FFVIII was only the second RPG I ever played, with FFVII being the first. I was 16 or 17 at the time, but still pretty unfamiliar with RPG mechanics generally, so I didn't grasp the nuances (or even all the basics, for that matter) of the Junction system.

In short: lots of GFs and Limit Breaks during boss battles. Adel didn't give me too much trouble, strangely - I guess I must've used Cerberus pretty effectively for buffs and healing.

Ultimecia gave me some grief, and tended to take around an hour to beat since my 'strategy' was mainly "GFs with maximum boost, then repeat". Not sure if I even had Eden the first time around.

After that, I got a lot better and began exploiting the heck out of the Junction system and the game's levelling mechanics.