Coming from FF10 I'd say any game you've listed seems like a good choice. FF10 is nothing more than switch characters then attack and repeat an endless amount of times. Every area is point a to point b. Terrible game. Blitzball is good though, one redeeming quality so keep your save file and do nothing but play Blitzball next time you play the game.Originally Posted by NayusDante
You already know what you're getting with FF9. A terrible storyline with gameplay that pretty much makes up for it.
Anyways, Xenosaga is the one with the best story of the bunch. Like mobiusclimber stated, you'll be watching storyline most of the time. Don't let this seem like a bad thing though. Xenosaga has one of the best storylines to an RPG. The level design on the game is fairly simple and has a lot of secrets and stuff. The battle system is the killer of the game though. The game has 90% storyline 10% everything else, then once you get to the last dungeon you'll be in battle the majority of the time as it's the longest dungeon in the game. It wouldn't matter if the game has a good battle system, but it doesn't, the battle system is one of the worst out there.
Xenogears has a great storyline. Platforming RPG and it does a great job at the battle system, great level design, amazing storyline, and also a few sidequests to complete on the second disc. The only problem with this game is that the second disc has three parts that are nearly an hour of nothing more than text and in game visuals where you have little control over. Even during that portion the storyline is still good, you'll just need to be prepared for almost nothing but story.
The gameplay to Xenogears is sort of Legend of Legaia lite. It's gameplay has a similar type of Legend of Legaia but not really in depth. A few good things is that it's more simpler to use and it's still fun, but it's not really anything really that in depth. Gears battles are only slightly different than land battles but really just the bosses in the Gears battles are the major focus of them and those are actually sometimes fairly difficult.
Finally. The music of Xenogears is some of Mitsuda's best work. Atleast I think so.
With Dragon Quest 8, if you're a fan of Dragon Quest you'll love it. The story really seems a bit of a step back from Dragon Warrior 7 and you feel too limited in comparison to pretty much every other game in the series since Dragon Warrior 3 due to the new system which you pick what abilities you want to level up. The graphics however are some of the best on the PS2 and the world is just beautiful. Overall, while I it's only better than Dragon Warrior 2 and definitely better than the original, it's still an amazing game. If you don't choose Xenogears choose this one.
Rogue Galaxy. The storyline isn't too good and you'll either be able to bear it and take it for what it is and find a great game, or you'll think the storyline is unbearable and hate the game. I for one enjoyed the game. It's overall similar to Dark Cloud 2 minus the town creation and better gameplay. I'd say choose this one if you skip choosing Xenogears or Dragon Quest 8.
Finally there is FF12. I probably need to give this game another chance, but so far this is the only game on the list I haven't completed. I actually beat FF10, though believe me, FF12 is much better. The thing that I didn't like with FF12 is that you can either take much more time to choose your attacks by having to open the menu with O, choose what character(or the character it starts on,) choose an ability, then wait for the ATB to fill. Repeat for all your characters. If you need to use a different ability while a character is mid ATB, it resets and you have to wait for it to start all over again.
However, if you don't feel like wasting the time by opening the menu and then moving the option over to just attack which is mostly what you'll be doing on FF12, then you can just use the Gambit system which the characters will automatically choose these actions for you or whatever is best in each situation depending on how you placed it in the menu. This instead turns FF12 to a game that plays itself rather than you playing the game. Either way you're stuck with one extreme or the other, which is why I disliked the game. Also, treasure chests in the game are useless and you'll even be penalized later in the game for opening specific ones which you're given no clue which ones you can't open.
Now. Here is what I actually liked about FF12. The world map is again linked together. However, rather than being just point a to point b, you now have a huge detailed world to explore(as long as you can actually go to the area first.) You are limited by the barriers of each map, but still it's able to be explored. The best part about FF12 that I did like was the Hunter's Guild. Final Fantasy 12 is a game with quests that are done right, which is always a good thing(sitting right behind Arc the Lad 2 and Phantasy Star Online in how fun the quests are to do.) Sidequests are also fairly good in this game.
Actually, it's impossible to get into a random battle in mid jump. Once the game is going to start a random battle, it locks out the ability to jump, pause, and go to your menu then you don't get into the random battle for a full two seconds. The game is timed to go into a random battle seconds after it finds one.
If you never played the game on the original Playstation you should try it. You'll hear the disc drive stop spinning then start spinning again, at that point it locks everything down except movement and starts the time limit. PS2 doesn't make any sounds that will notify you that you're about to get into a battle, but once you're unable to jump you'll realize you are about to get into one.
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