Game: Victim of Xen

Every once in awhile I get an itch to play an old school JRPG.  Most recently I picked up Final Fantasy X -- not exactly the most old school game out there, but it had the grind and sweeping story I was looking for.  Still though, there was something missing.  I never felt that sense of danger that you feel when first wandering outside of town in Phantasy Star, where every random encounter on the world map can be as threatening as a boss battle.  I never felt like I was discovering a world -- I felt more like an actor in a film.  While Final Fantasy X is very much a JRPG -- and a very good one at that -- it's not the kind of JRPG that stokes the flames of my nostalgia.  It's not the kind that throws you into in a hostile world that is yours for the taking.  Victim of Xen is.