What's the main difference between a fantasy and a sci fi story ?

Anyone ?

Setting. Sci fi will have things like advanced tech and usually will take place in the future

I'd argue that it's not about the setting, which is the common misconception.

Star Wars, although set in a world with far more advanced technology than ours, leans more towards fantasy than sci-fi. Whatever sci-fi elements it may have typically surface more in guidebooks, side stories, and generally not from the mainstream story.

In sci-fi, the technology must be a fundamental aspect of the plot. For example, though the main point of something like Blade Runner is about what makes us human, the replicant/AI tech is inextricably linked in posing the question.

On the other hand, Star Wars could be placed in a more traditional fantasy sword-and-sorcery type setting without much change to its main plot points such as the struggle between dark side and light side, the legacy of the Skywalkers, and the relationships and politics between various species.

Sci fi is fantasy

Fantasy is real

Sci-Fi pretends to be real and scientific by using bullshit science, most likely quantum or nano technology as their easy way out.

Fantasy is simply magical based setting.

High Fantasy - These works tend to possesses purely fictional elements many of which are implausible or unlikely. The obstacles our heroes have to overcome are of epic proportions and tend to take the form of some world ending threat. ( Lord of the Rings )

Light Fantasy - The fictional elements found in these stories are more grounded and ramifications for their existence tend to be explored. ( A Song of Ice and Fire )

Science Fiction - Story elements tend to be based off of real life science and fictional elements tend to be more grounded. ( Ender's Game/Dune )

Science Fantasty - Tends to have an even mix of grounded and implausible fictional elements. ( Star Wars/Warhammer 40K )

Forgot "High Fantasy" & "Adult Fantasy".

B)

@rockette: Didn't forget them, just didn't feel the need to list them since I only wanted to provide relevant definitions for the OP to be able to tell the difference between the genres.

This^ sounds about right.

Where would Steampunk generally fall?

SciFy (aka Science Fiction) - It typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, time travel, parallel universes, fictional worlds, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life. It often explores the potential consequences of scientific innovations.

Fantasy - A genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe.

Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes respectively, though these genres overlap. In popular culture, the fantasy genre predominantly features settings of a medieval nature - Wikipedia

Steampunk is sometimes called "Science Fantasy". It's when Science Fiction meats Fantasy.

The difference between science and magic.

No, no, no. You'r mixing up things.

Scify and Fantasy are both fictionnal !

While Science is prooven stuff. And Magic is many things that is not necessary fictionnal.

A fantasy doesn't need to have involvement with science but anything with sci-fi does need involvement with science

Fantasy incorporates fantastical elements; which means that, more often than not, we know that many of the things that can occur in a fantasy world can never happen in real world. It requires willing suspension of disbelief to accept the premise of a fantasy story.

In Science Fiction, while suspension of disbelief may be used, it's not a necessary component for the world-building. Sci-Fi usually deals with hypothetical scientific possibilities and/or its consequences rather than impossibilities (the fantastic).

Of course the two genres can blend, in which case the distinction is not that clear-cut.

Technically, superhero movies are categorized as fantasy although some may have sci-fi elements, as well. Similarly, some horror may also be defined as fantasy. Fantasy is actually as big a genre as drama or comedy, because it can include anything not based in reality. I’d say larger than sci-fi or westerns.

You're wrong and mixing up everything !

Superhero movies are no sub-genre of Fantasy. Some have fantasy in them some don't. Also some have scify, some don't. Technically, superhero movies are their own categorie.

And there are not "big genres". To me there are 3 main genres: Action, Comedy, Drama. And all movies/stories have a mix of those more or less, doesn't matter if it's scify, western, musical, romance, fantasy, historical, documentary, war, ...

But I will agree that the Fantasy genre can contain lots of stories because theire are no limits to what can be told. While all other genres are limited to what's scientifcaly possible or it becomes partially a Fantasy movie.

Sci-fi is short for Science fiction, "science" being the key word.