Good for its time, just with minor difficulty misjudgements.
You start out as a student at some military academy with a major school-like environment. But once you become a SeeD, (a military like mercenary organization,) you find that there is more to it than simply fighting battles for money.
As a mysterious sorceress emerges, you find yourself wrapped up in one mission after another, and all the while you will find the characters caught in plenty of personal matters on the side. From violent rivalries, to visiting a hometown, to discovering a foster mother, you will find each character full of story.
The graphics of Final Fantasy VIII set a new precedent for the Final Fantasy series. Now, not only are they 3D, but they are also more defined, and the quality of the graphics do not change from scene to scene or in cinematic scenes. The well meshed graphics make it even easier to get yourself lost in the story.
The gameplay is great. The junction and GF, (Guardian Force,) system makes the characters customizable. The draw system for magic may be difficult at times, but it simply adds that much more challenge. You have to use your magic wisely, you can not just cast it over and over until the enemy is defeated.
The only real major drawback I was able to find while playing the game was that there were some bosses that were overkill. I am not complaining about the final boss, or the Weapons, as they are meant to be insane. But some bosses were a bit overkill and you had to do a lot of level grinding just to progress the story. It breaks the immersion into the story when I have to stop to run in circles fighting pointless battles for XP, but aside from this, I could not find any major flaws with it.