FF8's Weirdest Secrets

[@BruckerHouse]

Wtf is that thumbnail

[@gnosis_gaming]

🤣I was waiting for someone to ask haha. That's what I thought the black shadow was like as a kid. But this creature in the thumbnail is one of the monsters in FF8. It's called 'Creeps.'

[@YudaHnK]

Great pin

[@emonsalt]

A dementor

[@Nurr0]

@@gnosis_gaming Welp the thumbnail worked. I totally forgot about those enemies.

[@bunnydexter7178]

He has very lickable armpits😋

[@MegaGameXtreme]

The weirdest secret is a side quest exclusive to irvine. You can ONLY access it during the time where you're selecting which party memeber will play what instrument during the concert in FH. All you have to do is just leave when the game prompts you to pick someone to play an instrument. You can explore the town as irvine and find a small side quest that includes him and the grease monkey. It's really hidden because I can't imagine most people even realized they could just...leave.

[@canalultimateattack3169]

This is not how it's done, you talk to grease monkey while controlling Squall and Irvine. The one you mean is getting an exclusive dialogue with the library girl by only controlling Irvine, still that's not essential for the combat king 3 sidequest.

[@MegaGameXtreme]

@@canalultimateattack3169 Huh I must have done something different then, I distinctly remember roaming FH with irvine and getting into a small side quest that involved the grease monkey beating up a galbadian soldier. I never went back to the garden and talked to the librarian. I don't remember exactly what triggered it, but the reward wasn't anything to write home about either. I thought it was just a little easter egg and nothing more EDIT: Upon looking into it further, The quest is in fact between ivrine and the grease monkey. There is a video that show cases everything you can do while temporarily controlling irvine. You can get some fun dialogue from people in balamb garden, and the quest definetly involves irvine and the grease monkey. You get a phoenix down for doing it, so you're not really missing out of much if you don't do this quest. It's just a fun little secret! If you're curious, search "irvine side quest"!

[@canalultimateattack3169]

@@MegaGameXtreme maybe you can do it only with Irvine alone, but it wouldn't make sense because the galbadian commander needs to escape as he wouldn't battle alone againist two opponents. I haven't tried that, neither will I start a new playthrough at this moment only to check (I played it again months ago for the 25 years anniversary). I always did it with Squall and Irvine in a short moment you control them both, and the reward is actually a Mega Phoenix. Maybe it's possible that you can do it with only Irvine for just a Phoenix Down, but like I said, it needs checking.

[@MegaGameXtreme]

@@canalultimateattack3169 so then check. There's literally a video uploaded called "irvine side quest" that proves everything I just said. Really weird thing to double down on my dude.

[@canalultimateattack3169]

@@MegaGameXtreme saw the video, it's the same sidequest, except done with Irvine alone rather than him and Squall. If you do that with Squall and Irvine, you get a Mega Phoenix (which he referenced in your method), but you don't get those ammo from the downed commander.

[@ProxyDoug]

The girl who has a crush on Zell is the girl sitting with him on the ending cinematic where he's choking on bread

[@metae.4256]

@jaybonzii In the Garden battle, the order about the Hotdogs is mandatory.

[@shartsmcginty8056]

​@jaybonzii Especially followed up with a nice o̶n̶i̶g̶i̶r̶i̶ jelly donut!

[@themajesticotter193]

@jaybonzii 8 got me hooked on hotdogs when I was a kid. I'm going to go get a hotdog now.

[@aaron4832]

I want hotdogs now.

[@XXPYR0XX]

she wants his hot dog.

[@RagnarokiaNG]

Its depressing that the shadow of the lake is likely being sincere with telling you of places not knowing those places are long gone and just rubble remains of the people it once knew

[@gnosis_gaming]

That's true!

[@quarreneverett4767]

@@RagnarokiaNG acording to the dialogue that is how i took it

[@Precise-Sight]

It clearly indicates, that it knows, that there is no village anymore. "back in the day.....there used to be.....lived"

[@quarreneverett4767]

Yay i got dA loved marker

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@quarreneverett4767 😄 thanks for commenting!

[@nilzero5686]

the ruined village is vaguely implied to be a remnant of the Lunar Cry that destroyed the Centra Civilization, but it could also be linked to the various sorceress wars in FF8's history. When you go through Time Compression you encounter incarnations of witches from various eras through history, and there's actually evidence of pre-Centran civilization. Centra was destroyed 100 years prior and according to the in-game lore the only structures that remained were Odin's dungeon and Edea's house, but the deep sea deposit that was discovered by the researchers in the optional dungeon contains ancient ruins that are similar to the Cetran architecture but slightly different. There's a whole ruined city down there, and they were somehow trying to uncover a powerful Guardian Force from the depths of the planet, which is interesting because GFs are barely elaborated upon in FF8 despite being so ubiquitous, you can actually hypothesize that the lack of information about GF origins is because of the memory loss, which actually gives the things a more sinister overtone. Not to mention other ruins like the Tomb of the Unknown King in Galbadia. In fact, the recency of Cetra's destruction means FF8 is arguably post-apocalyptic. Personally the coolest hidden secret is I think the Adel radio lore. In the story Adel is sent into space after being sealed by Esthar, and in her sealed state she still uses her power to knock out global radio communications, filling them with static. The characters mention this early on in the game without knowing why said communications were cut, but when you go to the Timber station you'll see a bunch of creepy messages on the screens- they say things like "IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETABOUTME" and so forth that are being sent by Adel from her prison. This is actually how the Ragnarok ship in the endgame got lost in space- the Esthar people used the ships to take her into orbit but when she was up their she ruined their communications, which is how the ship was unable to return home- and then after Adel is freed and returns to the planet, the radio systems work again, which is how Esthar's control tower is able to reach Squall and Rinoa in the cockpit and guide them into landing. It all fits together really well despite Adel being such a mysterious villain. The most cryptic stuff is probably Ultimecia's backstory, but her castle contains a lot of clues about it. It's a massive structure designed for lots of people but she's the only one there and it's in a state of disrepair- the implication being that it's somewhere she once ruled or served another ruler, but everything went to hell for her and the people there and she became depressed and isolated. If you go to the armory there's also a banner with a bloody red sword embedded in it, which could mean that she was perhaps betrayed and stabbed in the back by someone she trusted, or it could represent the death of someone or something she had attached herself to. Her last words in the battle against the SEEDs are also quite bleak as she reflects about how time robs you of everything, it doesn't sound the same as her pre-battle lines, and IIRC her original speech about prejudice she made through Edea was localized to be less despondent like it was in the original script. All in All, the implications of Ultimecia's life is that she had something very horrible happen to her to make her this way and it scarred her deeply. FF8 is a really great game, it holds a lot of mysteries and doesn't answer all of them to retain some of the world's mystique.

[@greenhowie]

Always wondered about another detail that's thematically important but is seemingly overlooked by the end - what happened to all the Sorceresses' Knights? Who was Adel's Knight? As a kid I assumed they somehow became GFs and were scattered due to Time Compression, since it's implied that Griever is Ultimecia's Knight - but honestly it's beyond me. Didn't find out til a few years ago that the God of FF8 is called Hyne and every Sorceress is a direct descendant as well. This game is a whole ass ARG by itself.

[@MalachiLper]

According to the FF8 Ultimania, there was a long held belief that one day, a sorceress called Ultimecia would be born, and this sorceress will try to bring the end to the world as we know it, and the mother of Ultimecia hated her daughter and called her that so she would be hated and hunted down like a dog. Which in turn led her into wanting to compress time so she’d be the only human left alive because a sorceress cannot die until they pass on their powers, and if there’s nobody to pass them onto, she just never dies.

[@doggotov1]

This is why FF8 should get the FFVII remake treatment

[@rustyburger]

​@@doggotov1 Not to try and start a flame war in the comments, but that so called "treatment" is a "curse" to a lot of fans if they're going to handle it the same way they handled the remake/rebirth - the fact that it's still not finished, and is played in resetting chunks released years apart from one another? What a mess, and that's to not talk about everything else that people had issue with. Just that alone is terrible. I've never met one person that's said to me: "The game is amazing, it's my favorite." it's always "Yeah..I guess I'm glad it got a remake, it was alright." It basically exists for cosplayers, and 34 artists, that's basically all the game forwarded LOL

[@Ebani]

@@greenhowie Griever is never implied to be Ultimecia's knight, not even in the english localization but in the japanese version she has a dialogue when she summons Griever saying something along the lines of "i will summon he who you think is the strongest GF" meaning Griever was extracted from Squalls thoughts and there was never any relation between the two. Since this dialogue is not in the english version most ppl (myself included) thought Ultimecia was Rinoa in the future since that was the only connection shown in the game between the two, meaning Squall would've been Rinoa's (and ergo Ultimecia's) knight but in reality still not true

[@milagrosgutierrezmartin9506]

An awesome detail that you only get on a second playthrough is that Adel is the one causing all the comunications interference that doesn't let anyone transmit at the start of the game, and why galbadia wanted that communications tower...all that intereference, is she screaming in despair and rage over the planet. If you look at the static before Delling's broadcast goes out in Timber, you can read "I AM ALIVE HERE", "BRING ME BACK THERE", and "I WILL NEVER LET YOU FORGET ABOUT ME" on the screen

[@njalsand133]

Never noticed that.

