Kingdom Hearts is great, but if you’re short on time you can just play 2, which is better in almost all ways from the original.
Star Ocean has a more action-oriented, AI-driven battle system, right? Can you tell me more about it? I’m wary because I played Tales of Symphonia for GameCube and hated the battle system in that game, and Star Ocean seems like it might be similar.
Huh, interesting, I found Phantom Brave to be better.
I think it might be because I played the Disgaea games first and I couldn’t get used to La Pucelle’s whole “no more canceling movement once your character has been in a combo” thing. Plus not being able to leave the Dark World whenever I wanted was very annoying.
And Phantom Brave had the whole “fusion” and “title” thing that you could exploit to get hi-powered weapons early in the game.
(Random dungeons was what also put me off of Makai Kingdom. Yeah, all NI games have a certain mindless grind factor, but at least in Disgaea, Disgaea 2, and Phantom Brave, I could leave any level I wanted to. There’s no way I could have made it through some of those 100 floor dungeons otherwise.)
Hearty seconding the NI games. They tend to be really addictive and robbing you of sleep, though.
Final Fantasy X-2 is pretty much only good for the eye candy. The whole thing is pretty much a ton of subquests and minigames, and not even good minigames, blah.
Yeah, it’s 100% real time battling, you can control anyone in your party, the computer handles the rest.
I played Star Ocean: Second Story and I found the computer to be reasonably smart about casting spells and healing my party in a timely matter, although sometimes I was impatient so I would switch and just do it myself.
It does take a while to get used to, because you can get interrupted at the most inopportune times.
Games the OP should check out:
Odin Sphere
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Dark Cloud 2 - (stay far away from 1)
Okage: Shadow King - (an excellent early PS2 RPG. The most original RPG I’ve played since Earthbound. Very fun and quirky. Hard to find, though.)
Hmm. I can’t think of any others that haven’t already been mentioned.
Really? I thought the one redeeming quality of X-2 is its battle system, which imo is leagues ahead of X’s. X-2 also has much more replay value than its predecessor.
So comparable to Fable length and replay wise?
Really good voice acting. Particularly Cary Elwes as The Bard, and his sarcatic interactions with the narrator. Really funny right from the beginning where you get the standard instruction on how to play the game from a helpful villager while our hero says things like, “Yes, I am fully aware of how to jump.”
I’m enjoying Rogue Galaxy. I mean…it’s about pirates…in…spaaaaaaace! 
Other than that, dungeons are randomized so they can feel a bit samey after a while. The game play’s pretty fun, though. It’s a fairly actiony beat’em up with heavy rpg elements.
The dungeons actually aren’t randomized; they’re just designed to be the same. Rogue Galaxy is a fun game, but if you’re set on completing it absolutely 100%, you should book about 150 hours.
I’ll second the recommendation for at least the first Shadow Hearts, although it may be a bit tough to find. If you don’t mind looking for Playstation games, check out The Legend of Dragoon, which was one of the great RPGs for that console.
Okay, another question: How about GameCube games? Aside from the Zelda series, Skies of Arcadia Legends (way fun), and Tales of Symphonia (battle system was not my cup of tea), are there any cool GameCube RPGs I should keep an eye out for?
There is a version of Fire Emblem on Gamecube. That’s a great tactical RPG series that also has games on Game Boy Advance and Wii, as well as some earlier Japanese-only versions.
Well, reasonable people may differ. I wasn’t fond of the battle system in X either but one of my major complaints was that the extreme levels of fan service dragged a rather simple battle system to a halt (hang on while I spend thirty seconds watching an animation of them dressing every time I need to change).
On the Gamecube side, you’ve played the ones that I enjoyed already. I’ve also played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles but didn’t really care for it.
I’ve heard good things about Baten Kaitos, but I haven’t played it so I can’t say for sure.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a fairly quirky but nonetheless fantastic RPG. It starts out simple enough but it gets quite deep and strategic once you get farther into the game without becoming overly complex.
Although it skirts the line between survival horror and RPG, Eternal Darkness is a game I highly recommend. Really cool story, interesting magic spell system, and of course the bizarre insanity effects.
+1.
It’s just a bunch of minigames slapped together with giant gobs of fanservice and a very sketchy plot. I didn’t get much of a sense of “there is a giant world outside the boundaries of your game,” not like I did with FFX or other more fully-realized games. More like “We’re going to paste you on top of the sets from FFX, but we’re not going to let you go everywhere like you did in FFX!”
To put this in perspective, the viera in FFXII are also fanservice, but they also kick ass, take names, and overall are not portrayed as wussy little bunnies pretending to be kickass, they ARE kickass. So I’m less irked by their portrayal in FFXII than I was by the terrible three in FFX-2. If it’s going to be fanservice, it needs to be less obvious and it needs to be integrated into a better game. :rolleyes: I’ve tried to restart FFX-2 at least three times, and each time gave up out of disgust at the fanservice and the shoddy gameplay.
I also recommend the Ratchet & Clank series for PS2. Tons of fun - I have 1-3, and they’re a lot of fun to replay. There’s also a function which lets you import gamesaves from previous installments into your current installment, which means you get to use your dearly missed and beloved BFG in the current game. Yippee-yi-kay, Chairman Drek!
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Okami are both excellent RPGs, especially Okami, which I love to tiny little bits. Okami’s got a premise that is very unusual in comparison to any other game I’ve played before – basically, you’re a divine wolf named Amaterasu who is trying to bring color and life back to a world done up like old Japanese paintings. For example, you can use the divine brush to draw symbols that have effect on the world, such as drawing a circle to ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT’. Or you can pause a battle scene to slash lines over an enemy and cause damage. Awesome stuff.
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are a total kick in the pants, especially if you’re familiar with both the Disney and Squeenix franchises. They do really well as standalone games with no pre-knowledge, but they also gain additional depth if you know the history of both franchises, and you get to see the KH twists that were put on existing characters. There’s a particular movie in KH2 that gives me absolute goosebumps every time I watch it, and I badly need to figure out how to tape it so I can watch it any time I want to. Great stuff. Although I will say that I’m currently grinding my eyeballs out in KH2 to try to get to where I can tackle a certain optional boss. :eek:
I like Rachet and Clank and all, but calling those games RPGs is quite a stretch. They’re shooter/platformers with upgradeable weapons and armor.
Fair enough, although I thought the story was strong enough to qualify. Plus I think you can go back and run through a given level again.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance for PS2 is an excellent action-RPG. I generally prefer turn-based combat in my RPGs, but BG:DA won me over. There is a sequel, and the Champions of Norrath games mentioned earlier use the same engine, so if you like one you will like them all.
Started it but didn’t continue. It had a nice system but the main character was so unlikeable I gave up - the authors tried to make him hard-edged, but he just comes of as a self centred <expletive not fit for Cafe Society>.
Seconded - just remember if playing this: your console is not broken, its just your mind
Okami is another one for the PS2 I’d have to second, with one of the most unique game mechanics I have seen. Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle, and Disgaea (series: Disgaea, Disgaea 2, Phatom Brave and La Pucelle) are all good games and well worth a look.
The Bard’s Tale is rather … unique … and aside from some dodgy camera angles its pretty playable. Its one of the most amusing games I’ve yet seen, and definitely has the best script.