Final Fantasy VIII: Difference between revisions

Squall Leonhart is a student at an [[Elaborate University High]] for mercenaries named Balamb Garden. The organisation that runs Balamb Garden, SeeD, takes in prepubescent orphans and [[Child Soldiers|trains them to become soldiers]], requiring them to graduate before their twentieth birthday.

 

 

 

''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' has many things that set it apart from ''[[Final Fantasy]] VII''. It is set in a more modern setting compared to ''VII'''s late-'80s [[Cyberpunk]] vibe, a sleek and futuristic world without [[Fantasy Gun Control]]. Monsters use [[Level Scaling]] to level up compared to the party average, making it entirely possible to [[One Man Party|level one character up to Lv.100]] without even starting the plot, or beat the game [[Low-Level Run|without earning a single experience point]]. Instead of equipping armour, characters "[[Powers as Programs|junction]]" [[Summon Magic|summon creatures]], and can increase their effectiveness by draining and stockpiling magic spells from enemies. It also foregoes a [[Mana Meter]] for [[Vancian Magic]].

 

 

Also notable is the game's localization process. Prior to ''Final Fantasy VIII'', localizations were carried out after the game's completion, which usually resulted in either a [[Blind Idiot Translation]] or one replete with [[Woolseyism|Woolseyisms]]. Starting with this game, Squaresoft hired translators to work alongside the Japanese development team as the game was being created, which started what is now pretty much the standard procedure for ''Final Fantasy'' translations.

* [[The Aloner]]: Squall {{spoiler|in the end sequence}}.

* [[All in a Row]]: Earlier games only showed one character at a time. This was the first title to show the entire party walking around together.

* [[Always Save the Girl]]: "Rinoa... Even if you become the world's enemy, I'll be your knight."

* [[Ambiguously Brown]]: Raijin

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Squall, Type 3 ([[Good Is Not Nice]]) on the [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes]]. He doesn't believe in good or evil and rarely if ever seems concerned with "right" or "wrong," instead staying involved in the game's plot because he is hired to do so and, later in the game, to protect Rinoa and because he is made to believe that [[You Can't Fight Fate|it's his fate]].

* [[Anti-Villain|Anti Villains]]: Fujin and Raijin.

** [[Recurring Boss]]: Several. Biggs and Wedge have to be fought twice. Seifer has to be fought four times. Edea has to be fought twice. Raijin has to be fought three times. Fujin has to be fought twice. Sacred had two optional fights. BGH251F2 has to be fought twice.

** [[Sequential Boss]]: Numerous.

*** The first fight against Raijin in Balamb goes straight into the next boss fight against both Fujin and Raijin, but with a scene in between.

*** The third fight against Seifer goes straight into the second fight against Edea without the battle sequence ending.

* [[Burn the Witch|Burn The Sorceress]]: {{spoiler|Rinoa on Disc 3.}}

* [[Canine Companion]]: Angelo, to Rinoa.

* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]:

** Irvine pretends to be a cool loner, then a nervous flake, in an awkward attempt to hide the fact that {{spoiler|he remembers his childhood at the orphanage and recognizes all his old friends (and their "Matron", Edea), while none of them remember him. When they finally remember,}} he reveals that he didn't say anything because he was embarrassed about {{spoiler|being so utterly forgotten.}}

* [[Charm Person]]: Visiting Deling City during the second disc and talking to the citizens will reveal that when they saw Edea speaking to them {{spoiler|before she killed the president}}, they all felt incredibly loyal to her and are willing to do whatever she wants them to. It's never addressed why her magic didn't work on the protagonists.

* [[Cheerful Child]]: Ellone

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The Dollet satellite dish.

** A little (not-so-)honorable mention was used by the [[Big Bad]] against the player: {{spoiler|Squall's ring, named by the player partway the game, is Ultimecia's inspiration for her sort-of [[The Dragon|dragon]], Griever}}.

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]:

** Squall wears [[Dark Is Not Evil|black]], Seifer wears [[Light Is Not Good|white]].

* [[Coming of Age Story]]: A theme of the story is how the main characters ''think'' they're mature and adult, but quickly prove otherwise; Squall and Rinoa mature visibly over the course of the story.

