As much as I loved FE:RD, I have to say that VC is the better game primarily because of one area: PACING. FE:RD was my 1st FE game and I found the pacing to be horrid. I played on normal on my first runthrough and found the Micaiah chapters to be a nightmare.
However, upon getting to the Ike chapters, it was like wtf? It felt like the difficulty level just dropped. FE:RD is still an awesome game but it could definitely have turned lots of newcomers off. I just happen to have high tolerance for those sorts of games.
I could also just be biased in favor of VC because it's actually my 1st SRPG and if I didn't play it. I'd never have tried FE in the 1st place. Like you, I'm waiting for console follow-ups to both games because I despise handheld gaming.
"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)
"WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler
