Shining the holy ark is definitely one of my favorite dungeon crawlers, but then I always had a soft spot for the entire 'shining' franchise.

Guardian Heroes is also an incredible game (though not strictly speaking an RPG) if you have people to play it with, I haven't played a brawler yet that beats it.

I'll repeat all the Dragon Force praise here, the closest way I can think to describe it is a 'light' version of a Koei strategy game, but in a good way.  Games can be finished in a reasonable amount of time, battles are fun and it has a lot of charm.

I really enjoyed Disgaea 4 (WAY better than 3 or D2) and I wouldn't mind buying it again to play on a handheld and have the console DLC included.  I'll definitely get it digitally... once I get a Vita.  Maybe later this year. 

Just curious, why do you consider Disgaea 4 much better than Disgaea 3?

I'm only early into 3 (need to get back into and finish it soon) and never played 4.
But I've seen very mixed comments on which people prefer, usually without any explanation.

Considering the proximity of 4, I'm hesitant to get immersed in the post-game of 3 only to be burned out on it when 4 comes out if it's really better.

I thought steam had to drop it for awhile on account of stuff happening and the game becoming public property of the state of Rhode Island.

If they did I missed it.  I had been watching for the DLC to go on sale for a while now.

The Persona games are unlike what you think of as "overreact among themselves for motivation." They feel more human and real to what people in the real world would react, despite their anime nature. Whenever I go through political/faction driven plot in Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, there's way too much in the plate for the plot to condense itself for someone like me to get involved in the story. It can be construed that I just need to pay more attention in order to be invested in it, but you don't have to go through that huge amount of grand scale to get something out of the plot. Every time I'm trying to get invested into the characters and their struggles, it feels more like a chore than an easy story experience in say Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky or Persona.

It appears we just look for different things in our games.

I have Persona 3 on the PSP and 4 on the Vita, both of which I've tried to start a few times.
But when things get rolling I find myself tuning out and losing interest as the characters spend time and energy talking about their days at school, the people they like (or don't), and various emotional issues.  Their interpersonal collisions which drive character development grate on me.   And while maybe they are accurate  representations of teenage behavior they just aren't something I find compelling (although maybe I'm expecting too much, how many teenagers are rational actors anyway?).

To me those things are just as much a turnoff as the political maneuvering of Tactics Ogre is to you.

Honestly, outside of FFXII and Xenoblade about the only thing I can think of is Dragon Age which can be played sort of the same way, but emphasizes pause and play more.  There is a fully scriptable AI, though.

Actually Dragon Age does meet many of my requirements, but for some reason slipped my mind (already have it).

This style may be tough to find due to the ambitious nature of the game needed to pull it off.  So it's restricted to those rare games with a large budget and the willingness to break convention.

I have 3 primary suggestions, depending on what you are looking for (sorry if they come a bit late):

#1 Neverwinter Nights 2.
It's somewhere between the older infinity engine rpgs and dragon age (DnD ruleset, 3d environments, not as technically advanced as dragon age, but that just means you can probably play it on your pc).
http://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_2_complete
If you get it, there is a massive body of addons to implement more features into the games and several very high quality modules available.

#2 Elder Scrolls (Skyrim probably, but oblivion is an option)
First person, but massive worlds, nearly no required narrative focus and lots of char creation aspects.  Both have massive worlds with lots to do to keep you busy.  Skyrim is more polished than oblivion, but moved to a more barren and norse oriented atmosphere rather than the classic fantasy that you may not like as much.
In both cases, if you get on pc there are a wealth of addons available to make gameplay more strategic (from smarter, more difficult enemies to controllable sidekicks and skills that require planning and placement such as traps).

#3 Kingdoms of Amalur
This game does a good job of scratching both my RPG and God of War itches at the same time, which would seem on first glance to be a difficult task.  Not especially strategic, but a well built (if very traditional) fantasy world with lots of customization and build features paired with fast combat and dodging make it something I keep going back to when I want to either kill stuff or soack up some atmosphere/lore.

These things usually slow down once the hype dies a bit.  They're going to need to viral it a lot to keep up this same pace.  I'd say it seems like it'll meet the $600,000, but I'm not sure if it'll hit all stretch goals.  I'd be surprised if it even hit $1million, but that would certainly be a pleasant surprise if it did.

I think their prediction algorithm needs some work.

When I posted the link they said it was on track for 4.7 million, now it predicts 2.6 million.

So long as it hits 1.8 I'll be satisfied, the game would be happiest on my vita.

Thanks, jumped on it!

What timing too, I've just been replaying FFT again.