My brother has owned a PS2 ever since it was first released. We lived together from that point up until the spring of 2006, when he moved and took the PS2 with him. I saw him over the weekend and noticed that his PS2 wasn’t even hooked up to the TV, and asked him about it and he said that ever since he got over his Guitar Hero addiction, he hasn’t had time to play anymore, so I offered to give it a good home where it would be loved again.
Now, since I haven’t had access to the system in about 3 years, I haven’t really been keeping up with the newer releases for it (aside from Guitar Hero, which I have NO interest in playing). I know that despite the PS3 being out for over a year, PS2 games ARE still getting developed and released (although I’ve heard that many of them are vastly inferior if it’s a current-generation game that also gets Ps3/xbox/wii release). I’m looking into which NEWER games I should pick up. To give you an idea of what type of games I like, here’s a list of my PS2 games that I enjoyed playing:
Katamari 1 & 2
Dragon Warrior 8
Jaws
Spy Hunter
God of War (haven’t played the second one yet)
Rygar
Shadow Hearts & Covenant
True Crime NYC
I have also been enjoying Fallout 3, Ninja Gaiden, and Dead Rising for X360. i HATED HATED HATED Final Fantasy 10, but I’ve heard that 12 is a lot more like the classic FF’s, so I want to at least give that game a chance. One of my friends also recommended Okami and Red Star, and another recommended the Persona games, although they sound too much like a cross between Animal Crossing and the Sims for my taste.
I’ll second Okami, and recommend picking up God of War 2 if you liked the first. I actually liked FF 10 but I liked 12 a whole lot more. The story is more political, less personal, and the combat is completely different as it’s MMO inspired. It was built on the FF 11 engine if I’m not mistaken.
About the Persona games, I’ve only played 3, (and not that much) but I think comparing them to The Sims or Animal Crossing is ill informed. You’re playing a Japanese High School student, and you spend a good deal of time wandering around the school building up your relationships, but it’s really there as a contextual element. At it’s core the Persona games are JRPG inspired dungeon crawlers where you’re spending the majority of your time scaling a gigantic tower level by level. I’d recommend Persona 3 to RPG fans without reservation.
Also, if you like action RPG’s, I’d heavily recommend the Kingdom Hearts games if you haven’t played them. The Disney can be off putting if you’re not a fan, but they really are excellently executed. The sequel was even better than the original, though I haven’t played the port of Chain of Memories.
Persona 3 and 4 are the games to get. They’re nothing like the Sims, at all (I would never make that connection in a million years).
I thought the combat system in FF12 was OK but the rest of the game was a terrible disgrace, but then again FF10 is my favorite in the series, so take that with a grain of salt…
I concur. Fusoya’s impression seems quite off. These two games are excellent. Four is better put together than 3, but I felt the cast of 3 had more character and the game world was a bit more compelling.
I go the other way on this. I uh -loathed- FF10. I felt FF12 was an improvement in just about every conceivable way -except- that the combat system was a wreck.
I’m going…third? Fourth? Something Okami. Don’t miss it. I’ll also add votes for Tales of the Abyss, and Odin Sphere, both of which are too often omitted from lists of this sort.
Putting in to second this. Persona 3: FES (the second release “extras” edition) and Persona 4 are both absolutely top notch JRPGs. 4 is a better game overall because they fixed or improved upon a bunch of mechanical issues and little things in 3. I would definitely play 3 first though because (a) it’s got a slightly better cast, world, and story and (b) you won’t be able to go back to it after you play 4.
As someone who is primarily a RPG/strategy fan, P3:FES and P4 were the best two games to be released last year, on any system, and I will gladly defend that belief as necessary.
I guess I’m alone in thinking that FF 12 was better than 10 in every way. I really liked the story and thought the chances they took with the combat engine were interesting. That’s okay though.
Ya know, I could never get into Odin Sphere even though I really tried to like it. I think I played it for 9 or 10 hours but it just never hooked me. It’s not a bad game though, and I would recommend it to RPG fans looking for something a little different.
