Final thoughts:
This game makes me think of the future. In 6 - 8 years, I wonder how someone will feel about their first play through of Dead Space or Infamous. The more I played the game, the more I think it is just old, which makes me sad. I did not have fun playing this game in 2010, but I totally can see having fun playing in 2002 (or whenever it came out).
Well, if it's a great game, it's a great game, and it'll stand the test of time. With games like PoP: SoT, usually a big breakthrough will make the game great in its era. The whole real-time time control was pretty unheard of in video games, and I think the video gaming community really welcomed that. Later on, that aspect of the game becomes a "been here, done that," and the game as a whole ends up being judged, when played by any individual.
Final Fantasy VII, for example, was a breakthrough in RPGs by having 3D polygons. People regard(ed) it as the best Final Fantasy or RPG of all time. I loved it back then. I started playing it again around a week ago, and man, it's hard to go back. The battles just didn't seem fun or exciting. The whole materia system got meh soon enough. Pretty weird translation. I knew all this stuff too, back when I played the game, but I overlooked it just because of how amazing it was/looked at the time.
Chrono Trigger, which is only just a little bit older than FFVII, is a great game that I can always go back to. I probably loved that it just as much as VII back then, but I've replayed CT because it was a fantastic game with little flaws (I can't even really think of any off the top of my head right now).
Then again, I've grown up with all of those games and games that were limited by their hardware. I don't really know what it's like to play a game that was before my time (or before I was born). If someone were born during the sixth-generation of video games, would our views be that radically different on say, Chrono Trigger, after they've played newer games?
