Videogame Deathmatch Nerdfight: Nikole Zivalich Takes Gears of War Against Leah Jackson and Final Fantasy

Videogame Deathmatch: Best Franchise edition is upon us and it comes as no surprise that G4 writers Nikole and Leah are fighting about which franchise should take the prize. Two legendary series are going head to head, one known as a multi-generation J-RPG and the other is an iconic Microsoft exclusive third-person shooter. Leah is defending her pick Final Fantasy as the one franchise to rule them all. Nikole knows otherwise and supports Gears of War as the number one video game series. Let the deathmatch begin! 

Leah: Nikole how can you possibly think Gears of War is a better franchise than Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy is iconic. It’s timeless, it has fans all over the globe of all ages with characters every kind of person can relate to (including furries). It even has chocobos, the most amazingly adorable thing to ever come out of a gaming franchise ever. So many games are founded on ideas that began with Final Fantasy and I don’t understand how you can even begin to think that Gears of War could hold a candle to something of Final Fantasy’s caliber.  

How does Nikole respond? Read on to find out!

Nikole: Where do I even begin? How about at the beginning ... Final Fantasy is misleading. How can anyone possibly trust a franchise that brags about its finality while having more installments than most gamers can count. There’s nothing final about it. I don’t even know how many FF titles there are, at least 35. With Gears of War you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Gears are infantry soldier of the Coalition of Ordered Governments. They signify the well-oiled machine that is fighting against the Locust Horde. Get it, Gears, machine, teamwork: just thinking about it makes me tear up. 

Leah: Tear up? There’s nothing even remotely emotional about Gears of War, it’s just a bunch of macho douchebags yelling at each other. What could possibly make you tear up at anything other than how much you’re laughing at them? Final Fantasy on the other hand is filled with emotional stories that could make even those burly dudes from Gears cry. Think of all the people that love Final Fantasy 7, it’s not my favorite of the series but I know tons of grown men who admitted to crying when Aeris died, or when Zidane came back from the dead in FF9 (the best game ever). These stories are worth remembering and very few other games draw you in like a Final Fantasy game can. Plus, FYI there are over 100 types of Final Fantasy games, Gears might signify a well-oiled machine but it’ll never live up to my love of monkey men and magic casting princesses.    

Nikole: Gears of War does have a story. Humans are fighting for survival against the Locust army. On Emergence Day every single human city was attacked. Billions of humans died, thousands went missing. Looking back the COG soldiers who survived say "The lucky ones died on E-Day." It is actually a very dark story; humanity has a bleak chance of surviving. That’s why they fight, to defend the people who are left. Marcus lost his father (OR DID HE?!) And Dom lost his wife. He spent all of Gears of War and most of GoW2 looking for her.

He eventually found her, she had been lobotomized and starved. He was forced to kill her out of pity. I apologize to readers who are weeping right now. Dom didn’t cry though, he just FOUGHT THROUGH THE PAIN. But you know what, real men don’t cry. The men in Gears of War are huge, testosterone driven killing machines. Marcus’s forearm is bigger than Cloud. The men of Gears would eat the boys of Final Fantasy for brunch, that’s a made-up meal. Gears is known for its guns, lancers, and curb-stomping, whereas FF is known for its androgynous characters and whining. I don’t even know what gender Faris is. Now that I’m thinking about it Sephiroth looks like a chick, I have no idea about Hope.

Leah: I’ll admit that Hope is a whiny little brat and I wanted him to die for most of Final Fantasy 13. But you can’t deny that even though the men are all a bit fabulous throughout the Final Fantasy series (except Balthier, he’s a straight up BOSS) there is such a variety of them that quite a lot stand out. You’ve got villains like Kefka from FF6, an eccentric lunatic but a brilliant and widely loved character, all the way to strong female characters like Lightning in Final Fantasy 13 or Tifa in FF7.  

Gears has like two main characters that are slightly memorable whereas in each of the main FF games there are parties of characters that have amazing backgrounds, come from exotic places, have rad hairstyles, and everything else you could ask for in an awesome game. Just thinking of the cosplay opportunities makes me happy. It boils down to how iconic these characters have become over twenty years, even you know about Cloud and Sephiroth. That’s why Final Fantasy is better than Gears.

Nikole: I know about them because I’ve heard people complain, primarily about the time commitment involved. When I borrowed FF13 I didn’t really like it, I put in 6 hours and still couldn’t stand it. Want to know what FF-fans told me, “it gets good after 25 hours.” How is that an acceptable argument? Then on top of that they just announced FF13-2. You gotta know when to fold ‘em, when to hold ‘em, and when to walk away. From the moment you start playing Gears you’re immersed in the world. And that’s just the single player.

Gears 2 has numerous multiplayer modes including horde. Dedicated servers would be nice in Gears 3, wink wink Epic, but overall, multilplayer is great and because of updates, is always getting better.  Epic has done so much to make sure their fans always have a reason to keep playing, DLC maps, XP weekends. I even forgive them for delaying so many announcements. Gears of War: Exile, the Kinect Gears game where you dance your way to freedom, I know you exist! 

And you know what? I hate to bring this up but you know why Kingdom Hearts 3 isn’t out? Because of Final Fantasy. The team that’s supposed to work on KH3 is working on FF13V. Game. Set. Match.

Leah: Aha! So the reason you hate Final Fantasy so much is because it’s delaying a game that’s BASED ON FINAL FANTASY? What!? If you love Kingdom Hearts so much then you’re used to games that suck for the first five hours anyway, so whatever. And who cares if Gears 2 has multiplayer, so does every other game coming out now, it’s practically required at this point. FF doesn’t just have weekends of perks to keep people interested, it has full fighting games, RPGs, MMORPGs, action games, movies, clothes, comics, and is always coming out with new stuff to keep their hardcore fanbase happy. Maybe to you less is more, but I will never get sick of Final Fantasy, keep ‘em coming! 

Nikole: NO, stop them from coming! Gears of War 3 will be out in September and the Gears of War series will continue its reign over all the land. Boom! Headshot.

In the end, it will be up to you, the readers, who will win Videogame Deathmatch: Best Franchises. Vote now and have your voice heard.