I just downloaded Final Fantasy IV: The After Years this past weekend and am loving it so far. It definitely brings me back to my days of renting Final Fantasy IV and saving up for VI. Anyway, what with remakes and ports, I've played most of the games I missed way back when, along with some newer "old school" games featuring 2D graphics and turn-based battles such as Golden Sun.

The last Final Fantasy game I played was IX, and the last I finished was VII. The newest Dragon Quest game I've played in IV, though V will probably be purchased eventually. Breath of Fire II is on the Virtual Console and will probably be downloaded once I finish The After Years. There is just something about those games that didn't have long animation sequences, CG cutscenes, and that only required a bit of grinding to defeat most enemies.

By far, I'd say my favorite RPG is Final Fantasy VI. Chrono Trigger was great as well, and Super Mario RPG was a favorite but playing it on Virtual Console did not do justice to my memories (linear with few sidequests and pretty short).

So, what is your favorite old school RPG? For this thread, I'll define "old school" as a game originally out on a 16-bit or earlier system or one that pays homage to those games.