FF8 complete and i've read the thread.
This is another game I thought I would not like, but ended up really enjoying.
The mechanics were confusing at first. I just don't love that cards refine into items that refine into spells that junction to stats. The multiple steps result in me forgetting what cards are desirable and what items are useful for different things. I think my junctions were probably suboptimal, but nothing but the final boss was in any way challenging, so good enough was good enough.
The final boss battle took me two tries. Definitely harder boss than the last few entries. FF4 was the last time I had to try more than once to beat the final boss. However, I engaged with any side content the least of all in FF8, so I may have been missing some tools for FF8 as compared to previous entries.
The story was confusing, but thanks to reading this thread and watching some videos of some scenes, i picked up on things i had missed. The Laguna scenes set up a lot and I didn't put the puzzle together and had to go back and review those via an LP to realize how Laguna kept stumbling into all these critical moments in the backstory. Our characters save the world, but a lot of the action is driven by the personal connections between the characters, so I'm okay that I was a little confused about the world history and lore at times. Its not like the info was not there, i just didn't take the opportunity to explore enough to find it.
I thought the writing for the characters was really good. I think FF8 did credit to the ensemble by keeping most of the focus on the main story and the primary couple and not having little scenarios for every character. Everyone gets a chance to shine and or lead the team for a moment, but it all feels more connected to the main scenario. I feel like this cast works together better than FF7 or FF6. I would agree with Felix that Irvine is probably my least favorite. I also agree that the final dungeon was the best final dungeon so far, other than i wish the party switching mechanic worked like in FF6 where each team was on a different path and had to fight some of the bosses. I really liked Seifer and Laguna as the foils to Squall. I'm glad Seifer got to go fishing with his friends in the ending and I liked that they did not have him turn back to the good guys side at the end like say Golbez in a turn that feels too sudden or cliche.
I was pretty disconnected from gaming it the late 90s. I didn't have a playstation. I knew of FF7 because i had a friend who was obsessed with it, but I didn't know anybody who talked about FF8 or FF9. Graphically, FF8 is such a leap forward in the series and feels modern. There's moments of old tech accidental humor like Rinoa calling Squall's pixelated form the best looking guy at the dance. Despite those kinds of things, I think FF8 (especially the remaster) can sit comfortably next to FF10/12/13 in terms of presentation.