Hawkstrider
The Blood Elf racial mount, introduced alongside the Blood Elf race in the Burning Crusade expansion, is a giant chicken called a Hawkstrider. While this may or may not be an actual reference, per se, there's little doubt that the developers knew full well what a chocobo was! At the time of release, many of the players referred to it as a chocobo... and some players still do.
The Gunblade
While it may not look much like Squall's familiar weapon, there's no denying that the name is the same. You can occasionally find this as a drop in the Nagrand zone in Outlands, which is also the location of...
Kind of a strange name for a locale, no? Aeris Landing is the base of operations for a mysterious group called the Consortium, and you can do quests for them to get special items.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that all of these have only a coincidental or tenuous connection to Final Fantasy. You're probably wondering where the REAL reference is.
Well, here you go:
Aerith Primrose's official title is "Flower Vendor", and as such she only sells flowers and bouquets-- nothing else. She's also dressed in familiar pink and red garb. Sounds pretty spot on to me, Blizzard!
So there you have it. She never actually died in Final Fantasy VII. She just moved shop to a magical floating city in the sky called Dalaran. Don't you feel better now, Cloud?
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