Glad to see this thread, maybee

This is an excellent game for a lot of the reasons already mentioned. It has a really well developed and realistic world. I love my fantasy as much as the next guy, but this felt like a world I could go to. The locations were so fantastic.

It has, hands down, the best FMVs of the series. Just, no, no contest. Garden Battle is the most kickass thing ever. Final Fantasy X has my favourite individual FMV (sliding down chains into Bevelle, hell yeah ma'fugga) but FFVIII has consistently the coolest things going on.

Music, comedy, characters, everything. It was a truly awesome game that cops a lot of flak due to not being a rehash of FFVII.

There are problems with the game, but there are problems with all games.