It's always going to seem underated to me, because I love it. Just like I find FFVII underated due to the fact it's become cool to hate it, when really how can anyone say FFVII is "underated"?
FFVIII was my second Final Fantasy, and is my second favorite (just like FFVII is my first game and first favorite, but that is where the coincidences end), and it was an awesome game for me to play for seveal reasons;

  • I'm not attention seeking or anything, but I was going through a less serious "Squall-like" time at that point, so the storyline kind of helped me "get back to basis" as it where.
    Aside from the usual "seemingly just met" thing that most storylines have, Squall and Rinoa's romances seemed to be the most believeable for me. (I know a lot of people miss it, but you need to look at all the lines not just what they say to each other, and body language.)
    The fact I played it straight after I played FFVII, made it easier for me to understand the junction storyline.
    It has a romantic storyline - I have loved romantic storylines since I was really young.
    The fact that I sucked at/was too lazy not to cheat when I payed videogames back then, I ended up playing more than one save in succession. Because of this, I saw the hints to the (SPOILER)orphanage scene and how cleverly done they were. So I loved that scene for years, while all of you are still hating it.
    Leveling up doesn't cause too much difficulty, so I still do it.