As for gameplay, I kinda like VII's approach to magic the best (though I've only played III, VII, and VIII). You can't superstock in enough time like you could in III with the Espers (except for Master Materia, but that takes a LONG time to get for usual gamers, and besides, only one, or at best, two characters could get all of the Master Materia anyway), and I HATED the GF and draw thing in VIII. In VII, you had to balance it out: pick which spells could fight, which combos you could make (especially with all), and balance it against the lowered HP of your characters so they wouldn't die on you. For me, the best system ever, out of the three FF games I played.
Story, I think VII wins that one too, though III is also quite good. However, VII seemed more unified story-wise to me than did III, plus, it was a bigger story really,a nd I liked the Cloud/Tifa interaction; it had a central theme that it stuck to throughout. Still, been awhile since I played III, so I don't remember the story as a whole (I do remember the Kefka laugh on my SNES though...awlays fun.

Just my thoughts.
