How many rpg elements does Castlevania: Curse of Darkness even have? Even as many as SOTN? Scant as they are in SOTN, it's a great game belonging in almost everyone's library.
How many rpg elements does Castlevania: Curse of Darkness even have? Even as many as SOTN? Scant as they are in SOTN, it's a great game belonging in almost everyone's library.
Depends on what you call RPG elements. It has everything from SotN. It also has a materials system which you create weapons and armor from materials and system where your innocent devils level up different depending on what colored gems you acquire from destroyed enemies. The innocent devils can level up to multiple different versions of the same one(where each innocent devil will have a different ability than the next.)Originally Posted by BlastProcessing402
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Great! Already great infrormation about PS2 RPGs here!
Just a heads up, I don't know if this is old news, but here it is:
http://kotaku.com/playstation-2s-hac...-ps-1796049271
The .hack/GU series (3 games) is getting a HD remaster for the PS4. No word yet about the release date, but I guess it won't be this year.
I really like HD remasters of great PS2 games, FF X just looks gorgeous, if done right I'm all for it. Has anyone of you played the dot Hack/GU series? I have to admit, I didn't.
I know that Dragon Quest VIII is not an overlooked game, but I have the feeling that it still doesn't get the appreciation it deserves. For me it is one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Everything is just right in this game, the so called pacing, the proportionate element distribution between storytelling, levelling up your characters and exploration, the humor, the graphics, the story, all of these gameplay elements are in perfect balance and add up to a masterpiece. It gave me the feeling of the old SNES RPGs, and hunting Metal King slimes is just as fun as always. One of the best, if not THE best game in the series. If you have this one on your shelves and haven't played it yet, please do!
I also second Aussie2B's evaluation of Radiata Stories. Certainly an overlooked and underappreciated game. I liked it a lot, it is a strange mix of Shenmue and Suikoden, a mix between hiring lots of characters and living in a city in which you can become part of everyone's live. The city is one of the most charming, well designed locations of all the RPGs I ever played, and it creates an atmosphere of a location come to life.
Another game I'd like to recommend is Okage Shadow King. This one might be a love or hate affair. It is an unusual game which I always understood as a parody of a JRPG. The Tim Burton-style graphics fit the weird but nevertheless entertaining story, the clever written dialogues and quirky humor. It creates a unique atmosphere which thankfully dominates some flaws in the battle system. Button-mashing and some confusion in the battles are certainly weaknesses in game design, but overall this is a unique game well-worth playing and truly underappreciated. It was an early release for the PS2 and it was for years on my shelves unplayed. I wish I had played the game sooner, and I even think about purchasing the game in HD for the PS4 which I'm usually not a friend of.
Last edited by lendelin; 07-24-2017 at 01:46 AM.
I've only played the first one, and it's not bad, it's just a bit average. One thing you might like that you might not have liked if you've played .hack//Infection is that as an action RPG, attacking was more fluid. In .hack//GU, when you attacked you actually attacked and saw your attack, an actual action RPG, while on the PS2 of .hack//infection, you had to be pretty much point blank range for a target to appear on the enemy and then hit attack and you'd do your action. .hack//Infection played kind of like a mix between an action RPG and a turn based RPG because of that, or atleast that's how I remember it.
Problem with the first GU game is that every world you went to, the world design both in and out of dungeons was that of a rogue like. You've got a bunch of giant squares with a bunch of hallways between them, except the game isn't a rogue like, lacking everything that makes that style of dungeon design work for a rogue like, making the dungeon design on GU kind of suck. Also, monsters had too much defense as you progressed. It wasn't hard at all, but you get to the next area in the game and you'd be dealing 1 damage(the minimum) from enemies. They gave you so much exp though each new area you win a battle and you're pretty much ready for that area now. It meant the chainsaw swords were always the most powerful weapon, slash at the enemy and then mash square as quick as you can to deal multiple chainsaw hits. Never died once in the game. Can't remember much of the story, but I did complete the game and was never interested enough to pick up the second. I was a bit disappointed that the in game forum hyped up this one card game and at the very end of the game when it seemed you were where you could get to play it, it ended, but I wasn't going to buy the second game for a potentially good card game(and you can probably guess, my thoughts and interest of the card game were simply because of how much I enjoyed XenoCard from Xenosaga and was hoping to experience a mini game that was just as good.)
