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Recomend Some Playstation RPGS!

MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered User regular
edited July 2007 in Games and Technology
As mentioned in the OLOL Sony! post, I got a 60GB PS3, which now allows me to play all those PS-only games I couldn't on my XBOX.

So what are some good PS role-playing games? Specifically, which FF(ies?) would be best for someone who last played it on the NES?

Other PS must-haves are also acceptable. this time.

MichaelLC on
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Posts

  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Pick up all the Final Fantasy's for the PS1. Despite what the fanboys and raving lunatics shout, I really don't think a single one of them is bad (and that goes for all the other numbered FF's too, except for FFXI).

    As far as what game you should start with, I'd probably say Final Fantasy VIII. I love FFVII but it hasn't aged well at all, the graphics look rubbish and the translation is terrible. FFVIII had a much better translation and still IMO holds up graphically.

    Other PS1 RPG's I'd recommend include:
    Suikoden
    Suikoden II (may cost a bit though)
    Star Ocean 2
    Vagrant Story
    Breath of Fire IV
    Vandal Hearts
    Vandal Hearts II

    PS2 RPG's I'd recommend include:
    Final Fantasy X
    Final Fantasy X-2
    Final Fantasy XII
    Dragon Quest VIII
    Kingdom Hearts
    Kingdom Hearts II
    Disgaea
    Makai Kingdom
    Suikoden V
    Shadow Hearts: Covenant
    Rogue Galaxy
    Dark Cloud 2 (also called Dark Chronicle)
    Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter

    Unco-ordinated on
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  • LachLach Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I was going to make a thread just like this last night. I completely skipped the Playstation and Playstation 2 era and just got back into consoles with my 360 and PS3...

    Lach on
  • RandomKitRandomKit Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I'd recommend:

    Wild Arms
    Star Ocean 2
    Every Final Fantasy including tactics
    Vagrant Story
    The Legend of Dragoon
    Legend of Mana

    Just off the top of my head

    Edit: Shit, how did I forget Chrono Cross

    RandomKit on
  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I believe ogre battle got a playstation port. Good luck finding it, though.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • ZephyrZephyr Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Valkyrie Profile

    Zephyr on
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  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    RandomKit wrote: »
    I'd recommend:

    Wild Arms
    Star Ocean 2
    Every Final Fantasy especially tactics
    Vagrant Story
    The Legend of Dragoon
    Legend of Mana

    Just off the top of my head

    Xaquin on
  • GyralGyral Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Vagrant Story
    Final Fantasy Tactics
    Breath of Fire 3 and 4
    Star Ocean 2
    Xenogears

    Gyral on
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  • templewulftemplewulf The Team Chump USARegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I agree with everything Unco-ordinated said, except the bit about FF8. I thought it was a bit more tedious than other FFs, because of the need to draw out 100 of every new spell every time you found it. He's right about FF7's awful, awful graphics, though. I thought they were ugly even for the time.

    I have to second the Final Fantasy Tactics recommendation, because it's made by a combination of the Tactics Ogre team and a couple of FF veterans. It's easily my favorite SRPG of the generation, and its graphics have aged surprisingly well for low-res sprites. You might also try Kartia if you're into the SRPG thing.

    templewulf on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    FF7 and 8 are amazing games. 9 is alright, too.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    While FF7 is certainly ugly it is far and away a better game than VIII, 8 fucking sucked.

    IX is pretty good though and is probably one of the best looking Playstation 1 games ever.

    Balefuego on
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  • TrevorTrevor Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I liked Grandia a lot. The characters were pretty goofy, but I remain adamant that it the Grandia series has the best battle and avoidance of random battle systems ever.

    Trevor on
  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Chrono Cross is also a good bet, while the story stops making sense long before the end of the game, the battle system is reallly fun and it's fairly open-ended for a JRPG

    Balefuego on
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  • ZephyrZephyr Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    i don't understand the hate for 8, i liked it a lot.

    but then again i liked FFX too.

    Zephyr on
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  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I dont have alot of qualms with FFX aside from some hilariously bad voice acting.

    Balefuego on
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  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    The one PS RPG I always go back to is Azure Dreams. It's basically a weak Pokemon/Fushigi No Dungeon game with some light dating and town building elements. Homosexual content removed of course.

