seabassdebeste finishes ffviii: ultima weapon edition (spoilers)

So for plot/world... I think FFVIII had some really good stuff going for it, and a lot of bad stuff. It clearly wants to be a story about friendship and love, but there just wasn't enough writing behind that to support it, and the orphanage/destiny/GFs wiped our memory elements . There's also the inherent ridiculousness of SeeD as a concept; it's somewhat justified by the fact that it was a self-fulfilling loop, but overall I was left wanting.

I mentioned this during the game, but FFVIII is a game of great set pieces and bad connective tissue. Galbadia as a whole, the orphanage storyline, and Adel/Ultimecia (as @andylt pointed out) were all lacking in execution. But then you've got the first dance, the train heist, the assassination attempt on Edea, the prison break, the battle of the Gardens, the Seifer battles, the "Eyes on Me" sequence, a bunch of great Laguna parts, and a pretty neat final boss. I just wish the game containing these great set pieces were more consistently developed. I think the game gave us a hint at how cool it could be in the Esthar portion, once we finally (mostly) abandoned the Galbadia/sorceress storyline and got Ragnarok, but there was so little story left at that point that it's hard to credit it as much.

I'm not sure how much of the relative tedium of the game should be attributed to the graphics/soundtrack experience. I already talked about my issues with the visuals - it was hard to control and to tell what enemy was selected in battle, and overall that's just frustrating. It is visually much more impressive than its immediate predecessor (maybe because it's the HD remaster?), but arguably the block graphics have more charm (and sprites definitely beat out these models).

More importantly, in a Square RPG, I'm generally expecting some super-memorable leitmotifs. I don't remember any individual character's theme, and probably most damningly, the Balamb Garden and Overworld themes are way below average for the series. These are by far (along with the so-so, but not bad, battle theme) the most heard tracks of the game. Maybe I develop a stronger bond with the game if it's just a little more accessible music- and controls-wise.