I think the only down-side to Final Fantasy Tactics was the length of game-play but I suppose for games of that era, that length was actually fairly long, especially if you did a lot of experimenting within the game with the class system and dealt with some hidden dungeons!
Well, I'm the type of gamer that likes to grind my characters' levels so that by the time they fight bosses, they get curb stomped. Also, I juggle playing at least three different games at any amount of time, so the length won't be much of a problem.
I never got to play FF7 although I have grown more familiar with over the years from hearing so much about it and seeing a lot of clips and info of it online, and to be honest I never used to be interested in this genre to begin with but that was before I got to try out FF 8. What finally made me try it out was because the characters weren't cartoonish and small which appealed to me a lot more. I can't say if it's better but for me personally it has hit a lot more of the right notes.
I loved both. Here's my problem though. I hate the mechanics in 8 but loved the characters in 7. Both games in their own right are great games. They did really well. I think 7 was a little overrated and 8 was a bit overshadowed. If I got a game with 7's characters and mechanics in 8's gameplay I'd be happy. However, I have to put up with the new 7 action rpg style instead. bummer.
I prefer FF7 over FF8, but only slightly. I agree that FF7 is overrated and not as good as some of the fans make it out to be, but I have a couple of big problems with certain story and gameplay elements of 8 that make me like it less than 7.
They're both their own beast. FF7 is one of those games you don't make compete against other games because it was so beautifully done, while ff8 is more of this game nobody ever heard of cuz 7 did so much work, but 8 was still a masterpiece in its own way
My deal breaker with 8 was that the battles at some point, were much more about strategy rather than tactics. I love strategy games, just not usually when mixed in with rpg's. The fact that at some point you can't get any stronger annoyed me. As compared to 7, where it was so overrated. I loved 7, and the story was good and all. I think they got all the money they could out of it with all the shit loads of spin offs and all. I Think they both are great games for it's time.
I am in the minority that I prefer Final Fantasy VIII to Final Fantasy VII. Sometimes it seems as if VII has a near cult-like following. I'd still like to play both again, though.
This is my opinion on this one: Both games are nice but FF8 surpasses FF7 since it has better graphics and music. FF8 is just an improvement of FF7.
