Recommend me the best PS2 RPGs I didn't play

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Sycraft

Supreme [H]ardness
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I never had a PS2 (I am generally a PC gamer) but you know, there is something about console RPGs that is fun. They are different from PC RPGs, and I could go for some of that right now. Running PS2 games is fairly unchallenging for a modern PC, so why not?

So what RPGs should I look at? Only requirement other than being a top recommendation of yours and an RPG is it has to be something I can get my hand on from Amazon or the like. I'm not interested in hunting around for it.

Thanks.
 
Some of my favorites were Suikoden 3, Suikoden 5 and Disgaea.
 
Suikoden 3 - Beautiful game. My friend and I let the intro play over and over one day - about 13 hours worth.
Wild Arms 3 - Underrated, Cool but somewhat depressing story.
FFX - I know there's a lot of hate but I loved it.
FFXII - Same.
Xenosaga - I loved it in the beginning but once I found out I missed of "secrets" by not stealing I quit it. It's very futuristic and sci-fi.
.Hack was fun, almost more of an action rpg.

I missed a lot of the true JRPGs but if I ever get time I would like to catch up.
 
Valkyrie Profile 2.

If you don't mind something a bit more old school styled, then Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land.
 
Are the .Hack games on the PSN?

If not I'm hoping I can pick them up somewhere cheap for PS2.
 
Rouge Galaxy
Dark Cloud 1 & 2

A note about .hack... grinding is practically required (if not to level up, it is to attain some crystals or something like that). If you can't stand "mandatory" grinding, I would avoid that series.
 
FFX

The last true, classic, turn based style FF game.

FF12 was 'okay' but I never had the patience for it. They deviated too far from the original gameplay that made the FF franchise so great IMO
 
dr.stevil said:
FFX

The last true, classic, turn based style FF game.

FF12 was 'okay' but I never had the patience for it. They deviated too far from the original gameplay that made the FF franchise so great IMO
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I hated 12's gameplay. Also Vaan was a freaking horrible character. Tidus was annoying and whiny, but at least he had a personality, Vaan was so damn bland and boring. He didn't even matter to the story.
 
Persona 3 and 4, SMT Nocturne, I've heard good things about Digital Devil Saga but havent played it myself, disgaea
 
I wouldn't recommend Xenosaga. It's really, really boring unless you enjoy long and horribly paced anime cutscenes every 10 minutes. Ep. 3 is the only decent one gameplay-wise but honestly you're better off playing other games at that point.

SMT3: Nocturne and Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter get my vote for best PS2 RPGs.
 
Rogue Galaxy was fun as hell, definitely recommend that one. Cool setting, good graphics, good gameplay, lots of customizability. I recall the story being cool, but it was a long time ago, don't remember that well.
 
If you like traditional JRPGs, Dragon Quest 8 is fantastic.

I'd like to recommend FFX, but only if you like easy RPGs (it was way too easy).

I enjoyed Star Ocean 3 ('Til the End of Time) for more of an action-RPG battle system.
 
I would recommend Xenogears, but having only played it half way through and getting kinda bored, I can't yet, not fully. If you like the slower paced, complex story and characters, you may like it. The gameplay is also pretty fun. I think the graphics are the main issue. Music is great though
 
At work here at the moment, but here's a few of my own pesonal write-ups on some of the games that have already been mentioned.

Dragon Quest 8: Very traditional/old-school turn-based RPG, so expect a loooooooooong, drawn out main quest. Story is typical JRPG fare, though the music is great and the cell-shaded graphics suit this series perfectly. All character designs were done by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball-Z fame.

Xenosaga 1-3: VERY ambitious sci-fi/space opera RPG series that was originally planned to be spread out over either 6 or 7 games but curtailed down to just 3. The main story line arcing through the series delves into some pretty deep stuff, including drug abuse and racism, all while set against some very heavy Judeo-Christian religious overtones. If you've played Xenogears on PS1, then you'll know what you're in for. After all, Monolith Soft, developers of Xenosaga, was formed from the group that worked on Xenogears at Squaresoft.

