Released by Square in the year 1999 on the
Playstation, Final Fantasy 7 director Yoshinori Kitase and series Writer Kazushige Nojima,
return to create another critical and commercial success. Final Fantasy 8 featured several distinctive
features and series first, such as being the first installment to adopt an art style with
realistic designs and proportions for its characters. As a fantasy based on reality, there are additional
details such as being able to drive a car in the overworld, recieving a performance-based
salary, and even enemies have death animations. For progression, while characters can level
up, enemies actually scale up in relation to the player, and the traditional MP-based
magic system has been replaced with a per-use mechanic. If players want to collect more castings of
a particular spell, they simple draw it directly from enemies or points in the world. The biggest redesign is centralized around
its Junction system. Spells and summons, now called Guardian Forces,
can now be assigned to team members. Spells can also add status effects or elemental
attributes to attacks or even directly boost stats. Guardian Forces, or GFs, can level up, build
a bond with a character, and convey additional actions and support abilities to be equipped. With no formal job system or pre-assigned
abilities other than limit breaks, this allowed complete customization and flexible utilization
of any of its 6 main playable characters. Finally, the soundtrack is very well-known,
most particularly for its song "Eyes on Me" which not only broke all records for a music
single in a videogame at the time, but is also the first video game single in history
to win an outside mainstream music award. The story only gets larger from here so lets
cut it down to size with a RECAPitation. The game begins with a young man named Squall
dueling his rival Seifer with thier signature gunblades, swords with revolvers built into
the hilt. When seifer manages to stagger Squall, he
goes too far in their training and deliberately deals a deep slash to his face, though in
a flash, Squall returns the scarring blow. He is tended to in his school's clinic, spots
a strange young lady, and is retreived and scolded by his teacher, the young and blue-magic
talented Quistis. Both of them are members of the military academy
Balamb Garden, who train young cadets to be elite mercenaries in their SeeD program. The students are preparing for their final
exam, which takes the form of a actual live mission, however Squall has yet to complete
the prerequisite to the mission due to his distraction with Seifer. Despite Squall's antisocial introverting,
Quistis knows he is a hardworking and dedicated student and agrees to proctor him. As he prepares to leave, he bumps into fellow
classmate Selfie, a cheery and energetic transfer student from another Garden. He is also introduced to the addictive card
game, Triple Triad, and meets up with Quistis. As they progress through a nearby fire cave,
she explains this assignement is for him to learn the basics of magic, the junctioning
system, as well as how to handle summon GFs. TO pass the test, Squall defeats and gains
the service of his first GF, the fiery Ifrit. Now qualified to take the final exam mission,
he changes into his official SeeD uniform and meets up with the squad he'll be assigned
to. First is the loud-mouthed but genius martial
artist Zell. Next, Seifer, despite his attitude problem,
is assigned to the squad as leader, though he has no interest with working with anyone. Quistis herself will be overseeing the mission,
as Headmaster Cid reminds them that on a battlefield, choices and consequences are very real. Travelling to the nearby port town of Balamb,
they board up and ship off to the mission site, where Squall catches that no one else
saw the strange lady in the infirmary with him, and also Seifer is a failed SeeD applicant
retaking the exam yet again. They are briefed on their mission, which is
to reclaim the inner city from occupied forces, and stand by to withdraw. As the Seige of Dollet operation begins, the
SeeD soldiers storm the beach and meet immediate resistance. Seifer charges ahead, hungry for battle, and
they complete their objective quickly. However, Seifer gets bored and opts to follow
enemy movement further into the city. Zell objects to the violation in orders, but
he and squall submit to their captain's orders. They fight their way to the communications
tower when Selfie finds them with a message for the captain. The Communications tower is launched by the
Galbadians and begins operation immediately. As they catch up to Seifer, she informs them
they are to withdraw immediately. As they escape, a giant enemy mech gives chase,
though fortunately Quisitis is there to provide covering fire as they all retreat safely from
a successful mission and final exam. The results of their exam are reviewed, and
Selphie, Zell, and Squall are all graduated to official SeeD soldiers. Seifer's direct order to abandon his assigned
