PS2 RPGs: lesser known/talked about recommendations

Whifflebat

Over the past year, I've been trying to collect PS2 RPGs before they become impossible to find (at reasonable prices) and have been playing through them on my 80g PS3. I'm now at the point where I have the most talked about titles and am now into the lesser known or less talked about fare. I have listed the prices of what I can get some of those titles for below. Which are worth it and should be next on my hit list?

Here's what I have/have played before

Final Fantasy X (finished it when it came out. Throughly enjoyed it)
Final Fantasy X-2 (have played some of it, need to get back to it)
Final Fantasy XII (loved the game, story and only one version of license grid, not so much)
Dragon Quest VIII (incredible. absolutely loved it)
SMT: Persona 3 FES (awesome, though wish Tartarus had some more variety)
SMT: Persona 4 (one of the best RPGs I've ever played)
SMT: Nocturne (haven't delved into this one yet)
SMT: DDS 1+2 (playing through 1 now. really like it)
SMT: Devil Summoner 2 (haven't touched)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (would love to play, but doesn't work right on PS3)
Wild Arms 3 (played a bit of the intro bits, but wasn't feeling it. will revisit)
Wild Arms 5 (eager to jump in, looks solid)
Rogue Galaxy (haven't touched it. have heard mixed reviews)
Disgaea 1/2 and other NiS SRPGs (I normally like SRPGs, but couldn't get into these ones)
Odin Sphere (LOVED the graphics, disliked the gameplay)
Xenosaga 1 (played about 3 hours of it, got bored, never went back)

What's left on the PS2 RPG list that I am unsure of

Suikoden III (I'm a Suikoden noob, but the recent LTTP thread has me interested. $40 used)
Suikoden V (popular opinion is that it's solid, not as good as III. $40 new)
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (I think this is a no brainer. Sounds like an interesting spin on the genre. $10 used)
Kingdom Hearts 2: (I played the first one a long time ago, thought it was merely ok. $25 used)
Shadow Hearts: From the New World (apparantly doesn't work right on the PS3 either. $30 new)
Valkyrie Profile 2: (heard this was very good, but it's tough to find. I didn't "get" the first one)
Grandia 2/3/Xtreme: (I have played the original on PS1, but no next to nothing about these titles, other than what's mentioned above)
Wild Arms Alter Code F: (I think this is a remake of 1? Meh?)
Ar Tonelico 1/2: (they look interesting, but... $30/$40 new)
Growlancer Generations: (I like SRPGs, but this one is real hard to find)
Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land (I love dungeon crawls, but this rare game goes for $60 on ebay...)
Atelier Iris 1-3 (I played the first one long ago... hated it. $40 new each)
Radiata Stories: (not a huge fan of action RPGs. $30 new)
Tales of the Abyss: (not a huge fan of action RPGs)

Magic Pink

Keep in mind almost everything you say you loved, I hated and vice versa.

Suikoden III (I'm a Suikoden noob, but the recent LTTP thread has me interested. $40 used)
Loved it.

Suikoden V (popular opinion is that it's solid, not as good as III. $40 new)
Story is good. Gameplay is ok.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (I think this is a no brainer. Sounds like an interesting spin on the genre. $10 used)
Very different, worth a shot.

Kingdom Hearts 2: (I played the first one a long time ago, thought it was merely ok. $25 used)
Meh. Better then 1 but the story just makes no sense.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World (apparantly doesn't work right on the PS3 either. $30 new)
If it doesn;t work right, skip it. But I love SH 2 and 3.

Valkyrie Profile 2: (heard this was very good, but it's tough to find. I didn't "get" the first one)
Didn't get very far in it. You just get rated too much in this; I constantly felt like I was sucking.

Grandia 2/3/Xtreme: (I have played the original on PS1, but no next to nothing about these titles, other than what's mentioned above)
Meh. Skippable.

Wild Arms Alter Code F: (I think this is a remake of 1? Meh?)
Very by the book.

Ar Tonelico 1/2: (they look interesting, but... $30/$40 new)
Lots of fan service; it;s neat but the Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia series are better.

Growlancer Generations: (I like SRPGs, but this one is real hard to find)
Ignorable.
Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land (I love dungeon crawls, but this rare game goes for $60 on ebay...)
Very fun but not worth 60. Etrian Oddysey does it better.

Atelier Iris 1-3 (I played the first one long ago... hated it. $40 new each)
Love 'em. One of my favorite series.

Radiata Stories: (not a huge fan of action RPGs. $30 new)
Awful.

