Best Plot/Story Rpgs of recent time

I'm tempted to come in and categorically say that they are all shit, every last one of them, but I've stumbled across a few unlikely jewels.

I haven't had a chance to play the first two, but Wild Arms 3 and 4 are surprisngly well written. WA3 has a fairly interesting storyline; important characters die off rather suddenly, the heroes behave competently, and I really liked that the game acknowledges your character's levels. Battles against the major villains become less and less hopeless as your party is level 20, 30, 40, until it is completely plausible how you suddenly turn around and defeat them for good at the end of the game.

WA4 wanders a little too far into the land of RPG cliches, but the characters actually talk like real human beings, and the writing carries the plot far beyond it's simple archetypes and recycled events. Having the protagonist come from the standard issue RPG starting village actually has a purpose other than it being The Way Things Are. Even Raquel, who I suddenly realize is more or less Cloud with boobs, manages to completely beat Cloud at his own archetype.

Paper Mario reminded me of why Nintendo is so awesome, even when their marketing decisions are poorly informed. It's funny, and entertaining, yet has a fairly serious game system underneath the light-hearted veneer. It really says something when Paper Mario is a superior game all around to Final Fantasy. Paper Mario 2 is absolutely mine as soon as I get a Wii.

Jam it back in, in the dark.