Xenogears V FFVII

[Dreddz]

Just one of my random threads
So pick dammit, from what ive played, Xenogears is great, but still not on par with FFVII

[Aphelion]

Xenogears is way better than FFVII. But it's only my opinion, of course...

Xenogears had a deeper plot, darker characters, and it introduced an epic to thousands of gamers across the world. FFVII was just an overrated RPG, and even though it spread the RPG mania in western shores, its influence can't be compared to Xenogears' (FFVII's was bigger, but Xenogears caused much more trouble, as it was almost not translated into English, and when it did, there weren't enough copies, at least until 2001, I guess, when new copies were produced).

Again, that's only my opinion, and maybe any of these facts isn't accurate as I'd like them to be.

[raskerino]

I prefer FFVII, xenogears never caught me the same way- and I loved the materia system.

[Vyk]

They both took hold of my soul and wouldn't let go.

[Destai]

Xenogears is way better than FFVII. But it's only my opinion, of course...

Xenogears had a deeper plot, darker characters, and it introduced an epic to thousands of gamers across the world. FFVII was just an overrated RPG, and even though it spread the RPG mania in western shores, its influence can't be compared to Xenogears' (FFVII's was bigger, but Xenogears caused much more trouble, as it was almost not translated into English, and when it did, there weren't enough copies, at least until 2001, I guess, when new copies were produced).

Again, that's only my opinion, and maybe any of these facts isn't accurate as I'd like them to be.

Xenogears from what I've heard was far deeper and more epic but I've also heard VII is much more fun. I know which I'd pick.

[Lord Magician]

FFVII all the way!

[Dreddz]

Xenogears is way better than FFVII. But it's only my opinion, of course...

Xenogears had a deeper plot, darker characters, and it introduced an epic to thousands of gamers across the world. FFVII was just an overrated RPG, and even though it spread the RPG mania in western shores, its influence can't be compared to Xenogears' (FFVII's was bigger, but Xenogears caused much more trouble, as it was almost not translated into English, and when it did, there weren't enough copies, at least until 2001, I guess, when new copies were produced).

Again, that's only my opinion, and maybe any of these facts isn't accurate as I'd like them to be.

Xenogears from what I've heard was far deeper and more epic but I've also heard VII is much more fun. I know which I'd pick.

Ive only played a couple of hours into Xenogears, And the story has already hooked me. The anime scenes are really cool. And its not like thast the only reason to like Xenogears, the Battles are great too. But the graphics are plop. But FFVII is still my favourite......
You should get Breaker Pro Destai, you can play imports then......

[Destai]

Xenogears is way better than FFVII. But it's only my opinion, of course...

Xenogears had a deeper plot, darker characters, and it introduced an epic to thousands of gamers across the world. FFVII was just an overrated RPG, and even though it spread the RPG mania in western shores, its influence can't be compared to Xenogears' (FFVII's was bigger, but Xenogears caused much more trouble, as it was almost not translated into English, and when it did, there weren't enough copies, at least until 2001, I guess, when new copies were produced).

Again, that's only my opinion, and maybe any of these facts isn't accurate as I'd like them to be.

Xenogears from what I've heard was far deeper and more epic but I've also heard VII is much more fun. I know which I'd pick.

Ive only played a couple of hours into Xenogears, And the story has already hooked me. The anime scenes are really cool. And its not like thast the only reason to like Xenogears, the Battles are great too. But the graphics are plop. But FFVII is still my favourite......
You should get Breaker Pro Destai, you can play imports then......

Thanks for the advice *googles it*

[Captain Maxx Power]

I'd have said Xenogears, if the second disk didn't want to make me eat my own eyeballs out.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Xenogears is better than Final Fantasy VII on just about all levels.

Story: Xenogears is infinitely superior. Period.
Graphics: The cutscenes are about equal. FFVII has better backgrounds than Xenogears but FFVII has some of the worst standard character graphics I've ever seen (block people!?). I'd say about a tie for this.
Characters: Just about every character in Xenogears has an expansive backstory and well-defined personality. Even Chu Chu ties in to the major plot. FFVII characters were much less compelling, and sometimes downright annoying.
Villains: Again, Xenogears is infinitely superior. Jenova was a decent bad guy, of course, but she simply can't beat Grahf, Id, Ramsus, Miang, and Krellian. And Sephiroth (ignoring the fact that he was a frozen corpse in the Great Crater for a moment) really wasn't that good. He killed Aeris and burned a village to the ground and failed at crushing the planet with a big space rock. I don't care if he looks cool and has a massive sword, he doesn't hold a candle to Grahf who can take down an 18-meter gear with his BARE HANDS.
Gameplay: I honestly didn't like FFVII's system all that much. The materia was interesting, but it was nothing really special to me, and most of it was simply tried-and-true Final Fantasy format. I found the Deathblows and the Gear Combat to be far more entertaining. Also, Final Fantasy VII, as is common with most Final Fantasies, is really quite linear in where you can travel. Xenogears uses a fully 3D world that can be interacted with, and the ability to jump adds whole new dimensions to the gameplay. Final Fantasy VII could easily have been a sprite game and still played through essentially the same. It doesn't do anything new besides mess with the viewpoint a bit so it looks more 3D (which often caused laughably bad angles).
Replay Value: The sheer size of Xenogears is immense, and the extras and complexity of the story can easily make it replayable. Final Fantasy VII lacks that, it's a fairly linear storyline with very little plot twists, making it easily predictable and less fun to play through again.