I owned the Collector's Edition and sold it for around $120, I'll probably get the HD remaster so I can play the second and third but will wait until it hits $20.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Well, if anybody cares, I snagged a copy of MS Saga, so after a bit of a romp through Atelier Iris 2 I'll probably wind up breaking out the mecha. Also I beat DQ8 for the PS2, and that was a lot of fun (though the alchemy pot timer was EVIL). Any game that gives you dinosaur lumberjacks and spell called Kaboom also gets bonus points.
Has anyone here ever heard of a game called Ephemeral Fantasia? I stumbled across it, and it seems to be a RPG centered around Majora's Mask-style time loop shenanigans. What little reviews I could gather (yay for interwebs crapouts) were pretty mixed, but I find myself intrigued.
RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.
Ephemeral Fantasia was very poorly received when released. In Japan, it's compatible with the Guitar Freaks controller... I didn't spend a lot of time with it. However, a couple of close friends called it "very boring."
WulfeLuer, I put a link to your thread in this older thread about PS2 RPGs.
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?73673-Complete-RPG-List-for-the-PS2-Updated-2016
I hope you don't mind. It is a complete list of PS2-RPGs which was done from 2005 until 2009 and got updated the last time last year.
I think this thread is a nice complementary thread to the RPG-list since we avoided back then a discussion about gamequality; the necessary discussions were all about the Q if certain games should be regarded as RPGs or not.
This was my impression also.More than ten years ago I put maybe one to two hours of gameplay into Ephemeral Fantasia, and I remember it as a unique game for which I had good expectations but was overshadowed by terribly boring gameplay.
But I have to be careful. My experience is with the game is limited, it may pick up after a couple of hours, but one thing is for sure -- it didn't give me any motivations to play the game.
However, as a unique and odd game is it worth to be picked up. I don't know how much it is right now, I got it for around $5 at a Gamestop more than ten years ago.
Once you put in enough time, tell me what you think. I'd say after atleast gaining access to six characters and putting in a bit of time so you get a feel of the games depth of combat.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Well, I beat Atelier Iris 2 again, so decks are just about cleared to start this chibi Gundam foolishness called MS Saga (that still sounds like a bad web comic). There's still gonna be a bit of a delay, since I went through like the nerdiest bout of angst ever and wound up with a SNES, so I've been throwing fireballs at bunny slippers too.
Anyway, a bit of an AAR review for Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. It's a fun little RPG, that I randomly picked up and tried out a few years back. I like to take it out for a spin every year or so, acting as a sort of 'palate cleanser' between longer, more serious games. The gist is that it's by-the-numbers JRPG fare, bumped up with a complex and enjoyable crafting system, fun combat, and some interesting characters. It is worth a look-see, especially if you like tinkering with your items and gear. I happen to feel that overall Iris 2 is a much more enjoyable game than Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, with a tightened up crafting system, better characters, and a much better overall focus (Iris 1 just didn't know whether or not it wanted to be a traditional Atelier gather-and-craft or a goofy RPG).
Pros: A better take on Atelier's crafting, allowing you to go nuts and make stuff from weapons and armor to potions to big bombs made of alchemical doom. Interesting (but a bit shallow) characters, with standouts being Gray the dragon man (a considerably less grim copy of Fogel from Ogre Battle), and Flashbang Poe, a hilarious little fairy dude that hauls around huge handcannon and hits on anything female. Throw in a talking magical sword infused with the essence of snotty, insufferable genius (though it gets better as the story goes by). The combat is turn-based, but eschews MP in favor of a charge meter to fuel special attacks. Attack items are actually practical. I also like the overall aesthetics of the graphics and the soundtrack, both contributing to an air of fun and exuberance (that last can turn some players away, since it is kinda kiddie, but I could use more kiddie). No brown filter here, and even the dark, dank places have bits of brightness and life to them. It's very reminiscent of the Mana series and PS1-era SaGa games.
Cons: It's a very standard JRPG plot, though if you're into them, then it's not that big of a deal. There are some plot details and bits of garbled dialog that can confuse you. A couple of the NPCs really come across like useless stoners in positions of responsibility, through a combination of dull VA work and...overdone serenity in their choice of words. There are some technical problems, mostly things like voice clips and sound effects being cut short, though there are some nasty bugs that can make the game hang up (most of it is Gust's game engine being flawed and made worse when localized), though in Iris 2, they tend to be very rare (I see them usually once a playthrough). One last one is Gust's apparent love of completely recycling enemy sprites and programming, which can contribute to the combat bugs.
Overall, Atelier Iris 2 is a fun little RPG (usually clocking in 25-30 hours or less), and well worth a look, especially if you need a break from the usual melodramatic grindfests that dominate the genre.
RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.
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