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. He joins the party near the end of disc one, and is the last permanent member to join.

Appearance and Personality
Irvine wears his long auburn hair in a ponytail, a black cowboy hat, a purple shirt, a khaki-colored long jacket, black fingerless gloves and brown chaps over black trousers.

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 an assassination mission. Despite his playful and suave persona, Irvine is not shallow; Irvine is a sensitive person with a sharp mind who cares deeply about the group's members.

Throughout the game 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.

During the time the player takes control of Irvine at Fishermans Horizon, he's questioned by one of the locals as to why he keeps company with "warmongers". He retorts that he doesn't enjoy being a lone sniper, that he's felt alone all of his life in his battles against pressure, that he considers the team his saviors from loneliness and calls them comrades. This provides a rare insight on Irvine's views about his life and friends.

Although in some parts of the game Irvine shows to be more cautious than his comrades, he is not a coward. An example of Irvine's courage in battle is when he provides a distraction at the Desert Prison to help his friends escape, and during the Battle of the Gardens Irvine leads the attack on Galbadia Garden never hesitating fighting against his former home. During the sequence at Trabia Garden Irvine extrapolates on his reasons for continuing their war against the sorceress, and says he will continue fighting to honor what he has stood for all of his life and the choices he has made.

Story
Irvine is an orphan of the Sorceress War, and as a child lived in a seaside 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 are unknown, but Irvine 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 as the group's sniper. As the group departs for Deling City, Irvine wastes no time on hitting on all three of the girls on the team, Quistis, Rinoa, and Selphie.

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 SeeDs 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 from Iguions in the process, Irvine and Squall wait as Edea is trapped under the gateway. Realizing Edea's true identity Irvine chokes, but after encouragement from Squall, who does not remember who Edea used to be, he fires at the sorceress, but Edea's magical barrier blocks the shot.

Squall attacks the sorceress head on, and Rinoa and Irvine join him shortly after, with Irvine claiming he has to redeem himself. Squall is knocked unconscious resulting in the mission's failure. 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 receives orders from General Caraway to pick up his daughter, Rinoa, from the prison, and she is released due to the General's efforts, but 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 the others how to get out. He 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 save Balamb Garden from destruction before reuniting in Fishermans Horizon.

With no immediate mission to perform Irvine returns to what he does best; being a "player". He consoles Selphie, who has become upset over her failure to save Trabia Garden, by asking Squall to have Fishermans Horizon's mechanics build the Garden Festival pavilion which Selphie had been working on since before becoming a SeeD. Taking charge of the festival arrangements he gains the involvement of the rest of the team by suggesting it was to celebrate Squall's promotion to "Commander" and to help bring Squall and Rinoa closer together.

During the preparations Irvine takes time to explore Fishermans Horizon, tangling with a Galbadian soldier who was left behind from a previous raid on the town. He notes that during his wanderings the town is spartan and it is revealed a warning bulletin had been issued on a suspicious man in a brown coat carrying a gun. Even after reading the article, Irvine still does not realize the bulletin is about him. The festival is 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 Irvine leads the SeeD members to remember their past in Edea's Orphanage. He reminds them of their history together, makes them realize that the powers of the Guardian Forces come with the price of memory loss, and reveals their beloved Matron and Sorceress Edea are the same person. It is suggested Irvine did not have a nervous breakdown during the assassination plan, but recognized his Matron and did not want to kill her. He goes on to express his feelings on the matter, saying how he wants to stay true to the path he has chosen in life, and how he believes they should fight the sorceress even knowing who she is. The group makes their resolve to fight their former Matron, and head to the Centra continent to search for clues.

Galbadia Garden, now under Edea's control, is waiting for them. They invade the Garden and defeat Sorceress Edea and it turns out Edea had been possessed the entire time by a sorceress from the future, known as Ultimecia, and Rinoa falls into a coma.

Irvine, Edea, and the rest of the party follow Squall who takes Rinoa to Esthar to look for Ellone, who he thinks could help him cure Rinoa. In Esthar Squall and Rinoa are sent to Lunar Base where she comes out of her coma. After returning to the planet the group gains the starship Ragnarok, with Irvine showing admiration to Selphie's skills in piloting it. The group returns to Esthar 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 Sorceress Adel. Using Ellone's powers, they start a time compression, and enter Ultimecia Castle in the future. Upon Ultimecia's demise the group is trapped in time, but due to their belief in each other they return to their time safely. In a celebratory ball in Balamb Garden sees Irvine returning to what he loves most: wooing the girls.

Weapons
As the group's gunner, Irvine uses a shotgun in battle. As a marksman and a sniper he is also seen using a rifle during the storyline. Irvine's guns are named after famous battleships, the majority being British. Irvine is the only playable character in Final Fantasy VIII who cannot acquire his ultimate weapon, before disc 3.

There are four models for Irvine to use throughout the game:
 * Valiant – Initial model. Described in Weapons Monthly, April Issue.
 * Ulysses – Described in Weapons Monthly, May Issue.
 * Bismarck – Described in Weapons Monthly, July Issue.
 * Exeter – Described in Weapons Monthly, 1st Issue.

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 to fire at an enemy. 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.

Development
Tetsuya Nomura wanted to strike a balance with Irvine to not overshadow Squall and not be too unattractive, and so gave Irvine a handsome appearance, but with a casual personality. Keeping with this idea, Nomura gave him goggles, but 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.

Etymology
is a from the.

Kinneas is probably a variation of, from Ancient Greek Κινέας , Kinéas.

Trivia

 * Irvine, along with Final Fantasy X's Rikku, was supposed to appear in the first Kingdom Hearts, but were replaced with Wakka and Yuffie.
 * When not in Squall's party Irvine is hanging out in the second floor classroom watching Selphie when in Balamb Garden, or in the cockpit when on the Ragnarok.
 * While choosing the performers for the Garden Festival Irvine can wander around Fishermans Horizon and Balamb Garden; in the former 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 visiting a sleeping Squall in his dorm room.
 * Irvine makes a 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 refer to him as Squall.
 * If the player challenges Irvine to a game of Triple Triad, he declines, claiming to only play against girls.