[@andreseh87]

That’s awesome and scary as hell

[@Joey-qt7mt]

Why does that give me CHILLS. Sorceress Adel storyline would make an awesome prequel.

[@Rantandum]

Just double-checked this on a playthrough video and.....wow, this one is REALLY creepy! D:

[@Vaquix000]

@@Joey-qt7mt If they told too much about her that would ruin her mystique I think.

[@pilllinpilllin]

The secrets in old RPG games, specialy during the PS1 era, are just mindblowing. Great work!

[@MoisesAlmeida]

At that time it was pleasurable and very useful to play with a Guide Book on your lap, they were a work of art in themselves!

[@JosephJoe-u7e]

PS1 imo was the golden era. What a monster library it had

[@originalSiiiN]

💯💯💯

[@michaelbaker8284]

I never heard of the lake thing before I really wonder how many people back then ever even ran into this. I had a full guide for the game and that stuff was never in it.

[@robertwood4483]

Surely a salary is less weird than wild animals dropping cash though?

[@gnosis_gaming]

Haha, yeah 🤣 but it makes FF8 a bit of a black sheep among RPGs.

[@Birdulon]

It's quite funny readjusting from other games. "I'll just buy a bunch of cottages to refine to Full-Life... oh I don't have enough money, guess I'll sell some monster materials... oh they don't sell for much at all. Guess I'll scam some kids out of cards."

[@ericcook4171]

​@@Birdulonthat charizard and the power 9 i got for ante should pad the bank nicely.

[@Xenmaru00]

After playing borderlands, i ended up subscribing to the thought that the more dangerous creatures just ate the money and you were fishing it out of their corpses.

[@Kowalth]

Hahaha Man, I want wild animals to drop cash for me irl tho'

[@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind]

I felt like the smartest kid around when I junctioned „death“ with my weapon and insta-killed almost every monster encounter on those lvl99 isles.. it was some serious power levelling.

[@Krizalid3YE]

When i got Tonberry, in 2º CD, i was fighting Snow Lions, casting blind, meltdown and berserk on then. After that, using LV-UP from Tonberry, i got a huge power leveling, easily too.

[@greenhowie]

Yeah that's a game changer, you quickly learn that you need 100% confu protection with Malboros though...

[@MsVilecat]

I remember farming the islands for not only the draw points but also for the Steal and Devour commands, since some of them gave you good stuff and stat points. I'd get silly with my party and let them be just low enough and with enough status effects (poison, blind) to guarantee limit breaks. Everyone but Squall was a monster since I spent the first 50lv with him as the only party member, drawing magic from T-rexaurs and such in the training room and the forest around Balamb and maxing my summons so they could boost stat gains per level gained on whoever is junctioned.

[@jimschuler8830]

Why would you power level in that game? Leveling made you weaker. You wanted your characters to be as low level as possible with high-level GFs junctioned to powerful spells. I don't think I had anyone over level 20 before getting to Ultimecia's castle. That system is why FFVIII sucked.

[@JaxonHaxon]

@@jimschuler8830 because its an rpg and we were kids man, you dont have to be mad

[@b6oy1004]

Here are some of my favourites: •On the Centra continent you can find a small area with a few blue crystals on the ground, which is where Laguna went in the past while the crystal pillar was being dug up •In the FMV scene where Squall and Rinoa go into space, the cannon used to shoot them to the space station says “TIN CAN SHOOTER” on it •When you first enter the mayor’s house at Fisherman’s Horizon, you can see models of various vehicles from the series hanging from the ceiling, including the Lunar Whale from FFIV, the Blackjack from FFVI and the Tiny Bronco from FFVII •On Disc 4, a lot of areas are closed off to make room on the disc for the ending FMV; most of these are areas where you can find GFs so you don’t lock yourself out of them, but strangely includes Trabia Canyon where Laguna was filming a movie in the fourth dream sequence •Some enemies give permanent stat boosts when eaten using Eden’s Devour skill; the only way to get a +1 in speed this way is by eating PuPu, which locks you out of getting the card and can only be done once •You can use Mug to steal 8 Megalixirs from Rinoa during the battle against Sorceress Adel •Every shop in Esthar’s digital shopping mall has a chance to be closed every time you access it, and if you try to access a closed shop you have a small chance to receive a free gift, which is different for each shop. There is also a shop called Cheryl’s Store that never opens, which very rarely rewards a Rosetta Stone for clicking it •If you revisit Dollet and try to go back up the hill to the communications tower, you’ll be stopped by a soldier who sends more spider robots after you which break down or fall off the cliff. The music from when you were being chased also still plays in the area •If you go back to Deling City on disc 3, many soldier NPCs will have new dialogue about Seifer now being the leader of Galbadia

[@Dukefazon]

Yes, I found the spider robot revisit :D

[@im7254]

Permanent boosts sounds amazing wow

[@AbrahamLure]

Can you not get PuPu when in disc 4 on the Ragnarok?

[@Garbowhat]

Cheryl's store 100% gives Rosetta stone if you visit during the lunatic pandora's timed incursion into Esthar.

[@b6oy1004]

@@AbrahamLure PuPu’s quest is still available on disc 4, as it happens entirely on the world map and doesn’t need you to go anywhere that gets blocked off

[@Kanerudo]

There are many more secrets like losing a unique card to the card queen to unlock new ones, the dog bone treasue hunt or getting some of the hidden GF like Doomtrain, Bahamut or Eden. Not to mention the Omega Weapon I love that none of those secrets are hidden behind a rediculous challange like 1000 rope jumps, dodging 200 thunderbolts or finishing the game in x hours.

[@TheCaliban_]

There's this one 'secret' I found out about back in the days no one seems to mention. So, when you get to Ultimecia's Castle in disc 4 after the time compression event, on the big chains that hold the castle in place and are used for accessing it, you'll find 3 doors that will teleport you to different locations in the overworld - note that it is impossible to access any other areas nor the Ragnarok ship from any of these locations plus they are the only means to access the overworld. Now, in one of the locations you can teleport to, there is a chocobo forest nearby which you can use to get a chocobo and ride all along the coastline until you find a 4th door alongside the Ragnarok ship. This will allow you to visit any spot in the overworld on disc 4 and if you enter the 4th teleport door via overworld it will appear alongside the 3 others in Ultimecia's Castle.

[@Sevensx777]

Nice video, i miss when games were like this

[@separaattori957]

This one I did find back in the day the game came out! Shame the towns arent accessible thou.. Also found out about the island closest to hell/heaven and cactuar island. but never found out about the shadow or zells love quest

[@Toni_560]

It's very well known and was in every games guide back on release....

[@TheSattocs]

These door relate to the Triple Triad side quests. The hardest fights in the game are found through some of those locations. I believe the King and Queen are found in the Ragnarok.

[@GabbyNoctis]

This was in nearly every strategy guide ever and since town access is restricted in Disc 4 anyway there's hardly a reason to find Ragnarok UNLESS you're missing summons like Tonberry, Cactuar, Bahamut, and Eden.

[@bwoooooooooop]

My favourite FF8 secret is that in Esthar you can access the escape pod that fell back to the planet after escaping from the Lunar Cry in space - the "Crash Site". There's no map marker, no specific information on where it is, but you can find it on the world map. Piet is there, and you can play cards with him in case you missed Alexander card!

[@MichaelP833]

it can also be an important place to return to in disc 4. depending on what else you had completed with cards before then.

[@Space_Cat969]

Thank you for this. I legit couldn't remember the name of it and it was too obscure for me to easily find it without keywords.

[@arisrayden]

if you completed the card queen side quest she will also be there and you can repeadtly win back unique cards that you modded from here... hint hint gilgamesh hint int. the problem with this trick however is that the landing site counts as the lunar base location and thus has all rules active which is a major pain in the ass because of the random rule... you can however spend a lot of time eradicating the random rule everywhere so it cant spread to other locations however however this is extraordinarily tedious as well

[@MichaelP833]

@@arisrayden you seem to be mixing up a few things most 100% speed runners ignore the card queen quest, and just come here on disc 4 to get all her cards if you complete the card club then those members are available on the ragnarok, and will also have cards you have modded i believe the queen here doesnt actually use lunar's rules, but instead has all rules except for open. and they cant be abolished. not 100% about that detail though

[@arisrayden]

@@MichaelP833 oh right i forgot that the infinite refinement trick was with the CC members. damn it's been too long, shameful, shameful. hmm nah i'm still pretty sure that it's actually the lunar rules which are basically all rules without open if i remember correctly but obviously my memory of these things are now highly in doubt

[@ballroomscott]

Some of my favorite little secrets in FFVIII are that you can encounter a Galbadian solder trying to get the Grease Monkey in Fisherman's Horizon to fix the Ironclad and if you scare him off twice you can get some free items. And in Timber you can talk to a woman who was saved years ago from falling onto the tracks by a handsome Galbadian solder named "Loire". Also, if you check the messages from the Library Committee on Squall's console you can find out that Seifer hasn't returned a book about being a Sorceress's Knight. There are just so many fun little things sprinkled through FFVIII that I think a lot of people miss.

