FF VII VS. FF VIII - The Final Duel

[Elc]

That's not really my viewpoint, to be honest. I think the soundtrack (and control, for that matter) are just as important as the story. I would actually place control at the top, since it is a critical factor for any game, and even if the story is excellent, it could ultimately be a bad game if it had clumsy or buggy controls.

I agree that the story is the backbone of an RPG, since without it, you don't really have a game to play but I disagree that a soundtrack is a "minor point." I would classify it as a major point to any RPG, as it could turn a game with an excellent story into a masterpiece; but if the soundtrack was horrible, it could have people thinking it was a great game though griping that the music sucked. But, to answer your question, I wouldn't call an otherwise good game a "bad" game if only the music was annoying. Yeah, you don't play a game to solely listen to the music, but in a series like Final Fantasy, there are some recognizable themes which show up in every game in the series. One disappointment with Final Fantasy X-2 was the lack of the victory fanfare. It's a relatively minor change, but it lost some of that Final Fantasy "feel" without it.

But, as I have said before, what makes a game good is subjective to the individual gamer. I agree with practically everything you have to say, with the exception of the music, though I respect your position.
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"You make me smash the clock and feel, I'd rather die behind the wheel.
Time was never on my side, So on I wait my whole lifetime."

[Esra]

I agree, the graphics and special effects should come last. If the game can't play well or the plot sucks then there's no point in playing it.

[Keriaku]

I voted for FFVIII. Some reasons for this are:

1. I loved the soundtrack, especially Eyes On Me, the love song :o

2. I really liked the characters and the character development that Squall went through, I liked the love story between Rinoa and Squall.

3. I liked the end

*Spoliers*

I find some of the Rinoa - Ultramecia theroies very interesting.

*End Spoilers*
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Inspired by everything

[Starslasher]

I liked the end for FFVIII as well.

I don't know about the other people, but i liked Raijin and Fujin as well. God know why they volutnarily became Seifer's lackeys, but i liked how their personalities bounced off each other. And laso what happened at the end of Disc 3, which i'll leave it for those who haven't played it to go and play it :mrgreen: . I am wondering though one thing: How can they be brother and sister? They don't have even the slightest resemblance.
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Decado]

I think the poll is pretty conclusive - 15/6 in favour of FFVII.
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[Drizzt]

Yeah you have a good point there, though everyone has their own valid opinion on the subject... So the results do not bother me one bit, preferring Final Fantasy 8 more... So cheers to all the Final Fantasy 7 supporters out there that one in this poll.
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“Firbolgs die with honor,” Morten explained as the logs beneath Tavis began to burn. “We don’t beg for mercy. We don’t show pain. We just die.”
“Maybe we skin you alive,” Noote warned. “That hurt plenty." - The Twilight Giants, Book I.

[Kraven]

I voted for ff7, purely because i liked its plot and characters better than ff8. The gameplay in ff8 was annoying, especially the way you EARN money (gil). I liked the GF-level-up concept in ff8, i think that was very good. FF8 soundtrack was really cool, but the game was dry and simple, no real conflict and no real challenge. I found none of the enemies/bosses difficult to beat. In 7 you at least had Ruby and Emerald Weapons.
Honestly i liked ff8's card sidequest (though ff9's card game was the best).

I preferred it if characters had the armour/accessories, and i hated the DRAW ability that you would have to use in FF8.
For me it came down to either Squall or Cloud (in terms of which is a better character)

Cloud's character was the winner at the end. (even though Squall's gunblade is really cool). :D

Many people will disagree with me, but this just what i think.
:!:
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"Disappears.....?!"

[Gaara]

I picked Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII had better characters. There were more characters in it than there were in Final Fantasy VIII yet they were still more developed. I mean what can you actually say about Irvine and Selphie if you were to write a bio on them? Besides Selphie is a ditz and writes a journal about Laguna and Irvine just being a useless plotwise.

And if you even concentrate on the secret Final Fantasy VII characters, you'd be able to get more out of it. Vincent is as mysterious as hell but he was kind of related to the whole story of perhaps being Sephiroth's father, well that still being a fan-based theory as it is said that Hojo is the father. As for Yuffie, she kind of displays a more detailed background on the whole Shinra VS Wutai war.

