Love having all my party members twiddling their thumbs defending and healing while one guy fails his steal rolls 10 times in a row
I extra love it if the steal move deals damage so you have to also worry about the target dying from too many failed attempts
I double extra love it when it’s a boss battle when on top of everything else the story momentum just grinds to a halt while you fuck with a stupid RNG for 5 minutes
Not a turn-based JRPG, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 I think nailed its steal mechanic. The skill is just a little yoink that can only happen when an enemy is staggered, but gets you an extra drop. The table is slightly different than actual drops, but you aren’t getting unique equipment from stealing, and those drops can help with your forging or selling mats for money. Having a Thief in your party with Pilfer/Plunder and the grapple hook that can knock down enemies easy does give you more loot. Certain NPCs can also be stolen from once, but there’s near 0 risk or test involved, it’s just finding out who has what.
DD2 has so many interesting things and just a weirdo vision to it but lacks the polish to bring it together properly that someone like Fromsoft or Kojima would give it.
It feels like Baldurs Gate 3 if it had action combat instead of turnbased. But without the writing, level design and freedom that it deserves. I mean, it has the freedom but it doesn’t give you enough creative options for solving quests in off the wall ways outside of a couple of them.
With that said, the weird way you can piece together the story through 3rd-hand info rather than being spoonfed it sometimes feels like archaeology and I really dig it.