I expect I am opening the door to a world of forum hurt here, but... ah screw it, here goes something.
My vote goes to the Western school of RPGs on the whole, though there's some distinct merit to the Eastern school.
Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned that Role Playing Games, by definition, require the player to make decisions that control the outcome of the storyline. Absolutely correct; and by this definition, no video or computer game has ever been a full-fledged RPG. The closest experience you'll ever have is by playing a pen and paper RPG like Shadowrun or D&D, and even then only if you've got a great GM.
The Western school of RPG design has primarily been to give the player a lot of control in generating his character and what the character does in the game; this tends to mean more open settings, worlds, and situations - and a lot less detail. When you have to account for fifty possible solutions to the same situation, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to force a particular bad-ass conversation or a notable plot point. Coincidentally, a lot of the dramatic potential in most Western RPGs needs to be set up behind the scenes; it's extremely difficult to force a situation in a Western-styled RPG without pulling the player out of the scenario. It feels wrong, given how much control you have over everything else, to be unable to concoct a strategy to fool your epic foes.
In examples of Western RPGs that have forced situations - KotOR, Baldur's Gate 2 - frequently those forced situations are the weakest in the game, the least enjoyable.
The Eastern school of RPG design has focused heavily upon fantastical situations, dramatic storylines, excellent visuals, and a lot of over-the-top style. Frequently, character control is minimal, usually pertaining only to how effective the character is in combat, and the dialogue and situations are all carefully scripted. The good of this is that there are more moments of impact in the story, and there's a lot more control over what the player does. There's still room to give the player things to do on the side, and these can even impact the storyline's outcome - collecting all 108 characters in a Suikoden game, for example, affects the ending without really changing the story on the road to the ending very much. All the dramatic potential arises from a script, however, and all the stories of the game are ultimately the same.
In examples of Eastern RPGs that have departed from the super-scripted mentality - Chrono Trigger, Romancing SaGa - the game as a whole has felt stronger for the player's ability to direct the storyline towards the ends he wants.
I can point to a lot of Eastern RPGs I've liked, and I can point to plenty of Western RPGs I haven't - I'm lookin' at you, Witcher - but the capacity for decision making is vastly more appealing to me than any other factor in an RPG. The whole question of character design is wholly irrelevant to me - yeah, I tend to prefer gruffer characters with more nuance and less melodrama to them, but if a 17 year old effeminate, emo kid with a ten foot sword is the main character in a better game, I'll play the better game every time.