area purely to seek additional fighting cost him the exam. In addition, there seems to be some tension
between Headmaster Cid and the monitoring faculty in the garden, though surprisingly,
even Seifer is a good sport to the graduates. Later during the celebration ball, Squall
spots a lovely girl across the room, and as their eyes meet, she invites herself over
and her outgoing personality forces Squall to come out of his shell a little. They dance and actually seem to get along
well, right before the girl excuses herself elsewhere. Quistis teases Squall after the dance, but
asks him to meet her in the training center to talk, where she reveals to him she's been
relieved as an instructor and is now a normal SeeD Soldier. She was assessed to have poor leadership qualities,
but Squall doesn't want to burden himself by empathizing with the problems of others. As they leave the facility, Squall is called
over by the girl he saw from the infirmary before, who recognizes both of them. They rescue her, but some men in white uniforms
arrive to escort her away, and even Quistis doesn't recognize the girl. The next day, Selfie wakes Squall with news
of their first mission assignment: They are to go to Timber, another nation taken over
by Galbadia, and support a resistance faction there. Taking the transcontinental train, Squall
is assigned as the leader of this mission, and along the way they enjoy the luxuries
of being SeeD members. However, they are all unexpectedly stricken
with sleep, and suddenly the 3 soldiers are viewing the exploits of three Galdadian soldiers
Kiros, Ward, and their leader, Laguna. This event is taking place years ago during
the invasion of Timber, and Laguna takes a ride to Deling City, where there is a hotel
lounge pianist there he admires, Julia. He actually catches her attention, and she
invites him to talk with her privately in her hotel room. They share their dreams with each other and
get along very well, but late into the night, Laguna is called away to duty with new orders. Squall wakes up right when their train is
about to arrive at Timber, and it turns out they all saw the exact same dream somehow. They decide to focus on their mission for
now, and when they meet up with the resistance group, the Forest Owls, it turns out their
leader is the same girl Squall danced with at the party. She introduces herself as Rinoa, and explains
she was there to meet with Cid and request aid from Garden, thanks to an introduction
from Seifer. She fights alongside her dog, Angelo, and
begins immediately explaining their plan to hijack a train carrying the President of Galbadia,
President Deling, via switching cars of the convoy mid-transport in order to kidnap the
VIP. They execute the switch sucessfully, though
when they confront the president, it turns out to be a body double in disguise. He reveals his monstrous true form, and after
they defeat the zombie monster, it turns out the real president was coming to Timber, but
to the TV Station for a broadcast. This was reason they army was in Dollet getting
the radio tower operational again, but that's strange since making a radio broadcast is
technolgy that hasn't been used in almost 17 years as everyone has moved to digital
signals since. At this time, Squall examines the terms of
their employment and it turns out they are on this assignment until Timber reaches independence,
a deliberately vague condition agreed to by Cid. En route to the TV station, the live broadcast
starts, and President Deling appears to not only propose an international peace talk,
but also introduce his new ambassador, the Sorceress Edea. Suddenly, Seifer interrupts the broadcast
and takes the President hostage, and Quistis comes in requesting aid from Squall's team
to restrain Seifer. Seifer, who wants to help Rinoa, went rogue
on his own, and Zell accidently lets loose that they are mercenaries from Garden. With that compromising information out, should
anything happen to the president, it will be Garden that suffers. Suddenly, Sorceress Edea appears, restraining
Quistis and offering Seifer a way out of this predicament if he joins her. He agrees, lets the President free, and they
warp away. Squall's team escapes with Rinoa, and opt
to withdraw back to Garden, as the Owl's home base has been destroyed. As they cannot return back to Balamb Garden
with the trains on lockdown, they instead choose to go to the nearest Garden instead,
Galbadia Garden. On the way, Zell is worried the president
will retaliate on Balamb Garden, and when Rinoa calls Squalls out on his lack of compassion
for his comrades, he, Quistis, and Selfie all get knocked out again. Rinoa is unaffected, and Zell recognizes it
as the strange dream at work again. This time, Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, stumble
upon a strange excavation site and fend off the nation of Esthar's troops stationed there. However, despite their best effort, they are
pushed back to the edge of a cliff, where they spot boats they can use to escape. Kiros and Ward are nearly killed, with Ward
