The long awaited release of Final Fantasy VIII screen shots and character information has finally come. Not a huge amount of information, but the artwork that came out is more than enough to get RPG fans drooling for more. Take a look.

Square unveiled FF8 at a press conference in Tokyo. RPGamer was unable to have a reporter on the site, but Videogames.com was. Major points revealed at the press conference:

• Technology appears to once again be at a high level. In the movie shown to reporters, a parabola antenna appeared on the screen, followed by a formation of fighter jets.
• The main character: Squall Leonhart
• Supporting character: Laguna Loire
• The character designs in the game are less anime-style than FF7, and are more lifelike
• All characters are texture-mapped, providing more detailed graphics in battles
• Tetsuya Nomura, a character designer for FF8, says the theme is of love
• In a first for the FF series, all party characters will be shown when exploring, not just the "front" character

Square also said they plan to release the American version shortly after the Japanese version, with less of a "lag" between the two. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

We'll keep you updated as more details of the press conference and more artwork becomes available.