FF8 is a flawed game, no argument from me. But to me what makes the game great is that it's the game where squaresoft was at its most experimental. Guardian forces was an attempt at making summons be genuine characters rather than a simple simulation of the idea of summoning. The leveling weirdness was an attempt at solving the problem of level grinding endemic to the genre. The story was an attempt to go beyond the usual heroes of light just saving the world. Did these attempts land perfectly? Not at all, but they had interesting permutations.

I think it's amazing that squarsoft even in that time tried to do so much different in just that one game. They were challenging standard tropes of the genre.

I genuinely question this writer claiming they played the game many times when they pretty much ignore the existence of Laguna when trying to find character depth and background. Really you have to remember the game in its moment in 1998, and this reads like someone playing it well after the fact. And then wondering why the game doesnt do things as well as the games that came after.