Match 6 is up. Categories are Plot, Villain, and Side Content.
Final Fantasy VII
vs.
The Witcher 3
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Match 6 is up. Categories are Plot, Villain, and Side Content.
Final Fantasy VII
vs.
The Witcher 3
This is my favorite game of all time. So I won't even bother to explain until someone casts some snark my way and then I'll probably go on a tirade.
I'll probably at some point anyway talk at some length about why Sephiroth is a truly great villain (best of the series IMO) even if his oversaturation in things since FF7 may have tarnished his image.
Oof, that's a really tough match-up. Honestly I'd vote for both if I could.
They're just about even on plot, but I'm gonna have to give it to The Witcher, for the simple reason that it allows itself to focus on smaller character moments a tiny bit more often than FFVII, and those character moments tend to land better for me in The Witcher.
It's trickier in the villains category. Sephiroth is a great villain, and the main villain of The Witcher III's base game is terrible. I don't even remember his name or what he looked like. He's really just a walking plot device. However, the villains in The Witcher III's DLC blow Sephiroth out of the water. In Hearts of Stone, Gaunter O'Dimm is equal parts creepy and powerful, and he might be one of my favorite villains ever. In Blood and Wine, Dettlaff and Syanna have a fascinating dynamic. I feel compelled to give the DLC less weight since it's optional, but I think it still ends up as a tie.
Side content, though, is not really a contest. The side content in FFVII is great (Vincent and Yuffie's storylines are the highlight for me, and there are some great optional bosses), but almost every single piece of side content in The Witcher III tells a compelling story. Its side quests are riveting, to the point where they're quite frequently better than the main quests.
As much as I hate to vote against FFVII, it's gonna have to be The Witcher III.
The plot of The Witcher 3 is easily its weakest aspect. Where the first two games actually tried to do something new, the third one pretty much recycles plot points from the books, making them an inferior copy. Eredin is also way more flat than he was in the books and the changed motivation of the Aen Elle really just makes them feel generic. The characters do make the story enjoyable however, as they’re incredibly well-done. But since characters are not a category, I’ll use another argument :p
The Witcher 3’s side content blows FFVII’s out of the water. The side quests in Witcher don’t even feel like side quests - they’re incredibly substantive and expand on the game’s strongest aspect, which is the characters. Also, the expansions easily make up for the main game’s plot and villain. Hearts of Stone is downright sublime in all those aspects, and while Blood and Wine’s plot falters a bit, it’s still solid and the villain is compelling.
Granted, I expect FFVII will win this, which I don’t think is entirely fair. The side comtent is good, sure, Sephiroth is a love him or hate him kinda situation, but the plot is one of the most contrived in FF history, especially on the second disc. Then again, most of the people who’ve been voting in the Thunderdome so far haven’t exactly been huge FFVII fans. We’ll see how this goes.
How you can say this unironically when Ardyn exists is beyond meQuote:
Originally Posted by Lord Golbez
Isn't that FFXV? You know I never finished FFXV, right? If Ardyn's who I think he is, he wasn't even revealed to be a villain as far as I got. Just a shady character.
I doubt it would change my mind, because we have very different tastes in villains (as evidenced by FFXII at least), but how I can say it is because I haven't even considered Ardyn.
Witcher 3's main plot isn't great, but I'll honestly still take it over FF7's, which goes downhill like a rollercoaster at its peak after Midgar. Side content's no contest here, Witcher 3 annihilates FFVII in that regard. Which leaves the villain..and yeah, Sephiroth is a better villain than Eredin, but that's not enough to flip it after W3 won the other two categories for me.
You know, I may give Witcher 3 plot. I agree FFVII's plot wasn't that interesting after Midgar, and Witcher 3's main plot may not be all that great, but many of the various side plots are fantastic. The other two categories are easy wins for FFVII. The Wild Hunt did not do it for me, but Sephiroth's backstory made him a great villain. For side content, plenty of things to do in both games. However, I grew tired of the 'track X with Witcher senses' quests of W3 while FFVII had some variety.