It's not really a goth thing. Goths are very attracted to his work because the people are very pale and waifish, but Amano's style is more influenced by Art Nuveo... Neuvaux? Bah, I can never remember how to properly spell French words.... But yeah, it's mostly a result of using watercolors. Also, just to clarify, Tetsuya Nomura DID do the character design for FF7 and 8. Amano was commissioned to draw the characters, but...... Well, his drawings weren't anything like the character designs. He made Cloud look like Robert Smith, and Red XIII just looks like a rust colored blob in some of the pictures. Amano's designs are usually along the lines of mysterious looking people wearing exotic clothes. Nomura prefers to draw spikey haired Ministry fans with gigantic weapons to compensate for.....

I should say something about Bartz here. I think he's developed better than Squall, personally, whose entire personality (and backstory!) can be summed up by the word "Whatever..."