Tales of the Abyss: (not a huge fan of action RPGs)
I hate this series, mainly because I'm terrible at them.

Rogue Galaxy (haven't touched it. have heard mixed reviews)
Didn't like it as much as Dark Cloud 2. Pretty boring and grindy overall.

AshtonDragon

Suikoden III gets some flak for its combat system, but it's fine once you get used to it. I've probably finished that game four times now. I want to call Suikoden V a "better game" in that pretty much everything about it is great, but I dunno, I've found myself going back to it less than III. The only other game on the unsure list that I can talk about it Tales, but it seems pretty clear that you aren't going to play that game. It's pretty fantastic, though.

What about Dark Cloud 2? It's not really a traditional RPG, but it's a great game.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, though. I'll have to have another look at my games when I get home.

chamberlain

Okage Shadow King - you must play this. If Tim Burton made an RPG, this would be it.

Tsugunai: Atonement - very strange body snatching action RPG.

Shadow of Destiny - each chapter begins with the main character dying. You then have to backtrack through time and figure out how to prevent your own death. Excellent.

lionheart_m

Romancing Saga would be nice. You might need a FAQ to fully enjoy it tho. It's one of my favorite RPGs and I've been meaning to replay it eventually.

Magic Pink

Okage Shadow King was probably the worst gameplay in the best setting I've ever seen. But yeah, avoid it.

Romancing Saga is super awesome. One of the best RPGs I own. Strategy guide is a must tho.

chamberlain

Oh come on, how can you resist playing as a character whose shadow has been possessed by the devil?

You can't. He compels you to play his game.

Magic Pink

chamberlain wrote: »

Oh come on, how can you resist playing as a character whose shadow has been possessed by the devil?

You can't. He compels you to play his game.

Like I said. The setting and characters are completely awesome.

The gameplay is beyond horrible.

UncleSporky

Wild Arms Alter Code F is a remake of the original, but a particularly good remake, I'd say. Doubles the amount of playable party members and adds quite a bit of other features.

I don't like what they did with the music, but just because I'm really nostalgic for the original.

And yeah, it's a by-the-book RPG. I enjoyed it, you could do worse.

Unco-ordinated

Suikoden V is basically Suikoden II-2, in that they reuse a ton of the ideas used in II but don't really execute them as well. It still manages to be a really great game though, just not the 'best RPG ever' that II was when it came out (and is still in my top 3).

chamberlain, Shadow of Destiny/Memories (depending on the region) isn't really an RPG. Though it is a fucking amazing adventure game that I'd highly recommend. It was developed by the Silent Hill team.

RainbowDespair

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is one of the greatest games ever made and one of the few games I considered to be an example of games as high art. It's also dirt cheap because it wasn't very popular. Definitely get it.

Suikoden III, Suikoden V, and Grandia 2 are all pretty good. Worth getting if you can find them for $10-$20 a piece.

Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land is decent and isn't as expensive as you think:
http://www.goozex.com/trading/games/7375-Wizardry_Tale_of_the_Forsaken_Land-PlayStation_2

blaze_zero

I'm still trying to get ahold of Valkyrie Profile 2. It was fun from what I did play.

dirkdirden

I am pathetic as I have played pretty much all of them.


Suikoden III - Not a fan of it quit after 10 hours

Suikoden V - Better than III but I still quit after 10 hours

Kingdom Hearts 2: If you have played the first no need to play the second as its the same thing.

Shadow Hearts: Good stuff I liked it. No Persona 4 or anything but still good.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Great game but the final bosses are annoying. I have an un opened Copy that I am hoping will go FF7 meaning up in price.

Grandia 2/3/Xtreme: Played and Liked 2 and 3 haven't touched Xtreme. Good fun games put not much challenge you just play through a story pretty much.

Growlancer Generations: In my top 5 games for PS2 loved every second....To bad the newer onces sucked.

Radiata Stories: Didn't give it a fare and didn't like it.

Tales of the Abyss: Great game if you like the game play.




I recommend Soul Nomad & the World Eaters its one that many people missed and I found it to be superb

blaze_zero

dirkdirden wrote: »

I am pathetic as I have played pretty much all of them.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Great game but the final bosses are annoying. I have an un opened Copy that I am hoping will go FF7 meaning up in price.

Grandia 2/3/Xtreme: Played and Liked 2 and 3 haven't touched Xtreme. Good fun games put not much challenge you just play through a story pretty much.

I recommend Soul Nomad & the World Eaters its one that many people missed and I found it to be superb

YOU BASTARD.