* [[Commercial Break Cliffhanger]]: Done with ''disc changes'' throughout the game.

* [[Death From Above]]: The Lunar Cry.

** Numerous GFs.

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: {{spoiler|Edea}}

* [[Determinator]]: Squall gradually develops into one of these, and by the third disc of the game, he engages in what nearly turns out to be a suicidal determination to bring {{spoiler|Rinoa back after she goes comatose}}.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Squall.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: The Ragnarok conveniently floats by as Squall and Rinoa are drifting in space. It's revealed later that it was used to launch Adel's tomb and thus was abandoned in the same area of space. However, its timing and placement is still incredibly convenient.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Odin again.

* [[Diesel Punk]]: Though a bit brighter than ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.

* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: {{spoiler|Edea}}, literally. Twice.

* [[Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud]]: The Pandemona GF.

* [[Doomy Dooms of Doom]]: Doomtrain, natch.

* [[Dragon-in-Chief]]: Edea. After {{spoiler|killing Vinzer Deling she takes over as leader of Galbadia}}.

* [[Dream Sequence]]: Squall has several of these showing him as a child talking about his missing "Sis."

* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Inverted. Irvine appears to be invoking this on the train to Deling City when he's telling Selphie they're destined to be together when they just met a few minutes earlier at Galbadia Garden. However, {{spoiler|the orphanage flashback reveals that he has known her a lot longer}}.

* [[Dummied Out]]: Originally, Selphie was supposed to have two more Limit Break spells which apparently were never programmed in. The spells were ''Percent'' which cuts all enemies' current HP by 93.75% and ''Catastrophe'' which is more powerful than the ultimate spell, Apocalypse. They both can be accessed with a Gameshark.

* [[Dungeon Crawling]]

** [[Bonus Dungeon]]: The [[Underwater Base|Deep Sea Research Facility]] and the Centra Ruins.

* [[Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism]]: Epitomized in Rinoa and Squall and a source of conflict between them.

* [[Equipment Spoiler]]: a Weapons Monthly issue describing Rinoa and Irvine's weapons can be found before either of them is introduced (Rinoa does appear, but you don't learn who she is at that point).

* [[Escape Sequence]] / [[Indy Escape]]: Dollet, with Squall, Zell, and Selphie running away from X-ATMO92, and in D-District Prison, with Squall running away from the shifting panels on the bridge.

* [[Escape Pod]]: On the Lunar Base.

* [[Eyes of Gold]]: Edea.

* [[The Faceless]]: The Balamb Garden staff, whose faces are always covered by their headgear.

* [[Facial Markings]]: Ultimecia. Also, Zell's tattoo.

* [[Fake Skill]]: Selphie's limit break scrolls through random skills including 'The End' which instantly destroys all creatures. It worked on bosses. An easy abuse of this skill was to open the top of the playstation which puts the game into a pause like loop where you can keep scrolling through her skills until you get 'The End'.

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Amusingly, in one battle Rinoa can be eaten alive by a party member with the Devour command equipped, though [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|this causes an immediate Game Over]]. She is, however, the only human who can be eaten in this way, so this was probably an oversight on the developers' part.

* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: Edea {{spoiler|does this to Squall with her limit break}}.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Although many characters do use fairly sensible weaponry, there are also quite a few examples of this trope:

** Squall and Seifer both use gunblades - that is, a sword with a pistol built into the base of the blade; perfect examples of [[Exotic Weapon Supremacy]], as they have 100% accuracy and can do additional damage with the press of a button. Exactly how gunblades function are a source of much [[Fan Wank]], though Square themselves basically explained them to be [[Vibroweapon|Vibroweapons]] in the [[All There in the Manual|Ultimania guide]]. In-universe, Cid mentions that gunblade specialists are rare as the weapons are rather difficult to use, hinting that even in the game's world, they're not necessarily practical.

