Among Japanese RPG fans, there is a group of female characters that are generally disliked by the audience, being referred to as "The Three Great She-Devils of Square". The reasons why these characters are disliked varies, but largely revolve around them betraying the main hero(es) in some way. The two generally agreed-upon members are:

• Princess Yoyo from Bahamut Lagoon, the childhood friend of protagonist Byuu and set up as his love interest, only to instead get together with another character, General Palpeleos.
• Alethea from Live a Live, who due to the machinations of the chapter's villain Streibough, came to believe the protagonist Oersted (who she was meant to marry) had abandoned her, and commits suicide after witnessing him murder Streibough. This leads to Oersted becoming the game's overall antagonist, Odio.

There is some debate as to who the third member of the group is, but the list of candidates include:

• Mileille from The Final Fantasy Legend, who was introduced as the leader of a resistance group alongside her twin sister Jeanne, only for it to be revealed that she had been working for Byak-ko the whole time.
• Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII, largely due to her personality and lingering feelings for her ex-boyfriend Seifer, though she ends up with protagonist Squall in the end. Note that this pick might be due in part because of how divisive the game is in general.
• Catholine from the PS2 Hanjuku Hero games, due to her ugly and obnoxious nature, as well as constantly forcing herself onto the hero.

The group term would later be referenced in SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions, which featured an enemy team named "Lady Power", that consisted of three female demons with names that reference Yoyo, Alethea, and Milielle (though the former two were known as "Jojo" and "Alicia", respectively).

According to a 1998 Famitsu magazine interview with the game's character designer Tetsuya Nomura, preliminary meetings to plan out Final Fantasy VIII with the game's team, including director Yoshinori Kitase, began immediately after the completion of Final Fantasy VII's development.

During one of the conversations, Kitase said that he wanted to use a character that Nomura drew 3 years ago, before Final Fantasy VII, which was the sorceress Edea Kramer.

He added that although the Final Fantasy series has the word "Fantasy" in its name, it had become routine for them to feature technological civilizations and machines, and he felt the fantasy aspect had steadily weakened its presence. Therefore, Edea was added to the game to genuinely counteract those growing technological aesthetics: "a full-on, high-fantasy sorceress".

According to a 1998 Famitsu interview with the game's director Yoshinori Kitase, he stated that when the game's development started, character designer Tetsuya Nomura suggested for Squall & Laguna's stories to end in a way that would have tied them together. This idea was scrapped for unknown reasons and forgotten about completely.

In the Galbadia Missile Base control room, while in the "Equipment" section of the launch configuration panel, you can simultaneously press V/B/Up/Down (PC version) or Triangle/Square/Up/Down (PlayStation version) to view animations of an Elite Soldier and a G-Soldier dancing. Rinoa will laugh and comment on each animation.

In the NTSC version, "Selphie Tilmitt" wields a weapon called "Nunchaku". But was replace with "Shinobou" in the PAL version, due to media laws in the UK forbidding ninja-related weapons.

In the Japanese version, in Ultimecia Castle's armory, there is a sword on the wall with red blood on it. The blood is green in other versions of the game.

According to former Square localizer Alexander O. Smith, the US localization team had to use a GameShark cheat device to view the game's text for easier translation. This was because Square's Japan headquarters didn't think to send them a copy of the game's text files.

In the city of Esthar, there's a shopping mall, which has a store named Cloud's Shop. This is a reference to the main character of Final Fantasy VII.

According to character designer Tetsuya Nomura, the appearance of Squall was based on the late American actor River Phoenix. He went on to state that "nobody understood this" influence, because fans speculated the design was based on himself. However, fans of the Japanese rock musician Gackt brought up their own findings that Squall's design bore similarities to his fashion sense. Some professional photoshoots from within a year of the game's release, as well as the music video to the song "Illuminati" by Malice Mizer, the band Gackt was formerly in, feature him sporting a similar outfit and hairstyle. As a humorous response, Gackt's official fan club at the time, Kissmark, produced a limited edition figurine of Gackt in an outfit nearly identical to Squall's while holding a sword. He appeared with the figurine during an interview on the 1999 Japanese music TV series "Legendary Music Store" ("伝説音舗〜うれる堂〜"), jokingly calling it "Gackt No. 2". Gackt would later collaborate with Square Enix on Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, writing music and providing his voice and likeness to the character Genesis.

Tetsuya Nomura, the game director, said that Deling City's design was heavily influenced by Paris.

The characters of Fujin and Raijin were initially designed to appear in Final Fantasy VII, however, the inclusion of the Turks made their presence unnecessary and they were shelved until Final Fantasy VIII. They were also most likely inspired by shonen-manga of the past, which ended up fitting much better into Final Fantasy VIII's cast.

In April 2000, José Rabadán, a teenager from Murcia (Spain) killed both of his parents and his sister with a katana. The media accused Final Fantasy VIII of inducing Jos to do it, with one magazine stating, "he was just imitating his hero, Squall" who, in a moment of the story thinks that he must kill Spoiler: someone close to him: Rinoa.

However, José Rabadán hadn't finished the game, nor even reached the point in which this event occurs, proving the article to be jumping to conclusions. José was arrested and spent eight years in jail. He has since been known by the nickname of "El asesino de la Katana" (The Katana Killer).

Kiros's weapon, the katal, is a mistranslation of an Indian weapon called the Katar. The Katar is one-handed push dagger. These are used primarily for thrusting attacks.

Two of the track names on the soundtrack have hidden meanings. The track "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" is actually an anagram of "Succession of Witches" and the opening track, "Liberi Fatali" is "Fated Children" roughly translated into Latin.

During the attack on Dollet when you meet Selphie during the FMV, she is wearing shoes with knee-high socks. However, her in-game model wears knee-high boots.

The boss Gerogero was changed from the original Japanese version. His perturbing organs were changed from red to blue due the censorship. His name is also derived from the Japanese word "gero" which means vomit.

By attacking the second form of the Fake President (Gerogero) with a healing item, such as a Phoenix Down or the Cure spell, you can beat him with one shot.

In the game's Trial Version demo bundled with Brave Fencer Musashi, a song called "Raid on Dollet" plays during the opening to the first gameplay segment on the beaches of Dollet. However, in the final game, it is replaced by a completely different song called "The Landing", and "Raid on Dollet" could now only be heard in the game's debug room. It's been widely speculated that this song was removed from the scene for legal reasons due to similarities with the song "Hummel Gets the Rockets", composed by Hans Zimmer for the score of the 1996 movie "The Rock".

During Ultimecia's (as Edea) parade in Deling City, the masked dancers are performing the dance moves from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video.

During the release of the game and some time afterward, Bandai produced a full set of collectible Triple Triad cards to further promote the game in Japan.