Could have been a lot better. to put it simply, to perhaps the biggest final fantasy fan ever,me, i was totally diappointed by this game. i hate the whole modern/futuristic look that this game has. even ff7 had this to a point. i want this to be like fantasy..castles, swords, mages, kings, knights, wizards. i hate that there is no armor or accessories, plus i hate that there are no magic points, and magic is not earned. the experience points thing stinks. leveling up/money mean nothin in this game.  my favorite part of RPG is building up wrecking machine armies.  ergo my sabin, celes, edgar, and terra army from ff3/6.  in this game the enemies level up with you so theres no point in leveling yourself up.  this game is soooo dumbed down.  the villain or lack thereof is horrible.  BRING BACK KEFKA!  the gf's take like 20 years to finish making battles so annoying, instead of fun like in ff6 and chrono cross.  the storyline is terrible and the characters are too real looking.  plus every character is essentially the same, each character does not have unique abilities except for the limit breaks. maybe if square had released this game under a different title not final fantasy 8 i woulnt have been disappointed. this remains the only ff game ever that i haven't finished, i stopped playing on disc 3. if u want a good RPG to play, get FF9 which goes back to hardcore fantasy and the original ways that made final fantasy so great. also i recommend ff3/6 which is undoubtable the best FF game ever, and arguably the best game ever. i also recommened chrono trigger and chrono cross which are totally awesome games.  don't waste your time or money with final fantasy 8.