Irvine Kinneas Irvine Kinneas is a playable character in " Final Fantasy VIII " . An expert gunman known as the " best shooter in Garden " , he is a consummate ladies ' man whose reputation for cherishing the company of women is almost as well known as his accuracy with the gun . He is the last permanent member to join . Profile . Appearance . Irvine wears his long brown hair in a ponytail and has blue eyes . He has a black cowboy hat , a purple vest , a long khaki - colored jacket , black fingerless gloves and brown chaps over black trousers with black boots . He wears gray earrings and a red and yellow beaded necklace . Personality . Irvine is a ladies ' man who uses his loner sharpshooter persona to try to impress them . Irvine focuses his charms on Selphie Tilmitt , even helping her realize her dream of performing on - stage with a band to catch her attention . In Galbadia Garden Irvine is known for being the best marksman , to the point he ' s appointed as the SeeD ' s sharpshooter during an assassination mission . Despite his playful and suave persona , Irvine is not shallow ; he has a sharp mind and cares deeply for the group ' s members . During the time the player takes control of Irvine at Fishermans Horizon , he ' s questioned by one of the locals as to why he keeps company with " warmongers " . Irvine retorts he doesn ' t enjoy being a lone sniper , that he ' s felt alone all of his life in his battles against pressure , that he considers the team his saviors from loneliness and calls them comrades . This provides a rare insight on Irvine ' s views about life and friends . Although sometimes Irvine shows to be more cautious than his comrades , he is not a coward , shown when he provides a distraction at the Desert Prison to help his friends escape , and during the Battle of the Gardens . During the sequence at Trabia Garden Irvine extrapolates on his reasons for continuing the war against the sorceress , and says he will go on fighting to honor the choices he has made . Story . Irvine is an orphan of the Sorceress War , and lived in a seaside orphanage in Centra . He was among many children — including Squall , Quistis , Zell , Seifer , and Selphie — who were under the care of Edea Kramer , a sorceress . The circumstances of his adoption are unknown , but Irvine ends up studying in Galbadia Garden and graduates as a sharpshooter , an expert on firearms . When Squall Leonhart ' s Balamb Garden SeeD team is hired by Galbadia Garden to assassinate Sorceress Edea — who by then had become a Galbadia n ambassador under President Vinzer Deling — during a public celebration , Irvine is assigned as the group ' s sniper . As the group departs for Deling City , Irvine wastes no time on hitting on the girls on the team , Quistis , Rinoa , and Selphie . Meeting and receiving their orders from General Caraway of the Galbadian Army , Irvine is teamed with Squall as the point assassination team while the other SeeDs are assigned to trap the sorceress . As the ceremony begins , Edea kills the president and claims Galbadia as her own . Rushing to their positions , saving Rinoa from Iguions along the way , Irvine and Squall wait as Edea is trapped under the gateway . Talking a good look at his target through the sniper rifle ' s telescopic lens and realizing Edea ' s true identity , Irvine chokes . After encouragement from Squall , who does not remember who Edea used to be , Irvine fires at the sorceress , his bullet being repelled by Edea ' s magical barrier . Squall attacks her head on , and Rinoa and Irvine join him shortly after with Irvine claiming he has to redeem himself . Squall is knocked unconscious and the team is captured and imprisoned . Irvine either escapes or is , due to the Galbadian affiliation of his Garden , allowed to go free . Either way he receives orders from General Caraway to pick up his daughter , Rinoa , from the prison , and she is released due to the General ' s efforts . When Irvine tries to return Rinoa she forces him to assist in the rest of the team ' s escape . Irvine and Rinoa break into the prison where they find the others under a hail of fire . Irvine tells the others how to get out and stays behind to buy his friends time , engaging in a gunfight with the soldiers . Shortly after the escape they learn that in retaliation for the attack on Sorceress Edea , Galbadia had targeted Balamb and Trabia Garden s for missile attack . Splitting into two groups , Squall ' s group and Selphie ' s group , the escapees save Balamb Garden from destruction before reuniting in Fishermans Horizon . With no immediate mission to perform Irvine returns to what he does best : being a " player " . He consoles Selphie , who is upset over her failure to save Trabia Garden , by asking Squall to have Fishermans Horizon ' s mechanics restore the Garden Festival pavilion , which Selphie had been working on since before becoming a SeeD , but it had been damaged in