[@gnosis_gaming]

I was just doing a recent playthrough and ran into the side quest in Dollet, where the grandpa is trying to paint landscapes and his grandson keeps painting big dog bones on them 🤣

[@ballroomscott]

@@gnosis_gaming that’s the Queen of Hearts dad. He’s the one that makes new cards when you lose certain cards to her.

[@senatorcthulu1815]

The Seifer one is actually so much deeper than that. It's not a book, it's a film. It's the film that stars Laguna that you get to play a scene of later in the game, and Seifer's battle stance and victory pose is literally lifted from that film. He idolises a character played by the father of the guy he wants dead.

[@ballroomscott]

@@senatorcthulu1815 That's a possibility I never considered. It says "The Sorceress' Knight (Scenario Edition)" which I've always thought of as a choose your own adventure book. I know that Seifer copies Laguna's moves from the movie. Dissidia Opera Omnea (which should not be taken as canon) suggests that it's just a really popular movie that everyone knows about. I've never seen Seifer's motives as actually wanting to kill Squall, but wanting to prove that he's better than Squall. There's a lot of wiggle room for personal interpretation though. I really hope FFVIII will get a full remake one day so they can really flesh out the story and characters.

[@michalpociask3068]

​​@@senatorcthulu1815It's so sad that one of the best FFs ever is so underrated and its plot is criticized so much, when the lore is actually pretty deep. I'd even dare to say that it has the richest lore among all Final Fantasy titles with Centra continent, Hyne and witches' history, Adel war, hunting little girls to be sacrificed as a sorceresses' vessel, Ellone Junction Machine, Laguna being Squall's dad, the theme song really is more than just lyrics - it really has a story purpose, Seifer looking up to being as cool as the dad of the guy he fckin hates, and so much more. It's just most of the cool little things aren't part of the main narrative and you have to go and search for clues by talking to NPCs and interacting with the world.

[@acerimmer8338]

I miss world maps and random battles. World maps provide a sense of scope and scale you just can't get in games like WRPGs and recent FFs. It's an ENTIRE world, not just a country or continent. And random battles provide a sense of tension. Remember the fear of that splash screen, hoping it isn't a Malboro??? When you can see enemies and run away whenever you want, that fear and mystery is lost.

[@homerman76]

All of this is part of why I feel it sad that so much of the industry is convinced that the current Open World style of game is the way of the future. Like I get why people love such systems, but there's a certain magic that is missing from them that you can't really find in most modern games.

[@nierawebster8026]

I feel like FFVII Rebirth felt enough like a "world" rather than continent once you can access the full map and for part3 I can't even imagine how big it will feel

[@alexg5189]

Agreed. World maps are a great part of RPGs and I still think the PS1 era Final Fantasies did it the best.

[@rustyburger]

I always wanted to know what was in Selphies personal databank at the computer in Trabia garden, she rushes in to crash the computer in front of Squall to prevent him from reading it. This is all speculation on my part, but I think Selphie might of been a spy for Trabia garden tasked with a mission to report what was going on at balamb garden, and to act like a clueless, airheaded teenage girl so people wouldn't suspect her. Selphie proves herself time, and time again to understand how to operate advanced military equipment, machinery, and even flies the Ragnarok through "Instinct" I thought for a long time of what she might not want Squall to see, and that's the only conclusion I could come to. Just speculation of course.

[@gnosis_gaming]

She's hiding something for sure lol

[@Honaro2nd]

Not only that, she uses a Nunchaku, a weapon that's notoriously difficult to handle and not for someone that's the clumsy girl she tries to portray.

[@elvancor]

*might have been

[@mrboxy3970]

Less a spy, and more a victim. Trabia itself was wiped tf out by Adel under Edea's influence to create an artificial Lunar Cry. As for her personal databank, depends on what was being looked at. These act like diaries/daily logs. For personnel files, you'd be able to see their medical history, background, physical measurements, etc... potentially embarrassing info if your crush saw.

[@aluisiomagalhaes4478]

My 5: 1 - Fixed encounter strat: In the deep search lab, before you beat Ultima, If you equip enc-none you'll still get battles, but these are fixed, so you can know where and who you gonna fight. To my knowledge is the best to get Dark Matters (via tri-face) for unlimited ultima magic. From the save point, go down to the screen bellow. You'll face only tri-faces, then go back to the save point with more tri-faces. Then you enter the switch party option that is appears while on the save point to reset the enemies. 2 - Obel Lake quest end - By the end of the quest you mentioned, one of the faces always lies 3 - Visage-Lefty-Righty - You can find those enemies around Winhill town, but if you hug the mountains nearby, they always appear together like in the boss fight near the end and become immune to status effects just like the boss. Always! And it will never be another enemy encounter as well, just them. They're the best source of exp till ICTH. I think the boss Gargantua is originally from that mountain range. 4 - 10.000 needles - Jumbo Catuar is somewhat well known, but the thing that took me a while to know back in the day is that when it becomes a GF for you, it will start doing a normal cactuar 1000 needle damage. It's power actually scales with it's on level. For each ten levels, it will start doing a 1000 more damage capping at 10.000 just like the boss at level 100. 5 - CC Group at disk 4 - If you complete the CC Group quest till by the end of disk 3, when you get the Ragnarok back at disk 4, you can find them south of Esthar and play with them. Then, they will have every card in the game, even if you miss some before that. I have a Theory that if you refine your cards by then, you can get them back from them, but I never tested that... There's more. It is my favorite game by far...

[@godsplayingfield]

if i remember correctly, between the queen of cards and the CC group, any card you refined can be reobtained from them. the queen has any her father creates if you refined them, and the CC has the others. i think thats how it works. but i know you can get all cards again.

[@ArcboundX]

That's correct, any card corresponding to GF and characters, just not PuPu as its a lower rarity iirc, so refine away

[@Ktjnn]

You can actually just keep refining and winning the cards back at end game if you complete the side quest.

[@Bozebo]

1 Instead of fighting tri faces for black hole for rosetta stones. You can get infinite in the desert prison by timing the music after the save and entering the door to the shop vendor guy on a certain note in the song (really easy for humans to time frame perfect) and then after you get the stone going up to save then reloading the new save to reset RNG and do it again for infinite stones. There is another technique running there as fast as you can from the save to get "consistent" frame timing then cancelling the text box 50 times or whatever to guarantee the rosetta stone, but that strat is terrible. 3 that's not true, the visage+lefty+righty fights near the cliffs are just the normal setup with 3 enemies similar to the ice lake encounters, they're not immune to status effects. However, fighting them there is very useful and almost a secret as it stands. Yeah you can infinitely refine and recover your cards in the ragnarok at the end, best to prepare the rules first so they don't have random (and then say "I've picked my cards!" after you challenge them to a game, filthy cheaters!) and have open.

[@robertmiller3887]

The Tri-faces in the Deep Search lab are actually probably the best EXP farm in the game. Because of them being fixed encounters, and because you can draw Death from them and cast it on them as they're weak to it. Leading to the three fights usually being able to be done in less than a few minutes before going back and fighting them again.

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

I think VIII could be the most-underrated FF game. Wonderfully creative.

[@charleschin6497]

it is very well designed, just the tutorial bad

[@ElJaf17]

Agreed! For me, it is one of the best. Love the cinematics and the depth of time and space given to the world. The fusion of genres as it envelopes cosmic horror, sci fi, action adventure, serious romance including a Faye Wong song ffs lol, and a coming of age story of identity and exploring what morality is. It feels like a story about fate when you consider how an orphanage ties so many characters together in an epic story spanning all time and space. Very ambitious story and they pulled it off super well. Many devs and directors cannot pull off just one genre, let alone blend so many to create something like FF8. Late 90s was the peak of gaming for me. Experimental and great. JRPGs were peak all-round from '97-'99 that i could make a v long list lol!

[@YakubTheFather]

I wish it got a true make, with the back story legend and the three generations like the og idea

[@midwestdolo818]

Only thing I didn't like was Squalls personality early on but I been hoping and praying they remake this. Shame that they won't

[@SpitDragon]

8 is Most Over-Rated among Anime Fans* lol 7 is "Appropriately over-rated" 8 is JUST "OVER" 8 = Not one of the best. 9 Laughs Hysterically. 3/6 says "Huh?, I don't even wake up in the morning for Squall" 2/4 is too stalwart to bother with 8. Tactics lifts it's head "Did you need something?" - Yall say "I'm not a real RPGer" in reply. Oof. Anyway, Enjoy your Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. Learn to SquareSOFT I have an entire Video on why 8 sucks, not to clout, but if you should need more reasons. We all know it's faults. Cherishing them is fine, but it don't make the Game Good, Especially not comparatively. FF8 - Mystic Quest Jr. Stuff em in, Zell.

