CAG, decide my next game v. RPG

Strife025

Strife025

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I went on a RPG binge lately after not touching my PS2 for like 6 months and basically tried to buy all of the RPG's that I haven't had the chance to play yet.

So far I went through the rest of Tales of the Abyss that I hadn't finished, then beat Kingdom Hearts 2. Right now I'm in the final dungeon in Rogue Galaxy and probably have about 10-20 more hours left to finish the two bonus dungeons.

I have Persona 3: FES preorder so until then my list of unplayed rpg's are:

Xenosaga episode 3
Valkyrie Profile 2
FF12
SMT: Nocturne (managed to snag a disk only copy for $55)
Dragon Warrior 7

Still looking to get Odin Sphere also.

Right now I'm leaning towards Xenosaga since TotA, KH2, and RG are all more action oriented RPG's and I haven't played a good turn based in a while. It's probably also the shortest of the 5 games I listed so it would be easier to get through.

Any thoughts?
 
Xenosaga 3 is a great game, so if you're leaning towards it go for it.

Only others I've played on your list are FF12 and Nocturne. Both are great though.
 
[quote name='Rollett']If you liked Rogue Galaxy.. and dont mind a sugjestion.. Radiata Stories is a great title[/QUOTE]

And very overlooked which is a shame.
 
[quote name='Rollett']If you liked Rogue Galaxy.. and dont mind a sugjestion.. Radiata Stories is a great title[/quote]

Yea I beat it when it first came out, I've played most of the decent to great RPG's on PS2.

I went with Xenosaga 3, and of course I've played 1 and 2 before. Like I said, out of all of the PS2 rpg's besides the ones I've listed I have left, I've pretty much played them all. And the ones I haven't is mainly because of horrible scores and/or lack of interest.

Name any major one and I've probably beaten it.
 
[quote name='Strife025']Yea I beat it when it first came out, I've played most of the decent to great RPG's on PS2.

I went with Xenosaga 3, and of course I've played 1 and 2 before. Like I said, out of all of the PS2 rpg's besides the ones I've listed I have left, I've pretty much played them all. And the ones I haven't is mainly because of horrible scores and/or lack of interest.

Name any major one and I've probably beaten it.[/quote]
I'd love to see a list of all that you've played in order of which you liked best and why. I have PS2 rpgs I haven't played & don't know where to start.
 
I copied the most updated list I could find of current PS2 Rpg's. I listed the ones I played and what I would rate them, I deleted a few games like Harvest Moon which weren't really rpg's imho. I'm not into strategy games or what I call faux RPG's i.e. X-men games so I haven't played most of those:

