Graphics don't add gameplay. What they do add is increased immersion and better atmosphere. In some genres, those qualities are often considered more important than pure gameplay.

I don't think so since I can still enjoy older games.

Of course they "add" to the game. They're just not "necessary," and personally speaking I don't think they add all that much.

And graphics can be a red herring; when the developers focus too much on those, rather than the rest of the package, we get beautiful turds (Lair springs to mind, but I'm sure you can name dozens of others).

Would that genre happen to be called "bargain bin"?

Sorry, had to say it.

There is only one graphical improvement that mattered and that actually pretty much changed the gaming world...

3D

besides that, nothing really maters graphically...

I haven't played collosus yet (on the shelf :/) but the gradual transition of a character can be done with low detailed graphics too.... instead of scars, you put grayer collors and eventually horns...there is always a way to tell a story graphically when there is a minimum degree of detail, but yeah NES graphics are not enough for that... I think somewhere between SNES and PS1 is the spot where graphics improvement stops being usefull to gameplay and is nothing but esthetics.

Yes, always.

I still love the graphics and animations of the game from 1990 in my sig and many others I played.

Age doesn't matter and so I come the to the same conclusion as the OP but to a different answer: Great old games are still considered great today, that's why we call them classics - but in my opinion not despite their graphics, but BECAUSE of their graphics (and because of gameplay, music, atmosphere, in some genres also: story).

An improvement in graphical processing power can lead to an improvement in gameplay but this tends to be the exception rather than the rule ... The additional processing power can be used to make far larger, more dynamic and more populated environments but (in general) it tends to be used to make (essentially) the same environments prettier.

I just hope no more games are made in 3D equivalent to the Sonic games on Genesis that had 3D bonus stages.

I can ride the most stomach twisting amusement ride you can think of 100 times, but those bonus stages made me feel physically ill.

You may have answered your own question when you said Final Fantasy VII and not any of the games that preceded it. Ditto for Ocarina of Time. If they are the creme de la creme, then something must have improved to make them better than their 2D renditions in your mind. Was it the jump to 3D? If so, that falls under graphics.

Yes, graphics can add to gameplay simply because video games are a visual medium. Graphics may not be the most important aspect of a game, but to say they don't add to gameplay would be foolish.