Final Fantasy VIII vs Final Fantasy IX

Leedsboi86

Leedsboi86

Cetra
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
42
Location
United Kingdom
Gil
0
Hey everyone.

Since this came up on chat and got quite interesting I thought I would make a post for it.
Please no childish comments or insults this is purely voicing your opinions on the game and why you prefer your chosen title.

I haven't finished VIII or IX so will also help me decide which to play hehe.

BEGIN!
 
FFIX is clearly better.

Junction system = Crap
Draw System = Crap

What's the point of not having to level if your Junction system is based of your GFs abilities that Require you to level to obtain them?

The way you get limit breaks = stupid
 
Last edited:
Moved to FF Fun.

Also, I tend to prefer Eight myself, though Nine is definitely a solid game. I don't think I'll respond to the above listed "points". :wacky:
 
They're my two favourite FF games and I find it really hard to choose one over the other. I do think FFVIII just edges it for me, if only because of its wonderful endind (no disrespect to the ending of FFIX, which is excellent in itself).

They're just both too good! XD
 
i say 12 cos in 12 the leveling is easier and the graphics are better plus there is a decent plot behind it also like the characters (some of them r fit)
lol
 
I like them both, but I like FFIX better.
But I think it more depends on taste and such. They are very different IMO.

Plot
I liked VIII's more because it is more kinda sci fi, at least some parts of it.
FFIX focuses more on the character rather than on the plot, even though the plot is great as well.

Characters
FFIX focuses more on characters and that is why I liked the characters of FFIX more than FFVIII. FFIX has my most favorite cast of characters.
Though, my most favorite character is from FFVIII.

Battle System
They are quite the same (ATB battle system), but IMO FFIX is better because of 2 reasons

1) You can control 4 characters in a battle. In FFVIII you can control only 3 :wtf:

2) The summoning system in FFVIII is too useful. I overused it and the battles became very repetitive. It even got annoying at times.


Upgrading System
I think they are on the same level. Both aren't that great IMO.

Graphics & Soundtrack
I think FFVIII is better than FFIX in those two fields. But they are almost the same.

Enjoyment
Probably the only reason I enjoyed FFVIII less than FFIX, is because I spamed summons too much. If I wouldn't have spammed them too much (even though they are VERY useful), maybe I would like FFVIII more.
But just maybe.
 
well VIII had a short story, i personally liked the draw and junction, i like power and to be nearly indescructable is a dream come true hehe

and also the charecters were not half bad...

IX on the other hand had good side challenges (such as the friggin ozma! dang i was psyched when i beat that...) and the ultiamte challenge of getting steiners ultimat weapon...jesus christ, who CAN do that?

in my opinion, IX was better, but for some reason and idk why, i think its funner to play VIII
 
Mokken said:
FFIX is clearly better.

Junction system = Crap
Draw System = Crap

What's the point of not having to level if your Junction system is based of your GFs abilities that Require you to level to obtain them?

The way you get limit breaks = stupid
Click to expand...

I agree. That is the biggest flaw with Final Fantasy games, they always have to come up with some new way for the game to function, and half the time it's just awful. I don't see why they can't keep the same basic game and just improve graphics and have a new storyline, like the first three Crash Bandicoot games, instead of butchering something great.

FFIX is certainly better, I can't stand having to learn this unnecessarily unique system that doesn't follow the tenants of a Final Fantasy game, which is why I didn't even finish X.
 
My answer isn't going to be completely unbiased, as IX was the first true Final Fantasy I ever played, I'm going to have to go with Final Fantasy IX as my favorite among the two.

Final Fantasy VIII has the better story, IMO, but I never really got used to the Draw/Junction system. It seemed a little too involved and complicated for my tastes. Furthermore, it was seriously lacking special skills that weren't commands in of themselves, or magic.

On the other hand, Final Fantasy VIII had great characters and the setting was just amazing. In other words, I liked the story, but disliked most of the gameplay.

Final Fantasy IX, though, had a lot that I liked. The learning system for skills was pure genius, and the story was very involved. There were a lot of allusions to previous games, which made it even better to play when I could ID were many of the references came from.

As for the villain...I absolutely loved Kuja. He was perfect: poetic and sadistic, as well as a little tragic!
 
