Have you tried any of the Final Fantasy Tactics games? The original one fro Playstation was hard if I remember correctly, but I put lots of hours into the Gameboy Advance(Final Fantasy Tactics Advance) one and it was considerably easier. They also made another one for the DS, Final Fantasy Tactics A2. I never played that one, but could be worth checking out. As far as gameplay, they are a tactical rpg like Fire Emblem, but with a final fantasy twist, At least in the advance one, you could recruit characters and level them into whatever job you wanted them to be. Since they are for older systems, they're probably pretty cheap.