Final Fantasy VIII surpassed its predecessor in many ways, but in the places where it lacked, it lacked HARD. True, it had great graphics, nice controls, and (my personal favorite) the fact that the characters in you party don't "go into you", they actually follow you around... but it had an extremely poor storyline. Stories are the reason I play an RPG, and this game didn't have a good one. NOT AT ALL. I mean, a queen trying to kill "SeeDs"? Now that's sad. I really don't like it. The story of Final Fantasy VII was much better, in my opinion. I also didn't like the lack of minigames. I know they aren't all that important, but you should have SOME. And the weapons weren't all that great, either. The only one I liked was the Gunblade, which, I remind anyone who has played the game, never had the GUN part used. Yes, it dominated in graphics, but not in much else.