It's Final Fantasy VIII's 15th Anniversary in Japan and North America . It was released on February 11th in 1999 on the Playstation in Japan and September 9th 1999 in North America.
Height: 5'10
Age: 17
Date Of Birth: August 23rd
Blood Type: AB
Weapon: Gunblade Revolver
Profile:
A talented SeeD and a member of the select organization which was formed for the purpose of subjugating sorceresses. While carrying out his duty, Squall is afflicted by mysterious dreams which show him a story from the past and the life of a warm and candid man who seems so like and yet unlike himself. These dreams of the past, which seem at first glance to be without significance, soon are revealed to have intimate ties to the tale of Squall's present.
Height: 5'4
Age:17
Date Of Birth: March 3rd
Weapon: Pinwheel
Profile:
As a part of the Forest Owls, Rinoa works to undermine the Galbadian government along with her fellow freedom fighters. She meets Squall when she goes to Balamb Garden to seek help for her group's plans to abduct the Galbadian president. She cannot help falling for the SeeD, yet she will find herself the unwitting inheritor of a sorceress's power, making her a liability and putting her life at risk during the war against the sorceresses.
Height: 6'2
Age:18
Date Of Birth: December 22nd
Blood Type: O
Weapon: Gunblade Hyperion
Profile:
The head of Balamb Garden's Disciplinary Committee and yet the most problematic student within its walls. Despite his superior fighting skills, Seifer's belligerent attitude and inability to follow orders have left him famous for being unable to pass the SeeD exam. When he crashes one of Squall's missions, he is caught by the sorceress Edea and turned against the Garden.
Height: 5'6
Age:18
Date Of Birth: October 3rd
Blood Type: A
Weapon: Whip
A young prodigy who became a SeeD at the age of 15 and received her instructors license at 17. While calm, cool and collected in front of her students, her insecurities are revealed to specific people such as Squall whom she has feelings for. These insecurities have sometimes even gotten in the way of missions making Quistis question herself and her duties.
Height: 5'5
Age: 17
Date Of Birth: March 17th
Blood Type: B
Weapon: Gloves
Profile:
A hot tempered SeeD who fights with his fists. His mother lives in Balamb where he grew up before attending Balamb Garden. While his heart is always in the right place, he let's his emotions overcome his actions thus resulting in grave situations. He has a special love of hot dogs but is never able to make the morning rush for them.
Height: 6'0
Age: 17
Date Of Birth: November 24th
Blood Type: A
Weapon: Shotgun
Profile:
A sniper from Galabadia Garden and a ladies man, Irvine is assigned to Squall's group on an assassination mission. While presented as calm and cool, he crumbles under pressure when faced with it. He retains memories of his childhood because of Galbadia Gardens avoidance of GF's.
Height: 5'1 1/2
Age: 17
Date Of Birth: July 16th
Blood Type: B
Weapon: Nunchaku
Profile:
A newly transferred SeeD cadet from Trabia Garden. Energetic, always smiling, and never shy, this lighthearted mood-maker has been known to casually drop a dark joke or two.
Height: 5'11
Age: 27(young) and 44(older)
Date Of Birth: January 3rd
Blood Type: B
Weapon: Machine Gun
Profile:
A young joyous man enlisted in the Galbadian army along with his two best friends Kiros and Ward. He falls in love with a women by the name of Julia in Deling City but is separated from her when he ends up injured in Winhill where he meets another young women who nurses him back to health by the name of Raine and a little girl Ellone. He ends up falling in love with Raine and marry's her but is forced to leave her while she's pregnant in order to rescue Ellone from Esthar. He ends up becoming the president of Esthar but at the cost of orphaning his children and losing his wife.
Height: 5'6
Weapon: Magic
Profile:
A women made a sorceress at the age of 5, she married a man named Cid Kramer who together then started Balamb Garden and SeeD. Originally she ran an orphange for children orphaned by the sorceress war but it was abandoned when she disappeared. Now she seeks to destroy SeeD and Garden's for reasons unknown.
Height: 6'4
Age: 23(young) and 40(older)
Date Of Birth: July 16th
Blood Type: O
Weapon: Paired Sharp Blades
Profile
Intelligent and the voice of reason, Kiros travels with Laguna and Ward while enlisted in the military. When they're all seperated and injured, Kiros and Ward find Laguna in Winhill and join him on his mission to rescue Ellone. The three are close friends.
Height: 7'0
Age: 25(younger) and 42(older)
Date Of Birth: February 25th
Blood Type: A
Weapon: Harpoon
Profile
While intimidating in appearance, Ward is quite an observant and wise man. He was was scarred on his face by an unknown injury and later begins to lose his ability to speak. He cares deeply for his friends and supports Laguna and Kiros throughout their journey in the military and after.
