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

So it's nearing the end of its lifespan, but there's still a few of us out there without a next-gen system. What games should we try to pick up from Gamestop during its current buy 2 get 1 free sale that we don't already own?

If possible, give a little bit of a genre categorization for the games you'd like to recommend (and don't worry about recommending games that other people already have, the more votes something gets the more likely I am to go out and give it a shot).

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm loving the in-depth reviews, but listings like what GB is also fine at the end of a post just to give me an idea of a list of good games. Like, a long time ago EVERYONE was gushing over Star Ocean 3, but then it disappeared and everyone says it sucks now (roughly the same with Rogue Galaxy).

I'm mostly curious as to which games were fantastic when they came out, and when you look back on them now you still think they were solid games the whole way through. So, like, secondary recommendations can just go as a list at the end of your post or something.

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Alright, so, I went through and checked to see what my local EB is supposed to have in stock. Here are the games I'm thinking about getting (obviously wouldn't get all of them, but want suggestions as to what people would recommend the most out of this list). Numbers next to the title is EB's price. Obviously I'd want to get three games that are about the same price in order to get the most value for the B2G1 deal.

5 Onimusha 2
5 Zone of Enders 1
8 X-Men Legends II
8 Shinobi
10 Onimusha 3
10 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
13 Prince of Persia 3: 2 Thrones
13 Resident Evil 4
13 Tales of Legendia
13 Psychonauts
15 Radiata Stories
15 Final Fantasy XII
18 God of War 2
18 Okami
18 Prince of Persia 2: Warrior Within
18 Wild Arms 5
20 Zone of Enders 2
20 Grandia 3
25 Persona 3 Special Edition

I guess the games I'd prefer to get are ones that would become more difficult to find in the future and the ones that have mostly bottomed out in price drops. I don't have a whole ton of time to play video games now, so RPGs that require a large time investment or are very story-intensive probably aren't the best for me. I mostly want games I can sit down at for an hour or so every now and then and really enjoy myself.

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

Already have Beyond Good & Evil (bought it from Circuit City for $5 four years ago. Also have Mark of Kri but I never really got into it since I couldn't quite get the hang of combat. I've been planning on giving it another shot sometime, though.

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

CS, the EB website actually lists all of those games being in stock at my local EB (one game I was interested wasn't there, so I scratched it off of the list myself), so hopefully I'll find them. The past few times they've had huge stacks of PS2 games, but no B2G1 sale, so I didn't bite. Maybe I'll try to hit the store tonight and pick a few games up.

Also, is ZoE1:ZoE2 :: Dark Cloud 1: Dark Cloud 2?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Alright, so here's what I wound up getting.

1 PS2 8MB Memory Card (for all the games)
Vexx
Pryzm
Onimusha 2
Onimusha 3
Shinobi
Resident Evil 4
Zone of Enders 2
Grandia III
God of War II
Final Fantasy XII: Collector's Edition
Radiata Stories

They had a case for Okami out, and it was listed as being in stock in their system, but they were hunting through the drawers and couldn't find a copy of it. I substituted it with Grandia 3 (mostly because I'm the only person on earth that liked Xtreme, so I figure I might be the only one that likes 3). I got Vexx and Pryzm because I'm a sucker for mediocre platformers and I've heard they're alright (and they cost $4 each, though one was free). They had 3 copies of Persona 3, but I didn't want to drop $25 on it.

Got the whole thing, plus an Edge subscription incase I ever have to buy another used game this year for $110 including tax. That comes out to about $10 a game, or $9.10 if you consider the memory card a game.

So pretty much the only games left I might want to eventually get are the Prince of Persia series, Psychonauts, Wild Arms 4, Suikoden 5, Persona 3, and Okami.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

There was no Psychonauts. Someone must have grabbed the copy between yesterday when I checked what was in stock and when I hit up the store this afternoon.

GoWII was $18 (well, it was my freebie with buying Grandia 3 and ZoE2) which I think is still a little steep, but my girlfriend really likes the first God of War, so I figure she'll get a kick out of watching me play this one and maybe that'll give her enough motivation to finish struggling through the first. Also, Persona 3 was $27 which was considerably more expensive than any of my other games, so it would have blown my savings scheme.

SouthJag, that's what I'm actually a little worried about with Grandia 3. Pretty much the main reason I love the Grandia series is the battle system. I could pretty much care less about stories in 90% of RPGs nowadays, and that game served up exactly what I wanted. Xtreme was really more of a dungeon crawler with RPG battles than a typical jRPG.

Edit: Can anyone tell me if Rachet: Deadlocked is worth a purchase? I really liked all of the other R&C games (they did a better job with all the sequels than the Jak or Sly teams), but I'm a little wary with how they changed the formula in this one.

FELIPE NO

Also, since q was bashing on me for getting Pryzm and Vexx I just want to say that I like platformers since they generally don't have any wasted time due to story and they were both $4 (one of which was free because of Onimusha 2). It was either one of them or the Bouncer. Not really fantastic choices either way.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?