Quote Originally Posted by Rowan View Post
Alright now you've done it. FF8 is the most underrated and the only contender imo with ff7. Its the only ff to realistically depict its characters in depth with their personalities and overall development. The entire world is beauitfully crafted and everything is very unique. One of the best mini games of all the FF series which has the potential to make you incredibly powerful IF you put the time and effort into playing it, which can add a good 20+ hours of gameplay. FF12 was an alright game, except for the fact its story was lifted from Star Wards and all the characters with the exception of Balthier+Fran, are absolutely terrible - in both design and personality. The world map is inspired, the battle system refreshing, the world map amazing, but for me the only reason I havnt replayed it is because the story and characters are dirt, especially compared to VIII. How can you even say that 12 is even 'far' better than 8? Why even bring it up at all? Most of the people who didn't like 8 didnt because of the battle system, well nuts to them cause it actually gave you incentive to try other methods of powering up your characters other than the traditional mindless grinding of its predesesors.
As much as I love Final Fantasy VIII I have to admit its story and characters are not that compelling. Certain amount of intrigue is there, but sadly it's drowned in cheesy teen romance. Squall and Rinoa heavily overshadow other characters, so much so if it wasn't for that cringeworthy scene when they finally regain their memory regarding the orphanage (even though Irvine never lost it to begin with but choose not to speak of it the entire time, God knows why) a lot of main characters would be completely, utterly irrelevant, and even then a lot of them are just there. Not to mention how shallow villain Ultimecia is.

Speaking of villains, XII has one with actual personality and depth, one with genuine motives. You have to give it to Vayne, he's unlike any other villain prior to him. And as much as people don't like Vaan he still has more development and relevance than Zell, Selphie, Irvine, and sadly my favorite FF VIII character, Quistis, combined. Final Fantasy XII is clearly inspired by Star Wars which is not necessarily a bad thing, though I feel its story is different. You have your usual conflict, good vs evil, even though evil itself is not what it seems, but behind that is something bigger, bigger than said conflict, even bigger than characters themselves, and that's something Star Wars lacks. Speaking of the overall conflict, it's dark, gritty, mature, full of unexpected twists and turns, most importantly no teen love story. That's why I feel FF XII has better story and characters compared to VIII.

All subjective of course, these things always are.