[Max the Man]

I didn't necessarily hate FFVIII, but it isn't my favorite Final Fantasy. Here is my list of things I didn't like so much...

1: The battle system, imo, was a little too easy. (getting rid of the MP system was a baaaaaad idea... watching Shiva's animation over and over and over and over....)
2: I think that they focused way too much on plot and didn't give the characters a detailed personality. Much like in FFVII, some of the characters were only useful for the part that they had to be in your party, and once you picked your favorites, you usually stuck with them for most of the game.
3: The magic selection wasn't really all that wide. sure, it introduced the -ra's and -aga's, but that was about it, and the only real use for magic was raising your HP and Atk.
4: the bosses, imho, were really easy. The only boss I ever really had problems with was Adel, and that was because I didn't have Rinoa, who was one of the characters I brought through the entire game.

I think that that's it.