I prefer CT, I just started playing through both games again and while CT has always surprised me for how well it's aged and how mature its story actually is hidden behind it's sillier elements. CC on the other hand, just feels flat out preachy at times about man and nature, and other times it goes off into weird psuedo-intellectual nonsense to make it seem more smart than it really is. You get some doozey of a speech from Harle after the Ft. Dragon incident.

I just find CT superior in every way. CC is not bad but its plot at times is kind of pretentious at times and other times can't carry its own weight cause CC has an incredibly weak cast of characters. I still feel like it's apples vs. oranges and I do appreciate Kato and Tanaka choosing to go in a different direction rather than re-hash CT. Yet, I kind of feel that Kato sometimes undermined his story and message by not being subtle at times, and because he never spent enough time really building a cast that could carry the story he tried to present. Fargo, Glenn, Karch, Korcha, and Kid are not nearly as well rounded and likable as Frog, Robo, Lucca, and Ayla.

CT also just had better gameplay, the CC tries too hard to incorporate Xenogears, FFVII, and CT's systems all together and just utterly fails to create a terribly engaging combat system. You'll stick to your two other fave characters, make sure everyone carries at least one of each element and you're good to go. Don't even get me started on how awkward and unintuitive the Summoning system was.