I can tell you the game gets significantly harder if you end up getting your characters to max level while farming weapon parts, giving the enemies a significant bump to *their* max level.
While it has been a LONG time, so I can't speak with full authority, I remember this being strictly, mostly untrue. If you look at the monster stat growth charts for most baddies in the game, including the final boss, their stat growths mostly trail off after a certain level. Early monsters will still increase levels, but their stats plateau at the early levels. The final boss stops seeing rapid stat growth at around level 60-70 IIRC. If you overlevel, you'll still be able to easily spank stuff. It's less about the equipment you get and more about how you're junctioning. If you apply the right spells to the right stats, you can basically "break" the game regardless of what level your characters are at or what they're equipped with. Plus, if you farm Aura magics, you can use it to basically abuse the Limit Break system and plow through most of the worst enemies in the game with ease. (Squall's final limit break is stupid strong.) And if you've been getting all of the best Triple Triad cards in the game, then you can transmute them into rare spells that do game breaking stuff for the final bosses like, oh say, complete invincibility. There's a LOT of customizability in FF8, and the game is more than happy to let you tinker with the systems until you're a demigod trampling everything in your path. You just have to experiment and be ready to grind a lil. I never did these level 1 runs that people talk about, and never had a hard time with the game. The only problem with FF8's leveling is that it's easy for Squall to get ahead of your other characters in levels, and you don't want that to happen *too much* because the enemy monsters levels are pegged to the highest level. So if Squall is level 80, but Quistis is still level 30 in the final dungeon, you're gonna have a hard time. Other than that, it's probably one of the easiest mainline Final Fantasy games I've played.
Has anyone mentioned the music yet? Because the music.
I hadn't, and I usually don't discuss S2's music because I actually find it not as interesting or as good as its immediate predecessor's or its sequel's. But that's a harsh comparison when the music is still objectively really really good. It's just kind of uneven at some places. (Oh lord the minigames music.) It's still got so many great standout pieces though, and it really makes excellent uses of its soundtrack to accent poignant moments in the best ways. And when it recalls and adapts S1's OST is often very special as well, which greatly helps lend the sense of continuity and connection between the games. Some of my favorite tracks:
Reminiscence
Homesickness
Beautiful Morning
Ah Beautiful Dancer
Her Sigh
Carried on Rippling Waves
Two Rivers
Orrizonte
La Mia Tristezza - it's absolutely crazy these two songs are hidden away behind optional side content
Imprisoned Town
Gothic Neclord
Withered Earth
The Chase
Secret Village of the Ninja
Oh, by the by, Final Fantasy VIII's OST is also Nobuo Uematsu's greatest work. Great music in these two games.
Suikoden II is not one I've played, but if it's really only 30 hours that just made it quite intriguing.
30 hours seems like a really low estimate to me. You can absolutely beat this game in only 30 hours if you wanted to. (If you know what you're doing, you can easily beat it in 10.) But the average gamer taking their time, thoroughly exploring things, and making a good faith effort to recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny, your playtime is more realistically in the 50-60 hour range.
It really doesn't feel like that though. You'll never feel like you've had to grind areas just to make progress because of how Suikoden's leveling system works. And if you ever get frustrated at not having enough money in the game, there are very easy to exploit money glitches. The story moves along at a brisk pace and never feels like it lags. I only wish Suikoden II was even longer because I wanted to spend as much time as possible exploring this setting and hanging out with its cast.