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Grolav
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 33
Location: the harsh frozen land up north (Norway) |
| Any good PS2 Rpg's out there? |
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A friend of mine has a Playstation2, and now that christmas is comming I was thinking about getting her a good RPG (so I can visit her and play a good game  ). But I don't know if there are any great RPG's for the Playstation2 out there...seem's like every PS2 rpg-game is some sort of boring hack'n slash-thingy. Does anyone know of any good games to get? something with a tad bit of depth, or a realy good story...that is...if something like that exist on the PS2. 
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Its origin and purpose still a total mystery. |
Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:59 pm |
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Davo
City Guard
Joined: 03 Sep 2002
Posts: 146
Location: Massachusetts, USA |
RPGs with Story Focus/Little Hack and Slash
1. Final Fantasy X--You can buy this one in the US now for $20 or less
2. Xenosaga (cut-scenes can be long--sometimes 15 minutes long--but a great story). Also available in the US for $20 or less.
3. Star Ocean Till the End of Time--A bit generic at times, but enough good moments to make it a winner, plus an outstanding battle system.
4. Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land--Great story and similar to the PC titles (but with less character customization).
5. Final Fantasy X-2--Semi sequel to Final Fantasy X
6. Dark Cloud 2--Graphics like a painted story book with so many different things to do--one of my favorites and highly recommended
7. Suikoden III--Lets you play the same story from three different perspectives to see how events affect different characters
8. Summoner 2--A worthy sequel to the first game. The first game appeared on the PC, but this sequel didn't.
Which one to pick?
Final Fantasy X is a great choice for $20; the game has a lot of depth and Square makes awesome games. There is a ton of hidden stuff in this game. Just try finding each character's ultimate weapon without a guide. Also, there is a really cool underwater sports game called blitz ball, a great story, and a fascinating character customization system based on manipulating a grid. Add in great graphics, an engrossing story and beautiful music and you have a real winner for $20 or less.
Second choice, in my opinion, would be Dark Cloud 2 (but consider this is based on my own personal tastes--proceed cautiously, especially if you don't like action-oriented battle systems). The characters are endearing, you get to customize your own personal mech for use in the game, there's a cool photography bonus game that lets you invent items to use in the game, and there's a great world building system in which you re-build the destroyed world you inhabit Sim-City style and try to put everyone and everything back where it belongs or where it works best. You should know that the combat system is a lot like Zelda, but this is a great game.
Star ocean is new, so it costs $50.
The rest of the games cost $20 or less in most cases (except maybe for Suikoden and possibly Wizardry).
Wizardry is closest in style to a PC game; I really loved this game. It had some tragic and flawed characters that advanced the story nicely. It is basically a dungeon crawl with a story.
_________________
Apologize, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offense.
Backbite, v.t. To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find you.
-- Ambrose Bierce, from The Devil's Dictionary. |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:07 am |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
Davo pretty much covered it, Good post.
Only thing I would add is that the "dungeons" in Dark Cloud 2 are randomly generated, which in my opinion makes them not as fun as FFX.
Also Star Ocean allows 2 players to fight in the battle scenes, which might be fun for you and your friend.
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IMHO my opinion is humble |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 2:10 am |
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Grolav
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 33
Location: the harsh frozen land up north (Norway) |
Thank's Davo for the recomendations, (and Chekote for adding some comments )
@Davo: Are most of the games you listed very linear?
(me being spoild by Fallout and the likes.. )
I know I'm not supposed to expect Daggerfall here, but is there any non-linearity in any of the games? I do prefer turn-based combat over intens click-feast and combat that plays more on one's own reflexes then the characters stats. I don't meen to be difficult
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Its origin and purpose still a total mystery. |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:12 am |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
Final Fantasy X: Very linear. You *can* go back through the world but its pretty much a single route thing. You do eventualy get a method of traveling the globe, but unlike most other FF games, there are only specific locations you can go to. Other FF games allowed you to wander around the entire world map, but for some reason they removed this in FFX.
The game definately has a pre-defined set of sequences.
The combat is turn based and is mostly reliant on character stats. There are a couple of things that rely on reflexes, such as pulling off occasional special moves. As I remember its a kind of semi ATB system, whereby the speed of your characters determines how long you wait to get another turn. So you might get two turns before the enemy can react (and visa versa). You can also use things such as "slow" and "Speed" to affect this.
