I honestly like FFVIII, while its overall design is greatly flawed (this is what happens when you remove the battle system designer from the project in its early stages) but I can't help but feel like FFVIII is one of the most unique games in the series, it still plays like a typical RPG but it really threw out a lot of conventions and staples of the genre so it always feels somewhat unique to me whereas ever entry before it felt more cohesively the same and even the entries after it kept to more of the staples even if they found new ways to get them wrong *cough* FFX and XIII *cough*

I still stand by the fact that I feel Squall is one of the best written characters in the series and one of the only characters that we the player truly ever get to understand because we not only see his external actions like every other protagonist but we also get to delve into his internal monologue and see who he really is. In real life he comes across as a n unfeeling "the mission is everything" jackass but internally we see that he's not as confident as he seems to be, he's not as harsh as he wants people to believe him to be, and we really get to see him slowly open up and realize that he doesn't really gain anything for hiding behind his image and instead opens up little by little in the game until the end he stops his internal monologue because its now just become his voice.

I really loved the concept of the Laguna dream sequences, and honestly I felt Laguna's part of he story really felt like a return to some of the old school charm of the series with Laguna often joking around and simply enjoying what's going on around him. This brings up the interesting contrast of the game's story with Laguna representing the old school charm of the series while Squall's section represents the darker more introspective direction the series had slowly began to move into, the parallel with the real world history of the franchise growing up on its charming sometimes silly roots and being the root of what led to the bigger more introspective and Hollywood-style modern entries is kind of interesting when you think about it. I don't believe Kitase or Nojima had this in mind when they originally envisioned the story but its an eerie happy accident that came from the whole game.

I like the concept of the gunblade, I felt it was far more thought out and I love that it gave me some small tangible control in battles, if there is one direction I feel ATB needed to do it was follow VI's example of being more interactive for the player, especially after VII brought in the concept of making everything cinematic. I felt the game did a better job of giving the Summons more purpose. I never liked that summons were rarely different from mages and after VII made each one into a long ass cut-scene, I appreciate the boost system giving me something to do while the overly convulated spell animation was going off. The Guardian Forces just had more purpose both mechanically and story-wise than some of the previous entries and I appreciate that.

I really appreciate the architecture and design, in fact one of the areas I do feel VIII falters is that it never made full use of its towns and locations because many of them are gorgeous and if you really want to see Dollet you have to go off the path to find it.Yet the idea of trying to move the series into a more modern setting was really intriguing and the game pushed the acceptable boundaries of what a "fantasy" story could be, though I still feel VIII falls more into Science Fiction side of things. Partly because I feel Time Travel is a major style of science fiction story telling.

I like the Draw mechanics, I felt it was an intriguing mechanic that really changed the way the player approached battles and seeing every monster not as just a random encounter but as a new potential to make your party stronger or introduce a new spell. The Junction system itself offers a lot of customization potential but sadly its lack of balance and foresight makes this a bit of a moot point.

The game's final dungeon is easily the last really well designed dungeon in the franchise, the rest being simple backdrops that failed to live up to their gameplay potential to really challenge the player. It also has the distinction of being one of the hardest section of a game that is known for its relative easiness. It brought back a bit of the VI party switch mechanics and the idea to fight the various bosses with handicaps in order to win back your abilities makes it easily one of the most memorable gameplay experiences in the game.

Triple Triad is also the best mini-game in the series, I won't even debate this with anyone because if you disagree you are just inherently wrong and may need to re-evaluate your other life choices because this sheer flaw in your logic may be the underlying issue in all of the problems you have had in life. Think about it.