Final Fantasy 7 seems a pretty solid pick. New graphics, lots of things to do in the game, some replay ability. Story about eco-freedom fighters going after a company whose operations will literally destroy the world. Got some circle of life stuff going on in the lore. There's something about aliens (I thought Aeris was supposed to be the last descendant of them) I think that never seemed to go anywhere. Cosmo Canyon. Unreliable narrator in the main character was a pretty interesting twist to teenage me.

Honorable mentions to:

Resident Evil 2, to quote myself from decades ago, "Holy crap, I'm playing in a movie."

Xenogears, had a novel combat system for an RPG and the a chunk of the reveal in the story is how the entire human(?) race on the planet was created by some advanced civilization's planet killer weapon that got loose, crashed on a planet, and was slowly trying to rebuild itself over thousands of years by using the population in subtle ways. Also, the weapon was being worshipped as God, the creator.... Which, to my atheistic self was just cheffs kiss at the time.

Armored Core, I have no idea what is going on with the story but I could never get into Mechwarrior and this scratched that itch.

Colony Wars, was an off brand "Star Wars" X-Wing/Tie Fighter type game. Solid space fighter with James Earl Jones as the narrator. And you're tiny fighter got to fly around big capital ships and watch them explode in terrible plygons with limited shading.