Side Characters:
Age: 18 & 17
Weapons: Pole & Missle Blade
Profile:
Seifer's loyal posse, they follow him through thick and thin. Fuujin tends to yell when speaking while Raijin ends his sentences with "ya know?".
Age: 35
Profile
The Headmaster of Balamb Garden and married to Edea, he keeps many secrets hidden from his students. What are Garden and SeeD's true goals and why is Cid hiding them?
Profile:
A piano player and singer, she wrote her first big hit Eye's On Me before being killed in a fatal car accident. She had a daughter with General Caraway.
Profile:
A kind young woman who takes care of Ellone in the quiet village of Winhill. She meets Laguna when he is injured and nurses him back to health. She falls in love with him and marry's him to which they have a child. Unfortunately she passed away shortly after giving birth.
Profile:
A gentle and kind girl who happens to know Squall and Co. along with Laguna and Raine. She's a mystery to everyone but Laguna who protected her when she was a child. She was orphaned at a young age and placed in Edea's orphanage along with her younger brother.
Final Fantasy VIII was the first game in the franchise to make the jump to realistic proportioned characters. It brought gorgeous visuals and breathtaking FMV's which was another new for the series. The games use of pre rendered backgrounds was wonderfully done with so many unique and interesting locations to explore. The game chose to focus heavily on the main protagonists thoughts, something we also hadn't seen in previous games.
The battle system was changed quite a bit from the previous installment's . Adding in a levelling system that challenges you by allowing monsters to gain levels whenever Squall does and a complex junction system with many customizable options that allows various play styles. Guardian Forces were a huge component to the battle system as they allowed players to junction magic onto their party's stats thus increasing their power. GF's also learn abilities that can be used in battle AND outside such as the No-Encounter ability giving players the option to avoid random battles all together.
Original Japanese OST:
Original North America OST:
Full OST Album
Piano Collection
Full Piano Collection
Orchestra
Full Orchestra Album
Black Mages
Force Your Way
Man With The Machine Gun
The Extreme
Maybe I'm a Lion
Chip Album
Fisherman's Horizon + rest of songs in the persons profile.
A New World Final Fantasy
Force Your Way
Fragment of Memories
Dissidia/012
Force Your Way
Julia
Don't Be Afraid
Blue Fields
Find Your Way
The Best of Final Fantasy 1994-1999
Liberi Fatali
Mods de Chocobo
The Spy
My Mind
Unreleased Tracks
Adel
Concert Irish-Jig
Concert Eye's On Me
Attacking Dollet Demo
Raid On Dollet
Visions of Dollet demo
Demo Main Menu music
Falling Crab
Fake Deling
Final Fantasy VIII has been ported to PC, Steam and PSN. It's also been released as a Greatest Hit.
Ultimania translations:
Translation's Part 1
Translations Part 2
Translations Part 3
Translations Part 4
A link to the new translastions being done on VIII's character's thoughts during moments in the game:
Ultimania interviews
This link has hidden pre rendered backgrounds and codes that were found by hackers:
Final Fantasy VIII hidden codes
A rare artwork of Squall and Cloud drinking Coca Cola:
A concept art for VIII's logo by Yoshitaka Amano:
A post containing VIII's gorgeous towns and locations:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34304460&postcount=1556
A site with many official artwork done by Nomura and Amano:
Creative Uncut
An article with 15 facts about Final Fantasy VIII for it's 15th Anniversary:
http://www.finalfantasyunion.com/ne...fantasy-viii-for-its-15th-birthday--2409.html
PS2 Tech Demo of Ballroom Dance:
Dance #1
Dancing #2
A list of cameo's for Final Fantasy VIII characters:
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A well put together faq on Time Compression, Ultimecia and many other aspects of VIII's plot:
Time/Plot FAQ
A composition of Selphie's train song:
Train Song
Afrojack samples The Landing:
Rock The House
A mashup of SQ Eye's On Me and Space Jam:
Smash Eye's On Me
A Melancholy of Don't Be Afraid
Don't Be Afraid Melancholy
Boy Band D2B music video influenced by VIII and X:
Jealous
Squall drawn by Tite Kubo, author of Bleach:
A tribute video I made for the Anniversary:
Final Fantasy VIII 15th Anniversary Tribute video
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So let's celebrate one of the greatest Final Fantasy's. Post your favourite fan art, songs, characters or anything you want.
*Credit to AcridMeat for the graphics, Dunan for the heads up about VIII's anniversary, MrDenny for a link to artworks, Dark Schala for the post containing all the Towns and Locations, DiipuSurotu for interview links and Jaxword for the hidden codes link. Thanks!
The summary's of Squall, Rinoa, Seifer and Selphie were taken from their official Dissidia online profiles*
