I think, to me, the quality of a video game is viewed on a circle with each element going in different directions from the center: gameplay, art, story, music, etc. You may actually be onto something with us Sega kids - Shining Force is what really got me into this genre. The gameplay isn't as deep as other SRPGs, the story is your standard DQ fare, but those two are just good enough, and the music, artwork, and presentation are so smurfing delightful that it blends together and stays with you as an extremely powerful experience. This is probably why Dragon Quest ended up being one of my favorite series', as I see it having similar strengths/weaknesses to SForce. But I also believe these games are far better balanced than many Square titles from the 90s. All the numbers begin under 20, you can actually see how you're progressing and by how much, you can appreciate that increment and play around with it because it's not just random numbers in the hundreds or thousands and the majority of enemies aren't designed for one hit kills.

Xenogears is a game, on the circle described above, whose radius goes extremely far towards story, a good amount towards music, but nearly every other category suffers. I don't regret playing it - it proved to me that gameplay doesn't matter. It really doesn't. You can have a game like Gears of War that really perfects the gameplay of its genre, innovates a lot of original elements, and even shows you the direction games are heading for the next few years. But a game with a compelling story and and powerful presentation will beat it out everytime as the more memorable experience. I'm getting ready for the final dungeon, I believe, and I'm excited to see it all wrap up, and a little sad to finish the journey, but I'm also looking forward to getting into games with more compelling gameplay (probably gonna pick back up Valkyria Chronicles II on PSP). I'm older now and I need something more from my RPGs to make it worth my while.