Oh man, I knew my opinion on VIII was controversial, but I didn't think I'd get downvoted to hell so quickly. A quick rundown of why I think VIII is trash:
- Squall isn't an emo, he's an asshole. "Go talk to a wall." There's not wanting to get close to people, and there's acting like an annoying child. He's the latter. I disliked him immediately. His and Rinoa's relationship is so forced. Squall only realises he has feelings for when she's in a coma. There's no development, it's just suddenly there. And the other characters are kind of irrelevant to the story. They're just there so you've got a couple of extra players to use in battles.
- The story is good up until the end of disc 1, but then it kind of just goes all over the place. Ultimecia has to posses Rinoa so she can possess Adel something something. Laguna was cool but then for some reason becomes a movie star. The orphanage scene is the worst plot twist in and Final Fantasy game. It is so unnecessary and adds nothing to the plot, and just left me scratching my head as to why they bothered putting it in. "So we grew up together, all ended up as SeeD's, now are on the same mission together, and we're trying to kill our matron. Because amnesia. Oh, and Irvine remembers but didn't tell anyone until later in the story." What?
- The junction system is an alright idea, but it's implemented horribly. I liked that you could junction fire spells and do extra damage to enemies weak to fire. But the goal is to junction your strongest spells to your stats, and that means if you use those spells, you weaken your stats and then have to go out and find those spells again to bring your stats back up. Drawing cards is such a drag. And wouldn't it be better if you junctioned 100 hastes to speed and it gave you auto-haste?
- Triple triad is cool, but the fact that the best spells/items have to be gotten by playing it heaps can make it a bit of a grind.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
I like XIII because it is story and character driven, and the paradigm system does give it a new level/type of strategy. I 100% get why people don't like it due to its linearity, but seriously, if you can't figure out the difference between a Fal'cie and a L'cie you probably weren't paying enough attention.