Ya know, that's actually the main reason I can't fucking stand Final Fantasy these days. I picked up X a couple of years ago just to give it a try and see what the deal was. That was an eye opening experience. I gave it a good 12 hours or so and all I did was stare at some whiney fuck with spikey hair and press the X button over and over. I didn't feel like I had any control over the game outside of continuous "Hit A till the next cutscene" bullshit that the games have become.

That's really the one shining moment that put me off of anything jrpg. This thread is my olive branch to the other side of rpgs that I've completely ignored over the years.

Some of these games you've all recommended seem to have really awesome storylines, and that's the reason I want to play them. The part I need to come to terms with is the specific gameplay that I always saw as a common identifier with in the genre. I played the first few hours of FFII on snes and was ok with it until this overwhelming feeling of what the fuck was I supposed to do again kicked in.I've played 7th Saga and actually liked it from what I played (I think that was the one, something about a robot?) I've played through the first few time jumps in Chrono Trigger years ago and the game was amazing. I even tried some 32-bit games. I remember playing the beginning of Legend of Dragoon and kinda liked it, but I was drunk as hell and don't remember too much of it. I even tried that Lunar Dragon something or other on the DS, but that made me a bit homicidal after an hour or so and gave it back to the wife and told her to never let me see it again.

Basically, aside from a few good memories, my experience with the genre has been marred by gameplay that I just couldn't stomach. I really do want to give it another honest, unbiased try. I'm sure some of you have similar stories with other genres.

I guess I was just too indoctrinated by western style rpgs to really give these a chance. I really appreciate all the responses, please, keep them coming.