If there is one thing that went wrong with FF8 it was the fact that they tried to hype it up too much. The game was pretty good, but the fact that people expected allot more of it made them hate it. The battle system is pretty good, even if critical hits can be made way too easily (just press R1 at the moment you hit), and the stat system is pretty... weird. You need to equip GFs (summons) and select your action commands (magic, draw, GF, item), after that you need to equip magic to your stats in order to increase them. You get the magic by stealing it from your opponents, or from certain places on the maps.
FF8 is allot better the most people say it is, it's still not as good as 7 but still a great game in the series, especially compared to other parts like 9.