Usually, RPGs, especially older ones, tend to balance physical and magical attacks in such a way that:
* Magical attacks are stronger than physical attacks, particularly later in the game, or at least have advantages such as being able to hit multiple enemies at once.
* Physical attacks are free, but magical attacks use up some resource such as MP.

What I am curious about, here, is games where the balance is inverted.

The game that made me think about this is SaGa Frontier 2. In that game:
* In the long run, physical attacks are stronger than spells.
* Weapons have limited durability (with some exceptions, and martial arts exist as a viable durability-free alternative). Spells, however, don't have to worry about that, except in duels where the tool's durability gets used up (this doesn't happen in party battles).
* A character who has SP from equipment will have their SP restored up to the amount provided by equipment after each battle; this allows the character to cast spells in every fight and not run out of SP. No such mechanic exists for WP, which is required to use weapon techniques (and basic attacks are basically useless after the early game, except when trying to learn new techniques).

Another game (though one I consider to not technically be an RPG) that has some signs of a similar dynamic, though not as well implemented, is Oblivion. In that game:
* Weapons have limited durability. Repairing them requires the use of a consumable item or returning to town and paying someone; the only way (to my knowledge) to get free repairs is to max out the Armorer skill.
* Magic, for most characters, uses a resource that regenerates over time. Hence, while you can run out of magic if you use too much in a short time, you don't have to worry about long-term resources here (unless you start using potions to restore your Magicka or speed up its regeneration, or are born under the Atronach birthsign).
* Magic is *still* more powerful than weapons, however, unless you use enchanted weapons, where there's again the issue of non-regenerating charges to deal with (but it's easy to charge them back up, espeically if you get Azura's Star).

So, any other examples of games like this?

Arcanum: Steamworks and Magic Obscura has an interesting mechanic wherein magic and non-magic are in conflict. I'm not really clear on the mechanics, but I think it's something along the lines of character's magical abilities become weaker when in a party of tech-savvy non-magic members. Said character also drains the effectiveness of the other member's abilities. And vice versa for magic 'infected' by technology. So if you want a healer for example, then depending on your party makeup and character build you'll either pick a druid/priest type character that uses spells, or a medic type character that uses bandages, ointments and such. Again, I'm not sure precisely how it works.

Golden Sun appears to be an aversion of Linear Warriors and Quadratic Wizards. In that while your magical equal system is great for solving puzzles, it becomes greatly outpaced in combat due to basically weapon limit breaks.

As far as I recall, there's a magic / technology alignment, and the further a character goes in one direction, the less likely anything from the other will "stick" on them, not to mention them using it themselves. Recall poor Virgil trying to heal Magnus, how many casts it took to have any effect after a while.
Don't think it applies here in any way, especially since tech relies on resources that don't regenerate, while magic mana and fatigue, used for magic, do.

Interesting thanks, I seem to recall an alignment of some such sorts. I don't think it would've bothered me too much on my last (probably final) playthrough attempt since I went full-on tech to become a gunslinger.

Not exactly reversed, but Titan Quest and Grim Dawn both have a Mana regeneration mechanic that makes casting spells in the short term as a primary attack exceptionally viable (in fact, normal attacks are all but useless after level 1) and doesn't limit your long term spell usage.

In Grim Dawn, at least weapon attacks are often basically spells that deal physical until later in the game when you can manipulate your damage type via skills and gears that convert your damage to a particular type (Acid/poison, Lightning/Electrocute etc) or even convert your special damage to physical. So technically you can have extremely powerful spells that deal all physical/internal trauma damage.

Isn't that like Implosion in the Might and Magic series? (In 3-5, it actually does indeed do Physical damage, interestingly enough.)

Arcanum is a good call - there is a large assortment of spells but you can beat the game spamming Harm (which is lvl1 spell) and mana is not an issue, especially when you keep using Harm and not develop magick so you can use both herbs and potions to restore mana.

And melee utilize weapons that break, who played Mountain Clan mines then surely remember these weapon breaking golems/elementals.

Came here to say Arcanum.

And while it's not available DRM-free, I might also recommend Final Fantasy X-2 ("Ten-Two"). PS2 version or PS3/PS4 remasters exist without Internet connections on physical copies.

Why that? There are entire classes that don't have physical attacks. Or some without magical attacks. The game DOES later-game degenerate into "hold attack to win" (a problem with all the jRPGs, sadly... :(), but it takes a good chunk of grinding to get there.

FFX has this to some degree (different attackers being better against different foes; conditions mattering), but not nearly as much.

Additionally, give Book of Demons a try. It's a riff on a "modern Diablo remake as if it were a storybook", but it's actually REALLY good. And all things in the game -- spells, items, equipment, are treated as the same category in the game, "cards" that have increasing-rarity tiers, and can be individually upgraded. You have a limited number of slots to equip cards (increased as you "level up"). "Spell" cards [more like actions] cost mana to use. Equipment cards permanently bind mana to have on. Item cards use up a slot, but use charges that must be purchased. The game largely revolved around click-to-auto-attack-faster, but that's only at the base. All the cards modify things, including modifying the auto-attacks. The game has a great aesthetic and IS AMAZING, REALLY THE BEST, at being playable at lunch breaks/short sessions, or long sessions, as you choose. I didn't repeat, but wanted to quote. The only downside is mana/mana-regen comes a little too easily for the bound-mana to matter most of the time. But all attacks use mana, more or less -- physical, or magical.

