An image of the world maps of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII layered on top of one another. The VII map is rotated 180 degrees for synergy.



Are the worlds of FFVII and FFVIII the same, separated by millions of years? There are a lot of similarities to dissect here. The first and most obvious are the shapes and general layouts of the three main continents. Midgar ends up on the Galbadian continent, near Obel Lake or the D-District Prison. The Deep Sea Research Center lies directly on top of the lost island where you find the Knights of the Round Materia. Kalm and Winhill are in about the same place. The Centra continent covers Bone Village, the City of the Ancients, and the Northern Crater. It looks like Wutai and the The Nibelheim continent collided, trapping a ton of salt water to create the Great Salt Lake and the site of Esthar. Mideel looks like it merged with the Galbadian continent near Dollet, but the island containing the former Temple of the Ancients drifted and froze over to form the Shumi Island.



Both worlds use magic lifted from the planet; VII crystallizes it in the form of Materia, while the population of VIII don’t even bother with the middleman and draw spirit energy straight into their brains. Both deal with threats from outer space, both have reduced populations of moogles, and being Final Fantasy worlds, both have similar breeds of monsters.

Weird, eh?