[PS2] In need of an RPG

A bit late for it now, but out of the ones you mentioned, I can vouch for Rogue Galaxy, Tales of the Abyss and Valkyrie Profile 2, for being excellent games with plenty of stuff to keep you interested enough to finish it all the way.

Personally, I'd say wait with Valkyrie Profile 2 until you finished the first one, because you will not understand the story entirely, since they do have serious connections. You CAN enjoy the game greatly and understand most of the plot without it, but it's especially towards the end where you'll regret not playing the first one.

You made the right choice by starting with Tales of the Abyss. It's epic all the way till the end.

Not sure if they were mentioned or not, but I recommend you have a look at these games as well:

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana
Suikoden V
Ar Tonelico
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Originally Posted by Dizzy

Definitely try Valkyrie Profile 2, which is a very good sequel. The only problem with the game is that is not that difficult, but that's what you're looking for.

I wouldn't say that so easily. To you and me it might have been easy, but I for one was surprised to see how many people had problems with the difficulty of the game.

About Wild Arms 2, I had no problems with that game. I loved it, personally. It's second only to WA3. I'd rate them as WA3 -> WA2 -> WA4 -> WA1 -> WA:ACF. This doesn't mean I hated WA1, I just liked the others more. I did, however, hate Alter Code F.

Originally Posted by Leknaat

Since you asked.....

Suikoden III is my least favorite of the series. If you played Suikoden I and II--you would understand why.

Battle Party: Grouped into 3 pairs (front and back)
Item/Magic Support: Unless specified for the whole group--only for the pair
Battle Combos: Again, unless it's a large group combo, paired combos have to be grouped front/back
Magic Combos: Gone
World Map: You cross it twice. (A little "you" walks across a map to your destination, then when you hit "accept" you get to do it in the actual world.)

Story: 3 viewpoints. Heh--this actually isn't bad. You get to choose the hero. But, truth be told--the story isn't as epic as you would like.

Weird factor: High--why are there two Vikis? And why are they under two stars? Why?

I played Suikoden 1-5, and I certainly don't get why I would understand why it was less then the others.

You are naming bad points here, but honestly, what was so bad about the front/back system? If anything it was better.

I'm not trying to flame you here, it just seems to me that you can't really find any faults in the game. The ones you mentioned hardly seem like a good enough reason to hate the game. I mean are you seriously telling me you hate the game because it has no magic combo system? I'm not buying that.

I've never understood the hatred for this game. I was seriously impressed with it. Until I finished Suikoden 5, I considered it the best.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Talaysen

Atelier Iris 2 improves on the original in every way EXCEPT characters, which is why a lot of people don't like it, I think. They did take out shop synthesis, but instead you get better normal synthesis. Personally, I find that a winning trade.

Better, yeah, but also easier...too easy, to be honest. You could change those items that all characters can equip into godly overpowered items with like +3 million hits or something stupid like that. All you had to do was use item x that has x rating into item y, and it would get that stat. It was only a matter of time before all your items had all the best stats.

Dont get me wrong here, I agree that it was better by a longshot, but it was just a bit too easy to get what you wanted. In the first one it took stupid amounts of time with that crappy card combo system. It was basically a endless trial and error system, but it at least took effort.

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There's nowhere I can't reach.

The break system truly was a joke, most bosses get 1 or 2 actions at best if you keep spamming it right. I did, however, like the combo system that starts ticking once a mob is in break mode. As I recall the higher the combo, the more bonus exp you would get.

I wouldn't even call the final boss hard. There wasn't anything hard as I recall. At least it wasn't totally anti-climax like the first Atelier Iris. I really don't know WHAT was with the last boss in that game, but my Lita litterally one shotted him, and she wasn't even in overpowered mode.

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