History VideoGame / FinalFantasyVIII

** Squall's "whatever" CatchPhrase.

* {{Bishounen}}: In a series chock-full of handsome leads, [=FFVIII=] takes the cake. With the possible exceptions of Cid and Rajin, each of the male lead are depicted with clean-shaven faces and feminine necklines.

** To a lesser extent the Laguna sequences. Laguna remarks the "faeries" (actually the spirits of Squall and co.) inhabiting their bodies grant them great power during battles. Without [[spoiler:Ellone's]] interference, the amazing feats Laguna, Kiros and Ward pull off may never have been possible, up to and including [[spoiler:liberating Esthar.]]

* KickTheDog: [[SpiderTank X-ATM092]] will mindlessly chase after the party, without care of whatever it crushes. Allowing X-ATM092 to harm the dog causes a penalty to the [=SeeD=] rank score.

** The "Weapons Monthly" magazines that tell you what ingredients are necessary to craft a certain weapon aren't actually a requirement for the same. That is, if you remember the recipe from a previous playthrough or just look it up in a guide, you can craft a given weapon in a junk shop as soon as you can get the ingredients. This means you can get everyone's best weapons (and Irvine's second best) as early as right before the final events Disc 1, and yes, this includes crafting Squall's InfinityPlusOneSword if you go for a low-level playthrough and then kiss the difficulty goodbye. The tricky part is that it requires a ''lot'' of patience and card matches, the willingness to Refine an unique card for Adamantines[[note]]Minotaur, but I think you can get it back in Disc 4 if you complete the CC Group sidequest before the end of Disc 3[[/note]], as well as [[GuideDangIt detailed knowledge of how to get the items needed]]. For example, crafting Rinoa's "Shooting Star" all but requires beating the SpiderTank TimeLimitBoss (and a bit of luck or SaveScumming) as it has a 25% chance to drop a Force Armlet.

* {{Cap}}: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d with a middle-aged man who mentions that, [[UsefulNotes/PowersOfTwoMinusOne for some reason]], he's unable to count more than 256 cats.

* ThreeAmigos: Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin. Also, Laguna, Kiros, and Ward.

** ** If you before a boss with a certain magic junction the characters' defenses with the same magic so their elemental defense is over 100%, you will have little to nothing to worry about as the characters will simply absorb the damage from the boss, which can also make up for lost healh in case the boss have another method of attacking.

* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler:Having Odin makes Seifer's last fight this. You can wait, see Odin be killed, wait, and see Gilgamesh beat Seifer without taking any action.]]

* ARealManIsAKiller: All the male playable characters' {{Limit Break}}s are purely offensive compared to the females' sans Edea.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: During the [=SeeD=] exam at the beginning, Elvoret shows up out of nowhere to dispose of Biggs and Wedge and attack the team.

** Once the alarm is raised when escaping from D-District Prison, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYbtBwxtww "Never Look Back"]] starts playing, and keeps playing during the random encounters. In the second half of the prison, the track switches to "Only a Plank Between One and Perdition", only stopping at the boss battle.
** During the Battle of the Gardens, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jMzX8sA3pE "Only A Plank Between One and Perdition"]] plays once again.

** [[BadMoonRising OH HEY, I'M THE MOON!]] Just wanted to stop by in every single background and let you know I'm the moon.

Squall is an unflappable mercenary and the best at what he does, but his personal life is effectively nonexistent, and he shuns the companionship of others. During his first mission as a [=SeeD=], he's deployed to lend aid to a [[LaResistance resistance movement]] fighting the expansionist nation of Galbadia. There he meets his opposite: Rinoa Heartilly, an UptownGirl naive to the realities of battle. As Squall and Riona start to open up to each other, the cold war heats to a boil with the emergence of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen a mysterious new figurehead named Edea]] who unravels the secrets surrounding [=SeeD's=] [[MysteriousEmployer unstated mission]].

