On the subject of putting one's money where one's mouth is

Skies of Arcadia? Granted, seems a bit more RPG than the others, but it does allow for a fair bit of of freedom to act.

And, well, it's not fantasy adventure, but GTA3/VC/SA would satisfy the first three criteria, I'd think.

Upon reflection, I'm probably not the best person to make a comment here. ^^;

From what I played of it, Dark Cloud 2 might fit into that category. I wouldn't know, as looking through the camera viewfinder made me nauseated within two minutes.

And of course... for some narrative/some freedom you can't really beat GTA, but I rillyrilly doubt you want to dip your toes into that mess. ;)

I really was considering those at the beginning, but now it's a double whammy of too controversial + limited availability (I need at least 4-5 games and GTA:SA will be impossible to get now).

If availability is the issue, you can use my copy of San Andreas for as long as you'd need. (I wasn't especially enamoured of the game. Vice City is MINE, though. Ha ha!) If you've already written them off entirely, then don't worry about it.

Fable comes to mind, it's supposed to have freedom of play. I don't play much in the way of consoles so I can't help you too much. Heck I haven't even played Fable myself.

Just tossing things out there. I'm sure you've probably thought of most of these, but maybe I'll hit on something.

General: Would any of the Resident Evil games be appropriate?

PS2: Shame FFX-2 is a direct plot sequel; IMO, that would be the best RPG on PS2 for this. Wild ARMs 3 might be good if it weren't for the stupid world map. Dark Cloud series? I know you've played 2, if not 1, so you could make an effective judgment on it/them.

I haven't played much of Ico, but the controls are simple and you have plenty of ability to run around (albeit with limited surroundings). Not sure how heavy it is on narrative.

Gamecube: You could theoretically tack on Ocarina of Time, though (imo) it's a little harder to pick up and use than Wind Waker. Not sure if you want to do that since you already have Wind Waker on the list, but I've got the OoT bonus disc if you don't and you decide you need it. Looking at the rest of what I've played, the only other thing I can come up with is Tales of Symphonia. Easy to use, plenty of narrative, but I'm not sure it's 'free' enough for these purposes.

Xbox: From what I hear, Fable is short, fairly simple, and relatively player-driven, but I've not played it for myself. For "freedom", I've heard good things about Morrowind, but again, I've never touched it. Outside of that, I have no idea.

Dreamcast: PSO is all game / no narrative, Grandia games have no freedom... Skies is the best option on the system.

Sorry for all the ones I haven't played, but most of what I've played are TRPGs and PSX games, so.

Also:

Current music: Falcom Sound Team -- "Quatera Woods"

<3

Did you manage to find the soundtrack online somewhere? All I've found are 5 songs from one Ys fansite.

I've played ICO also... one of the few I've played myself, rather than watched. It's graphically spendid and the story is tantalizing, but the gameplay is really rather restricted. You can't go back to an area once you've solved it (well, maybe you could, but why would you? there's no bonuses for beating off attackers), so the element of choice is really about how you go about solving puzzles.

Syberia has no combat at all--it's all puzzles. And while some of them are amusing, you do have to solve them all to be successful.

I mean, the most obvious answer is the Super Mario games. Mario Sunshine in particular for GameCube, as well as WarrioWorld (which was, imo, much easier to understand than even Mario Sunshine).

I've played Ico - it was really tough to get going past a certain point. I've also played Dark Cloud 1 and I gave up fairly early on. Dark Cloud 2 was better, but not as easy to grasp as Wind Waker.

What about Devil May Cry 1 & 2? Both for PS2, very easy to understand even if you're not into fighting. I haven't played 3 yet so I'm not sure how that one measures up.

Star Ocean is an RPG that's very FF-like, but I found it to have a boring start so I gave up.

The first Prince of Persia was awesome. The second was too hard for my tastes.

The Jak and Daxter series is /awesome/, easy to understand, great environments, easy controls. There's three out there, and I've played all three and loved them.

I think that's all I can think of for now. Will keep think about it.

Also, I have most of these if you need to borrow. =D

Kingdom Hearts is EVIL. *Cough*

I'm putting my vote in on Prince of Persia (GC). The Bouncer (PS2) might be interesting too, since it fits all your criteria, but is also very very silly and fun.

Thought of one more.

If you're looking for GTA style gameplay, Simpsons: Hit and Run has a similar free-form style of gameplay but without the violence and sex. It's a bit more linear though.

shenmue is a great game that has both a built in fighting engine, freedom of choice, but a really strong plot line. i think that the immersive "real-world" aspect of it would be attractive to non-gamers.

and if you want to use gta:vice city, copies will be cheaper and more available