Thirteen weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than $50 million from sales in the United States, making it the fastest selling Final Fantasy title at the time. Instead, magic is collected, drawn, and created from items, and is used to power up the characters via the junction system. In addition, it does not have a Magic Point-based system for spell-casting. While it still uses the Active Time Battle system, it deviates from the series' traditional means of boosting a character's power via leveling (although levels are not completely abandoned as they were in Final Fantasy II). The gameplay makes a departure from many series standards. Squall and his friends are enlisted to help a group known as the Forest Owls led by Rinoa Heartilly, an endeavor that escalates into a conflict against the forces led by Sorceress Edea. It is the first game in the series to consistently use realistically proportioned characters, and the first to feature a vocal piece as its theme music in the form of ' Eyes on Me'.įinal Fantasy VIII is set on a fantasy world with science fiction elements, and focuses on Squall Leonhart, a young SeeD mercenary hired out to various missions by Balamb Garden.

įinal Fantasy VIII was directed by Yoshinori Kitase, with Tetsuya Nomura providing the character design and Nobuo Uematsu composing the musical score. A remastered version was released September 3rd, 2019 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam. It was released in February 1999 for the PlayStation, and has since been re-released on Microsoft Windows in 2000, with this version being ported to Steam in 2013. PlayStation, PC, PlayStation Network, iOS & Android via Dive In, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS, Android Final Fantasy VIII is the eighth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, developed and published by Squaresoft.

Final fantasy 8 cast