Ultimecia was deceived

[Serapy]

by Final Fantasy VIII: Trial Version. Yes, apparently.

Compare from this trial version to the full-released version and you get so many different results. In the former version, there wasn`t any Selphie or Quistis in it. Squall, Zell and Rinoa were in it and they all wore non-official clothes like the clothes they wore in the full version`s SeeD missions. It was as if the whole dollet mission was SeeD related (SeeD mission).

It`s obvious that Square had changed the original script. They replaced Rinoa with Selphie (new character) and replaced the soldier who was shooting at X-ATM092 with Quistis (new character). They adjusted the look of Squall`s face. They wore clothes like the candidate ones.

From the look of it, it`s possible that Rinoa was meant to be a SeeD in the original script.
So Ultimecia was deceived by this original script, therefore labelling Rinoa and Irvine as SeeDs at the end of the game (saying SeeD six times in a row). Or did Square forget to change this bit?

This is interesting.

At Balamb Garden when Squall was bumped by Selphie, could that have been Rinoa?

Isn`t it ironic that Selphie asked Squall for a tour of the Garden in the beginning and then later in the game, Rinoa asked him the same question?

[Jessweeee♪]

I think it didn't matter to Ulty that she wasn't a real SeeD, seeing as she was fighting with them anyhow

[Roogle]

Development teams usually assemble a party to show off a balanced, appealing party.

The Final Fantasy VII demo had a party consisting of Cloud, Barret, and Aeris and Aeris was equipped with the Leviathan Materia despite the fact that you do not receive that until much later in the game. The Final Fantasy VIII demo had a party consisting of Squall, Zell, and Rinoa despite the fact that there is no storyline reason for Rinoa to be present.

This may be because the developers felt Rinoa was a more appealing character to those trying out the game? The characters were dressed in normal attire as opposed to the stuffy SeeD uniforms, too, maybe to appeal to those trying out the game and not lend the impression that the characters would dress alike for the entirety of a game?

[MJN SEIFER]

From the look of it, it`s possible that Rinoa was meant to be a SeeD in the original script.
So Ultimecia was deceived by this original script, therefore labelling Rinoa and Irvine as SeeDs at the end of the game (saying SeeD six times in a row). Or did Square forget to change this bit?

No offence, but I really don't think that Ultimecia was literally refering to six Seeds during her rant, even if Rinoa was meant to be in the game earlier, how does Irvine fit in?

I think Roogle could be right about it just being to "show off a balanced appealing party", but as I am not from Square I can't say for certain - it is not uncomon for games to have differences in the eairly stages (there are some games out there, where if you played the first version, you wouldn't believe it was the same game. - RE2 springs to mind here.)

At Balamb Garden when Squall was bumped by Selphie, could that have been Rinoa?

Isn`t it ironic that Selphie asked Squall for a tour of the Garden in the beginning and then later in the game, Rinoa asked him the same question?

Again, I can't say for certain, but it is ironic - perhaps something was edited there, or it could just be a coincidence. Nice thought though.

[Serapy]

Development teams usually assemble a party to show off a balanced, appealing party [...]

That`s true, however, all the trial versions of FF8 are not the same. The trial version was released in the U.S second (after Japan). Both of those have the same effects (Rinoa being in the version). The demo was released in Europe later and I got mine but apparently it was different than the versions of U.S and Japan. My version only consisted of the same things as in the full version (just Quistis, Selphie, Squall and Zell). So I assumed that this was the moment of conception change in the script.

I think that before Square finished developing FF8, it reflected the original script and during that period, they have released the trial version. There`s a label in my version stating "Demonstration purposes only, contents of this game are subject to change".

The thought of Square replacing Rinoa with Selphie in exactly the same position as displayed in the FMV is quite scary. Don`t you think?

No offence, but I really don't think that Ultimecia was literally refering to six Seeds during her rant, even if Rinoa was meant to be in the game earlier, how does Irvine fit in?

The probability of Ultimecia spamming six SeeDs just to emphasise her anger when in fact that there were six people in the room (excluding Ultimecia herself) is pretty low. Six people in the room and her saying six SeeDs may be a quite lucky coincidence but doesn`t seem realistic.

How does Irvine fit in? Well, if Rinoa was a SeeD in the original script, then why not Irvine as well? In the full-released version, you will meet Rinoa and Irvine later in the game. This is just a speculation.

Selphie grew up with others at the orphanage, could that have been Rinoa?

Hehe, I`m beginning to like this Selphie = Rinoa theory.

I noticed something, the relationship of Irvine and Selphie seemed to be more superficial than the relationship of Irvine and Rinoa. Maybe this was the reason why they were hurrying editing the script before the final deadline?

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't really find much solid evidence to back this one up Serapy. Yes there are significant differences between the trial version and the final version but its also just a demo and so its not surprising that Square may have taken a few liberties to make it more exciting by changing things around. Roogle's post demonstrates this theory nicely.

