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Post by Xeogred on Oct 29, 2018 20:01:29 GMT -5
Slowly adding more to my PS2 RPG collection lately, just got Wild Arms 3 (have had 4) and ordered Growlanser Generations. Reading over this thread again and I think I've got most of the big ones covered... Some titles are getting a bit pricey so I'll consider emulating these: Drakengard Drakengard 2 Wild Arms 5 Wild Arms Alter Code F Other titles mentioned in the thread are available on Xbox too, I'd like to keep adding to that library so I'll probably buy some of them there (like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance). And there's a few rare cases of some games that got HD releases in the last few years, like Grandia II. I beat that one back in the day but I might check out the remaster sometime. Sadly think I sold my PS2 copy ages ago, although everyone used to always say the Dreamcast version was a lot better.
Here's what I have to play:
Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter Dragon Quest VIII
Front Mission 4 Growlanser Generations Rogue Galaxy Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 Suikoden IV Suikoden Tactics Valkyrie Profile 2
Wild Arms 3 Wild Arms 4
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Post by Ex on Oct 29, 2018 21:09:36 GMT -5
Here's what I have to play:
Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter Dragon Quest VIII
Front Mission 4Growlanser Generations Rogue Galaxy Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shin Megami Tensei NocturneShin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 Suikoden IV Suikoden Tactics Valkyrie Profile 2
Wild Arms 3 Wild Arms 4
The bolded ones I recommend first and foremost. Especially Nocturne, it really is the best "modern" JRPG I've played. It's also consistently challenging, unlike 99% of other JRPGs. I think you especially would appreciate that aspect.
Guess what guys I'm still going to finish Covenant!... and there's so many more PS2 JRPGs I'm interested in; Rogue Galaxy, Digital Devil Saga and its sequel, Tsugunai: Atonement, Ring of Red, Steambot Chronicles, MS Saga: A New Dawn, Metal Saga, and Drakengard just for starters. Man were those Japanese studios busy pumping out RPGs for this system back in the day.
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Post by toei on Oct 29, 2018 21:13:22 GMT -5
I'm gonna say play Growlanser III and AtL: Twilight of Spirits first. If you're one of those people who has to play games in order, you might want to play Growlanser 2 before 3 (you don't have to, storywise), but I don't like it as much since it's almost just battles - you don't get to walk around towns and locations like in the rest of the series. That one is really pure SPRG, except real-time. It's still good, though, don't get me wrong, but III is better and IV is best. I do second DQVIII, of course. Can't speak on the rest.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 29, 2018 21:27:01 GMT -5
Yeah, I should mention I've bought some of these based on your guys' suggestions. toei : The weird thing here is that I owned Generations at some point. I think it was so obscure to me at the time I didn't know much about the series and that's sadly another PS2 game I misplaced at some point. So I didn't know until now that Generations is 2-3? Perhaps I only played 2 on it and wasn't impressed or something. But I played so little and it's been so long, I really don't remember anything. It wasn't too pricey so I figured I'd give it another look since you and Sarge are big on it. As for Twilight of the Spirits, as a big fan of Arc 1-2 I'm glad to hear many great things about that one too. I know End of Darkness or whatever is apparently terrible and I wasn't too impressed with 3, didn't finish that one. Suikoden Tactics should be interesting... seems like a series that would lend itself perfectly to the SRPG genre. But I never hear anyone talk about it. I know IV has a bad rep but I hear it's short and it will be the last of the main line I need to check out.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2018 3:34:19 GMT -5
Well, Drakengard and its sequel might have some light RPG elements, but I wouldn't call them RPGs. They're musou-clones first and foremost.
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Post by laurenhiya21 on Oct 30, 2018 12:48:21 GMT -5
Despite really liking the system, I haven't actually played that many games on the PS2 (and most of them aren't RPGs). I really want to play more on it, but lately it's definitely been easier to play newer games than older ones. Stress makes easier games more appealing I guess and newer games tend to be easier.
Anyway, the RPGs I have beaten are these: - Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia (Mostly standard battle system, but good characters, great music, and some interesting lore)
- Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica (Better battle system, characters, and story but more glitchy and confusing than the first game. Still really good though) - Baroque (Beat on Wii, but also on PS2. Very strange but interesting rougelike)
- Persona 4 (Like the characters and the story, but a bit annoying with how grindy it can get)
The other RPGs I've played: - Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The (Nothing stood out as being bad, but nothing stood out as being great either so I lost interest)
- Phantasy Star Universe (Very boring to play and annoying main character)
- Shadow Hearts (Interesting but not enough to push me past a super annoying difficulty spike)
The RPGS I own but haven't gotten around to yet: - Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana - ChoroQ - Dark Cloud - Dark Cloud 2 - Drakengard - Drakengard 2
- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - Eternal Poison - Growlanser Generations - La Pucelle Tactics - Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome - Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis - Odin Sphere - Okage: Shadow King - Radiata Stories - Rogue Galaxy - Sakura Wars: So Long My Love - Shin Megami Tensei- Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Souless Army - Shin Megami Tensei- Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 - Soul Nomad & the World Eaters - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - Xenosaga
Plus I of course have a long list of others that I still want to get, so I'm definitely not lacking for options haha. If I had more time & energy I definitely would be playing more of these.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 30, 2018 14:56:32 GMT -5
So I'm sure you're aware of it, but if you enjoyed Ar Tonelico, you'll probably like Atelier Iris. AI is one of those games that just hit me at the right time, and I had a blast with it, despite dealing with some big issues at the time.