I mean all the characters from Final Fantasy VIII are all a bunch of orphans who were brought together by fate to battle the sorceress who oh so coincidentally turned out to be Matron Edea Kramer, who also happens to be the wife of Cid the headmaster of Balamb Garden where most of the orphans are currently at.

As for Sephiroth, he was a slick looking villain but I still think he sucked anyways. He was undeveloped and I have no idea why he gets so far every year in the gamefaqs character tournament. Anyways, back on the point you still know that Sephiroth is the final boss. In Final Fantasy VIII, the main villain hadn't even appeared until the very end of the game.

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When it comes to graphics and music, Final Fantasy VIII beats VII hands down but you don't need beautiful graphics for an amazing game and you can have an amazing game with the crappiest graphics. The music in both games were good but I slightly liked 8's better.

And most importantly comes the game's storyline. I found neither games to be that great. Honestly IMO there are so many unpopular RPGs out there today that are better than almost any Final Fantasy game. Take Shadow Hearts 1 for example, it came out at the same time as Final Fantasy X.... which was a really bad timing for its release because of course Final Fantasy is already internationally known everywhere and everytime anybody thinks RPG, they think Final Fantasy. And I've gone off topic so yes anyway. Both Final Fantasy VII and VIII were average games but if I had to pick one, I'd go with VII.

[Dakota]

Final Fantasy 8 reeked so very bad, They should've kept the materia system :x
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Its height.

[Keriaku]

*FF8 Spoliers*

How can they be brother and sister? They don't have even the slightest resemblance

Are you talking about Ellone and Squall? I'm pretty sure that Ellone was adopted or a half brother of squall or something, but when Laguna went to war they were both sent to the Orphanage. I think the reason that Ellone gives Squall dreams about Laguna, is because she's trying to get them back together. I'm not sure on any of this, so don't quote me no it :)

In Final Fantasy VIII, the main villain hadn't even appeared until the very end of the game.

That's actually not totally true, Ultimecia's character is played out throguh Edea, as you find out was being controlled by Ulitmecia. This is what gives her character, thoguh you are right she doesn't actually *appear* until the end of the game.

*End FF8 Spoilers*
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Inspired by everything

[Sun_Quan]

Hmmm...for me, this was an easy choice. FFVIII by far.

My reasons are these.

1. Soundtrack - FFVIII I found struck far more chords with me soundtrack wise. The battle song "Don't Be Afraid" is by far one of the best in the series. I knew from the moment I first downloaded the preview MP3 from Cronorye.com that I was going to love this game. I also felt the soundtrack somehow had a better feel to it overall than FFVII's did. Truthfully, after beating FFVII, I found the music to be so grating that I never picked it up again.

2. Gameplay - Again, FFVIII struck me here. FFVII had some great stuff, like all the minigames at the Golden Saucer, but FFVIII just had the better gameplay and battles in my books. I actually enjoyed the Junction system, after going through it, and having it explained, it makes sense on how to get the most power out of your characters.

3. Story - Hmmm...where to start. Let's just say that even back in the day of FFVII being a mainstream title, I kinda scrutinized against it. After playing it all the way through, I can safely say it's got a ton of stuff that I didn't like about it. For one thing, killing the last sole survivor of an Ancient race (even though she was a very useless character overall) is a major no-no with me. FFVIII, however, I liked how it was more on a down-to-earth level for a while, until the drama really started picking up. I felt Squall's change spoke volumes to me, and kinda showed how I changed in real life. I used to be an anti-social person myself, but I started changing when I grew older. Yes, FFVIII still has a fairly unrealistic story, but overall, I felt it was better done than FFVII's ever was.

4. Characters - Oh lordy, don't get me started. FFVII's characters were for the most part, boring and most didn't really mature. The only ones I found that did were Tifa and Barret. Yes, Vincent had a cool story behind him, and yes, Cloud's discovering his true past were both cool events that made complete sense in my books, but if you ask me, this game should've been so much better in character development. Especially after playing the greatness that was FF6, and having it be so poignant at times, and finding most of the characters in that game really did change for the better. FFVIII was a whole different ballgame. I really liked how many of the characters came together, Squall was not the only cool one. Zell I found is alot like me, loud, outspoken, and can really give a speech on how proud he is to be a Dincht. Irvine I liked simply because while he seemed to be a womanizer, he actually had a more compassionate side to him. And he was the one who remembered the orphanage in which they all grew up together, and found the connection between most of the characters and Sorceress Edea. Yes, it kinda became convoluted, but look at it this way, it inspired a buttload of fanfics too.

