In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the United States synchronized swimming team of Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova performed to the songs "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" and "Liberi Fatali" from the Final Fantasy 8 soundtrack. Their performance won them the bronze medal.

Several of Zell's Limit Break "Duel" attacks are the same as that of Tifa from Final Fantasy VII such as Dolphin Blow, Punch Rush, Meteor Strike and her ultimate limit, My Final Heaven.

The PocketStation peripheral was compatible with Final Fantasy VIII through a minigame called Chocobo World, starring Boko the Chocobo, and allowed players to earn exclusive items that could be transferred over to the main game. Despite the required hardware only being sold in Japan, every regional variant of the original PlayStation and PC versions were released with this minigame included; the North American PS1 manual includes three pages dedicated to explaining it with a disclaimer about the PocketStation's limited availability. While the 2013 re-release of the PC version did include Chocobo World in its entirety as a standalone application, it was removed from Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, where the exclusive items can instead be obtained via Rinoa's special ability Angelo Search.

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.

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

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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 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 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.

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 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.