[@johnmartin8733]

I miss things like this in games. Just secrets that have no explanation, no guidance to them, and no clear indication that you just flagged a side quest. Things like this made games so unique and mysterious back in the day, I feel like we've really stepped away from that.

[@JarrettWalksOttawa]

well said!

[@scaccu]

Witcher 3 has a lot of it

[@Netist_]

Nowadays, most developers are too fixated on making sure you see absolutely everything instead of letting you discover things on your own.

[@Dizerfullpower]

That was a vehicle to sell guides, nowadays people would just post about this stuff in online wikis

[@ColinoDeani]

yea cause game developers got greedy now its all DLC and pay to play.. i hate it.. stopped buying consoles after ps2.. fuck that..

[@ralphbeez1411]

One of the weirdest obscure secrets is the creation of VIII's myths by The Great Hyne. At Balamb Town in the old man's residence, he can tell a story to his kids about how humanity was made and even implies ties to Squall. On the White SeeD ship, you can hear another legend about Great Hyne in more detail read by Lina as well. What's interesting is Hyne is said to have been the progenitor of the witch embodiment power, and Rinoa is also called Hyne's descendant by Esthar npcs. "Long, long ago... When this world was just made, there was a strong god called 'Hyne'. This god was very, very strong, but after fighting a lot of monsters, he became very tired. So he made 'people' like you and me to do all the work, and the god went to sleep. [...] However, the god was very surprised when he awoke. Surprised that there were so many people. Hyne decided to reduce the number of people by taking away the children. [...] Of course, everyone was scared then, too. And so, the battle against Hyne began. Even though the people were small, they all got together, and finally cornered him. Hyne didn't know what to do. Out of desperation, he gave half of his body to the people and ran off with the remaining other half. Well, he was a god. Anyway, it turns out Hyne tricked the people. The half that Hyne ran away with was the half that had the stronger magic. Hmmm... It might be close by, actually. It might even be watching you." - Old Man "Once upon a time, there was a person named Hyne. Hyne was the ruler of the world. He became lazy and decided to make a tool to make his life easier. Hyne made a neat tool. His tool could make more tools by itself. Soon there were a lot of tools in the world. These tools were actually people. When Hyne woke up, he was surprised because there were a lot of people. Hyne wanted to reduce the number of people, and used magic to burn up a lot of small people. The small people were children. The people cherished the children very much. So the people rebelled against Hyne. Hyne used powerful magic to fight them. The people couldn't use magic, but they had wisdom. Eventually, Hyne began to lose the war, because there were too many people to fight, and they were getting smarter. Therefore, he decided to make peace with people by offering them half of his body along with his powers. Hyne cut his body in half and gave the people half as he promised. Then, another war started. People began to fight over the power Hyne offered them through his body. This war lasted decades. Finally, King Zebalga and the Zebalga tribe emerged victorious and demanded Hyne's body-half to get its powers. But the body ignored their commands. Then, Vascaroon came to the rescue. He appeared before the confused Zebalgas and revealed to them that Hyne's body-half was corrupt and possessed no real power. The body-half was actually Hyne's cast-off skin. The Zebalgas were angered by this truth, and decided to destroy Hyne. The Zebalgas never found Hyne. People began to call him "Hyne the Magician" and continued to hunt him for centuries to come." - Lina

[@SubduedRadical]

........huh. That's...oddly very interesting.

[@onghsiangseng]

❤

[@gdi69]

An interesting tie-in is if you look at Ultimecia's final form, you can see the skin of her human body just kinda hanging there on her lower half. It makes up roughly half of her torso. Additionally, a bit more of a stretch, her color scheme, white, red, blue/purple, is similar to the original Hyne/Hein's in FFIII. But it's interesting that 3/4 of the mentions(the 4th is in the computer in Balamb) of the character are entirely missable. Only a brief mention in Esthar after getting off the Ragnarok is mandatory. And this is the final boss's backstory. lol

[@nathank2289]

Secret 1: FFVIII is a time travel loop similar to Terminator. Matron (Squalls foster mother) teaches her husband (Cid) about sorceresses and charges him with creating a team to kill the worst sorceress possible. Cid then founds a school for all their foster kids to learn how to fight and kill sorceresses. Cid puts Squall in charge of the school despite Squall's inexperience, because Squall is the most qualified to kill the Sorceress who endangers Cid's wife. At the end of the game Squall fights the sorceress who sends him back in time. Squall than meets his young foster mother who absorbed the sorceress's power as she dies. His foster mother having witnessed Squall's battle, charges Cid with teaching her children to fight sorceresses.

[@hangguy209]

THIS!!!! I've always said FFVIII, Terminator, and Forbidden Siren all have the same time loop plot. The past, the present, and the future have already been determined. The past leads to the main events and the future ultimately goes back into the past to jumpstart everything all over again. A timeless loop. Tragic, but VERY cool and interesting.

[@mtoffo2275]

Yea but it's not really a secret, it's just the plot

[@canalultimateattack3169]

Actually the ending is an ambiguity, it's also possible that SeeDs made Ultimecia evil, because they persecutted her in the future and she wanted revenge. If at the end the SeeDs disband, there will be no evil Ultimecia, that's backed by Squall believing "there were many good sorceresses, Edea was one", but if the belief that "SeeDs were made to kill sorceresses", then the future White SeeDs will persecutte Ultimecia, starting it all over again.

[@hangguy209]

@@canalultimateattack3169 future White SeeDs were found dead in the future. Further backing up that Ultimecia still had to deal with SeeD.

[@MistaCen]

@@canalultimateattack3169 lol people don't know that there was a huge chuck of story that was ripped out due to disk space and quantity. Selphie was a sorceress candidate just like Rinoa, her whole backstory/questline was removed or rather heavily shortened. And then there's Ultimecia who is actually Rinoa from a timeline where Squall dies, driving Rinoa mad (yes he died when Eden struck him with the ice missile, in her timeline)

[@nathank2289]

Secret 2: FFVIII is the only Final Fantasy to encourage a pacifist rout. Every monster you kill in the game gives experience to every other monster, so the game gets harder for every enemy you kill. The only way to avoid this is to run away or turn monsters into cards (which gives you ability points while trapping the monsters soul without killing it). You have to fight and kill Boss monsters but those are mostly unnatural enemies and don't grant experience. In several scenes through the game characters talk about not wanting to fight or kill.

[@gnosis_gaming]

That's interesting!

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

Ah yes, because being perpetually soul trapped as a trading card is way less awful than just dying.

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@TheRealMycanthrope 🤣

[@nathank2289]

@TheRealMycanthrope hey take it up with the Pokémon/ Cardcaptor writers. I don't make the anime rules.

[@johnk6757]

Iirc bosses were not leveled right? So the game could be harder in some ways if you pushed this to the limit. However most of your power comes from junctioning anyways so it wasn’t too big of a deal

[@Eishikigami]

Fun fact about the map of FF8: it's not actually a sphere; nor is it a cylinder like FF7, but actually a torus, due to the north and south of the map seamlessly bridging, the same as the east and west.

[@FightingFoodonsFan]

A "torus" is basically the classic (ring) donut shape, for those who don't know. More or less, anyway.

[@quarreneverett4767]

@@FightingFoodonsFan thanks

[@dirrdevil]

These are gameplay abstractions. Not reality.

[@Eishikigami]

@dirrdevil well yeah, thats why its a map peculiarity. Everyone knows there are plenty times you see the world is a globe

[@quarreneverett4767]

@@Eishikigami yeah we know its not literal atleast some of us have reason :) agreed

[@Swapaneezy]

I knew the Islands closest to Heaven and Hell but I assumed it was just for drawing from the monsters there, I didnt realise there was so many draw points on them :O

[@gnosis_gaming]

Oh I bet the monsters have good magic too

[@MechAdv]

Same!

[@Tkdlogan]

You have to have Siren’s “Move-find” equipped to be able to draw from them

[@Swapaneezy]

@@Tkdlogan Thats usually one of the first things I make siren learn and keep on throughout the game haha

[@drunkdrag0n]

To elaborate fully - Islands of Heaven and Hell - both enemies there are Level 100, however on one island the enemies will try to brute-force their way through your team and on the other they'll aim to be more detrimental effects and ailments against you instead. The Library Girl with pigtails can be started as early as going to the Fire Cavern, and has to be finished before you find the White SeeD ship. It is best done during Disk 2. The Shadow Creature side-quest is essentially a scavenger hunt for a single super-rare item, the Three Stars that teaches a Guardian Force Expendx3-1, letting you cast a spell 3 times for one cost. Cactaur island is also the best place for farming AP; 20AP per defeated Cactaur. The Cactus Thorn they drop can also be refined into 100 Needles PuPu can also be killed, but doing so will grant you the Accelerator and you'll miss out on its card.

