.
• Ifrit. He's a powerful fire demon. His technique is called "Llamas of Hell", it is especially effective against Ice elements enemies. You get it by beating him in the Flame Cave.
• Sirena. To be mythological. His technique is called "Mesmerizing Song", which causes harm not elementary to all enemies and applies the Mudez state whenever they are vulnerable to such a state. Their attacks affect many enemies, but it has little effect against chiefs, chiefs or zombie enemies. It is achieved by extracting it to the enemy Elviore at the Dollet Communications Tower or at the Artemis Castle by extracting it to the Neodragon.
• Shit. To be mythological. His technique is called "Night Emissary", and causes great damage of element Gravity to all enemies. Their attacks affect many enemies, but it has little effect against chiefs, chiefs or zombie enemies. You can sell it in the Magic Lamp that will give us Cid before going to Timber's mission.
• Brothers. Mighty mythological minotaurus. His technique is called "Fraternal Love" and causes Earth element damage to all enemies. It is particularly effective against enemies of Air element, but it does not work against flying enemies or in Lévita state. It is achieved by selling it in the Tomb of King Without Name in the region of Galbadia.
• Ruby. Little magic creature. His technique is called "Ruby support"and apply the Magic Mirror to all the combat group. It is achieved by extracting it to the Gargolas against which they fight in the mansion of the president of Galbadía.
• Leviathan. Mythical marine snake. His technique is called "Ocean Rugid"it causes damage of element Water to all enemies, being particularly effective against enemies of element Ray. It is achieved by extracting it to Master Norg during the struggle in the subsoil of the Balamb Garden.
• Eolo. Humanoid creature. His technique is called "Hurricane area" causes damage of Air element to all enemies, being particularly effective against enemies of Earth element. It gets extracted to Wind in the city of Balamb during the taking by Galbadia.
• Beer. Three-head mythical dog. His technique is called "Custodian of the Averno"Causes the Double and Triple states to all the allies. He manages to sell it in the Galbadia Garden.
• Alejandro. Holy machine. His technique is called "Final verdict" causes damage of the Sacro element to all enemies, being effective against the practice all enemies, except those who absorb their element. It is achieved by extracting it to Edea in the battle against it in the Galbadia Garden at the end of CD 2.
• Helltrain. Ghost train. His attack "Paths of Eternity"It causes damage of element Veneno to all enemies besides applying states of Ceguera, Mudez, Locura, Dream, Freno, Paro, Condena, Curse, Stone and Confusion; it also reduces to 0 resistance. It is achieved by obtaining the objects: 6 Panacea+, 6 Molbol Tentacles, 6 Iron Tubes and Solomon's Ring.
• Odin. Mythic knight riding a legendary white horse. His technique is called "Justifiable" kills all enemies, except Heads. He manages to overthrow him in the Centra Ruins.
• Gilgamesh. Mythic knight who handles a lot of legendary swords. It has various attacks depending on the sword you use (Excalibur, Excalibur oxidada, Masamune and Sable Justiciero), all of them cause non-elementary damage so they are effective against many enemies. It is achieved automatically after the death of Odin at the hands of Seifer on CD 3.
• Phoenix. Magical mythical bird. His technique is called "Life calls"it causes some elemental damage of Fire to all enemies and revives with the VIT to the top of the allies that were in KO state. It is achieved after using the object "Fenix Wing" (its later appearance is random), available from CD 2 in the Shumi People located in the region of Trabia.
• Bahamut. Legendary Dragon. His technique is called "Megafulgor"it causes very high non-elemental damage, and it is effective against many enemies. It is achieved by defeating it when reaching the bright core in the Ocean Ruins (located in the bottom right corner of the map) after correctly responding its three messages.
• Cactilio. Giant cactus of the Cactilio family. His technique is called "Thousands of thorns"It causes non-elementary damage depending on the multiples of the level it possesses (e.g. level 80 to 89 = 8000 damage) to all enemies. It manages to overthrow it on the Cactilio Island of the Centra region.
• Tomberi. Little creature of the Tomberi family. His technique is called "Knife"it causes harm not elementary to an enemy; it is effective against almost all enemies but its physical power is low. He gets defeating King Tomberi in the Centra Ruins.
• Eden. The most powerful GF. His technique is called "Extreme"and causes massive harm not elemental to all enemies. To get it first you have to defeat Bahamut, leave the place and return once or several times until a wooden "bridge" appears that allows you to approach the tree to access the lower levels of the Ruins. Then on the 4 levels followed, the amount of steam to open the door to the subsoil must be correctly distributed, once in subsoil you must fight with quite powerful monsters (the skill No Encounter of the Devil GF is useless in this stage) and in the end will be Ente Artema, in that fight you can extract to Eden.
• Minimog. Little creature of the Moguri family. His attack called "Danza" cures the entire VIT of the GF currently linked.
• Boko. Yellow bird belonging to the Chocobos family. His attack called "Chocofuego" causes some fire element damage to the enemies, being effective in front of the enemies of Ice element.
• Mumba. Creature mixture of fox and dog. His attack, "Garra", causes physical damage to all enemies, but it is not very effective given its low physical power.

Characters

Protagonists

• Squall Leonhart: He is the protagonist of the story. SeeD Graduate at the beginning of the game, it has a sable gun as a weapon. He has a pretty serious character, he doesn't like others depending on him. Squall is a rather lonely boy, who during the course of the game starts to open his colleagues until he falls in love with Rinoa. He also manifests a certain enmity with Seifer Almasy, and in a fight with him, there were scars in the puzzle, as shown in the introduction of the game, Squall is a tacit hero and schivoking member of the SeeD brigade. By his retracted and insociable attitude, he gives the impression of being an egocentric and incapable individual of working as a team, detests to get into his affairs and can be described as a lone wolf. Later in the video game he becomes the Commander of the Balamb Garden.