injuring his throat and losing his voice as well. As they desperately fling themselves off a
cliff in order to survive, the SeeD soldiers wake up now chosing again not to be distracted
by the strange dream and press on. They arrive in Galbadia Garden, and note how
different the school is, most obviously with their advanced weapon technology focus. Quistis once trained there and knows the headmaster,
and as she explains things, it turns out they and Balamb Garden are safe. Officially, the Galbadian government wrote
the incident off as an independent action of Seifer, who recieved all due consequences. They take that to mean execution, and while
the SeeD members are only a little shocked and don't necessarily miss Seifer, Rinoa confesses
she really liked, maybe even loved, Seifer, as it turns out they have dated before in
the past. Next, Fujin and Raijin, two of Seifer's only
friends and lackeys, have brought a message from Headmaster Cid to them. They refuse to accept that Seifer may be dead
and leave to search for him, while Squall and his team receive their new orders from
the Garden's headmaster himself. As the situation stands, the President's appointment
of a Sorceress as ambassador and talks of peace are just a cover up for their real goal
of seizing more power with fear, with the end goal of global domination. In fact, Garden has a personal stake in this
as the Sorceress plans to use Galbadia Garden as her base. Their new mission involves usage of a sniper,
and assigned to their group will be Galbadia Garden's own ace sharpshooter, the charismatic
gunman Irvine. Their next mission, sent by both Balamb and
Galbadia Garden, of which failure is not an option, is the assassination of the Sorceress. Irvine will take the shot, and should he miss,
they are to attack head on. It turns out they must go to Galbadia's capital
city, Deling City and meet with General Caraway there for more details on the execution of
their plan. On their trip there, Irvine wastes no time
hitting on all the ladies on the group, and as they enter the impressive city, the guard
to General Caraway's mansion informs them that in order to test their basic aptitude,
they'll have to retrieve a code within a nearby Tomb of the Unknown King. The tomb is actually a maze, with its own
pair of guardian Minotaurs, whom after their defeat, opt to join the party as a GF. As they enter the General's mansion, Rinoa
reveals this is actually her home, and the General is actually her father. General Caraway insists Rinoa stay out of
this operation as she is not actually a SeeD. The plan is fairly simple and will take place
during a parade ceremony for the Sorceress. They'll split into two teams, a gateway team
and a sniper team. The sniper team is to head into the clock
tower and wait, while the gateway team will drop the gate on the procession at the coordinated
time, trapping the Sorceress inside and in that window, the killshot will be made. The sniper team will be Irvine and Squall,
with the responsibility on Squall to carry out a direct attack on the Sorceress should
Irvine miss. Quistis is the leader of the gateway team
of herself, Zell and Selfie. Meanwhile, Rinoa makes her own way to the
Sorceress, with her own small plan to supress her with use of a magic item. However, she is instantly halted and struck
down. The Sorceress then prepares herself for her
public appearance, with Rinoa dazed and in tow. She holds open contempt for the people of
the world, and as President Deling intervenes, she slays him on the spot, announcing her
new age of terror. She intends to make Rinoa the first sacrifice
of the evening by animating two monstrous statues, and sending them after her. The entranced crowd is estatic for the sorceress
as the parade begins in full swing, and shockingly, Seifer is there with the Sorceress as her
honor guard. Squall and Irvine arrive just in time to save
Rinoa from being devoured, and the fear of near death has shocked her back to her senses. They arrive at the sniper spot, find a high-calibur
sniper rifle within, and wait for the signal, though it turns out Irvine is choking with
a last-second panic attack. The gateway team hits the switch, succeeding
on their end, and Squall convinces Irvine to take the shot. He fires, and though his aim is true, the
Sorceress blocks it with a magic barrier. As the backup, squall bolts for sorceress,
though his drive is halted immediately by Seifer. Seifer considers himself a knight, as he always
dreamt of becomming, and the two rivals duel once more, with Squall earning a win. Curiously, Sorceress Edea seems upset at Squall
being a SeeD, and though Rinoa and Irvine back him up, Edea stabs Squall through the
shoulder with a massive spear of ice, knocking him out of comission. As he dreams, it's of Laguna again, where
he's taking care of a little girl named Ellone with a woman named Raine, in the cozy little
town of Winhill. He's no longer a Galbadian soldier, and is
visited by his friend Kiros, where they reflect how its been one year since they escaped with
