I never played Dirge of Cerberus but I will replace it with a part of the compilation I did play: Crisis Core

Sidequests: X-2 has lots of fun extra things to do which is amazing considering how dull and linear X was. The problem is that 90% of the game is this optional content. CC has the same problem but it gets docked cause 98% of those optional missions are copy paste of the same damn 5 missions.

Battle System: Combat in X-2 is "speedier" cause of a revamped ATB where your characters act at the same time and no longer wait for each other to take turns in order. The commands you use can change the speed of combat... unfortunately, most of the commands take forever outside of Fight and Item, and throwing in the garish costume changes that take forever as well as the ill designed Garment Grids that potentially make you suffer through 2 or 3 costume changes just so you become a healer or a job class that's effective; really slows down the whole process. Not to mention the classes are anything but balanced...

CC on the other is an action game where dodge roll saves you from everything but cutscenes. Course you won't use it too much cause the A.I. is basically a dead hamster on a wheel. The game can be beaten easily on Lv. 30 for crying out loud! The combat is fun but there is a lack of challenge and the game only has the unblockable cutscene attacks and the invisible walls to help it kill you. These invisible walls make combat feel really claustrophobic especially in boss encounters where they take up most of your invisible ring.

Story: X-2 has a bad plot but I probably enjoyed it a bit more cause I had no expectations for it. Its still terrible but at least its funny at times. CC on the other hand has a terrible plot which seems vaguely similar to VII's plot with Zack being in Clouds place minus the mind smurf. It forces down our throats the lamest FF villain ever (even worse than Shuyin, cause at least Shuyin is funny when you think about it) and the whole thing reads like a bad fanboy fan-fiction even going to the point to rewrite the original story its a prequel to; in order to add in their lame characters. Course its biggest fault is that it could have been so much more and instead the plot decides to focus on the lame villain no one gives a damn about. Its waste of potential is aggravating and its shameless promotion of a future spin-off feels disrespectful.

Graphics: X-2 is mostly a copy and paste deal, I never liked X's graphics so I don't care for them. CC is beautiful despite being very empty, simplistic, and retconning the "feel of the world".

Music: X-2 has two louzy J-Pop songs and mostly a rehash of X's less than stellar soundtrack minus the good tracks. (Don't tell my Gf cause she loves the soundtrack). CC's soundtrack ranges from so-so to "Goddamn!!!! " course I feel the strongest tracks are the remixes of original muscial scores from VII. It also has 1 lousy J-Pop track sung by Gackt who by this point I feel must be paying Squenix's rent considering how often he seems to be involved with the Compilation.

Overall CC is worse cause it had so much potential to be something more and it seemed to fail at almost every turn. X-2 was always presented as a carefree goofy experiment so I feel expectations were not as high. Its a shame too, since Zack has so little screen time in VII and yet proved he was more interesting and compelling than Yuna who still can't prove she has a worthwhile personality despite starring in two different games.

If I had to choose between the two actual thread options, I would say DoC cause it suffers the same problems as CC. Its plot is laughable and feels like bad fan-fiction rather than a sequel. Its Action/Shooter gameplay kept me from playing it cause I dislike the genre. I've only watched the cutscenes until I couldn't stomach them anymore.