Title. Especially when it gets compared to Blazing Sword. I've never really gotten why the FE community seems to generally consider FE 8 so inferior. One of the main things seems to be the lack of difficulty, because of the abundance of strong characters, and because of the potential for abuse inherit in the tower, and later, the ruins. As far as the tower issue goes, it's completely optional, so I can't really understand the flack it's caused. I actually like that most of the characters (really all of them) are strong enough to consider using because it gives me more freedom to pick characters that are my favorites as opposed to having to pick a character based on his stats.
Another argument I see sometimes is the weak story, but I find that the dialogue is much more enjoyable in SS than BS and that the story arc, although relatively straightforward, is also more engaging. And I happen to like the lords in this game a lot more than Eliwood and Lyn. I won't talk about Hector though :) Haha.
As a little background, I've played FE 1 (DS remake), and FE 7, 8, and 9. This is also my first post.
Cheers,
Kel