their lives from Centra. Laguna was recovering from severe injuries
for six months with Raine as his nurse, and Kiros left the army shortly after he recovered
too. Ward retired as well, taking up a job as janitor
in D-District Prison, and it turns out Julia ended up marrying General Caraway, since Laguna
never came back from the war. In addition, Galbadia has been on guard against
the nation of Esthar, as its ruler, Sorceress Adel, has been kidnapping young girls in search
of a successor, and they know Ellone is one of their targets. Laguna prides himself in being the main protector
of the town since most of the working men were sent to war, and as he takes a nap, Zell
wakes up from not the same dream, but one about Ward. He realizes this same prison they are all
incarcerated in is the same one Ward works at, but with Sorceress Edea running Galbadia
now that she's killed the president, they are unsure of their fate. Squall himself wakes up in an isolated chamber,
and notes the wound on his shoulder is gone, or perhaps was never there. His cell is taken elsewhere, and more prison
guards come in to rough up Zell and take Rinoa away. Seifer comes to taunt Squall, and has the
feline worker race, named Moombas, take him away. He tortures him for the secrets of SeeD as
well as their motives for opposing the Sorceress, but Squall doesn't cooperate. He stops when the missile barrage against
Garden is ready to fire, per orders of the Sorceress to hunt out and destroy all SeeDs. Squall blacks out from the persistent electrocution,
meanwhile with the others, Zell realizes that even without their magic or weapons, he can
fight with his martial arts and gets back their gear. Squall is rescued by Moombas that keep calling
him Laguna, the prison break alarm goes off, and the moomba with the main group leads them
to Squall as they work to escape the prison. Along the way, Rinoa comes with a reluctant
Irvine in tow. Rinoa's father pulled strings to get her out,
and Irvine wasn't caught and jailed to begin with. Irvine holds back the guards and explains
this prison is actually an underground one, so they need to go up to escape. Escaping the submerging prison, they learn
that the missiles are targeting both Balamb Garden and Trabia Garden, where Selfie is
from. They look to Squall as the leader of the group,
despite his objections, but unfortunately they are too late to stop the missiles aimed
at Trabia. Selfie leads half the group towards the missile
base to stop the firing against Balamb Garden, while Squall takes the rest, hijacks a train,
and heads back to Balamb Garden. Selphie is angry and excited as she takes
control of the team, sneaks them in sucessfully, misdirects the missiles that do end up firing,
and sabotages the base into self-destructing. At the same time, Squall's team arrives at
a chaotic Balamb Garden, where they find the faculty has issued a kill order for the Headmaster
Cid, and anyone who opposes Garden Master NORG, especially SeeD. Amidst the internal fighting, they find Cid
and notify him of the potential missile strike, and after uncovering the hidden control panel
for the Garden, they discover the entire school is actually a mobile fortress and hovers away
from the incoming barrage just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, the navigational controls don't
quite work, so they crash into the ocean and are left adrift but at least alive. As he shows Rinoa around the Garden, Squall
encounters the mystery lady from before, who insists he should remember her from the past
despite his inability to do so. He is approached by a faculty member, who
informs him he is to report to Master NORG immediately, and as they do so, they see Cid
getting roughed up by the faculty. As they are summoned to Master NORG, they
learn he is of the Shumi tribe, and views himself as the real leader of Garden since
he helped finance it intially, though he is really only interested in the business profitability
of SeeD. In order to save Balamb Garden as a business
venture, NORG intends to sell out Cid, Squall and his team, and kill them to appease the
sorceress, who turns out to be Cid's wife. They take out the greedy founder and check
on Cid, who reveals SeeD really is constantly training and taking on missions for the sake
of getting strong enough to fight Sorceresses. In fact, he married Edea knowing she was a
sorceress, and it was actually her idea to build Garden and SeeD and use it to counter
Sorceresses, not thinking it would ever be used against her one day. Suddenly, a Galbadian ship bearing a White
SeeD unit finds them, and they come aboard, insisting on taking Ellone with them for her
own safety. Cid agrees, and as Squall retrieves her, he
confirms it really is the same little girl Ellone from the Laguna dreams, but she declines
explaining that phenomenon other than it is indeed the past and her doing. Squall declares he doesn't want to be involved
or depended on, but she tels him he's her only hope and is taken away. He reflects on his mindset on being self-reliant,
