is a 1999
role-playing video game developed and published by
Square (now
Square Enix). It is the eighth major installment in the
Final Fantasy series. The game was the series' second
3D installment and the first to consistently use realistically proportioned characters, and introduced a new magic system to the
Final Fantasy franchise which removed
magic point-based spell-casting. Set on an unnamed fantasy world with science fiction elements, the game follows the story of a group of young mercenaries, led by
Squall Leonhart, who are part of an organization named SeeD. Initially traveling to different countries to stop the sorceress Edea, their goal changes to stop a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia from compressing time.