I admit, I did like Oblivion, but you're right, the characters weren't remarkable in any way because it was so quest driven. With Dragon Age it got sort of predictable for such an "open world." Right from the jump you're told what your primary objectives are and there's not much in the way of "exploration" at all. The different choices you can make are cool, but none of them really feel all THAT significant. Once I beat the game I found myself mostly unexcited about playing through it again with a different type of character. I liked Mass Effect a lot more. Final Fantasy stories are linear but I like the broader feel of it.
I liked Oblivion too, when I first played it. Beat all the guilds, did the main quest, and then it dawned on me, how shallow the experience had been in many ways. I'm not saying it's a bad game. But I don't think it is a very good RPG, or at least, it's not my kind of RPG. I agree about Dragon Age. Only a handful of big decisions, really, and I wasn't tempted enough to see what would have happened to load up a save file, much less start a completely new game. I'd have to disagree about ME though, but to each his own. I agree about final fantasy though, FF X just felt like a real epic to me. So I really enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that I don't really like turn based combat OR random battles OR really hard boss fights OR pain-in-the-ass end-game dungeons...
Bethesda's an easy target. Talk about a punching bag.
Deus Ex - (IMO) un-engaging characters, and I put the game down because I didn't find the story interesting enough to slog through.
Mass Effect 1 - Some of the worst pacing I've ever seen in a story, boring characters (aside from wrex), uninteresting worlds, cookie cutter side quests that the game would've done better without. The conversation with sovereign was the only truly memorable part for me.
Mass Effect 2 - BETTER, but a lot of quests are still very predictable (go here, kill all enemies, move on, kill all enemies, fight boss, mission over.) Overarching story is okay, would be meh if not for the moments of inspiration here and there. Characters are more interesting from the first one, but that's not saying much.
That said, I'm playing a JRPG called Persona 4 that has more character development for one supporting character halfway through the game than Mass Effect 2 had for all of its characters combined... Yeah.
Borderlands - It had a story?
Demon Souls - I know this one didn't.
Never Winter Knights 2 - Story had promise but didn't deliver. Cast had promise but didn't deliver. Ending was kinda memorable.
Mask of the betrayer - couldn't get past that mage like an hour into the game that confronts you. Fuck you Obsidian.
Fable 1/2 - Don't get me started.
Two Worlds - lol.
Risen - Played the demo. Was not inspired to buy the game.
Gothic games - suffer from the same problem The Elder Scrolls games do.
AND ALL OF THESE GAMES HAVE STEREOTYPICAL CHARACTERS. From Jack of Blades, who is evil because that's the thing to be, to the handsome but untrustworthy rogue/alcoholic dwarf in NWN 2, to the crazy, twisted bitch who likes to blow shit up (ME 2, Jack) to the strict, by the books, militarily efficient gal (Miranda, ME - 2), to the kid on a quest to become an adult (Me - Tali), etc etc etc.
The last western rpgs that I played and really enjoyed were kotor 1 + 2, and The Witcher (which I've never actually gotten to finish... Computer is shit for games...) And even those have their fair share of problems.
My computer has problems playing a lot of older games, for whatever reason, so I haven't had a chance to check out Fallout 1/2, System Shock, BG 1/2, etc. Did play a bit of Planetscape Torment. Original premise, great characterization, a little slow though. Ended up stopping because the game would freeze whenever someone would cast a spell.