Best PS2 action-rpgs?

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I'm a big fan of action-rpgs which I largely prefer over their turn-based siblings. I am wondering what you guys would rank as the best that the system has to offer in the genre? One of my favorites is Dual Hearts. Criminally underrated and which I found to be more enjoyable than another, more well known Hearts game (Kingdom Hearts) which was also a good series but felt a bit tedious with the constant battles. Dark Cloud 2 is another gem which kept everything that was good about the original and corrected everything that went wrong with it. Also sorely underrated. I hear Rogue Galaxy is good too, but I'm not too learned about it.

[Jorpho]

"Action-RPG" is a fuzzy category, but I'm pretty sure Rogue Galaxy falls into turn-based territory.

[FlyingSpacePenguin]

I've played three action RPGs on the PS2 myself, those being Rogue Galaxy, Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle and Tales of the Abyss.

Personally I felt Tales of the Abyss had the best gameplay out of the three, with a large overworld and fast combat, but the characters were a bit hit & miss. I'd imagine many would be turned off the game by Luke Fon Fabre alone. The characters do develop over the course of the game, but starting out a a spoiled rich brat who whines about everything and has no respect for anyone doesn't leave the best first impression. Still, I enjoyed it overall and recommend it. The only other game in the Tales series I've played is Tales of Phantasia, so I couldn't tell you how it compares to the rest of the series.

Rogue Galaxy is good, but I found myself losing interest due to it feeling like little more than a continual stream of dungeons. Even areas like large jungles felt quite closed in and mainly made up of small rooms and corridors, which started to wear on me after a while. However, seeing as you enjoyed Dark Cloud 2, which a similar feel, I don't think it will bother you too much. I consider it an action RPG, combat involves you hacking and slashing in real-time and giving you the ability to avoid attacks. Occasionally you have to wait for a meter to fill up before you can attack again, but you can fill this up instantly by blocking an enemy's attack. The combat is good fun, it's a bit more along the lines of Kingdom Hearts or Phantasy Star Portable than Dark Cloud 2.

While I haven't played it, I've heard good stuff about Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, which is also an action-RPG. Haven't played it myself, but might be worth looking into if you're curious. The Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner games are also apparently quite fun.

On a side-note, Dual Hearts looks pretty neat. Surprised I've never heard of it before! Might have to check it out in the future.

[The Adventurer]

Just to be clear, when I hear the term 'action RPG' my quintessential example is Secret of Mana*. That's the kind of game we are talking about, yes?


*And NOT as people may tell you, Legend of Zelda. Which is not an RPG.

[Gothic-Yoichi]

As far as I'm concerned these are some of the best PS2 action-RPGs:

Dark Cloud
Dark Cloud II
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts II
hack//G.U. Vol. 1//Rebirth
hack//G.U. Vol. 2//Reminisce
hack//G.U. Vol. 3//Redemption
hack//Infection - Part 1
hack//Mutation - Part 2
hack//Outbreak - Part 3
hack//Quarantine - Part 4
Radiata Stories
Rogue Galaxy
Shining Force EXA
Shining Force Neo
Shining Tears
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Steambot Chronicles
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Legendia
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim

[Little Miss Gloom]

Dark Cloud is a really great game, if you haven't tried it. I've heard DC2 is pretty good, too.

[kupomogli]

Dark Cloud 1 and 2. Has Zelda 64 like movement and dodging leveling up weapons is good.

I haven't completed Rogue Galaxy but I played it for a bit killing four bosses. The movement during combat really isn't as good, the whole, attacking and then waiting for your attacks to recharge kind of slows pacing down of the battle, and also there are so many weapons that you can level up and combine, that it's difficult to know whether you're upgrading to the next best weapon or if another weapon being upgraded would be better.

*edit*

My post earlier was more of a reply than listing anything worth playing. Here's some games I think is worth playing.

Evergrace and Forever Kingdom. I won't recommend King's Field the Ancient City or Eternal Ring because not many people can get into those, but Evergrace and Forever Kingdom are pretty much third person versions of the King's Field games, just faster paced, easier to find where to go, etc. Think of these as Demon's Souls like games before Demon's Souls existed and that's what these games are. Forever Kingdom is a sequel to Evergrace, and in comparison is a far better looking game and the game plays a lot more fluidly. Magic spells work differently in Forever Kingdom where if you hit one enemy with each of your three characters specials you'll do an overkill and gain one extra spell cast per ally, while in Evergrace, magic spells come from equipment your character has and it reduces your equipments durability whenever you cast a spell. To me these are the most enjoyable action RPGs on the PS2 t hough.

Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy 7. Technically an action RPG, although bundled in with a third person shooter, so maybe you won't count this? This game is far better than a lot of gamers give it credit for though. This game was destined to fail though because first you had Final Fantasy fans against it being completely different than they expected it would be, while anyone who isn't a Final Fantasy fan just labeled it as a fanboy game. Aside from Max Payne and Resident Evil 4, many third person shooters in the past were either lock on or weren't very fluid. Resident Evil floor you were stuck to the floor whenever you aimed. Dirge of Cerberus is similar to Max Payne when it comes to fluidity. The game controls very well, and if enemies run up on you, Vincent can also melee them with a quick combo. Another thing, being based off an RPG series where most of the fans probably didn't often play shooters, Dirge of Cerberus' normal targetting had a much larger target, so if enemies were within that target, it'd lock into them based on that and then shoot them. There's also a professional targetting system where the target is much small, basically to your standard third person shooter. You could pick up potions, phoenix downs which would cast auto life on you when used just incase you die, ethers to increase mp, and limit break items which transformed Vincent into his beast form for a limited time. You'd acquire gold, while going through levels, but at the end of the level you'd exp or you could transfer your exp into gold as well to upgrade your weapons. With your weapons, Vincent had either materia to cast spells, or his Cerberus gun. You'd end up getting multiple attachments and could quick swap between three different customizations instantly, like switching guns on any third person shooter or frst person shooter, although quick, like how fast Dante switches weapons in Devil May Cry 3. Eventually you'd get sniper rifle bullets, machine gun bullets, etc and can swap different frames and attachments to customize the damage your three customizations do at short, medium, and long range. Take a lot more damage at long range, add a sniper scope, etc, but the same weapon might be less effective against short range and mid range. Have a more powerful mid range customization, and a powerful close range customization, maybe even having rapid fire. After completing the game, which the game is of decent length, there are a lot of challenge maps as well, so there's a lot of content to it. Great game imo.