Uploaded April 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Watch live at twitch.tv/xerokynos
Some time ago last year, someone inquired if I had played FF4 before. In fact, I had not. So, they suggested I try out the Steam version on stream, and I did. For a series of strange reasons, I never made it past about 2 hours into the game and stopped. For a series of different strange reasons, however, I retried FFIV again last month and actually finished it. Unfortunately, I could not be convinced to read much of the endless seeming flood of dialogue in this game and therefore was largely confused for most of the playthrough (don’t worry, I actually read a summary of the plot afterwards and came to the conclusion that FF4 and FF9 essentially share the same exact story with FF4 actually doing a better job at telling it (spoiler alert(?)), making this a blind playthrough in more than one way…
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Also, if you'd like to watch these runs live, follow me on twitch:
twitch.tv/xerokynos
I stream all kinds of FF7, FF8 and FF9 speedruns, among them 100%
Watch live at twitch.tv/xerokynos
Some time ago last year, someone inquired if I had played FF4 before. In fact, I had not. So, they suggested I try out the Steam version on stream, and I did. For a series of strange reasons, I never made it past about 2 hours into the game and stopped. For a series of different strange reasons, however, I retried FFIV again last month and actually finished it. Unfortunately, I could not be convinced to read much of the endless seeming flood of dialogue in this game and therefore was largely confused for most of the playthrough (don’t worry, I actually read a summary of the plot afterwards and came to the conclusion that FF4 and FF9 essentially share the same exact story with FF4 actually doing a better job at telling it (spoiler alert(?)), making this a blind playthrough in more than one way…
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Also, if you'd like to watch these runs live, follow me on twitch:
twitch.tv/xerokynos
I stream all kinds of FF7, FF8 and FF9 speedruns, among them 100%









![Final Fantasy VIII : 100% Speedrun in 11:24:01
This is my Personal Best for the 100% RTA (Real Time Attack) category, played on the French Steam PC Version, using real time. The current WR is 11:23:10, you can check out a leaderboard for this speedrun at http://www.speedrun.com/ff8#100_PC1.
This is another 6-minute improvement to my latest run of 11:30:02 (https://secure.twitch.tv/xerokynos/v/...) from less than a week ago. As I mentioned in my last run, it was found a while ago that the French version of FF8 is faster than the English version due to faster text scrolling speed by probably around 8 minutes. This is actually my first run I completed on the French version. The current WR does use the French version as well. Once again, I lost quite some time to having absolutely horrible item luck.
My next goal with this speedrun is to get it lower towards 11:15-11:20. I recently started it running more frequently again and will not stop until this is accomplished.
As FF8 does not have a proper game completion counter, one will have to define on ones own what is to be understood by 100%. Obviously, determining what to include in 100% can be controversial and seem arbitrary. Regardless, I feel that the prerequisites I have come up with for the 100% category allow for an interesting speedrun and are as close as possible to what is intuitively understood by 100%.
Here is what my definition of 100% is:
1] Defeat all bosses
2] Get all GFs
2.1) Get all 16 junctionable GFs
2.2) Get Odin and Gilgamesh
2.3) Get Phoenix (use a Phoenix Pinion in a battle)
2.4) Get Boko and MiniMog from Chocobo World
3] Finish all sidequests:
3.1) Winhill: Get a Holy Stone by collecting all vase shards
3.2) Shumi Village: Get a Phoenix Pinion and a Status Guard
3.3) Chocobo Forests: Find treasure in all 6 Chocobo Forests, then go to the Chocobo Sanctuary to watch the Chocobo Dance and get the Chicobo Card and Gysahl Greens
3.4) CC Quest: Defeat all Members of the Card Club in Balamb Garden before Disc4
3.4) Obel Lake: Find a Three Stars and a Luck-J Scroll
3.5) Ultimecias Castle: Activate the 4th Gate outside the Castle, get the Rosetta Stone and open up all closed doors
4] Have all characters learn all of their Limit Breaks
5] Have all characters have their ultimate weapon
6] Have 1 of each item
7] Own all cards
8] Have all 16 junctionable GFs learn all of their pre-set abilities, do not make them forget abilities that cannot be taught again
9] All tutorial entries are known
10] Read 12 Timber Maniacs
Remarks on my reasoning for these goals:
My general idea behind this 100% definition is to prevent missing anything permanently.
This why I specifically include getting Gilgamesh in the GF subgoal. Even though Gilgamesh is arguably by far a less useful and more annoying GF to have than Odin, Gilgamesh can be missed permanently if one does not recruit Odin before fighting Seifer at the end of Disc3.
I have Chocobo World running permanently to have Boko collect items in Chocobo World, which I later transfer back to FF8. Additionally, I use a glitch that allows me to continuously transfer the items I got in Chocobo World to FF8, in turn allowing me to duplicate and get rare items extremely fast.
Also, if youd like to watch these runs live, follow me on Twitch:
http://www.twitch.tv/xerokynos Final Fantasy VIII : 100% Speedrun in 11:24:01](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4gcu8oOVhmo/mqdefault.jpg)
