With the recent terrible news of Square-Enix canceling game tournaments over bomb threats after the Kyoto Studio incident, there is finally something good to report from their end. Alongside a new trailer, Square-Enix has announced that their remastered version of Final Fantasy VIII will be hitting digital release on September 3rd, 2019. It will be available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Pre-orders have already started across all platforms, with a price of only 20 US dollars. Those who pre-order via the PlayStation Network will receive an exclusive dynamic PS4 theme.
An epic tale of love, magic, space travel, and war, Final Fantasy VIII tells the story of Squall Leonhart and his friends who are soldiers at Balamb Garden. When hired by a resistance group lead by Rinoa Heartilly, the party find themselves on the front line against the powerful Sorceress Edea who is set on universal domination across all of time and space.
Advanced visuals and character models aren’t the only things fans can look forward to during their HD replays. Similar to the Final Fantasy IX Remastered Edition, Final Fantasy VIII will have new features and settings that allow for easy gameplay in case fans find the normal gameplay challenging, or for those who just want to breeze through and experience the story. Such cheats include…
- Battle Assist – HP and ATB will be maxed, and limit breaks active at all times
- No Encounters – Players will be able to travel without random encounters
- Speed Boost – Scenes will play 3x faster
In addition, other features have been added exclusively to the Steam version. While there is no confirmation that they will later be included in the console versions, there is still the possibility they will be part of a later patch, or maybe even DLC. Similar features were included in the console version of Final Fantasy IX.
- All Items: Possess all items except for a few key ones
- All Abilities: Unlock all abilities for acquired GFs
- GF Max Level: Max out levels for all acquired GFs
- Max Gil: Max out the number of Gil
- Max Magic: Max out stock for all acquired Magic
- All Limit Breaks: Unlock all Limit Breaks
- All Cards: Possess max number of Cards, except Rare cards
Less than two weeks remain before Square-Enix’s beloved classic hits modern consoles.