On a cosmetic note, this is where ''Final Fantasy'' began to eschew the [[GraphicsInducedSuperDeformed super-deformed]] characters traditionally found on overworlds and battle screens, paired with sophisticated animations, MotionCapture and cinematography starring their (at the time) photorealistic renders. Additionally, [[Creator/SquareEnix Square]] took the localisation process much more seriously: The company hired translators (both for English and the other European languages) to work alongside the Japanese development team as the game was being created, which is now pretty much standard procedure for ''Final Fantasy'' translations. Finally, the in-game technology is on par with modern-day Earth: Squall pockets an hourly wage instead of [[MoneySpider killing monsters for gold]] (you get a raise for passing [=SeeD=] exams), can [[WarpWhistle rent cars along with chocobos]], post on internet forums, read magazines to glean protips (seriously) or learn new moves, and play a CardBattleGame. The characters are more grounded than the previous ones, the fantasy elements are either toned-down or [[SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic explained away with technobabble]], and the world is not too different.

* The ManaMeter is gone, so instead, your characters [[ManaDrain sap]] (or "Draw") magic directly from enemies in battle or specific [[NoticeThis "Draw Points"]] in towns and dungeons. These spells are stored in a [[VancianMagic quantified inventory.]]
* [=GFs=] have their own growth paths, and although they can't be controlled in battle (as in ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX X]]''), they gain levels and can equip the magic you've found. Characters "junction" [=GFs=] and those corresponding spells onto their bodies. So instead of buying gear from shops to get stronger, you equip magic on specific stats to raise them: Junctioning Haste to a GF's Speed will make you act quicker, whereas junctioning Death to ST-Def (i.e., resistance to StatusEffects) will make you immune to [[OneHitKill instant death]] attacks; conversely, junctioning Death to ST-Atk will inflict instant Death from a melee attack. As you might expect, the more magic equipped on a [=GF=], the stronger the effect.

* Most [=GFs=] can "Refine" things, which is a form of ItemCrafting. Just about everything: from items to magic spells, and (in some cases) Triple Triad cards can be converted to and from each other, forming a complicated system with huge amounts of potential... and mind-boggling amounts of menus. Mastering the aforementioned card game lets you Refine {{Disc One Nuke}}s, like rare items and weapon parts.

Additionally, no equipment can be found. Characters can [[EquipmentUpgrade upgrade their weapons]] with [[GreatBigBookOfEverything magazine articles]] and items, but no other gear can be equipped whatsoever. Modern ''Final Fantasy'' games continue to tinker with the "no armor" approach, most notably ''X'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII XIII]]''. On a minor note, monsters use LevelScaling to beef up relative to the party average, which makes {{Level Grind}}ing no longer a viable way to overcome challenges--though the time spent on Drawing magic can balance that out, and more. The upside is that the player has granular control over the difficulty level, making this one of the easiest sequels with which to EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame, or (conversely) attempt a SelfImposedChallenge.

''[[caption-width-right:350:I saw you smiling at me\\
Was it real or just my Fantasy ♫]]''

-->--'''Squall'''

!!This game provides examples of:

The game focuses on Squall Leonhart, a student at an ElaborateUniversityHigh known as a Garden. The organization which runs Balamb Garden, [=SeeD=], takes in orphans and [[ChildSoldiers train them to become soldiers]], requiring them to graduate before their twentieth birthday.

The game focuses on Squall Leonhart, a student at an ElaborateUniversityHigh known as a Garden. The organisation who run Balamb Garden, [=SeeD=], take in pre-pubescent orphans and [[ChildSoldiers train them to become soldiers]], requiring them to graduate before their twentieth birthday.

Squall (he's "more complex than you think"!) is an unflappable agent with more issues than National Geographic. He's the best at what he does, but his personal life is effectively zero, and he shuns the companionship of others. During his first mission as a [=SeeD=], he's deployed to lend aid to a [[LaResistance resistance movement]] fighting the expansionist nation of Galbadia. There he meets his opposite: Rinoa Heartilly, an UptownGirl naive to the realities of battle. As Squall and Riona start to open up to each other, the cold war heats to a boil with the emergence of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen a mysterious new figurehead named Edea]] who unravels the secrets surrounding [=SeeD's=] [[MysteriousEmployer unstated mission]].