That's kind of an odd thing to say tho b/c even when the original game came out, you had clearly more "epic" stuff like RE2, MGS, SM64, PD Saga etc competing for your dollar, and those games are still held as some of the best in their genres.
I don't personally care how much it costs, b/c I think game prices should be $30-$40 maximum anyway, but a top-end experience can take any number of forms with me. I don't need hundreds of hours of content and the looks of UnCharted to convince me a game's worth top dollar.