but still remembers when he was a young boy feeling helpless without his sister. Meanwhile, the drifting garden crashes into
a port called the Fisherman's horizon, and Cid sends Squall and his team down to apologize
to the local mayor for the incident. There, they also find the Headmaster of Galbadia
Garden, who was recently dismissed from his post. The townsfolk here like their peace and want
the Garden gone as soon as possible, though pursuing Galbadian forces invade the town. Fortunately, Selphie and the others hid in
a tank when the base exploded and smuggled themselves with the invading Galbadian soldiers
here. As they return to Balamb Garden, Cid makes
the public declaration that Balamb Garden will oppose the Sorceress, be converted into
a mobile base for this effort, and Squall will be the new leader of SeeD going forward. Squall reluctantly accepts the position, but
loudly disagrees with Cid's notion that its destiny he be fated to lead SeeD. To celebrate Squall's promotion, Selphie throws
a concert and has themselves play the band while they set Squall up with Rinoa to have
a chat on relying on others more. Squall knows what its like to have friends
you trust in, but also knows what it feels like to lose them all, and is scared to trust
again. Rinoa reinforces they all believe in him and
want him to stop shutting everyone else out as they move to new challenges together, but
Squall cannot help but reflect on his childhood resolution to be strong on his own. The next day, with the help of the harbor
engineers, Balamb Garden is operational again, and as his first order as Commander, Squall
sets a course back to Balamb. Along the way, Squall finds a Chocobo tamer
who teaches him how to catch and ride the giant birds. see some strange sights around the world,
strengthen their forces with additional GFs, and even visit Shumi Village. There, they find find Master NORG was quite
a black sheep, as the rest of the Shumi are quite simple and peaceful. It turns out they can take many forms, including
Moombas, and Laguna was quite beloved here by the people. 17 years ago, Laguna was on his way to Esthar
to resue an abducted Ellone, and they helped him when he was injured, during which his
passion and charisma impressed the Shumi. As they arrrive in Balamb, they spot a mobile
Galbadia Garden outside, with the army occupying the town looking for Ellone, even though the
Galbadian SeeD already claimed her. They find Fujin and Raijin have been deputized
by Seifer to lead the search here, and after defeating them, its turns out they really
don't follow the sorceress, so much as follow seifer out of friendship, even if it means
leaving Garden. Squall is a little impressed by that, and
after the town is free, makes the next destination Selphie's home of Trabia Garden. They find the garden was demolished by the
missiles, though among the wreckage there are still a handful of survivors. There they see even Selphie's upbeat cheer
waver in front of all of her dead comrades, and Rinoa begins to remark how she' starting
to get scared one of them will be lost in this struggle against the Sorceress. Irvine consoles her with a story from when
he was little kid growing up in a crowded orphanage after the Sorceress War, and he
had a crush on Selfie, who was actually in the same orphanage. Selfie and Quistis suddenly recall they also
came from the same orphanage, and Zell realizes he was adopted and came from the same orphanage. Even Squall begins to remember the very same
orpahange, where he was very attached to his sister, who went missing there. Amazingly, even Seifer came from the same
orphanage, and Squall recalls his sister figure was really Ellone , though they weren't actually
related. Quistis admits that over the years, she tried
to take the place of Ellone in Squall's life, and thought it might have been love, but it
really was feelings of family that built her feelings for Squall. Except for Irvine and Ellone, none of the
other orphans easily remembered all of this, and Irvine believes the reason is the rumor
and speculation that use of GFs causes amnesia when the summon takes place in their minds
and pushes old memories out. As the Balamb Garden uses GFs a lot, its likely
why only they forgot. In addition, the Matron of the orphage was
actually Edea, the same sorceress they're fighting now. They head to their old orphange together to
find out any clues on why their Matron became the Sorceress they must defeat now, but when
they arrive, they find Galbadia Garden already there and a battle is unavoidable. Squall assigns positions for all SeeDs in
preparation for the assault, and curiously, Zell insists on borrowing Squall's signature
ring. Seifer is leading the charge against Balamb,
as Galbadia takes the first shot, launching their mounted vanguard. Zell hands Rinoa Squall's ring like she requested,
but the shock of the two gardens ramming each other knock her overboard on a limb. Squall engages the air armor brigade but realizes
