The RPG Maker Resource Kit

Personally, I think it depends on the game.
the characters and tilesets are like Actors and backgrounds in hollywood.
it's not the face that matters, it's the character they portray.

I <3 it when it's used right :D

Personally I don't think it's bad art wise, but it is getting a bit repetitive. Nearly every game uses it , and while candy tastes good, too much of it will make you nauseous . It's probably just me though. In any case it's an terrible battle trying to make your own sprites and tilesets from scratch(trust me I'm REALLY trying- with moderate success so far) , so I guess all you can do is just get used to it =/.

Unlike 2k3 , we can't just rip cool graphics from old RPG's. But what we CAN do is carefully resize and re-edit them pixel by pixel...I haven't tried that..but I might . Me and my 100% custom attitude is getting me nowhere fast.

At this point , for me , I would take a decent attempt at original graphics over RTP  any day. It shows how much you're into the work you're doing I think. But if people decide just to stick with whats there, then I can still play the game either way.