Gamasutra is an awesome site, and some very interesting articles. It was a good read. Other excellent RPGs that didn't make the list (SO2, Tales, Suikoden III) did get a mention somewhere or another.

Quote Originally Posted by Breine
but I was kinda disappointed that FFIX wasn't on the list.
FFIX didn't really excel at anything and wasn't particularly groundbreaking or unique in any way, nor was it supposed to, as it was a nostalgic collaboration of previous Final Fantasy titles. It was done in a fashion to accommodate its style in a three dimensional universe, as to combine the past and present of RPGs. Even for such a restricted gameplay device, it wasn't executed perfectly. So, there's no reason that a game like that should be on an Essential RPGs list.