"This is my partner, Angelo. Angelo is really smart!"
—Rinoa Heartilly
Angelo(アンジェロ,Anjero?), full name Sant' Angelo di Roma, is Rinoa's pet dog in Final Fantasy VIII. Despite the masculine name, Angelo is actually a female. Her design is based on a black-tricolor Australian Shepherd that one of Tetsuya Nomura's co-workers owned during the game's production.[1]
Angelo's profile in Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania reveals her full name and date of birth, as well as how Rinoa came to own her: Rinoa found Angelo at the Timber Pet Shop when she was just a puppy. Without telling her father, Rinoa bought Angelo on impulse. Angelo is two years old, born December 13.
Although Angelo appears in particular scenes as a NPC, she functions primarily as Rinoa's first Limit Break. When Rinoa's Limit activates, the player may select "Combine" to summon Angelo into battle. Angelo rushes to the battlefield, performs one from her pool of four aggressive tricks, then flees. The trick performed is dependent upon the party's current Crisis Level.
Adversely, any of Angelo's four passive tricks may activate during battle without character input: one as a counterattack against an enemy that has inflicted direct damage to Rinoa; two as recovery countermeasures of any party member in Critical or KO status if Rinoa is present; and, one to search the battlefield for random items. The chance of the three tricks other than Angelo Rush occurring depends upon the unseen "Dead Time" variable, in conjunction with whether the player has yet acquired the GilgameshGuardian Force.
Despite Angelo's capacity to learn eight tricks, Rinoa has initially taught her only one of each type: Angelo Rush and Angelo Cannon. To gain access to the remainder, the player must obtain six issues of Pet Pals magazine.
Pet Pals (ペット通信,Petto Tsūshin?) is a dog magazine sold in Pet Shops and Book Stores. Each costs 1,000 gil. Reading an issue will inform Rinoa of one of six new tricks to teach Angelo. Once the magazine has been read from the Item inventory, that issue's trick will be listed in Rinoa's Status screen with an empty status bar. The player may select from the list of tricks which Angelo will learn, being further prompted if they attempt to leave the screen without selecting any trick. A trick's status bar fills in correspondence to the number of steps taken with Rinoa in the active party. A distinct chime sounds when a trick's bar is filled, indicating its mastery. Angelo may only perform mastered tricks in the Combine Limit Break.
Below is a listing of Pet Pals volumes, their locations, and the abilities Angelo will learn from each:
Pet Pals Vol. 1: Obtained from Zell on the train to Timber. Walk for approximately 800 steps to learn Angelo Strike.
Pet Pals Vol. 2: Found on Rinoa's bed on the Forest Owls train. Walk for approximately 200 steps to learn Angelo Recover.
Pet Pals Vol. 3: Can be bought in Timber's Pet Shop. Walk for approximately 900 steps to learn Invincible Moon.
Pet Pals Vol. 4: Can be bought in Timber's Pet Shop. Walk for approximately 250 steps to learn Angelo Reverse.
Pet Pals Vol. 5: Can be bought in Esthar's Pet Shop. Walk for approximately 400 steps to learn Angelo Search.
Pet Pals Vol. 6: Can be bought in Esthar's Pet Shop. Walk for approximately 1010 steps to learn Wishing Star.
Angelo's full name means Angel Saint of Rome. Angelo comes from the Latin word angelus meaning "angel", a recurring motif in Rinoa's design (eg. the wing pattern on her duster, the Shooting Star blaster edge, her second Limit Break Angel Wing). Names ending in -o carry masculine connotation in Romance languages. The feminine equivalent would be Angela. However, Japanese is not a language of Latin origin, so no such trend exists in its lexicon.
In the German and French localizations, she is simply called Angel.
During the camcorder footage of the ball in the credit roll, Angelo is seen roaming about the cafeteria, making her the first permitted pet in Balamb Garden.
Though given the opportunity when meeting Rinoa with the Forest Owls, the player may change Angelo's name with the Pet's Nametag item.
As part of the story, Angelo is left on the planet's surface with Zell before Rinoa and company are blasted into orbit. The commandeering of the Ragnarok from its Propagator threat thus marks the only point in the game that Rinoa cannot Combine with Angelo.
Angelo shares some similarities with Interceptor of Final Fantasy VI. Like Angelo, Interceptor often appears in battle when his owner Shadow is in the party. When anyone in the party is attacked there is a small chance that he will Counter with a tackle attack.
Edit
Added by Icysugarspike
Added by Deadlyslashsword
Angelo Cannon.
Angelo Rush.
Angelo artwork.
Angelo's render.
Rinoa introducing Angelo to Squall.
Rinoa, Squall, and Angelo in front of a large field of flowers.
Angelo Charging.
Angelo Recover.
Angelo Reverse.
Angelo Rush.
Angelo Search.
Angelo Cannon.
Angelo Strike.
Invincible Moon.
Wishing Star.
