I missed out on the PS final fantasies.  I went back a few years ago and enjoyed 7, then last year picked up 8 on the PSN store.

I just can't get into it.  It's confusing (hey! what do I do now?), it's slow-paced, has horrid camera angles, an unintuitive world map.  The card battle thing was cool, but overall, it feels like a big step backwards from 7.   By today's standards, 8 is not a very playable game.  Other games from the era have aged much better.

me agrees with you, story matters the most for me in the games, and ff8 has a great story, i remember playing it when i was younger and i didint quite grasp the story, its pretty complex. but after playing it again now that im older i can say that its one of my favorite games.

ff8 is definitely my favorite of the main ff titles, though i enjoyed ff tactics more :P ive probably played through tactics 20 or 30 times

Why so much hate for this game?  I read through a large majority of the posts in this thread and almost every one of the gripes can be summed up with "B'awww, this is different, therefore it is so bad it makes me retch." I understand not everyone will like the change in tone from VII (seriously, Emo teens don't work well for machismo americans, we all know this), but it doesn't mean it's a bad game.  Not everyone likes the junction system and I get that, but people need to understand the difference between subjective opinion and objective assessment.  The game was phenomenal, with a deep backstory, well developed characters, a well realized world, a great plot centralized around politics, war, and love (pretty universal themes), and some of the best animation and graphics we'd seen up to that point. while I understand there were some things that wouldn't click with everyone, I wish people would understand that doesn't mean it's a bad game.  

Now Final Fantasy XIII was a BAD game.  I wanted to like it, I tried, but the fact was that the plot was remarkably one-dimensional, the characters forgettable without an inch of depth, the battle system was broken to the point of frustration, the graphics were only good if you had a super high definition TV (seriously, SDTV's blurred 90% of t he words to the point of not being able to read them), the audio was about as cookie cutter as it gets, and compared to other FF games, it was a complete failure as far as content is concerned.  No side quests, no mini games, no character customization options, no hidden characters, absolutely no explorative content (Gran Pulse doesn't count, even that was remarkably linear.)  if you're going to hate a game, hate it for the right reasons.  Hate it because it's broken or poorly done, not becuase it's not to your taste.  

The game is about as good now as it was when it released.

The feeling you get from playing FF8 disc1 to the end of disc 2 for the first time is priceless. All I have is envy for those who can but don't.

It's funny, a few months back I was looking for a game to play, trying to decide which of my collection's backlog to do next, when I decided to load this game onto my PSP, and I probably spent four hours just playing cards before getting into my very first battle! you know a game is good when the minigame in it is more fun and engaging than most other games!  I got the same way with blitzball when FFX came out. 

I just found it so hilarious that I'd rather return to a game I've beaten a dozen times from over a decade ago than play modern games.  Says something about the industry, doesn't it? 

I need to fix my backwards compatible PS3 so I can get FFX and FFXII running on it.  

FFVIII is my favorite of the series.  And the only game in the series I played 100%.  To me, it feels like they took everything they were trying to do on FFVII and fixed it with FFVIII.  Improved graphics, Modern/Punk style (toned down), Heavy use of Machinery and Mechs, More focused story (except lol Orphanage), broader characters, revamped Summon System, etc.

Now, its entirely subjective, but I also feel Squall was what they tried to do with Cloud, but better developed.  Halfway through the game, he stops his complaining to himself about his role and took command of both the party and the entire Balamb Garden.  Just throw Laguna on top of that and its no contest.

Its even more subjective, but I loved the Junction System.  It was the closest FF has gotten to true freedom of customization, aside from FFX.  Junction Sleep to your Gunblade?  Sure why not.  Junction Esuna to your Status?  Heck yeah.  Junction Inferno to your Attack?  You got it.  I frankly would have liked more games with that system.  Sure, you could totally break tyhe game, but at the same time, it allowed you to do so unlike many games in the series that don't allow you to use certain Magic or Skills until you reach a certain 'plot trigger'.

In short, FFVIII is one of my favorite RPGs and favorite of FFVIII.  A game that, in my opinion, improved a stagnant series.  But stagnant seems to be what the fans want.

I love most everything about FF VIII.  The story and its characters were believable, and intriguing.

But the one thing that bothers me with it, is also something that can get me bored from playing the game after a while...  The draw system was really tedious and boring.  I liked how you could junction your magic to your stats and all that, but at the same time, it made using magic in battle kind of pointless, and your characters could become very powerful in no time, making the rest of the game very easy (yeah, even if the monsters' levels wouldscale with yours).  It was really boring to stand in those battle to draw 100s of every new magic an enemy would offer. 

The game still have a very good atmosphere throughout, the presentation was really polished, and the environments are some of the best the series produced. Then there's the countless side quests, Some really engaging boss battles (especially the optional ones), and finally you also get one of Uematsu's finest OST in the series' history and you have a lot of ingredients for a win.

For me, again, the only thing that can kill an eventual playthrough is the boring draw system.  If it wasn't for that, the game would rank among my favorites in the series.  The story is definitely one of the game's stong marks.  Someone mentioned the part where you go in space to save Rinoa...  That's also one of my favorite moments in the game.  Along with the attack on Dollet and the ending.

As far as I'm concerned, the junction system was the pefect excuse to replay the game.  Without guides or help, you're likely to completely fail at manipulating it until about halfway through the game, which will encourage you to go back and do it again, doing it right the second time. 

All I know is that I once was able to give 3 characters 9999 health and 255 (or whatever the highest available is) strength by the end of the first disc.  

I was unable to recreate that my most recent time through, however.  I am disappoint.  

Either way, my FF games are ranked like this: 

1 - Final Fantasy VI - 100% - Ranked #1 all time, #1 FF game

2 - Tie between VII, X, and XII - 97% - Ranked #6 of all time togethery, #2 tier FF games

3 - Tie between VIII and IX - 96% - Ranked #11 of all time together, #3 tier FF games 

4 - Final Fantasy Tactics Series (Advance as well)- 90% - Ranked just outside my top 25 list, #4 tier FF game

5 - Final Fantasy I - 85% - Ranked somewhere between 26-50 on my all time list, #5 tier FF game

6 - Final Fantasy X-2 - 83% - Ranked somewhere outside my top 50

I didn't much care for II or III, Never played IV or V, (though I will be remedying that ASAP, thank you FFIV Collection on PSP and FFV remake on PSN!).  Crystal Cronicles doesn't register, and 11/14 doesn't count.  I loves me some FF games, no doubty there!  every game from VI-XII is on my top 12 games of all time (barring XI), so you know I love FF! 

Sorry, I'm rambling, I'll stop. 

Of the main Final Fantasies, I've only played 7,8,9,10, and 12. Out of these I only finished 8 and 12. What gave me the strength to bear through the battle system of FF8 was the graphics and story. WIll I play 8 again? Sure...but I'd have to be in cheat mode so that I'll be a bit OP and will have no need to suck my enemies' spells dry, and will need to use summons as seldom as possible.