ive been playing FF games for about a year now, and i wish i would have started much sooner. i have dawn of souls, IV-VI on my computer, VII-X, and tactics. guess i'm something of a fanatic. but FFVIII has been my favourite game i purchased, seconded only by the almighty FFVI.

VIII was so fresh. say all you want about its massive fanboy/girl base or whatever else...squaresoft sort of wondered off on this tangent and made this weird, dark horse game that people just bitch about most of the time because it was so sterilized and dry.

but look at VII. FFVII was sort of like the new guy at school who crashes through on a motorcycle with a huge sword and screams at the top of his lungs "YOU ALL LOVE ME BECAUSE I'M NEW" and all the shallow people instantly fall in love with him. it was a good game, don't get me wrong...but it had the misfortune of being the game that broke RPGs into america (that honor should have went to VI). so when VIII came out on this new tangent, everybody who really expected another game with cloud and sephiroth and materia was crushed.