I love FFVII because it had such weird juxtapositions of silliness and absolute freaking darkness, and also a weird mixture of high-tech and archaic stuff. Like, they dropped a plate on the city and probably killed roughly an eighth of the city's population, and everyone was just "Yeah, that'll happen, business as usual." Hojo somehow got grants to try cross-species breeding! Aeris has dated at least two dudes who fell through her church and into her garden! Four year-olds can be left in charge of the bar! Marvelous!

FFVIII also has some of that weird juxtaposition, but it didn't work as well for me because it just didn't hit the right balance for me. There's so much horror that could be dipped into in a lot of FFVIII stuff-- the sorceress stuff in particular. The love story part isn't the sole reason FFVIII leaves me cold at times, but it throws off the balance for me, if that makes sense. To say nothing of the whole orphanage thing. Don't get me wrong, I like FFVIII too; it just has some plot/mood combos in it that don't quite do it for me. It's like someone mixing mint and peanut butter-- both good on their own, weird together.

Also, the difference between the more realistic figures of FFVIII made it harder for me not to notice some of the silliness. I think I let some more of the weirdness in FFVII go because of the blocky, pixellated figures. I was already using my imagination more, if that makes sense.