racketboy.com

Pretty curious to see what people would list here. I know I missed out on a lot somehow... but now that I'm realizing (traditional JRPG's in particular) a lot of stuff I like isn't around much anymore, figured it's time to rewind a bit and play some older stuff.

Probably gonna hit up Shadow Hearts soon and I'm pretty stoked, they look really good. I'm stocked up on SMT DDS1-2 and Nocturne as well.

Suikoden V and Xenosaga III are probably my favorites out of the few I've played.

I never did get around to Dark Cloud 2, but always heard people really liked it I think?

The Disgaea games were decent fun, but too endless for me... haha. I also got Phantom Brave but couldn't get into that one at all.

Handful of others I'm forgetting, but yeah. Interested to see what others will bring up...

Final Fantasy X - Great combat system and I loved the combat banter (done FAR better than the combat banter in Xenoblade). It was also great to see an FF game on new hardware with full on voice acting and amazing graphics. The level system was also very cool and I really enjoyed how the game handled summons. I think FF stopped being great after this game, even though I have still gotten my fair share of enjoyment and entertainment value out of recent entries in the franchise.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance - A friend and I sunk hours into this game and had fun. It was especially cool getting to use Drizzt Do'Urden. My friend came down from many states away to hang with me for about a week or two and we had lots of fun gaming.

Disgaea 2 - I thought it was better than the first game in every way. Though I also tire of the endless nature of Disgaea games and left the series after this game.

Dragon Quest VIII, always have been a big fan of that series

Wild Arms 3 is a lot of fun too. Does Ys: The Ark of Napishtim count, I wonder?

What PS2 RPGs have you played? If we have a list we'll know what not to recommend. It's a great JRPG system but in my opinion, its strength lies in the more unconventional titles. It was the generation of innovation, and most of what's coming out now is just copying.

I haven't played many on PS2 since I'm usually on PSP or Game Boy but I have some suggestions.

Valkyrie Profile 2 - This should come as no surprise, but it really is an awesome game. Fantastic art design, in-depth role-playing, great music. Unlike its predecessor you can get this one for about 10 bucks. It's far from traditional, but if you like JRPGs you should definitely give this one a try. It's great even if you haven't played the first one, and it really shows off what the PS2 can do. Cool dungeon and enemy design too. I mention it every time I can, because it just doesn't get enough love.

Dragon Quest VIII - Traditional and awesome. Big streaming environments, which was a huge deal in its day. Apparently.

FFX-2 - If you like the Job system from FFV and the Paradigm Shift from FFXIII, and you can tolerate the J-pop.

Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter - If you think you're hardcore. In some ways it's an old-school Breath of Fire games but it's a whole new beast.

King's Field PS2 - Traditional...but not in the Dragon Quest sense.

Various SPRGS: Growlanser 2/3, Front Mission 4/5, La Pucelle, Eternal Poison

Gamerforlife wrote:Final Fantasy X - Great combat system and I loved the combat banter (done FAR better than the combat banter in Xenoblade). It was also great to see an FF game on new hardware with full on voice acting and amazing graphics. The level system was also very cool and I really enjoyed how the game handled summons. I think FF stopped being great after this game, even though I have still gotten my fair share of enjoyment and entertainment value out of recent entries in the franchise.

Not too mention that it actually gave the characters more than a minimal number of tools that were worth using. Spells that you would never bother using like Shell and Protect became vital, as well as awesome black magic spells like Bio.

Waterfaller wrote:Dragon Quest VIII, always have been a big fan of that series

Wild Arms 3 is a lot of fun too. Does Ys: The Ark of Napishtim count, I wonder?

I'm going to have to also vouch for DQVIII. I didn't play it until recently, and it actually held my attention right through (which is rare for an RPG these days!). Definitely one of the more fun JRPGs I've played.

Oh, and no, Ys is not an RPG. It's an action-adventure game with RPG elements. Same category as Zelda.

How come no one's mentioned any of the SMT games?

I really enjoyed Valkyrie Profile 2 and I still have a huge backlog of PS2 RPG's to get to such as Dragon Quest VIII and the Xeno series. So far to date my my favorite PS2 RPG is Rogue Galaxy. Even though Finai Fantasy XII I spent the most time on and Granda III had one of the slickest battle systems I have played to date. However I still have games to play but that is what would be on top of my list as of right now. My duaghter would say the SMT Persona 3:FES is her favorite game but she has a backlog as well.

Only mentioning games I've played, except some of those SRPGs

My personal favorites are Dragon Quest VIII, Tales of the Abyss, and Wild Arms 3. I also really like Ys, but like it was said that's more of an Action RPG than anything...

MrPopo wrote:How come no one's mentioned any of the SMT games?

Because now they're on portables.