Getting back to the Pier Solar is the "biggest 16-bit RPG" thing, the sound programmer (not composer) said that the game would be around 120 megabits if uncompressed. So biggest 16-bit cart RPG. I wonder how big some CD RPGs would be if all of the voice, FMV and all of that stuff were removed.
Tengai Makyou Zero is still supposed to be bigger uncompressed. 16-bit was still the generation that CDs took off in and it was CD RPGs that made the PCE number one. Quest 64 may be the bigfest RPG (cart) of its generation, but it shouldn't be marketed as the biggest RPG of that generation.
If you were to strip all that stuff away, then you should also strip away all the superfluous stuff that pad cart RPGs. Pier Solar for example is supposed to pull off the Mode 7 scenes by using a bunch of space for prerendered code and could have been even more impressive if more space was given to it. If that's true, then it's the equivalent of fmv.
Either way, even the Genesis had CD RPGs and Lunar EB is massive. 16-bit CD RPGs weren't just cart gsmes with cinemas, voice and CD music either. Many have the kind of in-game content that you won't find in cart RPGs.
