did we ever get a flood of information?

[Ruisu]

You would chose a dumb ass AI over full control over a character that you could build yourself?

Yes, because while FFXIII was very problematic, it wasn't completely awful, like FFVIII was.

An RPG is indeed defined by story (Role-Playing Game..how do you get into a role of someone with no storyline?), well back when people actually were able to read and comprehend storylines in video games, these days sure an RPG isn't defined by story.

The Wizardry franchise would like a word with you. Also plenty of RPGs think of gameplay first story later. Hell, a bunch of FFs do this.

I guess I'm just too old school. I grew up with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest started developing good stories around DQ4, IMO.

I do agree with your statement on FF8 though, I couldn't stand that game.

SMT started in like 92, lol. The motherseries started sometime in the 80s.