the other Garden simply has them outmanned and outgunned. He switches to a rush plan in which they will
board their Garden and blitz Seifer and the Sorceress, but before that Squall inspires
his troops for the first time, and launches a rescue of Rinoa. An air armor snatches him, and Squall finds
himself in a punching match above the chaos of battle. Winning, he uses the armor to grab Rinoa , float
down to safety, and cross the battlelines. She mentions his favorite ring, upon which
is a Lion, symbolizing the strength he aspires to, which Squall himself has named Griever. In the enemy garden, they find most of the
actual SeeD students are not part of the fight, and its really the army under the Sorceress. Even Fujin and Raijin don't want to fight
yet still want their old Seifer back. With the student's help, they confront Seifer
and Edea, defeating both, but all of a sudden, Rinoa becomes possessed, heals seifer, and
Squall blacks out. Afterwards, Rinoa is still comatose, and Squall
learns Edea is waiting for him in the orphanage. Cid is there as well, to apologize for his
wife but also thank them for not killing her. Edea seems to be of a different mind now,
and explains to them she was possessed by Sorceress Ultimecia this entire time, thus
why she would suddenly attack her children. Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future,
who is actually hunting for Ellone and her power, and using Edea as a vessel for an even
greater goal. She mentions Sorceress Adel, the ruler of
Esthar during the Sorceress War, who disappeared when it ended, and people thought Edea was
her successor. However, Edea succeeded someone else long
before, so its likely Adel is still alive, and Ultimecia is seeking to possess Adel next. Adel was already powerful and angry, so Ultimecia
empowering her would easily multiply the threat. As the party figures out Ultimecia wants to
use Ellone to send her consciousness back to every sorceress in the past, and use their
combined power and hivemind to compress time into one world, Squall is distracted as he
begins to realize he's falling in love with Rinoa and cares the most for her wellbeing. For now, their goal is to rescue Ellone, and
that means finding the White SeeD ship. He slips into another Laguna dream, in which
Laguna and Kiros act in a movie to make some quick money and later find a strange floating
pillar. Through this dream, Ellone talks to Squall
and informs him she's tried to use her powers to change the past so Laguna would stay home
and take care of his baby with Raine, instead of journey to find her in Esthar, but she
finds its impossible to change the past. With Edea's help, they find and gain access
to the white SeeD ship, relay how Edea is back to normal, but unfortunately, Ellone
is no longer there. When they were pursued by Galbadian forces,
an Esthar ship came in and Ellone jumped onto their ship, where they left for Esthar, thus
making that their next destination. Getting as close as they can in the rough
terrain, Squall opts to take Rinoa by himself to Esthar, where he finds himself opening
up more to her, and he's soon joined by his friends and Edea, who seeks Dr. Odine there
who may be able to help her from being possessed again. Climbing the harsh mountains, they find this
icy wasteland is actually an illusory veil for the futuristic city of Esthar. As they are guided by the technologically
advanced city, Squall and Zell are suddenly struck by another untimely Laguna Dream. This time, Laguna, Kiros, and Ward are captured
and working in the Lunatic Pandora laboratory, and the prisoners are planning not only an
uprising, but to overthrow the sorceress. Also, they find Dr. Odine is not only researching
the Lunatic Pandora, but also Ellone's powers, though they do end up rescuing her. Snapping out of the brief dream, Edea is received
and taken to Dr. Odine, who says he will help her, but is also curiously interested in Rinoa
too. He allows Squall to be taken to Ellone, but
this will involve a trip to outer space. As Squall and Rinoa are launched into orbit,
the massive monolith called the Lunatic Pandora appears near Esthar City. Their capsules are recevied by the space station
in orbit, who is currenly observing the mass of monsters strangely converging on the surface
of the moon, as well as keeping the sealed Sorceress Adel from the last war. Adel is in a special prison placed precisely
where there is a gravitational balance between the earth and moon that jams any sort of outside
energy, and made of a material that keeps her own energy sealed within. In the space station, Ellone is actually safe
and taken care of, and tells them while she wasn't able to change the past, she was able
to review it and see how much she was actually loved, which puts her at peace. Now, Squall wants Ellone to place him in Rinoa's
past to not only see what happened during the confrontation with Edea, but also warn
her. However, as they move to Rinoa, she suddenly