the Garden ' s escape from the missiles . Taking charge of the festival arrangements Irvine gets rest of the team involved by promoting it as an occasion to celebrate Squall ' s promotion to " commander " and to help bring Squall and Rinoa closer together . During the preparations Irvine explores Fishermans Horizon , tangling with a Galbadian soldier who was left behind from a previous raid on the town . He notes that during his wanderings the town is spartan and a warning bulletin has been issued on a suspicious man in a brown coat carrying a gun . Even after reading the article Irvine still does not realize the bulletin is about him . The festival is a success with Squall and Rinoa getting some time alone to talk and , presumably , Irvine winning points with Selphie . When the party arrives at Trabia Garden Irvine leads the party to remember their past in Edea ' s Orphanage . He reminds them of their history together , makes them realize the powers of the Guardian Force s come with the price of memory loss , and reveals their beloved Matron and Sorceress Edea are the same person . It is suggested Irvine did not have a nervous breakdown during the assassination plan , but recognized his Matron and hesitated killing her . Irvine wants to stay true to the path he has chosen in life , and believes they should fight the sorceress even knowing who she is . The group resolves to fight their former Matron , and head to the Centra continent to search for clues . Galbadia Garden , now under Edea ' s control , is waiting for them . Irvine heads the invasion to the Garden and the group defeats Sorceress Edea . It turns out she had been possessed the entire time by a sorceress from the future , Ultimecia , and Rinoa falls into a coma . Irvine , Edea , and the rest of the party follow Squall who takes Rinoa to Esthar to look for Ellone , his " Sis " from the orphanage who he thinks could help him cure Rinoa . In Esthar Squall and Rinoa are sent to the Lunar Base to meet Ellone , where Rinoa comes out of her coma , and it is revealed Rinoa has inherited Edea ' s sorceress power . After Squall and Rinoa return from space they bring the starship " Ragnarok " , with Irvine admiring Selphie ' s piloting skills when she takes the reins . The group returns to Esthar by request of Laguna , the president of Esthar , who has a plan to stop Ultimecia once and for all . Using the " Ragnarok " they invade the Lunatic Pandora and fight past Sorceress Adel , who had been brought down from the moon ' s orbit in her spacebound tomb by the recent Lunar Cry incident , and whom Ultimecia was trying to make for her new host . Ellone uses her special powers of sending a person ' s consciousness back in time to allow Ultimecia to start a time compression , and the party falls through time and enters Ultimecia Castle in the future . Upon Ultimecia ' s demise the group is trapped outside of the normal timeline , but due to their faith and trust in one another they return home safely . In a celebratory ball in Balamb Garden Irvine returns to what he loves most : wooing the girls . Gameplay . Irvine wields a shotgun in battle , and his Limit Break is Shot . Shot allows him to choose from a variety of shot and ammo types , and deal damage based on how many presses of to fire at an enemy were performed within the allotted time , which is allocated based on his Crisis Level . Irvine ' s ultimate weapon is Exeter , and is the only ultimate weapon that cannot be obtained before disc 3 . As with other player characters , a Triple Triad card based on Irvine can be obtained . Creation and development . Tetsuya Nomura wanted to strike a balance with Irvine to not overshadow Squall and not be too attractive , and so gave Irvine a handsome appearance , but with a casual personality . Keeping with this idea , Nomura gave him goggles , but this idea was abandoned in favor of a cowboy - like appearance to set him apart from other goggle - wearing characters in the " Final Fantasy " series . In the early design his hair was tied in a braid and his bangs were longer and straight . Other appearances . Irvine has made appearances in the following games in the " Final Fantasy " series : Merchandise . Irvine has a Triple Triad card in the physical version of the game , released by Bandai in 1999 , as well as in various other Japan - exclusive collectable card series . Irvine and Zell appear on the Guardian Force Diablos in a collectible resin statue made by KOTOBUKIYA . Irvine also has an " Extra Soldier " action figure released by Bandai during the time of " Final Fantasy VIII " , and a different action figure and a key chain that were once available from Japanese crane catcher games . Irvine has also appeared in Coca - Cola bottle cap figures with different styles : proportional and deformed , colored and " crystal " . Etymology . is a from the . Kinneas is probably a variation of , from Ancient Greek Κινέας , " Kinéas " .