Also, Grandia 2 is good. 3 has a great battle system and a sucky story. Xtreme isn't worth the time.

ystael

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (I think this is a no brainer. Sounds like an interesting spin on the genre. $10 used)

It's ugly now, but also a truly excellent game. Depressing, but worth playing.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World (apparantly doesn't work right on the PS3 either. $30 new)

I really missed Yuri in this third game -- his "lovable asshole" personality was a big thing that kept me interested. I notice you don't mention the first Shadow Hearts. Also ugly now, but it's worth playing as a prequel to Covenant. Covenant is a better and more polished game than the first or third one though.

Valkyrie Profile 2: (heard this was very good, but it's tough to find. I didn't "get" the first one)

The battle mechanics are super fun, but your secondary characters are a lot less fleshed out than in the first game. Definitely worthwhile though.

Ar Tonelico 1/2: (they look interesting, but... $30/$40 new)

Fun in a completely embarrassing way. The music is gorgeous. Be aware that NIS America rushed the localization of the second one, resulting in an inexcusable buggy hack-job: lots of cut off or nonsensical text and several introduced bugs, including a bug that crashes the game in the final boss fight unless you overlevel enough to kill it before it uses its ultimate attack. I'm still kinda bitter about this one.

Here's my favorite tune from the first game: EXEC PURGER/.#MISHA extracting

Growlancer Generations: (I like SRPGs, but this one is real hard to find)

The battle mechanics in this are just great -- real-time tactics. II is more interesting than III because your party is eight characters instead of four, so there's all sorts of stuff going on on the battlefield. The later Heritage of War is ignorable.

Have you looked at Sakura Wars: So Long My Love?

Skull2185

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Freakle

pretty sure i got a copy of valk 2 if somebody wants it - ill take a peak

Steev

Yeah, I see there's no mention of Dark Cloud in your list. Someone already mentioned it in the thread, so I'll just add my voice to recommending Dark Cloud 2. Randomized dungeons, town building, action RPG combat, etc. The story is kind of grating at times, but I really enjoyed it. It's made by Level 5, who also did Dragon Quest VIII.

Magic Pink

SteevL wrote: »

Yeah, I see there's no mention of Dark Cloud in your list. Someone already mentioned it in the thread, so I'll just add my voice to recommending Dark Cloud 2. Randomized dungeons, town building, action RPG combat, etc. The story is kind of grating at times, but I really enjoyed it. It's made by Level 5, who also did Dragon Quest VIII.

It's an action RPG tho and he said he didn't like those I thought.

It's agreat game with a terrible story tho. DQ8 was awful, however.

chamberlain

Skull2185 wrote: »

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Yes, Ring of Red was excellent, and very early in the PS2's life, if I remember correctly.

I did not see Summoner or Summoner 2 on your list. I have played both, and their absence speaks well of you.

Magic Pink

chamberlain wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Yes, Ring of Red was excellent, and very early in the PS2's life, if I remember correctly.

I did not see Summoner or Summoner 2 on your list. I have played both, and their absence speaks well of you.

I swear Summoner 2 on the GC was good. I may be misremembering tho.

edit: I am. I'm thinking of some game sort of like card pokemon. You threw down cards and they turned into critters and then you could collect critters and something. It was a great game.

chamberlain

Magic Pink wrote: »

chamberlain wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Yes, Ring of Red was excellent, and very early in the PS2's life, if I remember correctly.

I did not see Summoner or Summoner 2 on your list. I have played both, and their absence speaks well of you.

I swear Summoner 2 on the GC was good. I may be misremembering tho.

edit: I am. I'm thinking of some game sort of like card pokemon. You threw down cards and they turned into critters and then you could collect critters and something. It was a great game.

Baten Kaitos?

Steev

Magic Pink wrote: »

SteevL wrote: »

Yeah, I see there's no mention of Dark Cloud in your list. Someone already mentioned it in the thread, so I'll just add my voice to recommending Dark Cloud 2. Randomized dungeons, town building, action RPG combat, etc. The story is kind of grating at times, but I really enjoyed it. It's made by Level 5, who also did Dragon Quest VIII.

It's an action RPG tho and he said he didn't like those I thought.

It's agreat game with a terrible story tho. DQ8 was awful, however.

Of course he'd mention he didn't like action RPGs in the last two entries in his list, which I only skimmed. Doh.

One game I've heard mixed reviews of is Metal Saga, which is apparently a sort of directionless RPG where you control a tank in an apocalyptic world. Sorry to say that while I own it, I haven't tried it yet.

