History VideoGame / FinalFantasyVIII

* BlockingStopsAllDamage: The unique defend command negates all physical damage and half of the magical. Considering it's a GF ability, it can be considered partly magical, but seeing the BonusBoss do no damage with its most powerful attack it's still pretty striking.

* BonusBoss:
** Omega Weapon was added to this game along with [[LegacyBossBattle series staple]] Ultima, and it's one of the best-remembered "superbosses" in gaming. Most likely because he requires intimate knowledge of the game mechanics. There's no guaranteed way to win which doesn't involve 9,999 HP, protection against Death, and Refining a hundred Megalixers so you don't get one-shotted by him. Properly-Junctioned Limit Breaks are a cheap way to demolish him, but their success is sometimes dependant on the [[RandomNumberGod RNG]].
** The [[SpiderTank X-ATM092]] plays with this. You have to ''fight'' it, but you're supposed to escape and let it be machine-gunned when you reach the beach. Beating it yourself is optional and something of a challenge at the time, and rewards you with a major bonus to your starting [=SeeD=] rank.

* InescapableAmbush: The area prior to the boss fight against [[BonusBoss Ultima Weapon]] in the [[UnderwaterBase Deep Sea]] [[BonusDungeon Research Center]] has numerous set encounters against tricky enemies like Tri-Faces, Behemoths, Iron Giants, and Ruby Dragons at unavoidable fixed points. If the party leaves the area before defeating Ultima Weapon, the set encounters will be reactivated and the player will have to fight them all over again to get to the boss chamber. However savvy players are known to leave the BonusBoss very well alone and get [[spoiler:the GF Eden]] in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon instead just so they can trigger these encounters at will. The reason is they all rare enemies with excellent items in their drop/mug tables, which makes farming them in a time-efficient a lot more attractive prospect. Particularly stealing Curse Spikes from the Tri-Faces, which can be refined into a super useful Dark Matter at a rate of 100-to-1.

Originally released on Platform/PlayStation, the game was later ported to PC in 2000, and the original version was released on Platform/PlayStationNetwork for the Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, and (later) Platform/PlayStationVita in 2009. The PC version later got a Platform/{{Steam}} re-release on December 5th 2013. An updated port for PC, Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/XboxOne, and Platform/NintendoSwitch titled ''Final Fantasy VIII Remastered'' came out on September 3, 2019, [[MilestoneCelebration marking twenty years since the original came out]].

Originally released on UsefulNotes/PlayStation, the game was later ported to PC in 2000, and the original version was released on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, and (later) UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita in 2009. The PC version later got a UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} re-release on December 5th 2013. An updated port for PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch titled ''Final Fantasy VIII Remastered'' came out on September 3, 2019, [[MilestoneCelebration marking twenty years since the original came out]].

* ImprobableAge: Despite being an elite squad of mercenaries tasked with highly dangerous wetwork (such as [[spoiler:political assassinations]]), none of the characters are old enough to drink. Both lampshaded and sort of justified: [[spoiler:Edea knows the man who will kill Ultimecia is a teenager, so she knows [=SeeDs=] will need to be below a certain age.]]