This game will bring you on an emotional rollercoaster, with a story that will blow you away.
Final Fantasy VIII's true strength is it's characters, although that isn't it's only strength. FFVIII brings us an emotionally devoid protagonist, a psychopathic antagonist who quite possibly has no idea what their doing, and a host of other troubled characters who have faults that are either life threatening or crippling.
FFVIII's other great strength is it's story. The story brings our characters through a series of twists and turns, betrayals and sudden revelations, turmoil and hardships. When you add to the story characters that are perfect for the circumstances into which they are thrown, the result is one of the genres greatest games.
FFVIII brings an unexpected innovation to the genre, in it's combat system. Square has taken the traditional casting system and thrown it out the window. Instead of drawing magic from materia, or learning it in another way, Square has decided to use the Draw system. The Draw system essentially has you take magic from the various enemies that you will encounter throughout the game. When you Draw magic from an opponent, you can stockpile pile it in quantities up to 100, or you can Cast the enemies magic on either your party or your enemy.
FFVIII is big on character stat customization. This is done via the Junction system, which allows you to Junction stockpiled magic to any stat, including luck, HP, strength, vitality, spirit, etc. Magic can also be Junctioned to elemental and status resistances and attacks. You can literally make yourself invulnerable to any type of elemental attack. Or, you can blind an oppenent so he can't touch you with physical attacks.
Summoning in FFVIII is a little bit diffirent than preceeding and suceeding games. When your Guardian Forces (GF), or summons, are activated, your Time Bar starts at the full and moves towards empty (opposite than usual). When the bar hits empty, you summon your GF. While you are summoning your GF, hits HP bar replaces that of the party member that is summoning it, and absorbs all damage that that party member receives. If the GF's HP reaches zero, the GF dies and the battle progresses as usual (note that the GF can not be summoned again until revived). In addition, your GF's can learn abilities that will make you stronger, them stronger, increase certain stats, allow you to junction magic to new stats, etc. Some of these abilities are passive, others must be equipped in order to work. A GF must junctioned (equipped) to a character in order for that character to have access to those abilities.
FFVIII also approachs character abilities in a rathr unique way. Under normal conditions, a character has four slots to equip in-combat abilities (of which attack is automically one, and is a the only ability that can not be changed) and 2 slots for passive abilities, such as Magic +20%.
Of course, no one would want to play a game that was either graphically inferior, or had a terrible soundtrrack. FFVIII has good enough graphics that in-game characters appear as actual humans, instead of the previous models that were disproportioned. In fact, I think that these graphics are perfect for any game, as they are realistic enough for the game to have the ability to suck you in. The soundtrack is just as good, especially the semi-creepy latin intro song (Edea's Theme).
All in all, FFVIII stands as one of Square's greatest games and anybody who is even moderately interested in RPG's should definitely play this game.
JMO