25 Things You DIDN'T Know About Final Fantasy VIII

25 Things You Didn’t Know About Final Fantasy VIII

Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re diving the world of the retrospectively appreciated Final Fantasy VIII and uncovering all its secrets, behind the scenes details and Easter eggs you missed while you were desperately trying to understand the Junction System.

Fantastic Cameos

Even as far back as Final Fantasy VIII, devs were hiding Easter eggs alluding to the team within their games. However, FF8 director Yoshinori Kitase wasn’t a fan of these nods and would force the devs to remove them whenever they were discovered. This didn’t stop the team however and simply made them get cleverer with the placement. When entering the D District prison, instead of one of the signs stating “Caution”, it instead read Takashin which was a nod to the battle effects director. Another hidden easter egg is in Ultimecia’s castle where one of the pictures on the wall is a portrait of a woman the artist knew and snuck it into the miniaturized version of the map after the higher res version was discovered. This same dev snuck a portrait of his wife on a TV screen in Timber as well as baseball memorabilia simply because he was a fan at the time.

Repurposed Companions

Much like Final Fantasy VII before it, Final Fantasy VIII went through a few changes before the final concept was settled upon, but a few ideas from FFVII still managed to find their way into FFVIII. The most prominent of these is the game’s main antagonist Edea who was originally planned to appear in FFVII as character designer Tetsuya Nomura had designed a witch for the game, but after changes were made to FFVII’s narrative she no longer fit and her design was too complex for the game at the time and so she eventually found her place in FFVIII. The same is true of Seifer’s companions Fujin and Raijin who were initially planned to appear in FFVII before the introduction of the Turks and were deemed too similar but ended up finding their place in FFVIII as well.

Censored Boss

Every Final Fantasy game features a myriad of striking and memorable boss designs and likewise FFVIII had its fair share. However, one of these bosses, Gerogero was originally much more unsettling than the one western audiences eventually encountered. The original version of Gerogero was hued redder, outlining his appearance as a mess of organs that appear much more realistic and bloodied. However, for the western release of the game, this color was shifted to a blue hue, and while Gerogero still remains one of the most unsettling bosses in the game in design, it could have been so, so much worse.

Thriller Parade

We briefly talked about hidden Easter eggs the devs liked to hide in the game, but this one isn’t so much hidden as we just didn’t notice the first time due to everything else going on. Right at the end of disc one, Edea’s parade is accompanied by a multitude of dancers, but not all of them are dancing along to the same beat. A few of these masked performers are sneakily doing Michael Jackson’s famous Thriller dance while Squall is getting impaled by Edea’s ice so you can understand how we missed it in our first playthrough.

Triple Triad

The Final Fantasy series is well known for their mini games, but Triple Triad is one of the most beloved additions to the Final Fantasy franchise and continued to be iterated on with Final Fantasy IX’s Tetra Master, however the idea for the game has surprisingly humble origins. Triple Triad was heavily influenced by the massive success of the Magic the Gathering and game director Yoshinori Kitase’s desire to have a minigame players could play anywhere in the game world. Triple Triad proved to be such a success within the Final Fantasy community that Square decided to release a standalone version of the game for PC in Japan. Players were able to collect cards and battle either against an AI or real players via a LAN connection. This version also included additional bonuses such as wallpapers, screensavers and even an FFVIII themed email application.

Baseline Eve

Final Fantasy VII proved to be a graphical landmark title for Square and the development team, but for the follow-up Final Fantasy VIII, they wanted to push the tech even further. To determine a baseline to achieve this, the team looked to another recent Square release, Parasite Eve. Parasite Eve was lauded by both critics and fans for its cinematic presentation and CGI cutscenes. Game director Yoshinori Kitase and his team decided that what Parasite Eve was able to accomplish should be the bare minimum the team should strive for and to push the hardware to its limits to bring their vision to life. The result is gameplay that flows effortlessly into FMV sequences and an incredibly detailed game world unlike anything else Final Fantasy had accomplished at the time.

