I second this.

Which ever games you start with you shouldn't start off too "beginner friendly" because most likely if you get conditioned to "simpleness" of newer rpgs you might find it quite hard and/or boring to go back and try the earlier titles.

It occurred to me that you might consider checking out Undertale, which does a few things differently while otherwise playing like a JRPG outside of combat. (The combat involves bullet-hell dodging during the enemy turn, but it's much easier than a real bullet hell shmup, and failing to dodge does damage instead of being an instant kill.)

Undertale is most famous for the fact that you don't have to kill anything, but there's also a special ending if you do kill everything. Note that the ending is affected by who you do (and don't) kill.

My reason not to suggest Fallout 1-2 for beginners is more about how oddly you "control" your companions. I mean, if you want them to use a certain weapon or armor... was it so that you have to "trade" with them so that they get that item, and then somehow tell them to use "the best weapon/armor", and then hope they select the one you wanted them to use?

I never understood why it was done like that, as if it wasn't really meant that you can give them new armor and weapons? In Fallout Tactics you can directly control your companions' inventories (as well as actions), but Tactics has problems of its own, and it is more of a tactical turn-based strategy game than a RPG...

Other than that odd inventory management of the companions, I'd say Fallout 1-2 user interface and game system are pretty easy to learn.

Love Fable!!

Perhaps Assassins Of Kings, since the combat system for EE gets way repetitive really fast, I wouldn't recommend it for him. Dragon Age Origins and KOTOR are prime choices though.

I have a different reason to not suggest these two games; irreversible customization. The choices you make at character creation and level up can't be changed, so if your build doesn't work, you are unable to fix that.

There's also the fact that, from what I have read, early battles can be difficult and painful, which is not a gentle way to be introduced to the gme.

Interestingly enough, Elminage Gothic has neither of these issues; you can always create new characters, and the start of the game is rather easy from a combat perspective. However, I still wouldn't recommend it to a newbie, as the game gets rather difficult (sometimes to the point of being unfair), and the very first dungeon is rather complex from a mapping standpoint (first person perspective with an automap that isn't free to open).

I do like Witcher 2 & 3 better, but they're more wRPG than cRPG. I played the entire game OTS mode, but from isometric viewpoint it plays mostly like a true cRPG. But it looks like there was most every RPG subgenre thrown into the discussion at this point.

Someone already mentioned the first Fable. So I'd recommend another great RPG that you will surely enjoy - Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Really nice mechanics, it let you choose your own playstyle, story is great, atmosphere, game design... Can't go wrong with this one!