Plot
IX's. I'm a bigger fan of Medieval settings then I am of more modern-ish ones like VIII had. IX's plot was far more interesting to me with new spins on a lot of classic FF tropes. The entire world of IX felt more believable compared to VIII's, which helps it out. Kuja was a better villain than Ultimecia and actually did interesting stuff. That and the plot had a decent focus on summons, which I'm a big sucker for.

Another strike against VIII is that it has one of the most facepalm-worthy plot points of any JRPG I've played.

"Oh hey, we all actually knew eachother from our childhood together in this orphanage, but competely forgot it because We've been using GFs!" If it had been hinted at through the game up to the point through party dialogue, or even had more and more clues dropped about possible negative side effects of Guardian Force junctioning, it'd probably have been a nice, dark twist to the plot, especially if it were expanded upon afterwards. Instead, we got something along the lines of: "GF must've destroyed our memories! Let's keep using GF!" and then nothing is spoken of it again.

Characters
FFIX had an "ensemble cast" and one of my favorite casts of any RPG ever. Such a fun group of characters most all of which had interesting backstories and development. Zidane is one of the best protagonists in the series. He can come off as a bit of a typical shounen protagonist at first, but has a surprising bit of depth. Vivi is one of the best characters in any RPG ever, and seeing his journey of discovery about life, death, and existence is both amazing and heart-wrenching.

VIII on the other hand... The supporting party characters (read: people not named Squall or Rinoa) more or less spoke with the same voice. Aside from their brief introductory bits, they never really felt like individuals to me.

And, even as a semi-angsty teenager myself, Seifer never felt legitimate to me. He's just too obvious and ham-fisted for me to take seriously. Maybe that's the point, but I remember loathing his appearances in the game when I played it a decade ago.

Irvine has pretty much no development after the first disc, and the rest of his character basically amounts to "Hey dude, you think I gotta chance with Selphie?" "Hey, I think I'm making some progress on Selphie" "Man, I'm totally getting shut down by Selphie" "Dude, stop hogging all the hotties, atleast give me Selphie!"
The cast basically stopped acting as a group after disk 1. Quistis got it even worse, she was barely relevant after Squall became a SeeD, and that happens about two hours into the game. Selphie got a section at Trabia and at the Garden Festival, so she probably came out of it with the most screen time; Zell got the whole thing with the Balamb infiltration. Other than that it was all Rinoa and Squall.


FF8 had a lot of wasted opportunity. With such a small cast they could have really focused on the characters and made it a very interesting and personal story of a small group of young people, and up until the end of disk 1 it looked like that was what we were going to get. But then disk 2 was spent with half the group separated, and after disk 3 began it all just went to shit.

Ironically enough, FF9 pulled it off much better, even though it had more characters and about half of them weren't very relevant (Freya, Amarant, Quina). At its heart it was about Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi, and it does it incredibly well. Steiner is also pretty well-developed, but he's definitely a supporting character, albeit a well-done one (good in his own right, believable, but the story really isn't "about" him).

Battle System
I prefered IX's battle system for several reasons though I'm going to repeat a couple of DarkClaymores points -

1) You can control 4 characters in a battle. In FFVIII you can control only 3
2) The summoning system in FFVIII is too useful. I overused it and the battles became very repetitive. It even got annoying at times.
3) The Junction/Draw system in VIII was annoying. Magic was pretty worthless in general, but say I junctioned my Curaga to Spirit or something. If I used a Curaga spell, my spirit stat would go down because I've used one of the spells thats being junctioned -_-
4) IX's ability system is superior. You learned abilities from equipping gear. While on one hand you may have to use a inferior piece of gear for longer if you want to learn its ability, its still better then VIIIs system.

Graphics & Soundtrack
Graphically theyre both about on Par with eachother, though I would say IX edges out slightly ahead. VIII goes for a more realistic style while IX opted for a more cartoony style, and because of that IX has aged a slight bit better. It also has more impressive prerendered backgrounds imo.

IX's soundtrack was absolutely superb. I was never terribly impressed with VIIIs outside of a few select songs (Ultimecia's castle and Man with the machine gun to name a couple) but Uematsu outdid himself with IX (it was actually the soundtrack that led him to burnout and the reason he didn't compose X's soundtrack all by himself).

VIII Is definitely a pretty game, but I think it falls flat in many areas. It's more pretentious than artistic, IMO, and a lot of it feels forced. It doesn't help that the game's seminal moment is home to one of the most grating songs I've ever heard.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top