The Battle System has been changed totally. There were no change in character image when fight or not (I suppose Ye know what I mean, not like FF7) so the only things change was the scene when fight By using texture mapped models and backdrops, the enemies are bigger and special effects more outrageous and impressive than ever before The transparency and lighting effects surpass anything in FFVII and the animation is meant to be superb. The only thing I don't like in FF8 battle system is the magic, yes it's right the magic isn't using mp but, if you have to fight the enemy which was it level higher than you you can't use magic because it wsn't very powerfull You have to draw the next level of the magic, for example, ice magic (Blizzard) wouldn't that effective to use against the stronger enemy (the destruction level was small), you have to draw Ice 2 (Blizzard a, in U.S version) or Ice 3 (Blizzardga) to gain more destructive power.

And There will be guardian force Which we known as Summon in FF7, also there will be "BAHAMUT" and "LEVIATHAN". There is no materia to summon GF or to use magic, not like FFVII. So the G.F in FF8 is a living creature, they can gain higher level if you junction them everytime you fight with the enemy. and also they all have HP, so when you summon them, their HP indicator will show up and is you get hit, their HP will be down A limit bar will show up when the characters HP reach below 100 or coution HP (Which was indicate by the changing color of you HP). And that's one reason why limit break character don't always appear. but there was an Item/magic that can trigger limit break more often.

Yes there is a Chocobo, and for an addition they give Chickobo, which is baby chocobo, but unfortunately in FF8 you can't do chocobo breeding not like FF7. and one more thing before I forgot, there are G.F that you can't summoned, for example Odin, It will appear randomly everytime you fight, and also phoenix and Chocobo, the two G.F were Item, so you can only use them once, except you have 2 item, for example if you have 2 phoenix pinion then you can summoned 2 times. and for the Weapon system, you can upgrade weapon's characters by finding the items for the weapon remodel (upgrade), so there would not be a Chest treasure containing weapon like FF7 :) for more information please go to the Weapon Upgrading Menu.

The main character was named "Squall Leonheart", 17 years old who apparently doesn't care about anyone or himself (Cloud??, anybody ??? :P) and, An energic boxer "Zell Dincht" who doesn't use a weapon, he use his bare hands to fight (Tifa???, anybody???:P), and the young beautiful lady who dressed well and use blade thower as her weapon. There were 8 characters and a few minor characters. That's My overview about FF8 don't ask me which one is the best between FF7 and FF8, don't jugde first ok ?? you'll never know which one is the best before you play the game until finished.
For my final personal Overview about this game were: Story:8.5, Level of difficulty:8.5, graphic:9.5, characters:9.0, overall:9.0 (don't know about your oppinion)