FFVIII's cast is fine. Sure, Squall and Rinoa and maybe Quistis are the only characters I actually care for story-wise, but I felt the other characters were more relevant than just "being there", they just didn't influence the main plot much. They still had defined personalities and I liked how it was done.

I feel similarly about FFXIII's cast, but in that game there *is* focus laid on all the characters even during the main plot. That's a good or a bad thing depending on if you like the cast or not, I'm rather indifferent towards it. I also never cared that much about XIII's mythology. I do usually like stories that don't tell you everything outright but expect you to invest in the story and find your own personal interpretation/understanding of its deeper parts... but I didn't have that kind of motivation for XIII.

It's one of the reasons I liked the R=U theory back when it was new, because I find the prospect of an entire extra layer to a story that you can just miss if you're not paying attention and putting in the effort to find it yourself very interesting.

Gameplay-wise both games were pretty fun. I love the Junction system because you can have so much random fun with it, and Triple Triad is the god of FF minigames. The Crystarium was... okay I guess. I liked how even with only six classes just about every character had a noticeably different variant of each class, and the whole Paradigm System was awesome. It had its flaws, but it made the game very enjoyable to play through.

And the soundtrack? It goes without saying that both OSTs are wonderful, but FF VIII in particular has the best soundtrack out of any FF, and is up there as one of the best soundtracks out of anything.

In my eyes Final Fantasy VIII was a really great game, while Final Fantasy XIII was a good, enjoyable game. It's the worst in the series for sure, with a story that isn't memorable beyond a few standout points, but I don't dislike it.