Magic Pink

SteevL wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

SteevL wrote: »

Yeah, I see there's no mention of Dark Cloud in your list. Someone already mentioned it in the thread, so I'll just add my voice to recommending Dark Cloud 2. Randomized dungeons, town building, action RPG combat, etc. The story is kind of grating at times, but I really enjoyed it. It's made by Level 5, who also did Dragon Quest VIII.

It's an action RPG tho and he said he didn't like those I thought.

It's agreat game with a terrible story tho. DQ8 was awful, however.

Of course he'd mention he didn't like action RPGs in the last two entries in his list, which I only skimmed. Doh.

One game I've heard mixed reviews of is Metal Saga, which is apparently a sort of directionless RPG where you control a tank in an apocalyptic world. Sorry to say that while I own it, I haven't tried it yet.

I tried it for a bit and it's VERY neat but kind of hard what with the no direction stuff.

Magic Pink

chamberlain wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

chamberlain wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Yes, Ring of Red was excellent, and very early in the PS2's life, if I remember correctly.

I did not see Summoner or Summoner 2 on your list. I have played both, and their absence speaks well of you.

I swear Summoner 2 on the GC was good. I may be misremembering tho.

edit: I am. I'm thinking of some game sort of like card pokemon. You threw down cards and they turned into critters and then you could collect critters and something. It was a great game.

Baten Kaitos?

No, you actually ran around and threw them. You were a princess or some such. Damn, I loved that game, what the hell was it?

Whifflebat

Thanks so much for the suggestions all!

Ar Tonelico 1/2: (they look interesting, but... $30/$40 new)

Fun in a completely embarrassing way. The music is gorgeous. Be aware that NIS America rushed the localization of the second one, resulting in an inexcusable buggy hack-job: lots of cut off or nonsensical text and several introduced bugs, including a bug that crashes the game in the final boss fight unless you overlevel enough to kill it before it uses its ultimate attack. I'm still kinda bitter about this one.

Yeah, I heard of that game ending final boss bug. Yikes. If I can find these games cheap, I might try, but $40 for something that will drive me insane is... well, insane.

chamberlain, Shadow of Destiny/Memories (depending on the region) isn't really an RPG. Though it is a fucking amazing adventure game that I'd highly recommend. It was developed by the Silent Hill team.

I played Shadow of Destiny waaaay back when. Had a great time with it, and yes, it's definitely not an RPG.

What about Dark Cloud 2? It's not really a traditional RPG, but it's a great game.

I did play DC2 a long time ago, but wasn't feeling it and gave up after maybe 2 hours. I should probably revisit it since I've heard more than once that it's a better game than Rogue Galaxy.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is one of the greatest games ever made and one of the few games I considered to be an example of games as high art. It's also dirt cheap because it wasn't very popular. Definitely get it.

Done and done.

Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land is decent and isn't as expensive as you think:
http://www.goozex.com/trading/games/...-PlayStation_2

Interesting. I LOVE the Etrian Odyssey games. I should do more digging to see if I can find a copy for an affordable price.

I see amazon.com has used copies starting at $17, but I don't think they ship to Canada... Anyone have any experience with getting games off of amazon.com shipped to Canada?

chamberlain

Magic Pink wrote: »

chamberlain wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

chamberlain wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Ring of Red is an awesome game. I remember it being awesome anyway.

Its an alternate history post WWII(?) strategy game with mechs. They're very low tech though, and are basically just walking tanks. You also get to choose which two types of squads accompany mechs. and each has special abilities.

Yes, Ring of Red was excellent, and very early in the PS2's life, if I remember correctly.

I did not see Summoner or Summoner 2 on your list. I have played both, and their absence speaks well of you.

I swear Summoner 2 on the GC was good. I may be misremembering tho.

edit: I am. I'm thinking of some game sort of like card pokemon. You threw down cards and they turned into critters and then you could collect critters and something. It was a great game.

Baten Kaitos?

No, you actually ran around and threw them. You were a princess or some such. Damn, I loved that game, what the hell was it?

Lost Kingdoms

Magic Pink

chamberlain wrote: »

Lost Kingdoms

YOU A WINNER

I loved that game.

Blackjack

Wild ARMs 3 is excellent. Great characters, great plot, great music...the worst thing you can say about it is that it has slightly slow combat, but it's still not prohibitively slow.

Wild ARMs 5, on the other hand...stay away. Horrible plot, horrible characters, decent music, bad battles.

