I don't hate VIII at all. I finished it yesterday, BTW. And I so love Ultimecia's Castle. One of the best Final Dungeons, besides Memoria. The only thing I loathed about that creepy castle was the puzzle with teh Organ. Never worked... Ah well, I just dropped Catoblepas for my Draw ability and got save and item from Krysta and Tiamat.

VIII is clearly one of teh best in the series, beating VII in many, many ways. It brought back some thing I liked in the first FF's, like spell-charges. While most people loath drawing, I liked it! And junctionign was certainly interesting, if not a bit abusable.

But the best about VIII is the story, which just draws you in from teh very first moment, or it doesn't, and then you aren't going to like the game. All this stuff about Sorceresses was great. And peopel who say Ultimecia is a horrible villain because she had no reason at all, well, Kefka, one of teh best villains, had almost next to no reason to do all his evil stuff. He just was evil because they messed with his brain a bit. Or ExDeath, another great villain, had no reason at all, besides wantign that shiny Void.

And of course, Limit Breaks! Those rocked in this game and I loved them.

Over all this was a great game really, while it had it's boring parts (sidequests are okay, but tons of them to keep you busy for days? NO.)
It had such an interesting storyline and great graphics, it made it all worth it. People who say VIII sucks and say they are FF-fans, well, are just plain wrong.
I find it hard to choose my fav: VIII or IX. I keep it at a draw.
But VIII's better than VII. (And yes I played and finished VII, and loved it.)

Off-topic: Yay! FF I till IX finished.