    Oh! Persona 2!! OMG TOTALLY and what have you.

    Magic Pink on
  • SilentCoconutSilentCoconut Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Final Fantasy IX is far and above the best jRPG on the system. If it weren't so deep and involved, I would replay it at least once a year. Great characters, good storyline (as far as Final Fantasies go), fun character development and combat system (though there are some legitimate complaints about being forced to use underpowered items in order to gain useful skills), and wonderful graphics.

    Final Fantasy Tactics is also great, though about half way through the game it's possible to have maxed out your characters and basically annihilate the rest of the game.

    I really enjoyed Breath of Fire III, though some swear IV is better.

    Final Fantasy Chronicles has both Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, so if you missed those on the SNES, you should pick them up. Anthologies also has Final Fantasy V and VI, but it suffers from serious load times. FF1 and 2 are on the system as well, but they've been remade several times since then, and are wholly better experiences on those platforms.

    And uh... Dragon Quest VII was on the PS1, wasn't it? Maybe that's worth looking into.

    SilentCoconut on
  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Zephyr wrote: »
    i don't understand the hate for 8, i liked it a lot.

    but then again i liked FFX too.

    Both of those are some of the best final fantasies. Only 6 and 7 are better, in my opinion.

    Of course, FF 8 and X haters are like Halo haters, extremely loud, because they are a small minority.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited July 2007
    Zephyr wrote: »
    i don't understand the hate for 8, i liked it a lot.

    but then again i liked FFX too.

    Both of those are some of the best final fantasies. Only 6 and 7 are better, in my opinion.

    Of course, FF 8 and X haters are like Halo haters, extremely loud, because they are a small minority.

    8 was crippled by trying to take the parallel levelling SaGa system, but instead of spawning new monster as you go, just used the same ones for the entire damn game. Oh yeah, and the stupidity of forcing you to grind drawing magic. So, to improve character stats, you had to grind, but you got nothing in terms of character abilities or powers for doing it. Wonderful.

    And let's not forget the absurdly broken limit system.

    Thankfully, I had the PC version with all its accompanying glitches and ways to skip that nonsense.

    But yes, FF8 had more than its fair share of issues above and beyond "..."

    Aroduc on
  • NovusNovus regular
    edited July 2007
    I liked all of the FF's (except X2 *different form XII) but they've been mentioned. Skies of Arcadia; even though the PS2 port was a little shaky it's a fantastic game and well worth your time. The first Grandia is great; 2 is ok, 3 I found to be a little lacking but it could also simply be a shift in personal taste. The first Alundra is pretty cool though (great/evil puzzles) it's more like a Zelda clone than an RPG; I never played 2 which is apparently garbage.

    Edit - with all this talk towards FFVIII I'll just add that I didn't find the drawing to be all that excessive; the bigger problem was that you couldn't cast certain spells without lowering your stats so things like flare and ultima never got used.

    Novus on
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  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited July 2007
    Novus wrote: »
    Skies of Arcadia; even though the PS2 port was a little shaky it's a fantastic game and well worth your time.

    By a little shaky, you mean, of course, a little non-existent.

    Aroduc on
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Aroduc wrote: »
    Oh yeah, and the stupidity of forcing you to grind drawing magic.

    Red'd for my barfing hatred of drawing spells.


    For three hours a pop.

    Magic Pink on
  • NovusNovus regular
    edited July 2007
    Aroduc wrote: »
    Novus wrote: »
    Skies of Arcadia; even though the PS2 port was a little shaky it's a fantastic game and well worth your time.

    By a little shaky, you mean, of course, a little non-existent.


    Granted I only played through the DC version; was it really that bad?

    *Edit - Oh right; it was ported to cube not PS2 :P

    Novus on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Aroduc wrote: »
    Zephyr wrote: »
    i don't understand the hate for 8, i liked it a lot.

    but then again i liked FFX too.

    Both of those are some of the best final fantasies. Only 6 and 7 are better, in my opinion.

    Of course, FF 8 and X haters are like Halo haters, extremely loud, because they are a small minority.

