So, I was having "Awesome music sharing time" with a friend and I linked a Shin Megami Tensei song. I'm a pretty new SMT fan; my first was Persona 3 about two years ago. Before that, I was involved with the Final Fantasy community, a bit of Kingdom Hearts too. From the moment I picked up Persona 3, I was hooked. Persona 3 was an amazing game, and from the beginning it was obviously different from Final Fantasy. When I link songs, I look at the comments to see what kind comments they're leaving, viewing their opinions and stuff. "SMT > FF" wasn't new to me. I've seen it many times. But it's always bugged me. But when I read a comment saying something along the lines of "SMT is the new FF, the only good FF's were VII, VIII, and X. SMT is better." I snapped. I've had it with these FF and SMT fanboys.
Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are incomparable. Just because they're both popular RPG series, does not mean they're comparable. Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are both great series. Both have their fair share of good and bad games. The SMT community generally has immense hatred for the FF community. I can't choose peoples opinions for them; they'll have whatever opinion they want, but when they try to shove their opinions onto other people without even giving many, if any, valid points.
I'll start with the stories in SMT and FF's. Of course, if you've played a SMT and an FF, you'll know they have a different story each time. Shin Megami Tensei generally revolves around a person or a group of people with the ability to recruit or summon demons and use these demons to aid them in saving the world or something. Not always, some SMT are different. Final Fantasy is completely a different story each time, though it almost always involves saving the world. This is simply an RPG-cliche. Many RPG's have the "Save the world" theme. If you're going to compare SMT to FF on that base, then you might as well compare it to almost every RPG in the world other than Pokemon.
Next is gameplay. Every RPG is different gameplay-wise. FF and SMT are completely different gameplay wise. Each SMT and FF is different in each of their releases gameplay-wise but like the stories, they almost always follow the same basic idea, albeit subtle changes made. Final Fantasy generally had the "Fight, get experience points, level up, get new skills" setup, though that's been changing lately. As shown with FFVII's Materia system, X's Sphere Grid, and XII's License Board, and XIII's Crystarium (There are more, but those are just a few to make my point). SMT generally follows a "Talk to demon, ask him to join you" setup, similar to Pokemon (Though, even then there are many differences). This formula has been changed from time to time as well. In the Persona series after battle you may of been asked to choose a card with the, in this case, Persona. In Digital Devil Saga it was completely non-existent.
The final point I'll make is what made me make this rant in the first place: the music. Oh God, how Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei music is different. So many SMT fanboys on the videos saying how "MEGURO PWNZ NOBUO!!" Shin Megami Tensei and Final Fantasy almost always have awesome OSTs. Meguro, Nobuo, and Masashi (Though Masashi has recently left Square-Enix, he composed many of Square's game OST's and I'll consider him major in the SMT vs. FF music debate) all made great music. I often find myself listening to their musical pieces. They're all completely different composers with their own original styles. They're nothing alike and also should not be compared. There's nothing wrong with saying "I like this song more than this one" but when you're completely saying one composer is better than another, isn't it unfair? They're completely different musical styles.
Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are both great series, but they're completely different. This rant was pretty lengthy so I'm gonna wrap this up. Before you comment saying "Wow, you made no valid points what-so-ever" I ask you, what DO Shin Megami Tensei and Final Fantasy have in common besides both being long-lasting RPG series?
Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are incomparable. Just because they're both popular RPG series, does not mean they're comparable. Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are both great series. Both have their fair share of good and bad games. The SMT community generally has immense hatred for the FF community. I can't choose peoples opinions for them; they'll have whatever opinion they want, but when they try to shove their opinions onto other people without even giving many, if any, valid points.
I'll start with the stories in SMT and FF's. Of course, if you've played a SMT and an FF, you'll know they have a different story each time. Shin Megami Tensei generally revolves around a person or a group of people with the ability to recruit or summon demons and use these demons to aid them in saving the world or something. Not always, some SMT are different. Final Fantasy is completely a different story each time, though it almost always involves saving the world. This is simply an RPG-cliche. Many RPG's have the "Save the world" theme. If you're going to compare SMT to FF on that base, then you might as well compare it to almost every RPG in the world other than Pokemon.
Next is gameplay. Every RPG is different gameplay-wise. FF and SMT are completely different gameplay wise. Each SMT and FF is different in each of their releases gameplay-wise but like the stories, they almost always follow the same basic idea, albeit subtle changes made. Final Fantasy generally had the "Fight, get experience points, level up, get new skills" setup, though that's been changing lately. As shown with FFVII's Materia system, X's Sphere Grid, and XII's License Board, and XIII's Crystarium (There are more, but those are just a few to make my point). SMT generally follows a "Talk to demon, ask him to join you" setup, similar to Pokemon (Though, even then there are many differences). This formula has been changed from time to time as well. In the Persona series after battle you may of been asked to choose a card with the, in this case, Persona. In Digital Devil Saga it was completely non-existent.
The final point I'll make is what made me make this rant in the first place: the music. Oh God, how Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei music is different. So many SMT fanboys on the videos saying how "MEGURO PWNZ NOBUO!!" Shin Megami Tensei and Final Fantasy almost always have awesome OSTs. Meguro, Nobuo, and Masashi (Though Masashi has recently left Square-Enix, he composed many of Square's game OST's and I'll consider him major in the SMT vs. FF music debate) all made great music. I often find myself listening to their musical pieces. They're all completely different composers with their own original styles. They're nothing alike and also should not be compared. There's nothing wrong with saying "I like this song more than this one" but when you're completely saying one composer is better than another, isn't it unfair? They're completely different musical styles.
Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei are both great series, but they're completely different. This rant was pretty lengthy so I'm gonna wrap this up. Before you comment saying "Wow, you made no valid points what-so-ever" I ask you, what DO Shin Megami Tensei and Final Fantasy have in common besides both being long-lasting RPG series?
