In Final Fantasy 8, moody hero Squall is in training to become a SeeD: a member of an elite mercenary force who are sent around the world as soldiers and undercover agents. His academy, Balamb Garden, is basically James Bond School, but with magic spells and godlike summonable monsters instead of a Walther PPK and an exploding pen. Early in the game, Squall travels to the town of Dollet for a live and highly dangerous field exam. The Galbadian Army is laying siege to the Duchy of Dollet, and Balamb Garden has sent in a squad of rookie mercs to help. It's a true baptism of fire, but if Squall survives (and, more importantly, succeeds) he'll graduate and officially become a proper, certified SeeD.
The attack on Dollet, incidentally, is one of the most exciting moments in video game history. It's thrilling, cinematic, atmospheric, and Nobuo Uematsu's stirring music is incredible. That opening pre-rendered cutscene where the SeeD boats approach the battlefield, punctuated by the sound of an ominous, pounding heartbeat, is utterly iconic. Squaresoft chose this part of the game to feature on a hugely popular demo disc that came bundled with an issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, and it blew people's minds. I must have played that hour-long demo 50 times before finally getting my own copy of the finished game.
But Squall's field exam is more than just a flashy set-piece. There's a remarkable amount of hidden complexity in this sequence, all of which is obscured from the player. You probably didn't realise it at the time, but this is actually a test. As you deal with the situation in Dollet, you're being secretly judged. Battle prowess, conduct, speed, professionalism, efficiency—all of these factors are being actively logged and scored. It's not just Dollet, either. Before you're allowed to attempt the field exam you have to defeat and recruit Ifrit, a Guardian Force, in a cavern near Balamb Garden. This contributes to your final exam score too.
Pretty much everything you do in Dollet has a score attached to it. You earn points for defeating Galbadian soldiers in battle (crucially, without relying on your GF summons) and how long it takes you to complete your mission and return to the landing beach. But you can also lose points, often as a result of seemingly innocuous interactions. If you goof around talking to your fellow students, defy squad leader Seifer's orders, jump off a precarious cliff to take a shortcut, or fail to save a dog when the opportunity arises (you monster), points will be deducted from your final score, which may negatively impact your SeeD rank.
Pass the field exam and you'll be assigned a starting SeeD rank by Balamb Garden's headmaster, Cid. This determines your starting salary, which is important in Final Fantasy 8 because slain monsters don't drop Gil like they do in every other game in the series. But if your SeeD rank is low, it isn't the end of the world. You can raise it by taking tests, winning battles, and other post-Dollet activities. If you want a steady cash flow, and don't mind cheating, look up the answers to the tests online and watch the Gil roll in. But this is limited by Squall's level, stopping you from immediately becoming the world's youngest billionaire.
It's stuff like this that makes me love Final Fantasy 8. It's a game overloaded with quirky features, cool ideas, and memorable idiosyncrasies. Squaresoft didn't need to implement this secret scoring system, or the SeeD ranking system for that matter, but the fact it did speaks volumes about how much thought and passion went into the design of this game. I don't think a publisher would allow something like this today. It wouldn't want developers spending time and money building something most players won't even know exists. They'd make sure you knew exactly what was going on, and it wouldn't be half as interesting.