    8 was crippled by trying to take the parallel levelling SaGa system, but instead of spawning new monster as you go, just used the same ones for the entire damn game. Oh yeah, and the stupidity of forcing you to grind drawing magic. So, to improve character stats, you had to grind, but you got nothing in terms of character abilities or powers for doing it. Wonderful.

    And let's not forget the absurdly broken limit system.

    Thankfully, I had the PC version with all its accompanying glitches and ways to skip that nonsense.

    But yes, FF8 had more than its fair share of issues above and beyond "..."

    To be fair, if you truly powergame in 8, you don't want to level up at all. I have a game on disk 4 at level 15 that I never got around to beating. As you level up, monsters get proportionally stronger, and if you get high level abilities at low level, you are insanely powerful. You *do* get more abilities and powers from grinding, you get GF abilities, which are the game's equivalent.

    Personally, the fact that the system is so bizarre and abusable compared to the other final fantasies is what endeared it to me. The customization sets it apart from the horrifically boring standard JPRG fare.\

    Its hard to go wrong with final fantasy, though. Only ones I would die rather than playing are X-2 and 11.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • AJRAJR Some guy who wrestles NorwichRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    There's no mention of Shin Megami Tensei in this thread. For shame.

    I'll just list PS2 games for now.

    Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
    Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
    Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
    The Shadow Hearts series.
    Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
    Final Fantasy X & XII
    Grandia II

    EDIT - And despite the hate, FFX-2 was a really fun game.

    AJR on
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  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Its hard to go wrong with final fantasy, though. Only ones I would die rather than playing are X-2 and 11.

    You're a fool. X-2 was fantastic.

    Unco-ordinated on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Are we doing PS2 as well now?

    I'm gonna have to plug summoner as usual.
    summoner-1.jpg
    Its hard to go wrong with final fantasy, though. Only ones I would die rather than playing are X-2 and 11.

    You're a fool. X-2 was fantastic.

    Atmosphere is the most important feature of any RPG to me. When you start up X-2, you get blasted with vapid JPop music. It and me aren't a good fit.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • LorkLork Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    templewulf wrote: »
    I agree with everything Unco-ordinated said, except the bit about FF8. I thought it was a bit more tedious than other FFs, because of the need to draw out 100 of every new spell every time you found it. He's right about FF7's awful, awful graphics, though. I thought they were ugly even for the time.

    I have to second the Final Fantasy Tactics recommendation, because it's made by a combination of the Tactics Ogre team and a couple of FF veterans. It's easily my favorite SRPG of the generation, and its graphics have aged surprisingly well for low-res sprites. You might also try Kartia if you're into the SRPG thing.
    There is nothing at all in the game that forces you to do that. It's not the game's fault that you have OCD.

    FF8 is by far the least tedious game in the entire series, mostly because of that GF ability that got rid of random encounters and the fact that you didn't have to level grind.

    Lork on
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  • ZephyrZephyr Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    i honestly couldn't bear myself to finish x-2.

    rikku's cleavage and the battle system were the only good things about that game.

    Zephyr on
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  • WibodWibod Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Valkyrie Profile for the PS1 and Valkyrie Profile 2 for the PS2
    Disgaea and Digaea 2 for PS2 are both worth finding since they're awesome, as is Phantom Brave and if you like those then watch out for Soul Cradle later this year.
    Odin Sphere is a must as are the Final Fantasy games (get tactics, even if you have to kill for it)

    Wibod on
  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Its hard to go wrong with final fantasy, though. Only ones I would die rather than playing are X-2 and 11.

    You're a fool. X-2 was fantastic.

    Atmosphere is the most important feature of any RPG to me. When you start up X-2, you get blasted with vapid JPop music. It and me aren't a good fit.

    And then you get to beat up the person responsible for the vapid JPop music immediately after it finishes.

    jothki on
  • bluemaggitbluemaggit Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    i've always had a soft spot for ff games, other then the obvious 7 my fav's are prolly 8 and x

    bluemaggit on
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  • domitedomite __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2007
    PS1 Rpgs?


    Star Ocean 2

    Xenogears

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy 7

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy Tactics

    aaaaaandd....

