Oh, sorry for the typo I meant Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. I also wouldn't say that Grandia 3 is a mind blowing game, it is good, great voice acting, and it held me from start to finish unlike Magna Carta, but the idea of being able to do what you want in an RPG, has always appealed to me, moreso than the linear concepts that have seemed to become a carbon copy standard in the gaming world.
Elder Scrolls makes you feel like your part of the world, I remember my first time playing Morrowind, and feeling like I was pulled into this mythical realm, that resembled Asgard, or Olympus... well not quite, but the concept that Bethesda brought to the table, opened up many new possibilities for die hard role playing fans like myself. I can imagine the company actually venturing into ideas such as creating games like Warhammer, or an Asgadian themed RPG, with the same concepts that have wowed people for the past 5 years. I will literally buy the 360 just to play Oblivion.
I'll keep it real with you, if I had to choose the new Final Fantasy soon to be released, or Oblivion... it would be Elder Scrolls all the way, simply because linear is nearing it's demise. Plus Square went, and fired the man who stared it all... they should be b*tch slapped for such foolishness. Imagine buying a house, only to invite someone in that later takes your wife, and kicks you out into the street.
Thanks for the input everyone.
I've never gotten into nonlinear RPG because quite frankly it frightens me. Especially MMORPG. Go online to fight a bunny and the bunny turns out to be level 99. Scary.
I've played a few Tactics RPG's and I like them, but so far the Grandia series has really been good to me so I just wanted a heads up on what I should be looking forward to. The voice acting has always been really good in Grandias.
Let's see, Grandia starts out pretty quickly, the tedium of fighting random battles has been reduced drastically, because you can see the enemy before you engage them. There are times that there is no getting around ceraitn battles though, which you will see when or if you buy the game.
Boss battles are very cool, too. The combat system is nice, because you can execute combo moves which really light the enemy up.
As for being a little leery of real time RPGing, you shouldn't be, I guarantee you that once you play one you'll be hooked.
I have a friend that I introduced to Morrowind, and at first he was complaining about how he really couldn't get into it. The next 3 weeks he was fired from his job, because he kept calling in sick, in order to play it.
People in these forums have made it clear that Morrowind is garbage compared to Oblivion. If I were you I'd give it a try. To top it off it's not an MMORPG so there are no fees.