Looking for RPG suggestions

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I am trying to decide which RPG to play next. I am looking for one in the style of the old Shining Force and Final Fantasy games. That is, a turn based game that does not require the dexterity and reflexes of a 12 fingered 11 year old on a breakfast cereal sugar rush in order to play. I have already played the Wild Arms series and Beyond the Beyond. In case you can't tell, I am looking for something for the PS1 or PS2 Thanks much.

JY

[ckendal]

I would say to try Disgaea or Disgaea 2 for PSX/2. If you wanted to venture outside of those consoles, try any of the Fire Emblem games (which are nothing short of amazing).

[josekortez]

Y's: Ark of Naphishtam is pretty old school and cheap, a continuation of the Y's series that was on the Super NES. It's $14.99 used at Gamestop right now.

I'd say Grandia II but having only played the Dreamcast version, I can't speak about the PS2 version. I've heard about frame rate problems on the PS2 version.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I have all the Grandias. Grandia III is the only one that I have finished. I was thinking about going back and starting with Grandia I for the PS1. Don't know why I never finished it. Probably because I bought something newer.

JY

[Dreamc@sting]

Have you played Vandal Hearts? if not I recommend it for the PSone, amazing amazing game. It plays similar to FF:Tactics

[Damaramu]

I 2nd Vandal Hearts. One of my favorites to this day.

[Press_Start]

How about Vagrant Story? But it isn't pure RPG, just RPG-adventure. Same for ALundra.

If you're looking for pure-RPG fun and excellent story, try Xenogears.

[tfrank]

the suikoden series is pretty good

[kjmontana]

PS1 Breath of Fire 3 & 4!

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I have both Vagrant Story and Breath of Fire 3, I guess I could try one of those. Thanks for the help.

JY

[calthaer]

Are we talking only JRPGs, or have you considered something for the PC, like the old Bioware games (which should run on 95% of the PCs out there nowadays) or the more recent (and brilliant) KOTOR?

[Daria]

PSOne:

Breath of Fire 3 - One of the first PSX games I ever played. Convinced me to buy the system back in '99. Old school gameplay, colorful graphics, and memorable characters.

Persona 2 - Dark. Definately a "mature" game, deep storyline and very hard to boot. The perfect game to play if you're looking for something different and a good challenge.

Grandia - Fun adventure story with a lot of action. Athother game to play if you're looking to attach yourself to some very human characters. The battle's are done in real time though, but it's not a frenzied button masher either.

Dragon Warrior 7 - Yeah it's ugly. But it's got a great time traveling gimmick going on ala Chrono Trigger. Also a very funny game if you utalize the talk feature regularly. Old school gameplay, perfect if you're looking for a classic style game. Also very very long, so be prepared to invest a couple months into playing it through to the end.

Koudelka - Ok, ok not a great game. But it's a survival horror/RPG mix with tactical sytle combat. Just weird enough to be worth mentioning. Again has really good dialouge and character that shouldn't work well together but create a really tense triangle between them. Precursor to the SHadow Hearts series.

Final Fantasy IX - I liked this game for all the reasons I like Grandia. Also it's a FInal Fantasy game, you said you liked those.

Lunar Silver Star Story - One of the best RPG storylines ever written. Fast paced adventure plot line, and a really touching love story. Hilarious dialouge.

Lunar Eternal Blue - I liked this one better than the original. The way Lucia discovers her humanity is convincing. More of the same, so if you liked the first one, definately play this too.

Star Ocean - Beautiful game, the special events and relationships you can build between characters is rewarding. Could be worth a couple playthroughs to gather different supporting characters. Like all Tales and Star Ocean games there's a lot to do with coooking and item creation. These aren't extra features either, the best equipment in the game requires you to make it yourself.

Tales of Destiny II - Some people prefer Destiny, but I liked Eternia better. Again great characters... it's an important factor to me. Makes the difference between a memorable game and one that 6 months later leaves a vague wispy impression. Like Star Ocean has a real time button mashing battle system... okay maybe not a good reccomendation afterall.

Suikoden - Great game. I love the fact that the game isn't about saving the world. It's war. The enemies you fight aren't always clear cut bad guys. They'd even be great party members if they weren't fighting for the other team. This idea is better explored in the sequal though... in fact that's the root of the plotline. Lot and lot of charcters to recuit, although many of them are hardly worth using. Still it's rewarding to populate your castle with over a hundred NPCs you gather yourself.

Suikoden II - One of the best games for the system. If you can stomach the price tag (come on it's less than or equal to two 360 games) The storyline is extremely well written and fleshed out, you care about the hero as well as the antagonist. Everything started in the first game is just improved in this version. And it's gorgeous, not as good looking as Valkyrie Profile... but it's up there. They changed the tactical battles in this game too, now they play like Warson instead of rock, paper, scissors.

Vandal Hearts - I love Shining Force. I Love this game.

Xenogears - Mechs. God. Pretencious, but fun.



PS2

Dragon Quest VIII - If you like traditional RPGs you will love this game.

Radiata Stories - I think I liked this game because you could recruit so many characters. A lot of "collecting" going on with tons of scripted events. I personally like that in an RPG because it feels like there's always something new to discover. COme to think of it the battle system may have been real time, but it's not hectic.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land - Old school dungeon crawling with scripted events and actual characters. I'm not much of a Wizardry fan, but this is one of my favorite PS2 games.

Phantom Brave - My personal favorite... although any of the Nippon Ichi start games would play similarly.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I have a lot of those, so I guess I will have to sit down and try some of them. Looks like it will probably be Breath of Fire 3 or Vandal Hearts.

