As far as JRPGs go, definitely, although the 16 bit era had some pretty great ones and the PS2 had its stars (and my favourite JRPG/favourite game ever is on the GBA so I don't even know where to slot that). Not that anyone will ever agree with me on the subject of "best PS2 JRPG" but I can live with it. Part of it is that it feels like there's more JRPGs from that era that deviate from the standards of the genre in some way or another, and it's usually from the standards I dislike. Games like Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile, for example, do a good job of getting away from the tendency of games in the genre to become redundant in terms of gameplay (and of course it helps that they have other things going for them too). I'm a lot less of a JRPG fan these days than I once was, but the best JRPGs still stick out in my mind because they tend to be the ones that have some sort of distinct feel that makes them stand out as memorable in ways that are hard to put into words, and I tend to be a sucker for any game that makes me think "wow this is awesome", then realize I have to really dig to figure out what it is that appeals to me so much.
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Mistake you're making - overlooking the fact that we might not want to be saved.