Which is the greatest, VII or XII?

[Pete]

Six.

That being said, VII was much better. XII had a cool idea, but could have done so much more with pretty much everything. The characters weren't particularly memorable, mostly because they didn't really have great stories... or histories. It really felt like a bunch of cliche's, without a real background. You have your treasure hunter, thief, disgraced knight, orphaned princess, main character's perky friend, and the typical ancient sage type person/ person shunned by her people for leaving the village.

The cool thing about XII was that it tried to kind of be a commentary on the war in Iraq, from the view of the Iraqis and on the world in general. Granted it wasn't modern at all, but you can kind of see the parallels, especially with the middle eastern flair of Rabanastre, and how the classes are so ridiculously segregated. I really dug that symbolism and how it kind of overstated itself. At the same time, because of that, I feel like they didn't really go too much further into the story. It was just a series of events to stop the evil empire from ruling/ destroying the world.

With VII, the plot slowly developed to where you think Shinra is the enemy, until the real enemy reveals itself, in a pretty surprising manner. Plus, there are so many more developed intricacies between the characters that you feel like you almost know them or what they're thinking in each situation. Each character has their own reason to join your party, whether or not it is for the same reasons as your protagonist.

XII did have a better battle system, but I hated the gambit system. I didn't like how totally hands-off you could make a battle, just by some simple menu planning. VII on the other hand killed me with random battles, especially when I was just trying to get to the next town. I did enjoy the materia system though, and the ATB systems. It really let you micromanage the battles, and if you screwed up, it was completely your fault. With XII, if you forgot to change your gambits based on each area or each type of enemy you fought, you could get screwed pretty easily.

The licensing board was a cool idea, but if you power leveled your characters, the game just wasn't fun anymore. If every character has every single skill, weapon, and augment, then they are pretty much completely interchangeable, and that really takes the fun out of the game. I do like how you can bring party members in though. The PHS system in VII was cool in that it at least gave an explanation as to what everyone was doing when they weren't in your party, but it also made it seem less authentic, like a rogue group traveling together.

That being said, they're both good games, but VII's character and story development, what should be the main focus of any RPG was much stronger and much more interesting than XIIs

Both don't even compare to VI though

[Heartless Angel]

Gotta say 7. Of course, I also hated 12 with a Passion. The ONLY thing 12 had on 7 was the graphics, and those are just a bonus, not a selling point for a game. I've played through 7 more times than I care to remeber. I have at least 2 memory cards full of 7 data. 12 however, it took me almsot a year just to force myself to play through it. The story was forgettable, as were the characters. And I loathe the combat system. And I think I deleted my completed 12 file to Replay Valkyrie Profile. I'd talk about replay value, but for me 12 barely had first play value.

[Cloudluver101]

FF VII is better than XII. Xii had a interesting storyline but thats about all it did for me. Battling in XII isnt as fun as it is in other games. The whole line goes to target thing just confuses me.....

[Dan558]

@ sharpshooter
Ok we can agree to disagree people have different opinions and I'm not going to hate anyone for liking XII, I just won't understand them for liking the odd things they do about the game

Gotta say 7. Of course, I also hated 12 with a Passion. The ONLY thing 12 had on 7 was the graphics, and those are just a bonus, not a selling point for a game. I've played through 7 more times than I care to remeber. I have at least 2 memory cards full of 7 data. 12 however, it took me almsot a year just to force myself to play through it. The story was forgettable, as were the characters. And I loathe the combat system. And I think I deleted my completed 12 file to Replay Valkyrie Profile. I'd talk about replay value, but for me 12 barely had first play value.

I think of XII in almost the same way, forgettable story and characters and barely a first play value. graphics were better but no sane person takes that into account when comparing games almost 10 years apart.

I've maxed out the clock a couple times in my many playthroughs of FFVII and I wouldn't even consider it my favorite FF anymore (played FFVI on the SNES but when i got it in Anthology I really fell for the game). FFXIII would have to be my second least favorite FF (not counting FFXI) and I still play that regularly because i don't actually dread it like XII

[Dan558]

I'm sooo glad FFVII is winning, it's amazing that it is even winning in the FFXII part of the FFF.

How FFXII got a 40/40 will always be a mystery to me. The game is boring, the characters are stale and the battle system isn't as remarkable as people seem to think. I think that the reviewers were so clouded by the new aspects of the game that they didn't take it at face value.

I used to be a big FFVII fanboy where i would hold it above all other games but I've grown to realize that others in the series do surpass it i.e. FFVI and FF Tactics (the original, God please forgive the gameboy ones for being garbage)

I don't really like FFXIII either but it kept my attention enough to finish it with commitment and even play it after beating it (mainly for trophies though...)