Wishing Star (Final Fantasy VIII)

Wishing Star is a Rinoa's ultimate Combine ability in Final Fantasy VIII that is her most damaging move alongside Angel Wing. Wishing Star is her Level 4 Limit Break that deals magic damage eight times distributed randomly among the enemies, its power depending on Rinoa's Magic stat. Combine is available randomly when Rinoa is on low health or under Aura status.
Rinoa jumps on her dog, Angelo's, back, and together they plunge the enemy or enemies into a star-filled sky where they fly through them eight times.
==Obtained==
Wishing Star is learned from Pet Pals Vol. 6, bought from the pet shop in Esthar City. After Rinoa re-joins the party after the events in Sorceress Memorial, the player can set it to be learned in her Status menu. To learn Wishing Star after reading the magazine, the player needs to walk for approximately 1010 steps with Rinoa in the active party.
Steps are accumulated the fastest by driving a fueled car on the world map or riding a chocobo. If the player has yet to complete the Chocobo Forest sidequest, doing it at this point in the game with Rinoa in the party would accumulate a lot of steps. The player could also fix the controller stick in place for the chocobo to automatically run in endless circles.
==Mechanics==
Wishing Star is Rinoa's Crisis Level 4 Combine Limit Break; Angelo will use the highest level skill that she knows and that is valid to use.
* Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
* Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
* Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
* Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star
Crisis Level is a hidden calculation; the lower Rinoa's current HP, the more ailments she is afflicted with, and the more KO'd active party members she has, the higher the Crisis Level.
Wishing Star deals non-elemental magic damage eight times distributed among the enemy randomly. Each strike's damage is calculated as per the following formula:
:Damage = Magic + 130
:Damage = Damage \times (265 - Target's~Spirit) / 4
:Damage = Damage \times 130 / 256
Where "Magic" is Rinoa's Magic stat and "Spirit" is the target's Spirit stat. For comparison, each hit from Wishing Star is stronger even than the strongest magic spell, Apocalypse.
All damage is randomized slightly:
:Damage = Damage \times ([0..32] + 240) / 256
If the target has Shell, damage is halved.
==Use==
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Wishing Star is Rinoa's ultimate Combine Limit Break that damages enemies randomly eight times; if there is only one enemy, it will strike the enemy eight times, making it potentially equally strong as Squall's Renzokuken without a finisher (though as Renzokuken is physical damage, each strike from it can critical).
Wishing Star is Rinoa's Crisis Level 4 Limit Break with Combine, meaning there is no way to increase its appearance rate by forgoing learning her other Limit Breaks; it is only used when Rinoa is on Crisis Level 4. This makes it one of the rarer Limit Breaks from Combine.
Wishing Star can be seen as inferior to Angel Wing, which is obtained automatically through the story, whereas to get Wishing Star, the player needs to go out of their way to accumulate steps with Rinoa in their active party while in the endgame. Angel Wing likewise deals magic damage to enemies, but it can be configured to only use the most damaging spells, making it a more consistent source of strong magic damage than Wishing Star, where the player still needs to get slightly lucky to get it as an outcome of her Combine over the previous Invincible Moon. However, Angel Wing is uncontrollable, and configuring Rinoa's junctions solely for Angel Wing can make her weaker in other areas.
As damage from both Wishing Star and Angel Wing is magical, it is a good idea to change Rinoa's focus from Strength to Magic after she rejoins the party. The Guardian Forces that have Mag-J natively are Quezacotl, Siren, Diablos, Carbuncle, Leviathan, and Cerberus, but by the time Rinoa can learn Wishing Star, Mag-J Scrolls can also be purchased from pet shops to give Mag-J to any GF. The player can then further improve the stat with Mag+% abilities and possibly grind her with Mag Bonus equipped.
Wishing Star is learned so late the bosses left where it can be used are all optional or after the point of no return. Wishing Star remains a strong damage option for the rest of the game, able to at its best inflict 79,992 points of damage. It would be good against Ultima and Omega Weapons and the final bosses when not going for Angel Wing instead. It may be preferable in the final battles over Angel Wing if the final boss happens to blow away Rinoa's best spell stocks.
==Etymology and allusion==
Shooting stars are one of Rinoa's motifs in Final Fantasy VIII; when she and Squall Leonhart first meet, she points at a shooting star they both saw through the Balamb Garden ballroom skylight. She repeats this in the ending.
==Notes==
===Annotations===
===Citations===
Category:Combine abilities in Final Fantasy VIII