That's ultimately the distinction I'm trying to get across - FFVIII consciously tread the outer limits of what could be accomplished by gaming, whereas FFXIII instead looked inward, at what had already been done by other genres, in hopes of creating a more streamlined single-player experience. It was a compilation of concepts and techniques others had already tested and tried out before, while VIII cultivated its own homegrown ingredients.

The argument can be made XIII was more successful but the ingenuity of VIII makes it more special to me.