becomes possessed again, pulsating with dangerous levels of power, and begins to deactivate
the seal on Adel's tomb. At the same time, a phenomenon known as the
Lunar Cry begins, in which the monsters on the moon, which is actually where all of the
world's monsters originate from, form a massive droplet that spills from the moon to where
the beacon, Lunatic Pandora is. Their impact will destroy anything nearby
and flood the world with monsters again. Now, Rinoa goes out into space, unseals Adel,
and the prison gets swept along the Lunar Cry to be carried to Earth. On the surface, Adel is received safely by
the Lunatic Pandora, and in space, the party escapes the space station before it's destroyed,
as Squall convinces Ellone to send him back in Rinoa's past. There he sees Rinoa was actually possessed
by Sorceress Ultimecia herself from the future when she jumped from a defeated Edea. It was then Seifer was revived and recruited
by Ultimecia, but the sorceress actually manages to kick out Ellone's power. They then use her power to locate the current
Rinoa adrift in space and no longer possessed and likely going to die, but Squall talks
to her and gives her hope to hang on. With that, Squall exits the escape pod and
leaps out to grab her. Just then, one of the vehicles used to transport
Adel's Tomb comes drifting their way from the destroyed Lunar Base, the Esthar flagship,
Ragnarok. After clearing out stowaway monsters on board,
Squall charts a course back to earth, and Rinoa shares a close moment with Squall, as
it turns out she's become a sorceress, and thus cannot stay with him as the Esthar forces
want her captured. Squall acknowledges he cannot lose someone
precious to him like he lost Ellone, but Rinoa agrees to be sealed away like Adel was. Now, the party reconvenes, and Zell shares
that Edea unknowingly succeeded her power to Rinoa and is no longer a sorceress. In addition, the Galbadian army is controlling
the Lunatic Pandora, which houses the crystal Pillar which calls monsters from the moon,
and Adel is back on earth. While all of that, and Ellone going missing
again, is all bad news, Squall is focused on one thing, and that is getting back Rinoa. Selphie takes the pilot seat of the Ragnarok,
which is also capable of atmospheric flight, and with their new spaceship airship, they
head off to Esthar again. With a quick rescue of Rinoa, Squall embraces
Rinoa and the group make a quick escape thanks to a strangely familiar and bulky man. As they assess the situation, Esthar City
is overrun by monsters, Seifer is under Ultimecia's control and heading the Galbadians in the
Lunatic Pandora, and Sorceress Adel is free again. They retreat back to the orphanage for some
peace and quiet, and as Squall devotes himself to Rinoa, they agree to make the flower field
behind orphanage their meeting spot should they ever get separated in the trials ahead. Suddenly, they are hailed by Esthar Presidential
Palace, with a job offer to take part in a plan they have to defeat the Sorceress. It sounds like a trap to get back Rinoa, but
the sender was Kiros, making it seem much more legitimate. Meeting the President of Esthar, they see
the real Kiros, the bulky man from before, Ward, making the actual President Laguna himself. He reveals he noticed in the past when they
were connected to Squall and his friends via Ellone, and they really helped him out, but
Ellone's power is why Galbadia has seized her again. For himself, Laguna catches them up that after
he rescued Ellone, Raine died while he was away, so Ellone was sent to live in an orphanage
with Cid, Edea, Squall and the others. Because of her power, Ellone was given to
the White SeeDs that kept her hidden for 10 years on a ship, and recently when that ship
was attacked, Laguna's forces saved her. As for why he's president, Laguna wanted to
keep Ellone safe from Adel, so with Dr. Odine's help, they sunk the Lunatic Pandora into the
sea, luring Adel to them, and closed an anti-magic trap on her. For safe measure, they sent her into a gravitational
nexus in space via the Ragnarok vessels where outside interference would be nearly impossible. Thanks to being a hero of the revolution,
the nation of Esthar made him president, and his duties kept him occupied as Raine died
alone and Ellone went into hiding. Regarding the mission at hand, Dr. Odine explains
Ultimecia has the same astral projection ability as Ellone only because here in the past he
himself has studied and emulated the ability with a machine. That machine will become even more advanced
in the future, and that's what Ultimecia is using. She needs the original power source for her
time compression plan, hence why she's hunting Ellone, but if they want to kill her, the
group must do so in the future where she her actual body is. They normally cannot time travel, but the
time compression spell will actually help with this. For now, they will take advantage of the fact
Ultimecia needs to possess a Sorceress in this time as part of her plan. They have an idea on how to use Ellone's power
