Playstation 2 RPG's

[bbor]

I need a good one to add to my X-mas list.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Blade6119]

Final Fantasy X and X-2 are solid...im playing through X-2 right now...ther are some parts that make it feel a little spice girls like(the concert), but it is a great gae with multiple endings...

Kingdom hearts if you never picked it up was fun...Suikoden III and Baulders Gate were fun ones as well...i havent seen much in the terms of new, but there are some good ones on PC

[sterlingice]

Have any past favorite games that we can use to see what your preferences are? (not that I've even played many PS2 games, tho Kingdom Hearts was certainly one I did play- it'd just be easier to pick games based on what you prefer)

SI

[SackAttack]

FFX was excellent. X-2 is good, but really, really out there. Strange game. I like it, though.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is top-notch, and Xenosaga is very good as well, although it can be a bit on the talky side.

Suikoden III and Wild Arms 3 are above average as well.

[oykib]

Originally posted by SackAttack
FFX was excellent. X-2 is good, but really, really out there. Strange game. I like it, though.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is top-notch, and Xenosaga is very good as well, although it can be a bit on the talky side.

Suikoden III and Wild Arms 3 are above average as well.

I'm a bigtime Final Fantasy fan, but saying that FFX was excellent is going too far. It was the best one since FFVII, however.

Suikoden III had a good story (though not nearly as good as previous installments). It also gives you some bang for your buck. I logged 125 hours on it.

If you like S-RPGs like FF Tactics, then you might want to pick up Disgaea.

As for Kingdom Hearts, I think Dark Cloud 2 did the same thing better, although it was missing the eye and ear candy. But I haven't finished either one.

The ./hack series is alright, but there are four of them. I don't know that they're good enough to invest $150 in. I only have the first one.

I would recommend Suikoden III most highly of this group. But I'm really waiting for the English version of Star Ocean 3.

[Poli]

Dang FF series. I wish it could be played on the XBox. I'm trying to mothball my PS2.

[NevStar]

Gladius!

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally posted by ardent enthusiast
Dang FF series. I wish it could be played on the XBox. I'm trying to mothball my PS2.

Easy solution. Sell it to me cheap.

[Calis]

I'll put in a vote for Dark Cloud 2, had a good time with that game. Just tons of different aspects to that game, so you never get too bored with any of it.

I wasn't a fan of FFX personally.

Never tried the Suikoden series, seems like a cool concept though. My PS2 has been flaky as of late, so I've pretty much disowned it, it's not worth the hassle to deal with.

How are the first two Suikoden games? They pretty good? I might try to find one of those some day, since my PS1 is still staying strong.

[oykib]

Originally posted by Calis
How are the first two Suikoden games? They pretty good? I might try to find one of those some day, since my PS1 is still staying strong.

Suikoden 1 is really too old to play. You won't have the ptience for the loading times. Suikoden2 is really good, though. It has a great story and tons of hours worth of gameplay.

Playing either one makes you wish fantasy novels were written that way. The only series of novels that approaches it is the Martin one that's going on now.

But Suikoden is much more fantastic.

Also give Star Ocean 2, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, and Grandia if you find them.

[Calis]

Oh, comparing it to a Martin novel, now I'm definitely adding Suikoden 2 to my must try list. Thanks for the info.

Hmm, I'll have to check some of those others out as well, Vagrant Story was one I was looking for as well.

I never had a PS until about 6 months ago, so I'd been playing catch-up with RPGS, only done FFVII and Chrono Cross so far.

Sheesh thing that sucks is, these games are getting hard enough to find now that they cost just as much if not more than a brand new game...figures.

[mauchow]

As a player of :hack... I'd suggest you renting them rather than buying them.

I've played all the :hack games up to this point(3 of them). I've rented them all at least once. I rented the first one twice before I beat it, and the 2nd and 3rd ones twice.

So I spent a grand total of $20 on three games. Once you beat an RPG you really can't play it again and get the same 'fun' factor. At least not in hack. It would be basically the same thing over and over again. And by the sounds of it, FFx-2 allows you to have multiple endings, therefore having more play-again value.

So as a christmas gift, I'd suggest a $30 dollar gift certificate to your local video game rental stores.

Oh yeah.. Hack is a real good game, IMO.

[bbor]

I'm a big fan of the WA series.FF is awesome too...but ihavent gotten into them as of late.Grandia was good ....Exo was awesome.I found Dark cloud kinda mediocre.


