Final Fantasy VIII

Originally released for Windows 95/98 computers, it can can take some work to get the game to run properly on today's PCs.

Patches

The latest patches for Final Fantasy 8 come in two flavors: Geforce(Nvidia Cards) v1.2 Non Geforce(Non Nvidia cards) v1.2.

Those patches can be found here: FilePlanet

Issues and Fixes

Running from ISO

If running the game from a series of .ISO files, the game will fail to see the ISO drive. To remedy this, run Regedit, and navigate to the following registry key on XP or earlier

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00\DataDrive

Change its value to the drive letter that the .ISO occupies(usually E or F), and relaunch the game. If you are running the game on Windows 7/Vista 64 bit, the key will be located at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII\1.00\DataDrive

8-bit paletted textures fix

When attempting to run FF8 PC on a modern system, the games launcher will fail most video cards as lacking 8bit 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.

Save Game Data

Folder Location

Windows 7:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII/Save

Windows XP:

C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\FINAL FANTASY VIII/Save

Trainers and Utilities

Several trainers and misc. utilities exist for FF8 PC, some of which can be found here.