FIRST THING FIRST
If you're into modding FF8, this isn't the right copy for you. Find FFVIII on Steam without 'REMASTERED' in the title. That older (and more buggy) version is compatible with more mods and the bugs can be fixed with them as well.

Anyway, back to the review. Here's my two cents.

I'd say FFVIII is the toughest FF game to master because the tutorial sucked (reminded me how FFX used to do its tutorial), but the story and character development paid off really well despite that being the standard of FF games already. It took me maybe like 10 revisits to finally lock in and beat the entirety of the game without losing interest. After doing that, replaying the game again was a breeze. The music also kept me going.

Not sure why but the translations are weird in certain sections of the game, making the game tougher to read than any software documentation I've ever stumbled upon, lmao. Classic Square's PS1 titles tend to have this problem, I've noticed.

My favorite entry in the franchise story-wise and music-wise, but I really couldn't shake the gameplay.

Really enjoyed this. I played it when it came out and I was like, maybe 11 years old, only got around 60% of the way through back then. Now I'm in my mid 30's and it's still a very tough game lol. I completed it using cheats, as I'm more about the story anyway. If you're worried about not being able to beat it, activate the cheats from the 'Esc' button menu, that's where you can make all GFs level 100 and everything else, this gave me, (a SERIOUSLY underleveled character at the end around lvl 20 lol) 9999 hp and I beat all 4 final bosses easily. Really happy Square included the cheats as I don't like games which are too difficult and this made it extremely enjoyable for me. Loved the characters and story, great game!

best FF ever.