Story: You play as Squall, a student of balamb garden special mercenaries called SeeD. After your exams and and acceptance as a SeeD, you are handed your first real mission. A mission that will have an impact on the whole world and time itself.
Final Fantasy VIII focus more on a deep plot than any Final Fantasy before or after it (FFXIV as of today), and if you value a great story, Final Fantasy VIII will not dissappoint you.
Gameplay: Final Fantasy VIII is based on most of the rules from the previous games in the series. You travel on a world map, enter cities and dungeons and you encounter random active time battles with an active time bar for each character. (ATB).
The difference however is in the Junction system. Each character can junction summons (Guardian Forces - GF), magic and abilities to themself to increase individual stats. All junction abilities come from the GF, so you´re basically dependant on having atleast one GF junctioned to a character at all times (for him/her to be useful in battle). Magic work allmost like items, as you collect and draw charges instead of depending on MP. The more magic you have, the more you can increase a characters stats. More powerful magic give a higher stat increase, and different type of magic increase stats in a different way eg. supporting magic like "Protect" will increase Defence more than Attack.
Much can be said about the Junction system, but it´s the core of FFVIII´s gameplay, and in my opinion, the best and most flexible gameplay in the whole series.
Sound/Music: The sound and music of FFVIII is just sublime from the games opening FMV to the conclusion. Nobuo Uematsu did it again, and this time he even got to use an orchestra as well! If you are a fan of great video game music, FFVIII is absolutely worth listening to. This goes for everyone who don´t play RPG as well.
Difficulty: FFVIII is not a difficult game if you just follow the storyline, but if you´re interested in getting the extra 20-40 hours out of it, you will encounter some great boss fights, and enjoy some really good side-quests.
Re-play value: After one of the series harder final boss fights, you will be rewarded with a LONG FMV to conclude the game. Everyone I know, myself included, found themself starting a new game right away when they saw the "The End" screen.
Conclusion: Final Fantasy VIII is the best Final Fantasy in the series. This is based on the deep plot, the great flexibility in the gameplay as well as every other aspect of the game. Of course this topic can be discussed for hour on end, but if you´re a sucker for great story telling, you will find yourself playing this game over and over again.
RWN