[@After4th]

You can actually "enter" Cactuar Island during disc 2 by hugging the mainland coast due to a zoning fluke. 100% chance of encountering cactuars.

[@Wreck1990]

​@@After4thI'm saving this info.

[@RadiantDarkBlaze]

I can get the Garden to land on Cactuar Island; it's clearly not supposed to and it does take a few tries to get just the right angle to hop over to it, but it's definitely possible. Disc 2 Cactuar is a regular staple of my playthroughs~

[@Sensei_Emu]

My favourite FF8 secret it's actually a spoiler the game has at your desk in the classroom of something that the party realizes only in disc 2 after the missile attack. You can immediately read there that gf are taking your memory away, it says it's only a speculation with some basis and no definitive proof, but it's still there

[@yumenonaka5257]

I think all the little ways you can influence the Laguna segments (despite the game eventually telling you that Ellone's attempts at changing the past are futile) are interesting enough for their own narrative dive.

[@homerman76]

Especially since you can affect whether Ward is there in one of them just by simply reading one of the Timber magazines (I believe it's the one in the Shumi village.)

[@nemurerumori5855]

5:42 is a reference to the Mirage Town in FF5. It is a secret town inside a forest that was a part of the Void. It is in the same location on the world map in FF5 at the bottom-centermost island.

[@yojimbo15]

It's just a curiosity, but if you have Quistis or Selphie (Rinoa is not available during that part of the game and Zell is mandatory) in the party when you fight Raijin and Fuijin with the rest of the party dead, Raijint won't attack her because he doesn't beat women, and he will take potions instead.

[@Nocis999]

Is this true ? I need to test it

[@VPower-pl4rd]

Yes, it is

[@Vereid]

I remember as a kid, I was so freaked out by the space section. Was very late at night in a dark room. First it shows Adel who…well, she’s something. Then Rinoa gets possessed by Ultimecia and you’re powerless to stop it as she effortlessly swats Squall aside (first time that happened I almost jumped out my skin, was so not expecting it). Then the Lunar Cry which is nightmare fuel on its own lol. Great explanation for monsters though. All the times I’ve played 8, I’ve still never triggered any of Zell’s side quest lol.

[@gnosis_gaming]

The space stuff is freaky. This whole game has a vibe that reminds me of Parasite Eve. And on the original PS1, some of their bodies were so long and spindly in a creepy kind of way 🤣

[@milagrosgutierrezmartin9506]

Adel is great, because all the interference that doesn't let anyone transmit at the start of the game, and why galbadia wanted that communications tower...all that intereference, is her screaming. If you look at the static before Delling's broadcast goes out in Timber, you can read "I AM ALIVE HERE", "BRING ME BACK THERE", and "I WILL NEVER LET YOU FORGET ABOUT ME" on the screen

[@themajesticotter193]

I say this on any FFVIII video I come across that I like, My favorite thing about 8 is removing Squall's thoughts from a conversation. My favorite example is right after they declare Seifer to be executed. Everyone is grouped around talking about Seifer, what kind of student he was, friend or foe, crush or lover and Squall hears all this and is like " They are talking about him like he's already dead. He WAS this, he Was that. Is that how they are going to talk about me when I'm gone? Squall WAS this, Squall WAS that. I won't have it " And then he straightens up suddenly startling everyone and he yells " i won't be talked about in the past tense! " and he runs out the room. This is kind of an emotional scene and you can kind of connect with Squall but this is because we the player get all of Squalls inner thoughts and feeling on the matter. Remove Squall's thoughts and you get a group of people talking about their soon-to-be executed friend and suddenly Squall yells out of nowhere " I won't be talked about in the past tense! " and runs out the room. This would be incredibly confusing to everyone else since no one was even talking about Squall and I find this hilarious.

[@doggotov1]

@@milagrosgutierrezmartin9506 holy shit I never knew that. That is an awesome detail. definitely will be looking at it on my next playthrough

[@Vereid]

@@milagrosgutierrezmartin9506 yeah I wish we got more backstory with Adel. I would love to see more of her ruling over Esthar.

[@Lagbeard]

While not as complicated but still rather obscure, there is also the GF Doomtrain... Which you're supposed to figure out how to get by reading the Occult Fan magazines.

[@gnosis_gaming]

That's a cool one! I wanted to include more, but they didn't seem as easily missable, like the magic lamp from Cid

[@MichaelP833]

@@gnosis_gaming i would argue that getting the occult fan magazine from the master fisherman is the most missable unique item in the entire game. everything else has another option to get it later or isnt particularly tricky to get even missing drawing siren (and other gfs, but siren being the first is the most commonly missed), there is another opportunity later (although not in the original japanese version from what i understand)

[@leewalker3468]

@@MichaelP833 yeah i believe you can draw them from the bosses in ultemicias castle, I always forget to draw siren and pandamona, I am sure you can still craft the item for doomtrain without the magazines if you know the items (i could be wrong though)

[@Lagbeard]

@@leewalker3468 Yea you do not require the magazines to obtain Doomtrain, just the items. The magazines just extremely indirectly point you to what you need and give the vaguest of hints for finding Solomon's Ring by mentioning Esthar.

[@LocustaVampa]

DOOMTRAIN is my fav GF for this, and for how metal it looks when summoned! I first learned about Doomtrain from a magazine talking about FF8 in it's beta stages. Doomtrain was called "Gasharaboras" in those early stages, for some reason.

[@TheGreenManThom]

when my wife and I played 8 in our marathon of all the games, the sidequest with the shadow in the lake was the one where we just sat there and thought how absolutely bizarre this string of events is and that Squall of all people is the one humoring a weird ass shadow in a lake to find his friend mr monkey. However, this is the first time I heard about the library girl content, we did get the book but most likely with the minimum amount of dialogue. Very cool to show this off!

[@phenel]

2 things that i've never seen anywhere, that i personally found back in 1999, is that you can obtain boss cards from normal monsters and ejecting the game disc or opening the disc tray when loading into triple triad made the AI dumb and you could win any match.

[@TonyBMan]

Opening the disk tray also worked on Omega Weapon. Pop it open when Selphie's Limit Break was up and you have infinite time to RNG until you get The End. Instant win.

[@phenel]

@TonyBMan haha, that's Kool I didn't know that. I had to run the heroes to stay invincible.

[@soulechelon2643]

Man this takes me back. There's another secret not mentioned here with the Moombas. Now I'm going 100% off of memory here, but there's a Moomba you can interact with. It does a cute little animation and noise. If you continuously poke it, eventually you'll hear a roar and see a few other Moomba run into the screen. After that, every time you interact with it, the roars continue (if I remember correctly). I don't think there's any reward for doing this or any detriments. Just a random thing for players who pester those cute little things like I did when I was a kid.

[@nathank2289]

The Moombas are best friends with Squalls dad. If you were nice to them in the "past" they remember Laguna's smell and will help Squall out.

[@NightMare_SSB]

I came across that yesterday actually. It's in shumi village and it's the moomba thats near a draw point ngl it caught me hella off guard LMAO

[@Kenshin6321]

Fun Fact: Pupu's origins are revealed in the Final Fantasy 14 Hildabrand sidequests, and you get the alien spaceship as a mount lol. The mount and Pupu look nearly unchanged from their FF8 versions. They even explain why you need to find him in different locations (it's because he decided to travel the world after you helped him in the quest).

[@USMC49er]

One secret I remember is a hidden cutscene at the Galbadia missle base. When you sabotage the missiles, the computer has an error margin, and if you set it below the necessary amount, the game will tell you it needs to be higher. But if you leave and self destruct the base, a cutscene will play the moment you are supposed to fight the boss. A cutscene will play with the missiles hitting Balamb Garden and the place getting destroyed.

[@Psymon1471]

also on the same computer where you mess with the missiles, you can get a secret menu that shows a bunch of soldiers dancing lol

[@TheLKStar]

FFIX was my favorite growing up, it's amazing how much it buily upon this one. It was amazing discovering every little secret of that game as a kid, playing multiple times. Years later now with KZbin, I watched videos of it and noticed not only I didn't miss a single one, some people don't even talk about. It was a golden age for gaming.

[@aitorreyes7626]

Check nero quest family in ffix. Pretty sure you missed that one

[@SomniaCE]

This is one thing I truly miss about a lot of older RPGs. There are just far fewer secrets both big and small in games of the last 15 or so years and most side content is easily accessible. It makes sense, given that games take longer to make so fewer devs have time to quickly slap together their own side quests and secrets. But it's something that is endlessly charming about a lot of older games. Another way this manifests is how modern storytelling typically has a lot of games spelling out lore and story mechanics pretty plainly. Nothing is left to the imagination and it results in theorycrafting and story discussion for these games feeling like a giant dead end. I love interpretive storytelling and I think franchises like The Legend of Zelda and older FF games do a fantastic job of fleshing out their world and mythos without giving the player an answer to every question they might ask. It helps these games feel way more fun to think or talk about for years and years to come whilst also making them feel far larger than they really are. I am constantly coming across not just new details and secrets in games like FF7 or FFX, but also new theories as I think about specific events from a fresh perspective and wonder about why certain things are the way they are.

