Angel Wing (Limit)

Angel Wing is a recurring ability in the series. It is associated with Rinoa Heartilly as one of her Limit Breaks.

Final Fantasy VIII
Angel Wing is Rinoa's second Limit Break, acquired after boarding the Ragnarok. When executing Angel Wing a pair of white wings, similar to the ones printed on her blue sweater, momentarily emerge from Rinoa's back.

Activating Angel Wing will have Rinoa enter a "Magic-Berserk" status; players lose control of her until the battle's end, or until she is defeated or petrified. If Rinoa is petrified/defeated, the Angel Wing status will be gone when she is revived/cured. During Angel Wing Rinoa is immune to Berserk, Confuse, and Silence.

During Angel Wing, Rinoa will automatically cast an offensive spell present in her inventory without actually expending it, important for maintaining the effects of junctioned spells. Double and Triple statuses aren't used. Rinoa's magic damage will be five times as powerful as its base damage, even when her Magic stat is already at the maximum 255. The increased damage multiplier will work even with Demi, which, instead of draining the opponent's HP by 25%, can kill the target. If Rinoa has no magic in stock while in the Angel Wing state, she will attack a random enemy.

To prevent Rinoa from casting unwanted spells, like Scan or Dispel, the player can remove these spells from her inventory. Rinoa can become a devastating character if one manipulates her magic junctions in such a way that Meteor is the only, or the weakest offensive spell she has in her arsenal. Since weaker spells are more likely to be cast, carrying some Ultima for junction doesn't influence the odds much. Full-Life or Triple are not used during Angel Wing, and can be useful for junctions.

With the boost in magic damage and the appropriate magic stats, Rinoa could potentially be doing close to 99,990 damage in one attack round (Meteor hits 10 times, potentially for 9,999 each hit). Even with the 5x damage multiplier and capped magic at 255, it is still difficult to force the Meteor spell to exceed 7,500 damage per meteorite strike on harder bosses, such as Omega Weapon. The player can inflict the target with Vit 0 to reduce its Spirit to 0 to deal more damage.

In most cases, executing Angel Wing with Meteor is the stronger alternative to attempting Rinoa's Wishing Star. Considering Combine being random, and as the battle system is Active Time Battle taking place in pseudo real-time, the a player not having to manually input commands for Rinoa after Angel Wing is initiated increases her damage-over-time capabilities, especially when equipping with Auto-Haste.

Apocalypse is compatible with Angel Wing, but can only be obtained during the last portion of the final battle in a normal playthrough.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Angel Wing spell abilities are a subset of Rinoa's Soul Break skills, which are granted by thrown weapons native to her realm. The thrown Rising Sun (VIII) gives Angel Wing Quake, which unleashes an earthquake to hit all foes with magic earth damage twice.

The thrown Valkyrie (VIII) grants Angel Wing Bolt, which deals three lightning-elemental attacks to one foe.

Dead Fantasy
The Angel Wing is permanently activated in Rinoa's appearance in Dead Fantasy II. She demonstrates her augmented sorceress powers by conjuring lunar portals from the moon and showcasing telekinetic abilities. Her wings are used for flight and protection. Rinoa casts four offensive spells, first using Blizzaga to freeze the lava lake to save her comrades and the team Dead or Alive. She casts Holy and Tornado by junctioning to her blaster edge, and casts Ultima after executing her ultimate Limit Break, Wishing Star, towards team Dead or Alive while inside the tornado.

Trivia

 * In the opening of Final Fantasy VIII Rinoa turns a flower petal into a white glowing feather and sends it to Squall who is lost in the time compression, as seen in the ending. When she finds him in the barren wasteland it transforms into a flower field and all flower petals swirling in the air turn into feathers. The glowing feather may be from her Angel Wing Limit Break. Rinoa's association with feathers is also referred to in other games and media.