JRPG = Japanese Role Playing game, as opposed to to Western RPG’s. They follow different formulas and expectations. JRPG’s follow in the footsteps of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy where WRPG’s take after Wizardry and Ultima.
Ah ok. I actually prefer JRPG’s to WRPG’s…I’m surprised that I haven’t heard that term used before. The only recent WRPG’s I can think of are those online ones, and the Elder Scroll games, both of which I stay the hell away from for the same reason I stay the hell away from addictive drugs.
I’ll give Persona a look, but I can only handle 1 RPG at a time, and I have to live up to my username first. The aspect of being a high schooler sounds pretty sims-ish to me. Speaking of which, is the game Bully any good? I remember that was one of the games I wanted to play after my PS2 went away.
Yeah, WRPG’s seem to be a dying breed outside of MMO’s. When people reference them it’s usually referring to older games with a heavy D&D bent, and focused on PC games as opposed to the consoles. Baldur’s Gate, Planescape, Fallout, KOTOR and so forth. Though there are still a consistent trickle of good WRPG’s it’ not nearly as plentiful as it used to be. (Fallout 3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, and the upcoming Dragon Age are all WRPG’s.)
In the Persona games you’re a high schooler with magical abilities used to fight the forces of EVIL! Very JRPG’ish. Not like the Sims at all. Trust me
I’ve only heard good things about Bully, but haven’t played it. It’s from the GTA people but takes place on a high school campus. So you’d be playing a student in that as well.
If I had to choose between the two, I’d pick FF12 in a heartbeat, but combat was tedious, boring to watch, and having to -buy- and -find- gambits was the stupidest idea ever.
“Heal me when I get hurt!”
“Sorry boss, no can do. You haven’t bought the AI routine that tells me how to do that yet.”
WTF?
As for Odin Sphere, it’s not for everyone, because some people have a really hard time wrapping their mind around the right way to play it. It’s -not- some sort of double-dragon-esque brawler with tons of special moves and the like. It is, at its core, a sort of resource management game built into a sidescrolling beat-em-up framework. Oh, and it’s hard.
Another vote for Okami. Also Prince of Persia - just the first one, Sands of Time. I hated the other ones.
And I really liked Valkryie Profile 2: Silmarillia. VERY COOL combat system, and definitely meant for an experienced RPG’er. Tons of things to watch out for and keep an eye on.
I know you are probably asking the OP but I hated those games. Well, I should’t say hated…just fooling around is fun, but the missions are hard and boring. I never got into them and they are not really of the same caliber as the games listed in the OP. That doesn’t mean they are worse, just that they are not the same kind of game at all.
They’re the same kind as True Crime. Also (IMHO, of course) the GTA games have the broadest possible appeal of any series of games I’ve seen- part platformer, part shooter, part driving game.
[nitpick]You mean VP2: Silmeria, Silmarillia is from the Lord of the Rings or something :p[/nitpick]
I’m glad you recommend this because I really loved the first Valkyrie Profile and for whatever reason I never got around to the sequel. I should check it out…
I confused LOTR the other day with Lord of the Flies. :eek: This is a minor mistake!
And I did really enjoy it. Although - warning - there is a minor spoiler here about how I feel about the ending. I have not listed the actual ending in the spoiler:
The ending was not what I had hoped for, though it was plenty grand, just less “human” and more “godlike”.
Upon re-reading the thread I have to say I totally disagree on the FF 12 combat system. That combat system forever spoiled all of the other FF for me, and I hate going back and playing them now, and running around in stupid circles to try and train. The story was meh, but on replays I just skip all of the cutscenes and get rid of Vaan as fast as possible and play with Balthier, Basch and Fran. (I hate Vaa.) The cool thing is, you are never forced to have a particular character in any boss battle, so you can just ignore anybody you don’t like.
Oh, and I loved Final Fantasy 10, too. I wonder what the OP didn’t like? I thought it was one of the best stories ever.
