I've played an untold number of RPGs back in the day: all the usual suspects and more. All them Final Fantasys. Overwhelmingly, Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite. I think it blows all the other RPGs, particularly other Final Fantasys which I also loved, out of the water. Its quality, ambition, execution, and its raw spirit resonate with me to this day unlike any other RPG (perhaps any other game).
I do recall other people hating it though, while loving what I considered great but comparatively inferior games like FFVII. And I recall their reasons why. And I see a lot of those reasons reflected here. A story that focuses too much on Squall and Rinoa, leveling enemies, confusing junction system, and overall tough difficulty. But I found these complaints to be indicative of a "surface examination" of the game. For example, I didn't find Squall and Rinoa's story overly focused on them at all: I felt intrigued by the backstories and character progression of multiple characters, like Irvine's for instance, or Squall's father, rival, Ultimacia, et cetera. But the story was, in its heart of hearts, an "impossible" love story. And stories should focus on what they're trying to tell. I don't think there's a problem with that at all, in fact, when creating a story is strongly advised to follow the models seen in FF8. I'd much rather have a narrative on a small number of characters that is intensely rich and flushed out and meaningful.... Than something superficial smeared across an attempt at an ensemble cast. FF7, widely regarded as "better" than FF8, had comparatively horrible character development across the board. Almost no depth was explorer at all, and even Iris' death is shallow and melodramatic. You find much better story and character development in even Dragoon on the PS1. The rest of FF7s story is, well, okay, good for the game it's trying to be, but pretty basic, straight forward, and even cliche. The strengths of FF7 were the size of the game, variety of play, imaginative locations, and a fun game play system. But people tend to put on nostalgia glasses and forget it had 2-dimensional characters and plot.
Regarding enemy leveling, I found it weird at first, but I see why they did it. They didn't want it to be a grind fest, but rather keep the story going forward and reward you more for being thorough, clever, willing the explore, and willing to work at its many secondary game-play elements (such as the card game). That's sort of where the junction system comes in. You bind with GFs (the summons), and unlock different abilities, skills, stats to upgrade, et cetera, and the more you unite with that system, the more growth that becomes available for your characters. So, if you're exploring and mastering things and being clever, you gather resources through which you can junction to, say, your HP or strength to boost them up. Or perhaps you unlock an initiative bonus to always strike first in combat, or have access to a Shop screen through your menu, or whatever.
My first play through of the game I remember being easy at first, but toward the end of the 3rd disk I struggled immensely, had to develop a new game plan, go exploring and gathering stuff, and revisit the bosses I'd been stuck on. And from there I fought my way through the rest of the game, beat it, and felt incredibly elated my months of deep emotional commitment had finally come to a beautiful and rewarding end.
Then I played it again, actually recording the whole game on VHS while I played because I loved the story so much I wanted to have "movies" of it. I dominated the second play through with my grasp of the game's mechanics, not struggling much at all save for the secret bosses. Then I played more play through, but from there on out I was too power gamed. I'd get Squall's Lionheart sword early, max his strength, and cast Aura on him, and rapidly hit "cancel" in combat until his limit break appeared. In otherwords, I could play through the vast majority of the game using Squall's best limit break every single turn with max damage every hit. And beyond that, all my other characters and strategies were on lock to, making me truly invincible.
But figuring all this out didn't happen over night, or from "grinding." I discovered all this by playing and loving the game, and going to the drawing board over and over again to come up with new strategies. No other RPG has made me do that. Most just require a grind gate. And well, I love grinding and RNG and all that too. But in my opinion, nothing ever came close to the experience FF8 gave me.
And that's just the beginning. I consider FF8 to have some of the best world building around, and nothing can hold a candle to its music. Best game soundtrack of all time. Fight me. The leit mo tief hitting in during the end credits... Incredible. Chills every time.