Myself, I've picked up somewhere around 130 imports over the years, and it's been a mixed bag. I've had Seiken Densetsu 3 for years, and it's pretty dull on the whole. The sequels I've listed were ones I thought really stood on their own merits (save maybe a hair of fanboying over Mother 3). For instance, Dragon Force II newly allowed two types of units to be used in the same army, which drastically changed the tactics of the battles. Ogre Battle for NGPC was much like the SNES release, only portable and multiplayer (with new story I was unable to follow due to the language barrier). Mother 3 was very English friendly with its icon-based item menus and distinct events that gave you a decent clue of what to do next. Elevator Action Returns took the base concept of Elevator Action but actually infused action into it, with tons of shooting and weapons that became a very fun multiplayer game.

There are other whole franchises I really like, such as the ONI games for SNES (Kishin Korinden Oni and Bakumatsu Korinden Oni). Both are RPGs with fast-paced battles, lush graphics, and a neat setting (feudal Japan) that hasn't been used in many traditional RPGs (another good one was the Rurouni Kenshin PSOne game):

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My roommate's been hooked on the Another Century's Episode games for PS2, which are basically Armored Core with anime robots from tons of various series replicating their missions, even done by From Software.

Some of my biggest disappontments were Lunar: Magic School for Saturn, Bahamut Lagoon for SNES, Taito Memories vol.2 (volume one was fantastic), and Macross M3 for Dreamcast.

I don't think for me it's so much the grass is always greener so much as that I prefer 2D games by and large, and there's a huge playground of imports out there (though so many suck ass).

Tweeter, were the old Tales games really that good? I've only played Tales of Destiny for Playstation (I've never done Phantasia or any of the others), and it was okay.