Is Final Fantasy IX better than Final Fantasy VIII?

[The Fat Bioware Nerd]

Discuss.

[trancekuja]

No , but it's better than Tomb Raider 2

[Bastian]

I've never played VIII. I refuse to play VII, VIII, and anything that looks super techy. If it doesn't have castles and swords and moogles and chocobos and crystals and pre-industrialized civilization, it's not FF to me.

Thus, I LOVE IX, because it was finally a return to the FF roots after what I feel are three massive departures.

[charliepanayi]

No, but only just. They're both my favourite FF games and there's very little between them for me. I do love how different FFIX is to its predecessors on the PSX though. And having a main character who was less introspective made a good change too (I like Cloud and Squall, but I like a bit of variety too).

[arcanedude34]

Yes. LOTS of things are better than Final Fantasy VIII. Like getting hit by a freight train! : D

[FFIX Choco Boy]

Yes. FFVIII was too... I can't really think of a word, but it could have been alot better. Monsters lvling with you? Bah! That means you can hit lvl 100 in the first area! WHAT? LVL 100? NO! L5 death is now useful!(Yeah, it has decimated my whole party many times before.) Hmm, I can now do great damage with GFs and summon them unlimited times! Good thing, it's the only thing in the game that even does a good amount of damage. What? If I want to do anything other than attack I need to equip a GF anyways? What if I get a person without a GF thrown into the Ulty battle? Bah! No more MP you say? Ok, then what? A draw system with 100 max magics? Juntion? I used ultima and my HP went down! WTF!

Yeah, IX rocks VIII, except in the card game. VIII was good, but IX seemed way to random...

[Lacarus]

VIII's my favorite, IX a close second, might even make first-place in a year or so. VIII was my first FF, and at the time I identified myself with Squall, we was like sooo alike. I love the world, the idea of Gardens, the monsters, the summons, the characters (except Quistis), Ragnarok and the story.
IX has more replay value to me, it has the absolutly best mini-game, Choco's Hot&Cold, which is a great way to get all the good stuff. Other side-quests and mini-games like frog catching and Mognet Central etc. are all great. The fighting system, however, has some flaws. It's too slow and it took me a while to get used to it and calculate which commands to give. And the Trance can't carry over, which i horrible, as I sometimes missed it by issuing a command to one character, then the enemy hits another character who enter Trance state and the first character finishes the enemy off. But, again, the world, characters, monsters and story were great.

[Wolf Kanno]

I love IX, I like VIII. Both have their faults but between the two I felt IX had fewer and its faults were more tolerable. I love the ideal of VIII. It really tried to do so many different things and when I think about how it all could have worked so well, I see it for the masterpiece it is. Then reality sets in and its back to business as usual. Still, I give the game loads of applause for trying something new and being different which is more than I can say about some other faulty games in the series.

IX is a genuine masterpiece, it has a few hang ups here and there but nothing I feel that takes away from the overall experience. Battle system wise it wasn't anything terribly new but it had also been so long since we played an FF title with established classes that it felt fresh despite being old school. I don't feel the gameplay bothered me as much as others but then again, I rate battle systems on function.

IX definetly had a better soundtrack and easily the best FMV's in the entire series. In fact, most IX's FMVs were awesome whereas some of VIII's were a bit irrelevant and felt more like the programmers just showing off what they could do.

[Mirage]

No. FF9 was fail.

[Lacarus]

IX definetly had a better soundtrack and easily the best FMV's in the entire series. In fact, most IX's FMVs were awesome whereas some of VIII's were a bit irrelevant and felt more like the programmers just showing off what they could do.

Can't believe I forgot to mention the music. I second that.

[Heath]

FFIX, simply put, had better gameplay, plot and characters. I'm not so sure about the music as I feel both FFIX and FFVIII have great soundtracks (though VIII does have a better piano collection).

[Crimson]

This thread is obvious flamebait.


To each his own opinion.

[Depression Moon]

I've never played VIII. I refuse to play VII, VIII, and anything that looks super techy. If it doesn't have castles and swords and moogles and chocobos and crystals and pre-industrialized civilization, it's not FF to me.

VIII and VII has all of that

In my opinion I think that IX is the better game. I prefer set classes in my FF games though if free will is available I think it has to be very balanced. I like IX's story a lot more than VIII and the characters as well. The characters have more background and personality in IX than in VIII. Not to mention that IX has a better rounded soundtrack as well. The FMVs are more frequent and astounding in IX. It's personally my favorite and I hold it as the olympic torch of all Final Fantasy's.

[FFIX Choco Boy]

Oh god, I forgot the simply amazing music and FMVs of IX! How could I? Shame on me. VIII's music wasn't as good and the FMVs did seem really unneeded alot of the time.

[charliepanayi]

FFVIII's FMVs were unnecessary? I have no idea if they were 'necessary' but they were fantastic so frankly I couldn't care less. The opening, the ending, the introduction of each main character, the ending, Waltz for the Moon, Squall getting an icicle through the chest, the Lunar Cry...did I mention the ending? Not to say FFIX was shabby in that department, the destruction of Lindblum, Cleyra and Alexandria, entering Memoria, Bahamut turning on Brahne, all pretty thrilling too.