As for me I could never enjoy FFVII IF its in its original state^^(course I could, but Sephiroth is the BEST VILLIAN EVER so a game containing him MUST be harder)
I appreciate all these nice patches, including HiRes, Mp3, Chocobo, SephirothPatch, LimitBreak Patch and the best thing ever is Hojo+Hex Editing to create all the hard enemies Ive always wanted.
I think Final Fantasy 1 to 10 were all really really good(played all parts, including Tactics, Tactics Advance, Kingdom Hearts 1&2(though they SUCK but Sephy was worth buying and playing it

^^), Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, Saga 1-3, FF Adventure and even Ehrgeiz) but X-2 sucked completely, it only tells Charlies Angel stories and has nothing to do with part X. Final Fantasy XI is no FF for me, its more like CON and CRTA. Final Fantasy XII however, was a real good RPG again. The story is fascinating and the characters are all nice. Only the battle system is not the best but I must admit that I thought it would be worse, so it suprised me positively

. Dirge of Cerberus is by far the best Action game, just because its Final Fantasy and the story isnt that lame as in part X-2. Advent Children is the best Video in the World and Final Fantasy VII WILL STAY "THE BEST RPG EVER"(mostly because of Sephiroth and Aerith).
The only rival in terms of the title: Best RPG evers gonna come out next year: Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII. In my opinion the story is really good, the graphic AMAZING(check the trailers at youtube or at cetraconnection)and Sephiroth will shine again

But since Crisis Core is also a Final Fantasy VII game I dont see a rivalry between them its one whole story(the best ever told).
With that I end my comment and wish you the best hours with Crisis Core