Julia Heartilly

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Julia and Laguna in the Galbadia Hotel bar.

Julia Heartilly is a non-player character in the game Final Fantasy VIII.

Julia is first shown during a flashback scene. It seems that during the Sorceress War, approximately eighteen years before the game began, Julia worked as a pianist in a Galbadian Hotel. This hotel was generally appropriated by the Galbadian Army, and Julia found many admirers amongst their ranks - including Laguna Loire and the future General Caraway.

Although Julia only plays the piano, she longs to sing as well. Unfortunately, she feels that her skill with lyrics lets her down.

When Laguna finally gets up the courage to talk to her, Julia invites him to her room. Before heading there, the player has the choice of talking to the other occupants of the bar, one of whom is a sergeant who, jealous of the attention Julia has given Laguna, vows to send the young soldier far, far away. This is the future General Caraway.

In Julia's room, she confesses that she's noticed Laguna in the bar - and written a song about the way he looks at her. They are interrupted by Kiros, who tells Laguna that they have been ordered on another mission. It seems General Caraway kept his promise.

An in-game shot of Julia and Laguna.

Julia later marries General Caraway, and releases the song 'Eyes on Me'. Laguna hears this news from Kiros years later, in Winhill village. Although regretful, Laguna stays in Winhill, in order to protect the village from the effects of the war. Unbeknownst to him, villager Raine Leonhart is, at the time, pregnant with his child - Squall.

Julia also becomes pregnant shortly after these events. A year after the release of Eyes on Me, Julia and Caraway's daughter, Rinoa is born.

Julia dies in a car crash at the age of twenty-eight, shortly before Rinoa's fifth birthday.

The existence of the song 'Eyes on Me' (which can be listened to here) means that Julia Heartilly was the first Final Fantasy character to have a voice actor, Faye Wong. A close second is her daughter, Rinoa, whose breathing can be heard in a later scene.

Major portions of this page were written by: Deis