Irvine Kinneas

Irvine Kinneas is a playable character in Final Fantasy VIII. An expert gunman known as the "Best Shooter in Garden", he is a consummate ladies' man whose reputation for cherishing the company of women is almost as well known as his accuracy with the gun.

Appearance and Personality
Irvine wears his long auburn hair in a ponytail with a black cowboy hat over it, a purple shirt, a khaki-colored long jacket, black fingerless gloves and brown chaps over black trousers. He joins the party near the end of disk one, and is also the last permanent member to join.

Irvine is a ladies' man, plain and simple, and uses his loner sharpshooter persona to try and impress them. In Galbadia Garden Irvine is known for being the best marksman, to the point he's appointed as the SeeDs' sharpshooter during Edea's assassination attempt. Despite his playful and suave persona, Irvine is by no means shallow; inside, Irvine is actually a sensitive person with a sharp mind who cares deeply about the group's members. Throughout the game (and, as later discovered, ever since their childhood) Irvine focuses his charms on Selphie Tilmitt and goes to great lengths to catch her attention, even helping her realize her dream of performing on-stage with a band. Whether or not Irvine and Selphie ended up together is up for debate, though it is hinted in various instances in the game that the attraction is reciprocal, and Selphie is shown wearing Irvine's hat during the game's ending sequence, in which she actually gets jealous after seeing Irvine flirt with other girls.

Due to not being trained as a SeeD Irvine has not had experience with using Guardian Forces as the rest of the team. As such, he has not suffered the side effect of memory loss and is the only one to remember their time in Edea's Orphanage.

Although in some parts of the game Irvine shows himself to be more cautious than his comrades, he is by no means a coward. During the sequence at Trabia Garden in which he reveals to everyone they grew up together, Irvine gives a meaningful speech to his partners, in which he rationalizes that SeeD and Garden were Edea's ideas, and their objective is to fight the Sorceress no matter what. He tells them that no matter what has happened or who Edea is, he will continue fighting to honor what he has stood for all and the choices he has made in life.

Another notable example of Irvine's courage in battle is when he provides a distraction at the Desert Prison in order to help his friends escape. He rescues them from a hail of gunfire by the enemy and informs them of how to get out, before engaging in a gunfight with the soldiers at the prison.

Story
An orphan of the Sorceress War, as a child Irvine Kinneas lived in a seaside orphanage, referred to as Edea's Orphanage, in Centra. He was among many children, including Squall, Quistis, Zell, Seifer, and Selphie, who were under the care of Edea Kramer, a Sorceress. The circumstances of his adoption largely unknown, Irvine eventually ends up studying in Galbadia Garden and graduates as a sharpshooter; an expert on firearms. When Squall Leonhart's Balamb Garden SeeD team is hired by Galbadia Garden to assassinate Sorceress Edea - who by then had become a Galbadian ambassador under President Vinzer Deling - during a public celebration, Irvine is assigned to the party as the group's sniper. As the group departs for Deling City, Irvine wastes no time on hitting on all three of the girls (Quistis, Rinoa, and Selphie) on the team.

Meeting and receiving their orders from General Caraway of the Galbadian Army, Irvine is teamed with Squall as the point assassination team while the other SeeD's are assigned to trap the Sorceress. As the ceremony begins Edea kills the President and claims Galbadia as her own. Rushing to their positions, saving Rinoa in the process, Irvine and Squall wait as Edea is trapped under the Galbadian Gateway. However, remembering who Edea was, Irvine seems to choke but after some encouragement from Squall, who forgot who Edea used to be, he fires at the Sorceress, but Edea's magical barrier blocks the shot. Squall takes the job in hand and attacks the Sorceress and Rinoa and Irvine join him shortly after, with Irvine claiming he has to redeem himself. Squall is knocked unconscious, ultimately resulting in the mission's failure despite Squall's efforts. As the team is captured and imprisoned, Irvine either escapes or is, due to the Galbadian affiliation of his Garden, allowed to go free. Either way he later receives orders from General Caraway to pick up his daughter, Rinoa, from the prison; she was released due to the General's efforts. However, Rinoa forces Irvine to assist in the rest of the team's escape.

