Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy IX

[Salodin]

I'd say 8, but only cause I was so young when I played 9 that I never beat it. I should probably give it a run through and see what everyone is talking about.

FF8s battle system is either a hate it/love it thing. It's one of my favorite battle systems ever, and I really did enjoy the plot to the game. It's up there as one of my favorite ff games.

[Tekoa]

IX definitely. While VIII was good, the battle system and story of IX was far more enjoyable. Drawing magic from enemies all day was not much fun. At least until you get aura.

[chikalin]

the story of IX was actually my favorite of all. I wish they'd remake it and get rid of the cartoony characters, the only people I know that disliked IX disliked it for that reason. it deserves so much more love than it gets!

[TacoTaru]

Nine without question, although eight was definitely the second best of the PS1 era.

[BlackMoomba]

Triple Triad >>>>>>>>>> Tetra Master. But yeah, that's all 8 had going for it over 9 (that and Moomba's ).

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Loved the concept of Time Compression, Lunatic Pandora, and the Deep Sea Research Lab, but overall IX wins (Memoria is an amazing final dungeon in terms of scenery).

[Koul]

I've played both of em to extreme death but I'd go with 9. The only way I would play 8 is via emulator so you can turbo through all the drawdrawdradrawdrawdrawdrawdrawdrawdrawdrawdraw you haveta do.

chocobo hot and cold is also one of the funnest side-game-quest-thingamajigs I've ever played in a game. but at the same time I loved learning abilities from the GF's. ugh.

[bigbomb]

7 hands down...

but.... out of 8 and 9...
i'd go with 9 /

[Blabj]

I played through IX recently, so VIII.

Spoiler: show

jk, IX lol

[sruon]

IX

[Charismatic]

Final Fantasy VIII. Every single time.

Final Fantasy IX is probably the easiest in the series. It's so easy that they might as well remove all of the battles and make it an interactive movie because they provide absolutely no challenge if you have a brain. That's why Lv1 runs in less than 20 hours while getting every missable item are possible.
Of course FFVIII is barely better in this regard but at least you generally have to go out of your way to break the game, so it's really your choice rather than the game just being far too easy in general.

Then there's the story and characters... while both games had final villain reveals at the end that were kind of like 'huh?' At least FFVIII had the decency to explain the boss's purpose and everything is easily understood. There's still debate in FFIX as to whether or not the game even actually tells you anywhere what the deal on Necron actually is. That is simply silly.
FFVIII's story is told better overall as well and the characters click with each other and by the end of the game the entire team has a certain synergy rather than the characters basically being 'paired up' for the most part. Like Steiner and Vivi, Dagger and Zidane... outside of their little pairings the characters hardly have much of anything to do with or say to each other. Kinda strange to travel all the way around the world with someone, go to another planet with them and step into another realm like Memoria with someone and have nary a thing to say to them...
I also liked that in FFVIII, the boss ends up looping time at the end... kinda made me think of FF1 where you break a time loop.

Perhaps one day they could make a game where four heroes of light show up with crystals and end that time loop. There's much potential for a cool sequel there.

Oh, and did I mention the fact that the card game blows FFIX's card game out of the water?

[solracht]

Final Fantasy IX is probably the easiest in the series. It's so easy that they might as well remove all of the battles and make it an interactive movie because they provide absolutely no challenge if you have a brain.

Did you skip XIII? Either way, the no challenge part is true for pretty much every FF except for a few encounters in the old ones.

I really enjoyed the story in VIII until you hit the GF ex Machina part in Trabia, which must be one of the most facepalming moments in any FF storyline. However I actually find the rest of the game/story really enjoyable as long as you choose to ignore the few hours where they "realize" they all knew each other.

I still don't know the motivations of Ultimecia besides wanting to compress time because she wanted to. I think Kuja's character is explained and developed better, and while the Necron part at the end was pretty dumb, I don't think it detracts much from the story (certainly not as much as the Trabia part in VIII).

Here's another vote for FFIX.

[Nevex]

The orphanage scene wasn't anything special to me, just another "oh hey so it wasn't a coincidence" event, but I fail to see how it didn't make sense at all.
Doesn't everyone tell you that GF's cause memory loss early in the game?
Doesn't Irvine freak out at the parade because he couldn't bring himself to shoot Edea?

From a real life perspective, if you stop seeing a kid for 5-6 years, recognizing them isn't easy once they're adults. They all stopped seeing each other for a while (Zell and Quistis were adopted and Selphie went to Trabia), except Squall and Seifer.
The characters point that out, wondering how those two could forget each other, coming to the conclusion that Seifer probably remembers because he doesn't use GF's as much (and he confirms that when he calls Edea "Matron").

