Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII
Developer: Square Product Development Division 1 Publishers: Square (JP), Square EA (US), Square Europe (EU PS1), SCE Australia (AU PS1), Eidos Interactive (EU Windows) Platforms: PlayStation, Windows Released in JP: February 11, 1999 (PS1), March 23, 2000 (Windows) Released in US: September 7, 1999 (PS1), January 25, 2000 (Windows) Released in EU: October 27, 1999 (PS1), February 18, 2000 (Windows) Released in AU: October 29, 1999 (PS1) This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a notes page

Final Fantasy VIII is, as its name suggests, the eighth game in the Final Fantasy series.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Notes

Debug Room I'm poor worker.

Unused Text My bother's an excellent swimmer, too!

Unused Spell Data

Slot Spells

There are a pair of spells intended for Selphie's "Slot" Limit command that weren't used. Both can be obtained as normal spells with a GameShark (as can the four that are used) and work as advertised, though they weren't given unique animations and instead use Fire's animation, most likely as Fire is the first spell animation in the game's code. No "Slot" spells can be junctioned, however.

• Percent - This drops the HP of all enemies to critical levels.
• Catastrophe - Deals heavy non-elemental damage to all enemies.

It's also possible for Griever to draw and cast the "Slots" spells if you hack them into your stock. This includes The End, which will kill your entire party. As the spell was never meant to be used on the player's side of the battlefield, the animation will look very odd, showing a black void that is behind the usual flower field.

Apocalypse Junction Values

The Apocalypse spell itself isn't unused at all - Ultimecia can cast it in the very last battle, and it can be drawn from her and even stocked. However, one aspect of it isn't available normally: This spell can be junctioned as normal, and has a full set of stat boosts, as follows.

(Note: All increases assume 100 of the spell are junctioned to the respective stat.)

• HP: +4200
• STR: +80
• VIT: +80
• MAG: +80
• SPR: +90
• SPD: +30
• EVA: +12%
• HIT: +30%
• LUCK: +30
• Elemental Defense: All elements +100%

These boosts tend to be, by and large, second only to those granted by Ultima. It's a shame that there's no way to junction this spell normally.

Unused GF Compatibility Values

Every junctionable Guardian Force (GF) in the game has unique base compatibility values set for each party member. However, because Seifer and Edea are only available temporarily, their compatibility values for GFs that are only made available after they leave the party go unused.

	Seifer	Edea
Siren	440
Brothers	400
Diablos	380
Carbuncle	360
Leviathan	340
Pandemona	320
Cerberus	300
Alexander	280
Doomtrain	260
Bahamut	240	700
Cactuar	220
Tonberry	200
Eden	180	540

(Source: Final Fantasy Wiki)

Unused Song

Famously, the Final Fantasy VIII demo bundled with Brave Fencer Musashi featured a completely different song for the Dollet attack mission than what was used in the final version. This song is still present in the final version, but is never used, and can only be heard in the debug room. A widespread theory is that it was removed for legal reasons due to heavy similarities with the song "Hummel Gets the Rockets", composed by Hans Zimmer for the 1996 movie The Rock.

Unused Enemies

Dummy is a test enemy who can only be fought in the debug room or through other cheats. He has 410 HP regardless of level. His chest (mouth) has the katakana text "dummy", mirrored. He also has "ゴメンネ" (I'm sorry, gomenne) written on his back.

Again via the debug room, you can fight a gunblade. It appears in place of GeroGero after defeating the Fake President in the Battle scene test number 2380. This enemy is not actually unused, and is present and visible in all battles against Seifer Almasy. Because Seifer uses a player model, his weapon, the gunblade, is a separate model but is just made untargetable.

Hidden Text And Drawings

The texture sheets for some monsters have little bits of text and drawings occupying the blank spaces.

• 

  "Sa"/"Sabotenda" (Cactuar's Japanese name).

• 

  Smiley cloud face.

• 

  A cactaur.

• 

  Little stick figure.

• 

  A star.

• 

  "Cow".

• 

  "Mystery Circle"/"Crop Circle".

• 

  Another stick figure.

• 

  Text in the middle says "← Front, Back →, Dummy, Hair ↓, Body ↓".

• 

  Smiley face.

• 

  "Seriously?"

• 

  A man in an "Ancient Egypt" pose.

• 

  "Pu".

• 

  "Pathetic".

• 

  A cross.

• 

  "Mo"/"Moai (Easter Island Statue)".

• 

  An Ochu.

• 

  "Pyramid".

• 

  A drawing of Quezacotl.

• 

  "Mo", possibly "Model".

• 

  A slanted stick man?

• 

  Horizontal stick man.

• 

  "My Spirit Dried Up".

• 

  Drawing of a Glacial Eye.

• 

  "I'm going to cry".

• 

  One-eyed smiley.

• 

  Hand.

• 

  Dinosaur.

• 

  "Empty Heart".

Unused Images

Alongside the images used in the Chocobo World introduction are these concept drawings. The kanji visible in each picture means "temporary".

This grid of hex numbers is unused in the normal game. It does appear though as the floor to battle number 4670 in the Girls Debug Room battle scene test.

An image with some unused (possibly development) fonts, also containing a logo and the used menu "pointer finger" cursor.

A further image simply contains handwritten Japanese text. The text translates to:

Dummy
For localization of battle explanation

Unused Areas

To try and visit the areas listed, use the following GameShark codes (replacing "????" with one of the below room IDs), then press all four shoulder buttons during gameplay to activate.

