First Bravo n the Nice review. Personaly i loved the battle system in ff8 it was smt new and fresh somrthing unique not just in the ff series but in all rpg games. U say some of the characters weren't nessesery i dissagree cause cause i see them all as a whole u know and ff9 for me wouldn't be ff8 if Selphie or Zell or any1 wasnt there. The story for me was mindblowing dunno
what ur fuss is about it being too much sci-fi. The main vilain was a sorrseror what else do u want... i would grade it 9/10 just because ff7 has a little better storyline and cooler main character