.hack//G.U. Vol. 1//Rebirth. Didn't play, I got sick of the original .hack
.hack//G.U. Vol. 2//Reminisce.* Didn't play, I got sick of the original .hack
.hack//G.U. Vol. 3//Redemption.* Didn't play, I got sick of the original .hack
.hack Part 1: Infection. Played, was decent and good for a first time game 8/10
.hack Part 2: Mutation. Played, just like part 1, continued the story 7/10
.hack Part 3: Outbreak. Played, this is where it starts to get tedious, battles are longer but not more fun. Not hard, just boring and repetitive. 6/10
.hack Part 4: Quarantine. Didn't play, currently trying to sell it, have no intention of playing through more tedium. Watched the anime already.
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia.* Haven't played.
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness. Haven't played.
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. Haven't played.
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana.* Played, my first Atelier Iris game. Was fun but became a pain trying to craft everything. Overall 8/10. Battle system was ok but kind of boring.
Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny. Wasn't super impressed with the first although it was entertaining, have alot of other stuff to play before even thinking of buying it.
Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm.* See above.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. Played original on computer, not really into these types of RPG's on consoles.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II. See above.
Bard’s Tale, The: Song of the Bard. Haven't Played
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Most disappointing of the Breath of Fire's I've played. Was basically just decent. 6/10.
Champions: Return to Arms. Haven't Played
Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse. Haven't Played
Dark Cloud. Haven't Played
Dark Cloud 2. Haven't Played
Dawn of Mana. Haven't Played
Digimon World 4. Haven't Played
Digimon World: Data Squad. Haven't Played
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Best Strategy RPG for PS2. 10/10
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. Haven't gotten around to playing, Disagea 1 consumed a ton of my time and I have a bunch of others to play. Maybe down the road.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. Despite people knocking it I love these old school type of RPG's. 9/10.
Dual Hearts.*Haven't Played
Duel Masters. Haven't Played
Ephemeral Fantasia.* Haven't Played
Eternal Ring. Haven't Played
Evergrace. Haven't Played
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Played on Computer, classic. Play it for PC. 10/10
Final Fantasy X. Decent FF but nothing extraordinary. There are at least 4 other FFs I would put before this. 8/10.
Final Fantasy X-2. Refuse to play this fan service, I read the script.
Final Fantasy XII. Currently have it unopened and waiting to play. One of my remaining.
Forever Kingdom. Haven't Played
Front Mission 4. Played Front Mission 3 for PSX and never really got into mech strategy games. Haven't Played
Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel. Haven't Played
Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir. Haven't Played
Future Tactics: The Uprising.* Haven't Played
Gladius.Haven't Played
Graffiti Kingdom.* Haven't Played
Grandia II. Basically what you would expect from a Grandia game. Nothing great, nothing horrible, just mediocre. 7/10.
Grandia III. Another Mediocre Grandia game. I've become uninterested in this series because the story is usually pretty crappy. Some nice CG scenes though. 7/10
Grandia Xtreme. I think I might have played it when it came out in 01 but I can't really remember it.
Growlanser: Generations.* Haven't Played
Growlanser: Heritage of War.* Haven't Played
Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the DragonBone Staff.*Haven't Played
Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask.*Haven't Played
Jade Cocoon 2. Haven't Played
Justice League Heroes. Haven't Played
King’s Field: The Ancient City. Haven't Played
Kingdom Hearts. Played, if you can get past Disney character's it's an awesome game with a really indepth Story. 9/10
Kingdom Hearts II. I liked it better than the first. Make sure to watch or read important parts of KH: Chain of Memories first if you don't plan on playing it for PSP. Only Problem with KH games is they are very easy. 9/10
La Pucelle: Tactics. Haven't Played
Legaia 2: Duel Saga. Battle system and story was meh, one of the earlier PS2 rpg's I played. 7/10.
Legend of Alon D’ar, The.* Haven't Played
Legion: The Legend of Excalibur. Haven't Played
Lord of the Rings, The: The Third Age. Haven't Played
Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color.* Haven't Played
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood.* Haven't Played primarily due to the fact I heard loading times are the worst out of almost any game.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Haven't Played
Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. Haven't Played
Mega Man X: Command Mission. Haven't Played
Metal Saga.* Haven't Played
MS Saga: A New Dawn.* Haven't Played
Musashi: Samurai Legend. Haven't Played
Nightmare of Druaga, The: Fushigino Dungeon.*Haven't Played
Odin Sphere.* One on my list, hoping to grab and play it soon.
Okage: Shadow King. Haven't Played
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery. Haven't Played
Phantasy Star Universe. Haven't Played
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus.* Haven't Played
Phantom Brave. Haven't Played
Radiata Stories. Played, I liked how they incorporated time of day into events. After a while got tedious trying to complete everything. Battle system wasn't that great imho. 7/10.
River King: A Wonderful Journey.* Haven't Played
Rogue Galaxy. Just finished. Gameplay could have been better but you could basically spam skills to get through 90% of random battles in 5 seconds. Decent story, slow at times but had a couple twists. A ton of sidequest type of stuff and huge amount of time to get 100% completion. 8/10
Romancing SaGa: Ministrel Song. Haven't Played
RPG Maker II. Haven't Played
RPG Maker 3.* Haven't Played
Shadow Hearts.* Never got a chance, started with SH: Covenant.
Shadow Hearts: Covenant. One of my favorite PS2 rpg's, awesome battle system, dark story, I recommend this as one of the top 5 must play ps2 rpg's. 10/10
Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Heard it was alot weaker than Covenant with alot of the same. Haven't picked it up.
Shaman King: Power of Spirit. Haven't Played
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner. Haven't Played
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.* Actively Looking for it, one of the last on my list I need to buy for PS2.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2.* Need DDS first.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Have, on my list to play.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. Preordered FES.
Shining Force EXA. Haven't Played
Shining Force Neo. Haven't Played
Shining Tears. Haven't Played
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters. Haven't Played
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Another very fun game. Story was horrible, like super cheesy, but gameplay is A+. If your looking for a great battle system and awesome post game this is the one to pick up. With a better story could have been 10/10. 9/10.
Steambot Chronicles.* Haven't Played
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity.* Haven't Played
Suikoden III.* Step down from Suikoden 2. Overall good game with good story-telling, too much running around though.
Suikoden IV. Haven't Played, heard bad things about it.
Suikoden V. Haven't Played
Suikoden Tactics. Haven't Played
Summoner. Haven't Played
Summoner 2. Haven't Played
Tales of Legendia. Haven't Played
Tales of the Abyss. Love Tales games, never picked up Legendia though because of some bad things I heard. Love this one and an in-depth new game + system is a pleasant suprise. There are a few bugs but besides that it's a great game. Battle system is one of the best for ps2. 9/10
Tsugunai: Atonement.* Haven't Played
Unlimited Saga.* Haven't Played
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. Have, on my list to play, love VP1.
Virtua Quest.* Haven't Played
Wild Arms 3. Not much to say other than another wild arms game. If you've played any of the previous and liked them then pick it up. WA games are usually really easy though. 8/10
Wild Arms 4. New battle system that I thought sort of failed imho. Another easy game, they did have a new game + which was good I guess. 7/10
Wild Arms 5. Haven't Played. Was kind of dissapointed with WA4.
Wild Arms: Alter Code: F. I believe this was a remake of PSX. I played WA1 and 2 back on PSX already.
Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land.* Haven't Played
X-Men Legends. RHaven't Played
X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse. Haven't Played
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht. Loved Xenogears and I love story driven games. If you don't mind lots of cutscenes/movies/ and thinking about the story then this game is great. I personally loved it. 9/10
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Weakest of the series. They took out some things from Episode 1 which were a step back. Mainly battle system and no shops. 8/10
Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra. Currently Playing, from what people say this is the best of the series.
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim. This was a pleasant suprise but nothing really special. It was short for an RPG and not too difficult, but it's really a fun top-down action rpg if you're into that kind of thing. You could probably rent it and beat it pretty easily and it doesn't really have much replayability. 7/10.