Death Island

The OG Final Fantasy games are known to hide secret high-level bosses for players to challenge such as Ozma in FFIX or Ruby and Emerald Weapon in FFVII. But in Final Fantasy VIII, the devs created an entire island filled with incredibly high leveled enemies for players to challenge. By traveling to the northeastern part of Esthar, players can find a secluded island with no discernible reason for players to visit besides the challenge. Enemies here start at level 100 and are full of debilitating status effects that will easily crush anyone unlucky enough to stumble on their shores accidentally. It’s a great place to stock up on powerful magic but just be prepared for a fight trying to make it out alive.

Garden SeeDs

The Garden is an iconic location in FF8 and the main HUB the player begins the game in, featuring multiple “Houses” that become more integral as the story continues. However, the original plan for the Garden was much greater. Original concepts for the facility had it being able to transform into a “Super Garden” with all 3 facilities combining into one massive structure with art director Yusuke Naora comparing the sequence to that of the anime “Getter Robot Go” transformations. However, the scope and scale of this sequence proved to be too demanding and so it was instead scaled back to only the individual Gardens being able to transform. The name SeeDs given to students of the Gardens was also symbolic as they were seeds being cultivated and grown within the Gardens.

Laguna Flashbacks

Throughout your playtime of Final Fantasy VIII, you can collect pieces of newspaper articles from the Timber Maniacs written by Sir Laguna. However, the order and what pieces you choose to collect can directly affect Laguna’s flashbacks later in the game. For example, depending on which volume you pick up in the town of Balamb, the version of events in the flashback with Julia in her room will play out differently. Specific character dialogue can also be affected as can Selphie’s entry in Sir Laguna’s web page, as well as who appears during Laguna’s battle with the Ruby Dragon. There are no clear indicators of the effects picking up which volume at which time will alter these flashbacks, making it something to consider upon subsequent replays.

Eden’s Eternal Breath

Reusing assets between games, especially within the same studio, is nothing new but one instance in Final Fantasy VIII is so subtle you might not have even realized it was there. The summons in the PS1 Final Fantasy games are some of the greatest spectacles in their respective entries with some taking a full minute to execute, there can be quite a few hidden details within those moments. One such instance comes during the game’s ultimate summon Eden, hidden within the many screens at the start of the summon, eagle eyed players will notice the same celestial diagram from Final Fantasy VII’s Safer Sephiroth Supernova animation passing around Eden as the attack powers up. Interestingly, Safer Sephiroth’s Supernova is also the longest attack in Final Fantasy VII as well.

Missing Chocobos

Chocobos have been as much a part of the Final Fantasy series as protagonists with impossible hair, debuting all the way back in Final Fantasy II and appearing in nearly every Final Fantasy game since then in some capacity. However, after their prominent role in FFVII, the big birds seemed to be missing from FFVIII. Within FFVIII, the Chocobos only exist in their respective Chocobo Forests of which you can find seven in total, typically marked by the distinctive dome shaped trees. Since they aren’t integral to the plot this time around, their appearance here is little more than a cameo, but you can still interact with the yellow foul and even play some minigames with them.

Ragnarok Crashing

Naturally players will always uncover unexpected bugs or glitches in games after release, but one of these in Final Fantasy VIII ended up unintentionally being game breaking in most cases. Later in the game when players acquire the Raganrok ship, they need to be especially mindful of where they park. If parking too close to a structure, Ragnarok can become stuck on top of the building or even trees, making it inaccessible after exiting. This can be especially troublesome if players don’t notice and happen to save the game before attempting to reboard the ship as they’ll be unable to and won’t be able to progress any further in the game, forcing a full restart unless they happen to have a secondary save file. Thankfully this was fixed in the remaster, however.

Gunblade Functionality

Squall’s Gunblade has since become as iconic as Cloud’s Buster Sword in the Final Fantasy series and rightfully so as it was designed to be as instantly recognizable as Cloud’s starter weapon while also giving players more participation in battles as hitting a button on impact gave them a chance at a critical hit. However, what many players don’t fully understand is just how exactly the Gunblade really works. While many believe that the “gun” part of the Gunblade would work like a shotgun, where the sword essentially fires a shot on impact, it’s actually quite a bit more complicated than that. In truth, the Gunblade takes the shot fired by the “gun” part of the weapon and transfers that power to the edge of the “Blade” giving the weapon more attack power. The more you know.