Of the rest of your list, I will always recommend Dragon Quest VIII. I think that's the clear best game there, and probably the best traditional RPG on the system. I also loved Growlanser Generations and Rogue Galaxy, both of which I feel are worth a play. There are several I want to play through, but haven't yet, but still seem like they have a lot of quality. Digital Devil Saga 1/2 and the Devil Summoner games fall into that category.
The Xenosaga series was pretty uneven for me. I had a blast with the first game, was really disappointed by the second, and the third wrapped things up and was good. Radiata Stories came out after Star Ocean 3, and while I beat it, I just didn't get as much fun out of it. Sadly, SO3 itself is an uneven affair: about 2/3 through the game, the difficulty spikes through the roof if you're not abusing the crafting system. But doing so effectively nerfs the difficulty (Boots of Prowess for the win!).
Eternal Poison and Sakura Wars are on my list to obtain one day. I didn't buy them at the tail end of the PS2 lifespan, and I regret that.
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Post by Ex on Oct 30, 2018 15:10:30 GMT -5
Stress makes easier games more appealing I guess and newer games tend to be easier. I agree with you that modern games are, in general, much easier than older generational entries. I think we all know the reasons why. I beat and enjoyed all three of those, but only Shadow Hearts is truly stellar out of those three. I hope you finish it someday. I agree with Sarge that this is the best classically styled PS2 JRPG. It really is required gaming if you are a fan of no-nonsense JRPG game design. I own a bunch of the PS2 JRPGs you listed, though not all of them. You have quite the impressive collection! But I strongly recommend adding Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne to your PS2 JRPG library. I just can't say enough positive things about that game (obviously). There's a PS2 fan-translated release I'd like to recommend to you: Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg and Atelier Elie: The Alchemist of Salburg 2A remaster of the two first titles in the Gust’s Atelier series, Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg, and Atelier Elie: The Alchemist of Salburg 2, which features redrawn and improved graphics, a reworked graphical interface, and redone mini-games. It probably emulates just fine in PCSX2. If you are interested in it, but can't find the game, just message me, I got the hookup. And not having time (or energy) to play all the JRPGs we'd like to, that's something I think many of us can relate to. I can certainly resonate with that lamentation. But hey, we gotta have stuff to do when we retire right?
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Post by laurenhiya21 on Oct 30, 2018 22:52:02 GMT -5
So I'm sure you're aware of it, but if you enjoyed Ar Tonelico, you'll probably like Atelier Iris. AI is one of those games that just hit me at the right time, and I had a blast with it, despite dealing with some big issues at the time. Oh yeah I'm fully expecting that I will like the game! I love nearly all of the Gust games that I've played but I just haven't delved too much into their older titles yet. I just wish more of them were in English...
And I don't know how to quote multiple people in one post so... Just going to do this ha
Ex: I find it's really easy to gather a lot of PS2 games around here haha. I'm not sure if the PS2 isn't as popular as other systems or if it's mostly because of how massive it's library is, but most of the retro game stores around here have a ton of PS2 games. Also I guess I've gotten a lot of them for pretty cheap ha. And Nocturne is on my list to get, although I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle the difficulty of the game or not. Altus games can definitely get a little too difficult for my tastes at times...
Oh yeah I was really happy when I saw that announcement! I think I want to play through all of the Atelier games at some point, so having a fan-translation for two of them is definitely nice haha. I haven't tried it out yet though since I haven't really been successful with PS2 emulation yet. I don't think I've gotten anything to work properly without some sort of major graphical glitches after only a little bit of playing. If I got it working I would definitely make it a higher priority to try out though.
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Post by Ex on Oct 30, 2018 23:46:48 GMT -5
I haven't tried it out yet though since I haven't really been successful with PS2 emulation yet. I don't think I've gotten anything to work properly without some sort of major graphical glitches after only a little bit of playing. I've had the same overall experience. That's why I am still using a real PS2. In the case of PS2 fan translations, I just burn them to disc, and play them via FreeMcBoot. Works well enough for now. I do look forward to the day that PCSX2 is as good for PS2, as ePSXe is for PS1.
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