Of anything, it looks like the Trial version could have been a playable Beta test given to fans as many factors of the gameplay were dramatically changed from the Trial version to the full release. Factors that had been criticized I might add (Renzouken trigger bar, draw amount, difficulty)

The major flaw in the theory is that Rinoa does not talk at all in the Trial version nor is her existence even recognized by other characters yet beyond that, all of the dialogue between Seifer, Zell and Squall remained the same as they are found in the full game. To me, this signifies that Rinoa was just there for the sake of the demo. It should also be noted, that I believe until the Trial version was released, the only characters confirmed were Squall and the "girl Squall is holding in the Amano logo". The Trial version was basically her first big reveal.

As for why the PAL demo is changed, its probably because the full versions had been released already in both Japan and the States. The Trial version had been released back when the game was still unfinished and being tested hence the Trial version had a very different battle system. Why then would you release a demo containing faulty gameplay that doesn't represent the actual game?

[Serapy]

The trial version for Europe was released before the full versions were both released in Japan and U.S.

The point is that what caused Square to display such things in the trial version, they must have had a reason. Purpose? To entertain players and encourage them to play the full version when it comes out. But where did such things in the version come from? The script, of course.

Oh, now, this is getting more interesting.

Selphie`s final limit - The End. The background of the limit really resembles the one where Rinoa was standing on ... in the very beginning of the game (the first FMV) and the end of the game where Rinoa was reviving Squall.
Could this have been Rinoa`s final limit?
I think that Rinoa is more of a green-land-with-flowers freelancer than
Selphie. It doesn`t really suit Selphie, so why would her final limit contain such a background like that?

More to come ...

[BardTard]

I think flowers suit Selphie pretty well. She's always like, "love and peace!" and very girly. I don't think it's too weird. But I do think if anybody has a limit break that makes you win no matter what it shoudn't be Selphie. That makes no sense, she's not the main character or a sorceress.

[Serapy]

Selphie: ...Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher!?

Selphie: Ok then! Let's stop the missiles, blow the base to
smithereens, and get outta here!

Kid Selphie: Let's play WAR!

Selphie: Well, we could skin this little guy (moomba) and wear him as a
disguise...

^ She got that moomba scared. Not very nice !

Not exactly love and peace Rinoa is more suited for love and peace, in my opinion. Square made Selphie more interesting, so it`s kinda not surprising at all.

[The Last Oath]

few interesting points there

[Mercen-X]

Selphie grew up with others at the orphanage, could that have been Rinoa?

There were a total of seven kids at the orphanage. Squall, Seifer, Irvine, Selphie, Quistis, Zell, and Ellone. Six of these kids were meant to become SeeDs: A force to defend the world by defeating the future sorceress. Of course no one remembers because luckily GFs cause frickin' amnesia.
Ellone was merely a sought after device which needed protection thus she was not to become a SeeD like the other six.
It is true that one can consider Rinoa a SeeD as she does fight to defeat Ultimecia. Technically, Rinoa is both a sorceress and a SeeD. My thought, however, is that Ultimecia is somehow referring to Seifer when she says SeeD a sixth time. It occurs to me that Seifer was not defeated alone. Instead, his dreams and the effects of his brainwash had also been defeated and, once again, he could be considered to be a SeeD.
The strongest possibility to conceive is as follows. Ultimecia was merely ranting... but only the sixth SeeD shout was a rant. The first five refer to Squall, Zell, Quistis, Sephie, and Irvine. The sixth SeeD shout refers to the group as a whole and her growing disgust with the concept.

[dream ending sword]

Selphie always came across to me as a hippie girl who occassionally consumed too much sugar/caffine and said the things Seraphy quoted out of a mix of cuteness/ADHD rather than actual belligerence. I also believe that Serapy unfortunately reads far too deeply into FF8 to a level that is far from healthy (no offence meant to ya Serapy ).

[xXsarahXx]

I can kinda see where you are coming from on this one, weather you are right of not ill guess we will never know but nice find none the less!

[Serapy]

There`s also this computer incident at Trabia Garden, where Selphie became involved and stopped Squall from accessing her files. Basically, there`s something Selphie doesn`t want him know about.
For some reason, this sounds quite irrelevant because the incident grants you the ability to read about Laguna`s adventures on the Balamb School Network at your study panel. Irrelevant how? Selphie (who caused drama in the incident = prerequisite) and disclosures of Laguna`s adventures as a reward don`t seem to be connected with each other.

If you replace Rinoa with Selphie in that incident, it makes more sense.

At Galbadia Garden, Rinoa talked about Seifer, about how great he was. She loved him, had fond memories of him, etc. These information she said were just in general, not very specific (e.g. was he great in bed? etc). Maybe those "specific" information were held in her computer, which sounds more sense if she didn`t want Squall to know about.

It`s either that or a diary about her unusual feelings in relevance to a being of a sorceress. If it`s the latter, then Rinoa obviously didn`t want Squall to be worried when he read her files, so she simply stopped him from accessing her files. Squall fully acknowledged this after this incident.

Ok, so ... that was Rinoa, not Selphie. Although, Rinoa and Laguna are obviously not connected with each other, but there`s a chance that Squall marries Rinoa in the future. So in this case, Rinoa will be in the same family as Laguna. Makes even more sense.

[Typhoon]

At Trabia after the missiles, I didn't think Rinoa was a sorceress yet, I thought that was end of disc 2 stuff yet the Trabia incident was mid disc 2. Idk im pretty tired so dw.