Irvine breaks into the prison, where he finds his teammates under a hail of fire. He eliminates the enemies and tells them how to get out. He then stays behind to buy his friends time, engaging in a gunfight with the soldiers at the prison. Shortly after the escape, they learn that in retaliation for the attack on Sorceress Edea Galbadia had targeted Balamb and Trabia Gardens for missile attack. Splitting into two groups; Squall's group and Selphie's group, the escapees manage to save Balamb Garden from destruction but not Trabia Garden. Eventually they finally reunite in Fisherman's Horizon. With no immediate missions to perform Irvine returns to what he does best; namely, being a "player". He moves to try and console Selphie, who has become upset over her failure to save Trabia Garden, by asking Squall to have Fisherman's Horizon's mechanics also build the Garden Festival pavilion which Selphie had been attempting to work on since before becoming a SeeD. Taking charge of the operation of the festival he gains the involvement of the rest of the team by suggesting it was to celebrate Squall's recent promotion to "Commander" and to help bring Squall and Rinoa closer together. During the preparations Irvine took time to explore Fisherman's Horizon, tangling with a Galbadian soldier who was left from a previous raid on the town. He also noted that, during his wanderings, the town was pretty spartan. It was revealed to be because a warning bulletin had been issued on a suspicious man in a brown coat carrying a gun. Even after reading the article Irvine still did not realize the bulletin was about him. The planned festival was a success, with Squall and Rinoa getting some time alone to talk and, presumably, Irvine winning points with Selphie.

When the party arrives at Trabia Garden, on Selphie's request, Irvine slowly leads the SeeD members to remember their past in the orphanage and having known each other and Edea. It is Irvine who makes them remember their history together, makes them realize that the great powers the GF grant come with the price of memory loss, and he shows them their beloved Matron and Sorceress Edea are in fact the same person. It is suggested that Irvine did not have a nervous breakdown during the assassination plan; but in reality he still knew who his Matron was and was afraid to kill her. He then goes on to express his feelings and thoughts on the matter, saying how he wanted to stay true to the path he had chosen in life, and how he believed they should fight the Sorceress, even if they now remember who she was. After hearing this, the group makes their resolve to fight their former Matron but first they head to the Centra continent to search for clues. Unfortunately Galbadia Garden, now under full Galbadian control, is waiting for them. They go to battle against Edea and, despite great losses and near defeat, they launch a desperate counter attack; invading the Garden and defeating Sorceress Edea. It was revealed that Edea had been possessed by an evil sorceress from the future, known as Ultimecia. However, Rinoa falls into a coma almost immediately after. Irvine, Edea, and the rest of the party follow Squall who had taken Rinoa to Esthar to look for Ellone. In Esthar Squall and Rinoa were sent to Lunar Base where she came out of her coma. After returning to the planet the group comes in possession of Ragnarok, with Irvine showing open admiration to Selphie's skills in piloting it. The group returns to Esthar after retrieving Rinoa by request of Laguna, the president of Esthar, to stop Ultimecia once and for all.

Using the Ragnarok they invade the Lunatic Pandora and fight past Adel. Using Ellone's time powers, they were able to start a Time Compression, and enter Ultimecia Castle in the future, where Ultimecia awaited. Upon Ultimecia's demise the group was momentarily trapped in Time, but due to their belief and reliance on each other, they managed to return to their time safely. The reported demise of Ultimecia resulted in a celebratory ball in Balamb Garden which saw Irvine returning to what he loved most; wooing the girls.

Weapons
As the group's gunner, Irvine uses a Shotgun in battle.

There are four models available for Irvine to use throughout the game, they are: the Valiant, the Ulysses, the Bismarck, and the Exeter. However, as a marksman and a sniper he is also seen using a rifle.

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. The length of the allotted time varies depending on crisis level. This Limit Break consumes ammo. Ammo can be bought from shops or refined from items.

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.

Pocket Station Memorycard Icons
An icon sprite of Irvine appears in the Pocket Station memorycard file manager.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Irvine appears as a card in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. The artwork used for his Triple Triad card is shown.

Trivia

 * Irvine, along with Final Fantasy X's Rikku, was supposed to appear in the first Kingdom Hearts, but both were replaced with Wakka and Yuffie.
 * When not in Squall's party Irvine can be seen hanging out in the second floor classroom watching Selphie when in Balamb Garden or in the cockpit when on the Ragnarok (again watching Selphie).
 * While choosing the performers for the Garden Festival Irvine can wander around Fisherman's Horizon and Balamb Garden; in the former of which he can be mistaken for an assassin, become a store hero and become involved with Familiar Face #3 in a philosophical debate. Onboard the Garden he has the option of hitting on all of the female students and also visiting Squall in his dorm room.
 * Irvine makes a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals. Along with Quistis, he explains the game's accessory system.
 * Irvine, along with Zell Dincht, has his birthday on a holiday. While it is not a consistent holiday (being the 4th Thursday of November in the US), Irvine's birthday is a common date on which Thanksgiving falls.
 * If the player plays Triple Triad enough times to start the Card Club sidequest as Irvine, they will still be referred to as Squall.