SNES through PS1 easy.
Technology was good enough to hold large amounts of text and have incredible stories and music that 8 bit didn't have the memory for, but not so good that everything was about realistic graphics and FMV.
This was the era when JRPGs were king and it was just success after success, life changing memorable endearing story after story. This is the era where companies like Square became what they did. In fact most all major franchises and companies that exist today took off mostly in the 16-32 bit Golden Age. If they didn't start there, then it's where they peaked and were permanently established.
It was also the age when video games were still video games and every game wasn't expected to try too hard to be overmature photorealistic millitary shooting simulators.
