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.

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.

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.