Final Fantasy VIII is a game with a lot of neat ideas, but with slightly poor execution. The Draw and Junction system is super interesting and allows you to pull together really interesting builds, but drawing the actual magic feels needlessly grindy (unless you utilize GF abilities that can get you magic from items). But this is also an open ended system that lets you really break over your knee which I love

Some parts of the story feel underdeveloped, the world feels lacking in its details and the way how everything is told can get confusing at times, the scene in the orphanage was a sticking point in particular. The cast also feels underutilized, but at the same time I really liked Squall and Rinoa and I'm also a sucker for this kind of love story so I ended up loving it in the end

Whether this is your favorite or least favorite game in the series, I can totally see why for both sides. The highs are pretty high, but the lows can sink pretty low too. But I think we can all agree that the soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu is an all time classic