There is that evolution game that people praised until it came out and was super generic and got a lot of flack for just being a gimmick. And then they tried to rectify it by releasing a new version with more fleshed out story or something. I haven't checked out either version, I just know their existence

For me, it was and has pretty much always been a good RPG that has a fighting game for the enemy encounter fights

Some notable games that almost got it were Xenogears, and Legend of Legaia. I -almost- got what I wanted with Tales of Xillia. The battle system in that game is so fast, and active, and insane, and all about quickly moving around in the fight and pulling off your moves. It's probably as close as I'll ever get. And even better that I loved the characters and the story was fairly unique and well done

But nobody has ever completely pulled it off. But I got my first taste with Soul Calibur 3 having a strategy game where encounters were just stage fights