A shining example of this bizarre phenomenon is Robotrek, published by none other than Enix. But somehow, despite its freakish nature, or perhaps because of it, Robotrek managed to distinguish itself from the mass of mediocre RPGs and even become something memorable, while contributing a rather decent gameplay system. Instead of the player character fighting, he sends out one of up to three robots to fight for him. The battle system itself is also somewhat similar to Lunar. Your robot can move around to a limited extent, though it's difficult to manipulate your movement strategically - most enemies can hit you from any point with at least one of their attacks, and it's usually impossible to get around them to attack from behind.
Some strategy is introduced by the presence of a timer and item capsules in each battle.
Protect the world from midgets in black jumpsuits who commit traffic violations. The truly interesting part of the gameplay, however, occurs outside of battle. You play the role of an inventor, and your robot's strength in battle is directly related to your inventing skill. You can decide to pump up their HP at the expense of other stats, hope that a high defense and attack power will outweigh low hit points and speed, or simply distribute points evenly for a well-rounded robot. You can also customize your robots for different tasks by making one lean towards attack and speed, and another towards defense and high hit points.