Well I finally beat FF 8 this weekend after 80+ hours. This has to be the longest amount of time I've spent playing a RPG, even though at least 5 of those hours were from letting the game sit while I did something else and at least 5 hours were spent on that stupid card game. Even though most people dislike FF 8 I thought it was very nicely done. The story kept me interested (although the Sorceress thing was a little lame), and the game never really got boring. In fact the only real complaint I have is that the magic junction system made the game too easy since you could easily powerup low level characters without really trying. Say what you will, but I'm going to miss drawing and junctioning magic...
The ending was a bit odd though. It really didn't explain alot and left many things hanging, although you could guess at some things that were left unsaid. Overall I think this has to be one of the longest Final Fantasy games I've played, and one of the easiest. I didn't even have to try to get most of my characters up to level 100, and I think I died a total of 3 times throughout the whole game (twice was from not paying attention). Still, if you haven't played FF 8 because you've heard bad things about it give it a shot. It takes some time to get into the story but in the end you'll probably like it.
Tempest