The game Severance: Blade of Darkness had very realistic combat (even the most weak enemies could kill your character in one or two hits) and featured a barbarian and amazon character who bought used very little protection but were more mobile in combat (and used weapons with long range) compared to the knight and dwarf character who both used shields and heavy armour (and were very slow in comparison to aforementioned characters).
It handled armour well without it becoming ridiculous.
I maintain that for adventurers in fantasy games who trek through various landscapes and usually are involved in much smaller scale fights, studded leather or chainmail would be most practical. Full metal armour wouldn't be at all practical outside battlefields where blows can come from all directions.
