Rinoa is Ultimecia, Final Fantasy VIII Kazushige Nojima

The scenario for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT was primarily written by Kazushige Nojima, based on a draft by Saori Itamuro, with supervision from developers like Ichiro Hazama. While Hironobu Sakaguchi is credited as a writer on IMDb, Nojima handled the main story concept for the new conflict between Materia and Spiritus in the console version.

Kazushige Nojima wrote the main scenario for Mobius Final Fantasy, with Motomu Toriyama also credited as a writer, while Yoshinori Kitase produced the game, bringing together a veteran team known for Final Fantasy VII and XIII. Nojima handled the core storyline, creating a narrative that fits within the larger Final Fantasy universe but focuses on new characters and themes.

  / stop_saying_kitase_declined_the_rinoa_is  

From Reddit user Armascout
"5 years ago in a video discussing Dissidia NT Kitase Rescinded his statements denying the Rinoa is Ultimecia theory.

He says that it’s possible that Nojima or Nomura intended it to be implied similar to how Nojima created Shinra in FFX to connect it with 7.

Just want this here so people stop saying “oh Kitase says it’s not real.”.

If really bothers me when people bring it up because aside from it being retracted it basically kills any discussion on it.

I LOVE this theory because it makes Ultimecia (a villain I found incredibly uninteresting) a lot more complex than before.

If your unfamiliar with the theory here’s the basics:

Rinoa gets a ring from Squall during the battle of between galbadia and balamb gardens. This Ring is actually a Guardian force called Greiver and later during the Ultimecia fight she uses the guardian force griever.

It’s established that using GFs cause memory loss as seen with no one (except Irvine) remembering being at the orphanage with Edea.

The theory states Rinoa received the sorceress powers but was unable to control them. Unable to pass them on she is functionally immortal. Eventually she outlived everyone she cared about and due to her powers being feared she becomes a monster feared by the world.

Using the GFs to protect herself slowly costs all her memories.

At some point she comes up with the plan to use compression of time to see her Squall and those she cared about again.

Eventually though due to continued GF use she forgets her motivation confusing it with trying to prevent her own downfall (similarly to the nightmare she described to Squall).

This theory makes sense to me because it plays into the tragic romance theme the game has seen with Cid and Edea and Laguna and Julie."

  / that_ff8_fan_theory_concerning_rinoa_isnt  

From Reddit reibitto
"People mention how Kitase debunked the FF8 Rinoa-Ultimecia theory in a past interview (the idea is that Rinoa and the Sorceress Ultimecia are the same person. That Ultimecia is just a future version of Rinoa who has turned evil. ). While that's true, I actually came across a livestream in Japanese where he retracted that answer later.

He said he simply answered "no" to the idea in an interview when he was asked about it because he had never heard of the theory before. He said there was no preparation for that interview and he had no idea he would be asked such questions. It took him by surprise.

Kitase said that the Rinoa-Ultimecia connection wasn't explicitly mentioned in FF8's final draft, but that it's possible that Nojima and/or Nomura intentionally added the connection without him being aware of it. Kitase admitted that Nojima likes adding references and hidden details like that in his writing, and that Nojima did a similar thing linking Shinra from FF10 to Shinra in FF7.

When working on Dissidia on the PSP, Takeo Kujiraoka (Battle Planner) remembers there being debates internally within the team whether they should touch on the Rinoa-Ultimecia theory in the game. So they were well aware of it even then.

For people who hate this theory, I'm sorry 😅 For people who love it, you can still hold on to it. Honestly, I'm not invested one way or the other but I just wanted to get this untranslated info out there. The source is from Square Enix's own channel. It was a livestream event in 2018 for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. I searched online and I saw that there are absolutely no links to it in English, so I assume this whole thing went under the radar and it never got outside Japan until now."


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More to come. This is somewhat of a review of information.