Square to this day has ruled over the rpg market with the final fantasy series, but the reason for their success is not simply due to their sheer number of games, but their ability to change each following game into something better and more intriguing. They have never been satisfied with one game, and that is the reason for the sequels. Square will most likely keep on coming out with games until they feel satisfied or are forced to stop for some unknown reason.
          The differences between Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 are no exception. First off, square decided to get rid of the anime-style "deformed" guys and opted for a more realistic character form. Next, square increased the number of polygons with each character. This yields a more realistic movement ability and better detail. Second, square revamped the backgrounds for the game, and ended up creating a near-photo quality scene for the characters to interact in.
         There are always themes to Square's game, for Final Fantasy 7 that theme was life, in Final Fantasy 8 the theme is love. So far, Square has shown that there might be a love-triangle between Squall, Laguna, and a female character who has yet to be divulged. More to come on this as the game progresses farther.
         Gone are the materia of Final Fantasy 7, and to replace it, a system called Soukaigi. Nothing is yet known about this change except that it may involve allowing you to create your own type of magic. We'll see how it unfolds as more is found out. Now, if you don't know about it yet, Sony is in the works of creating a new type of memory card/ personal organizer called a PDA. (To find out more about this, click here) Now, square might incorporate this new device into the game in an interesting way. This is not final, but rumors say that you can "download" summon creatures into the PDA, take it out, and build up that monster on the PDA. Then you can "upload" it into the game and use it as a spell. Is that just freakin' cool ? Anyways, the entire specs and other info on the PDA is on the link above, so check it out to find more.
        

                                            A couple minor changes and info before I stop.

The characters that you have in your party will now be seen in the towns and overmap instead of simply "dissapearing" like FF7.

The game will at least be 4 cd's and may even stretch to 5.

Square is said to be done with the first 2 cd's already as well.

When Brave Fencer Musashi is released (another square title) it is said to be packed with demo cd's of games. One of which will include a 30 minute demo of Final Fantasy 8. Now, Brave Fencer won't be out until November, but that's nothing compared to the wait for Final Fantasy 7.

Finally, Final Fantasy 8 should be due out about mid 1999.