Final Fantasy 8 makes my eyes tear.
FFVIII over all is a true Masterpiece even though many people were still drooling over Final Fantasy VII at the time Final Fantasy VIII was over shadowed. Truly it deserved a lot more respect than than it received. The Junction system in my view was very awesome. I could tweak my players to the higher levels almost 2 thirds the way through the game by drawing and junctioning magic from various differentiated enemies in many different terrains throughout the game to specific categories such as; strength, wisdom, vitality, Hit percentage and even speed, etc. You could protect your character from magic quickly and possess rare magic allowed special abilities for your attributes to grow by. The magic system in this game felt like the most polished out of the whole series. The Guardian Forces are extravagant and beautiful and work well as separate entities in battle. They are powerful and you could even tweak how powerful they were by who ever is customized in your party. You had many great summons in which the one I especially loved was Bahamut merely because of his brute strength.
In finality what really made the game special though, was the story line. Once again Square has mastered the art of story telling through Final Fantasy VIII and in priority mastered it in Final Fantasy VII. The story is of orphan kids growing up into teens and being around each other most their whole lives. None of them really realized it. I wont get into details but these people were destined to be questing and conquering with each other while meeting friends and enemies along their journey and learning new abilities. The implementation of love was strong in FFVIII between Squall the SeeD soldier and Rinoa the rebellion leader. The story of a couple who fight for a just cause; to save the world from a tyrant sorceress and for the union of love between each other moves me in such an emotional way that this is what makes this my favorite Final Fantasy in the whole series. The battle system is great and innovative. The world is quite massive. There are many side quests and missions that add great replay value. An example is the Card game which can be tactical and somewhat in depth. I love the detail in the game also. Some of the best graphics for that age in time. With a passionate story line and great game play mechanics, Final Fantasy VIII deserves my ten out ten.