[@boobah5643]

There's this understandable (but wrong) belief that if they created a story bit, they have to show that story bit to the player, that it's otherwise wasted effort in world building. And we don't want waste, do we?

[@quarreneverett4767]

Indie games mods mods like games passionate devs :) enjoy my friend

[@Disclaimer-Alert]

All theses secrets are the reason why I played this game multiple time.

[@quarreneverett4767]

Yay i got a love

[@defeqel6537]

there are also so many more games available these days that people quickly switch from one game to the other instead of playing the same game through multiple times

[@farisca0]

Now I understand why FF9 had an exclamation mark every time you could interact with something/someone 🤣

[@gnosis_gaming]

Haha, much easier that way 😅

[@IntroSpecktive]

Great video, this really showcased why FF8 is my second favorite in the series behind X. The whole vibe of the game is just so weird, I love the world and its secrets. To this day this game feels so different from anything else in the JRPG genre and I’ll always love it for that. Might have the best OST of all time as well

[@gnosis_gaming]

Thanks for watching! FF8 definitely has a unique vibe

[@afluka]

Well, now I finally know where the FFXIV alien from Hildibrand's quest came from. Weird choice for a reference, but I love the mount you get in the end so I'm happy with it.

[@supersmily5811]

I think the UFO encounter is funny. You encounter a UFO! It flies off...

[@homerman76]

It's also interesting how there are a number of interactions you can have with the alien at the end, though you'd want to go the elixer route if you want to complete your card collection and get the PuPu card.

[@soundbombing1076]

the Obel Lake quest is meant to lead you to the Mordred Plains region and you have to talk to "colored rocks" to find where the treasure is on the world map. it's an interesting weird little segment

[@Archetype_Angel]

You know what I never found out about? . Where and how are we supposed to know about the piano notes for summoning Omega Weapon on Ultimecia's castle. . Are they shown or hinted somewhere in the game? . What song is that? . How does people found out what notes to play? . All guides I've found online are just _"play these notes to fight Omega Weapon"_ but none tell what song is that, or where do you canonically learn them in the game. . Same for the original FF7's piano notes to get Tifa's Final Heaven

[@calemr]

Final Heaven's one, you can find if you try to use the Piano during the flashback, IIRC. Also, the tune is the airship tune. The one in Ultimecia's castle: The last note, or notes, you played corresponds to a bar blocking the way. So if you just hit all the notes at once, all the bars are gone.

[@purple7filth]

@@calemr I thought the song you play for Final Heaven was the main theme for 7?

[@DerekInKC]

I think all you do for Omega is ring the bell with the second party. The piano is just for the door with the bars blocking it.

[@samfivedot]

Personally I think they deliberately put unsolvable puzzles in their games as part of a scheme to sell strategy guides

[@Justforvisit]

Hm, I remember fighting Omega Weapon in FF VIII in Ultimecia's Castle, and I know for sure I never used or owned a strategy guide for that one, so there must be a way ingame.

[@bdawg4231]

If you want to level up all your GF abilities within minutes - drive the big ass Balamb Garden to the continent closest to the Giant Cactuar island (you'll have to hop off the garden and run through the mountains to get there) however once you get close enough to the island with the Giant Cactuar the game will think you're on the island and will spawn Cactuar enemies for you to kill - each one gives you 20AP and they only have 300HP. The trick is actually hitting them since they avoid nearly everything and bolt away like Barry Allen within seconds of the battle starting.

[@Widderic]

Finding that exact location was such a nightmare when I did that a few years ago but when you finally get it you're like YES!!!!

[@Santiago-Farrell]

Junction to accuracy speed and attack. It helps a bit

[@ReikuYin]

@@Santiago-Farrell Or just make sure Squall is strong enough to beat them in one hit. He never misses. Not sure if with blind on him he'll miss but otherwise 100% accuracy giving his crazy 255% acc stat. Selphie also gets that but needs her ultimate weapon.

[@JediMB]

I know for a fact that I went to the Islands Closest to Heaven/Hell, but I'm not sure if I ever knew about the invisible draw points. It's been too long. I definitely didn't know about visiting the girl in the library changing the outcome of the encounter with her later on. I did the rest to their conclusions.

[@nathanrocks2562]

All of this info was in the strategy guide from BradyGames. I felt like a god with that guide. My favorite FF game, great video!

[@Emelenyt]

I had no idea about the black shadow. Shit is wild!

[@Archetype_Angel]

There's no sprite in the game for it tho, just text.

[@gnosis_gaming]

That’s what I always thought it looked like as a kid. The shadow in my thumbnail is one of the random encounters in FF8 that always freaked me out 😅

[@FFKonoko]

It's just a fish that's friends with a monkey.

[@k.s.2935]

Remember these from back when FFVIII came out, luckily for some of the more obscure and easy to miss secrets there were walkthrough magazines and people sharing what they found on GameFAQ's as the internet became more the norm. I don't remember the part with the hidden village remains extending that far, but it could be what was left of a sidequest that never got used as FFVIII was intended to have more content that fleshed out more of the worlds background lore. It was why certain areas like Cetra were strangely underused having maybe one or two points of interest on an entire continent whose history was hinted at being relevant to the world of VIII overall, with the GF Odin being found there and said to be tied to its Cetra's history as well as having the Lunar Cry occur there in the past. Then you have the Deep Sea Research center that really made you wonder about what all was going on in the world of FFVIII, would have been cool to find out more but the devs didn't have time to do all they wanted with the lore. All that said, FFVIII had the coolest damn ship in FF to explore the world map with, and part of why I always looked forward to endgame world exploration and secret hunting in this series.

[@DimBeau]

I remember when I found the island that does not appear on the map, the secret lab.(Bottom-Left) I was so excited! And I even found the secret dialogue option to get bahamut!! Aahhhhh! Love this game so much!

[@senditall152]

This is why old games were different then what we have today. Though I do find it annoying that I missed all of this.

[@MoisesAlmeida]

At that time it was pleasurable and very useful to play with a Guide Book on your lap, they were a work of art in themselves!

[@eyes_of_mako]

you only get this type of stuff in Fromsoft games nowadays, specifically Elden Ring

[@TonyBMan]

And I'm STILL waiting for Square to make a model of the Ragnarok. Holy shit I love that spaceship.

[@MidnightWonko]

The world in most Final Fantasy games is not spherical. Considering the map represents the world as a rectangle, and that going off the east side sends you to the west side and vice versa, and that going off the NORTH SIDE SENDS YOU TO THE SOUTH SIDE (and vice versa), it would be more accurate to describe most worlds in the Final Fantasy series as donut-shaped (though it clearly must be contorted to some degree considering the rectangular shape appears to be the most accurate depiction. Long story short LOL THE WORLD IS SQUARE! The Shadow Creature quest (as well as a lot of FF8's side quests, in fact), is a huge example of a Guide Dang It. While conceivably possible to figure out what to do without any help, hints range from obscure to nonexistent. It's probably a safe bet that these side quests were designed to sell players' guides, which were pretty big back before looking everything up online was in vogue. Yeah, I found all the secrets (except the message about there being nothing but desolation). I used a guide, though, so what I did wasn't really impressive.

[@mrboxy3970]

Iirc, it's called a "torus". Basically a donut, and the square map is the unfolded donut, but seamless left/right top/bottom connection. The real debate is whether the donut is left/right, or up down (both yet neither lol)

[@MrCreepus]

I remember so much about this game that I thought I'd forgotten. But one thing I'm most proud of, and I didn't see it mentioned in the first slew of comments I went through, was the fight with Ultimate Weapon. I don't remember if it was a secret, I do remember that you had to do accomplish a specific set of events and then ring bells in Ultimecia's Castle and run downstairs to fight it. I also remember this was probably as long, if not longer of a fight, then Ruby Weapon in FF7. So many revives, Lionhearts, invincibility potions... But the best part? The sparkly achievement you unlocked was the only reward for the battle 😅. At least, if I remember correctly.

[@MoonMagicks]

Wild video! I had no idea about the black shadow in the lake. That is nuts!

[@After4th]

The Timber Maniacs magazines can alter the outcomes of the Laguna dream sequences. Picking up the first in Balamb causes Laguna to fall asleep in Julia's room and picking the one in Shumi Village will cause Ward to be absent in the ruby dragon fight sequence. Interacting around the excavation site during the second Laguna dream will affect Lunatic Pandora unlocking some rare items. Secret summons too not present outside Japan because of the PocketStation handheld addon. Referenced in game during the chocobo sidequest, but became dummied out content. The Moomba and Mog summons can only be received from the handheld. The PC version did include the game. The remastered compensated with the Angelo Search having a chance to receive the rare items. I think the chocobo summon attack power depend on the handheld.

[@ZeroFlareon]

Black shadow and alien secrets are wild.