* [[Justified Tutorial]]: The Fire Caverns quest at the very beginning of the game.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Sure, he was under Ultimecia's influence, but Seifer, as a Sorceress Knight and while leading Galbadia, was responsible for a lot of death and destruction... and {{spoiler|yet he gets to live happily ever after with his buddies Raijin and Fujin}}. Well, unless you count the beat down the party delivered to him near the end (especially if [[Sidequest|you unlocked]] [[Memetic Badass|Gilgamesh]]).

* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: Edea's {{spoiler|murder of President Deling}}.

* [[Kill the Ones You Love]]: Averted, more or less {{spoiler|with Cid. He's fully prepared to send his and Edea's ''children'' to kill her, because he knows he's not capable of it himself, but it all works out in the end}}.

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Ultimecia}}''': Reflect on your... Childhood... Your sensation... Your words... Your emotions... Time... It will not wait... No matter... How hard you hold on... It escapes you... And...}}

* [[Killer Bunny]]: One beach-dwelling monster is a sand-swimming, flying piranha-toothed ''goldfish''.

* [[Klingon Promotion]]: Edea. {{spoiler|After killing Vinzer Deling.}}

* [[La Résistance]]: The people of Timber are doing this against their occupation by Galbadia. Also, the people of Esthar are shown doing one against their ruler, Adel, in the flashbacks.

* [[Limit Break]]: one of the more easily-abused systems in the series. See the "[[Game Breaker]]" entry on the [[Final Fantasy VIII/YMMV|YMMV page]] for more details.

* [[Literal Cliff Hanger]]: Rinoa, hanging off the side of Balamb Garden during the Battle of the Gardens.

* [[Lost Forever]]: Any item or sidequest that involves entering a town after getting to Disc 4.

** In the Japanese version, this happens with any of the GFs that have to be drawn from a boss, and with Cerberus. The US version, however, averts this by allowing the player to draw any of the missed GF's from the bosses in Ultimecia's castle.

* [[Model Planning]]: The Forest Owls use train models to explain the hijacking the railcar of an enemy president.

* [[Money Spider]]: The first [[Final Fantasy]] game to avert it, actually. Instead, Squall receives a regular stipend proportional to his rank, which itself rises and falls depending on your performance. Monsters still drop standard consumables / components for [[Item Crafting]].

** Laguna's "Desperado" [[Limit Break]]. Irvine can hit this if he uses fast Ammo with his "Shot" Limit.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Squall.

* [[Mutually Exclusive Party Members]]: The pseudo-Guardian Forces Odin and Gilgamesh can't be possessed at the same time. Getting Odin before disc three results in him being killed during the events of Lunatic Pandora and replaced by Gilgamesh. You can keep Odin if you wait until disc four to get him, but then you lose your chance to get Gilgamesh.

* [[Muggles Do It Better]]: Faced with an unkillable robotic warmachine that your team of [[One-Man Army]] soldiers and their [[Summon Magic|summoned demigods]] can't stop? Break out the .50 cal machineguns.

** Probably justified in that she's unavailable for most of disc 3 and will rejoin you at a level close to your average party level. If you're playing normally and had been using level up bonuses, she'd fall way behind if her growth rate had been average due to lost opportunities to to increase her stats through said bonuses.

* [[My Master, Right or Wrong|My Friend Right Or Wrong]]: Fujin and Raijin state that they're on whatever side Seifer is on, which they do for most of the game, {{spoiler|however, at the end of Disc 3 when they finally feel Seifer has gone too far they call him out on it}} but still tell him they will remain his friends.

* [[New Era Speech]]: Edea's speech in Deling City.

* [[News Travels Fast]]: While typical for an RPG, in this case this it's notable because of the radio silence mentioned throughout the game.

* [[No Hero Discount]]: This is an RPG, of course. Though there is one exception in Timber, when saving some kids from being hit by a train gets you a free hotel stay. Played straight for everything else. ''How much'' for a train ticket?

** '''[[Up to Eleven|HOW MUCH]]''' for the Queen of Cards to spread a new rule?

* [[No Social Skills]]: Squall is not the most socially apt individuals. At first glance, this is because of him being raised in Garden all his life, but as the story progresses it becomes more clear that his mental issues stem less from being in Garden and more from {{spoiler|Ellone's disappearance.}} Contrast with Seifer, who also joined at about the same time.