Squall

Much like Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart is the face of Final Fantasy VIII and instantly recognizable with his scarred face and fur laden leather jacket. It was this jacket however that proved to be the most difficult thing for the FMV team to render during cutscenes, however this would also end up influencing the team as they began work on the fully CG film “Final Fantasy the Spirits Within”. Squall was the first character designed for the game and his model was heavily influenced by River Phoenix and even shares the same birthday with the late actor. Special attention was given to Squall’s scar as character designer Tetsuya Nomura believed it made it clear Squall was the game’s main character.

Rinoa

While the inspiration for Squall’s design might’ve come from Hollywood, Rinoa’s were actually quite a bit more humble. According to Tetsuya Nomura, Rinoa was directly inspired by a co-worker and he even modeled Angelo after the dog this co-worker had. While the woman’s identity has never been officially confirmed, it goes to show inspiration can come from almost anywhere. Another interesting tidbit about Rinoa is she is actually the strongest playable character in the entire game. Without any stat manipulation such as buffs or bonuses, Rinoa’s base stats, at level ten, Rinoa is 10% stronger than any other character and by level 100, this jumps to 20%, with the highest strength and magic stats of any character by a wide margin.

Obel Lake

This one is nearly impossible to stumble across by accident. On the northern side of Timber is a peninsula. If you walk along its shores while repeatedly pressing “X” eventually a prompt will appear asking if you’d like to throw a rock or hum at the lake. If you choose to hum at the lake, a large shadow will appear, and you’ll be prompted to hum again. If you do so, the Black Shadow of Obel Lake will ask you to find his companion “Mr. Monkey”. After tracking down the cheeky monkey, the Black Shadow will continue to send you on mysterious quests filled with riddles and even better, a series of hidden treasures for each completed task. It’s one of the deepest side quests in the game, but only the staunchest of completionists would have stumbled across it without some sort of guide. Well worth the effort though.

Guardian Forces

The Guardian Forces are some of the most powerful beings players can find and equip in Final Fantasy VIII, however some of the most powerful Guardians are incredibly well hidden and easy to miss entirely. For example, Headmaster Cid will give the player an item called the “Magic Lamp”. If players attempt to sell this item, they’ll be transported inside to battle the demon Diablos, the only way to collect this rare Guardian. Another easily missable Guardian is the Jumbo Cactuar which can only be found on Cactuar Island, a patch of land east of Kaskabald Desert you could easily fly over if you weren’t paying attention. Finally, on Centra, you can find an enormous structure that looks like the ruins of a giant yellow diamond. Inside you’ll need to solve puzzles while racing the clock to confront Odin and add him to your party. The Tonberry Guardian is also hidden in this area as well.

Demo Differences

Unlike today, back on the PS1, demos of upcoming games were extremely common and with Square wanting as much hype behind their upcoming Final Fantasy game, naturally there was a demo disc for FFVIII. However, what makes the demo for FFVIII notable is just how much changed between the demo and the final game. For example, besides players being highly over leveled and having access to late game guardians, Squall’s face was noticeably different in the demo versus the version players ended up with, and instead of Quistis manning the machine gun to take down the Spider mech it was a random soldier. Players also couldn’t hide in the pub from the attack like they could in the final game. At the end of the demo, it was also Rinoa waiting at the beach while in the final game it was Selphie while Rinoa remained on the ship.

Combat King

Each character has additional attacks they can learn for their limit break attacks, but some require a bit more work than others. Zell learns his extra Limit Break attacks by collecting “Combat King” magazines of which there are five in total. While these can all be found within the world as you play, they can also be simply purchased from the Esthar bookstore if you don’t want to track them all down. However, issue number 3 has a lengthy side quest attached to it in which players will need to help the oblivious Zell with his secret admirer, “Library Girl with a Pigtail”. By visiting the library eight specific times, and an additional fifty times before the end of the side quest to prove your commitment, none of the dialogue will be missing during the pairs meetup and Zell will unlock Combat King issue 3 for all your hard work.