[@ash1rose]

I never knew about the Zell love story one, but now I know why I never found Combat King 003. I've done the Pupu card quest, but never figured out Obel Lake. FFVIII has so many secrets.

[@NFITC1]

I bought a strategy guide when I got the game. It didn't mention Zell's love quest at all and only barely mentioned the black shadow of obel lake. The rest I did read about. Nice finds! This game really is a black sheep overall, though.

[@ZeChADPK]

I got a guide and everything was mentioned in it, shame you got the wrong one 😅

[@josephiroth89]

You can technically wait until disc 4 to get any gf except for the first three (which you have to get). Anything drawable (and Cerberus) can be drawn from the bosses in Ultimecia’s castle. You can use the Ragnarok to return to the Tomb of the Unknown King or to get to the Deep Sea Research Center for Brothers and Bahamut. You can save the magic lamp and Solomon Ring in your inventory until then for Diablos and Doomtrain. I believe you can even still enter Tears’ Point to get the ring in every version of the game except the original Japanese release. And you can get Tonberry and Cactuar, but I don’t think you even need the Ragnarok for those two, just a chocobo.

[@j.m.3600]

You’re my favorite content on KZbin right now as I’m neck deep in my golden age of final fantasy phase and this is exactly the creative content I want to watch

[@j.m.3600]

I could go for a nice long video maybe 40 min like this ahhhhh🫠

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@j.m.3600 Thank you! I've been enjoying making this kind of nostalgic content. I'd love to make a long form video in the future if I get a good idea.

[@bio1804]

Its been 26 years than im asking myself: whats this lake is supposed to be. NoW, i Can die peacefully, thanks

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@bio1804 🤣

[@neetpride5919]

Bro Im so envious. The only non-MMO FF game I havent played is Rebirth. Wish I could erase my memory to experience that phase all over again

[@Tom_Tom_Club]

Partly because of the fact that FF8 was the first in the series to have an official guide book release, it's theorized that these extremely obscure side quests were added to upsell the book.

[@chapterblaq]

The PuPu/Alien content. I always like quirky non combat random encounters, like the friendly monsters and quizmaster in FFIX. Or interacting with Giza Rabbits in XII.

[@EtherealFissure]

I genuinely enjoy these types of investigative videos on obscure subjects and secrets. Great stuff!

[@gnosis_gaming]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it. They're fun to make.

[@novelezra]

Final Fantasy VIII is a game that I've had quite a personal history with. As a kid, I thought it was one of the coolest, most graphically impressive games I'd seen (I am in my thirties and played it as it came out, so back then it was a technical showpiece). I was young and had yet to develop any kind of 'self-awareness'; if something was cool, it was cool. Gun swords? Cool. Half cut leather jacket? Cool. As I got older, I went through my cynical phase - very much pushed along by Spoony's series on FFVIII. I started to look down on the game, being snobby and pointing at every fault it as the end of the world (and don't get me wrong the game has many faults). The game was trying too hard to be cool, trying to hard to be different and was super angsty and 'cringe'. Then, I entered my third and final stage. The 'post-ironic' phase where I got old enough to realize that liking something that is kind of lame is actually an endearing trait and not something to pretend you don't do or spit on others who do. The Sonic community has proven that this mindset is much healthier than just calling everyone who seems to lack some self-awareness an 'autist'. I love FFVIII - I always loved it's style but was ashamed to admit it. But I never enjoyed it's gameplay until I learnt about 'carding'. When you learn to card things, the game becomes actually quite an interesting experience. But I won't excuse the game for failing to tell you this. Even though I love FFVIII - I cannot defend its ATROCIOUS and painfully esoteric junction system. Once you get it, it's incredible, but when you don't get it, it's literally the worst thing about the game and the designers have to be held accountable for failing to explain the mechanics. (Also I am also in the camp that believes that the games system is accidentally good and that it's only fun when you break the hell out of it, which is very fun in itself) OH! Also, why is this OST so underrated?! The music is absolutely phenomenal and people seem to say it's the weakest OST?! One of the best boss themes and 'The Mission' is absolutely incredible. Maybe I just jive with the more new age style.

[@gnosis_gaming]

I'm glad you came back around to being able to enjoy something that's important to you! The game is very cool aesthetically. At times it reminds me of some PS1 survival horror games...

[@CrnaStrela]

Yeah man, the OST is imo the best among all PS1 FF, heck I'd dare to say it is better among PS1 and PS2 FF.

[@novelezra]

@@CrnaStrela I still prefer FF9 because my god, that's a hard one to beat. But FF8 is just so ignored. I always smile when I hear it rarely used in a KZbin vid haha

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@novelezra I have a soft spot for 9. It’s my most played FF game

[@Chuck-Morris]

I will forever be split between "Force Your Way" & "Only a Plank Between One And Perdition" as my #1 most favorite boss battle theme's of all time, Hands down! 😭😁😂🎶🎵🤙

[@oatmeal1209]

Remember the dream sequence when Laguna and Kiros are filming a movie at the Trabia Canyon and fight a ruby dragon? It can be re-visited by Squall by going on the Trabia continent with the Ragnarok and landing south of the crater near the Centra region. There's nothing there but it's cool that it has a place on the world map and can be visited at all.

[@fade2black001]

Casting Meltdown on the cactus takes away his defense and makes for a very easy kill. What also helps as well is having Squall in Aura and him spamming limit. He should go down pretty quickly

[@mrboxy3970]

Aura? >laughs in constantly under 10%hp

[@RubyH4rt]

I didn't realize Pu Pu was from 8. He appeared in a questline in XIV Endwalker, and XIV loves referencing previous titles, so it's fun to see where he comes from

[@Bravale]

Back when I had the game on the PS1, I had a guide with some of the secrets mentioned. The only oddity we could never figure out was that black hole dimensional thing near Trebia. Wondering if that was content scrapped?

[@Archetype_Angel]

Do you mean the weird shaped dark crater? I remember reading online about it years ago and apparently it was related to Adel experiments on trying to replicate lunar cries.

[@nilzero5686]

That's the Isthar performance test of the Lunatic Pandora. They tested the weapon on a small scale in Trabia, which is how Laguna became aware of it and Adel's threat to the world since at the time he was shooting a movie in Trabia.

[@MichaelP833]

@@nilzero5686 what is the source for that? is it in game? i had always assumed it was just from the missiles

[@nilzero5686]

@@MichaelP833 you can see it in the cutscene from Laguna's PoV and the position lines up with the crater

[@Milktube]

@@nilzero5686 Underrated comment. That lunar cry is *LITERALLY HAPPENING* during the Laguna flashback in the canyon where he is an actor and there's a ruby dragon!

[@HeadsetHistorian]

This is the best new channel I have found, thanks so much for your content! It's insane how much there is to explore in FF games, especially the older ones that were made in such a short time relative to today's titles.

[@gnosis_gaming]

Thanks for the support! I plan to continue making a lot of chill nostalgiac Final Fantasy content.

[@Igones]

That thumbnail really is really appealing, couldn’t not click it, great work!

[@gnosis_gaming]

🤣 Haha, it's worked pretty well for me. I know the shadow isn't technically in that part, but it's actually a creature that appears in a random encounter in FF8 and freaked me out a lot

[@ehko9989]

There is also this dude on the white SEED ship in a screen you can easily miss that tells you a lot about the origin of FF VIII's world. I found that guy fascinating because his dialogue sparked a ton of very appealing theories about the sorceresses and what they truly are.

[@alanmonteros6432]

I love this, is there any modern JRPG that has these weird hidden sidequests ? The old Final Fantasy games used to be filled to the brim with these weird secrets, but it feels like the practice has stopped in more modern games and it's such a shame

[@VileGlory]

Gamers don't seem to appreciated that type of game design anymore. They want everything flat out told to them in game now. This could be why games feel like more a one and done experience now.

[@spacewargamer4181]

Good question

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

This really took me back. FF8 was my first real video game and i was so sucked into exploring every inch. Id forgotten these oddities but they still feel like some of the most interesting and exciting details even though they dont seem to have much to do with the main story. All the extra secrets in the comments are so fun too. My favorite secret was the blood connection between laguna and squall. I was too young to understand the more obvious hints in the story, but who you get laguna and squall's cards from sparked a revelation that made me feel like a genius. 10 y/o mind blown 🤯

[@ltb1345]

I saw the UFO abducting a pyramid when I was in the desert. I was baffled.

[@TEMINIX]

Thank you for making this video. 8 is my favorite FF game. It's always nice to learn new things about it. Keeping that FF9l8 love going strong all these years later.

[@mondruner]

FF8's soundtrack was really amazing.

[@nathank2289]

Still the best of the series. It needs a FF7R treatment.

[@mondruner]

@@nathank2289 The bad thing is they used the different timelines/universes ideas for FF7R when all of that would have made more sense with FF8

[@nathank2289]

@@mondruner Very true.

[@calciferblack2409]

​@@mondrunerThought this since day one.

