I wouldent go as far as to say FF is an RPG. Great game, but very liner and haveing as to no charicter custmoization. More like an adventure game, really.
i'm gonna have to agree with zoombie. yes, technically you "play a role" in FF, but there is very little deviation from a central path, no matter how twisted it is.
Oh and OB is awsome. This one time i smashed a Deadria (think huge deamon guy with huge claymore. thats about right) with my enchanted sword "DEATH BRINGER". I made it myself, dose thirdy lightning damage. So anyway i smash this deadria right up the middle with an uppercut like move. Lightning arcs up the sword and the deadria is electrcuted, dying quickly. But he flys backwards, propelled by my mighty blow, and ramms into the wall, slides down the the floor. Then slowly leans over and falls off the bridge we where on and hits the level of ground below us. Unfortunantly the corpse hits the guid rail, flipping it over as it continues to topple. Its head smashes against the side of the tower we were fighting on top of, and finaly the much abused corpse lands straight into the ONE pit of lava in a large area.
It was soooooooooo cool. Oh and there was that time when I smashed a Clannfear with a fire ball at fivehundred yards and it did TWO back flips, plumeted off a cliff and rammed into the lake below the cliff at high speeds. He's not getting up FROM THAT! AHA!
Oh and this one time i killed a Fire Elemental, smashing its brains out and cuaseing its legs to slid out from under it. Then it slid down the sloap into a lake. Try getting up from that!
FF is a liniar RPG, you play the role of a very well defined and individual character. It's a little like being the main character in a novel or comic book that you are at the same time reading through. The combat system is intentionally understated to divert more game attention to the story.
In contrast a game like oblivian which allows the character to be whatever he/she wants is an open ended RPG. Open ended RPGs sacrifice mostly pacing and story depth to bring the experiance they do, but for a person who can really appreciate being the character rather then just riding on the characters sholders they are generally a more fun experiance. You create your own story, the game doesn't create the story for you in the same way.
I still really prefer the liniar style just because I'm the kind of person who easily gets bored by a story line that isn't properly paced and developed. The only character I tend to like playing in open ended RPG's is one that can go around effortlessly killing anything he sees fit, and most RPGs don't have those because they would remove the challenge.
Fallout 2 for example didn't get really fun for me until I swiped the bozar and collected disturbing ammounts of weaponary of all types.
Don't worry. OB gets good from the beggining. There are a few rats, but then your onto killing scelitons and bandits and demons from the plane of Oblivion. Also the plot is KICK ASS!