Final Fantasy VIII

From Final Fantasy - NeoWiki

Final Fantasy VIII
Developer:	Square Enix
Publisher:	Square Enix
Release dates:	NA - Sept 9, 1999 Japan - Dec 31, 1998 Europe - May 18, 1998
Genre:	Console role-playing game
ESRB rating:	E10+
Platform(s):	PlayStation PC
Media:	1 CD-ROM (PSX)
Latest FF VIII Forum Posts General Discussion XXXVIII: Squall Hotdogs and Zell Burgers [280] Roleplaying Discussion Thread V 5.0 ~ Still Burning in the Fire Cavern ~ [270] The FFVIII Corrupt-A-Wish Foundation [367] ABC Game~ version 6 [230] [Game] 20 Questions - Version VI [170] Your Favorite and most Useful GF [24] Final Fantasy VIII Caption Competition [332] Things that FF8 characters would never say/do [251] What does SEED mean? [85] Anyone who would like to make a game like this^^ [14]

Story Synopsis

The game takes place during an unnamed time period, where technology and magic reign. Academies known as Gardens train elite mercenaries known as SeeDs. The story revolves around Squall Leonhart, a talented, newly qualified, young SeeD drawn into a strange and mysterious world along with his friends and comrades; Zell, a martial arts specialist, Quistis a Garden Instructor, Irvine a smooth talking sharp-shooter, Selphie a spunky young cadet, and Rinoa a spirited young resistance leader. What starts off as an average military assignment opens the door to a much greater threat, a sorceress bent on domination. Squall and his friends will have to confront secrets of the past, present and even the future to tackle this threat, though it is far greater than they could predict.

Guardian Forces

Magic, within the world of Final Fantasy VIII, is utilized through Guardian Forces (GF). These are, in many ways, similar to the summonings from other Final Fantasy games, with characters able to call them in battles, to carry out one strong attack.

However, a far more important facet of the Guardian Forces existence is the way in which they improve your characters stats. Junctioning a GF to a character allows that character to use magic and other commands. It also, assuming the GF has unlocked the relevant ability, allows them to junction magic to a variety of stats, raising them to fantastical levels. Due to the GF system, it is easily possible to defeat Final Fantasy VIII without levelling up any characters, while attempting to complete the game without using GFs at all will be a much harder task.

GFs are collected in a variety of ways - by defeating them in battle, by drawing them from enemies, or by receiving them from other characters, either as part of the storyline or in a subquest.

Magic

Magic is collected by 'drawing' it from enemies and draw points. There is no limit to the amount of magic that can be drawn, although characters can only store 100 of each spell. Magic can also be drawn and cast without being stored. Once in your inventory, magic can be junctioned to stats such as strength or HP to raise them. Not all spells are created equal - for instance, healing spells such as Cure, Cura or Curaga will raise your HP much farther than an attack spell such as Fire, Fira or Firaga would.

Gameplay

The game takes place on an overworld map, where you guide the character with the control stick. Doors, etc, will transfer you to a different overworld map.

As with all Final Fantasy games, combat takes place separate from the game map. Fights are triggered either randomly, in some areas, or as a story event (boss fights, etc.)
Combat is carried out by selecting commands for the characters to carry out. Commands can be selected when an ATB bar has filled to the maximum. ATB bars fill at different speed, depending on the character. After a command has been carried out, the ATB bar empties, and begins to refill. Combat ends when all enemies have been defeated. Enemies are felled when their HP reaches 0. HP are lost when the target is hit with attacks, different attacks take away different amounts of HP.
After victory, items and experience are recieved. If you lose the battle, (in the same manner that enemies are defeated) then you are forced to continue from where you last saved.

Major portions of this page were written by: Bunnyburn and Deis