[@81CCCP90]

Just wanted to pop in and say that I discovered your channel about a week ago and I love your content, great FF videos -- keep it up!

[@gnosis_gaming]

Thank you! I’m hoping to keep pumping out high quality nostalgia content 🎉😊

[@Throrface]

Back in 1999 it was fairly common to play a massive RPG along with a Walkthrough on GameFAQs. As a kid I didn't miss any of these. I probably would have if I didn't have the walkthrough, but then again, if I didn't have the walkthrough maybe I would never have gotten to the third disc. Island closest to Hell used to be my number 1 grinding spot for EXP and magic.

[@mrboxy3970]

Don't forget the Brady Games physical book that was missing 20%, and/or was printed before the official version of the game was released so that puzzles, dialogue, story, locations, monsters, etc were different...

[@phutureproof]

for you maybe sure, i like to play games for myself and discover it all, why buy a game and a guide at the same time wheres the fun in that?

[@bojangligorevic2872]

The most misunderstood and underrated ff or even jrpg of all time. My absolute favourite and little did i know that my first jrpg will also be the best one in terms of non biased quality. Time to relive it again.

[@slimynaut]

JRPGs used to be special

[@MichaelChristopher401]

I feel your pain

[@ClandestineMerkaba]

Everything used to be special.

[@nathank2289]

There is still the Persona and Vanillaware games. But yah most JRPG are just cut and paste clones with no heart now.

[@TTULangGenius]

I haven't played FF8 in like 20-something odd years, but I thought I was tripping when I saw the UFO in my original playthrough! I also didn't know about the shadow, either! Now I need to replay FF8 (I have a Nintendo Switch version of the game from the Asia region with both FF7 and 8 on it). Thanks for this cool vid!

[@ButterButNotCookies]

Square Enix: We need something for the players to do before the end game, what do you suggest? Developers: Yes

[@zul2788]

Back when they're not lazy I guess. Nowadays games like FFXV is beautiful graphically and somewhat decent storyline. But they always compromise in making the exploration bit lacking and one dimensional

[@williamastout9509]

Omg the cactuar! 😂 Good night, that was a tough fight.

[@gamelover2222]

Stache Cactuar is the first opportunity to break the 9999 limit in all of Final Fantasy history! At level 100 he does 10,000 damage, so he's the man!

[@ThePoltergust5000]

Is THAT where Lulu's alien doll design comes from???? WOW that's obscure lmao. I need to get back to this game, man

[@Saixjacket]

PuPu is also the icon for save data on the memory card for X2

[@supertyp9148]

On the German PS1 version of the game I discovered a trick which so far I couldn’t find in any guide. I told people about it but they couldn’t replicate it on other versions of the game. I havnt played the game in 20 years, so I havnt tried it myself on other versions of the game. After Squalls renzokuken complets there is a window of around 1 second in which hitting the R1 button will trigger a finishing move. Hitting the R1 button once will trigger rough Devide. Pressing the R1 button twice triggers fated circle. 3 presses triggers blasting zone and 4 presses triggers lion heart. With this technique it’s possible to trigger lion heart with every renzokuken guaranteed.

[@BerserkJeffy]

So much Nostalgia

[@gnosis_gaming]

Yeah, that's why I love making these videos 🥰

[@AngusJo]

Just discovered this channel. And I love it. ❤‍🔥Looking forward to more FF8 content. My absolute favorite of the series.

[@illusive4335]

I'm currently still playing through all 3 of the main PS1 Final Fantasys so it's super cool to see you making these videos but at the same time I don't wanna watch them yet so I don't get spoiled for anything lol

[@gnosis_gaming]

You can come back later 🤭 Which one are you playing now?

[@Bigboss-fr2kg]

You wont be disappointed, all 3 are incredible, to be honest if you dont mind older clunky games play right through from 1-10 you'll have a great time

[@illusive4335]

@@gnosis_gaming I'm balancing all 3 at the moment ahaha. I'm furthest into 9 at 23 hours but seem to be progressing through 7 the smoothest so i'll likely finish one of those two first

[@illusive4335]

@@Bigboss-fr2kg Yeah i'm really loving all 3 in their own ways and they seem to stand out a lot amongst the whole franchise as some of the coolest ones. I beat 10 a few years back and it's top 3 games of all time, was probably gonna do 12 after these 3 but i'm sure i'll head to some of the earlier ones too eventually

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@illusive4335 9 has my favorite towns and cities

[@johnk6757]

My first and favorite FF. I don’t know if it’s just nostalgia but I replayed it and man, the atmosphere and vibes are just so great. Very melancholy and wistful, which really reflects the nature of the plot.. I wish so much they’d remake it

[@gnosis_gaming]

It does have a unique ambience

[@Bigboss-fr2kg]

Finally played and completed this on switch a couple of years ago, such a strange game but very unique

[@gnosis_gaming]

It’s definitely a vibe

[@Bigboss-fr2kg]

@@gnosis_gaming it definitely feels the most real, especially with the post modern setting, you could easily lose 100 hours just trying to get all the cards 😂

[@Dienex]

heaven and hell islands are the best for farming endgame weapons like Lionheart, nice vid! i never knew about the shadow and poopoo and ff8 is one of my favourite games of all time

[@RobinLSL]

Pedantic comment ! The map is not spherical, but a torus. On a sphere, like our Earth, we can't just jump from north to south pole.

[@boobah5643]

You can't on a torus, either, even if the poles actually touch the surface.

[@Chad_Thundercock]

What are you on about, mate? The map is centered on one of the poles. That's why all sides wrap back around the way they do. All maps can be considered to be centered on a pole, we just only think of the ones coincidental to rotation, but anywhere can be considered as a pole on a shere.

[@boobah5643]

@Chad_Thundercock No. First, because the comment I replied to specified the poles as north and south, which has to do with the planet spinning. If a torus rotates around the whole, the axis of spin doesn't intersect with the torus itself, and therefore no poles. Second, while polar projections can be done (and it's not even hard to find one) with a pole in the center, by and large it's still considered out of the ordinary. And back to something approaching the video's topic, none of the _Final Fantasys_ with an open world map actually depict a spherical world.

[@RobinLSL]

@@Chad_Thundercock sure, but on a spherical world, you can't have the left and right wrap *and* the top and bottom wrap independently. That's not a sphere.

[@Chad_Thundercock]

@@RobinLSL Oh, I see what you mean. You're right - I totally misunderstood your initial point. That makes total sense now that I think about it, and I wonder why I didn't pick up on that sooner.

[@mihreynylene5329]

Ohhhh, i only know that UFO / Pupu from Final Fantasy 14. Awesome that they implemented them just the way they where in FF8. ❤️

[@mithiwithi]

Same! I thought PuPu in FF14 was just a reference to conventional Japanese UFO tropes in general - I had no idea it was a reference to FF8's use of those tropes!

[@thrillhouse4151]

The map is actually toroidal, like if you go past the bottom you end up at the top.

[@daveunknown01]

7 and 9 are the same way

[@boobah5643]

Yes, it's an impossible donut, where somehow the inside and outside of the ring are the same length while still having a greater-than-zero height.

[@jaidens.g.1920]

@@daveunknown01 all ff world maps from 1-9 were like that, same with similar games like Bravely Default

[@TheJacksDan]

Really cool content, as someone who has played A LOT of FF8, I wasn't aware that there was that thing with the shadow and the monkey And as others stated, I could watch hours of this kind of content ❤

[@digitaljin8362]

FF8 is so underrated.

[@ShirakoriMio]

no it's bad

[@gnosis_gaming]

@@ShirakoriMio 🤣 so brutal

[@gnosis_gaming]

A lot of things about it (even down to the mechanics) can be divisive. But that's also what makes it interesting!

[@ΦιλήσυχοςΠολίτης]

@@ShirakoriMio Top 3 best FF just below V and VII.

[@BeefSupreme229]

idk I liked it but FF7, i know i know its cliche, but i wasnt ready to move on from 7. So i didnt really get into 8 as much as i couldve.. when 9 came out i took more to that since it had been a handful of years after 7 at that point.

[@ChiyuStar]

I love this video, as it brought back so many (very confusing) memories! I found a lot of these by myself about two decades ago, but I never knew what was expected of me, especially since my English back then wasn't very good. You have no idea how many times the game broke my brain when I was trying to figure out where Mr. Monkey was, or why there was a random UFO popping up occasionally. I have to play again soon. I will find Mr. Monkey this time. Thanks for the memories. 😊

[@gnosis_gaming]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@barneymcwhat6241]

i never knew about the rubble-strewn village. i always thought it was talking about Timber (which used to be a village surrounded by forests, now it's more built-up and the forests are gone)

[@RedfishCarolina]

This whole game was weird.The difficulty scaling didn't work, it was still easy to get OP. The "drawing spells" thing was incredibly dumb and made spells just seem like items instead of magic. And the gun blade. A GUN BLADE , so terribly cheesy. I'm surprised they didn't give Zell grenade nunchucks. On the bright side the summons were GREAT and the OST was fantastic as always.