Some of the Shin Megami Tensei games somewhat work in this manner, depending on your build/party layout. Physical attacks tend to do more damage in the long run and have quite a few multi-target attacks, but unlike Magic which uses whatever MP substitute the game is using, Special Phys attacks all cost HP to dish out damage. On top of that, usually Phys attacks have less damage-type options, in that you'll usually only have 1-3 different types vs Magic which will have 4+ almost every game, and a lot of newer games in the series really prioritize exploiting type-weaknesses for extra turns and other bonuses. In addition, a lot of multi-target physical attacks tend to hit multiple times which can really stack the damage but also increases your chance of missing which incurs turn penalties on you (however, more attacks also leads to a greater chance of one of them being a Crit, giving the same bonuses as exploiting a weakness does). On the flip side, though, like I said previously, Phys tends to, in terms of raw damage output, outpace magic very quickly. A common strategy is to rely on magic users to exploit weaknesses for turn bonuses while anyone physical just wails as hard as they can with massive group hitting attacks.

Not all JRPGs are like this. For example:
* In Dragon Quest 2, the endgame is difficult enough that holding attack to win won't be enough; even being max level won't be enough to save you.
* SaGa games (except the original SaGa 3) don't have an attack command in the normal sense; while there are basic attacks, they tend to be too weak to win late-game battles in a reasonable amount of time (from RS1 onward). In SaGa 1 and 2 (and also 3 remake), nearly every weapon has limited durability, so attacking with them isn't free.
* In some games, the fastest way to win battles is to use magic. This happens in Final Fantasy 6 (where Ultima is more powerfuh than it should be) and SaGa 2 (and late game in SaGa 3 remake), for example. (Incidentally, sometimes SaGa 3 remake feels like this sort of inversion; for quite a while, stronger spells hit comparable to stronger weapons, at the cost of running out faster (because you need to use the more powerful techniques from the spellbooks); however, the basic spellbooks that you're still using are cheap to purchase and repair, unlike the weapons capable of doing comparable damage.)

On the other hand, in my experience HP is generally easier to restore than MP; just use a healing spell (or even a zero-cost infinite use healing ability or item) and the character is ready to use such an attack again. MP isn't so easy to restore (though apparently Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne *does* give you an infinite use MP restoring item late in the game).

For a health-like cost of a physical attack to matter mid-term (as opposed to the short-term cost of risking death), it would need to use up something that's harder to restore, like LP. (SaGa Frontier 2 has a powerful attack, KAMIKAZE, which requires LP to use; it's supposed to be a late game move, but a glitch lets you easily learn it early. SaGa Frontier 1's most useful LP using abilitis, on the other hand, are multi-target heals, and LP can be easily restored there just by leaving the character out of the active party (though, except for certain main characters, no humans and robots learn that skill, and those two races are the more poweful ones).)

I should point out another thing: I really can't play most Shin Megami Tensei games because of the music in them. (Maybe I should get around to playing Strange Journey at some point; that game, unlike the main series and Persona games, actually has good music that I can listen to; I actually replaced Elminage Gothic's battle theme with the one in SMT: SJ when I was playing throguh it.)

Some simplification always applies.

Sure, Some characters are best with gembox+economizer, but most others are happiest with Genji Glove+offering. It's mixed, but with cursor memory, it effectively is the same as "hold optimal action rather than select for conditions".

I might have to check out the SaGa games based on your descriptions... but I don't want my games too hard; just thought-requiring. Which reminds me, you have played Final Fantasy Tactics, right? I'm always looking for the best-choice action when I play that -- and sometimes it's attack, sometimes it's a spell, sometimes it's another command.

Actually, unless your level is high, Gem Box + Economizer (or Gem Box + Gold Hairpin with Osmose) is better than Genji Glove + Offering for everyone except Umaro (who can't use either setup anyway). It's only some time after Ultima reaches 9999 against single targets that the physical setup can outdamage it, and at that point, do you *really* need to bre able to do anymore damage?

Also, without accessories, Ultima is still going to outdamage physical attacks, and one might want the accessory slots for other things, like status protection, auto Haste, or even something like Sprint Shoes or Moogle Charm (two accessories which, while useless during combat, you will likely want outside of combat).

(By the way, modern translations (starting with GBA) use different names for these accessories; Soul of Thamasa for Gem Box, Celestriad for Economizer, MAster Scroll for Offering), but the point still applies, although some of the bonus bosses don't die after taking 65k damage.)

Before you mention that there's only one of certain accessories, note that (excluding GBA bonus bosses) no enemy is going to survive long enough for that to actually matter.

The SaGa games are not that hard if you know what you're doing; in fact, with the right setup, something things might feel a bit too easy. (The final bosses, however, seem to always put up a decent fight; SaGa Frontier 2's final boss might be a bit much (especially if it's your first time), and I've heard horror stories about Romancing SaGa 2's final boss (unless you spam a certain spell that will deny the boss its turn), but otherwise they're good challenges.)

Much of the strategy of SaGa games isn't the actual battles, but more the way you develop your characters. The growth systems in SaGa games are far more complex than those of most RPGs; in particular, you won't see experience points and levels (unless you're playing the original SaGa 3, of course). If you've played Final Fantasy 2, imagine that sort of growth system, but better balanced, and you get an idea of what a typical SaGa growth system is like. (Interestingly enough, SaGa 1 isn't like that; humans grow via buyable stat boos items, mutants (espers in JP version) by the RNG (which is quite poor in this particular game, by which I mean it isn't random), and monsters transform when they eat meat.)

As for Final Fantasy Tactics, I've played through most of that game (PS1 version), but while it can be fun, I personally prefer non-tactical RPGs. (By the way, it looks like the just released Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark might be up your alley; from the trailer it looks like the gameplay should be similar, complete with job system.)

Can you describe this? (I have played one or more of the Final Fantasy games, but it was a while ago and I'm not sure which it was, nor even what system it was — probably the original Playstation.)