PSX > SNES > whatever. That's my ranking.
The PlayStation was such a good time for JRPGs. The relative-to-today speed at which companies like Square could churn out their games and the vastly superior writing to almost every JRPG I've seen over the past several years really put both PSX and SNES head-and-shoulders above the modern-day competition. There was a richness in character detail, a length of campaign through an increase in plot points and locations rather than simply making areas larger and shinier and an attention to narrative flow I don't often see from story-driven JRPGs anymore.
Xenogears, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFT, Star Ocean 2, Vagrant Story, an admittedly inferior version of Tactics Ogre... even The Legend of Dragoon if I want a heavier dose of cheese and some questionable aspects with my lengthy plot.
JRPGs over the past several years largely seem to dawdle and yet go nowhere in their writing to me. I've missed a few so-called greats, though, so as I catch up with them we'll see if my opinion changes. But the amount of times I reach a location in FFVII and think to myself, "now the story twists and x happens" versus the amount of times I can think of that such a statement applies to FFXIII? Geez, quite a difference.
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Sir Chris Police ~Ace Detective in Homicide~
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