Soul Blazer is an awesome game - doesn't require grinding, you can't really get lost with direction because... well.. you'll have to play it to understand.

Final Fantasy 3(6) is an amazing game. Requires some grinding, but the story is absolutely amazing and very in depth.

I wouldn't recommend any Phantasy Star's as a starting point, and same with Earthbound. Phantasy Star games are pretty tedious with grinding, and may turn you off of RPG's in general. Earthbound also isn't for every RPG fan either.

Other titles I personally enjoy (and I think you may enjoy them if you're starting to get into RPG's) are Secret of Mana (action/rpg - decent story, fun game play, beautiful graphics, over all a very solid title), Illusions of Gaia ("sequel" to Soul Blazer, similar game play), Mario RPG (fantastic game - not much to say other than that), and Final Fantasy 2(4) { Awesome game, but takes a little more patience than other Final Fantasies in terms of grinding/figuring out where to go, but it's got one hell of a story, one hell of a cast of characters, and the music and graphics are bad ass as well).