"Yeah, stop holding FF7 against this."  Most people know the
story by now. Final Fantasy 7 was arguably the best game ever
made, and it vaulted Square to the status of industry titan.
Fans wanted more from them and fast, so under the pressure
Square pulled out every stop in making Final Fantasy 8. Final
Fantasy 8... was goofy. It's not a bad game by any stretch, but
it has the feel of Square trying to do way too much and falling
flat in spots. The elephant in the room -- the whole "please
forget Final Fantasy 7 exists when you play this" thing -- is
also very obvious. But if you're willing to look past a few
things, FF8 stands alone as a pretty good game.   Final Fantasy
8 has an odd cast, and most of the characters aren't very good.
There's really no sugarcoating this.  The main character,
Squall, starts the game off as an emo loner who basically tells
everyone around him to screw off. He eventually meets a girl he
likes, Rinoa, and spends more time ignoring people until he
finally decides to man up and do w