to sabotage a possessed sorceress, but as there are now 2 sorceresses, Rinoa and an
awakening Adel, they need to head to Lunatic Pandora and not only rescue Ellone but kill
Adel. With Rinoa getting possessed by Ultimecia,
Ellone will now have a mental link to Ultimecia through Rinoa. Ellone will then send both minds back to the
past, start the time compression, and then sever the mental connection, sending both
sorceresses back to their time and bodies and thus pausing the time compression spell. Within that flux, they can move towards the
future in a time-compressed world and actually kill Ultimecia. After that, time compression won't complete
and will return back to normal and Ultimecia will be gone forever. As backwards of a plan as it sounds, Laguna
emphasizes that in order to exist in a future where you technically shouldn't, all you need
to do is believe you do exist for yourself and your friends. As an aside, Kiros and Ward know who Squall's
parents are, but Laguna evades the topic for now. Gathering strength and allies for this one
possibly last SeeD mission. Squall and friends ram into the Lunatic Pandora
with the mighty Ragnarok, creating their own entrance with the ships vulcans and main cannon,
and using the ship's grappler arms to secure their doorway. They are met immediately by Fujin and Raijin,
still loyal to Seifer, and after fending them off, Fujin and Raijin finally come to reason
that helping Seifer down his dark path is wrong. They set Ellone free and plead with Seifer
to return to his old ways, but Seifer refuses to give up, now being more powerful than even
the mighty Odin. However, the blade of Odin is claimed by Gilgamesh
who steps in and blows away Seifer, but Seifer runs away and kidnaps Rinoa. He offers Rinoa to Ultimecia in the form of
Adel, who begins physically absorbing her as the party crashes in. They succeed in destroying Adel, so only Ultimecia
inside Rinoa remains. Ellone steps in with her power, and succeeds
in throwing a curveball at Ultimecia. Now, time compression begins, and as the past,
present, and future fuse into one world, Squall has them focus on Edea's orphanage to assert
their existence in this bizzare plane. They battle and kill multiple sorceresses
across time and space, and afterwards actually find themselves in Edea's orphanage. Time stretched yet compacted in one spot is
strange as now they see the dead bodies of people not even yet born, but most importantly
they see the real Ultimecia's castle. The castle is under layers of wards and seals,
and to undue them, the party splits up and defeats the seals' many guardians, including
the mighty Tiamat and Omega Weapon. Confronting the Sorceress who wanted to reign
over one world that held all of time, Ultimecia curses the SeeD and moves to cast them into
a lost dimension. As they fight, Ultimecia summons the most
powerful GF in the form of whatever Squall can imagine, which takes the demonic form
of Griever, the very namesake Lion Squall admires and wears as a ring. Though, when Griever falls, She opts to junction
herself unto the ultimate GF, and after that falls, unveils her nightmarish final form. Against all that, the six teenagers of the
next generation of SeeD, Squall, SeeD commander and son of Laguna and Raine, and his friends
Quistis, Zell, Selfie, Irvine, and Rinoa, defeat the time-warping dictator. As the game ends, time begins to decompress,
and they hurry to return to their own time. Remembering again where they want to be the
most and with whom, Rinoa recalls her private promise with Squall and returns to the flower
field behind the orphanage. Squall however, overshoots and briefly returns
to when he was a little boy in the orphanage, though Ultimecia is there too, and before
dying, passes her powers onto Edea when she was still the Matron. He reveals he is a SeeD from Balamb Garden,
meant to fight sorceresses, and all of which were her idea. Having planted the seed for SeeD in the past,
he returns to the time compression, and seems lost. Rinoa's memories call out to him, but he struggles
to remember her and his friends, and fall unconscious. Fortunately, Rinoa finds him, and succeeds
in bringing them both back to their original time. Elsewhere, Seifer is back with his friends
Fujin and Raijin, as his normal self, and as Balamb Garden flies overhead, he seems
content to let things go. Laguna reflects on his proposal to Raine,
as he visits her grave with Ellone, Kiros, and Ward, he's also feeling content as Balamb
Garden flies overhead. As the students and Balamb Garden celebrate
their victory, Cid and Edea are back together, with Edea living a normal life again, Selfie,
Quistis and Irvine are feeling back at home, and Zell is spending time with the librarian
girl that's had a longtime crush on him. Finally, Squall and Rinoa star gaze and share
a kiss, embracing their love and place in the world with each other, and moving towards
a better future. Final Fantasy 8 has enjoyed the success of
selling over 8 million copies worldwide.
I'm a junction my way out of here.