* [[Non-Action Guy]]: Cid.

** Laguna, Kiros and Ward have Galbadian blue uniforms, but missing the helmets. Ward's bandana and Kiros' hairdo push this trope straight into [[Mildly Military]].

* [[Not a Game]]: Rinoa gets this lecture ''twice'' on Disc 1. The first time is from Squall, who doesn't say these exact words, but questions Rinoa's sincerity about resisting the government after witnessing the unprofessional way she and the Forest Owls come up with poorly-thought-out plans (also a notable moment of [[Character Development]] for Squall, marking the first time he clearly expresses his feelings to anyone). The second lecture comes from Quistis, who uses the exact words to shoot Rinoa down when she proposes another poorly-thought-out plan just as the SeeDs are preparing for their own mission.

* [[Now Where Was I Going Again?]]: Doesn't happen so much after getting {{spoiler|the mobile Balamb Garden}} as the NPC's on the deck will tell you where you need to go, but it can happen before that, as there's no real reminders of where you're supposed to be going or what you're supposed to be doing.

* [[Numerological Motif]]: The number eight recurs throughout the game, presumably for the obvious reason. The Galbadian soldiers have 08 on their armour, the heroes have to catch a number 8 bus at one point, and there are eight playable characters (including the two [[Guest Star Party Member|Guest Star Party Members]]) in the present.

* [[The Obi Wrong]]: Quistis is demoted from Instructor to normal SeeD early on, leaving her free to team up with Squall and join the party.

* [[Occupiers Out of Our Country!]]: What the Timber resistance wants.

* [[Onee-Sama]]: {{spoiler|Ellone}} to Squall.

* [[Opening the Sandbox]]: Disc 2, {{spoiler|when Balamb Garden lifts off.}} And of course {{spoiler|getting the Ragnarok in disc 3}}

* [[Opposites Attract]]: Squall and Rinoa.

* [[Orchestral Bombing]]: Galbadia's attack on Dollet and the missile attack on Balamb Garden.

* [[Talking in Your Sleep]]: At one point Squall wakes up in his dorm room to find Rinoa standing over him, who reveals that he was talking in his sleep, and that "she isn't even going to tell him what he was saying". However, just before, he was shown having a [[Dream Sequence]] flashback to himself as a child. Also, earlier, during the Winhill flashaback, Raine is listing off Laguna's annoying traits and mentions that he [[Generation Xerox|also talks in his sleep]].

* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]: Laguna and Squall get two out of three; at 175cm and 177cm respectively they are shorter than any other male playable character in the game except for Zell.

** Hot for teacher variation: Many of Quistis's male students (and apparently [[Les Yay|quite a few female ones]], if the Trepies are any indication) are pining for one. She [[Lampshades]] this in the Fire Cavern Test when she mentions to Squall how the boys often choke on the test when she comes with them.

** Hot for student variation: Quistis for Squall, though in her defense, they're only a year apart in age {{spoiler|and apparently grew up together, though neither of them remembers it anymore.}} Squall comments on the awkwardness of it fairly early in the game, and Quistis eventually says that her crush on him was actually misdirected sisterly affection, although how honest she's being about that is subject to interpretation.

** Raijin, the only non-white human enemy, boss, and supporting NPC.

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Played straight and adverted all at once. Playing the game normally, you'll hang onto your best items and will never use them except for the final battle and any spells you've junctioned to your stats will never be cast unless you don't mind your stats dropping from it. If you take the time to abuse the hell out of the card and item refinement, you can have 100 of the best items and spells in the game without having the need to grind for them by other means.

* [[Too Many Belts]]: Squall has one belt around his waist, two hanging around his hips, and three on his right leg.

* [[Torture Always Works]]: Subverted. Squall is subjected to [[Electric Torture]] in the D-District Prison, but since he doesn't have the information he's being tortured for in the first place, all that this accomplishes is to either provoke him into lying or just make him want to die.