Thx for the tips though

[Calis]

Did you try Dark Cloud 2 though? The original was not a good game imo, but they really turned it around with the 2nd one.

Just curiuos, because I've heard a lot of folks who disliked the first one who really dug the 2nd.

[Calis]

Sheesh, not to threadjack anymore, but man...I take back what I said about getting Suikoden 2.

Looks like it's about 150 bucks to get a copy of that, dang..that sucks.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by oykib
Also give Star Ocean 2, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, and Grandia if you find them.

Supposedly, this month, Vagrant Story and Xenogears are going greatest hits. Finally, I can go get a copy of the latter without paying an arm and a leg- and all I give up is the green stripe.
'
SI

[jerem77]

I know that many final fantasy fans claim FFVII as the best ever, and I agree it was a very good game. I, however, would pick FFX as my favorite in the series. (not necesarily the best, just my favorite) I'm about half way through FFX-2, and having a blast with it. I would reccomend either of those. If you want to go old school final fantasy, ther is FF Origins. Also, I understand that Chronicles and Anthology will be rereleased this month.

[SackAttack]

Originally posted by oykib
I'm a bigtime Final Fantasy fan, but saying that FFX was excellent is going too far. It was the best one since FFVII, however.

I don't think it's going too far at all, truthfully. I have a scale I use, mentally speaking, when I review games over at Gamenikki.

Essentially, while we do use a numerical scale on the site, my mental scale goes something like this:

Utter Shit

Sound Concept, Flawed Execution (Games that have some redeeming value, but need a lot of polish)

Good Game (solid effort all around, but not perfect)

Excellent Game (one or two flaws, but nothing seriously detracting from the overall experience)

Timeless Classic

Basically, on Gamenikki's 0-10 scale, anything from a 0 through a 4 is equivalent to my "Utter Shit" rating. A 5/6 is SCFE, A 7/8 is GG, a 9 is EG, and a 10 is TC.

It's not an exact science, because few games achieve true perfection, so that '10' rating for Timeless Classics is fairly subjective. A 10 rated game, for us, may not be perfect, but it ought to be so damn close that you either can't tell the difference, or don't care. FFX is not a perfect 10. I *would* give it a 9. A couple of the minigames sucked (blitzball, lightning dodge, I'm looking at you), but to me, they didn't detract enough to ruin the gameplay. It was still a game that took me two months to beat, and any game that a) delivers that kind of value in terms of playtime, and b) actually keeps me hooked for that long with the number of games I'm expected to play and review each month is worthy of being called an Excellent Game, in my book.

But then...it's ALL subjective. I don't think many people would argue that FFX is one of the two or three best RPGs available for PS2. What that says about the class of PS2 RPGs as a whole, well, that's a debate for another day. It's definitely worth the time and money, though, especially now that it's a Greatest Hits title (just $19.99).

Just my two bits.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by SackAttack
But then...it's ALL subjective. I don't think many people would argue that FFX is one of the two or three best RPGs available for PS2. What that says about the class of PS2 RPGs as a whole, well, that's a debate for another day. It's definitely worth the time and money, though, especially now that it's a Greatest Hits title (just $19.99).

Just my two bits.

That does bring up a good point- where are all the RPGs this generation? Particularly towards the end of the PSX lifecycle, a ton of RPGs, many of them very good, came out and quite a few were from studios other than Square (Grandia, Thousand Arms, the Lunar remakes, Valkyrie Profile & DW7- tho I guess they would be considered part of Squeenix now).

SI

[oykib]

I'd argue thaat the gameplay in FFX wasn't so hot. It was totally linear. Most RPGs that we consider to have good stories are liner. But FFX gives the player no room to maneuvre.

Even the Sphere grid is basically chosen for you. You need one thief. Yuna and Lulu need to follow their own paths so that you can use friend spheres for the important spells. But everyone else just needs to make a mad daash to Auron's part of the grid.

However, I really liked Blitzball. I actually thought it was one of the most fun parts of the game. I could have done without those damn temple puzzles, though.

And I Agree with SI tht the class of PS2 RPGs leaves something to be desired. At least in English.

I'd love to be able to improve my Japnese level to a level high enough to play the Generation of Chaos (Spectral Force) series and the Growlancer Series. Actully, I may give Growlancer a try sometime soon. I've mentioned Star Ocean 3. I'd also pick up the latest "Tales' installment.

