Ugh this is hard. If I were to pick two categories, which in this case would surprisingly be music and art direction, it’d be an even match, so I have to go over every category to see which one comes out on top.

Music: Chrono Trigger very nearly wins this. I actually really like FFT’s OST, it’s got that signature Ivalice cinematic quality, but CT probably has my favorite of Mitsuda’s scores, since it’s the jazziest of the bunch. One point for Chrono Trigger here.

Art direction: Here FFT emerges as a clear victor. Now I love Akira Toriyama as much as any other nerd, but there is something about Akihiko Yoshida’s works that just tickles my imagination in all the right places. Point for FFT, and now we’re one to one.

Gameplay: This is another seriously hard pick. On the one hand, FFT has one of my favorite battle systems in any JRPG, with an incredibly in-depth grid combat system as well as the superb job class system. However, FFT is pretty much just battles whereas CT is balanced, offering a ton of variety, and generally just being super fun to breeze through. CT is getting this, so it’s now at 2 to 1.

Side content: FFT definitely has a lot going for it here, especially in War of the Lions, but the gameplay issue I mentioned above hampers it yet again - all side content basically just amounts to more battles. CT’s side content is all about tying up loose ends for characters, and the multiple endings are also a ton of fun, encouraging more playthroughs and simply making the story more diverse. CT still in the lead with 3 to 1.

Plot: now here’s a dilemma. Do I give this nomination to the story that’s a bit on the simple side but executed flawlessly, or the far more mature and ambitious plot that’s rarely seen in video games executed so well, even if it falters a bit towards the end? You guys know my tastes, so it’s probably no surprise that I’ll be voting for the “GoT before GoT was cool” thing FFT has going on. And hey, it still ended way better than that show 3:2.

Characters: Similar to plot, I could go for the simple yet incredibly well-balanced and humorous cast of CT, but there is just something about those complex people in FFT that I can’t stop talking about them. I could go on for days about Ramza and Delita’s individual journeys and how they play off each other incredibly well. I could go on about how incredible the admittedly few women in this game are, with Agrias’ knightly devotion, Ovelia’s tragic tale and Rapha’s fearless determination. Though the allegiances don’t shift as abruptly as, say, in Tactics Ogre, the character dynamics kept me at the edge of my seat, and they’re just incredible from a psychological perspective too. This is a resounding win for FFT. 3:3.

Villains: Looks like this one is going to be the deciding vote, and by now I know who the winner is, but let me preface this by saying what follows: I think Lavos is a tremendously well-executed antagonist. As far as force of nature villains go, I don’t think I’ve seen a better example in video games. He’s a freaky alien that truly embodies Eldritch horror by stating truly horrifying and incomprehensible until the very end. I could really go on and on about how much I love Lavos. However, FFT has the nuance that I feel even fewer games can nail down. Yes, we’ve got the demons trying to take over the world - who are fairly generic but are still pretty scary in how they work, but it’s the complicated human antagonists that make this game. Wiegraf is an intensely tragic character who showcases that the real villain of the story are the societal inequalities in this society, which is a topic that’s probably even more relevant today than it was in the mid-90s. We’be got a corrupt church that’s actually corrupt in a way real world churches are and not in the typical “aha! You though we were good but we’re actually demon worshippers!” thing you usually see in Japanese media. Finally, we have Argath, the single most detestable human being in any FF. And he doesn’t even get any help from a demon. He’s just legitimately a terrible, entitled person that isn’t exaggerated in the slightest. FFT wins this, and as such it wins my vote.