Quote Originally Posted by Sword View Post
This would be no more than a REFERENCE to FFVII. If it was the same world, then the map would have similarities, there would be visible lifestream that far into the ground, there would be talk of monsters coming from the moon in FFVII and the mechanics behind the use of magic in both worlds are completely different. Also there is the fact that Cloud's Ultima Weapon is a lot smaller than the one in FFVIII and Ultima Weapon looks completely different.
it's up for debate but the two world maps do look similar, as do the swords in my opinion.