But can't the same be said about the PlayStation and the Saturn? What are the games that you find uniquely fun on the PC-FX ... and what is it about them that appeals to you?
I'd love to hear that side of the story.
I can answer this well, having spent most of my teenage years playing digital comics, and being an anime fan.
PC-FX is essentially an otaku's wet dream. You've got games like Sparkling Feather that play to all of your anime triggers, and wrap it up in a nice SRPG.
It's got all of the digital comics / sim games, too. It's just all very anime-centric. This is what sets it apart from PS1 and Saturn, really. Team Innocent is an excellent adventure game.
Pretty much every game is an anime with gameplay elements. It's a fun feeling to be able to essentially interact with a cartoon full of characters you like. You get animated character portraits, voices, cutscenes... the works. It's definitely unique.
The closest you get to this on PS1 and Saturn, are the RPGs and such with anime designs (Lunar), and all of the digital comics that appear there also.
PC-FX just basically does that for ALL of the games, and is bleeding with unique digital comic/rpg experiences. That's practically all it does outside of Zenki/Chipchan/Zeroigar.
You don't have your Oddworld, Jumping Flash, or Crash Bandicoot stuff. You just have anime. Everywhere, and you get the added charm of the familiar, warm, PCE style chiptunes.
Unfortunately, if you can't understand what the hell you're reading, nearly every game loses it's charm. An RPG is pretty worthless if you don't even know what the story is. It might be fun to play through from a mechanical standpoint, but you lose out on the story. You're not getting to experience the games for what they actually are.
This might be part of why the machine didn't do well? That or the lack of the 3D hardware capabilities that you can get with the FXGA.
With PS1/Saturn, the variety helps push it along if you're not into RPG/Digital Comics. People rave about the PS1/Saturn imports because they're importing shooters. You don't need to read. You just blow shit up. They dog on the PC-FX because they can't read. That's not the game's faults.
Notice how the only expensive PCFX games are the ones round eye can play?
If PC-FX had gotten a bit more variety to the library, I think it would have kicked some severe ass.