• Rinoa Heartilly: member and leader of the Owls of the ForestHe met Squall and the others when he hired his services to beat up the president of Galbadia, a very optimistic girl, who doesn't like others to saddle. As the game progresses, she forgets how irritating it can become Squall, and both finally realize that they feel something for each other; thus achieving in the last part of the game the two become a couple. Your weapon is a flying disk, its limits are carried out with the help of your dog Angelo. Throughout the game Edea transmits her witch powers as Rinoa was the most magical woman near her. She's Julia's daughter and General Calway.

• Quistis Trepe: Professor of the Balamb Garden, she is the youngest teacher ever graduated in the garden, even has an admirer club; and she feels a fraternal love for Squall, a fact that reveals it in Trabia, in addition to sometimes being considered her older sister. Your weapon is a whip; throughout the game you will discover what your feelings are. It appears for the first time after the recovery of Squall, to go with it to the Flame Caverna, a mandatory test of all SeeD.

• Selphie Tilmitt: exchange student of the Trabia Garden, graduates from SeeD in Balamb; she is an extremely cheerful girl, and something nosy, who always has a smile on her face. Their weapons are a nunchakus, which handles with great skill. He first appeared in Dollet, as an emissary, but joined the group after the march of Seifer. Its limit is the "Ruleta", which will select a random magic, which does not have to be within the repertoire of the girl. This magic makes it one or more times. There appear little magics, such as Lévita++, that elevates the enemy to leave him out of combat.

• Zell Dincht: An innate fighter, lover of mouths. Their weapons are their own cuffs; just as Squall is a graduate SeeD from the Balamb Garden. He lives in Balamb with his mother and mounts a flying skateboard, which uses it once. It appears for the first time when they are ready to go and fight Dollet, in the Squall and Seifer group.

• Irvine Kinneas: SeeD Species of the Galbadia Garden, since in that garden do not form SeeDs, an expert shooter, but something obsessed with women. He joins the group during the visit to the Galbadia Garden on disk 1 for the mission of killing Edea.

• Laguna Loire: Character that is controlled during Squall's dreams. Later he demonstrates his important role in history, it was he who locked the witch Adel during the so-called "War of the Witch." He's Esthar's president.

• Kiros Seagul: He is a warrior, very good at fighting body to body. Fighter and sportsman, he's been a close friend of Laguna and Ward for many years. Like his two friends, Kiros is not the typical soldier of Galbadia, and he is too independent to belong to the army. Trust Laguna's decisions and follow him wherever he goes, his weapons are the ka-tar swords, which he uses through side cuts and spins, thus showing him in his only special, butcher shop. These weapons are real and require a great technique and a lot of practice.

• Ward Zaback: With his mighty harpoon, Ward's grandma is shaking his enemies. Naturally, appearances deceive. Ward is the faithful and loyal friend of Laguna and Kiros. He's not an aggressive person, and he doesn't have his own aspirations. Instead, he asks Laguna to assume more authority. Although he sometimes disagrees with what Laguna does, he loves to travel with his two friends and does not imagine his adventures without them.

Antagonists

• Seifer Almasy: another student from the Balamb Garden who could not graduate. It's Squall's rival, at first we could say it's good, as he's the head of Squall's group to go fight Dollet, but in the middle of the first album, he starts working for Edea, becoming his knight. His weapon is the sable-pistola, it is a similar weapon, almost equal, to Squall's weapon.

• Edea Kramer: the witch who puts the hard stuff on the first two albums of the game, but then it is discovered that it is only being controlled by Artemisa. She's the wife of director Kramer, and a very good ally later in the game, it's only controlled for a while to replace Rinoa. You can choose as a playable character just before entering the Great Salina de Esthar, until the Lunatic Pandora flight over Esthar. She's the adoptive mother of the whole control team except Rinoa.

• Artemisa: Known as Artemisa in Europe by the Japanese pronunciation of the original "/Arutemisa/". He's the main enemy of the game. In the US translation. America is called Ultimecia. It's a witch of the future, who in the beginning controls Edea Kramer. Its goal is to comprehend the time to dominate the world. It owns its own GF called GryphusSame name as Squall's ring lion.

Development

Music

Official albums

Reception

Final Fantasy VIII is considered one of the most popular video games of all time in Famitsu magazine, ranking twenty-two. Likewise Final Fantasy VIII became one of the best-selling games in the series, managing to sell 8.15 million copies worldwide by March 31, 2003.

Differences between the European and Japanese versions

According to the official page in the European version of the game, a uniform was modified for having certain Nazi characteristics. In addition to modifying a weapon, without specifying which one, and adding a little more information in the guide.

Other appearances

• Chocobo Racing (PSOne, 1999): Squall Leonheart and a Mumba appear as selectable hidden corridors. In addition, one of the circuits is totally based on Final Fantasy VIII. Its name is "FFVIII Circuit" and the music of this track is the theme of battles FFVIII remixed.

• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (GBA, 2004): Squall Leonheart (under the name of Leon) and Selphie Tilmitt appear as non-jugable characters.

• Kingdom Hearts (PS2, 2002): Squall Leonheart and Selphie Tilmitt appear as non-playable characters.

• Kingdom Hearts II (PS2, 2006): Squall Leonheart, Seifer Almasy, Thunder, Wind and Selphie Tilmitt appear as non-playable characters.

• Dissydia: Final Fantasy (PSP): Squall Leonheart and Artemisa appear as playable characters.

• Dissydia 012: Final Fantasy (PSP): Squall Leonhart, Artemisa and Laguna Loire appear as playable characters.