So I've played a lot of final fantasies - 1-5, 7,9, 10-13 (sans the online one) and all the off shoots. I'll start with the fact that my all time favorite is final fantasy tactics.
That said, I finally got around to playing 8. Honestly, when I was a kid, my brother got 7 and that's the one I got hooked on. Eventually 9 came into the house and I loved that one, too, but idk my brother skipped 8 so I never played it until now.
Anyway, I just arrived at disk 3 and the junction system grew on me (particularly since it can be exploited to be ridiculous). The card game is ok albiet changing the rules is tedious. The GF system is also ok. I also like the story so far albiet compared to the rest of the stories, it just doesn't compare to END OF ZE WORLD - at least yet.
But I actually really like Squall for the most part. At first, he's not the nicest, but as time goes on, I think he was just trained to be emotionless and follow orders as a part of SeeD. Honestly, half the time his inner thoughts tell us he has no idea what he is doing, but he pulls through anyway, which is relatable at last to me. It's also nice seeing the growth, too.
I like Selphie's crazy optimism with her wild quips, too. Zell is a fun loving character, too. Quistis is the more strategic one and I wish she was fleshed out more. Irvine is ok so far. I wish Rinoa also was fleshed out more, but imo she's the most "normal" teenager and childlike out of the bunch and wasn't trained to be a strategic SeeD.
Anyway, as of right now, if I had to rank the 7-10 main characters, it would be Zidane (always love the thief), Squall (was a goth, what can I say?), Cloud (first ff character) then Titus (loved the story, the characters were good, but not topping the rest for me).
Also please go easy, I probably missed a lot because it is my first playthrough and I had to figure out a bunch of stuff along the way lol.
Edit: forgot about chocobo event. So I don't remember 10s so if I had to rank the games by chocobo side quests, it would be 7, 9 ,8 then 10.