Timber Maniacs

A magazine representing the people's voice. It was popular among aspiring young journalists. Shut down after Galbadia deemed the publication dangerous.

FFVIII Info Corner

Timber Maniacs is a publishing company in Final Fantasy VIII. Established 20 years prior to the story of Final Fantasy VIII, it publishes many magazines, one of the more famous being Tim Mani (short for Timber Maniacs), a compilation of freelance writings.

Under President Deling, Timber Maniacs faced closure when Tim Mani was deemed dangerous to the administration for sparking revolutionist ideals. Since then, Timber Maniacs shifted focus to publishing "battle series" magazines and photobooks such as "Jacket Over Skin: The Beautiful Women Edition".

Story[]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Laguna joined the company after Kiros told him that the chief editor was interested in travel articles. Laguna jumped at the chance and signed on to become a world-traveling journalist. He went on to write many articles about various places in the world during his journey of rescuing Ellone.

Spoilers end here.

Headquarters layout[]

Reception Desk

The Timber Maniac reception desk is a small corner cubicle in the office foyer. The foyer itself is littered with stacks of many publications printed throughout the years. The door at the far end of the foyer allows access to the Editorial office. To the left of the reception is a small office with a Blizzaga draw point hidden behind the desk in the foreground. It never refills.

In the reception, a copy of "Girl Next Door" can be found on one of the magazine stacks next to the receptionist. When given to Zone onboard White SeeD Ship during the short segment the party visits the ship on disc 3, the party will receive Shiva's Triple Triad card in return.

Editorial Office

This office is where the magazine staff piece together the articles for the next magazine issue. The desks are filled with notes and books of reference material. The chief editor's desk is located at the far end of the room, where he can be found reminiscing about the old days. Squall gets bored during his rants and the player is ejected from the room. This happens no matter what topic the player picks to discuss.

Timber Maniacs magazine[]

Every issue of Timber Maniacs (bar one) the player finds adds an article on Laguna on Sir Laguna's Page, made by Selphie Tilmitt, viewable on Squall's study panel in Balamb Garden. Collecting all magazines in the Steam and Remastered versions earns the achievement/trophy Timber Maniacs.

The magazines are missable since all towns become inaccessible once the party defeats Seifer at the Lunatic Pandora. The issue inside the White SeeD Ship has the briefest window of getting it.

Magazine	Location & Effect	Image
Timber Maniacs 1	Balamb Town, Train Station If the player picks up the Hotel issue, this one will disappear.
Timber Maniacs 1	Balamb Town 2nd floor of the Hotel. If the player picks up the Train Station issue, this one will disappear. If picked up before the first Laguna dream, Laguna will fall asleep in Julia's room. Does not give any Sir Laguna's Page entries.
Timber Maniacs 2	Timber, Timber Maniacs Office Building.
Timber Maniacs 3	Timber, Hotel Guest Room.
Timber Maniacs 4	Fishermans Horizon, Grease Monkey's House.
Timber Maniacs 5	Fishermans Horizon, Hotel Guest Room.
Timber Maniacs 6	Trabia Garden, Graveyard.
Timber Maniacs 7	Dollet, Hotel Guest Room.
Timber Maniacs 8	Dollet, Pub.
Timber Maniacs 9	Shumi Village, Artisan's House. Reading this before witnessing the Laguna dream at the Vienne Mountains has Ward not appear in the dream.
Timber Maniacs 10	White SeeD Ship, Bridge.
Timber Maniacs 11	Edea's House, inside.
Timber Maniacs 12	Deling City, under the bed in the hotel room.

Repercussions[]

If the player reads the Timber Maniacs #1 from the hotel before the first Laguna flashback, the scene in Julia's room will change and Laguna will fall asleep, because he has had too much wine. If the player reads the magazine from the train station instead or does not read either magazine, Laguna will only talk too much. Kiros's line about visiting the hotel pub will also be affected as he will give him grief about his lightweightedness beforehand. If the player reads the magazine at the hotel, Selphie's Sir Laguna's Page will not be updated, but reading the train station issue will update the website.
If the player reads Timber Maniacs #9 before the Laguna dream that takes place in the Vienne Mountains, Ward will not appear alongside Laguna and Kiros apart from the OG Japanese version, where he will even if the player read it. If the player does not read the magazine before the event, Ward will appear in the dream.

Behind the scenes[]

There is a "fake" Timber Maniacs magazine found in The Dincht's house in Balamb Town.

There may be a programming oversight related to the Balamb Town Timber Maniacs issues. The issue at the train station yields an entry to Selphie's Sir Laguna's Page where Laguna's alcohol-related article got rejected. Picking up the magazine at the hotel gives no Sir Laguna's Page entries, but changes the following Laguna dream so that Laguna passes out from drinking wine. It may be that the train station issue was the one intended to make Laguna unable to handle alcohol, and the hotel issue the one to yield the entry about Laguna visiting Balamb Hotel, as Laguna can drink alcohol fine even if the player gets the article where he writes about it, and it would make sense for the Balamb Hotel to keep an old Timber Maniacs issue where their establishment is mentioned.