In conclusion, Xenogears is far better than Final Fantasy VII.

[raskerino]

Just to start a debate I'll disagree with the above post. First off don't talk so much as if an opinion is fact. I found the sequence in midgar a fun easy way to get into FF7, while xenogears did not catch me early making it much harder to get into the game. The opening stuff with the town getting destroyed didn't matter to me because I didn't have any connection with any of the characters. Then with the scenes where you meet bart I didn't get interested due to at that point there wasn't a lot of depth to the characters imo. FFVII caught me faster, I loves the customizable materia system, so while I liked the xenogears system it wasn't as enjoyable for me. The story to xenogears is more in depth but starts slower and never caught me like FFVII's imo. I liked the character's to FFVII more. I liked the backgrounds to VII and loved the feel of the cutscenes making it for me better in that category to.

I like both games but VII worked for me in such a wonderful way that I prefer it by a decent amount.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Xenogears takes a lot longer to get into, which is what would be the main divisor. I don't mind a slow buildup but a lot of people don't like it. I actually prefer a slow buildup if it is done correctly, it gives more time to get into things and doesn't just throw crap at you.

In any event, to me, a story is everything. And I can say I quite honestly found FFVII's story to be more than a little weak. Also, I think Xenogears has little trouble catching a person, the village destruction might not have mattered because you didn't know the people, but what DID matter is that it happened and it happened for a reason, though at the time you don't know it. The fact that the FMV they show depicts Fei grinning maniacally before the place goes tells me that something's going on and I want to know more.

With regards to FFVII's storyline and why, exactly, I felt it was weak, was because it really had a been-there-done-that feel to it. Having played RPGs as long as I have, it was just a massive chase-sidequest-chase-sidequest deal. Certainly some interesting points along the road, but nothing really worth note.

[Lord Chainsaw]

2 things I preferred about FF7:

- Battles. Although the combo system for Xenogears was fairly creative, it didn't work out very well. It suffers from the same thing 7th Saga and Xenosaga suffer from, either you waste rounds storing your power, or you unleash little pea attacks making the battles (especially when encountering one giant enemy as opposed to a group of smaller ones) last longer than they really need to. I enjoyed the gear battles, however, the fact that they pulled a SaGa and made it so that the gears cannot level up aside from equips really restricts the enjoyment the RPG player gets from putting in effort to make their character as strong as they want so the difficulty of boss battles can be directly proportional to effort put in. Same reason I don't like Lunar SSS's battle system. FF7's is nothing special, but it works.

- Dungeon design. I'm a very strong opponent of filler puzzles in non puzzle games, explaining my dislike for a good portion of the Zelda games. Final Fantasy 7's levels are levels you explore, either straightfowardly, or branched out on your own, until you reach the end. Mind you we still have the token puzzle dungeon "the Temple of the Ancients" but the puzzles aren't nearly as rampant as they are in Xenogears. Just thinking about the Xenogears dungeons give me a headache. The damn math puzzle in the area where you fight voltron? Solaris? Kelslev? The entirity of Deus? No thanks.

2 things I preferred about Xenogears:

- The ending. Xenogears's ending seemed much more played out than Final Fantasy 7's. I enjoyed seeing that side of Krelian, and I felt a sense of completion at the end of it.

- Fei. I've always liked Cloud, but not because he was anything to deep of a character. Fei's incredible degree of schizophrenia and reincarnation made him seem like a much better character late in the game, although I'll admit I didn't like him at first. At the beginning he just seemed like another one of those "Mega Man X" type of heroes that couldn't stand fighting. Seeing him change felt good.

[Vyk]

I love a good debate between two of my favorite RPGs ever. But I have to wonder about the rules of spoilers. I know given 7s age and popularity that its not worth worrying about the miniscule percentage of people that don't know what happens in it. And Xenogears might be just about as old. But its not nearly as popular, considering it never made it to the UK and didn't sell half as good as 7 did in America. A lot of people have heard wonderful things about it and are eagerly looking forward to it even now. I worry this thread now might ruin that for those people. (Though I must admit I never did understand the concept behind spoilers. But they bother some people and I respect that. Knowing Aeris was going to die at some point, and experiencing it happening were totally different for me. But that's just me) :D

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

The rules on spoilers for games beyond 3 years old on this site are basically, you don't need tags, if someone still hasn't played it they should probably be avoiding the threads in which people are talking about it.