[PS2] Must Own PS2 Games, or how many middling JRPGs can you suggest?

Rotor, do you mean Persona 3? Or Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne?

If you're creative at all, I'd suggest Graffiti Kingdom. It's a platformer/action game with the extra feature of being able to draw your own "monsters" to use to fight, customizing the way they move, their weapons, and pretty much everything about them. The tool is surprisingly robust for creation, so if you're creative at all it's GREAT fun to mess around with creating cool monsters.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Vemp

Howcome nobody mentioned FFX-2? Sure, it's not the best FF out there, but if you're a fan of FFX, I guess you'll like it for the "continuation" story and the shitload of stuff you can do in the game. Basically it's like Final Fantasy combined with Dress-Up Barbie and a lot of mini-games. It has it's good points, and it can be fun if you ignore everyone saying how bad it is.

I think the best way to describe FFX-2 is a really good battle system wasted on an absolute shitheap of a story. If you're willing to ignore the fact that the main characters are fanservice, the story takes FFX's continuity and throws it out the back door for something even more confusing, and the music is incredibly bouncy then there's a good game to be found in there.

(Personally I didn't mind the music, but some people seem to throw fits nowadays if an FF soundtrack doesn't have 50 violins per minute.)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by wvlfpvp

I also really enjoyed Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit for the EU folks). It's like playing a movie, sorta, and, while certain aspects of the story are stupid, I felt the game was very enjoyable.

"Like playing a movie, sorta" is a good way to describe this game, it's fantastic. It's an adventure game with a bit of action, it used quick-time events BEFORE they were a gaming cliche, and it actually tells a mature story (at least, until the last hour or so). If you can find this one, GREAT game. Kinda on the short side, though.

God dammit this is why I should not rely on double post automerging

If anyone's thinking of Dragon Quest VIII, be warned. When Angel of Light says it takes traditional JRPGs and puts a polish on it, he's not kidding. This isn't your Final "Here's Fifty Potions In A Chest" Fantasy. Dragon Quest VIII is VICIOUS if you go into a new area without preparing (read: Grinding) first. This makes the game quite long, but also slows the pace of progression down. Do not play this game if you don't like having an hour or so between significant story events at minimum.

Quote:

Radiatta stories - I haven't fully played this game but it was so colorful and entertaining that I would recommend it to people that have time to play another rpg with countless(around 80) characters to draft into your party.

If you hate Star Ocean-style gameplay, avoid this game, since that's what this is. Also, I have to say that its humor is refreshing, but falls flat a bit too often for my taste. Still, the fact that it at least tries for it is more than a lot of RPGs can say.

I'd also like to put in my two cents about FFXII. This game has received a LOT of criticism for... well, pretty much everything, but I think a lot of it is unwarranted. Sure, the gameplay lets "the game play itself." If you're fighting enemies 15 levels lower than you. Anyone who's actually played the game knows that once you're about 5 to 10 hours in, relying entirely on gambits is suicide. That's not to say that feature isn't useful. It's nice to be able to have someone set up to heal without you repeatedly mashing on the heal spell. It's just not the "autoplay button" everyone says it is.

The story is well-written, mostly well-acted, and surprisingly, does not feature a main cast of characters that are the fucking Messiah and save the world single-handedly. The story is epic in scope without ever forgetting (for the most part) that 7 people running around together typically don't win every fight they're in and aren't always greeted with "Sure you can take <sacred item>! Go ahead!" I will admit it kind of loses itself in depth at times, but at least it doesn't lose itself in transparency like FFX's plot did.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by BlindMonk

Midnight Club - Racing - A rather expansive racer which I say you can largely ignore save for the multiplayer mode of Capture the Flag.

A game that is shit except for one multiplayer mode must have a really fucking amazing multiplayer mode for it to qualify as "must own".

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?