I applaud your decision to leave anything Japanese out of an RPG thread, even though your inclusion of Assassin's Creed puzzles me. Yes, I read your rationale for it, and I think you're wrong.

But hey, it's your thread. =P

 Seconding this. I also LOVED Odin Sphere (though I'm probably the only person who did, outside of the amazing visuals), but it had too many slowdown problems to nominate for best RPG of the year. Hopefully the Wii sequel will fix the slowdown...

I originally titled it The Best Games I've Played This Year and What They did Right and Wrong. Guess I should have left the title the same. I just got tired of writing about the second game in. Plus I figured most would get tired of reading first game in.

As for Assassins Creed it just did so many things I'm excited about that I wanted to comment on it. I want to see a lot of these elements included by other developers in RPGs. Specifically world building and immersion.

The only reason I did not Include any JRPGs is for the most part they dont appeal to me. I tried the Demo of Blue Dragon for about 5 minutes and could not get past their choice of art style. Maybe thats shallow of me but its typically the most important aspect of a game to me after Storyline.

Persona 3 looks good to me becasue from the little I just read on it it seems to have a very dark storyline. I like Dark. Wish I had a ps2 or 3.

I loved Odin Sphere too.  It's too bad about the slowdown.  Hopefully Oboro Muramasa on the Wii won't have that issue.

Pokemon is my RPG of the year!  Odin Sphere comes in a close second.

Blue Dragon

+ Graphics/design, sound (Not fantastic, but still very nice by Noboue), warp device, and many items/magic stuff
- To Easy, english Voice actors *!* Story

8/10.

No Persona or Blue Dragon?

Fail.

i go for oblivion GOTY edition

Persona may be better than the ones in the list (IMO the only RPG), but the game sucked. Persona 3 was a average RPG and a weak game from the SMT universe game. It get points for trying some new and original ideas, but that does not save its boring gameplay and dumb storyline.

*edit: the first 2 titles are WRPGs. 

I am pretty sure must of the best RPGs are on PS2, DS, or PC.

Super Paper Mario is more of an RPG than anything that was listed in the 1st post. I'd also say it is a much better RPG.

For DS, maybe Dragon Quest 4 but there are so many RPGs on DS (it is the king of RPGs) so it is hard to decide.

So about these two game (2 of the top 5 RPGs on the year).

Super Paper Mario is a very fun game.  Both the switching between 2d and 3d and the pointing with the wiimote are very fun.  The story is also wonderful and very funny.  It may have the best story of any RPG this year and does very well in gameplay.  Plus, it is Mario!

Dragon Quest 4 is the best and must advanced version of Dragon Quest 4 ever made.  It offers a long story, nice visuals, decent sound, and a great retro feel.  The vast majority of NES games have lost their fun to me, but DQ4 is one of those games that came be a hugely updated NES game and fun.  While Zelda PH may be more fun for quick play and more casual, most people would not consider it or Halo, Bioshock, AC, and Half Life to be RPGs.