Suikoden 3 is the best in the series. Suikoden 5 is probably my least favorite (not counting Suikoden 1, which I'm lenient on for being the start of it all), but I'm pretty much alone in that opinion.

PotatoNinja

+1 vote for Wizardry. Great game, very similar to the Etrian Odyssey titles in design and difficulty but with a very different aesthetic.

EvilMonkey

It took awhile to get used to Suikoden III but once I got into it I enjoyed it. If I remember correctly I didn't give IV a fair shake, should hunt down a copy of that one day. There's also a Tactics and V that I have never played.

Nothing about Grandia 2 stands out in my mind but I'd say it was a solid title.

Magic Pink

EvilMonkey wrote: »

It took awhile to get used to Suikoden III but once I got into it I enjoyed it. If I remember correctly I didn't give IV a fair shake, should hunt down a copy of that one day. There's also a Tactics and V that I have never played.

Nothing about Grandia 2 stands out in my mind but I'd say it was a solid title.

No, IV is awful. 3 and 5 are dang good tho.

Spawnbroker

I know this isn't a PS2 game, but do you own Xenogears? You really owe it to yourself to play it, if you haven't already. It's one of my top games of all time.

Unco-ordinated

Blackjack wrote: »

Suikoden 3 is the best in the series. Suikoden 5 is probably my least favorite (not counting Suikoden 1, which I'm lenient on for being the start of it all), but I'm pretty much alone in that opinion.

If you think Suikoden 5 is worse than Suikoden IV then you must have the worst taste on the planet. IV is one of the worst RPG's I've ever played.

Blackjack

Here's how it breaks down, with Suikoden:

3 and Tierkreis are unique
4 is a much, much better 1
5 is a much, much, much, much worse 2.

Personally:

3 > 2 >= 4 = Tierkreis > 1 = 5

And Unco has only played one RPG.


edit: And I definitely suggest Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Lands. It can be kind of frustrating, and annoyingly difficult in that "not actually fun" way, but when it is fun, it is very very very fun.

Gyral

You know, I think the only reason I never bought Okage Shadow King (rented it) was that I recall the loading times were ridiculously long between transitions. Outside of that, the story and script were amusing.

I'd also throw in that you can't go wrong with Valkyrie Profile 2, Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter and I actually enjoyed Suikoden 3 but man does it seem to take it's time getting anywhere.

Unco-ordinated

Blackjack wrote: »

Here's how it breaks down, with Suikoden:

3 and Tierkreis are unique
4 is a much, much better 1
5 is a much, much, much, much worse 2.

Personally:

3 > 2 >= 4 = Tierkreis > 1 = 5

And Unco has only played one RPG.

I've played plenty of RPG's. Enough to know that Suikoden IV is the most reviled game in the series, hence why it has the lowest review scores of them all and why Suikoden fans tend to ignore it. I could go ahead and give you a list of all the horrible shit in it but seeing as the OP hasn't even mentioned it, I'm pretty sure he already knows how heinous it is.

AshtonDragon

Suikoden IV wasn't that bad.

It just felt like a huge step back from III, to me. The combat system was too plain, and it visually wasn't that impressive (compare the spell animations with the ones in III and V, for example). The story was fine, and I liked the ship battles.

UncleSporky

My friend gave me Suikoden 4 for free out of the blue, I played it for about 3 hours and then looked at a guide and realized I'd already missed some things permanently so I haven't played it again.

It felt like its only real fault was being too generic, it didn't feel actually broken or anything.

Gaming-Freak

Not really much mention of Rogue Galaxy, so I gotta say: It's a great game, but fairly hard, and isn't for beginners of RPGs.

It's an action RPG, but you have an Action gauge that depletes and refills shortly after so you can do more. Every character also has an extra weapon, e.g. Jaster has a hand-gun besides his sword, Zegram uses throwing stars, etc.

Whifflebat

I know this isn't a PS2 game, but do you own Xenogears? You really owe it to yourself to play it, if you haven't already. It's one of my top games of all time.

I have played Xenogears (bought it day 1 actually) and quite liked it, but never finished it. I should go back to it one day if only to see what the fuss is abou the dreaded "Disc 2". I tried Xenosaga hoping it would be similar. Turns out it was just boring as hell (though people have told me that part 3 is good).

I could go ahead and give you a list of all the horrible shit in it but seeing as the OP hasn't even mentioned it, I'm pretty sure he already knows how heinous it is.

Correct. I've heard from 95% of people that Suikoden IV is the weakest. Same reason I left Wild Arms 4 of my list of candidates. Seems 4 is a cursed number!