    Star Ocean 2


    Oh, Chrono Cross aint so bad either, as long as you don't expect it to be anywhere near as good as Chrono Trigger. (srsly, Star Ocean 2)

    domite on
  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Someone touched on this already, but don't waste your time with FF 5 and 6 for playstation, get them for SNES or GBA.

    Unless you really like battle slowdown.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited July 2007
    domite wrote: »
    PS1 Rpgs?


    Star Ocean 2

    Xenogears

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy 7

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy Tactics

    aaaaaandd....

    Star Ocean 2


    Oh, Chrono Cross aint so bad either, as long as you don't expect it to be anywhere near as good as Chrono Trigger. (srsly, Star Ocean 2)

    Meh. Star Ocean 2 and Xenogears have aged terribly. You take for advantage such things as relative menu simplicity and speed of battle these days. SO2 and Xenogears... while okay for their time... are now clunky and unwieldy beasts.

    Anyway, I'll take over RSP's spot and mention Tales of Eternia. Pretty much the best Tales game released. The battle system isn't quite as well designed as the later iterations, but it's got the best story of the series and was where the jump happened between the really basic first two and the more involved and combo intensive stuff starts.

    Aroduc on
  • NovusNovus regular
    edited July 2007
    I admit I didn't get far into X2; it was the fact that you had to sit through every transformation cut-scene at least once and the fact that if you wanted the best ending you needed to go through the game with a strategy guide that turned me off.

    Novus on
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  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Xenogears still has one the best battle systems ever though (in my opinion).

    Gogogo 7 point combos.

    Balefuego on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Aroduc wrote: »

    Meh. Star Ocean 2 and Xenogears have aged terribly. You take for advantage such things as relative menu simplicity and speed of battle these days. SO2 and Xenogears... while okay for their time... are now clunky and unwieldy beasts.

    Anyway, I'll take over RSP's spot and mention Tales of Eternia. Pretty much the best Tales game released. The battle system isn't quite as well designed as the later iterations, but it's got the best story of the series and was where the jump happened between the really basic first two and the more involved and combo intensive stuff starts.

    Star Ocean 2's battles last like all of 5 seconds. Even bosses. I watched my buddy beat it, he killed the final boss in aprox. 10 seconds.

    The 2d graphics stand up pretty decently, too.

    I'm not a big fan, but its got quite a following.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    jothki wrote: »
    Its hard to go wrong with final fantasy, though. Only ones I would die rather than playing are X-2 and 11.

    You're a fool. X-2 was fantastic.

    Atmosphere is the most important feature of any RPG to me. When you start up X-2, you get blasted with vapid JPop music. It and me aren't a good fit.

    And then you get to beat up the person responsible for the vapid JPop music immediately after it finishes.


    He didn'tr say it was a bad game, just that he'd rather die then play it.

    I don't see how because RPG + playing dress-up = GOD but different opinions yadda yadda etc etc

    Magic Pink on
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Novus wrote: »
    I admit I didn't get far into X2; it was the fact that you had to sit through every transformation cut-scene at least once and the fact that if you wanted the best ending you needed to go through the game with a strategy guide that turned me off.


    The need for the guide was pretty dang crappy. The transformation scenes gave me orgasms and I'm not even equipped to get those.

    Magic Pink on
  • domitedomite __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2007
    Aroduc wrote: »
    domite wrote: »
    PS1 Rpgs?


    Star Ocean 2

    Xenogears

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy 7

    Star Ocean 2

    Final Fantasy Tactics

    aaaaaandd....

    Star Ocean 2


    Oh, Chrono Cross aint so bad either, as long as you don't expect it to be anywhere near as good as Chrono Trigger. (srsly, Star Ocean 2)

    Meh. Star Ocean 2 and Xenogears have aged terribly. You take for advantage such things as relative menu simplicity and speed of battle these days. SO2 and Xenogears... while okay for their time... are now clunky and unwieldy beasts.

    Anyway, I'll take over RSP's spot and mention Tales of Eternia. Pretty much the best Tales game released. The battle system isn't quite as well designed as the later iterations, but it's got the best story of the series and was where the jump happened between the really basic first two and the more involved and combo intensive stuff starts.

    I think both have aged better than Seven

    domite on
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