Gameplay-wise, the first is mostly an interactive movie, with cutscenes accounting for a ridiculous amount of time. The second game was pretty much garbage all-around, though the 3rd redeemed itself and was much-improved over the first two. I would recommend skipping the first two altogether and going right for the third, as it includes a very extensive lexicon about the events occurring in the first two games that will get you up to speed in an hour or two. Also, the third game includes a mini-game that could very well be a full-fledged, stand-alone title.

Final Fantasy X: One of the last few RPGs that did turn-based battles right. Graphics are a bit long in the tooth now, but still not bad at all for a game that came out not long after the PS2 launch. Music is excellent as always for the series, and it's the first FF game to include full voice acting. The story is pretty much your standard save-the-world-from-the-evil-menace-hellbent-on-destroying-the-planet crap that's been done a million times, but there's some really great plot twists thrown in there, peppered with nuances of human emotion/nature. I didn't care very much for the characters though (Tetsuya Nomura's a TERRIBLE character designer if you ask me), but there's plenty here to keep you entertained.

Final Fantasy X-2: Sequel to FFX, this game takes a turn to the lighter side of things. While the game takes place in the same world as FFX with the same characters, that's about where the similarities end. Everything in the game has a heavy J-POP/girl-power feel to it, with a ridiculous amount of Japanese fan service being thrown out there (check out Riku's main character design for a glimpse of what I'm talking about here). The music is quite different as well, lending again to the light-hearted, with lots of J-POP and jazz-inspired tunes.

All of this kept me from finishing the game, as I was just unable to deal with all the over-the-top girl-power themes constantly thrown in my face. At least the battle system was decent.

Final Fantasy XII: Radically different from other games in the series, about the only thing this one has in common with its predecessors are the series' staples of crystals, chocobos, summoned monsters, etc. Production values are top-notch as can be expected, but the gameplay is quite different. The battles all take place in the open world (no random, turn-based battles here), and the fighting feels more like an MMORPG with player-assigned AI accounting for your teammates' actions. The characters are mostly throw-aways, though Balthier is my favorite character of the entire franchise.

Since this one's so different than the previous FF games, you'll either going to love it or hate - there's not much middle ground to be had here. Personally, I loved it, and dumped well over 100 hours into it. At the very least, there's a TON of things to keep you busy all throughout the course of the game.

Rogue Galaxy: Swash-buckling, space-pirate, planet-hopping sci-fi RPG. Music is very well done, graphics are top-notch, though the cell-shading is done a bit better by Dragon Quest 8. Battles are more of the action-oriented variety, though amount to mainly button-mashing for most of the game.

The game can be grindy at times, and the story can is also a little on the light side, but there's a ton of things to do, including an overly-complex, yet very unique factory/manufacturing minigame that literally has you creating an assembly line to pump out items.
 
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Youn said:
I would recommend Xenogears, but having only played it half way through and getting kinda bored, I can't yet, not fully. If you like the slower paced, complex story and characters, you may like it. The gameplay is also pretty fun. I think the graphics are the main issue. Music is great though
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I believe Xenogears was PS1. Xenosaga was 2. Although Xenogears is in my top 10 best RPG's of all time list. Highly recommend it if you havn't played it.
 
BiH115 said:
Are the .Hack games on the PSN?

If not I'm hoping I can pick them up somewhere cheap for PS2.
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I do not think so but I have not googled it in a long time..

Only place I find the .hack games are on eBay and they range from $15 to $30. TBH - worth it for me and plan to pick up in the next few weeks as I have some paypal money just sitting around.
 
Some great recommendations here.

The Shadow Hearts series is great, love the humor in it.

Disgaea is also great, the story is good and the battle system is one of the best imo.

I also have to recommend Phantom Brave if you like Disgaea. It's one of my favourites, right up there along-side Disgaea.

Ar Tonelico series is another one I can recommend, although there is a bit of weirdness too it(that being said, if you can handle the weirdness in Shadow Hearts then Ar Tonelico will seem down-right normal).
 
Derangel said:
I hated 12's gameplay. Also Vaan was a freaking horrible character. Tidus was annoying and whiny, but at least he had a personality, Vaan was so damn bland and boring. He didn't even matter to the story.
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Probably because he's not the main character really (nor is anyone, like some of the older FFs, if anyone is, it's Ashe), he's just the first one you get. I never used him as soon as possible, and it's like he never existed. Theres only once or twice you have to use him after the begining.
 
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