Overall must plays for any RPG fan include SH: Convenant, Tales of the Abyss, Star Ocean, Disgaea 1 and/or 2, Dragon Quest 8, Final Fantasy games, at least one SMT game excluding Devil Summoner (preorder PE3:FES for only $30!) and Kingdom hearts. That gives you a good well rounded gameplay and story type.

After that I would get into some of the other very good games including Xenosaga, VP2 (haven't played yet but I'd imagine it's good), Suikoden 3, Rogue Galaxy, possibly Wild Arms. Other notable games which were fun but not really epic or memorable were Radiata Stories, Atelier Iris, and Y's. I've actually heard the battle system in .hack G.U. is alot better than the old .hack games so if you want to try the series I'd go with those. Personally I can't bring myself to play them after the tedium I went through of the first .hack.

If you're really into strategy RPG's the other Atlus games besides Disgaea are good I hear. I basically went down the path of play the best one they made since I'm not into strategy RPG's that much. But if you really wanted you could play Phantom Brave and La Pucella Tactics also. Then of course there's always Digimon (j/k I should have deleted that form the list -_-).
 
I actually liked 2 a lot, but I think at least its harder compared to the first or the third, and I would recommend just playing through it for the story and not bothering with any of the post game content as that can get boring when random battles can take minutes as opposed to under 1 minute like the third one. Combat is so dependant on micromanaging your boost, elemental buffs etc that it can make battles very tedious after the 500th battle. That is part of the problem, you can't really just smash your way through battles quickly like you can in the third one. The lack of equipment/significant statistical upgrades means character power increase is relatively low compared to other RPGs.
 
[quote name='Strife025']
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. Played original on computer, not really into these types of RPG's on consoles.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II. See above.
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Played on Computer, classic. Play it for PC. 10/10
.[/QUOTE]

Just so you know...

These games have virtually nothing in common with their PC counterparts aside from the name and some elements of the setting.

These games are all Diabloesque action RPG's.

I played BG: DA and liked it quite a bit. I haven't played BGL DA 2 because it is just too darned expensive (when you can even find a copy).

I started playing F: BoS, but I'm not finding it as fun.
 
[quote name='m6oo']Just so you know...

These games have virtually nothing in common with their PC counterparts aside from the name and some elements of the setting.

These games are all Diabloesque action RPG's.

I played BG: DA and liked it quite a bit. I haven't played BGL DA 2 because it is just too darned expensive (when you can even find a copy).

I started playing F: BoS, but I'm not finding it as fun.[/quote]

Ah Ic, I thought they were basically PC ports with expansions. I actually thought F: BoS was just the first fallout. Good to know, still don't plan on playing them really :/
 
Wow what a list of PS2 rpgs! I'd also recommend Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest. I know very little about Everquest & never interested in it, however this spinoff was an awesome game. It's basically the same as Baldurs Gate for consoles, but longer, better story, more weapons, more characters, online play, etc. So I'd recommend that & Champions Return to Arms which I see you already have, but haven't played yet. Thanks for your recommendations. I found Xenosaga II to be nearly as good as the I & III. I liked the battle system a lot in II because it had a lot of strategy to it.
 