Fantasy Wars

Ever since Final Fantasy II, Square has made no secret of their love for the Star Wars franchise and has included numerous nods and easter eggs to a galaxy far, far away. However, out of all these secret mentions and homages, no Final Fantasy game to date has as many references packed within it as FFVIII with five characters getting their names from George Lucas’ franchise. The most obvious is Biggs and Wedge who have appeared in multiple Final Fantasy games over the years ever since first appearing in FFVI. Another prominent figure is Nida whose name takes direct inspiration from the unfortunate commander who gets choked to death by Darth Vader after losing the Millenium Falcon. And finally, along with Piet, the final nod is Martine, whose name was mistranslated from his original Japanese version Dodonna, a reference to Dodonna of the Rebel Alliance. Definitely some deep cuts in there for Star Wars fans.

Angelo’s Habits

Sant’ Angelo di Roma, Rinoa’s regal and loyal companion whose name was specifically chosen to hint towards Rinoa’s larger role within the narrative of Final Fantasy VIII, has quite a few secrets of her own many wouldn’t know if not for the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guidebook. Beyond her insane Limit Break attack “Angelo Cannon”, Angelo also has some peculiar dietary habits. Not only does Angelo hate spicy food, but she also hates dog food in general. Rinoa spoiled the pup which is why Angelo’s favorite foods among others include sushi, apples, and most bizarrely of all, white chocolate.

Preorder Bonus

While kickstarting the hype machine for Final Fantasy VIII following the breakout success of Final Fantasy VII, Square spared no expense putting out loads of information about the upcoming RPG, including wall to wall coverage in every PlayStation publication possible, with some even breaking down the entire narrative of FFVIII even before the game had released. Weird tactic but alright. However, by far the most bizarre cross promotion was an exclusive promotion in the US with Toyota. For anyone who preordered Final Fantasy VIII, they would be entered to win one of four Toyota ECHOs. In a time when many preorder bonuses were simply a poster or the game’s soundtrack, this was undeniably a big deal. However, to date, it’s never been revealed if anyone ACTUALLY won any of the cars or if it was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Most likely it was the latter.

Eyes on Me

The now iconic track “Eyes on Me” was not only the series’ first vocal track ever in a Final Fantasy game, a dream composer Nobuo Uematsu had since Final Fantasy VI, but also managed to become the first video game song to ever win Song of the Year at the Gold Disc Awards in Japan, sold 500,000 copies and would spend 19 weeks on the music charts in Japan. Vocalist Faye Wong wasn’t Square’s first choice and before she landed the part, Square attempted to recruit big names from all around the world including Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Faye Wong ended up getting the part after scenario writer Kazushige Nojima added her CD to the pile of potential candidates and the rest is music history.

Lionheart

Over the years, dedicated players have discovered numerous bugs and glitches to exploit the many systems at work behind the scenes of Final Fantasy VIII, breaking everything from the Junction System to even obtaining Squall’s ultimate weapon Lion heart before the end of disc one. Naturally this will make Squall incredibly overpowered early on, but obtaining this legendary weapon this early isn’t without its own struggles. You’ll need to farm numerous elements and materials by farming various enemies in battle and even collecting and modding specific Triple Triad cards. However, the most difficult obstacle of this self-imposed challenge is keeping the entire party under level twenty otherwise specific items will no longer be available, ruining your chances of forging Squall’s ultimate weapon.

Pupu

Without question, the strangest secret in Final Fantasy VIII is Pupu the Alien. In order to even find the little blue Pupu, they would need to visit four very specific locations and encounter a UFO abducting various monuments before finally directly encountering the UFO itself in Grandidi Forest in battle. After winning the battle, players then need to return to Balamb Gardens to encounter the little alien Pupu. However, instead of fighting the creature, players need to give Pupu the five Elixirs as requested after which Pupu will depart, giving players the ultra rare Pupu Triple Triad card. Although seemingly out of place within the game, it's charming nonetheless and a quest completionists will undoubtedly want to track down.

Which fact about Final Fantasy VIII did you find the most surprising? Did we miss anything you thought was interesting? Share your tidbits of knowledge in the comments. And also if you could explain the Junction System that’d be a big help!