Hey everyone!

Hope someone can help me hehe.
I'm tryin to decide between playing Final Fantasy IX and VIII.
They both seem like really good games and due to not been able to play lost odessey at moment >.< damn Xbox 360 has gone for a cooling system upgrade!(Not risking RRoD)

Anyway any info that would help me decide between the two would be great!
I have had a lil go on both I got to 9's crash site and 8's Garden Party so pretty much near start.

So peoples experiences, likes and dislikes of each game would be good.
Or just some info that would help me decide.


Many thanks in advance!

Thanks!

IX a million times over. If you're not a graphics whore who thinks the 'chibi' style of the graphics is a put off, then you should have no problem. The storyline is engaging and very easy to follow. The characters are a hundred times more interesting and better written than the cast of VIII. The Ability system of IX is miles better and easier to use than VIII's junctioning system.

I guess it's a matter of taste. If you prefer a sci-fi feel, then play VIII, if you like a medieval/historical(*cough*better) feel then play IX.

The Chibi thing never bothered me.
I always thought that kinda style was cute.
I kinda think the storyline makes the game not the graphics.

I'd go for IX. It has a more developed xast and it's villain is pretty awesome, despite only wearing a jock strap and a cape.

VIII has decent everything, but the junction system is even more complicated than the tutorials put it off as. And they make it really complicated.

Judge Rulia pretty much hit the nail on the head! I really think the story line supercedes that of IX, but, hey! Zidane is pretty cute, so you might want to go for that one, (lol, but, in all seriousness IX has a more interesting party).

IX all the way, man. VIII has nothing on that game, except maybe a cooler weapon for the main character, but compared to all the other clear advantages IX has over VIII, even the awesomeness of the Gunblade can't bridge the immensely large gap between the two. First off, IX has a cast of genuinely likable characters with a lot of personality just in the team of playable characters alone. The main character, Zidane, is among my personal favorite Final Fantasy characters. He's got an interesting personality and backstory, and I can pretty much guarentee you'll grow to like him over the course of the game. I'm not saying I've got anything against the angsty bishounen protagonist common to Final Fantasies. In fact, Cloud Strife is another of my favorite FF characters, but Squall (the main character in Final Fantasy VIII) just wasn't done very well, I'm sorry to say, at least not when compared with such amazingly crafted characters as the aforementioned Cloud and Zidane. So, on the subject of the main character, there's just no question. Zidane>Squall.

The rest of the cast is just as good. Steiner is awesome, Dagger is awesome, Vivi is awesome, the whole cast is just freakin' awesome...except maybe Quina. You might not like him/her. Oh, yeah, and they all actually contribute something to the plot. You see, Final Fantasy VIII has the incriminating flaw of making 3/4ths of the main playable characters completely and utterly useless about halfway into the second Disc. After the event at the orphanage, the only characters who actually get any sort of backstory or character development are Squall and Rinoa. Everyone else is just about as bland as it gets, which is disappointing, too, because I personally thought that Quistis and Zell would've been great characters if the writers had bothered to expand on them AT ALL. IX, meanwhile, at least gives its PCs their own unique backstory that, in some way, shape, or form, ties into the greater scheme of the plot.

Oh, right...the main antagonist. IX has Kuja. Now, you might as well just buy Final Fantasy IX specifically for Kuja. He is, bar none, the greatest villain Final Fantasy has ever seen. Sephiroth? Kefka? Golbez? Wusses. There is only Kuja. He has everything you need to be a good RPG villain. He's ruthless, intimidating, powerful, charismatic, influential, and yet, despite all of this, he still manages to have an emotional impact and interesting backstory. I really can't praise him enough. He's not my all-time favorite villain (as anyone here can tell you, I believe the greatest villain of all time to be Vicious from Cowboy Bebop), but he's definitely one of my absolute favorite JRPG villains. Besides, the guy runs around in a thong and still manages to kick ass. How is that NOT great?

Final Fantasy VIII? You get Ultimecia. Notice how I put her name in Spoiler Tags. That's because you literally do not see her until about thirty minutes from the end credits, depending on how fast you beat the final bosses. That's right, you do not see the final villain of Final Fantasy VIII until you actually fight her in the last battle. Seriously, she may very well be the most disappointing villain in the history of RPG villains. She's got absolutely no backstory, no depth, and no personality beyond "Lawl I R EBIL!" All we know is that she's an evil sorceress from the future and that she wants to (you guessed it)...DESTROY THE UNIVERSE! And why does she want to destroy the universe? BECAUSE SHE'S EVIL! MWAHAHAHAHA! The fact that, before you face her, she gives the most cliche evil villain speech ever certainly doesn't help matters. I guess Edea was pretty cool, but she's only the villain for the first half of the game, so...

That ties me in nicely to my next point. The core storyline. Final Fantasy IX has a colorful world full of magic, monsters, and legends. Through its equally-colorful cast of characters and amazing villain, you're told an epic tale in many ways reminiscent of classic fantasy stories, except with the added element of depth. There's not a whole lot I can really say without spoiling anything, but I can promise you that you'll get an interesting story from FFIX. Of course, I'm not going to fool myself, here. There are a few boring parts of the game and several parts that could've been pulled off better, but I can honestly say that the good far outweighs the bad.

Now...I have to give credit where credit is due, as well. Final Fantasy VIII has what could be considered a very intriguing storyline at its core. Of all the Final Fantasies, VIII is probably closest to a genuine sci-fi story, though the elements of fantasy are certainly there in the sorceresses and GFs. There are some really fraggin' awesome parts of the story, too (such as the Garden War and the assassination attempt against Sorceress Edea). The problem? The storyline is so riddled with plot holes and a completely skewed conception of time travel that any awesome segments of the game are effortlessly overshadowed by them. Honestly, some people love to analyze the plot of FFVIII in an attempt to figure out all the crap that we see towards the end of the game, but they can never reach any sort of definite conclusion. What that says to me is that Square really didn't have any idea what they were talking about when they wrote the story for FFVIII. Added to that is the fact that, overall, VIII has a pretty bland environment, all things considered. The World Map just feels so...empty, you know?

Next up, th