I never thought they looked dated. They were just of a more cartoony-style. I mean, it was one of the few games of that time that actually had character sprites facing in all eight directions. Not even A Link to the Past or FFVI (not entirely sure on FFVI, but I'm pretty sure it didn't) had that. But, anyway, it was super popular in Japan but didn't live up to Nintendo of America's expectations (and huge, expensive marketing campaign), so it was pretty much a failure over here. Sad but true.