P.S. All this mention of Wild ARMs HD Collection is just breaking my heart. That and Ape Escape HD Collection are just too obvious yet haven't happened yet. I weep.

1. Wild Arms 3 - One of the greatest RPGs ever.

2. Wild Arms 4 - PLayed maybe 5 hours. Seems really good to me, so I'm not sure why people dislike this one so much

3. Wild Arms 5 - Only played 7 hours. Seems cool.

4. Wild Arms 2 - The first disk was awesome, but the second disc was so tedious, I just stopped playing.

Never played the original Wild Arms even though I own it, and only played a couple hours of Alter Code: F before trading it in for Wild Arms 4.

I didn't just read part of your post.  I read the entire thing, just replied to specific parts of it. Wild ARMs also wasn't the first RPG on PSX.  In Japan, King's Field 1, 2, 3, Suikoden, Vandal Hearts, and Arc the Lad 1 and 2 came out prior to it.  In the US everything but the first King's Field and the Arc the Lad games.  Regardless how many RPGs came out before it, the only thing Final Fantasy 7 would have done is overshadow the game.  The fact that it's an RPG would have sold it to people.  RPGs weren't as high profile to a mass market as they were back then, which the Final Fantasy series can be thanked for that as more people played them. 

Being stuck in a dungeon was never an issue with not having a specific item unless you skipped ahead and didn't go where you needed to next.  That's how it is in all RPGs.  While there are RPGs that don't tell you where you need to go, Wild ARMs is not one of those and tells you your next destination during every story event.  Just like Final Fantasy 7, if you were to skip the Temple of the Ancients and go straight to the forgotten city, do you really expect Aerith to pray for Holy and the events to occur?  After leaving Arlia on Star Ocean the Second Story, if you were to skip Cross Castle and try to go to Lacour will the story progress?  No.  So why would you expect the same for any other RPG.  

If you don't like it, you don't like it, that's your opinion, but my initial response was because it sounded your distaste for the game was its graphics.  To me though, the game was one of the best RPGs available during release.  There are better RPGs out there now, but I still don't think there are too many that are better.  From the Lufia 2 style dungeons which are also well designed, the gameplay, the story, to sidequests and secret bosses within the game, it's an overall great game, much better than most RPGs.  Not that it really matters, but one secret boss, Ragu Ragula, is so secret that I didn't find out until sometime later from the internet.  The only way to get The Abyss is to be at the end game, have the worst luck, and use the Elw teleporters about 100 times or until you're lucky enough to get teleported  to The Abyss. 

Awww... i would be all over an Ape escape HD collection aswell. The games are so much fun.

Wish Sony would bring those collections out.

Oddly enough, 2 "XXX Three" games were my favorite RPGs on the PS3.  While I loved me some Wild Arms 3, my favorite is still by far Suikoden 3. 

While you might like Janus (who I agree was awesome), Maya and Team were my favorites.  When she did the Wonderwoman routine I almost lost it. 

Really liked how the game started too, with each characters "story" (another oddly enough, I love how Suikoden 3 started in kinda the same way...wait a second I sense a pattern here)

Suikoden 3 was epic good, I miss the theatre skits, it was a nice variation from the onsen ones  

3-1-XF

The only ones i played/touched.
With 3 being a very very good game, loved it.

Skits + Chapters + Epic Cooking Battles (Chopped has NOTHING on these!)

It always amazed me how much effort Konami put into those Skits.  Was some hilarous acting (or lack of acting) with some of the characters.