Xenosaga: Completely linear. Almost never get the chance to backtrack. Its very very cinematic and a lot of the time you are watching movies.
They do have a semi-backtrack feature whereby you can go into this "holodeclk" kind of thing to visit simulations of the areas you have already been to and find stuff that you missed, or things that you didnt have the item at the time to access.
Star Ocean Till the End of Time: I am still playing this one. I like it a lot but from your requirements I dont think you would like it as much as FFX or XenoSaga. The main reason being that the battles are realtime and rely heavily on your skills and not character stats. Obviously character stats *do* play a role but not to the level of FFX or XenoSaga.
Wizardry: Havent played this on PS2.
Final Fantasy X-2: This is very similar to FFX but is less linear. From the start of the game the whole world is open to you. You still have the same limitation of only being able to go to specific points, but the difference is that unlike FFX, you dont have to follow a linear path for most of the game until you have access to the whole world.
The battle system is identical to FFX.
Dark Cloud 2: This is not very linear. You can travel back and forth between the towns, and as I mentioned before the dungeons are randomly generated, so it adds some variety to the world. The villages are actualy built by you which is kind of cool, so thats obviously not very linear.
You probably wont like the battle system for this one either. Its real time and completely reliant on your skill.
Suikoden III: I have this but havent played it much. From what I remember of the previous games, its story is quite linear, but there are a lot of other things you can do such as developing your army/base (Kind of like building your own little village I guess). I am not sure if they kept this feature for this sequel, but it would be strange if they didnt since its a hallmark of the series.
I think the battle system is similar to FFX, but I am not certain since I havent even played this long enough to get to a battle!
Summoner 2: Never played this as I hated the 1st one.
Kingdom Hearts: Completely linear and real time combat. Its a very pretty game and its cool to see the disney characters in this setting. But its the complete opposite to what you are looking for.
Legaia 2: Bought this and never played it, maybe someone else can fill you in.
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter: Bought this but havent played it yet. I loved the other games in the series. Its usualy very linear, but the battle system is turn based and a lot of fun.
So after all that, here is the order in which I would recommend the games based on your requirements: (Omitting games I havent played)
FFX-2
FFX
Xenosaga
Dark Cloud 2
Star Ocean
Kingdom Hearts
And just for a comparison, here is *my* order of preference:
FFX
Xenosaga
FFX-2
Star Ocean
Dark Cloud 2
Kingdom Hearts
P.S. If you dont mind older graphics, PS1 games do run on the PS2. My personal favourite turn based console RPG of all time is FFIX for the PS1.
Some people prefered FFVIII since it has more of a western feel (Like FFX), but I like the super deformed FFIX.
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IMHO my opinion is humble |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:21 pm |
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Grolav
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 33
Location: the harsh frozen land up north (Norway) |
Thank's a lot Chekote, excellent post. 
I guess there will be some Playstation2-roleplaying on me and my friend in the near future.
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Its origin and purpose still a total mystery. |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:52 pm |
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Davo
City Guard
Joined: 03 Sep 2002
Posts: 146
Location: Massachusetts, USA |
I feel like I'm on a PS2 tag-team with Chekote. It's nice to see someone on this site who likes console RPGs as much as I do.
The only thing I can add is that Wizardry is fairly linear in the sense that most of the game takes place in a dungeon, so you're somewhat constrained by having to travel through the same areas to move back and forth between the underworld and the very limited town area.
Summoner 2 is a lot different from the first game, and a lot better, but fairly linear. The combat system is very action-oriented and the horrible draw-in from the first game is missing. There is a very good story. You wouldn't even recognize this as the sequel to Summoner if it didn't have the name attached.
I forgot to mention Shin Megami Tensei, which is a new horror-themed RPG for the PS2. I'm not that far into this one yet, but I like it a lot. It's very surreal.
Chekote makes an excellent point about backwards compatibility. I will second Chekote's plug for Final Fantasy IX. I think it is the most underrated game in the series, and by far my favorite RPG on the PSOne.
Here are a three other great PSOne games to check out.
1. Chrono Cross--Sequel to Chrono Trigger (and not so linear)
2. Xenogears--Predecessor to Xenosaga--a great game.
3. Persona revelations 2--Excellenet horror based RPG
_________________
Apologize, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offense.
Backbite, v.t. To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find you.
-- Ambrose Bierce, from The Devil's Dictionary. |
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Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:36 pm |
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