Originally posted by DocFrance
Alright, I'm going to give an example of why FFVIII i a horrible game. The plot overlooks very important things in favor of seemingly trivial things. Case in point: the battle with Galbadia Garden.

Obviously, there's going to be a lot of people fighting. People fighting means people getting killed. I would have appreciated FFVIII a whole lot more if, after the fighting was over, they held a funeral service for all the dead SeeDs - from both Balamb and Galbadia. This would have been the perfect occasion for Squall and co. to question their lives and their motives for fighting. This would have brought to the table something that this game severely lacks - character development. Instead, the plot focused directly on Rinoa, and the dead SeeDs weren't even mentioned. Like they didn't matter at all.

Of course they didn't matter at all - Squall and Rinoa were the center of the universe.
That very point is my biggest qualm about FFVIII, the one thing that divorced its characters and plot too far from reality. Personally, I adore FFVIII for many reasons I won't bother going into, but the complete denial of the consequences of battle and death was just ridiculous, or at the very least they were sugar-coating the issue to make the game "nice" and less gritty than FFVII, where death is very real to the characters.