The only point that is unclear is how Squall forgot that Seifer was in the same orphanage when they argued daily, but all the other pieces fall into place.

[Rivero]

Final Fantasy VIII. Every single time.

Final Fantasy IX is probably the easiest in the series. It's so easy that they might as well remove all of the battles and make it an interactive movie because they provide absolutely no challenge if you have a brain. That's why Lv1 runs in less than 20 hours while getting every missable item are possible.
Of course FFVIII is barely better in this regard but at least you generally have to go out of your way to break the game, so it's really your choice rather than the game just being far too easy in general.

Then there's the story and characters... while both games had final villain reveals at the end that were kind of like 'huh?' At least FFVIII had the decency to explain the boss's purpose and everything is easily understood. There's still debate in FFIX as to whether or not the game even actually tells you anywhere what the deal on Necron actually is. That is simply silly.
FFVIII's story is told better overall as well and the characters click with each other and by the end of the game the entire team has a certain synergy rather than the characters basically being 'paired up' for the most part. Like Steiner and Vivi, Dagger and Zidane... outside of their little pairings the characters hardly have much of anything to do with or say to each other. Kinda strange to travel all the way around the world with someone, go to another planet with them and step into another realm like Memoria with someone and have nary a thing to say to them...
I also liked that in FFVIII, the boss ends up looping time at the end... kinda made me think of FF1 where you break a time loop.

Perhaps one day they could make a game where four heroes of light show up with crystals and end that time loop. There's much potential for a cool sequel there.

Oh, and did I mention the fact that the card game blows FFIX's card game out of the water?

FF8 had a very exploitable system though. You could farm high level magic via Triple Triad and start the game with insane amounts of STR. I never played FF9 but I've beaten FF8 several times and I'm finding FF9 to be actually pretty challenging. (Halfway through Disk 2 I believe) The only gripe I'm having with FF9 is how fucking annoying it is to Steal spam every boss battle. I've had like Couldn't steal anything pop up 7 times in a row and gone "Fuck it." The funny part is I even have the Bandit ability which supposedly improves steal success rate.

Triple Triad > Tetra Master 100% though. I've read there's no actual incentive to play Tetra either since it doesn't give you anything useful while Triple Triad actually gave you some useful cards which could be turned into high level magic/item components which is HOW IT SHOULD BE.

[ronin sparthos]

Most of the points I wanted to make have already been made so I'll throw my vote down for IX.

<3 Chocobo H+C. IX had one of the most complete likable casts of the series. It isn't like XII where Fran/Penelo/Vaan seemed like tack-ons or VII where I would often verbally assault Cloud for being a moron. The game was lighthearted and a breath of fresh air after VI-VIII took serious stories. IX goes back to being like V in a ways.

Trance Kuja is the final boss of IX, Necron was just something tacked on as a throwback to Neo-Exdeath/Zeromus/Final Ultimecia etc - the big fucking boss that looks like a monster.

That isn't to say that VIII doesn't have charm with it's time loop and all but I really dislike Squall as a protagonist since had all the emotions of a cardboard box. The game has moments though (Laguna flashbacks, Disc1 end, motherfucking Odin, missile base, Galbadia garden, Ragnarok in space etc)

Have I mentioned flying colleges are a fucking brilliant idea?

[Cesaria]

IX.... if you're allowed to skip all of disc 1 and get to where it gets marginally more interesting. I tried so many times to start 9 but couldn't fucking get into the good story part of it until I gritted my teeth and got through the initial shitey bits. Only really forced through playing it a few months back and did enjoy it when I started - but the first disc was a bit of a gritted teeth endurance battle.

Having said that - the FMVs in VIII just blew me the fuck away the first time I saw them - the end of disc 1 one crashed the shit out of my very original PS1, ending up with me being at the store at 9am the following morning to buy a new console to be able to carry on playing. 8 got ruined by me not being allowed to leave Rinoa for dead was sooo fucked off when I had to rescue the annoying tart. Sometimes it's fun to totally cheese through a game exploiting some tactic though... which 8 is completely open to.

I generally expect any SE lead character to be a spikey haired emo who needs a good slapping so Squall was nothing new.

[Nevex]

FF8 had a very exploitable system though. You could farm high level magic via Triple Triad and start the game with insane amounts of STR. I never played FF9 but I've beaten FF8 several times and I'm finding FF9 to be actually pretty challenging. (Halfway through Disk 2 I believe) The only gripe I'm having with FF9 is how fucking annoying it is to Steal spam every boss battle. I've had like Couldn't steal anything pop up 7 times in a row and gone "Fuck it." The funny part is I even have the Bandit ability which supposedly improves steal success rate.

