Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII

Developers
	Square Enix
Publishers
	Square Enix
Europe	Eidos Interactive
Release dates
Windows	January 25, 2000

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy VII	1998
Final Fantasy VIII	2000
Final Fantasy XI	2003
Final Fantasy XIV	2010
Final Fantasy VII (2012)	2012
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn	2013
Final Fantasy VIII (2013)	2013
Final Fantasy III	2014
Final Fantasy IV	2014
Final Fantasy XIII	2014
Final Fantasy XIII-2	2014
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years	2015
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD‎	2015
Final Fantasy V	2015
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII	2015
Final Fantasy VI	2015
Final Fantasy IX	2016
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster	2016
Mobius Final Fantasy	2016
Final Fantasy Type-0 Online	2016

This page is for the original 2000 version. For the 2013 re-release, see Final Fantasy VIII (2013).

Key points

Higher resolution 480p FMVs than the PlayStation version.

Unfavorable to the PlayStation version in areas: Out of combat movement is limited 8 directions as opposed to complete circular movement, and has fixable inferior MIDI music.

While the PlayStation version ran at 60 FPS, excluding menu screens the PC frame rate is capped at 30 FPS, 15 FPS during combat and FMVs.

General information

Qhimm Final Fantasy Mod Forums

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		DRM: Simple disk check, no physical copy protection.

A demo is available here

Essential improvements

Patches

The 1.2 patch set fixes various bugs in the game:

• FF8SqeaNVPatch.zip: 1.2 patch for Nvidia Geforce users.
• FF8SqeaPatch.zip: 1.2 patch for other users.
• FF8_Yamaha_Fix.zip: Extra patch to fix a bug when using DirectX 7 only with the Yamaha software synthesizer.

Roses and Wine

Replaces the default MIDI music with the original PlayStation version music or optionally other music as well.

Aali's custom driver

See the corresponding section in Final Fantasy VII.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00

With modern versions of Windows it may be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00 which takes precedence if both registry keys exist.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save

Video settings

Graphic configuration.

Supported resolutions: 320x240x16 pillarboxed in 640x460x16, and 640x460x16.

Graphics option	Option	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Aali's custom driver for a workaround, though it currently has a black bottom border.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Aali's custom driver.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS		Excluding menu screens the frame rate is capped at 30 FPS, 15 FPS during combat and FMVs.
120+ FPS

Input settings

Controller configuration.

Key configuration.

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		No in-game mouse support.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Movement restricted to first two axes.
Full controller support		Launcher has no controller navigation support. No way to quit in-game with a controller.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback

Audio settings

Audio configuration.

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Game pauses on focus lost, MIDI music and opening logo FMV do not.
EAX support		EAX 2

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	CC	Notes
English

Issues fixed

Running from an ISO or another drive

By default the game uses the first physical CD-ROM drive location for CD checks. If you wish to use another drive (common when using an ISO), edit the registry:

1. Run the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00\DataDrive

   If that doesn't exist go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00\DataDrive

3. Change its value to the drive letter that the .ISO occupies(usually E or F), and relaunch the game.

8-bit paletted textures fix

When attempting to run FF8 PC on a modern system, the game's launcher will fail on video cards lacking 8-bit texture support. This causes the game to use textures that are of a lower resolution. To fix this, as well as allow the game to run at higher resolutions, download the custom launcher that may be found here.

Graphical issues

If you have graphical issues or artifacts, use Aali's custom driver.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
64-bit executable

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video	0.9d

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, 98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 200 MHz Intel Pentium II 266 Mhz	Intel Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	300 MB	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB/8 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible	16 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound-compatible
Other	DirectMusic-compatible Software Synthesizer 8X CD-ROM