You should definitely play 4…I wouldn’t bother with 3 or 11.
Why do you say terrible? I understand if you don’t like the style, but that doesn’t make it -bad-. In fact, it’s a very good representation of the method.
That’s sortof the point. He’s -supposed- to be arrogant, self centered, and a brat so he can grow out of it. If the character is charming from the get go, where does he have to grow up to? Also, there are very clear ingame reasons for this - he’s not a brat because the designers arbitrarily decided that would be interesting. He’s a brat because he’s been locked up in his manor house with no contact with people except for his parents, a bunch of obsequious servants, and the occasional visit from his fiancee.
I did actually, enjoy Abyss right off the bat. The character interaction really worked for me, the AI was quite competant, and, well, hell, I could play with other people too if I wanted.
Vesperia, on the hand, while I desperately wanted to like it, took forever to get interesting and never -really- took off for me. It was fun, but didn’t resonate for me the way Abyss did. I’d still rate it better than FFX though. 
Speaking of FFX, and spheres - yes, there were spheres that let you jump around, and they were in extreme limited supply. So you could hop around the grid a -little- if there was someone’s skillset that you hated, but it wasn’t as if you could arbitrarily move around.
You didn’t like Final Fantasy 3(j) for the NES?
Why? I liked it quite a bit.
Bully is SO MUCH FUN. Seriously, I’m really bad at that kind of game, and I only put it down because I went on vacation and never picked it up again. But it’s honestly pure fun.
And Odin Sphere is really hard because by the time you realize it’s a resource management game it’s really too late for you. 
It’s more a case of me not liking the style. Battle systems like these ones (also similar to those in Star Ocean) make me feel like I’m playing a halfhearted fighting game with less of the strategy and depth. But I liked it when it was done in Secret of Mana, so who knows…
Re: Luke, I agree that a character with no flaws would be boring, but I just think they took it too far here. If he had a few redeeming qualities, then I would be excited to see how he develops as a character, but as it was, I just didn’t care.
I actually haven’t played it, that was based the opinion of a friend of mine, whose opinions on gaming I highly respect and whose tastes are pretty in line with mine. He found it to be nothing more than a grindfest (this was for the DS version). But in retrospect that was a premature judgment, especially since I haven’t even played it, so I retract my dis-recommendation.
I thought I could give some suggestions other then just another RPG. Besides, once you hit a certain age it’s hard to find the time for a 80 hour RPG. You could do with some variety anyway.
These are a few of the best games. They’re under $20 and easy to find.
Shadow of the Colossus
Resident Evil 4
Devil May Cry 3
Beyond Good and Evil
A little harder to find but still <$25 and really good.
Zone of the Enders 2
Gradius 5
SSX3
Shame on us for not recommending this right away!
This game goes right up with Psychonauts and Okami if you have a PS2! Beyond Good and Evil is an excellent game.
It’s not as serious or dark as the title sounds. It’s just a good action/adventure game.
I highly recommend it as well.
Okay, I picked up Okami. I would have gotten FF12 but it was out of stock at the Gamespot I went to.
My first impression of Okami was “wow, this is something different. This game is beautiful…but I hope the wolf angle is better than it was in Twilight Princess” … so I start up the game and get the story…and get more story…and more…and next thing I know 15 minutes have gone by and it’s still telling me the same lame story. This is reminding me the #1 I think I hated about the PS2 generation - that it never lets you actually PLAY the game, and is too busy talking to you and showing you videos all the time! It finally took close to 20 minutes until I could actually start controlling the wolf, and the first thing I did was find a save spot so that I wouldn’t have to sit through that again. But I was so exhausted that I didn’t keep playing. If this is gonna be one of those games where the majority of the time I’m only tapping circle to get to the next screen, then I don’t want to play it. Maybe just a little more elaboration about what makes this the best PS2 game ever?
It sounds like Tales of the Abyss or Odin Sphere is gonna be more up my alley than FF12 is, so I’ll be on the look for that one next. I actually did hear really good thing about Beyond Good & Evil a couple years ago when it came out, and I’ll be on the look for that one too. I’m starting to think that Katamari Damacy is the only game I ACTUALLY need to have fun though!
Absolutely not the kind of game where you watch the story the majority of the time. This is a flaw with the opening moments fo the game and it goes away quickly.
Basically, the game is similar to a Zelda game, only they dared to be innovative. You will use your right analog stick to paint Japanese style calligraphy. The calligraphy will replace all of Zelda’s weapons and tools basically.
Have just a little patience. It is an amazing game and is highly worth it.
Agreed about Okami - the first 30 minutes to an hour is really heavy on getting the story built, but once that’s all in place, it’s really heavy on the gameplay side of the Gameplay/Story scale. Stick with it. What makes it the best PS2 game ever? The gameplay. The music. The art. The Story. All of the above.
With regard to Abyss, the battle system takes a while to pick up. At the beginning of the game you have none of the abilities that make battle interesting, and it’s very much just kinda run up and hit attack a lot. After you start getting a few more abilities it becomes a lot more fun (this is doubly, perilously true with Vesperia, where, frankly, the characters have more crap than you will find in most fighting game characters, but it takes you 3/4ths of the game to get it all and a third the game just for each character to start playing the way they eventually will. It’s kinda not well thought out in that regard.) Also, Luke really -does- have redeeming qualities. He’s fundamentally… kind. But he has trouble showing it. Observe his scenes in Cheagle Woods. You’ll miss out on a lot in Abyss if you take the characters at a glance at don’t bother to look at them closely.
Shadow of the Colossus gets my vote for most overrated game on the PS2. It’s very pretty, but contains essentially no story, and is, at its root, basically a big game of trial and error while you try to figure out how to kill each colossus, and a big game of fighting with the controls once you do figure it out. I was really disappointed by this title.
Finally had the chance to play some Okami tonight. So it’s Zelda Twilight Princess plus Duck Amuck? It is a pretty unique game with some nice eye candy, the only thing that bothers me is so far (I’m about 90 minutes in) it has been INCREDIBLY easy. The hardest part has been figuring out the correct way to paint some things, but I haven’t even taken any damage from the enemies yet. How long does this game take to finish, and does it get more challenging later on?
The game is long…quite long, actually. I usually finish games on the low to middle range of completion time and I logged about 55 hours on Okami. Believe me, the first time you think you are nearly done…you aren’t.
However, it is not challenging, as long as you purchase weapon upgrades and so forth.
Some of the puzzles can be kinda tricky, as can some of the ‘platforming’ and exploration, but the emphasis of the game is not combat. Combat will remain pretty easy - though some opponents will be painful until you figure them out. You certainly won’t go through the game without taking damage, but I went through the entire game without ever needing to actually use the Magic Pouch.