So a while back now, over my holiday break, I played Tales of Legendia.  I had low expectations for the game, given its mediocre reviews, and the fact that I find that almost with every Tales of... game that I play, I lose interest about 3/4 of the way in.  Unexpectedly, I loved it.  The game was obviously not perfect, but it reminded me of the charm of the RPGs that got me into gaming.  
 
While I love SMT, I also am a sucker for games that are more soft at heart, like Lunar and Grandia.  I mean, don't chalk me up as a fan of sap-fests like Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, but what happened to games that play ever cliche in the book and are still pure gold.  Final Fantasy takes itself too seriously, and while Dragon Quest can be charming, it doesn't really have the soul of a game like Lunar where literally, you are concerned about the "save the princess" quest and the characters themselves.  
 
I feel like these kinds of games are kind of like rare gems.  Whenever I run into a game that has his sorta "classic" dynamic, I almost always am immediately drawn in.  Can anyone else think of any series or games that are sorta like what I'm talking about?

I don't know exactly what you're on about, but I understand partially.
 
I never got why people went ga-ga over Seiken Denetsu (or is it densetsu) 3..besides the fact that it was never released stateside and this makes people think it's gold for some reason. I played through it and the characters...well, suck. After a certain point they lose any personality and the game is a grindfest.
 
It's why I liked Evermore better. Even the NPC's had better personalities than the playables in Mana/SD3. Lawl. ...hell, I barely remember Mana and SD3 at all.
 
But eh, I like Chrono Trigger. That's my favorite RPG so maybe my taste is off

It was still stupid though, really. Grind grind grind, kill things for nuts that randomly give ultimate items (that sucked), shower me with love magic spells that make me murder shit, and..we're done.
 
I'm sure it was because there were so many interchangeable character options, that's why their personalities suck. Just like in FF8.

I drew a giant mural thing in school about Mana, it was stolen too
 
...hey it was a "choose your path" thing, you were supposed to represent the good and the bad, so one side was all foresty and Mana looking with the three characters from the game, and the other side was nuclear bombs and dinosaurs probably

..what a fag. You can't say "I'll take requests" and not draw everything, that's not kosher
 
I would have said Raptor Jesus with rocket boots, he may have drawn that since..SMT thing...and all. Yeah that's all I got, I have no idea how to make an animu fan draw a dinosaur until the Japanese find Dinosaucers and make an anime off of it

OH GOD, CLAMP...
 
*clutches chest, screams in pain*  
 
That looks like a Charmander, also. T Rexes breathing fire is an interesting concept

I thinka  cybernetic T-Rex with laser eye beams would rock.

Yeah, I know.
 
It needs to fit.