Well, both are great games, but also very different games in different genres. So it comes all down to personal preferences. Well, actually there are some more considerations, I get into it shortly.
I myself didn't play any of the two games as they were coming out. It wouldn't be that nostalgic anyways, as I am older than most of this forum, my nostalgia games are older. But back then I was a PC gamer myself, and I didn't even *heard* of OOT and FF7 until a decade later or so. I never played the originals on the original machine, I only played the 3DS remake of OOT and the HD-rerelease of FF7. For me personally it would be OOT, holds up better, but in both cases I can see how gaming evolved since then.
So, why then professional reviewers preferred OOT back then and still today? Why OOT has a Metacritic of 99 and FFVII has a Metascore of 92? Because professional reviewers can't overlook the impact on the industry. Square had an easier task to transform FF7, because the main gameplay of turn-based RPGs works as well in 3D, as it does in 2D. These are menus basically, so that's that. But Nintendo had to solve the problem, that the 3D-space worked differently for fighting. So they invented the lock-on with even when you moved, you still faced the enemey. That system was refined later and is in some form still used today. So therefore professional reviewers give OOT higher marks.
But that is not all. You also have nostalgia playing a part. N64 sold about 33M, the PS1 three times as much with over 100M. This resulted also in higher sales for FF, although the difference is not as big as for the platform. So basically: more kids grew up playing FF7, than OOT, so nostalgia breaks for FF. More so, as many gamers who still played N64 probably grew up with NES or SNES, and were already older at the time.
And there is another factor. Final Fantasy was a symbol for Playstation winning over Nintendo. they made advertisements with that. That produces an emotional divide thinking about FF7. People invested with Playstation will see FF better than it is, people invested with Nintendo worse. And as I said, three times as much people had a Playstation. So this helps. I would like to see the split on above poll for europe and america. I have a strong feeling in europe FF wins strongly, as N64 didn't have a strong presence.
