Second least favorite of the main line(not as bad as FFXIII). It was the first FF game that felt "limiting" to me. Didn't feel as grand as other FFs. The characters all were tied together, and any real meat regarding what happened beyond that close tie is irrelevant(even though I love that kind of shit). Not to mention how limited the monster selection was. Mentioning FFXV as being based on the aesthetic style, I sure as hell hope it doesn't follow FFVIII in this regard, and from the footage, might certainly not.
The characters(other than Squall and Rinoa) didn't grow as much past who they were in the beginning(which I'm not asking for 180 change in character, but going on such a quest and witnessing some strange events, you'd think they'd grow just a bit differently by the end). And I know I was supposed to care for Squall and Rinoa, but the writing they gave me did nothing for me in that regards. Then again, I'm not one for romance stories. If a story happens to have a romance sub-plot, and it's good, I'll feel it. I felt more for Locke and Celes in FFVI than Squall and Rinoa in FFVIII.
The music, while I felt had better synth quality over FFVII(melodic farts at times), this is where I think Uematsu became hit or miss. Prior to this, I loved EVERY song(even the horrible synthed FFVII songs), but here, I find that either some songs are glorious(Liberi Fatali, The Extreme, Succession of Witches...) and some are just... blah.
If there were any good things I could mention about it, the art direction was great. The world looked cool, the monster design looked awesome and while I felt the main character design was bland(probably the more earthy colors), I did like Seifer's design, as well as Edea and the Sorceresses(well, and the majority of NPCs, for that matter). Deling City is probably one of my top ten fictional locations I'd love to live at. And, well, I know a lot of people piss on the Junction system and Drawing system, but I'm one of those odd birds that would spend a whole battle maxing out every character with every spell each monster had without feeling bored or annoyed.