Ok, so I completed FFVIII, which marks lucky number three in the FFs I've beaten so I want to review it.

First let me start by saying that I had somewhat of a hard time getting into this game. I started at least three times never got past the Fire Cavern, until now.

Graphically, the game was awesome for its time. It's obviously outdated now, but even so the FMVs still impressed me.

The gameplay of FFVIII is one of its most controversial aspects, but I must say I was quite satifisfied with it. Once I got the hang of it, the Junction system was a joy to use. Two downsides: magic was pretty much useless in the battlefield (except for support magic like Aura and Protect) because it was junctioned to your stats and second it made the game easy. I can safely say this is the easiest FF I've played. Even Omega didn't give me that much trouble. As for sidequests, the game didn't have many others aside from the card game, but it was awesome so no biggie.

Now the story is a mixed bag. I loved the relationship between Squall and Rinoa and how it developed, but the Ultimecia-time compression subplot left much to be desired, mainly because Ultimecia felt like tacked on villain just because the game needed a villain, but she had no motivation whatsoever.

The characters were great. I liked their personalities, especially Irvine's. Each of the characters brought something new to the table when they were introduced, so they complemented each other nicely.

Overall FFVIII gets a B-

I want to hear everyone's opinions

Well, the time-compression idea actually makes sense in the scheme of what Final Fantasy VIII is about; the problem is that it wasn't developed enough to make a clear connection. All of the magic-users (that is, un-Drawn magic) act as foils as one another. One can see the obvious parallels between Ellone and Ultimecia and how these two are effectively constructed foils; but of course the most important foils are Rinoa and Ultimecia.

The problem with the ending feeling tacked on is the fact that despite the fact that Ultimecia actually is present throughout the entire game, the player doesn't get to see her until the ending - we should have at least gotten traces of her name in the first discs. However, she is a pretty logically constructed villain - but it would've worked better had the story shifted closer to Rinoa at the end as Ultimecia was really the embodiment of Rinoa's, rather than Squall's, internal struggle (which is manifested by Griever). Of course, in that vein the fact that the ultimate villain of Squall's story is Ultimecia makes his connection, therefore the love story, with Rinoa all the stronger.

The best constructed villain is the physical embodiment of the protagonist's internal struggle. Ultimecia represents Rinoa's worst potential and what she fears the most: becoming an evil sorceress, shunned by the world. That is also why the scene at the orphanage after the Ragnarok is also so important, important enough to have its dialogue featured in the Liberi Fatali video. In that scene, Squall reassures Rinoa, helping her get over her fears in a psychological capacity. But psychologically defeating her fears isn't enough to make an effective full-fleshed story. In the final battle, Rinoa must face her worst fears and defeat them in a physically manifested capacity.

Basically, when Rinoa faces Ultimecia, she faces the worst parts of herself (the parts that would change her into an evil sorceress like Ulti). In defeating Ultimecia, she defeats the evil within herself as well.

Classic story structure: "shadow of the hero"... but Square probably should've made the final villain Squall's shadow. Although I appreciated what they were trying to do, I don't think they pulled it off as well as they wanted to.

Yep, which led to him pushing people away. In that way Ultimecia works out; Time Compression would be a way for her to exist in a dimension completely by herself, similar to Squall alienating everyone and trying to be alone. So when he gets over his fear and lets people come close, he is then able to defeat Ultimecia's goal of becoming completely alone.

Rinoa and Squall's fears are very intricately intertwined in Ultimecia. The game just didn't do a good job of making the connections.