You have a bad definition of tough as hell. All you needed to do was draw the spell from her and triple cast it via Cerberus. The final secret boss of IX will eat you alive.

Ultimecia is NOTHING compared to Ultimate Weapon, the secret hidden boss in Ultimecia's castle!

Ah, FFVIII ... those were the days.

Same reason why most people don't like LoZ: MM or Halo 2. Anytime a sequel is released after a critically acclaimed game that started or reinvented a series, they will always hate the next one because it's not that title. Nature of the beast.

 -start rant-

 Kingdom Hearts is garbage.

Watch your mouth before you piss someone off. Were you even alive when FFVII came out? Don't judge one of gaming's greatest songs when you didn't even grow up in that era.

 Also, listen to "A One Winged Angel" from FFVII: Advent Children OR go see it in concert.

-end rant- 

I wasnt a fan of FF7 or onward, I didn't care for all the cutscenes every time I cast a spell or did something cool. Detracted from gameplay for me, and probably can be blamed for the creation of "graphics whores" =)

 Not true.  Dark Cloud 2 was considered by both critics and gamers to be better than the original Dark Cloud

 I can't recall the name of it now, but I think it was only available as a draw from her final form. It is the only spell in the game that it is a really good idea to cast because it is impossible to junction it to anything. It is possible for Squal to out damage it I think, but my Quistis was set-up mage style and did a ton of damage with it as I recall. Of course my team was also super rigged and built to be unstoppable. When you absorb 70% of every element and are immune to all the nasty status ailments you have little trouble with most big attacks.

It was unique to her. The final form has a different draw list. The only way to get the spell at all is to draw it from her in her final form. Holy was used to boost my elemental magic absorb as I recall, along with Ultima. Magic should not be cast unless it is not a good option for a junction is my policy.

FF VIII was and still is a major disappointment. It introduced some features I welcomed with open arms, like the more proportionally real characters, but overall the game didn't manage to make fall in love like the 2 games before it did. And right from the start it disappointed me. It looks good and the art is great but it doesn't seem to be believable. The GARDENS train mercenaries but the buildings look more like malls. Too far from what a mercenaries "school" would look like. The list goes on. Instead of creating something more original and more aestethically acceptable to what the game is trying to tell you they simply toss you a teenage nightmare with skateboards, fast food and shows.
The characters are another pain. Both from a personality and visual point of view. Zell is dumb, Selphie... well... she has the hair and the clothes of a mercenary and the determination of a 8 years old girl trying to get her new Barbie. Squall tries to be the new Cloud; cold, impersonal, focused but in the end is just a shallow character. And takes to much time to let go of his cold persona. When he finally does I really don't care anymore. His romance with Rinoa never really takes off and it hurts both characters. Seifer is particularly pathetic: I want to be the sorceress knight! How old is he? 13? What a deep character! Ultimecia, as the game main antagonist, is a big let down.
You spend most of the time following an enemy without a face. That's ok if her deeds actually made you feel the urge to defeat her but it never really happens. Thanks, in part to her motives: "I want to compress time" ok... so... no! Really? She never inspires that big boss fear nor the love/hate sensations Sephiroth and Kefka gave me. But the time I reached the final game it was like: Oh! You are the final boss! Ok... let me kill you.
The battle system is interesting but flawed. I like how you can junction magic to the GF statistics but "draw" makes you sleep. Since you have to get the magic from your enemies the game has to give you the conditions to make that action and it gives you that in the form of very easy battles so you can keep drawing and drawing till you are exausted. After that you can junction but whats the point? Just summon a GF during battle and you will easily defeat your enemies. It shows some
flexibility but it is hardly intuitive. Why give the player a complex battle system that you can easily get rid of? Auto junctioning? What a joke!
Great graphics, revamped music but boring battle system, story and shallow characters made this game a disappointment.