Triple Triad > Tetra Master 100% though. I've read there's no actual incentive to play Tetra either since it doesn't give you anything useful while Triple Triad actually gave you some useful cards which could be turned into high level magic/item components which is HOW IT SHOULD BE.

They're more or less the same in terms of difficulty once you learn how battle mechanics work.

FFVIII has the exploitable Junction system but you actually have to farm cards/items/magic before getting overpowered. The process is pretty fun though. One of things that makes Triple Triad great is that it's a very rewarding minigame, which makes it very addicting.

FFIX doesn't have a customization system that turns your characters into death machines, but enemies have pathetic HP (most regulars have less than 10k HP and endgame bosses don't go past 70k) and you can hit 9999 damage very easily.
The fact that you can beat the game's superboss with a level 1 party in less than 2 turns says a lot about it.
And yeah Tetra Master is completely useless after a certain event at the beginning of disc 3 (and it's the ONLY time where there is a reason to win the game), not to mention that it's way too luck-based for my taste.

[Spira]

FFVIII hands down for me.

VIII and IX both have very distinct opposite styles.

VIII has a more modern contemporary style, with a touch of art-decor and sci-fi.
IX has a more traditional pure fantasy style.

VIII's battle system is far deeper than IXs, allowing for a fully customizable experience and for players to experiment with creating certain builds for their characters. In addition to this, the overall gameplay system in VIII is more connected and interwoven. You could play cards and use card mod to improve your characters - the GF ability menu is probably the best reason for this. There's many ways to go about doing most things, with a flexibility that allows you to do it very early in the game if you wanted to. IX requires less of this. It's mainly equipping new gear and then learning abilites, after which you can stick to using particular ones you favor anyway.

Difficulty and levels. Neither are particularly difficult. Leveling is never necessary in VIII, which is quite nice because the gameplay is balanced around your level and the only way you can break above it is if you learn to use the Junction system well. In IX, battles are simply not hard at all. Considering you can defeat the games superboss Ozma at lv1 if you play it right, its definitely a much easier game.

also Triple Triad >>>>>> Tetra Master fo sho.

but IX is better than VIII in terms of immersion. The world is richer and the NPCs have more character. Localization work for IX is also superior given that not just characters but entire towns have more flavor. One could also liken VIII and IXs comparison to a teenage drama vs a theater play for youths.

Visuals-wise, VIII has lower polygon count for character models. They look simpler and a bit cleaner. IX's gets a bit 'dirty', altho the characters also feature more facial expression. VIII is realistic, IX uses a deformed style. Environments in IX are way better. They incorporate a lot more moving objects and NPCs to bring it to life. FMV wise, IX is only slightly better - the biggest improvement is in environmental detail.

tl;dr version:

VIII is like art - looks simple on the surface but very deep if you delve into it, and also very satisfying. At the same time, its very youth-oriented, which makes it something that teens can easily relate to.
IX is like nostalgia - it doesn't pretend to be something its not. it is exactly what it makes itself out to be, but can really make you feel good when it evokes fond memories of older games through its similarities. only problem with that is, memories not included. If you're a newer/younger gamer, you will have less to build upon.

[The Stig]

I've mentioned in nearly every other FF8 thread before, but I'll mention it again. Also, for those who want an overall glance at the FF8 world, don't forget this awesome poster for FF8 here:

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/102389-1000-images

And to copy pasta what I said in that thread about why FF8:

I stated it elsewhere before but I highly believe the reason that people like FF8, aside from the system, is because they all played it during their teenage days, and because FF8 had a school theme to it, the 2 kinda hooked! It sure worked for me and my mates when we were 13-14 at the time. Back then, the idea of this game was like a fantasy dream for us, as lame as it sounds, since we were all looking forward to going to College/university to be independent. FF8 hammers this point on a bit, with the travel, and turning up to classes, etc (outside of the other more fantasy elements, i.e. summons/fighting).

That is what I think is why there is an undying attachment to that game itself, depending on when you were born which translates to when you would've most likely encountered/played the game. It's now been nearly 12 years since its release. Due to the age of us when playing, as Spira has said above, it's something a lot of players could relate to. Even if you weren't at this age bracket (lets say 12-15) when playing the game, due to the heavy school feel of it, some (although I find this less likely) like it due to the "school days" feel.

Outside of being a tiny (debatable) bit of a goof, I loved observing the differences of the more experienced Laguna team compared to Squall's team. Annnnnd, you cannot deny the first time you encountered a random battle as Laguna's team ... IT WAS FRIGGING AMAZING! (music) -- except maybe the Beatrix fights, and maybe the Zidane emo sequence, I can't think of another equivalent moment (even they were kinda dull).

[Mrbeansman]

IX had the superior romantic relationship between the Male and Female leads which is ironic since VIII was supposed to be a "Love Story".