Tetsuya Takahashi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yasumi Matsuno - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So of course people know the name Kitase and (shudder) Toriyama and maybe a few others but if you're gonna be a pretentious fop and start talking about which JRPGs have the best-written and deepest stories/characters, you're almost guaranteed to hear a ton of votes from similarly elitist snobs who say "Xeno-something" or "anything by Matsuno".
(Takahashi's name isn't quite as well known but everyone knows his various brainchildren)

Anyway, it got me thinking. I loved FFXII and while that wasn't exclusively done by Matsuno, I've heard it bears several of the hallmarks of his genius. I've also often heard Vagrant Story listed right up there with Xenogears for Best Plot in a JRPG.

And so the topic at hand. How would people here compare the two? Would you say they're about as good each other? Maybe the two excel in different areas and aren't comparable? I am gonna start playing Vagrant Story for the first time in a moment so maybe in a week or two I can offer up some ideas on this but until then I wanted to hear all your guys' takes on this.