JY

[FantasiaWHT]

One more suggestion, JY -

Sayuki - It's a S-RPG set in ancient China, based on the legend of... uh... Son Goku I think he was called. Fantastic story, some very creative maps, and great characters.

[Blitzwing256]

suikoden tactics is all you need on ps2, it captures the feel of the suikoden universe very well and is only second (and thats a small gap) to final fantasy tactics for my most favorate strategy rpg out there, with the new game+ option you can spend 100s of hours before you;'ve done everything.

[shoes23]

I have a lot of those, so I guess I will have to sit down and try some of them. Looks like it will probably be Breath of Fire 3 or Vandal Hearts.

JY

I have a lot of the games mentioned also. You should let me know what you decided to play, as I was looking to get through another RPG as well. We can resurrect a dead thread on the game and maybe some others will join us.

[VACRMH]

Arc The Lad Collection.

[sonoranreptile]

I second the Arc the Lad suggestion. Those will keep you busy for a WHILE. Breath of Fire 3 is my favorite of the series and Vagrant Story is great! If you have Chrono Cross you should definitely play it as well.

[Cryomancer]

Dragon Quest 8 or some Megami Tensei / releated branch games are my suggestions.

[lendelin]

PSOne:

Breath of Fire 3 - One of the first PSX games I ever played. Convinced me to buy the system back in '99. Old school gameplay, colorful graphics, and memorable characters.

Persona 2 - Dark. Definately a "mature" game, deep storyline and very hard to boot. The perfect game to play if you're looking for something different and a good challenge.

Grandia - Fun adventure story with a lot of action. Athother game to play if you're looking to attach yourself to some very human characters. The battle's are done in real time though, but it's not a frenzied button masher either.

Dragon Warrior 7 - Yeah it's ugly. But it's got a great time traveling gimmick going on ala Chrono Trigger. Also a very funny game if you utalize the talk feature regularly. Old school gameplay, perfect if you're looking for a classic style game. Also very very long, so be prepared to invest a couple months into playing it through to the end.

Koudelka - Ok, ok not a great game. But it's a survival horror/RPG mix with tactical sytle combat. Just weird enough to be worth mentioning. Again has really good dialouge and character that shouldn't work well together but create a really tense triangle between them. Precursor to the SHadow Hearts series.

Final Fantasy IX - I liked this game for all the reasons I like Grandia. Also it's a FInal Fantasy game, you said you liked those.

Lunar Silver Star Story - One of the best RPG storylines ever written. Fast paced adventure plot line, and a really touching love story. Hilarious dialouge.

Lunar Eternal Blue - I liked this one better than the original. The way Lucia discovers her humanity is convincing. More of the same, so if you liked the first one, definately play this too.

Star Ocean - Beautiful game, the special events and relationships you can build between characters is rewarding. Could be worth a couple playthroughs to gather different supporting characters. Like all Tales and Star Ocean games there's a lot to do with coooking and item creation. These aren't extra features either, the best equipment in the game requires you to make it yourself.

Tales of Destiny II - Some people prefer Destiny, but I liked Eternia better. Again great characters... it's an important factor to me. Makes the difference between a memorable game and one that 6 months later leaves a vague wispy impression. Like Star Ocean has a real time button mashing battle system... okay maybe not a good reccomendation afterall.

Suikoden - Great game. I love the fact that the game isn't about saving the world. It's war. The enemies you fight aren't always clear cut bad guys. They'd even be great party members if they weren't fighting for the other team. This idea is better explored in the sequal though... in fact that's the root of the plotline. Lot and lot of charcters to recuit, although many of them are hardly worth using. Still it's rewarding to populate your castle with over a hundred NPCs you gather yourself.

Suikoden II - One of the best games for the system. If you can stomach the price tag (come on it's less than or equal to two 360 games) The storyline is extremely well written and fleshed out, you care about the hero as well as the antagonist. Everything started in the first game is just improved in this version. And it's gorgeous, not as good looking as Valkyrie Profile... but it's up there. They changed the tactical battles in this game too, now they play like Warson instead of rock, paper, scissors.

Vandal Hearts - I love Shining Force. I Love this game.

Xenogears - Mechs. God. Pretencious, but fun.



PS2

Dragon Quest VIII - If you like traditional RPGs you will love this game.

Radiata Stories - I think I liked this game because you could recruit so many characters. A lot of "collecting" going on with tons of scripted events. I personally like that in an RPG because it feels like there's always something new to discover. COme to think of it the battle system may have been real time, but it's not hectic.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land - Old school dungeon crawling with scripted events and actual characters. I'm not much of a Wizardry fan, but this is one of my favorite PS2 games.

Phantom Brave - My personal favorite... although any of the Nippon Ichi start games would play similarly.

Usually I don't like to quote long posts, but Darias' contribution deserves to be quoted again.

I never complimented someone on a post, but I do it in this case. Very well done.

This is a post like it should be: to the point, substantial, answering the question of the OP, knowledgeable, and very helpful. It isn't merely a list of recommended games, the poster reasoned very well with short summaries and characteristics of the titles and pointed out WHY the games are worth playing.

The reasoning delivers a great starting point to agree or disagree.

Again, well done.

[namzep]

Seconding Disgaea and Phantom Brave and adding Magna Carta. All three are non-typical RPGs but I've enjoyed them more than just about any other RPG over the last 8 or 9 months.

[PDorr3]

great thread as I am also looking for an rpg to get into, I have almost everyone of the games mentioned in the thread so far and have beat/played very few of them. Then again lost odyssey comes out on 360 on the 12th and that looks good Im buying that. I really wanted to start a new game of grandia 3 I really loved the battle system (Still my favorite in an rpg ever). I got 15 hours in originaly but never finished it.