Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII is, as its name suggests, the eighth game in the Final Fantasy series. At the time of its release, it was quite divisive among fans, largely because it wasn't a rehash of Final Fantasy VII. An initially confusing gameplay system didn't help matters, and the highly touted "love story" concept was viewed as a mixed bag.

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 look identical to the Fire spell. 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.

Apocalypse
This spell 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 Song


Famously, the Final Fantasy 8 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 from the movie The Rock released in 1996.

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.

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

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.

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 xxxx with the listed code. Then press all four shoulder buttons during gameplay to activate.

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

 - 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.

 - Another one grouped with the debug rooms. It's named test6 in the game 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.

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 - 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 files is Timber - TV Screen, and the only text associated with it are the Japanese for 'Test' and 'Battle Battle'.

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

 - 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.

 - 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'.



 - 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, 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.



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



 - 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 Jan 10 1999 19:00:03

US Jul 4 1999 21:03:43

UK Jul 15 1999 11:24:53

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
There is a unique feature which allows the player to download a mini-RPG called "Chocobo World" to the Pocketstation. The 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.