While it is the cliché of clichés now, that event in FFVII was the turning point for me. The part that truly made me 'feel' something about the game. I think it was the first time in a game where I personally felt sorrow, hate and rage towards the antagonist and for all the other faults in current JRPGs... that's one hell of a statement.
But come on... Did we run out of Phoenix Down at that point? Did we suddenly run out of Soft when we ran across XIII's father? That's my main problem with JRPGs. Combat mechanics have absolutely nothing in common with the world it occurs in. It's so silly.
Oh, and first impression on FFXIII? Gods it's longwinded, and actually kind of boring. I keep hearing it starts to rock further in, but after playing 10+ hours now, I have to say they could have condensed that gameplay to less than half of that. And where's the RP part of the game? I haven't made a single decision yet. Just ran from cutscene to cutscene, killing stuff along the way. At least there were conversation options in FFVII and FFVIII. Hell, I think there were some in FFX too.
They really should have worked better on the FFXIII pacing and storytelling.