[quote name='J7.']Wow what a list of PS2 rpgs! I'd also recommend Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest. I know very little about Everquest & never interested in it, however this spinoff was an awesome game. It's basically the same as Baldurs Gate for consoles, but longer, better story, more weapons, more characters, online play, etc. So I'd recommend that & Champions Return to Arms which I see you already have, but haven't played yet. Thanks for your recommendations. I found Xenosaga II to be nearly as good as the I & III. I liked the battle system a lot in II because it had a lot of strategy to it.[/quote]

Norrath had a story? ;)
 
Just a fair warning on Dragon Warrior 7:

Ugly graphics (it really looks like shit)
Constant L1 and L2 uses to change camera angles
Not a single battle for first 2-3 hours of gameplay
Lots of random battles
You get less XP from same enemies as you level up
Above can be a pain since you NEED hard enemies to level up your jobs
You need about 150-200 hours to beat this game
300-400 hours if you do the optional quest after the game

As you can see DW7 is only for serious gamers who loves tedium. It happens to be one of my favorite game of all time.

Edit> You can't get jobs for first 30-40 hours of gameplay. That's like a entire game for other games.
 
Yeah, the only reason I could enjoy DWVII was because I had something else to do while hitting X 1,000 times to level up. If you don't have a book, or a laptop by your TV, you're going to want one.
 
[quote name='thelonepig']Norrath had a story? ;)[/quote]
It wasn't bad. Certainly not the story on the scale of a JRPG, but it did its job, especially for the type of game it is. Baldurs Gate on consoles was like a single word of story to Norrath's sentence, or more so, paragraph.
 
[quote name='J7.']It wasn't bad. Certainly not the story on the scale of a JRPG, but it did its job, especially for the type of game it is. Baldurs Gate on consoles was like a single word of story to Norrath's sentence, or more so, paragraph.[/quote]

Interesting. I may need to go back and play them again to double check, but I found it the other way around. Norrath was a "yeah, the heroes we sent for are here! go kill stuff!" whereas Baldur's Gate actually had a story that moved you from one area to the next.

Maybe Norrath's story was jaded a bit by the sequel. I played through that one recently and it was little more than a fetch quest that recycled many of the same areas and quests from the first game.
 
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
Front Mission 4
MS Saga: A New Dawn
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht
Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra
 
I'm surprised to see that you thought Grandia was mediocre but recommended Tales of the Abyss as a must play on the PS2. I thought Grandia was fantastic in pretty much every aspect. It's one of the few RPGs with a fun battle system (others being the Tales and Shadow Hearts series). I didn't think too highly of Abyss though. I liked the Tales of Destiny games on the PS1 and LOVED Symphonia but Abyss was kinda eh but the battle system kept me going.

I'm playing Grandia II now and wow, what a turnaround. Everything about the game is so bad compared to Grandia and I didn't really expect much from this game (it's hard to top something like Grandia) but it's really fun to play thanks to the battle system.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who's way behind on his PS2 RPGs though.:lol:

Of the ones you got listed, I really liked Nocturne though I didn't get very far in it. It's too hardcore for me so I need to find the time to actually delve into it. FFXII was too political and felt like it was just dragging on. I never got into the Xenosaga series due to the first game's ridiculously long cutscnes. Odin Sphere is excellent though the slowdown was painfully bad at times (went as low as 2-3 fps during some fights) and the final few hours of the game made me want to kill someone (and I was playing on easy).:p
 
I played Grandia a long time ago and remember not being very impressed. The thing that made Abyss good was the amount of extra stuff to do in that game, not to mention New Game +. Another aspect is getting really good with the battle system and getting huge combos to boost your exp.

I don't remember those aspects of Grandia, it was more just go through the game and beat it without much extras, but then again that was like 4 years ago.
 
Well about to beat Xenosaga 3, probably tonite (At the last boss but want to get 99 Seraphitic(?) Canes for Ziggy's Weapon).

So next up I have: FF12, Valk Profile 2, Odin Sphere, SMT: Nocturne, or DQ7 on psx.

I'm leaning to either VP2 or Nocturne depending on what people say.

1. I have P3: FES preordered which comes out this month, if people recommend playing Nocturne before P3 I'll play Nocturne next, if not I'll probably play VP2 since P3 will be the next game I play and I would rather space out my SMT games.
 
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