Incidentally, there are still some good RPGs being made for the PS out here. At least, there were until recently.

I have one of the Summon Nights. I also have Tokyo Ma-Jin High School (although I'm nowhere close to being able to understand it). Disgaea's sequel, Shadow Brave, is coming or has just come out here for the PS2, as well. They really have a lot of good S-RPGs out here.

That's not even including the Super Robot Wars, SD Gundam class of strategy games.

[SackAttack]

Originally posted by oykib
I'd argue thaat the gameplay in FFX wasn't so hot. It was totally linear. Most RPGs that we consider to have good stories are liner. But FFX gives the player no room to maneuvre.

I haven't played too many RPGs that didn't do it that way. FFX-2 is kind of unique in the fact that you can choose your 'missions' in any order you'd like...once they're available, that is.

Even the Sphere grid is basically chosen for you. You need one thief. Yuna and Lulu need to follow their own paths so that you can use friend spheres for the important spells. But everyone else just needs to make a mad daash to Auron's part of the grid.

Not that I ever noticed. I actually did send Yuna through the white and black mage paths, but I also sent her through - I think - Kimahri's part of the grid. A couple of my characters made it around the entire grid. That said, once I got Yuna's special weapon, my teams at that point were Auron, Tidus, and Yuna, with occasional rotations for Kimahri and his stone lance. yay.

However, I really liked Blitzball. I actually thought it was one of the most fun parts of the game. I could have done without those damn temple puzzles, though.

And this is why we disagree on the excellence of the game.

I'd love to be able to improve my Japnese level to a level high enough to play the Generation of Chaos (Spectral Force) series and the Growlancer Series. Actully, I may give Growlancer a try sometime soon. I've mentioned Star Ocean 3. I'd also pick up the latest "Tales' installment.

Yeah. I'd love to be able to read Japanese, but that would take years I don't have. That said, I was thinking about it, and I think one reason why there are so few 'true' RPGs this time around might have a lot to do with just the overall mixing of genres that we're seeing in general all across the board. You're seeing mixtures of strategy and RPGs in games like Disgaea, mixtures of action and RPGs with FFX-2, etc. Heck, even a platformer like Ratchet & Clank: Goin' Commando has RPG elements to it.

I hope we're not looking at a scenario where the roleplay genre is relegated to merely one component of other games, but it does seem as though that's the way it's headed.

[Ramzavail]

I am dying to play the Growlanser series and I just heard Growlanser II and III are coming to the US in a package.

I heard the Growlanser II was not good, but people crave about Growlanser and Growlanser III.

As for FFX - Maybe I am picky - but I could not STAND the voice acting in this game and how off it was from the lips of the character, it totally ruined the innovation of it all. Also, Blitzball was a waste of time.

[Buccaneer]

My 14-yr old stepson is a fanatic for PS2 RPG games. His Christmas list this year has FF X-2, Xenosaga, Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2 and something called Dot Hack Outbreak.. Fwiw. But his #1 choice is Gothic II for the PC. Bless his heart.

[Neuqua]

I'm not a RPG'er but I was tempted to pick up Kingdom Hearts at Bestbuy for $19.99. Apparently it's a part of the greatest hits collection now.

[Maple Leafs]

I've never been able to get into RPGs, but my wife was hooked on Kingdom Hearts. She might as well have ground up the CD and shot it into a vein. The idea of combining a cutesy RPG with Disney was almost too perfect for her. I'll be honest, in watching her play I can't really imagine how an adult male could get into the game, but apparently it sold very well so what do I know?

She also loved Dark Cloud 2, then went back and tried the first one which she seems to like OK. She might like some of the FF games, although I seem to remember renting a few and just finding them too long. I don't want to finish the game in three hours, but I also don't want to play for three months just to get to disc 2.

[Calis]

Originally posted by Buccaner
But his #1 choice is Gothic II for the PC. Bless his heart.

Hah, excellent work Bucc, we've got to do what we can to bring the next generation into PC RPG's, we're losing out.

[Ramzavail]

Originally posted by Maple Leafs
She might as well have ground up the CD and shot it into a vein.

That is a great line.

I love my girlfriend, but I did wish she was into RPGs as much as I am, or even accepting it when I like to sit down and play them, instead I get bitched at to watch "House Hunters" with her. - Women like that are EXTREMELY rare to find.

Nice find Maple