I can sum it up this way, FFVII was the game that saved the RPG as we know it, even I know this for a fact. But I'm just so sick of it, and sick of all the fanboys touting it as the greatest RPG of all time, that I never want to play it again!

FFVIII I will gladly play all the way through, thing is, I'd love to see a redux of it. With updated graphics and perhaps a faster battle system, but besides that, I can't complain. I found it rocked the house back then, and still rocks the house today!

And to the guy who said he hated FF9? Nice work! That one was by far the worst in the series in my books, it was nothing more than Squaresoft's (or Square-Enix as they're known as now) cheap-assed attempt to cash in on those waxing nostalgic. The battle music was awesome, but that was pretty much it for this game. As soon as I beat it (I did so within 6 days), I traded the game in. Absolutely no regrets.
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"Brother...father....for the glory of our family..." - Sun Quan

[Tonberry]

FFVII wins in my opinion. There are a few reasons. FFVIII had mostly annoying characters. FFVIII was way too easy. FFVIII had a hard to follow, complex storyline that could only be understood if played through multiple times. I did like FFVIII, but it had more weak points than FFVII.

[Child of The Sea God]

Go FF VIII!
Sure it's battle/equipment/magic system was a little weird but the stuff you could do with GFs in FF VII was just plain uber. I think it's storyline beats FF VII's storyline though. Both of their main characters were messed up people. Squall was a loner while Cloud seemed like he was a little mental. The main female character of FF VII died and I don't think that's cool for an RPG. One character battle that FF VII beats FF VIII at though is the villains. Sephiroth was truely evil while Seifer seemed as if he was only manipulated or confused. FF VIII also had better cinematic scenes compared to the previous FF game but this isn't really a fair comparism because FF VII was made a little before FF VIII. I'm trying to say graphic development might have improved over that amount of time. I also liked FF VIII's music more than FF VII's. Eyes on me was such a great song. The settings of FF VIII was unique too, it was almost like a high school. While FF VII had the typical RPG settings. I found FF VIII to be more challenging compared to FF VII if you only include the storyline battles. Now when you include the emerald and ruby weapons from FF VII, and omega weapon from FF VIII it's a tie to me. Overall I though FF VIII was a way better game than FF VII. FF VII did have a special materia systhem though but it's ghetto world just ruined the game for me.

[Deleted User 1]

My vote goes to Final Fantasy VII... I didn't really like Final Fantasy VIII... Final Fantasy VII had loads of cool stuff and an unbeatable storylin, it also had cool characters like cloud, vincent and sephiroth... though it also suffered from major problems, one being the graphics hahaha... well, I just found Final Fantasy VII better than VIII so that is mainly why I voted for VII... also, the main character Cloud would be a more... better main character than Squal in my opinion... whatever, my words are off target but still...

JNX out

[Benit149]

My vote went to VII because it had me hooked for a long time during the FFVII craze back in 1997-1998. Now I wonder what the hell I was thinking playing it so much, but regardless, I found it much more enjoyable than VIII for many reasons.

CHARACTERS: The characters in both games were on crack, I admit, but I liked Yuffie for brightening the angsty cast with her mischevious ways, and Cid for brightening things up a different way. :twisted: Unfortunately, I don't see the big deal with Sephiroth. Never did, never will. Compared to VIII, I didn't like anyone, and no one sticks out in my mind.

STORY: Both stories got a bit farfetched near the end, but you have to give points to some moments like Aeris' death, Nanaki/Red XIII next to his petrified father, the FMV where Tifa and Cloud get sucked into the Lifestream... that one always cracks me up when I see their expressions.

EXTRAS: It was the extras that I really enjoyed in VII, like getting the Gold Chocobo, fighting the Weapons (Emerald Weapon always creeped me out underwater), getting the Knights of Round materia, etc. I could pull off some mean scores in the snowboarding game as well.

MUSIC: This is the only area I give VIII kudos to, although VII had some nice tracks. Still doesn't outweigh the other factors, but gotta make mention of it so I don't look like some one-sided bigot. ^^;;
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"Luca Blight, patron saint of population decrease." -- Benit, MST149

Benit149: First Lady of Addervon, Princess of Slight Fever, defender of the Nameless.