I just found it to be an overall better game. The music was better, I liked the characters/battle system (ring system and different weapons augh LOVE)/world map system better, and the plot was less... fragmented? Although I suppose that could be because FFVI had so many characters (too many with no real "main," imo--where SoM had three and all of them were main).
Uh, but off the top of my head: None of the characters except the boy (who was forced/tricked into it by his father) really wanted to save the world--the girl wanted to save her boyfriend and the Sprite wanted to find out where he was from. So none of that WE ARE THE FORCES OF GOOD! stuff. Dyluck and the Sprite eventually died in the end, willingly and knowing they would going into it. The Sprite was the last of his kind; after that, they're extinct, and the player knows that. That's suicide enough, right? The Sprite also had a grandfather--who wasn't his real grandfather--and he tells him so, in the game. I forget whether he dies or not--I think he does, but I could be wrong. The boy also has adopted parents--the Elder of the village that kicks him out for being tricked into pulling the sword out by the ghost of his real father, how much does that suck? Also, the girl and the boy never had any romantic interaction whatsoever. The first interaction is actually HER saving HIM in a totally kickass way, then being all "aw dammit, you're NOT the guy I like. Sucks to be me." There were two (main) sets of villains (with tons more), the Empire and Thanatos, the guy behind the Emperor that was just using him (and eventually killed him by using him as a pawn and forcing him to fight you to the death). He also kills Dyluck by trying to take over his body. And almost kills Phannah too, by making YOU almost kill her after he mind controls all the people in Pandora and turns them into his mindless slaves/energy wells. And resurrects the sunken temple and the Mana Fortress. Thanatos was love. Other bad guys: the Witch, the crazy robot people, SANTA CLAUS (c'mon, SANTA CLAUS), various other greedy bastards trapping other elementals in whatever ways, various "mana" monsters. The last boss wasn't even technically a "bad guy," just a neutral force trying to preserve the world in an outdated way. FLAMMIE. He was the coolest "airship" EVER. There were MUSHROOM PEOPLE.
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Uh, but off the top of my head: None of the characters except the boy (who was forced/tricked into it by his father) really wanted to save the world--the girl wanted to save her boyfriend and the Sprite wanted to find out where he was from. So none of that WE ARE THE FORCES OF GOOD! stuff. Dyluck and the Sprite eventually died in the end, willingly and knowing they would going into it. The Sprite was the last of his kind; after that, they're extinct, and the player knows that. That's suicide enough, right? The Sprite also had a grandfather--who wasn't his real grandfather--and he tells him so, in the game. I forget whether he dies or not--I think he does, but I could be wrong. The boy also has adopted parents--the Elder of the village that kicks him out for being tricked into pulling the sword out by the ghost of his real father, how much does that suck? Also, the girl and the boy never had any romantic interaction whatsoever. The first interaction is actually HER saving HIM in a totally kickass way, then being all "aw dammit, you're NOT the guy I like. Sucks to be me." There were two (main) sets of villains (with tons more), the Empire and Thanatos, the guy behind the Emperor that was just using him (and eventually killed him by using him as a pawn and forcing him to fight you to the death). He also kills Dyluck by trying to take over his body. And almost kills Phannah too, by making YOU almost kill her after he mind controls all the people in Pandora and turns them into his mindless slaves/energy wells. And resurrects the sunken temple and the Mana Fortress. Thanatos was love. Other bad guys: the Witch, the crazy robot people, SANTA CLAUS (c'mon, SANTA CLAUS), various other greedy bastards trapping other elementals in whatever ways, various "mana" monsters. The last boss wasn't even technically a "bad guy," just a neutral force trying to preserve the world in an outdated way. FLAMMIE. He was the coolest "airship" EVER. There were MUSHROOM PEOPLE.
Uhhhh, I could go on, but *dies*