This is all very off topic, but:
Personally, I thought the creators of Skies of Arcadia managed to combine all
the best elements of most RPGs to make possibly the most masterful work in
the entire genre. Even as someone who actually likes a little bit more
direction to his RPGs, I completely see what you're saying about where the
genre has gone. I consider an RPG to be a game that uses number statistics
and where the characters grow in level...though some games bend that line
(see the N64's Paper Mario... a fantastic "rpg", though it bends a LOT of the
traditional rules). I have high, high hopes for the release of the GBA Lufia
game tomorrow. Allegedly they've dropped the random dungeon nonsense of the
GBC game and have gone back to what made the SNES titles so great. Golden
Sun is also very good in its allowing for exploration, though the story
suffers *severely* from that. If you aren't into portable systems, the
Gamecube Gameboy player comes out in a month and a half. There are a LOT of
good GBA games, honestly. I consider the GBA SP the only portable system to
even compare to the Turbo Express since its original release. That's what...
14 years?
-Joe R.