I liked them both, but I liked the story, gritty neon world, and characters in VII better. I also liked the Materia system, though I acknowledge its flaws. I played VI on SNES before VII had officially been announced, so that can't be chalked up to VII being my first game in the series. VII just hit a lot more of the right notes for me, plus in RPGs it was something that we hadn't seen much of before.

My overall list.

1. VII
2. XII
3. IX
4. VI
5. X
6. VIII
7. IV
8. V
9. XV
10. XIV
11. XIII
12. III
13. XI
14. II
15. I

Since VIII is not an option, I'll choose VI.

Both are great games.  I like FF7 better, but that doesn't stop FF6 from also being an awesome game.  Here are some differences.

1) Materia vs. Espers - I definitely like the Materia system better.  To me the Esper system of FF6 is nowhere near as interesting.  This is probably the main category where I'd say FF7 is just far better than FF6.

2) Endgame content - Here is another area where I like FF7 a lot better.  I think this is the first game I played where I had to beat mega bosses like the Weapons in FF7.  I really like that and all of the other optional stuff (Gold Saucer, powerful summon materia, etc...).

Those are probably the two biggest factors, but here are some smaller factors.

3) Story - Both have great stories, but I think they are very different kinds of stories, so a lot of this comes down to taste.  But I think FF6 is the type of story that would work better adapted to a novel where FF7 would work better adapted as a movie.  Just think of the big plot twist in both games.  FF6's twist has to do with the whole world while FF7's twist has to do with one person.  FF6 is a grand epic tale, with a very unexpected turnout for the fate of the world and that is why it's great.  FF7 is a lot more personal in it's story telling.  FF6 really is an ensemble cast with many characters in the spotlight, while FF7 really is about Cloud mainly and also Aerith and Tifa to a lesser extent.  I prefer FF7's story, and yet FF6 has an amazing story for a very different kind of reason.

4) Music - Both have awesome music, but FF7 has my favorite soundtrack of all time.

5) Visuals - I know that people focus on how dated the characters look in FF7 now, but the hand drawn backgrounds are still really cool and do a good job of immersing you into the world.

That's probably a good summary overall without me going into a ton of details.  Both are great games, and while I like FF7 a little better in some areas, I think the Materia system and optional content makes FF7 clearly better to me.

IX
VII
VI

My top 3 in order

My top 3

1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Final Fantasy V
3. Final Fantasy VIII

If Tactics counts tactics is number 2

@Bristow9091 

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/03/japan_voted_on_final_fantasys_best_games_and_characters_-_do_you_agree_with_the_ranking

Bruh.. Japan's no.1 FF

Why would anyone who played both think 6 is better than 7, I wonder?

I mean, everything is better in 7. Story, characters, battles...

:)

Lol thought you'd be happy to see that.

I mean I mostly agree with that poll.. maybe not the 1st pick xD

Also.. who are the 27 people voting for XV.. wtf haha

Here are the issues I have with FFXV (and I put in over 150 hours into it)

1) To understand the full main story you must watch that anime short series they put out, and play all 4 DLC's. If you really want a crystal clear explanation of everything that is going on. Then you also need to watch that movie (which takes place before the story begins) and do some reading as they put out some comics/books. This is my biggest issue with the game. If you just play the main game through (before playing the episodes) you will have so many questions about whats going on.

The first time I played FFXV was summer of 2019 by this time all the DLC was finished and the unreleased ones were canceled. I first played through the main story and when I had beaten it I really didn't fully understand what was going on, nor did the ending make things clear to me. It actually wasn't until after I beat the Ardyn episode that things made sense.

While I think the story (whole package) is really good, the way it was put together was terrible. You should never have to buy DLC to explain parts of the story as you are playing through the game (episodes 1-3 take place as you are playing the main story and unless you buy those episodes you will have no idea what happened to your party)

2) Final Fantasy XV feels way to floaty, the combat is really weird and when you jump and land it feels..... soft, i don't know how to explain it. I noticed this within the first time I jumped in the game and did not like it at all. But this is a personal preference, others may like it, idk.

3) Breaking the game up into chapters. No idea why this was done, but it makes the world feel locked, I did not like this (maybe others did) as it felt restrictive.

4) The world felt.... kinda hollow, some places the design was fantastic, others was very blah. When comparing this world to past it ranks a lot lower IMO.

With those aside, the music is fantastic, I loved the relationship between the four characters. I actually think this was the strongest part of the game.