NTSC-U	NTSC-J	PAL
D00705E8 000F 800704A8 0001 D00705E8 000F 800704AA ????	D006F308 000F 8006F1C8 0001 D006F308 000F 8006F1CA ????	D0070A98 000F 80070958 0001 D0070A98 000F 8007095A ????

0048 - Grouped with the debug rooms is this, named "testno". It exists in non-JP versions, though the text associated with it was not translated. The text seen in this image translates to "This map can not be entered. Please report this bug." Trying to enter it crashes the game.

004C - Another one grouped with the debug rooms. It's named "test6" in the game's files, though hidden text in it and the main debug room identify it as Kitase-san's page". Its text has been translated though it also crashes trying to enter it.

00D8 - A bizarre scene in the training centre. Accessible only on Disc 4, the game will crash if you press any buttons other than D-Pad Right, action, or party menu. The bat-like black shape in the middle is a rotated Squall sprite, and the blobs moving left and right are the relief features (trees, walls) on a scrolling copy of a grayscale version of the background.

0149 - This rocky outcrop is where a forced battle against the XATM-092 takes place in the demo, but it is unused in the actual game. Its description in the game's files is Timber - TV Screen, and the only text associated with it are the Japanese for "Test" and "Battle Battle".

0283 - A car with an animated background. It's labelled as Winhill - Car and the scene only exists on Disc 2.

02A0 - Overhead shot of some Winhill backstreets only visitable on Disc 2. The room has scripts for Laguna, Kiros & Ward, but only text is "Test". When playing, the above car is visible through the houses.

0326 - The back of the arm control room in the D-District prison. There is no associated text or description so this is very much 'what you see is what you get'.

021A - Esthar's presidental palace with a normal sky and blue lighting and an alternate state showing the back of the room as well. In the actual game it is replaced with room 021B, which is identical save for a red sky and purple lights. Its only associated text is untranslated Japanese for "Test". It is described as Edea's House - Flower Field and is only visitable on Disc 3.

02CE - Alternate viewpoints for the initial Laguna-Julia cutscene. The game eschews these and the untranslated Japanese text contained within for the angles in room 02CF.

029F - An enlarged shot of Raine's house in Winhill. When playing, the car above is visible through the closed garage doors. Entering and actioning the car displays the "Test" dialog box. Disc 2 only.

Development Text

Build dates can be found in the FF8DISC*.img archives:

JP	US	UK
Jan 10 1999 19:00:03	Jul 4 1999 21:03:43	Jul 15 1999 11:24:53

To do: See if whatever this is can be displayed. The PC port has the same strings but the function they're passed to contains only a return statement. As that came after this version, it may be enable-able.

Next to the build dates are strings indicative of a debug menu/overlay:

%x
ON
OFF
OK
R2 INIT
R1 PC SAVE
L3 PAST
L2 DEBUG
L1 PC LOAD
SCENE 
%3d
TIME 
RATE100
%s
AP*10
EXP*10
DOGOUT
ODIN
FORMATION
WITCH
X_ITEM
X_MAGIC
X_GF
X_DRAW
X_COMMAND
X_PINCH
X_RESURRECT
CHOCOBO
CHOCOBO LEVEL
CHOCOBO WAZA
MOGURI
RANNYU1
RANNYU2
RANNYU3
PET5
PET6
PET7
PINCH
GILGAMESH
SQUALL FB

PocketStation

To do: Detail this stuff.

There is a unique feature which allows the player to download a mini-RPG called Chocobo World to the PocketStation. This allowed the player to collect items and power-up certain Guardian Forces. Although the game was localized, the PocketStation itself was not released outside of Japan, thus making the mini-game inaccessible without importing a PocketStation. This is available in both the Steam re-release of the game and the 2013 re-release of the 2000 PC version.

Oddly enough, the American release's manual has an entire section on Chocobo World! However, it begins with the text:

(*NOTE: Chocobo World requires the PocketStation™ personal game unit, which may not be available for purchase outside Japan.)

Regional Differences

Some gameplay changes were made when the game was localized:

• At the Fire Cavern in the Japanese version, the player has to defeat Ifrit and return to the entrance before time runs out. In the English versions, the player just needs to defeat Ifrit to stop the timer.
• Some Guardian Forces can be re-obtained in Ultimecia Castle if the player missed them. This is not possible in the Japanese version.
• Torama, Iron Giant, Elnoyle, and Behemoth have different HP formulas.
• Tutorials show up automatically in the game's storyline.

Some censorship was also made when the game was localized:

• In the original Japanese version, the boss Gerogero's organs were red. The change to blue for the localized versions was probably made because the red makes the organs protruding from the creature look far more real.
• The Ultimecia Castle's armory has red blood on the wall in the Japanese version, but in the localized versions it has turned green.
• Selphie's nunchaku and any references to it were renamed to "shinobu" (meaning "master priest") in the European version due to laws at the time that banned any references to ninjas and their weaponry.

(Source: CensoredGaming)

Italian PAL Version

Hardly a localization change, but the Italian translation differs from its PAL peers in that it got an actual Scan message for the Dummy enemy. Even more notably, the message is a note of frustration by the translator himself (presumably, he knew the enemy was unused and thus its Scan entry was unused as well).

Picture	Translation
	Dummy This translation is killin’ me. It’s almost 2 in the morning. I’m sleepy!!!! I’m sleepy!!!!