Renzokuken


 * For videos of the various Renzokuken, please go to Renzokuken/Videos.

Renzokuken (連続剣 "Continual Sword", "Sequential Sword" or "Serial Sword", in reference to the multiple time he hits an enemy) is Squall Leonhart's limit break. The first stage of Squall's limit break is a series of slashes from his gunblade. The player must hit the R1 shoulder button (the "trigger") when the bar at the bottom of the screen reaches a certain area. After this process, Squall may attack with one of his four finishers.

Execution
When Squall begins the Renzokuken, he rushes forward, and the shown bar appears on the screen. Five to eight bars run along this bar, and pressing the R1 button when the smaller bars are on the indicated area on the left side of the larger bar, this results in a hit. The animation for this phase of the attack may be different when used on large bosses, changing the timing of the triggers. Once Squall has had all the allowed changes to hit or miss an enemy, he may use one of the following finishing moves as well.

Rough Divide
Rough Divide is Squall's weakest finishing move. It hits a single opponent once, causing a fair amount of damage. He starts the game off with this ability, and is what he uses on Seifer in the opening FMV.

Fated Circle
When using Fated Circle, Squall jumps up into the air while charging energy into his gunblade. At the peak of his jump he spins his gunblade 720 degrees around himself (he only rotates 360 degrees) and releases a shockwave that damages all enemies.

Blasting Zone
When using Blasting Zone, Squall charges up energy, "extending" the blade of his weapon to the outer atmosphere and strikes all enemy with it to deal heavy damage. In most media depicting Squall outside of Final Fantasy VIII, such as the Kingdom Hearts series and Dissidia: Final Fantasy, the move is instead portrayed as magically increasing the size of the gunblade's blade or transforming it into from the Revolver model to the Lion Heart model, respectively.

Lion Heart
Lion Heart ("End of Heart" in the Japanese version) is Squall's ultimate finishing move. It can only be used after acquiring his ultimate weapon (also called the Lion Heart). It strikes a single opponent 18 times and generally causes massive damage. Lion Heart is very much like Cloud's "Omnislash".