FF8 is also my favourite in the whole franchise, like FF7 before it, it really opened up the vision of what an RPG could be with such a beautiful world and breaking the mould with an extensive crafting system for magic and weapons, worldwide mini games, and side-dialogue (such as Selphie’s Blog... made years before blogging was ever a thing) that gave different perspectives on everything happening, then you had Garden as your HUB which would evolve based on the story and different tasks you’d do.
Final Fantasy 8 is one of my favourite games of all time... though 7 is fairly close behind =)
There is also Xenogears, which I liked even more than Final Fantasy 8 (and any Final Fantasy), Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and Tactics which didn’t make the cut. Though I think it has more to do with what Square has ready, and expect all these games in the future.