I cannot choose between the two. Both of them are among my top three. I love both of them - XII has a great, deep story (once you get past some of the pacing problems) and an superb battle system. And I do have a certain soft spot for the Ivalice games IX had a fantastic story as well and was better-paced than XII, and I liked the ability-learning system. Also, the cutscenes here were breathtaking.