That's why I like Chrono Cross and FFIX so much. They're not ridiculously easy, but you don't need a walkthrough to beat them and you only die a couple times throughout the game - you can just enjoy making the story unfold. Nothing more annoying than having to redo an entire dungeon (you can tell I'm used to SNES9x save states).

Errrmm...oh yeah, the topic.

I've found that most trick methods I've tried to use against Emerald and Ruby in FFVII end up backfiring somehow. More likely it's my fault for not doing it right or something. I ALMOST beat Ruby once - but unfortunately I was playing on my laptop, which has the dreaded "Final Attack" + "Microsoft" Materia combo. Everytime I'm about to win a ridiculously hard battle, it turns itself off.