1. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter
This game's worldbuilding rivals some of the biggest games out there. So much care is put in to try and flesh out this game's world and make it seem more real that its hard to not come to love its universe and care about what happens in it. The game explains to you everything: the history of the world and how it came to be, past wars, the various religions of the world, how currency is carried, what people do for entertainment, the various kinds of foods people eat, how creatures interact with the world, how housing works between regions, what people do for work, etc. There's SO MUCH LORE its insane. And that level of detail exists within the characters as well. Even random side characters with no relevance to the plot get fleshed out and some time spent to make them feel like living breathing people in the world. And its all thrown together with a nice Gurren Lagann-esque plot structure where a huge number of hype twists and turns happen in the 2nd half. Without a doubt my favorite RPG. Besides, who doesn't love the idea of furries piloting giant robots while soaring above floating islands in the sky?
2. Nier
Where Solatorobo stands as my favorite, this stands as what I'd consider the closest to perfect. Beyond balancing, there's not any one thing it does wrong, but it does a HUGE amount right. Cleverly making the story change simply by withholding information from the player was amazing, and the beautiful vocaled soundtrack just made it a pleasure to play from beginning to end. A depressing tale, and one that's sure to make any player cry.
3. Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix
I genuinely believe this game to have some of the best action combat in gaming. Easily arguable as one of the best action RPGs out there, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix's strength lies in the huge amount of attacks you have and how they all have their uses and functions. Summons, reaction commands, magic, Drive forms, abilities.....This game has it all, and its well balanced too. Its an RPG that you can beat without leveling up on the hardest difficulty and yet it never becomes tedious or throws damage sponge enemies at you. Complemented by a soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura, KHII FM is without a doubt one of the most fun games there is.
4. Final Fantasy XII
Its hard for me to decide if Solatorobo or FFXII have the most worldbuilding really. FFXII's strongest asset too is its worldbuilding, giving huge amounts of lore about Ivalice with regards to the races of the world, various myths and legends people have in different regions of the world, the economic systems of different cities, and so much more. It also probably has the most content out of all of these, easily having over 150 hours worth of content, especially thanks to all the different sidequests, Espers, and Hunts available to the player.
5. Devil Survivor: Overclocked
A surprisingly unique combination of standard RPG combat and SRPG gameplay, Devil Survivor uses Christian lore in a really cool way to tell a badass story full of edge and a semi-realistic handling of how people respond to chaos. Plus Suzuhito Yasuda's artwork is gold.
