Irvine Kinneas

Irvine Kinneas is a playable character in Final Fantasy VIII.

Appearance & Personality
Irvine is a ladies' man, plain and simple, and uses his loner sharpshooter persona to try and impress them. He's not shallow, however; inside Irvine is actually a sensitive person with a sharp mind. During the course of the game he focuses his charms on Selphie, but whether they actually get together is up for debate.

For a number of reasons, the foremost being that he is the only Garden student in the party that has not yet reached SeeD status and is the only one to remember the party's shared past in the orphanage, due to him not using Guardian Forces, Irvine is the odd man out.

Irvine wears his auburn hair in a ponytail with a black cowboy hat over it, a purple shirt, and a khaki colored long jacket. He joins the party near the end of Disk One, and is also the last permanent member to join.

Story
Not much is given to Irvine's backstory; he lived in the orphanage with the others, was adopted and sent to Galbadia Garden to train as a SeeD. Due to Galbadia Garden refusing to use GF in their training program, he is the only one who fully remembers his past at the orphanage.

When Squall's SeeD party are hired by Galbadia Garden to assassinate the Sorceress Edea, Irvine joins the party as the sniper. However, when Edea is trapped, and it is his time to shoot, he suddenly has a nervous breakdown and cracks under pressure. After some time, Irvine is finally convinced by Squall to shoot. Edea's magical barrier blocks the shot, however, and Squall fights his way through to her.

Since Irvine is a student at Galbadia Garden, and as such not considered to be involved with the assassination attempt, he is not imprisoned like his friends in D-District Prison, and he originally plans to just get Rinoa out of there and leave the rest. Rinoa, however, beats him up, and forces him to rescue them.

When the party arrives at Trabia Garden, on Selphie's request, Irvine slowly leads the group (minus Rinoa) to remember their past in the orphanage and having known each other and Edea. It is then suggested that Irvine didn't have a nervous breakdown during the assassination plan in Disc One; he still knew who his Matron was and was afraid to kill her. The group makes their resolve to fight their former Matron and they head to the Centra continent, where Galbadia Garden resides. They go to battle against Edea and the plan succeeds. Although their enemy is Irvine's original Garden, he is not torn between sides and has fully stayed with his friends. In the confrontation against Seifer:


 * Seifer: You're a Galbadian student, aren't you? Get over here.
 * Irvine: I'm fine right where I am, thank you.

For Disc Three and Disc Four, the story mainly focuses on Squall and Rinoa, so Irvine remains a supporting character and helps the group defeat Ultimecia.

In the ending, Irvine is seen, most of the time holding the camera during the party at Balamb Garden.

Weapons
As a marksman and the group's sniper Irvine uses a Shotgun in battle.

There are four shotgun models available for Irvine to use throughout the game, they are: The Valiant, The Ulysses, The Bismarck and The Exeter.

Limit Break
Shot is Irvine's Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII. When executed the player can choose from a variety of shot and ammo types and must press R1 in order to fire at an enemy during the time period. This Limit Break consumes ammo.

Triple Triad

 * A Level 10 Card, notable for one of its highest point A.
 * Carries no elemental attribute.
 * 1 Card can be refined into 3 Rocket Engines.

To obtain

 * Win a card game against Flo in Fisherman's Horizon,
 * Win a card game against the CC Group in the Ragnarok Airship in Disc 4.

Creation and Development
Nomura tried to strike a balance with Irvine between not overshadowing Squall and not becoming too unattractive. He gave Irvine a handsome appearance, but with a casual personality as a result. Keeping with this idea, Nomura gave him goggles; however, this idea was abandoned in favor of a cowboy-like appearance to set him apart from other goggle-wearing characters in the Final Fantasy series.

Irvine Kinneas