Yes, I would agree that VIII is the easiest of the series.

EDIT: And it's not merely the junction system. Card Mod means you can turn the Laguna card into 100 Hero Potions, capable of making your players invulnerable for a period of time. You can effectively spend the entire final dungeon using these things. It's ridiculous. The moment I found you could draw magic on the world map, I looked for those islands.

EDIT: And you don't need the internet to randomly roam the world's islands and thus discover the Islands closest to Heaven and Hell. Once you've done that, junctioning is a breeze.